“By the light of the gods, what is happening here?”

  The moment our feet touch the ground back in our time, an unfamiliar voice fills the church. Everyone whips around to see a Cleric standing in the doorway.

  “What such sin are you committing?” The Cleric looks to the glowing letters on the altar before shifting his gaze towards Madison, Trevor, and myself.

  “Sir—” Before Prisha could even speak, Trevor pushes off the ground, moving so fast that he was only a blur, grabs the Cleric by the throat and slams him against the wall.

  The Cleric groans as Trevor starts to squeeze his throat. His face turns beet red, his eyes bloodshot. He tries to scream out, but lacks the air to do so.

  “That’s enough!” Dardania shouts after him. He whips around to look at her without letting go of the Cleric.

  “He will send us to a camp the first chance he gets.” Trevor declares.

  “I’m not going back there,” Madison interjects, “and I won’t, but you have to let him go.”

  “You think these bastards care about any of this? Shit, they could care less about any of us. He will rat us out the first chance he gets.” Trevor turns towards the Cleric and strengthens his grip on his throat. The veins in the Cleric’s neck and head start to bulge, his face slowly starts to turn purple.

  “Violent gust.” Dardania whispers through gritted teeth. An isolated violent gust of wind blows, sending Trevor flying into the wall, cracking against the sheer force of his movement. He cries out in pain, falls to the floor, but immediately tries to stand back up.

  Madison holds her staff against his chest, motioning for him to not move.

  “Idiots.” Trevor spits blood out of his mouth onto the floor.

  Dardania and Prisha help the Cleric to one of the benches that line the perimeter of the church.

  “We don’t just go around killing people.” Madison says as she pushes her staff into his chest even harder, he winces.

  “So what? We just let him send us all to the camp?”

  “No.” Prisha stands up and walks towards Trevor, “But we are better than them.”

  “What? Like any of you haven’t killed anyone?” Trevor laughs and rolls his eyes. He looks Madison in the eyes and then shifts his gaze towards Dardania.

  “Self defense is different that murder.” I finally speak. I was taken aback by this happening all so suddenly, but I finally found my composure.

  “This is self defense. He will send us to a camp. Do I need to say that again? Are you all stupid?”

  “Has it happened yet?” I ask.

  “No, but—”

  “So we preemptively kill him for something he hasn’t done yet.”

  “That’s not what I mean. But we can’t just let him—”

  “Unlike that man we just saw, we don’t enact our own justice on people. I don’t know what you’ve done up until this point, but that’s not us. We fight the Order because they do that. But not us. Until he does something, we won’t act.”

  “I—” Trevor starts to talk but immediately snaps his mouth shut and lowers his head. “Whatever.”

  Prisha turns towards the Cleric.

  “Can I ask you not repeat what you saw here?” She asks him gently.

  “I have an obligation to turn in sinners.” The Cleric responds.

  “What sin have you observed?”

  The Cleric goes to open his mouth but stops. He looks down at the floor, then to the altar, and then to the ceiling clearly lost in thought.

  “Exactly. I am aware of every sin recorded by the Order and not one was committed here today. What you have witnessed is basic magic, and nothing more. We are merely showing our love for the gods and the Saint the only way we know how. Would you concur that is what you observed?” Prisha asks him.

  He considers her response for a few seconds.

  “And that man?” He motions towards Trevor.

  “We will ensure that no harm will come to you.”

  “Then it is as you said, just merely practicing magic in the name of the Saint.”

  “Thank you.” Prisha stands, “Is there anything else we can help you with? I’m sure you are in pain, I can attempt to ease it for you.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “No my child, I will be fine.”

  “Then good evening sire.” Prisha motions for everyone to leave. Madison nudges Trevor and motions with her head towards the door. He stands up and slowly starts making his way towards the exit but not before spitting blood at the feet of the Cleric.

  “Once a jock always a jock I suppose.” I say as we all exit the church and into the street. Trevor whips around to face me.

  “What was that?”

  “You heard me, acting like a brute in there.” Avis grabs my hand, I turn towards him and he shakes his head.

  “Violence is the only language people speak. These… people didn’t conquer the globe with their peaceful words, they did so violently. You think they just casually wiped out the religion before them? Ha! Hardly.”

  “So, what? We act just like them then?”

  “And what of religious Hitler, huh? Do we not intend to kill him?”

  “That’s different.”

  “How exactly? Aren’t the Saint and The Cleric both just men? Men who have committed atrocities in the name of their faith? So how is killing one different than the other?”

  “I—” I didn’t know what to say. I knew that the two were different but in the moment I couldn’t find the words to say it.

  “Because violence is a last resort.” Avis says stepping between Trevor and myself. “If we have come face to face with the Saint and have the chance to kill him, it means we have failed to destroy the Order in every other way possible.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it. Let’s talk Justice, huh. Killing them would be justice.”

