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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Canaan" data-source="post: 3021674" data-attributes="member: 40239">Chapter 26:  The Union of the TwoI am sorry this took longer than I expected.  Friday came and went...***********************“Talon!” Gabriel shouted out.He was met with silence.Gabriel raced up the stairs in the tower to the trapdoor at its upper landing and bounded through it.  The bodies of several orcs lay broken on the flagstone battlements.There among them was Talon’s battered, unmoving body.  The monk had clearly suffered from the rusted javelins the orcs masterfully wielded.  His gray robe was soaked with a mixture of his own blood and the blood and gore of the defeated orcs. The broken shaft of a javelin stuck out from his shoulder, the wood stained copper from his blood.Fearing the worst, Gabriel felt for signs of life.  Finding a weak pulse, Gabriel whispered a prayer of thanks to Canaan and cured Talon’s grievous wounds.  Talon’s bones and flesh knit before Gabriel’s eyes as the curative power of Canaan coursed through his friend, pushing the javelin through the skin.  It clattered onto the flagstone.Talon’s eyes opened and he gasped for air.  “Welcome back to the living, old friend.” Gabriel said with a smile and a clasp on the shoulder.  “Let me help you up.”“Thank you, Gabriel.  I am fine.” Talon said, getting up and waving Gabriel off.Gabriel smiled and looked around.  Bodies of orcs were strewn across the battlements.  Gabriel counted them.  “12?!  You managed to take down 12 of those things?”  The astonished Gabriel looked at Talon with new respect.“Yes.” Talon replied flatly and walked past Gabriel down the stairs of the tower and into the courtyard to join the others.Hu Li had used the intervening time to collect trollblood into a rusty bedpan.  He was making a mess of things, having spilled the bedpan twice and having stepped in it once.  Hu Li was covered in blood by the time he was finished collecting a full bedpan’s worth of trollblood.Emerging from the base of the tower, Talon rejoined us in the courtyard.  “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” He announced.“Hmmm.  Pity.” Hu Li replied and started to examine the troll he just bled, clearly uninterested in the monk.“Oh look, a ring.” Hu Li announced, reaching for the ring on the troll’s corpse.“Yes, Hu Li.” I said exasperated, slowly turning to face Hu Li.  “It is enchanted and… tainted.  I would advise leaving it alone.  It might—"  I stopped mid-sentence as I saw Hu Li had already donned the ring.“Oh no.” I muttered and buried my face in my hand.Gabriel came running up.  “I think I heard something inside the barn.”I looked up at Gabriel, worried.  Thoughts of Hu Li’s folly instantly fled from my mind at the sound of a potentially new threat.  I began walking toward the barn.  “Let’s see what new nastiness awaits us.  Be on your guard, everyone.”With Shallahai behind and to the left of me and the bloody Hu Li to the right, I opened the double doors to the shed nearest the well.  The sun was behind me, I could tell, as the inhabitants of the shed, all peasants in various states of shock, hopelessness and injury shielded their eyes as I opened the doors.“Fear not, for Canaan and Shankari are with you my friends.  His righteousness has smitten your captors and Her love has set you free.”  I said to the motley crew.  Their arms, atrophied as they were, lifted toward the Heavens in relief and thanks. Tears of joy streamed down their muddied cheeks. “Thank Canaan!” Some shouted. “Thank the Green!” Shouted others.We tended to them. Even Hu Li, in a rare show of altruism cast several prestidigitations on the peasants, instantly cleaning off untold days of gunk that covered their emaciated bodies. Shallahai, Gabriel, Lilian and I went immediately to work healing them. I called upon Canaan’s grace to provide the starving innocents with some food and water. Their bellies full, their clothes cleaned and their wounds healed, the serfs gathered around Shallahai as he told them tales of the Green. I had stepped away from the storytelling to gather my thoughts. Since I had opened the door on these people, uttering those words “His righteousness has smote your captors and Her love has set you free” I felt something stirring deep within me. It was pure as a newborn; light, innocent, and full of boundless potential, but also fragile, delicate and hungry for love and attention. I saw the truth. I felt the jagged rift between the Green and Canaanism