Blood of the Righteous

What Of My Sister?

"Brother Gabriel!" The brown-robed deacon, one of the personal staff of Arch Bishop Leones, stood at the university main gate, waving over the growing crowd that was slowly moving into the outer courtyard. "Brother Gabriel!" he screamed again, at the top of his lungs, his voice once again drowned out. The gray haired Brother Kenneth waved frantically, and finally caught the young initiate's eye.

Gabriel made his way through the murmuring crowd, catching parts of sentences about an invasion. From the bits he had heard, he figured the Caledonian / Gylinian army had forced its way past the Elgannan lines and was on its way. A siege of the city of Avonshire would be terrible, but everyone had expected that it would someday come to pass. The Church was officially neutral in the war, but being placed on the south bank of the Coldar River, and being within the Avonshire city walls, a siege would starve the University and Cathedral just as it would the rest of the city.

Brother Kenneth forced his way against the flow of the crowd and finally managed to grasp Gabriel's arm. "Brother Gabriel, the Templar Majoris, the Arch Bishop, Bishop Sentius, and his advisors wish to see you and your sister immediately!"

Gabriel stopped dead, causing a disturbance in the crowd as people tried to get around him. "What? Surely you are mistaken! Why would they want to see us?"

"I don't know. I was told to deliver the message, that is all."

"El will be along in about an hour. She had some unfinished business in the city."

The large bells of the Cathedral began to ring. Almost time for the evening meal. He, Jonathan, Demetrius, and Tobias always ate together in the mess hall. It would be strange eating alone, Gabriel thought. Jonathan was still in the infirmary, and he had no idea where Demetrius was. His thoughts turned to Tobias. Today was to have been his final day of testing. He had passed the Test of Combat, and Gabriel knew Tobias would pass the Test of Knowledge. The only test that remained was the Angelic Blade. If an initiate could pick up the blade and not drop it in pain, he would become a Holy Defender. Many rumors circulated through the ranks of the initiates about that test, for it was the one that looked into one's own soul. Tobias would have taken the test just two hours before, or at least, he was scheduled to.

"What about Tobias. Did he take the test of the Angelic Blade yet?"

Brother Kenneth nodded. "Yes he did. Brother Tobias is now a Holy Defender. I suggest you wait until tomorrow to congratulate him, though. The Angelic Blade is not something to be taken lightly, and when I left him in his room an hour ago, he was curled up on his bed sobbing."

The current of the crowd once again carried the two forward. They found themselves in the outer courtyard, where at least fifty initiates and twenty Holy Defenders were lined up in front of the inner wall gate. As per tradition when the Gray Bells were sounded, commoners were not being permitted inside the University at this time. Gabriel and Brother Kenneth walked pass the guarding initiates, and with a salute to the lead Defender, they went inside past the blockade.

"Brother Kenneth," Gabriel said once they had reached the gate and had started down the ten leg tunnel that lead to the inner courtyard. "Is the test of the Angelic Blade as... disturbing as they say?"

The gray-haired deacon shrugged. "I am not a Holy Defender, so I have not been subject to the test. But, I have seen the most promising initiate cry out in agony and drop the blade leaving spiral brand marks on his hands. I've also seen the strongest, most brave and courageous lads crumple to the ground in tears begging forgiveness. I've seen the most haughty initiates I've ever known hold the blade and after they recovered, were filled with The Spirit and were monuments to humility and spirituality. As you know, no one is permitted to speak of the experience to anyone who has not undergone the test themselves, so no one but the Holy Defenders themselves can know what really happens."