  “What does a straight white man know of justice?” Madison interjects. “As far as I can tell, you’ve probably had it relatively easy prior to coming to this world. Your attitude very much mirrors that of every popular jock I’ve ever met. In our world, you could probably have killed him and just gone about your life. The rest of us, not so much. But that aside, who are you to decide what is proper justice? Who are you to get to decide who lives and who dies?”

  “Oh get over yourself. You think that little monologue is gonna make me think differently? Give that guy one chance and he will turn all of us in. Sure he told Prisha otherwise, but why would you believe him? You’ve spent time in a camp isn’t that right? You think he hasn’t? Except he’s on the other end cleansing people.”

  Madison turns away, tears welling up in her eyes, her frustration increasing and her patience waning.

  “That’s not fair. We don’t know what he’s done.” Dardania adds.

  “Why are you all defending this man? Isn’t your whole thing wanting to destroy the Order? Hello! Destroying men like him is part of that. Or do you only pretend like you want to make a change? Just pretend like you want to topple the Order? Killing men like him is the only way for progress to happen because otherwise they will keep coming back over and over again like a plague. Or is the history of our world and this one lost on all of you?”

  Trevor turns away from the group.

  “Because we don’t want to be bad.” I gulp loudly. “We want to try and be better than them. They cleanse us when they disagree with us. They cleanse us when they have a problem with who we are. They cleanse us when they don’t understand us. Everyone here has the power to destroy them. Granted I haven’t quite figured out how to fully use mine yet, but I know it’s there. But I choose to be better than them. That’s not to say I won’t fight as dirty as them, because I will. But I won’t go about killing them all willy nilly either. Until that Cleric does something, we won’t touch him. You can disagree with that all you want to, but that’s how it is. Because the moment we start committing violence just as easily as they do, is the moment that violence becomes acceptable. There are other ways to fight dirty, and we will use those ways.”

  “That’s rich coming from a group of terrorists. You know, fuck you guys. I will track down the Saint and kill him myself. I suppose I will see you in the next town. Deuces.” Trevor turns and walks the other direction. No one says anything to stop him, we just watch him walk away.

  After a few moments, Dardania, Prisha, and Madison make their way towards the Inn. I, on the other hand, stay planted to this spot.

  “Is he right? I mean, there is some logic to it.” I ask, genuinely confused. I know I was arguing against him, but some of what he said makes sense.

  “No, he isn’t.” Avis responds. “We’ve all done bad things, but we did so to defend our lives. That man in the moment wasn’t threatening our lives. On the contrary, he didn’t do anything. Trevor attacked him before he could. If he had called for help to send us to a camp, it would be different, but no such thing happened. Trevor just assumed that’s what he would do.”

  “But wouldn’t he?”

  “No, not necessarily. I have met Clerics who weren’t terrible. There are many who don’t even believe in the faith but stay in their position because it grants them more ability to help those around them. The are members of the Minor Arcana who are also members of the Order.”

  I turn towards Avis, there was something different about him. Something that felt new.

  “Not too long ago you were confused by people who still had faith in the Order, and now.”

  “I still don’t get it. I don’t think I ever will, but I can’t assume that they are all bad people. If I did, I would have to assume that the majority of the world was evil and I can’t accept that.”

  “When did you get so wise?” I smile at him. This man continues to surprise me every single day. Once a brute like man and now he’s looking like a philosopher.

  “I have layers you know. I don’t just go around swinging knives at people.”

  “Well you had me convinced you did.”

  “I’m not a brute.” Avis nudges me, returning a smile.

  “Yet again, I’m not so sure about that. I met you in a prison cell. That’s very brute like.”

  “You were in the cell too, ya know.”

  “Accidentally. I fell from the sky and they just threw me there.”

  “Oh but I was there intentionally?”

  “I don’t know, I never asked. But you were the one sulking in the shadows like…. well…. a brute.” I chuckle.

  At this point we were standing outside the inn, the three girls waiting for us.

  “The shadows hide the brute. Can’t have people seeing it.”

  “Just cause you have brute like traits doesn’t mean you look like one. On the contrary, you look like nice.”

  Before I’ve barely even finished my last word, Avis leans in and gently kisses me. My eyes widen with shock.

  Dardania notices and immediately starts to tapping the arm of both Madison and Prisha, pointing at the two of us. She smiles.

  I lean into the kiss, letting his warmth overtake me. For the first time since arriving in this world, I felt happy. Despite everything that was happening around us, I felt good in this moment. I wasn’t inherently happy with falling into another world, especially just after losing my father, but I think I finally realize this is where I’m supposed to be. This moment right here showed me that.

  Avis slowly pulls away, a smile on his face.

  “Let’s get inside.” He says pulling me towards the door.

  “Let’s get inside? You just kissed for the first time and you’re already gonna sleep with him? Geez take it slow brother.” Dardania says completely interrupting the moment.

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it like…” Avis trails off and pulls Dardania into the inn as the two of them continue to bicker.

  How could anyone think any of this was sinful? It wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t bad. It was just love, love that just happens to be between two men. It to them was merely just a way to control others. I want to put an end to that control. Then perhaps I can ride off into the sunset with the hot guy. Sounds like a good idea to me.