Ellis Prays
It had been three days since Kaelyn and Mason had been to see Ellis. He had cleaned his church, and though about their problem. He had prayed for their success as he promised he would. He read up on the cases of demonic obsession he could find in the church library. But he didn't feel settled.
He preached his weekly sermon to the good people of the town and considered their faces They were human, each of them, plain, good people. And there was Marion, the healer's wife, but no Kaelyn, no Mason, no Sonja. They were focused on figuring out how to save Daisy from a demon.
Why wasn't Ellis?
Marion's eyes seemed to be seeing Ellis' thoughts as he taught of charity and love. But surely he was just imagining things. Her gentle smile was the same as it always was.
He ended his sermon and retired to his chambers to remove his vestments and change into the clothes he wore when he was just doing work around the church. The feeling of being on the wrong track wouldn't leave him.
he knelt again and imagined himself, as he always did, kneeling before the Divine. He prayed verbally, when alone, the words focusing his thoughts.
”... Bless Kaelyn and Mason as they seek to rescue Daisy—”
And suddenly he stopped. A thought fell into his mind like a tree across a roadway.
Rescue Brant.
It wasn't a voice, it wasn't an angel in light, it was just a simple thought, and it expanded in Ellis' mind, ripples outward from that center, revealing all the associated thoughts. He was a priest was he not? Hadn't he himself told Kaelyn that souls were his domain? So why was he so willing to give up on Brant's soul? Surely Brant was as important as anyone in town. True, he had made some awful terrible mistakes, had kidnapped the apprentice healer, probably, but shouldn't that just inspire Ellis to greater effort?
Ellis sat back, on the floor, cross-legged in a most undignified posture. He was alone, unless he was in the presence of the Divine, who had just answered his prayer with a command. No, if it was from the Divine it was a Commandment.
questions flooded his mind, but the light of simple truth showed them for the pale and pathetic excuses they truly were. It seemed that Ellis was having an argument with himself, but each answer came from a place of strength and resolve, each question from a place of cowardice.
“What can I do?”
Wrong question. Commit to do something, and the right thing will become apparent in the moment.
“What good am I in dangerous situations?”
Again, wrong question. If you are in a situation you can be useful. If you are somewhere else you have no value.
the question “What if I get hurt?” queued up in Ellis' mind but he swatted it down. Such a thought was unworthy of him. Ellis had promised to devote his life to this ministry, and he realized now, in this state of absolute internal clarity, that he intended to do exactly that. If he got hurt or killed in the attempt to save a soul that was fine. Either he believed in an afterlife and was willing to enter it, or he was a fraud.
Ellis was many things. But he was no fraud. His faith was true and the result of years of devotion, study, effort, service, thinking, and prayer. he had grown comfortable in this small church, he had grown used to the small duties that were required. But beneath hat comfort and ease was the actual bedrock of his faith.
So Ellis stood up, changed his clothes, and put a few useful things in a bag. he wasn't much of a hiker, but he could start now. his head felt light, he felt dizzy and yet, somehow, had never felt more alert. He was marching off to actually face the forbidden magic, and now it was time to see if he was right about the ultimate weakness of Chaos. But right or wrong, he was now committed.