Way of the Wolf and the Raven: Story 5 – Forbidden Unity

Story 5 – Forbidden Unity

Political rivals, revolutionaries, and those loyal to the royals wait for the opportunity and a good excuse to raid each other’s homes and businesses. The streets of France run red with blood and the bodies of its citizens. Behind the scenes, the Wolves and Ravens pull the strings and fight their own war as the country tears itself apart. My family takes up arms against another and joins the mob in an assault against a rich family in the city. The mansion’s once beautiful statues and exterior design are ruined by fire and graffiti. Guards that protect the family are overtaken by the mob. Some receive a quick death while others are publicly beaten and shamed.

The inside of the mansion becomes a worse wreck than the outside as people take the valuables inside of it and even fight over them. Butlers, maids, guards, and the other occupants of the mansion suffer the same fate as the outside guards as the mob gorges on their fill of violence and self-righteous justice.

“Liberty, equality, fraternity!” the mob chants.

While they indulge in their madness, they miss the most valuable people in the mansion. These people are neither politicians, businessmen, nor revolutionaries. They are Ravens, those who started this revolution. The Wolves are looking to root them out while also using the revolution to eliminate whatever Ravens we can. So far, the revolution hasn’t been going in our favor, however, it doesn’t matter if the Wolves can hold their grip on this country. Two other Wolves and I search for secret rooms in the mansion while the other Wolves search the rest of the house and keep the mob from interfering with our mission.

One of the rooms that we come across is one for one of the targets, Esme. We know that she was supposed to be here, and yet, there’s no sight of her anywhere, which worries me.

“I’ll check this room. Esme has to be around here,” I say.

“Do not show any mercy to her,” a Wolf says.

“You can trust me to do the right thing.”

The two Wolves walk away from the room as they search the rest of the mansion. First, I go into Esme’s drawer and grab a ring that I know is important to her. I then walk up to the bookshelf in the room and move it aside then use the handle on the other side to cover the entrance. Behind the bookshelf is a secret staircase that leads down to a secret basement where I find Esme who almost stabs me from the shadows.

“Matisse!” she says.

“Esme!” I respond before kissing her.

She embraces me before slightly pushing me away. “It’s not the time for that. We have to get out of here.”

“I have a few friends waiting outside covering our exit and buying our time. We can use the mob to mask our escape.”

Esme follows me as I lead her outside.

“Do you know where we’ll go?”

“Outside of Wolf and Raven controlled territory. Maybe someplace in America. I don’t know as long as we stay out of the big countries, we’ll be fine.”

“What about the house servants and my friends upstairs? Did…did they at least have a painless death?”

“It’s not something that you should think about. Just know that I didn’t strike any of them.”

“Going through these tunnels with you gives me nostalgia. It’s a shame that we’ll never have the chance to do it again.”

“Think of the bright side. At least we don’t need to hide our love for one another anymore.”

My hopes for the future are brought back to reality once we exit the secret entrance to see that the entire city is at war with itself. Very few citizens try to keep to themselves while others participate in the looting and purging of their enemies. Esme and I try to take the route with the least amount of people but it seems like everyone is out today.

“This must’ve been planned by either the Ravens or the Wolves so they could strike at their enemies,” I say.

“Look over there!” Esme says as she points to a group of people being kidnapped. “We have to do something.”

“I’d like to, but we can’t. We don’t have time.”

“Our father taught us that we should help whoever is nearest to us. Did you forget?”

“He was your father and no, I didn’t forget. He also taught us to not overextend ourselves because we would end up hurting ourselves as well as others.”

“Yeah but-”

“I’m sorry and this bothers me too, but we can’t help everyone here. We can only help ourselves.”

“…okay.”

We keep going through the crowd avoiding whatever attention we can.

“Here, find these two. They will net you a great reward and a luxurious place in the new France to come,” a random person says while holding our pictures.

Who’s sending these people after us? Do the Wolves and Ravens know about our relationship? I hope not. Now that we’re being hunted, the crowds of people become a blessing as we use the dense crowds to hide again. We cut off pieces of sacks and use them as makeshift hoods to hide our faces for added anonymity. The crowds stretch for a large enough distance that it allows us to get where we need to be while also breaking off at that point.

Our destination is a docking area where I have a ship waiting to take us wherever we want, however, when we get to my ship, I find its crew hung from the top of the ship with a single Wolf I know standing around it.

“Matisse!” the man says, “We know you’re out there! Your friends are dead and so will you, your lover, and more of this crew unless you come out and talk to us.”

