The Shield Bearer

Chapter 6

Rene stood at the door and politely waited for the acolyte to open it. He was still catching his breath, in an undignified manner, as he turned the knob and opened the door. Before another objection could be raised, Rene stepped in and to the left of the door, allowing Gregory to step in and take a position just to her right.

The Arch Bishop was sitting at his desk, intent on some papers in front of him as the acolyte stumbled into the room to explain. The poor boy didn't get that chance as the Arch Bishop looked up, with an irritated expression on his face. "I was not aware that I requested an audience with two." His tone of voice made the boy shrink back, as he clearly wanted to bolt out the still open door.

He had gained enough breath to try to explain. "Sir...Sir, she said that they were battle partners and that they..." Before he could finish, the Arch Bishop waved him away.

"I am aware of what battle partners are. Leave us." He turned his spectacled eyes to Rene and Gregory, waiting for the acolyte to leave. Much to Rene's surprise, she sensed malice from this holy man. He was not happy with her or Gregory. But she felt it was definitely deeper than that.

"I thought that the standard practice was to assign battle partners upon arrival at your military assignment." He raised one eyebrow as if he didn't believe them. Rene felt an uncomfortable pressure at the base of her skull, as if the bishop was trying to look into her head.

She focused her thoughts, suspecting that he was using what her mother had called The Eyes of Astra, a miracle that allowed a priest to distinguish the truth from lies. She didn't like the implication that such an action made. She had always been honest, almost to a fault. Her dealings with the temple had always been respectful and honorable. She had even spent the majority of her days of rest, volunteering her help wherever it was needed in the temple.

For the first time, in her life, she felt a flash of anger at a member of the temple. That warmth that had sat comfortably in her core, since the night before, began to grow. No, this wasn't a truth telling spell. She could feel him trying to push into her head, trying to read her thoughts. That was in direct defiance of all of the laws for the use of miracles, that her mother had drilled into her.

Rene caught a glimpse of Gregory reaching up and rubbing the back of his head, uncomfortably. He wasn't just trying to get into her head, he was trying to invade the mind of her battle partner. "You must be his shield." Those words echoed, like a command in her mind, just like the night before. When James was lying broken on the ground, this same voice yelled at her to do something.

It saved James, so she listened to it. She imagined a wall of shields floating around her head and did the same for Gregory, willing it to protect them from the bishop's invasive spell.

It must have worked, because the pressure at the back of her head ceased and the bishop stood straight up, as if shocked right out of his seat, by some unseen jab.

His face was red with anger. "How dare you! You insolent little....!" Before he finished his outburst, he just went silent for a moment, looking down at his desk. He took several deep breaths, then straightened his glasses and looked back up at Rene and Gregory.

Gregory was stunned into silence by the Bishop's little outburst. Rene was silent, but it was a different kind of silence. She had always held the temple and it's inhabitants in the highest esteem. Her mother had explained that all priests and acolytes were to serve as examples, pillars of light to inspire the masses.

But her blind faith in the temple and it's priests was broken now. Maybe, she had permitted inflated expectations to blind her from the truth. Priests were people, no different from anybody else. They were capable of angry outbursts and violating their own tenets, to invade the mind of a friend of the church. She was beginning to understand why her calling could not be here, in these 'hallowed' halls.