“Well, we all know who it was.”
After noticing the theft, Tam had notified the authorities. In theory, that meant Abaye. In practice, it was Berith.
Who had, of course, immediately blamed Brother Ger.
In fairness, this was a perfectly valid conclusion; after all, Ger ticked all of the boxes. The crime must have occurred in the early hours of morning, after Tam had done his evening rounds, and Ger had been awake for his prayer. How many other monks would have been up and about at that time?
It also made sense to blame a newcomer, as no thefts of this kind had occurred in the past. If one of the established monks was a thief, why had they not struck before? Finally, Ger had a motive. It was clear for all to see that he wasn’t settled in the monastery, and had plenty of resentment to express. One the one hand, then, it was fine to blame Ger.
On the other hand, it was Berith doing the blaming. He didn’t even attempt to disguise his prejudice.
“Well, it’s in their nature, isn’t it?”
Abaye was trying to control him. Well, Abaye had never really controlled anything. Rather, he was trying to gently steer his father in a different direction, whilst avoiding direct confrontation. It was either a skilful exercise in man-management, or a timid attempt to keep everybody happy.
“Speaking of nature, we can’t rule out wild animals,” he ventured.
“You mean other wild animals? He’s not exact-“
Thankfully, at that point, Kaida stormed in.
“What exactly is all of this shouting about?”
“Brother Ger has-“
“One of the pigs has been stolen,” Abaye cut him off.
“Brother Ger?” Kaida had only been at the monastery a short while, but she respected the Abbot’s authority no more than the established monks. That said, if there an authority Kaida respected, she hadn’t met it yet.
“He doesn’t even eat pig! Why would he want to steal one?”
“He could have sold it!”
“To whom? He doesn’t know anyone, and he’s barely left the monastery. Can you imagine him going to town?”
Abaye seemed convinced. “Kaid-“
“Sister Kaida.”
“She’s got a point, da-“
“Brother Berith.”
“She’s got a point, Brother. He can only have sold our own pig back to us!”
Getting annoyed now, Berith started grasping at straws.
“Well, who knows what they believe? If he doesn’t eat them, it could be some animal liberation thing. Maybe he worships pigs?”
“No, he doesn’t eat them because he thinks they’re dirty. If anything, he cares even less for their well-being than you do. Liberation? The only person who cares about that sort of thing around here is-“
“-you.” Berith finished her sentence with a satisfied smile. “I think this is what they call a confession”.
“The kind where you sit in a box, listen to my sins, then absolve me of them and offer forgiveness?”
“No. The other kind.”
Because Berith’s smug grin was threatening to burst free of his skull and flick Kaida on the nose, the Abbot resumed his gentle steering.
YOU ARE READING
Old Habits
HumorA monastery. A monster. A murder. The medieval city of Lydelia is peaceful, on the surface. Its monastery? Not so much. When the monks come under attack from a mysterious force in the night, they are thrown into chaos. Joined by two new recruits...
