SIN EATER

Chapter 17. Why Me?!

The campfire was bright,

The night was pleasantly mild,

The deep woods air was pleasantly sweet.

In ‘other’ circumstances the setting would be ideal for either a great campfire party or a romantic scene or even both!

But those circumstances did not presently exist.

Rats Stars stood in that flickering light.

All the other adults were sitting around the fire before him.

But the roles were not clear.

Was has stood before them as a potential leade?

Or as a defendant vs his accusers?

While everyone agreed that they needed to find the Sin Eater, not everyone was sure why.

Some of them were exiled, called traitors, by an empire they had once loved and worshipped.

After decades of indoctrination at the imperial church, some even felt that maybe they should willingly die for their Emperor if that was commanded of them.

If it meant heaven as opposed to hell.

Factions were forming among them.

On the pro Sin Eater side,

Were the blind witch Sue Gren, And Tug (although tug was in bed, and did not have a say, being that he was only thirteen years old!)

On the fence and still deciding was Grandma Rach Phug and the witch Vert Gren.

On the “lets had him in and hope for mercy” leaning team, with doubts, were Former Captain Mal Wear, Medical Magic-User Prof Enow Nil MG, The witch Sally Gren And Frank Phug.

Rats looked at the sea of stares.

“I am not sure why you rescued me or why I am here,”

There was an uneasy pause.

The cracks and pops from the fire seem ominously intrusive and loud in the stony silence.

Mal spoke up first.

“Well for starters, how about some answers,”

“What the Flushing Hell are you!”

Rats answered simply with a shrug

“I do not know”

Mal then said,

“Ok, then are you a Satite spy?”

Enow the Wizard arched an eyebrow as he sharped his focus on the next answer.

Rats Stars replied,

“No, I do not even care for your war. I do not think I even belong here!”

“I suspect I am not even of this world!”

“WELL DUH!” Exclaimed Sally Gren sarcastically!

“You may not belong but you are a blessing” interrupted Sue Gren

“He caused you to go blind!” snapped her younger sister Sally back.

“No,” Corrected Sue,

“He caused me, accidentally, to see clearly for the first time!”

“Well excuse me for not suspecting you motives after obviously being affected by some form of holly curse!” said Sally, increasing the sarcastic tone of her voice.

“I don’t think we can truly trust your opinion at the moment!”

Rats turned to Sue,

“Do you know what I am?”

“Do you know why I am here?”

Sue replied, with a still disturbingly wide grin on her face,

“You are happiness! You are redemption! You are the most blessed thing in this cursed world!”

Rats Stars, The Sin-Eater could not lie, even to save himself.

And the next comment came out before he could think to keep his mouth shut!

“You are, kind of, proving your sister point here…!”

“You are not talking like someone under their own control!”

Mal

“Why even say that?”

“Why say such a thing?”

“You do realise that some of us ARE considering handing you over?”

“Some of us are questioning our past decisions now!”

Mal turned to the rest,

“They have the inquisition after him!”

“Maybe ‘It’ IS an abomination!”

“Maybe an imperial blessed death, sanctified at the hands of the church might save us from our past sins now!”

Grammy tilted her head slightly and mildly spoke,

“You led this rebellion.”

“Why the doubt now?”

Mal

“Because I believe in the love and holiness of our church,”

“I pledged my life in serves to OUR Empire!”

He exclaimed while sweeping his hands across the air, to include the entire group.

“I might have acted rashly out of fear and a lack of faith,”

“INSTEAD, of trusting those who know better,”

“INSTEAD of trusting the greater wisdom of YOUR Empire!”

He said sweeping his arm once again,

“INSTEAD of trusting the greater good!”

Granny smiled, the smile of the sweetest little old lady of the most pleasant chocolate box commercial you could possibly, ever, imagine!

“But dear,”

“They will kill the children!”

She chirped calmly and pleasantly

Mal nearly said,

“It is a small price to save their immortal souls”

BUT HE DID NOT SAY THAT!

Instead, he found his mouth snapping shut under the mild, smiling stare of this little old lady.

Mal could not understand why,

He did not really know anything about this short elderly woman.

He had been drafted to this area for his first command, not born here!

But he had suddenly felt a cold shudder of terror run down his spine,

Nothing had implied a threat of any sort in her demeanour or voice.

Yet, he had briefly felt as if a heavy siege crossbow had figuratively been aimed at the back of his neck at point-blank range.

Mal shook it off and put it down to a bit of over anxiety.

He told himself that he was just respecting the poor old ladies recent loss of her grandchild.

So instead of saying “It is a small price to save their immortal souls”, he has shut the hell up!

The Wizard Enow, who was a local, let out a silent breath of relief.

While Grammy loosed her grip on the poisoned throwing dagger concealed under her shawl slightly,

Additionally all three witches, unknown to each other, each cancelled the attack spells they had nearly unleashed on Mal.

If there was any, one, the single thing that enraged all three witches,

ANY, One single thing that made them want to m**m and kill,

Then that would be even any hint of a threat to children!

Both the other sisters had now immediately changed sides and were now supporting their oldest sister Sue!

None of them was going to let the children be put at risk!

At any cost!

Granny Phug, however, was still pragmatic, despite her hidden inner death mourning fueled rage.

You don’t secretly manage to run a large crime syndicate with an iron fist by being too emotional too quickly.