as if it were a wound in my chest so deep it split my very heart. I witnessed first hand the awesome might and eternal righteousness that sprung from the commingling of the two faiths. For, I realized, my whole being full of boundless joy and hope, the two faiths were in fact One. They were a Union of two, crying out to be rejoined. The Male and the Female. The Spirit and the Flesh. That which is and that which loves.The Green was the physical, that which could be touched, seen, smelled, tasted, while Canaan was the heart, the soul, the spirit. The softness of wool. The soothing fragrance of lavender. The awe in a sunrise over a mountaintop. The sweetness of grapes. Sensation is the Green. The feelings those sensations beget are Canaan. One cannot exist without the other. This was my calling. Though a great weight lifted from me, I felt the yoke of urgency pulling me forward to destiny. I was to rejoin that which was torn asunder. To rebuild what was lost and heal the one true faith of Turgos. I knew this would brand me a heretic in the eyes of mortals, but I did not fear. Canaan and the Green were with me. I retired from Shallahai’s storytelling to a narrow, quiet lip that jutted from the cliff outside the walls of Brightstone Keep. Looking toward the star-sprinkled midnight sky, I began formulating the edicts of this new ministry and means by which I would spread the Good News.  * * * *I must have fallen asleep there.  As dawn came, I awoke and made my daily prayers to Canaan.  As I was finishing, I heard the soft padding of feet.  Opening my eyes, I saw a little girl of perhaps ten years.  She wore a simple yellow dress.  Her brown locks were tied up into pigtails and bound in grass.  She was barefoot.“Good morning, Father.” She greeted me in her soft little voice with wide eyes and a smile.“Well, good morning to you, too, little one.” I responded with a smile.She sat down on the dirt in front of where I was meditating, mimicking my style of sitting.  “I’m Hanna” she said after a second.  She was playing with something in her hands.“I’m Evora.” I replied.  “What do you have there, Hanna?” I asked.“It’s a gift for you.” She replied.  I made it last night when the forest spirit was speaking to us.  Mommy told me that I should make you something to show you and Canaan our thanks and respect for saving us.”  She added innocently as she held out the gift.It was a Canaanite cross whittled from two small sticks, bound together with grass and interwoven with ivy vine and holly.  It was simple and beautiful.  It was the perfect symbol to represent the union of the two faiths.  I looked at Hanna.  I saw only youth and innocence.  Such a thing, such a beautiful thing made from the hands of such a naive creature.  This new religion, one that would marry the god and the goddess, was as youthful and innocent as this little girl.  Surely it was no coincidence that she would be the one to conjure the symbol of this new religion.  Taking the cross in my hand and examining it, I said, “This is a truly remarkable gift, Hanna.  I will never forget your kindness.  I will keep it with me always, next to my heart. Thank you.” I told her.She blushed.  “Do you follow Canaan or The Green?” I asked.“Our family follows The Green.  But we go to church whenever the Priest of Canaan is in our area.  Mommy says we have to go so we don’t get in trouble.  Why would we get in trouble if we didn’t go to church, Evora?”  She asked.I tried to mask my incredulity.  I suppose I shouldn’t have been shocked.  But I had never known what the followers of The Green underwent to stay free.  What persecution they endure!  I felt nauseous that I had belonged to an institution that would so repress a person’s spirit that she could not even have the freedom to worship whom she chose.“I don’t know.” I lied.  I knew why.  It was so that the Curia could maintain power and influence.  But this little girl would not understand that.  And this little girl would not understand my disagreement with that approach. “It will not be like that forever, however.  Trust me.” I added.Looking again at the cross she made for me, I asked, “What do you call a marriage in the ancient language?”  “I don’t know.” Hanna responded.  “I don’t know the ancient language.”“Hanna!” I heard a woman call.  We turned to see a woman in a long brown skirt and white blouse waving to Hanna.  “Is that  your mommy?” I asked Hanna.“Uh-huh.” She responded.  “I have to go now.”  She said sadly.“Well, you don’t want to disobey your mommy.” I said.Hanna got up and hugged me.  “Bye.”  She said.“Bye, Hanna.” I said.  “Thank you.”As Hanna ran back toward the keep and her waiting mom, my thoughts once again turned toward the possibilities of purging the Curia from this land and bringing true enlightenment to the citizens of Turgos.Why do you come here, Heretic?  There was a voice in my head.  It was familiar somehow.  I looked around.  It was so invasive and disturbing, like pinpricks in my brain.Did you come to spread your seed in all the little boys and girls?  There it was again.  What was it?  It was clearly female and foul.Or did you just come here to renounce the Great Thief?  By Canaan, what is she talking about?  I was frantically looking around for the source of this voice.  She must be near.  But I saw nothing.“Show yourself!” I yelled out.  But I was met with silence.“Show yourself, witch!” I repeated.  My call was met with disturbing laughter, laughter that my mind, not my ears, heard.I got up and ran toward the keep.I found the others gathered around the well.  Winded, I approached Lilian.“We have to get these people out of here.  They are not safe here.” I said through ragged breaths.“What do you mean?” Lilian asked, puzzled.  “What’s going on?”“Someone else is here, Lilian.  Something sinister.”  I responded. “It may be Veshra.” “I feel it, too.  There is something in the mine.  The captives told me they were slaves to something called the Kurjan, a great Orc Shaman.  He had a human woman helping him.  Apparently the woman used her magic to enchant these people to come here in the first place, where they were made slaves to work the mines.  But they weren’t mining silver.  They were excavating, looking for something.  The next shift is due to return to the mines in a couple of hours.  They will be missed.” Lilian explained.“Then we have to get these people out of here, Lilian.  Now!” I repeated with urgency.“I know.  We are attempting to discover what has tainted the water in this well, to remove its influence from the water so that you can purify it and the people can fill their waterskins for the journey home.  Shallahai is in the well now.“I found it.” Came a hollow sounding voice from the well.  It was Shallahai.  I peered over the edge of the well.Shallahai was holding up a burlap sack.“A brick was out of the well.  It was letting dirt into the well water.  I replaced it and mended the breach.  This sack was also letting out blood into the water.”  Shallahai continued as he climbed out of the well and through the sack to the ground.I stepped over to the well.  The water level was pretty low.  “Gabriel, can you lower me to the surface of the water with a rope?” I asked.“Sure.” He replied.  Lilian handed him a rope.  He tied it around me and lowered me into the well.Once at the water’s surface, I whispered a prayer to Canaan to purify water.  In mid-prayer, I heard that voice again.  You expect him to grant you miracles when you intend to destroy him, heretic?  Through a feat of extreme concentration, I managed to finish the prayer.  Canaan’s holy light flashed at my fingertip as it touched the surface of the water.  A glow pulsed through the well water for an instant and faded.  The prayer worked.Silence, Infidel! I thought.I heard commotion at the top of the well.  “Evora! Come quickly!” I heard Lilian yell.Gabriel heaved on the rope.  In a matter of seconds I was back at the top of the well, where I saw, to my amazement, Hu Li encased in a solid block of amber.His mouth was open in surprise.  He was holding a box carved with strange alien sigils that seemed to writhe.  The burlap sack that Shallahai had brought from the bottom of the well was laying open at his feet.  Hu Li was unmoving.“Foolish wizard!” I cursed.  His recklessness was bound to do him in eventually.“What has happened to him?” Talon asked.“This is a magical trap created by a spell, called sepia snake sigil.” I replied.  “He must have triggered it when he tried to open the box.”“Can you remove the enchantment?” Shallahai asked.“Unfortunately, no.” I replied.  “I do not have that kind of power.”You will once you have destroyed the Great Thief.  But that’s your plan isn’t it, Heretic?  That voice was in my head again.“We have to get these people out of here, now!” I demanded.Lilian looked shocked at my outburst.“Lilian, you must trust me.  Something very sinister is in that mine and it knows we are here. It has been baiting me all morning.” I replied urgently.Lilian nodded, finally grasping the urgency of the situation.Shallahai and Gabriel lined up the villagers at the well as Gabriel filled their waterskins.  