The Christian Falcon and the City of Pride

Plagues

Shortly after Nicolas denied the request of ending the Christian's torture, and tripling it instead, Nate, Riley, Phi and Autumn are seen walking towards the front doors to tell the others the bad news about what has happened. However, Nate became concerned about his former adoptive brother, and he thinks that his heart has now become stone hard.

"Nate..." Riley asked, "Are you alright?"

"Not really...." Nate replied, "I feel like Nicolas has now hardened his heart."

"Maybe it's part of God's plan?" Phi suggested, "The way I see it, it's similar to how the Pharoh was stubborn to free the Isrealites by Moses' request."

"You're right, Phi." Nate replied, "It's similar. And if that's the case.... then God will eventually force Nicolas to free our people, despite his hardened heart."

"Yes...." Autumn spoke up, "But turning Prideopolis into a city of praise and worship of God is not going to be easy."

But then, another one of the guards came up to the quartet, and requested that they follow him, and they did so, and then they came up to an old room, and the guard let them in, and to Nate's surprise, he saw an old but young Tanya the Jackal, his former adoptive mother, lying on a couch. And then, Tanya saw Nate after so many years.

"I missed you." she then said to Nate, "Ever since you suddenly took off and ran away from the city after killing one of our guards, I missed you."

And here, Nate took another sigh of disappointment, then said, "The Nathaniel who loved you as a mother was another man."

"No, he was not." Tanya replied, then she sat up and said, "You believe you changed, but you haven't. You call yourself a prophet, a man of the Christian's God, but I know better. I don't believe that only the fire from a bush stirs your heart, as you stir mine for you're my son."

"Tanya...." Nate responded as he took a couple of steps forwards, "I've stood in the burning light of the presence of God himself."

"It was not he who brought you back." Tanya replied, "It your own love for your family. Oh, Falcon, Falcon. Why, of all men, did you decide to leave your rightful home?" Then, she stood up and hugged Nate, and continued, "That you decided to abandon your destiny to be Nicolas' Vice Mayor now that your father's dead? Why did your homosexuality birth drive you to this?"

"Because I am not born homosexual." Nate replied, "My true heritage is of Christian blood, and my wife, whom I married, is Christian blood born, and I am also born from the blood of Christians, which Saul slaughtered."

And this made Tanya shocked in disbelief, and she stepped back after breaking the hug, and said, "Christian born? Don't play games, Nate. Unless the desert sun has played tricks on your mind. But tell me, does your wife.... grate garlic on her skin? Or is it soft as your mother's? Are her lips chafed and dry as the desert sand? Or are they moist and red like a pomegranate? Is it the fragrance of myrrh that scents her hair? Or is it the odor of sheep and beasts?"

And hearing this, Riley felt insulted by it, and so she walked up and said to her, "Mrs. Tanya, there is a beauty beyond the senses. Beauty like the quiet of green valleys and still waters. Beauty of spirit that you cannot understand."

"Perhaps not." Tanya replied, "But beauty of the spirit will not stop your people's torture. It can only worsen.... unless you reclaim your old destiny."

And here, Nate immediately responded, "The fate of my people is in my hands only if I do what God commands."

"Oh, isn't it?" Tanya asked, "Who else can maintain the pride of Prideopolis? Or destroy it?"