The morning after meeting the Pearl Crow, Agostino woke up early and readied himself. Festivities for the remaining few days didn’t take place this early, but bells were ringing in the distance regardless. He sat on his bed looking at his feet for a moment before standing, a draft working its way in through the old planks of his make-shift home. He grabbed a few bills and a tattered black robe and set out, covering himself from the morning dew. A pleasant morning, Agostino walked a long distance barefooted until finally reaching the Market District and its towering cathedral - the home of the Malleus Maleficarum. It was vast, and it never ceased to impress him. I wonder who built this monument. Surely someone very powerful.

He sought out an older man - a priest - tending to a vagrant who lay on the cool ground of the cathedral. Agostino waited patiently until the priest blessed the vagrant and turned towards him, bowing. “I come to confess.” he said, lowering his head.

The priest nodded and smiled at him, taking him to a corner, away from others, “What is weighing on you?”

The Angel looked down at his hands and began speaking somberly but confidently, “I have wronged others consciously, and I’m afraid I will do so again, for I believe it is the only way to achieve greater good. In my mind I believe that what I do is necessary, and that I am meant to carry this evil burden so that others may not, just as others are meant to be innocent and guided by a shepherd. I have lied, I have killed, and I have indulged in gluttony. I am sorry.”

A stern look overcame the priest. It wasn’t the first time the man before him came to the cathedral looking for guidance, and he had talked to many other priests in the past, including himself. He had good intentions, but he went about it in the path of sin. He cleared his throat and spoke, “I’m afraid I can’t give you the absolution you seek today. Your goal is righteous, but it does not justify the means which you follow - nothing can justify them, not even the noblest of causes.” He sighed, and put a hand on the young man’s shoulder, “I sense sadness and pain weighing you down, but sinning is never the answer. It is harder to follow the righteous path through and through than finding a shortcut, but it is what we must do if we seek absolution.”

Agostino looked up and nodded, “I understand. Maybe one day I will be able to be absolved. Thank you, priest. Take this and help the homeless, please, it’s the least I can do.” He placed 5 rost in the hands of the priest who nodded and moved his hand from one of Agostino’s shoulder, to the other, and finally down through his chest, creating a hammer-like shape.

Later that day, it would be the second time that the Angel would visit Ladydust in too short a timespan, he thought. The sun was still high, and the festivities continued as lively as ever. The costume from the other day was back on as he neared #2 Bentcreek Way - a small charming home, to be sure. Despite the fracas with Alyce Ann, he still came back, and not even he knew why. But, when he approached, he had remembered.

There was a blonde, blue-eyed woman sitting in the small yard in front of the home. She roused his curiosity, for whatever reason. Her build was much more masculine than Alyce Ann's, but her eyes seemed to speak to Agostino in an honest way. He could be wrong, and perhaps his instincts were finally wrong, but he knew that inaction was not up his alley. Her body and clothes betrayed her, and her ear seemed to suffer from something quite common among the ruffians in Spite. It was a sign of trauma, so either she was an incredibly unlucky laborer, or she fought. No, he thought, She most definitely is a fighter. The nose, the scar, it makes sense. Not conventional beauty, but there's something about her. If anything her work is more honest than her cousin's.

He had no time to either present himself or talk to her the other day, as he was there strictly for business. Now that he was there, dead in his tracks, and only then, did a realization come out: Why was he there knowing this woman was only here for a short time? Would she want to talk to him after the other day? What could her cousin have told her? Alyce Ann loved rumors after all, and they did not leave on a good note. Only one way to find out. He took a step forward, and stopped once again. What was he supposed to say? He didn’t exactly meet people solely for the socialization aspect. Fuck it, he thought, I'll figure it out, and continued.

Agostino took the mask off his face - he wore them ever too often - and spoke softly, “I’m not sure you remember me or recognize me without the mask. I was here yesterday for our, uhm...mutual acquaintance, Alyce...Ann,” he loathed to finish her name. He approached her even closer and extended his right hand for a shake; a curious action, considering the hoity-toity upper class would most likely extend their hand palm up to receive a woman’s hand to kiss it. This gesture was either out of lack of manners, or for a show of equality between the two, genders aside.

“My name is Agostino. I’m not sure if Alyce Ann sai-...wrote, anything about me, but I’m afraid she mistook me for someone else, someone I'm not. Nonetheless, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I did not have the chance to present myself yesterday, and I don't believe your cousin told me your name.”