Antieux: Last Happy Season Brother Candle felt no different—except for enduring the endless horror of knowing he had been involved in multiple deaths. The dead had been bent on hurting him. He had been but a vehicle for those deadly serpents. But the guilt persisted. And he knew, as soon as he hobbled out behind Socia, into that hall where she decided who owed what to whom, and who the chicken belonged to if it laid eggs somewhere other than in its proper coop … The logic people brought to these sessions boggled a rational mind. He knew the news had raced around the city, growing fat on the popular imagination. Everyone became nervous when they looked at him—Bishop LaVelle being a serious exception. The Bishop lived life in an alternate reality. Brother Candle wanted to cringe away from people who looked at him the way they looked at Bernardin about to go on a rampage. The assizes started as they always did, with stupid arguments that had no business being brought before the Countess.