“Matisse…” Esme says while pulling on my arm.

“Okay, I’ll try talking to him, but stay hidden. We’re here! Now let the crew go!”

“Not unless you show yourselves. Come out from the shadows already.”

“Why should I trust you when you’ve hung men like decorations?”

“Because we’ll hang more if you don’t. These were traitors and were going to suffer eventually for their crimes. You’ll suffer like they will unless you show yourselves in five seconds.”

“This is a trap, Esme.”

“But what about the crew?”

“I think he’s lying. I see that most of the crew is hung so it’s safe to assume that he’s already killed them all.”

“Okay, Matisse. I trust you.”

“We don’t believe you’re telling the truth,” I say to the Wolf, “You can have the ship and its treasures as compensation for our betrayal.”

“You’re going to need to pay us more to pay for your betrayal. A Wolf playing the part of an adopted son to infiltrate a high ranking Raven’s family knows too much from both sides. I hope for your sake that Esme doesn’t find this to be shocking news. We’ll find you wherever you are and wherever you will be. There’s no escaping us!”

By the time he stops talking, his voice is nothing more than an echo.

“What are we going to do now, Matisse?” Esme asks.

“Don’t worry. I have a backup plan. We can take a boat down a river that will lead us to another dock. The only problem is that the boat is in the poor district of the city where there are more revolutionaries and probably Ravens among them.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

Esme and I make our way through the city streets that begin to somewhat calm down now that many are dead and the law enforcement are out in force. Still, we try to keep to the shadows and move through the crowded streets with normal civilians so we don’t attract the attention of anyone especially with those assassins out to get us.

“I’m glad you’re the most honest man I’ve ever met, Matisse,” Esme says.

“You know that I would do anything for you, my love,” I say before giving her a kiss.

My parents trained me to be an infiltrator for the Wolves. We knew that Esme’s father was a charitable man whose heart broke when he saw a child suffering so we used that to our advantage and he adopted me for a time. While I pretended to be his son, I couldn’t help but warm up to his genuine kindness and generosity especially when he helped me up whenever I fell or felt the sad effects of being away from my family. Esme had a big part in turning me over to not divulge her family’s secrets especially since they didn’t have any dirty secrets that the Wolves could utilize against them. I felt guilty for having ulterior motives for being in the family and admitted them first to Esme then her father.

Her father didn’t seem mad or surprised at this. In fact, he seemed to have known about it since he knew that my family were Wolves and wouldn’t just lose their son. We arranged a meeting with them and pretended that I was leading him into a trap. Esme’s father and her mother talked to my parents about using me as a spy and his kindness touched their hearts once they realized how much they missed me and how much of a mistake it was to use me as a spy at such a young age. Unfortunately, the other Wolves and Ravens didn’t know about the events that happened during this meeting and fought each other thinking they were defending their own.

My parents and Esme’s family haven’t been found since, but we both hope that they’re still alive out there. We kept secretly meeting each other and are only now together for real after I joined the Wolves’ assault on her home for the excuse of “getting revenge” for my family and erasing her along with her allies’ influence from France as a whole. I tried to make plans that didn’t involve the destruction of her home along with everything in it, but the Wolves had other ideas. The revolution has taken the lives of many and the Wolves would like nothing more than to punish those they see as guilty or sympathizers for it despite their own plans to make a new France from the ashes of this one.

“The king will soon be in the custody of the people and the date of his execution will soon be decided,” a newsman says.

Many of the poor jump for joy and cheer their revolutionary chants at the sound of this. What madness it is that people would cheer at the death even at the death of their enemies. God have mercy on us.

A group of cloaked figures makes their way through the crowd while saying, “Make way, make way! We’re looking for traitors of the revolution!” Block off every entrance and deny every guard entrance to this district. They must not escape.”

“Matisse, those are Ravens,” Esme says.

“So, they’re after us too. Why not?” I say.

I take a bag of money out of my pocket, cut it open, and throw it into the air. This attracts the attention of everyone in the area and gives us the cover we need to get closer to where we need to go until one poor woman covered in blood comes to us asking for help.

She explains that, “They beat me and took my brother away because he didn’t want to participate in the riots. They’re going to torture him and pin him to a wall as an example to scare everyone else who won’t do as they say.”

Esme looks at me. Why do you have to give me that look?

“We’ll help you. Lead us to where they took your brother,” I say.

The woman leads us away to a horrific scene where a man is nailed to a wall with most of his skin off his body.

