Reincarnated As A Peasant - Book 1 Chapter 31: Ecclesiastical Civil War

Landar

As usual, I spent my time waiting, reading. Trying to ignore the ever-increasing likelihood that my sister was going to be ‘conscripted’ into what amounted to a life of slavery.

Tabitha spent it meditating and practicing a more advanced version of her light spell. She said Roland promised that when she got good enough with it, she could use it to protect herself. When I asked about it, she said “it’s supposed to create some kind of spear or something. At least, that’s what I’ve been told it does. Haven’t successfully cast it yet.”

The rather large cleric that Sigvald had left to watch over us amused himself by leaving the door to the little reception-library room open and glaring at everyone and anyone that came anywhere near close to it. If looks could kill, the corpses his glares produced would have needed to be identified by the dental work alone.

Or maybe a DNA match.

The guy was scared, and the fact he had an eye patch over one eye, and visible scars running down his face, didn’t really help his visual appeal. To the world, he looked exactly like what he wanted to look, like a stone-cold killer.

I knew the type, though. Usually, those that looked like him were the self-sacrificial types as they were willing to put themselves in danger in a close quarters fight. Those suited for leadership, but who rarely rose to higher ranks because of politics. Or he was a bloodthirsty savage with no thought for his own safety.

But those types usually got weeded out early in training, even in most ancient armies. No, if I had to guess, he was the type of man that back in my army days as a ground pounder I would have hoped was my NCO if I had to go anywhere near a fight.

“Sir,” a young cleric recruit of a similar build to Roland ran up to the massive man who served as our guard. They spoke in hushed tones that were hard to hear from where I was. A moment later the large cleric popped his head into the room.

“Excuse me. I have to go see to a disturbance in the main hall. Edger will watch over you until I return.” And before either of us could say a word, the grizzled cleric was gone.

He moved much faster than I would have guessed, given his size and that armor. I really have got to remember that the old limitations from Earth just don’t really apply here anymore. Who the heck knows, maybe this scrawny kid is actually some kind of hard core death dealing machine.

A few minutes later, as I was thumbing through the third of a trio of books on the fundamentals of alchemy, most of which was going over my head, I was never very good at chemistry, I heard a thump. I watched as Edger’s body stiffened, his knees gave way and he slowly slumped to the floor. I watched his chest carefully as the three blue robed men, armed with glowing club-like weapons, marched into the room.

“Good. He’s breathing. If he wasn’t, the three of you wouldn’t be by the end of this exchange.” My words startled Tabitha out of her meditation and she stood, knocking over a chair in her haste.

“All acolytes will be collected.” The leader of the three, a tall lanky man holding a wand like it was a club, that glowed with a sickly pale magic, said. “Either willfully or forcefully. There is going to be a sifting. The duke has declared it. Will you comply?”

I casually got to my feet and moved my hand down to where the head of my hatchet rested in a loop at my belt. I didn’t move to pull it, not yet. “And what is a sifting, exactly?” I asked, playing dumb to buy time.

“We don’t owe a peasant child an explanation. Do as you are told, or you will be beaten and then sold for your crimes. A slave contract as punishment seems fitting for the level of disrespect you are showing us. But if you comply, there’s no need for that unpleasantness to befall your brother, girl. Come with us.” He motioned for Tabitha to follow them through the door and towards whatever fate they had in store for her.

My hands shifted slightly, my thumbs going under the lip of my ax head, making it easier for me to pull the ax’s out of the loops when the time came. I did it as casually as I could, trying to make it look like I was just looping my thumbs into my belt.

“I beg to differ. See, I don’t take kindly to people barging in and trying to kidnap my sister. So, either you tell me what this Sifting thing is, and pray I don’t mind it. Or, me and you are going to have a disagreement.”

I had to force my hands to stay still as stone and to keep a smile on my face. Inside, I was ready to leap out of my skin.

There was no way I could take on three full-grown adult magic users. You’re not a big guy anymore, Landar. What the hell are you thinking? I tried to channel the casual air of threat that my size had offered me back on Earth, but I could tell it didn’t register with the trio.

“Wilson, he’s her brother. We can at least offer an explanation.” It was the shortest and youngest of the three. He also carried extra weight around his middle. It was clear to me that this kid didn’t want anything to do with violence. He was just doing his job. But the other two didn’t seem to give a rat’s tail.

“Fine, you can. Hagar, go get the kid from the hallway and drag him to the main hall. Even cleric apprentices are acolytes.If he gives you trouble though, just kill him. They’re barely worth the effort as it is.”

The third guy left, and the short chubby one looked uncomfortable for a moment. Then he opened his mouth and took on a lecturing tone.

