Radu turned out to be the first unfriendly villager Alex met during the past year, but it didn’t discourage him one bit. He soon learned that the man with only eight fingers was simply a loner and didn’t know how to communicate with others, rather than being a bad person.

It took almost ten days and all his bag of tricks, for Alex to befriend him. To be more exact, in the end all it took was a handful of his cookies, but the result was achieved nevertheless – Alex became the mason’s apprentice.

While the following summer became a hellish experience, Alex viewed it as a training of increased difficulty that was done solely for one purpose – to leave Woodsted every evening with a fist sized sack full of black powder under his robes. His physical advancement was only a nice bonus.

On the other hand, after cutting and moving stones for half a year, his teacher became so attached to the little chosen, he tried to persuade him to leave the college and move over to the village to live with him. The farewells became even more awkward when Radu realized his student was leaving only to begin the apprenticeship next door – in the smithy.

After chiseling stones in the summer’s heat, hammering in the smithy during the winter was pleasantly refreshing. Long gone were the days when Alex felt sore and tired after the half day’s work. He even bagan to jogg back to the college to intensify the training.

The smithing part of his project was going very well, especially after he entrusted ‘the secret’ of him and many other chosen going on expedition in a couple of years. It was the blacksmith himself who suggested Alex would make a weapon for his own protection. Of course, Simeon was thinking of a nice sword or a dagger, something similar to what he was crafting for the holy warriors.

But Alex had something else in mind and after hearing him out, Simeon called over Radu and the local carpenter, Fritz. The three men concilium had a lengthy discussion on how to create the weapon Alex wanted and in the end the idea was approved.

Few weeks later Alex began to walk around with a black staff in hand, at least a head taller than he was. On top of it was a finial made of a silvery metal that resembled a vertical eye.

The little chosen marching around the college grounds looked mighty impressive and completely ignored when the other chosen made fun of him saying he was not being able to live without his broomstick anymore.

One day teasing completely stopped and during the following weeks more and more chosen began to carry such accessory. The change began after bishop Phelippe asked Alex right before the morning prayer when most of the chosen were present – why would he carry such thing and why there was an eye instead of the ‘Holy symbol’, ringed cross, the official symbol of the Lord.

A strange silence filled the church when Alex explained he was carrying ‘the all-seeing eye of the Lord’ while the Holy symbol was on his robes and in his heart. When he asked if bishop would like a similar, but more prestigious staff crafted for him, the old man, probably on a whim, agreed, but it caused a chain reaction between chosen who used their ‘connections’ within the priesthood and ordered similar staffs for themselves. Needless to say – two months later every single chosen in the college proudly walked with a stick in his hand.

Another hilarious development, at least in Alex’s eyes, was when the ‘All-seeing Eye of the Lord’ became the official symbol of the College of evangelism after it was approved by the pope himself. Of course, he only laughed about it and stopped paying attention, because it was almost spring outside and the time for the second most important part of his plan – he became apprentice to the college’s handyman, priest Stan.

Simeon, Radu and Fritz were unhappy to see ‘their’ little apprentice leaving, but in the end Alex was ‘allowed’ after he promised to regularly visit them.

The following summer was spent mostly hammering around the college. There were tens of buildings and only one priest Stan, and alone he barely had time to keep everything from falling apart. Thus, when Alex approached him with a request to become his apprentice, Stan didn’t think twice before agreeing.

Fixing roofs, changing floor planks and laying tiles was not even half of Alex’s duties and he felt more worn out than when he carried and chiseled stones for Radu. But at least during the process he finally got rid of the pile of the black powder he had under his bed and could heave a sigh of relief – no more living on a powder keg from now on.

Besides the yearly midsummer ritual in Serenity, there was only one noteworthy event. For some reason Vova moved into the room across. Alex almost didn’t socialize with his neighbors at all and didn’t intend to begin now, but the hateful boy obviously had bad intentions. Too bad for Vova – his arrival only forced Alex to slightly alter his plans, in fact, making them easier and better.

The fact that sometimes Alex’s things from his room began to disappear didn’t worry him one bit. Even the splashed water on his bed or the greased floor served only as an amusement seeing a child’s plays. As long as he was not outright killed or crippled, Alex didn’t mind such pranks.

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When the autumn came, Alex was officially seven years old and, similar to the other chosen, he looked several years older. He feared that all of his effort might be in vein and getting Lord’s seeds might come too late, but luckily he hadn’t started growing pubic hair yet and still had a year or two, maybe three, if he was lucky.

Just like always, after a half year passed Alex intended to change his apprenticeship. Unfortunately highpriest Galen, the local doctor, refused him outright and forbade to approach with such requests again.

