[Suzerain of Sheol]

Diogenes assesses the strange man for a moment after the echo of his answers fades, then all at once, he slams his khukri home in its sheath at the back of his waist and turns back to the rest of the group, calling aloud.

"Did you hear that, priest? His aim is the same as ours."

He begins to walk back to rejoin their party. "He lives to live. What greater honesty could we ask for?"

Scowling, Thomas shoulders his way forward to confront the assassin.

He does not bother addressing him in thought.

"What are you doing?"

Unperturbed, Diogenes replies, "Waiting for an enemy to show itself. So far this seems a mission for mystics and exorcists, not soldiers." He notes the raw, inhuman sight of the priest's cynbernetic hand.

"You introduce a liability among us."

"No. I've spared his life."

"Mercy does not become a murderer."

"Again, priest. Show me an enemy."

Thomas holds his eyeless stare for an instant long, then turn abruptly back toward the gasping darkness that leads into the monastery.

"Allow me."