She was dedicated to the defence of her Grandchildren but she wanted to know ALL the possible option before deciding anything!

Now the Wizard Enow spoke.

“If we do not simply kill him, Now we know he can be killed,”

“Or hand him over to the Empire,”

“That does not then mean that we should follow, this thing…”

“Whatever it is…!”

“Or even try and risk ourselves keeping it safe!”

“At the very least, we should consider just throwing him out of the camp to fend for itself!”

“He is NOT an ‘It’,

Snapped Sally, now having changed sides,

“He is little more than a child”

“We do not let harm come to children!”

“Except,” said Enow steadily,

“That he is not a child!”

“Those chickens were NOT really chickens!”

“This Child is NOT really a child!”

“He has aged from ten to about fourteen in less than four weeks!”

“He is immune to all magic”

“He has a third eye!”

“AND BOTH the inquisition, AND the enemy Satite Empire are both obsessed with him!”

“They both know far more about him than we ever will!”

“Explain to me again, why we are not calling him an ‘It’?”

Mal then chimed in,

“Defenders of the Empire killed a whole region of their own citizens because of the threat they felt this thing represented!”

“For them to resort to sacrificing so many,”

“How many more were they trying to protect!”

“As Enow said, they know things that we can never know!”

“They are very likely just making a hard decision for the overall greater good!”

“He may not be a Satite spy”

“But he may well be a threat to the entire world!”

“That would clearly explain why the whole region had to be purged!”

 “It is the only reason that makes sense!”

“It admitted itself, that is may not be from THIS world! OUR WORLD!”

“Maybe 'It' IS a clear and present danger to THIS world! OUR WORLD!”

“We do not know!”

“We DO NOT KNOW the real cost of our rebellion!”

“We must consider handing him over!”

“EVEN if that means our sacrifice to save countless Billions!”

Grammy Phug dropped her “sweet old lady” act,

Her voice now spoke with a clam, straight, confident authority used by generals and great political leaders.

“You are assuming that The Empire, OUR EMPIRE is some benevolent force for good!”

“It is not”

“I could go into a tirade or political speak,”

“I could spend the next hour explaining the reality of REAL economics and REAL power,”

“But I will not!.”

“The Empire, THIS EMPIRE!”

“And THAT EMPIRE, The other Empire are just vast criminal organisations like any other.”

“They get to make the ALL rules ONLY because they have gained the power to do so!”

“They get to tell you what is right and wrong ONLY because they have amassed the power to do so!”

“The ONLY difference between them and the local bandit leaders, thieves guild and their secret leadership is a matter of scale!”

“All those pretty flags? All those ‘Rags on sticks’? All those uniforms, marching and pretty banners are all just mere theatre to sell the lie and intimidate the weak!”

“This is NOT a bad thing!”

“People need organization and leadership!”

“Crops have to he gathered, people fed, Trash collected and citizens  defended against themselves!”

“BUT make No mistake!”

“This does not make them inherently the ‘good guys”!”

“The line between taxes and extortion money is little more than a scribble on a piece of paper”

“AND THEY own the paper, the ink and the pen!”

“A ruled, organised population is needed for our collective survival and will always be needed, True,”

“But that does Not make their rules sanctified, special, or divine!”

“It ONLY ever makes them Necessary…”

“… For now!”

No one at that meeting would ever be able to see Grammy Phug as just a “Sweet Old Lady” again!

“THAT IS GROSS BLASPHEMY!”

Cried Mal, his fingers itching to reach for his sword!

With effort, He resisted the urge to move his hand but his finger did twitch.

Under her Shawl, the Old lady reassessed her grip on the poisoned throwing dagger.

Sue, with her blind eyes and insane unbalanced smile, said

“Just because something is blasphemous,”

“Does not stop it from being true”

“The hot summer sun will burn just a brightly whether you seek the shelter of shade, or not!”

“Would Someone please shut that stupid flushing Witch up!”

Shouted Mal Wear,

“Or I sware! I'll slap that stupid inane grin off her stupid inane face!”

Sparks briefly danced around the fingertips of Sally, Vert and perhaps surprisingly even Enow.

Mal’s hand raised such a fraction of an inch, in preparation to make a quick draw attempt of his sword.

Just before all hell broke loose!

Rat Raised his hand and cried out

“STOP!”

Mal relaxed his hand, the sparks died, but a decent grip was kept on the hidden poisoned throwing dagger!

“Wait!”

Said Rats Stars the Sin-Eater.

“If I gave myself up…?”

“IF?”

“Would they pardon you all and let you live?”

Enow answered,

“Honestly, as much as feel for my country, after the s*******r of all the innocents I witnessed,”

“I would say the answer is normally ‘no’!”

“But since the last town, where is it clear that the enemy Satite empire now also have an interest, I would have to change that answers to ‘Maybe’ or ‘Perhaps’!”

Mal said

“I am sure they would keep their word!”

For the first time in days, Sues constant unnerving smile vanished!

“Do not do this!”

“Please…!”

Rats Replied in a grave solemn tone.

“It is the right thing to do…”

“I did not know I was the reason for the s*******r before,”

“I have to try and make things right!”

The Witch Vert Gren turned to Rats

“They will kill you!”

“I know”

Replied Rats Stars.

Unheard by everyone else

The Blind Witch Sue Gren said under her breath,

“No,”

“No, they won’t!”

“They will destroy you instead!”