The God Reborn

Chapter 12

Naomi knelt sobbing in the cell, in the corner furthest from Ben's body.

Already, Ben's blood was beginning to congeal. The drops that had splatted against the wall had stopped dripping down its face, and instead hung in place.

An object on the ground in the corner of the cell caught her eye. It was a metallic cylinder, one end closed and the other open. It had flown out of the guard's black weapon, sailing across the room and hitting the ground with a metallic clink a moment after the loud banging noise that had killed Ben.

Despite her terror, she reached out tentatively and touched the cylinder with a fingertip. It was warm to the touch, but not hot. She picked it up with her bound hands and turned it over in her palms. This was some sort of weapon, if only she could figure out how to use it. The rim of the metal cylinder looked sharp, but when she carefully ran her finger along it she was disappointed to learn that it was not sharp enough to cut through her callused skin.

She cringed as she glanced between the opening of the cylinder and the bloody hole in Ben's forehead. They appeared to be the same size. The cylinder wasn't sharp and it wasn't bloody, but somehow it had killed Ben in an instant.

The cylinder looked like the steel of her father's spear. Maybe she could make it sharp. She began rubbing the outer edge of the cylinder on the stone ground of the cell, methodically grinding it back and forth as her father did when sharpening his blades.

***

Fabian paced furiously in the underground cell the Household Guards had dragged him to, nursing the crimson bruise spreading along one of his cheeks. He'd been rewarded with that after he'd demanded one too many times to know why he was being arrested.

But at least the blow had come with an explanation. "Cowardice."

What could he have done to justify arrest for cowardice? He wondered.

The only answer was an insistent scraping noise carried its way to his ears from somewhere else in the cell block.

Fabian's only crime had been his doubts about the faith that the intermediaries taught.

Had lord Vinicius sensed his lack of faith and decided to punish him? The Household Guards were the personal force of lord Vinicius, after all. But Fabian quickly dismissed the idea. Lord Vinicius ignored the greatest issues facing Sanctuary. It was paranoia, even conceit, to fear that the one true god had singled out a mere acolyte like himself for punishment when so much else was wrong with the world.

If it wasn't lord Vinicius who had condemned him, then it must be the High Intermediary. Fabian had publicly denounced Julius' corruption just days before. And soon after, he had seen Claudius exiting Julius' chambers. Were they already planning his downfall then?

Julius had clear motives to take action against him. It would be easy enough to say that Fabian's questioning of the High Intermediary's wealth was a defamation of the faith itself, and therefore blasphemy against the god. The distinction between the policies of a priest and the honor of the deity he claimed to serve was one that the intermediaries had successfully clouded in the minds of many acolytes.

And yet Julius had charged him with cowardice. Fabian had just returned from leading his second victorious battle in several days. It was preposterous. Nevertheless, perhaps an accusation of blasphemy would not be as easy to pursue as Fabian first thought. Surely there were still some acolytes who would see the personal retribution apparent in a charge of blasphemy – one day Fabian criticizes Julius, the next day Julius declares that criticism to be blasphemy. Perhaps Julius feared that Fabian commanded enough personal loyalty among the 22nd Guards that they would defend him against such obviously trumped up charges.