Champion

Chapter 36

"That's acceptable," she responded, agreeing to his counter-offer. It was more than fair, since it would require little work on her part, and would gain her the time to pursue her own goal.

"What of your penances?" Laurena demanded of them. "Guiding the Champion to the Field of Woe is only part of your penance Sapphire, teaching David of my religion is the other. And Champion, do you really think your feelings about Eros and his love will change enough by the time you meet with him to be freed of your own penance?"

At the mention of their unwanted and unwelcome punishments, both glared at the acolyte. But it was David who responded.

"I don't give a flying f**k about your religion, or your penance. I agreed to it because I needed to get to Eros, so that I can get off this s**t hole of a world. If he can send me home it won't matter, and if he can't then your penance is as worthless as your f*****g religion," he spat at her with vitriol.

Laurena was shocked at his blasphemy. She looked to Sapphire for help in reaching the man, but she instead saw a look of complete indifference. The Dracian fully believed the Champion's penance to be unnecessarily harsh, and she cared little for its success or failure.

Turning back to David, Laurena implored him, "But you have to learn this. Your penance will never be fulfilled until you understand the nature of Eros' love."

Smirking at her viciously, David replied, "I'm supposed to let you two teach me of your religion. I am also supposed to report to the clergy along our route until I have come to realize the wrongness of my actions.

"Well let me make a few things abundantly clear right now. One, f**k your religion. Teach me whatever you want to, but I am perfectly happy being a non-practicing Christian and I'm not making plans for a conversion. Two, what I did was absolutely f*****g right. The only thing wrong here is having some asshole tell me otherwise. Trying to punish me for it is just gives me extra incentive to hate your faith. So we'll go through the motions like we're supposed to, but once we get to Eros I'm done. f**k your religion, f**k your god, and f**k your world. I'm either going home or I'll die trying."

Laurena had no response. She was shocked that he would openly defy the clergy. No one defied the clergy. They ran all of Erosius, and always had its best interest at heart. If the clergy set forth a penance it was well earned, and far better than being sentenced to servitude. David should be thankful for his penance...except he was not. He hated it, and refused to even try to fulfill it. Worse, he chose this knowing full well that it would lead to excommunication, which in their lands was the same as exile. None but the Dracians would interact with him after that. And even they would do so reluctantly, not wishing to upset their human neighbors. How could someone who was supposed to be Eros' Champion be so against his religion?

Realizing this argument was already going badly, and anything else she might add would only make it worse, Laurena stood up. She would go to sleep tonight, and try to think about the issue in the morning with a clearer head.

"Your words have been noted Champion," she said, "and I will think on them. Now I bid you both good night."

David just nodded, but as the acolyte turned to her bedroll Sapphire bade her good night in return.

"It's not my religion, Champion," Sapphire spoke quietly to David after Laurena had left. "I'm Dracian, and my faith is the same as my mother's. I know much of Eros and his love from my father, but I have never truly embraced him and his faith."

"I'm sorry if I offended you," David responded, lowering his voice as well.

"You're angry at your penance," she stated, matter-of-factly. "You are right to be. I'm by no means an expert in their religion, but Astinus seems to have discovered a crime where none existed. You defended your life against those who wished to take it. That has always been permitted by Eros. To punish you for this seems not only unfair, but extremely unlike that priest."

Remembering he wasn't the only person in this group to have their acts branded as criminal, he looked closely at the beautiful Dracian. She truly was stunning, especially now, when her face was not marred with its customary scowl.

"Why is it so unlike him?" David inquired, restraining his sarcasm. "He seemed to be more than capable of judging my actions from atop his pedestal."

Thinking a moment on whether it was her place to explain this subject to the man, she finally realized that if Astinus felt this man needed such a penance it must have been for a good reason.

"Astinus is not like any of the other priests or priestesses I have met. Most are like that young woman there," she said pointing to Laurena's resting form. "They are absolutely certain in their righteousness, and determined to convince any who believe otherwise that their way is the only right one.

"After my father died, my anger was so great I could think of nothing but vengeance. Seeing this, Astinus told me a story, one that to my knowledge he has never told anyone else. He had been one of those who followed the last Champion, Ophelia, for ten winters before her death. He spoke of her beauty, her kindness, and her boundless faith in Eros. He also spoke of fighting and killing at her side, defending this land against all those who would seek to destroy it. Finally, he spoke of his rage after her death.

"For three full seasons he traveled the land, angry at the world and his god for taking his beloved Champion from him. It wasn't until he finally released his anger that he realized the woman that had been everything to him would have been ashamed of what he had become.