“The sifting is an old tradition between the priesthoods. When a priesthood is concerned about their numbers, they can call for a sifting, where all the acolytes who are on the verge of taking orders are pooled together. And each of the priesthoods is able to conscript who they believe is best suited to their line of service.”

“Ah. So because you all can’t recruit enough to make up for the war, you’re trying to steal everyone else’s trainees? Seems a bit unfair if you ask me.”

“It’s not unfair.” The young blue said. “The Blue is being asked to shoulder the brunt of this war. We need women and other acolytes to ensure our survival as an institution. Bah. What would a peasant know of important things like that?”

Apparently, the chubby one’s niceness only goes so far. I would have continued talking, buying time until someone else came by to resolve this inter-priesthood brawl.

“Who are you?” The young cleric’s voice was weak as the effects of whatever spell they had used on him started to wear off. “No. Get off of me.” his voice grew stronger, and I saw him lash out at the looming blue robe over him.

The sound of a blade singing as it left its sheath pricked my ears, and then a sudden exhale of air that was far, far too familiar. The kid was dead; I was pretty sure of it. Or dying. Either way, the kid gloves were coming off.

“Alright. So, which one is it?” I yanked my ax’s free from their loops, and held them out as if they were daggers pointing at the two men. I imbued them both with mana in an Imbued Strike, and it hummed in the air. Got to be careful, still don’t have full control of Imbued Strike yet.

“Well? Who’s going to die first?”

“Get him!” The leader, Wilson said, pushing the chubby one forward. The short guy’s eyes went wide, as he realized his vulnerability.

Perfect.

I activated Dash, sending mana down my legs, and then moving directly into him as I brought the hatchet down in an overhead blow. The flat side forward. I wanted to hurt this idiot, not actually kill anyone. At least for now.

A bright light erupted from the hatchet as it connected, sending a shaped charge of raw force down into the kid’s skull. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as I could make, but it made an impression.

He made a choked scream and then crumpled to the floor. Head first into the stonework at my feet.

“What are you — ?” The leader didn’t have a chance to do, say, or activate anything before I brought the second weapon, the one designed for killing by master craftsmen humming with my mana, up in a backhanded swing.

Blunt side first.

I connected with the man’s jaw, and I felt more than heard his jaw bones crack under the pressure of the released mana. Unfortunately, the impact sent a shock up my own arm. “Gah!” I grunted and stepped back, my battle ax falling to the floor at my feet as my arm all the way up to my shoulder went completely numb.

Blood gushed from the leader’s broken jaw, as it hung grotesquely, dangling in a macabre display. To my amazement, the guy didn’t go down, instead he fixed his gaze on me and raised his wand, pointing it directly at my chest.

A blast of yellow searing light lanced out and was deflected by a shimmering pale white barrier that had just sprung to life. “Run Landar!” My sister yelled, and I glanced her way. Her hands were out stretched maintaining the barrier spell.

“Run!”

I didn’t. Instead, I turned and infused my legs again. My mana channels burned with a heat I hadn’t felt before. They were overused, and I nearly lost concentration as I forced my legs to accept the mana and move me towards my target.

I screamed in pain as I brought both my axes around in a similar strike right for the guys midriff. He had tried to kill me. Let’s see how threatening he was with his guts all over the floor. Tabitha’s barrier shattered as I Dashed through it, my axes swinging with all my strength.

As my axes embedded into the leader’s chest, this time with no magical explosion as I hadn’t imbued the weapons they cut deep. He didn’t scream, didn’t try to dodge, didn’t do much of anything other than slump to the floor and bleed.

“Did, did you kill him?” Tabitha’s voice was quiet as I pushed myself off the fallen man’s body. The Dash had thrown me bodily into him. Before I could respond, the third man returned, saw his two downed companions, and ran for it.

I let him. We had bigger issues to deal with.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s dead. If he’s not, he’s going to wish he was sooner or later. Check the kid, see if you can help.” Tabitha ran to the door, but froze there at what she saw. I joined her, and it was clear there was nothing we could do.

“The bastards slit his throat and gutted him while he was still out of it.” My voice shook, and my eyes burned. My teenage body wasn’t used to this kind of rage. A rage I was all too familiar with.

The kid’s body was cold to the touch, and the cut to his throat was so deep it had nearly decapitated him. Blood was everywhere, coating the floor in handprints and arterial spray, and running along the floor in the motored cracks of the stone like rivulets, while it pooled around his body like a red lake, framing his corpse in a halo of crimson. He was dead, and there was no amount of first aid or minor magical healing that would help bring him back.

Tabitha swallowed visibly and nodded. “Alright, we need to get out of here before that guy brings others.”

And so we ran.

Out through the side hallway, avoiding the main hall. Scenes of fighting, magical duels, and the brutality of the vicious and greedy against those they viewed as lesser than them, and the justice the defenders of the weak wrought out in vengeance against them were everywhere.

