Turning Point

"Then we shall get going now."

"Of course, Your Excellency Delacroix, this town cannot thank you enough! I cannot thank you enough! Now, we can finally rest easy."

"It's my duty. You are a good one, Father Brook, I pray that future tidings treat you well."

We were standing in front of the Wyrmden Church. The large structure towered over most homes, a testament to how the people of this world regard the Orthodoxy.

I was still in the simple clothes I wore yesterday, but I was thankful to have even gotten access to a clean bath and a warm meal, courtesy of Father Brook.

"Well now, It seems now things will change, child." Father Brook chuckled, I wasn't sure if he knew I was recruited.

Bishop Georges said something about being the hidden arm of the Orthodoxy, after all.

"For the better, I hope. Thank you for everything, Father Brook. You saved me."

I was a little excited, who wouldn't want to be part of a secret order? Not only that, but I'd be taught how to hunt demons, it's gonna be so fun. Remembering that monster's demeanor and nature, I swore to myself that I'd never lose again.

"Hoho! Well aren't you well mannered child! Why, you might've picked up a lost noble child here Your Excellency!" Father Brook laughed good-naturedly, yet still retaining the honorifics. 

Those things don't deserve to win.

"He is unique, that is for sure." Bishop Georges said off-handedly.

It seemed he was not that bothered about my weird stare, but I could tell there were thoughts behind those eyes. Still, I appreciate his calm demeanor, but I couldn't help but stare at him for longer periods of time unprovoked for fun.

"That is for sure! Well now, burning precious daylight! I wouldn't want to keep you any longer."

"Thank you Father Brook, it has been a pleasure."

"No Your Excellency, it is mine. Know that humble Wyrmden will always welcome you!"

Seems he's in a good mood. Probably because his higher-up is finally leaving, after having gotten rid of a problem for him. Two birds with one stone and he didn't even need to throw it.

All this courtesy talk is boring me, evidently.

As I stood around, looking not any different to any other street rat, I watched the stray cats climb the well-maintained church wall onto the clay shingles until the two finally finished with everything they had —or required, rather— to say and settle.

"It's time to go, child. Follow me."

"Are you gonna keep calling me child? Didn't you say you were gonna take me under your wing?"

"Yes, you will be part of the Inquisition. And when you will, and when you deserve to be, you will get a name."

"Why not just give me one? I can also decide my own, you know." I say as I walk beside him, travelling along the stone brick road.

We were currently heading towards the outskirts of the town, opposite of the bridge and in turn, the forest where I came from.

I was finally getting somewhere.

"Because names are important. They are the first chosen gift one is given. I cannot deny the Church bears fondness towards traditions and sentiments. You are one of my kind now, and you will abide by our ways."

"I assume, it is as God intends?"

"You are getting the accustomed to it already."

We finally reached the town gates. The giant but thin metal gate and admittedly impressive brick wall really put everything in scale. The walls were very tall, well above the average house, and seemed to encompass most of the town, and it would've, if not for the large river that ran beside the town.

I assume they didn't build walls nor block the large body of water since it was already a natural defense, and I don't think they had the ability to do so anyway.

"Though, it gave me quite a surprise." He continued as he waited for a few carriages to pass while adjusting the water canteen he had slung around his neck.

"When?" I was right beside him. Unlike him however, I had no possessions to speak of. Though I was offered daily provisions, I felt that I couldn't accept any more than I had taken.

So I awkwardly just stared at the kindly Church volunteers until they walked away. It seems I had scared them off, but it just took me a really long time thinking about how to refuse them. Before I knew it, Bishop Georges had refused them for me.

My social skills needed some work.

"When I learned that you had not at least a rudimentary level of knowledge about the Orthodoxy, or... anything at all. If not for your common sense, I would have assumed you knew nothing at all."

Bishop Georges exited the town, passing by the gates as some of the guards gave him a brisk nod. I followed.

"I'm a believer." And I was, because at this point it was stupid not to.

"And for that I am glad. Many don't."

"Why not?"

"The Elysian Orthodoxy is the largest religion in the known world. Our influence may hail from Pentecost City, to our neighbors in the Remus Empire, and even all the way to the frozen meadows, but that doesn't mean there aren't any others." 

"What are the others?"

"Many... In the Great Alfar Edda Forest for one, the Elves living there worship Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and its priestess, the Elven Queen, or so they say."

"What do you mean by that?"

Elves and Yggdrasil... could it be, the Norse?

"We humans do not actually know much about the Elves. All we know are recorded from the very few Elves that actually ever leave the forest, none of them nobles or bearing important stations, so the whole truth we do not know.

