Hunting Le Fay/Chartres Cathedral: Mad dogs & Englishmen...

[Athos]

OOC: for information on Chartres Cathedral or its magnificent labyrinth, check these links (in English):

Chartres Cathedral's labyrinth

Chartres Cathedral history

IC:

Heavy boots hit against the marble floors of Chartres Cathedral as Athos, once a proud member of the Musketeers of King Louis XIII and Queen Anne of France, stood and looked up at the Blue Virgin window in the south ambulatory of the church. He was here as a favor, and while he protested at the start, he was more than happy to do this favor.

((And now, here I am, standing here and preparing to walk that labyrinth yet again, all because Kari asked me to do it. It makes no sense, but since I am the last of my lot to walk this place, it is my responsibility, as a friend and as the last Musketeer))

Athos made his way toward the labyrinth, dodging tourists and a group of nuns and monks as he stopped and looked up at the West Rose window. The light shone through the depictions of the Judgment of Christ and danced across the very pagan labyrinth. He knew it was pagan because Kari had told him so.

Kari had more or less fallen into the service of Queen Anne after an assassination attempt was made on the queen's life and the small, red-haired woman cut down the much larger attacker with her sword. That was the day the Queen's Guard was born, and soon Devnet Casey  and Enya Sun came to join Kari in the French court. Athos knew the whole story of how Kari got to France, but he still marveled at the fact that fate had put her in the right place that day.

And while neither was looking for love, Athos and Kari had shared what the modern man called the status of "friends with benefits" during their time together at court. Then Cardinal Richelieu got wind of the fact the Queen's Guard were all witches, and that blew everything to hell.

((And the rest, as they say, is history)) Athos mused as the Musketeer then pulled out that most modern of devices, a cell phone, and started to snap photos of the light as it filtered down onto the path of the labyrinth.

((If Richelieu had not found them out, things would have been so different...)) Athos thought as he started to walk the labyrinth alone.

[The Cardinal]

A man dressed in cleric's robes stood in one of the arches of the cathedral and watched as the man in the well-worn boots started to walk the labyrinth. Not just cleric's robes, though. These were the vestments of a cardinal of the church. They were as old as those boots themselves. In truth, the robes were almost as old as the man wearing them now.

By now his French accent had dimmed, replaced by some nondescript British-French tinged pattern of speech that, were he being honest, Armand Jean du Plessis truly hated. It was boring and pedestrian and hollow.

All he did was stand in the archway and watch the man as he made his way around the labyrinth. The man was not unknown to him. The cleric known as Cardinal Richelieu back in the days of Louis XIII knew Olivier d'Athos de la Fere and his scruffy companions all too well. He also surmised that Athos was here at the bidding of one of the heretic witches that he, Aramis, Porthos and D'Artagnan protected that fateful day when both the cleric and the Musketeer standing here now died. He had no clue how Athos returned to life, but he knew that angels brought him back to this world and hid him away for centuries until now. Now was the time those who had harmed him would pay with their heathen lives, and that included the immortal Musketeer now walking the labyrinth.   

[Athos]

Athos had noticed the man watching him and knew exactly who he was, but he dared not make a scene lest the tourists and other clerics become pawns in some unholy maneuver by the cardinal who had made the Musketeer's preternaturally long life a living hell at many turns.

((Why doesn't that old goat just leave me alone?)) the Musketeer mused as he continued taking photographs of the light as it shifted around the labyrinth.  ((Go back to the Vatican, you old fool!))

Several tourists stared at Athos as he kept snapping pictures, and a few others looked at the crusty cleric trying to hide in the shadows as well.

((If I didn't know in my heart why he was here, I'd confront Richelieu now)) Athos thought as he finally put his camera in his pocket upon reaching the center of the labyrinth.