Scenes of violence I had no context for burned into my mind in random tragic snap shots, while the rest flew by us in a panicked blur.

Home. We had to get home.

***

A crowd blocked our path just outside our apartment building. Angry shouting came from the collection of humanity as it pushed up against a handful of red-robed men and women, supported by half a dozen knights. They looked annoyed, more than afraid, which gave me pause.

“What do you think they’re here for?” I asked, but Tabitha just shook her head.

“Stay here. I’m going to ask one of the old grans if they know.” Tabitha left me atop a stoop, overlooking the crowd. I could clearly see the entrance to our apartment complex, the doors were shut, and one of the red robes was trying to find a way to open them.

Why don’t they just break the doors down? I thought, as I examined them more closely, looking for something that might give me a clue as to what was going on. The people were shouting something about keeping the neighborhood free of the fighting and not wanting their ‘kind’ around. I presumed they meant the priests. But the Red Robes aren’t part of the fighting, are they?

“They’re after dad.” Tabitha was out of breath, she had run through the crowd back to me. “I don’t know why, but they want him. And mom. I . . . I don’t know what to do.”

She was a teenager, and it was at moments like this that I was forced to remember the fact that, in truth, I was somewhere around sixty years old. If I took my time from Earth and added it to my age here.

I looked back at the small gathering of priests and knights at the entrance to our building and really scrutinized the faces. “One of them looks kind of familiar.” I said, and Tabitha’s expression perked up a bit.

“Oh? Which one?”

“That one.” I pointed out the tall one with his hood covering half his face. His build and gate looked remarkably familiar as he walked along the line the knights had made, inspecting people in the crowd. “Wait—”

“That’s Roland!” She tried to run into the crowd, but I grabbed her shoulder before she could leave.

“Yes, it is. And what’s he doing with the reds and some knights?” Her expression fell slightly as she considered the issue.

“I . . . I don’t know. Maybe they’re helping him find us and protect our family.”

“Could be. Or it could be something else.” Like the kid betraying us, selling us to the red, and earning his family a pardon. I didn’t say it out loud, but it was clear I distrusted the situation.

“I admit, it could be.” At that moment, my estimation of Tabitha went up even further. She was a teen madly in love with that boy and yet she was willing to see that it was possible, even probable, that he could be betraying us. There were few adults that had that kind of practical, level headed attitude in the early stages of a relationship, let alone teenagers. “But I don’t think so. He’s had ample opportunities to hurt our cause until now. And he hasn’t once done so. He’s earned our trust, at least enough to see what he’s up to.”

Damn, she’s right. “Alright. Lead the way.”

***

It didn’t take us long to make our way through the crowd, and by the time we were near where the knights were maintaining a perimeter, the crowd had started to calm down and disperse. Once the commoners realized the threat of the fighting spreading to their homes wasn’t going to be realized, there wasn’t really any point in causing more problems.

A few dozen stayed, watching the scene unfold. The neighborhood gossip, some local merchants, and some of the guards who were off duty and concerned about my father’s safety.

“Excuse us, sir,” Tabitha said as we came to the first Knight. He was a tall man in full plate, and his face was largely obscured by the helmet and face-guard he wore.

“What is it, good woman?” The knight’s voice was clipped and short, but more professional than intentionally rude.

“Well, my brother and I live in this—”

“Tabitha!” Roland brushed past the knight, and two of the red robes followed him, guarding his back as he moved to wrap Tabitha in a tight hug. When he let her go, he looked at her and then me. “I’m glad you’re both safe. Come, your parents are upstairs.”

“But Roland. There’s fighting, and . . . and they’re killing each other at the temple. We need to do something.”

The red robes visibly stiffened, and their somber expressions turned sour as the sun gleamed off their bald scalps. “If the fighting has started, then the Blue has pushed its claim too far, too fast. Sigvald has failed us.”

“No.” Roland’s response was forceful, more than I had ever heard come from the young man. “The fighting must have started just after we left together. He hasn’t had the time needed to get to the Arch-Duke yet. When he does, I’m certain he’ll be able to plead our case and show the Blues for the snakes they are.”

“Snakes or loyal dogs, both have dangerous teeth and will lash out if threatened,” Came the words of the other red robe. “We should move this reunion inside, lest we draw either’s wrath upon this place.”

“Yes.” Roland turned his attention back to us. “Come on, follow me.”

“Where are we going? Shouldn’t we be helping?”

“We will be, by removing another reason for the orders to fight.” Roland turned and went inside, and we followed closely behind him.

“And how are you going to be doing that?” I asked, confused.

“Not you. Me. I’m going to kidnap Tabitha.” He turned back and winked at us. “With your parents’ permission, of course.”