Where Lies Adventure!

CONFESSION   Father Atropos sat stewing in the cramped confession booth.  One more confession, and this Saturday would be over.  Normally, he’d look forward to this time so that he could review his homilies for Sunday mass.  But not today, because once Father Atropos took his final confession, he would no longer be the priest of the St. Francis parish.               “We’re bringing in Father York,” Atropos reflected on his conversation with the bishop that very morning.             “Can you tell me why, Father?” Atropos asked.   “York is too young to lead a parish.”             “I am sorry Johann,” the bishop had.   “But we’ve received complaints.   Parishioners feel you are too austere and traditional.   They are leaving St. Francis.   A change needed to be made.”...

            OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 22: A Sword for Service             Slivers of light pierced the darkness.  Images flashed in Tarsus’s mind.  Images of stone…steel…a dying man.  They came to him like crashing waves on a shore: instantly and with great force.  And just as quickly as they came, they went – catching him up in their undertow and then leaving him behind as they passed over.               With the sudden ferocity of a lion leaping onto its prey, Tarsus woke.   He pushed himself to his knees as he struggled for air, but there was none left now.   He stood frantically, hoping to break through an imagined threshold between air and no air: on the other side of which would be the promise of life.   But even standing, there was nothing to breathe.   His time was up.       ...

OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 21: The Better Man             The darkness lifted suddenly, but Tarsus expected it this time.  The light was blinding, yet as his eyes grew accustomed to it the blur of bright colors coalesced into yet another familiar scene.             To the left and right of him were church pews made of solid stone.   Tarsus’s gaze flitted over them and fell onto the lush red carpet he stood on that ran down the aisle in between them.   He followed it to the head of the room, where a familiar dais itched at his memory.   He had an inkling that he knew where he was.             That inkling turned into confirmation as he saw what was on the dais: the great stone statue of the GodKing Malthus, standing in his warlike pose with arms stretched over his head and hands gripping an absent weapon.   Sunbeams...