Monte shackled [https://i.imgur.com/GFs2TYp.png]

THE HUSBAND

True to his word, and much to Monte's surprise, the preacher let the two of them walk free. No sooner had they gotten out of earshot of the building and its inhabitants did Thorna started speaking.

"You shouldn't have agreed to that. I'm so sorry. I thank you, of course. But… Oh my no you shouldn't have done it. This is really quite a mess we're in now." She was hardly speaking to Monte.

Monte saw she was flustered, and her words were coming out as though she wasn't in control of her tongue. Finally she turned to Monte.

"You're in so much danger. And it's entirely my fault." She looked at him pleadingly. Monte judged she was likely telling the truth. Still, He wasn’t about to let an innocent woman be mistreated by a traveling fool if he could help it. There were no Guard to appeal to in such a small town. The closest would be half a day's walk from here at the least. Monte would do what he could.

"Thorna I assure you I can handle myself. Now can you tell me if Dancia is truly safe?" He asked her.

Thorna turned away and kept walking. Monte followed after her. Now they were headed back towards the center of the Hamlet, Monte was confident.

"This is all just too much. I simply wanted things to stay the way they were. This new preacher has turned everything upside down and now I see how. He's a very violent and dangerous man, Monte." She spoke gravely.

"What he said about me was mostly the truth. Neither Torsten nor I have been all that hospitable to his takeover of the old ways… What saddens me the most is how quickly Dancia jumped on his wagon." Thorna was working through the last few hours of trauma in her own way, Monte judged.

"Thorna, is Dancia safe?" Monte interjected again. He hadn't yet gotten much of an answer. Thorna turned and looked at her. In her face he thought he could see the worry of a mother, but there was something else there too. Monte had met this woman only days ago and had affection for her only to the level that he wanted to be around her daughter. He thought back to what Torsten had said just before the news of Thorna's capture had come to them. Did Thorna think of him as more than just a fling of her daughter's? Dancia had said she wanted to speak with her mother, it's why they prayed to The Maiden.

They think I've come here to propose.

In truth it was the furthest thing from Monte's mind. Spending time in the company of Dancia had been pleasant so far. She did a tremendous job warming his bed. Since coming here to her Hamlet though, she started to show a side of herself he wasn’t so sure of.

"When they took me, she had already left for home. I have no reason to believe she's in danger." She spoke carefully. Monte sensed she was being judicious with her words so as to not tell any lies, but not give away something she knew but wasn't specifically called for. They kept walking towards town.

"Torsten went into town to find you. The preacher said he was being dealt with, can you tell me what that means?" Monte asked. He was surprised she hadn't yet asked it of him.

"I don't know, but Torsten can handle himself. I just hope he doesn't let his temper get the best of him." Thorna told the full and honest truth this time. Monte was the one holding back this time. What he had seen in Torsten's face led him to believe that hope was for nothing.

They were approaching the family home. The roads were empty. It was a warm and pleasant midday, and Monte couldn't think of why people wouldn't be outside. His mood would have been buoyed by the presence of people going about their business as usual. As it was he had no choice but to become more tense an alert. The same feeling of things being wrong he'd had following the woman earlier were creeping up on him.

"Dancia's probably inside. Torsten too. I'm sure this will all be fine. I will get my sword and end this business with the preacher. I think then I should be on my way back to the Capitol. Perhaps I can return when things have calmed down." Monte said. He had been formulating his story for a few minutes. His actual plan was to confront the preacher, alone if possible, and make it so he was incapable of causing this small town any more issues. He had no intention of parting with his sword. He had every intention of leaving here sooner than planned.

Thorna simply looked at him gravely. They made it to the door and went inside.

There is nobody here.

The home was eerily quiet. It was obvious even without the dishes still in the sink from this morning that nobody from the family had made it back here. What was equally obvious is that, just as the preacher had intimated, the place had been searched. At this point Monte as in the habit of looking for things that were out of place. It's not that the house was obviously ransacked, but there were signs. A cupboard or drawer slightly ajar here, a decorative pot replaced slightly out of alignment there. Someone had been through this place, likely just one of the devotees. Luckily Monte knew what it was they were looking for.

He bounded up the stairs of the humble home and found his pack. It was much the same as he'd left it, but clearly not in the same place. Checking its contents, he found nothing missing. Dancia's things has been rifled through as well.

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Have they no respect at all?

Last, Monte scanned the rafters. He saw no obvious signs of their having been touched. Monte was in the habit of making sure nobody accidentally unsheathed his father's sword and reveled its secret. It would be a lot to explain why a blade made such a loud wailing noise. When he'd had a moment to himself after arriving, he stood on the dressed and placed his father's sword upon one of the open beams and well out of sight of anyone. Standing on the same dresser, he was relieved to find it still undisturbed.