"What else are there?"

"So much more, child... I'll tell you more about it when we get to the capital. Now however, we must focus on the task at hand."

"Task?" I wasn't briefed about this, I have a bad feeling.

Now that I think about it, we've been walking until now, and we've already passed the town gates...

"That is correct. We will travel to Avalon City on foot." He revealed.

"Is this a test?" My pupils would've dilated if I had any. Where is the carriage? I thought he was an esteemed Bishop? Did he come to this city on foot as well?

This did not bode well for me.

"Of sorts, but also a lesson."

"Survival?"

"And humility."

"What do you mean by that?"

"My student, we exorcists are built into what we are from the ground up. Scavenged from nothing, and given divine purpose." The Bishop said, and my stomach dropped when I realized that he had food and water.

I didn't.

"That is why you must learn to live in every situation, to live with nothing and to thrive. So that we may deliver... enlightenment, wherever we may be." He delivered, still monotone.

"Are you gonna leave me to the wild? Didn't you find me already in the wild?"

"I did."

"So why d-"

"Starving and dying, mere inches from the grasp of death, that is not living, nor thriving. You did not even have any clothes on you, armed with only a crudely sharpened stick." He lectured, hammering in my then desperate situation.

"..."

 "Any adventurer and warrior can survive, but Inquisitors must be able to thrive in any environment unmoved, not a speck of dust on their ceremonial attire nor a grimace on their face, as God is always with them, with us."

"Fine. Will you be going ahead?"

"No. You are here to learn, and I am your teacher."

Good point.

"What is the first step to living like an Inquisitor, as you say?"

"Keep moving, especially when you have a destination." Georges said, as he suddenly started accelerating. Matching his pace, albeit poorly, I asked.

"Why so fast?"

"Training. Your endurance is lacking." He sped up even more, as if punishing me for asking such a stupid question.

"What isn't lacking with me?" I said looking down at my short frame as I tried to run with him.

"Your faith. "

"How will that help right now... Huff! Huff!" He was completely right, but I couldn't help but question how he was able to tell my faith was so concrete.

"Believe yourself to be faster, then." He said deadpanned, and started speeding up to a point I couldn't catch up, nor lag behind enough to give up.

I could only look at him with faint indignation, but even that was hard as I felt I was gonna collapse.

But I won't stop until I do, so until then I'll keep running.

This went on for another twenty minutes, until he stopped and let me rest. Until he started running again, he would only let me rest in those small increments.

We ran and ran, eventually leaving the established road, as the Bishop had wanted to cut straight through a dense forest and local mountain in order to save time.

It was hell.

By the time the sun set, I was completely miserable. Fortunately, he determined that it was far too risky for us to keep moving in the night. And so, my teacher very graciously allowed me the gift of sleep.

It's the small mercies.

Yet the learning did not stop. He taught me how to make a basic but durable shelter, efficiently create fire more reliably, and showed me the local herbs and their applications.

Of course, he also taught me basic prayers for each meal and such.

He said it was a prerequisite for something, but I was just happy to learn, it was a way for me to communicate with the heavens, even if it was one-sided.

The next night, he taught me how to weave ropes with plant fiber and how to tie them into knots, cook and hunt food, navigate the forest, identify animal markings and how to use the herbs he showed me into various pastes and tinctures on top of foundational first aid.

The next two nights, he taught me a technique developed by a city-state in the Remus Empire, a way of identifying the constellations in the night sky, and how they shift, appear, and disappear as the year progresses and seasons pass, in order to navigate the night.

The next four days after that, he expanded on the previous lessons. I learned how to cover my tracks and hide my scent, create makeshift weapons from rocks, flint and wood. I learned how to purify water when we found a muddy lake deep in the forest.

That was not all however, as over the next two weeks he would continuously drill these lessons into me by forcing me into situations where I would need to apply them in order to live.

He would randomly disappear in the morning, and I was forced to make my own way. Some morning I would wake up to find that all my rations and purified water were gone. Other days, he would throw metal nails at me, and I had to run for my life, often for days on end.

He threw golden nails at me, the very same ones he told me he used to cripple demonic entities.

And you know what, teach said it was part of training, but I think he was just hungry and ate all of the food.

Four weeks of travel, and it was not for nothing. I absorbed these lessons like a sponge. I was fully aware of the importance of basics.

And besides, I finally learned how to not starve like an idiot even when I walked next to a river for days before I thought to take initiative and hunt fish.

Doesn't change the fact that I just really wanted to get to wherever we were going.

"Are we there yet?" I huffed as I ran next to my teacher, yet at a much steadier and faster pace than four weeks ago.