“Oh no! We’re too late! I’m so sorry,” Esme says.

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t get my brother to stay on our side,” the woman says.

“What?”

“He betrayed the cause of the Ravens, the cause of freedom for all mankind just as you did, Esme. Get her!”

I draw my pistol and sword as we’re ambushed.

Esme fires the first shot at our attackers as she draws her pistol and dagger as she says, “There’s nothing I hate more than false innocence.”

She then stabs one attacker in the chest, cuts the woman’s throat, then uses her gun to shoot another attacker. I, on the other hand, kill one of the attackers by countering their attack stabbing them in the back, stabbing another in the chest then disarm another and put my knife to his throat and pistol to his head.

“Tell your friends that we cannot be so easily manipulated and that we just want to be left alone. We’re cutting ties to both the Ravens and the Wolves,” I say.

“Telling them that won’t save your life. You both know too much as skilled members of your respective orders. Who’s to say that you won’t start your own order that’s in opposition to both Ravens and Wolves or expose us to the public? The resources it would take to erase our public identity is too great.”

Now that I have a better look at the man’s face, I realize that it’s someone that I've seen when I was in Esme’s family. “Wait, I recognize you. “

“What does that matter?”

“You’re a Catholic like us, man. Show some mercy and trust in us or at least remember that we used to talk to each other like friends.”

“The Church has abandoned us in favor of the government. The Ravens and their ideology are the only true one and those who betray it betray everything that is good in the world.”

I knock the man out with the end of my pistol since he won’t serve any use to us. We then head out of the city and come to the river where I have a boat waiting for us, however, the Wolves are also waiting for us with their weapons drawn.

We draw our weapons as well as I say, “Will you people just let us go already? We swear that we only want to live in peace! We won’t interfere in the affairs of your secret war with the Ravens.”

“No, because you still hurt our cause and everyone it helps by your betrayal and inaction. Every single person who doesn’t help us is against us whether they intentionally know it or not,” a Wolf responds.

“That isn’t true. You can’t get everyone to act in a way that benefits you and we have to accept that. Trust me when I say that I wish every neighbor could be a friend and that everyone’s mind could easily change, but people don’t work that way.”

“At least you still have part of the Wolf mindset.”

“It’s the Catholic mindset. The truth I follow and the God I worship isn’t dictated by a group of people that change their fundamental beliefs every century.”

“The Wolves aren’t vulnerable to corruptible clergy and nonpracticing laity like how the church is. Our beliefs are beyond mere religion and politics. It is pure truth.”

“We could say the same about our beliefs,” a person says as they arrive with a group of people who are presumably Ravens. “The human spirit yearns to be free and to do what it knows to be right. Therefore, the Ravens attract people from all religions and ideologies and it will unite all of humanity for a brighter future.”

“You’re both putting the ideology of your beliefs where God should be! It is not human ideology that will save humanity, but-” I say as the two begin to argue.

It’s no use talking to them. In fact, it’s better that I don’t get involved since they begin to fight each other, which gives Esme and me the distraction we need to get on our boat and row down the river to safety.

“I fear for the safety of the world with the Ravens and the Wolves manipulating it behind the scenes,” Esme says.

“Don’t worry about that. You know as well as I that they won’t control everything. No singular group can except for those in Heaven,” I say.

“That’s true. I just pray that they change one day.”

“They will just like every ideology that isn’t rooted in eternal truth. What the Wolves and Ravens fail to realize is that the common people can make the world a better place simply by living good and loving lives as God intends. Let’s not fall into the same trap they did and let’s live this way together.”

“Is this your way of asking me to marry you?”

“Well, yes. We are going to be living together for the rest of our lives, aren’t we?”

“Where’s my ring then? You can’t marry a lady like me without a ring?” she says in a joking voice.

“Here,” I say while showing her the ring I got earlier.

“You got my father’s ring!”

“He did say that I could marry you with it.”

Esme and I kiss before heading off to a dock in a small town. We pay to get on the ship and sail off to wherever this ship will take us. The captain notices the ring on Esme’s finger and gives us a small celebration on the deck. It’s nice that we get this after going through so much. I only pray that our parents see this from wherever they are. Perhaps, we may even find them where we’re going. Whatever the case is. I’m satisfied with where my life is. I don’t need to be in control of everything and everyone around me like the Ravens, Wolves, and those who want everyone to think like they do. I only need my God and my loving wife. What else could I possibly need to make me happier than I already am?