Alex was a bit lost. All the preparations were done and he only wanted to acquire some medicinal knowledge during the next few months before the grand heist, but now was left with nothing to do.

At first Alex decided to concentrate on the cultivation, but the thought of secret medicine techniques existing in a reachable distance almost drove him mad. Obviously there was something special to learn since people who cultivated the force of nature, or how they called it here – the holy power, almost never got sick.

It took two months for Alex to think of the simplest solution – he turned to the ‘big boss’. Not the Lord, of course, but bishop Phelippe. Alex explained the need of increasing his medical expertise because they would leave towards the west in a few months and complained that highpriest Galen was holding back on him even though this was an educational facility. Bishop promised to think about it and several days later Alex, beaming with smile, was officially accepted to a position of a doctor’s errand boy.

For the next four months he was cleaning doctor’s house, carrying water and firewood with no hope of ever advancing in his carrier. Despite that, the rest of the chosen began to look at him with respect, some even came over to start a conversation and befriend him. Even Vova stopped his pranks, although continued to hatefully stare at Alex’s back.

Because of the fruitlessness of this endeavor Alex already considered giving up, when, probably, the highpriest’s heart was moved by Alex’s efforts and he finally invited Alex for a long lecture during which he mostly spoke about the importance of ‘their task’ and necessity of continuing his ‘legacy’. Of course Alex had no clue what the old man was blabbing about, but was happy he would finally learn the real stuff – about the healing plants, their mixtures and the healing techniques.

On the next day Alex finally could attend the doctor during his work and immediately, after a long, long break he began to have suicidal thoughts once again. After the first patient came in, Alex realized it was his own fault for not figuring it out earlier. It was so simple! During his years in the college no one, not priests and not chosen ever caught a flu or a cold – everyone was cultivating the holy power. But the most vulnerable spot on the male’s body still could get sick, especially when it got constantly mistreated!

After practicing the ‘process of blessing’ countless times and mostly on the same captives, chosen got their genitalia infected and, either it was the Lord’s punishment, karma or just a simple biology, most of them couldn’t heal on their own. Thus doctor-highpriest Galen became the most sought out person in the college.

Unfortunately for Alex, he became the one who had to wash dozens of penises every day while the doctor applied medicinal paste and bandages. But there was no way he would feel pity for the young boys and this situation even forced him to rush his own plans.

Currently outside it was already late spring. The last snow had melted few weeks ago and many of the shrubs Alex planted back then were in full bloom. Of course, most of those were grown lush green and made the college look much more pleasant than it was before.

The night was dark and cloudy and it was a bit past midnight when Alex silently slid over the windowsill, closed the window behind him and rolled under the nearby bush. Afterwards he checked the small, dark box he was carrying and sighed in relief seeing it was still fine.

‘Daaaaamn! How I missed this!’ He grinned to himself.

It has been several lifetimes since he was on the job! Well, these lifetimes were short, but the lengthy preparation this time around made it feel like it took ages.

Alex didn’t get nostalgic though. Stealthily running from bush to bush he passed a couple of buildings of the middle circle where currently chosen were soundly asleep and paused between two larger ones. This was the risky part.

The distance between the two houses was a bit less than a couple of meters and he had no place to retreat in case of a failure, but at the same time this was the perfect spot. After making sure there was no one around, he removed two inconspicuous fist sized stones on each wall and stuffed a bit of dry grass in the holes. Then he opened the box he was carrying and took out a tiny candle that was burning with a small, barely visible flame.

‘Goodnight, you perverts! I hope you’ll reincarnate as bitches!’ Alex inwardly laughed, but after the spots with dry grass on the two walls were lit up, he became serious again, ‘Ninety seconds! One, two …’

He began counting and dashed between bushes towards the church and stopped only after laying down under a shrub below one of the church’s windows.

‘Eighty eight, eighty nine, ninety …’ Alex counted, but nothing happened.

‘Ok, this is not an exact science …’ He thought intending to wait when two tall pillars of white flames rose to the sky.

In the same instant a total chaos broke out. Chosen and priests ran all over the place shouting and screaming. Somewhere in the distance Alex heard bishop Phelippe yelling out commands as well, but the perpetrator was already inside the church.

The priest on the guard duty unsurprisingly left his spot when the ruckus began and Alex unhindered dashed towards the altar. He knew there were only four levers that potentially opened the treasury and all of them were on the altar itself.

It turned out much simpler than Alex expected and, after pressing all four, with a soft thud approximately one square meter large portion of the floor right beside him moved, or rather – sprang loose and one side of it rose a couple of centimeters.

This was also the spot he speculated to most likely to be the entrance. He quickly grabbed the loose side and lifted the trapdoor, noticed the stairs leading down and went right in after grabbing one of the candles from the altar.