Chapter 521: Five Blows From a Knight (Part One)
At the water’s edge in the village he had worked so hard to bring to life, Ollie knelt in the soft, sodden soil, facing the least likely priest he’d ever met.
Across from him, Ignatious knelt in the mud, holding a golden emblem of a sun surrounded by waving flames as he prayed over the soon-to-be knight.
"Though his vigil begins in darkness,
And his feet have carried him far from home,
His heart was forged for greatness,
And his virtues are bound to his bones."
Ignatious’s prayer wasn’t propper according to any of the forms of the Church but the fallen Inquisitor didn’t care what the Church considered proper. What mattered was that the words he spoke on Ollie’s behalf were true, and after his conversation with the young man, he firmly believed every word he said.
"Though Faith is not among your virtues, Ollie," Ignatious said, tucking the emblem away and placing a firm hand on the flame-haired youth’s shoulder. "I believe that you embody the heart of our faith more than many Templars I have known. It is godly to meet your struggle, and it is pious to turn first to yourself before you turn to others for help, but in this world, no one is cursed to struggle alone."
"This village is proof of your struggle and of your virtue," the fallen priest said, gesturing at the villagers watching in the distance. "Many of them would have succumbed to their struggle without your help, and many of them must have struggled to accept help from someone who looked like the enemy who drove them from their homes."