Interlude.pdf

Interlude

A historical short story by Nathie

This is the continuation of the story

„The Inquisitor“

and contains two independent short stories.

If you are looking for the ﬁ rst part,

it can be found on my website

www.fragmentally.de

Alejandro-s Prayer

Alejandro‘s Prayer

Severin-s Story

Severin‘s Story

No publishing, altering, editing without

explicit written permission.

Editing done Kikue Mugen

www.samurai-on-samurai.com

and by N.Randall.

Artwork and layout done by Nathie.S.Block

www.creationwarrior.net

This is a work of ﬁ ction based in a historical setting, that

means that any resemblance of the main characters are

entirely coincidental, but the places and side characters

are a part of history.

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Alejandro-s Prayer

“ ...et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Quia tuum est

regnum et potestas et gloria in saecula. Amen.

Dear father, it feels so good to say those words again after eighteen months

of silence. Eighteen months of doubt, confusion, madness, and building

a new life. Eighteen months of gathering the courage to talk to you again.

Tonight I want to share my darkest hours with you. I know you have been

there for me always, even when I doubted you. Tonight I want to keep

you company here, in this small chapel. I need to talk to you. I need to

say these words out loud, for they will become my promise to you. I have

done so much wrong in my life. Not even in a thousand lifetimes could I

make recompense for my guilt. However I promise I will try from now on.

First of all, I need to thank you for making me see. Thank you for not let-

ting me down in the darkest hours of my life. Thank you for sending me

an angel when I was too blind to follow the path you have chosen for me.

Please, Lord, let me explain what I have been doing and how I felt this last year

and a half. For the ﬁ rst weeks after Severin left me I could not think straight.

All my thoughts circled around the killings I have committed in your name.

Each time I closed my eyes I saw the face of every single person I killed.

I dedicated my life to you, my father, but I have failed so utterly. I always

thought that you would approve of the actions of the church. I don’t want

to blame my ignorance on my fellow priests nor any other person. It was

my fault alone that I failed to see the truth. I followed the orders of the

church like a sheep, blind in my faith in the bishops, believing I was doing

the right thing.

Now I know I should have questioned those in whose name I acted. If I

would have not just repeated the prayers and the passages of the Holy

Bible, if I had actually thought about those words and what they meant

I would have known that your true way would be the way of love, not the

way of death, hate and blindness. If I had only used my mind earlier.

However I can’t undo what I have done, as much as I wish it.

I would give anything to erase the years in which I have killed and tortured

people in your name.

In those ﬁ rst weeks after Severin left me in that cave, I was possessed

by this thought, and it ate me up inside. Then I asked myself why you, if

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you really exist, would allow people to kill and worse in your holy name?

I questioned the holy bible as well. I started to doubt. Finally, I lost my faith

in you. I denied you existed and with that, I denied my purpose in life.

I want to thank you for the strength you gave me, enabling me to survive

those following months, even if I wished to die. Those months of the worst

pain I have ever endured. Pain that slowly became blissful madness.

I can’t recall how I survived this winter, alone in the woods, many of my

memories are blank.

Today I know you are there, that you have been there with me all the time.

Today I am sure that you have your reasons for letting people die in your

name, even if I can’t see the outcome of your master plan.

As dazed as my mind was over the winter, the following spring I remem-

bered very clearly. Like nature bursting with new life there were new

thoughts forming in my mind. I felt a new strength rising in me of which I

was never aware before. With this strength came the feeling that you, my

Lord, were still watching over me. Knowing this gave me back my sanity.

But I knew that the time was not right yet to return to you. I had to ﬁ nd

out what I should do with my life, where my help would be most effective

and needed.

At ﬁ rst I thought I should ride back to Avignon. I still had knowledge of the

inner circle of the church. I thought with this power I could take revenge in

your name. For days I thought it was my destiny. Who else possessed this

knowledge and the guts to act upon it? Then I realized that this would also

end only in bloodshed and terror, and I knew this was not my way anymore.

You know my heart was always with Severin since I met him. Even as my

mind was dazed, he sparkled like a star in the blackened night and led

me through the cold dark winter of my mind.

My heart ached whenever I thought of him. I wanted to see his gorgeous

smile once more, and, forgive me, my father, I wanted to feel his touch,

wanted to be close to him. I wanted to be held in those strong arms. I

know those thoughts are selﬁ sh, but this was the ﬁ rst time in my life I had

actually wanted something for myself. Furthermore I wanted the opportu-

nity to give love back to him.

However I was not ready to go to Severin just then. He above all, had

the right to know which path I have chosen, and I could not give him an

answer yet.

I knew that, there in my small hut, I would not ﬁ nd that answer, so I left

my shelter after a year had passed and entered into a different village.

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As I walked across the small marketplace, I noticed that the harvest had

been a bad one.

No one recognized me as I went through the streets, so I decided it was

safe to knock at the door of a house and ask for a meal and a place to

stay for the night.

The woman agreed as she saw the money Severin had given me, and I

walked in. As I looked through a window, I saw a man splinting ﬁ rewood

and I offered to help with this. She motioned for me to sit and told me

that was not necessary. With a smile, she gave me hot broth and bread. I

could not return her smile; I was too ashamed to look into her eyes, so I

ate hastily without looking up until I heard a painful scream from behind

the house.

I quickly found out that the man outside had an accident with his axe.

Without thinking I helped the woman carry her husband into the house

and gave her instructions on what I needed so that I could tend to the

man’s wound.

You, my father, know that I was taught how to tend to sick and injured

people but this knowledge was mainly used for delinquents who needed

to be revived. I have never thought that I could actually heal people with-

out injuring them ﬁ rst.

So, I cleaned the wound, stitched it and wrapped linen around it. Sud-

denly the woman smiled brightly at me and said: ‘Thank you so much for

your help. It seems that you have been God sent.’

I needed to look away at those words because all my emotions suddenly

came ﬂ ooding back, but I had found my path.

The next morning I walked through the village and asked people if they

needed a healer, and there was in fact a great need. I tended to various

wounds and sicknesses that day and this work ﬁ lled me with joy. I was

alive, and I will never forget the smiles of the people I helped. I also found

acceptance and sympathy given to me freely, this was another new expe-

rience. Thank you for this, my father.

Over the next few weeks, I walked through different villages offering my

help, and the news that there was a healer around spread like a wildﬁ re.

People looked forward to my arrival and my life was ﬁ lled with joy and

honest work. It felt so right.

However, I knew there was still more to do in my life, because working as

healer was not fulﬁ lling. Finally, the time was right to go back to Severin

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