I blessed them in the name of Canaan and the Green and sent them on their way.  As I came to Hanna in line, she hugged me, “I hope that Canaan and the Green keep you safe.  Will you come visit me?” She asked.  “Where to you live, child?” I replied.She gave me directions to get to her house and I committed them to memory, fully intending to visit her and her family.Pedophile!  Filthy, retched man!  It was the voice, again.I responded in my mind.  You are obviously a flawed creature for you cannot perceive my true feelings and desires.  You are nothing. I thought.I will feast on your flesh, priestling! Came the deranged reply.I whispered a prayer to Canaan to give me the strength of will required for my coming trial.As the last of the farmers-turned-slaves left the keep, I returned to the others.  They were trying to move Hu Li.  Gabriel and Talon together could carry him relatively easily.“What shall we do with him?” Gabriel asked.“Leave him here for now.” I responded.  “He will be no assistance to us in our coming confrontation.”“How long will he be like this?” Lilian asked.“Days.  Weeks.” I replied.  “It depends on the power of the wizard or sorcerer that laid the trap.”I began walking toward the mine entrance, resolute that whatever Adversarial creature awaited us would die and wither when faced with Canaan’s truth.I was wrong.Inside, the mine was dark.  Gabriel whispered a prayer and his hand was enveloped in the righteous white fire of Canaan, lighting our way.  Lilian walked next to her brother, followed by me and Talon.  Shallahai brought up the rear.Cobwebs and dust covered everything but the well worn path the farmers took to get where they had been lead.We traveled deeper into the mine.  I warned you, priestling.It was her voice again.“Stop!” I cried out.  “She is near.”“Who?” Shallahai asked.“The creature, the beast in my head.” I replied.“Your priest has surely gone mad, Lilian, Champion of Canaan.” It was a woman’s voice, audible, ahead of us.  A figure emerged from the shadow into view.  She was lithe and sensual, naked.  Her supple breasts were full as were her ruby lips.  Her hair was black as pitch and shone like silk in Gabriel’s light.  It was long and straight, its ends teasing her erect nipples.  She moved like water, such grace I had never seen before in a human.  Though she was not human.  Her beauty was marred by two small horns jutting out from her forehead, a long supple tail jutting out from her backside and large furled batlike wings.“Succubus!” I cried, as I readied my mace.“Leave here, Heroes.  You have no business here.  I give you this one warning.”  She commanded.“You are the creature from the jail in Goldfire Glen.” Lilian accused the Succubus.“Yes, Champion.  And I see you still fail to see the error of your ways.  While I personally have no affection or reverence for him, Orcus will have your soul, just as he has devoured those of your parents.  You are a fool and you run a fool’s errand!”  The Succubus leveled her gaze at Lilian as if in challenge.Gabriel issued a battle cry and charged the Succubus, but she had been expecting such a move.  As Gabriel prepared to land a blow on the Succubus, she phased into the ether.  “You have been warned!” She spoke in an ethereal voice, its menace echoing off of the mine walls.A moan escaped unseen voices down the corridor from us.  A moment later, four skeletal creatures dripping flesh shuffled into view.  As they got closer, we could see that it was not flesh that dripped from them, but little green worms.  They were infested with them.Fear seized our hearts.  These were unnatural abominations!  Gabriel succumbed to the horror of these creatures and went screaming back toward the entrance of the mine, out of his mind with fear.“Fear not, my friends!  Canaan is with us!” Lilian commanded as she unsheathed her longsword and prepared to battle the undead.  “Canaan!  Grant me your shield!”  She cried.  And a white glow surrounded her in the form of a magnificent tower shield then faded into her, bolstering her for the coming battle with Canaan’s divine shield.Shallahai chanted: “Goddess, grant your creatures the eternal renewal of your most sacred cycles.  Infuse them with nature’s gift of vigor.”  A deep green glow surrounded us for a moment.  The air was cleared of dust and we could see clearly, as though the area around us had been cleansed of the taint of age and all was fresh as the first day of Spring.Even thusly bolstered, I had to fight down the urge to retch in the presence of such evil.  