"Astinus is a priest of Eros, but he's also a man that knows what it is to have blood on his hands. He understands pain, and loss, and what the rage they spawn will drive a person to do. I'm not sure why he chose to punish you for doing no more than he has done in the past, but I'm sure that there is a reason. I just can't understand what it is yet."

David was shocked at her words. The old priest had fought beside the last Champion? That just didn't seem like the man he had met. Although, he did seem very calm last night, especially given the nature of the fight that had occurred and the number and types of deaths that had resulted, David thought to himself. Perhaps the old man had seen his fair share of bloodshed after all. David still thought his penance was bullshit, but now he began to wonder at the old priest's motives.

"Just something to think about Champion," Sapphire said, rousing him from his reflections. "Now I think I will sleep as well. I am not terribly hungry, and I got precious little sleep last night," she said with a faint smile.

"Okay," David replied. "Guess that means I'll take first watch. I'll wake you in three hours for your watch?"

"Watch?" she asked him confused.

"Yeah, watch. You know, guard duty," David replied, "as in 'I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.'"

"Why would we need a guard," she asked him even more confused. "There are no threats along this road, nothing to guard against."

"That's what she thought," he replied, pointing at Laurena's sleeping form, "right up to the point I had to rescue her ass from those men you were so fond of. I'm sure you're an expert on this road and all, but without a guard I won't sleep a wink anyway. So either we take turns or I spend the whole night awake."

"Fine," she said, exasperated at his stubbornness.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Laurena had not gone immediately to sleep; she had instead listened quietly to what was said between them. Astinus had spent ten winters with the last Champion? How many wondrous things could he have seen and done in that time? How much magical knowledge could he have learned from such an accomplished sorceress?

Focusing her magic, she chanted the spell that Sapphire had used earlier. It had been the first time she had ever even heard of such a spell. Imploring all her magic to infuse her hand, it lit with a feeble glow, less light than would be gained from a single candle. She began to cry.

Could someone who had seen, done, and experienced as much as the old priest had during his life, possibly be wrong about her?

***

For the next two days Sapphire and Laurena took turns talking to David about the Erosian religion. They explained the core beliefs and values of Eros, as well as his limitations on actions and behaviors. The more the soldier learned about this religion the more it annoyed him.

As far as he was concerned, the core values of this faith seemed to be 'if everyone knows how wonderful we are, they will want to be like us. And if they don't want to be like us they just don't understand how wonderful we are yet.' It sounded exactly like the naïve anti-war bullshit argument used by way too many 'educated elite' back in the U.S. of A. It pretty much ignored the fact that different people have different values, and that some people feel perfectly justified in taking what you have and killing you, rather than trying to earn it for themselves. It also assumed that if someone didn't want to be a part of the religion, it was because they just didn't know enough about it yet. At least that was what he got from Laurena.

After two hours of listening to her spout the ridiculous bullshit, he wanted to ride back to Wolfsvale and 'b***h-slap' Astinus repeatedly.

Sapphire's discussions of Erosian faith were more philosophical than evangelical. She would explain a key concept of their religion, then ask David what his religion said on the matter, and finally explain what Dracians believed. It was certainly interesting, and David discovered that Erosians, Dracians, and Christians had very similar beliefs in many ways. At least, New Testament Christians. The major difference seemed to be that Dracians and Christians both realized that conflict was sometimes inevitable and necessary, while the Erosian felt that conflict was a failure of faith.

Erosians felt that all life was a precious gift; and should never be ended without either an act of appreciation for what the ending provided for others (in the case of plants and animals for food) or an act of contrition for the destruction of something so precious (killing in defense of oneself or others). Dracians believed that everything was a part of something else, and to unnecessarily destroy one thing was to upset the balance, which could have lasting effects on all life. It was two days of complex theological discussion that had David thankful for his magical education at night...for multiple reasons.

He quickly learned that he had a natural aptitude, often finishing chants without input from the Dracian, much like he had the first night. In just two days she taught him how to use his magic to create light, cleanse things and himself, lift objects, conjure simple items, heal injuries, and protect himself from the magic of others. This last part was his main focus, and he often practiced casting different types of protections on himself during the day. He learned that each type of magical attack had its own type of magical protection, and that while he could stack them on top of each other, it weakened their power to have his magic multi-task more than three things at once. Of course, Sapphire also explained that with as much magical power as he could put into his protective enchantments, even his weakened defenses were too powerful for most magical attacks to overcome.