I clutched my holy symbol, my Canaanite Cross, the one that Tanner had infused with some sort of divine power.  Feeling Canaan’s symbol in my grasp lent me strength.  My faith in Canaan is absolute.  I presented the symbol to the undead abominations coming at me.  “The Light of Canaan compels you!” I commanded.  A bright, blinding light shot out from my holy symbol, flooding the mine with light.  “The Truth of Canaan compels you!” I commanded with greater force, as I took a step toward the lumbering creatures.  Angelic voices filled the air, whispering sublime prayers to the Lord of Truth.The writhing skeletons paused.“The Power of Canaan compels you!” I commanded at last with righteous fury.  The light intensified and the chanting angelic voices became a cacophony of perfect prayer.  Both reached a crescendo then suddenly stopped.  A split second later three of the four undead burst into sunlight and disintegrated to dust.The Succubus screamed in frustration from somewhere in the distance.  Lilian and Talon engaged the remaining skeleton.  Lilian connected with her blade, but to no avail.  Talon managed to punch the creature and narrowly avoided a falling worm.Then from off in the distance, we heard: “Fleshraker, kill the infidels and bring me their blood!” The Succubus cried out from a place unseen.Moments later, a creature perhaps ten feet tall resembling a man with talons, claws and a vulture-like head, flew from down the corridor, bullrushing Lilian to the ground.  A mass of spores exploded from its body as it did so.  They covered Lilian.  Lilian screamed as the spores began to bore into her skin, finding the breaks in her armor.Shallahai began to chant:“Mistress of the Earth, the Air, the—,”  He stopped and started to convulse uncontrollably.Talon finished off the skeleton, unleashing a flurry of blows on it. The bones crumbled under his relentless blows. Lilian swung her blade at the new creature, biting into its flesh.  Black ichor oozed out of the wound she opened in its arm. It let out a piercing screech as gray needle thin spores exploded from its flesh and bore through Lilian’s armor and into her flesh. I looked to Shallahai in confusion as he convulsed, then back at the birdman.  Something was familiar about this creature.  I wracked my memory to think of it even as I whispered a prayer to Canaan.  "Canaan, grant us your divine light so that we may see clearly!"  My mace was suddenly engulfed in light, purging the near darkness that was quickly descending as Gabriel fled further out of the mine.The creature unleashed the full fury of its attacks on Lilian, opening wounds on her arms and chest.  She screamed as the bird creature’s spores dug deeper into her skin.  She was in bad shape.  Lilian again swung at the creature and missed, considerably weakened from the beating she had just taken.“Vrock!” I cried, suddenly realizing what this creature was.  “It is a demon! One of the Adversary’s chosen! Run!” I cried.But it was too late.  Talon lunged at the creature, locking it in a hold, trying to grapple it to the ground.  That was a mistake.  Instead of trying to escape Talon’s hold, the creature took the opportunity to shred Talon with its vicious claws.  To the Vrock’s natural weapons, Talon was like paper.  Blood sprayed across the walls of the mine as Talon was eviscerated in one terrible series of rakings.  What little was left of his corpse went limp.Shallahai suddenly stopped convulsing as Yuindr flew into his hands.  The blade glowed green and Shallahai’s eyes glowed to match.  Shallahai charged the Vrock Demon.  It was as Master Baern had warned.  The blade must have been vying with Shallahai’s will until Shallahai succombed to its domination.  “She will have your water, fiend!” Shallahai cried as he thrust Yuindr into the Vrock Demon.  A pulse of green entered the Vrock from Yuindr and the demon’s flesh began to sink into itself as it was drained of all of its bodily fluids.  A horrid wilting.  Shallahai withdrew Yuindr and the dessicated husk of the Vrock collapsed onto the mine floor.Shallahai convulsed a second time and Yuindr clanged onto the ground.“Run!” I yelled.  “Before the Succubus returns.”Shallahai shook his head clear and picked up Yuindr.  Lilian picked up Talon’s corpse.  And I grabbed Talon’s pack.  We all ran out of the mine to find a whimpering Gabriel crouching next to the block of amber that contained Hu Li.Lilian screamed as the spores burrowed deeper.  She fell, unconscious.</blockquote>

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