Amateurs.

He was strapping the blade to his back when Thorna came up the stairs.

"Well… they're not here." She said. Monte of course already knew that.

"We should go into town and look for them I think. Who knows what kind of trouble they could be in." Monte replied. There was a very long silence. He came into the upstairs hall and found Thorna standing very still and quiet.

"Is something wrong Thorna?" Monte asked.

"If they find you…" She started to say and stopped. She looked like she was about to sob. Monte patted the near stranger on the back.

"We need to go find Torsten and Dancia. I will be fine. Like I said I can handle myself" Monte meant it. He was armed now and had no fear of a group of villagers. Even less of the charlatan himself.

"If they find you, they'll hang you! And then…" She trailed off again and this time began sobbing in earnest.

"Come on now. We have nothing to fear. This will all be sorted out in no time." Monte tried to be reassuring. He didn't want to dismiss her entirely, doing so would be to his detriment he knew. Still, the danger couldn't be that high. The preacher had a devoted core group of people. They'd seen them in the building just now. It wasn't as if every maybe of the congregation wanted to see a man hanged for… what? Monte couldn't even think what crime would rise to that level he could have possibly committed. Even less for Thorna. Everything leveled against them were mere slights, anyone could see that.

"Stay here if you like, I'm going to look for them. And then I will give the preacher my sword like I said I would." Monte said. Thorna turned her tear-streaked face towards him and nodded solemnly. Monte intended to leave and never see this place again, but this woman still feared for his life. He was touched. He went down the stairs and out the door, and Thorna followed behind him, saying nothing.

Monte heard the crowd before he saw it. It explained why there was nobody in the streets near the family home. Everyone from the entire hamlet appeared to be gathered in the space between the church and the house of the infirm. On the steps in front of the house Monte could see the preacher was orating once again. To his dismay, Dancia was standing nearby, along with the devotees including the woman who had led him to them.

What is she doing?

Monte had made his way to the edge of the group and was moving into it. He hoped to find Torsten among the crowd but so far hadn't seen him.

"Here he comes now! The man who wants to be everyone's hero!" The preacher shouted to the crowd. Faces began to look around, some landed on him.

"He's come to make amends, to lay himself down for his beloved's mother. Well let's not keep him from it!" The preacher shouted again.

Just then Monte felt another tug on his sleeve. He turned to find a complete stranger was holding onto his arm. He gave this woman a disgusted look and was about to pull his arm back when he felt another set of hands on him.

"What is this? Get off me!" He said, trying his best to stay calm. Then he felt a pulling at his legs, and finally at his sword belt. Someone was trying to tear it off.

"Get OFF!" Monte writhed but it was no use. The group was half dragging, half carrying him now. The crowd parted in front of him as onlooking jeered. A few more people stepped out of the way and revealed a set of stockades erected in front of the house of the infirm. Monte had seen them before, but never in use. One of them was empty, and the other held a man who drooped in them. He had clearly been badly beaten. His face was black and blue and a small pool of blood collected under his head. Even so, Monte recognized him.

Torsten.

He had walked right into this mess. Why had he been so confident? Why hadn't he listened to Thorna? Surely she had a sense of the danger. Monte cursed himself. He was surely the fool. He watched as an eager devotee handed his father's sword to the preacher.

"Place him in the stockades!" The preacher demanded. It was done at once. Monte could see that Dancia made no protest, she simply stood by and watched.

"Monte…" A pained voice called to him. He knew where it came from. He turned to his new and unlikely partner.

"Thank you." Torsten could barely speak above a hoarse whisper. One of his eyes was completely swollen shut, and he appeared to be missing a few teeth.

Lucky Me.

"This young man from far away has come here to take the place of the heretic. Do we believe it's out of the goodness of his heart?" The charlatan shouted to the crowd. The response came in a road.

"NO!"

"Does anyone truly do anything for someone else?" He asked again.

"NO!"

"A man like this would only offer himself up if he knew he was guilty anyway. Does anyone here disagree?"

"NO!"

Monte couldn't think of what he could possibly be guilty of. The charlatan had his followers very well trained to respond the way he wanted.

"I will get the truth from this guilty sinner here. I will find out how he disparaged our god. I will learn who he has cheated and robbed. Do I have any doubters?" The charlatan asked the crowd. Monte knew what the answer would be.

"NO!"

"Now free the heretic, his debts have surely been paid in full. We will have no more issues from you will we?" The preacher said. Immediately the group who had locked Monte in moved to release Torsten. Torsten was in no shape to respond to the question.

"Torsten!" Monte heard Thorna shriek, and she came to her husband. He barely had the strength to stand, but he smiled at her.

"Now go. All of you. Take this broken man away from here and let me deal with this one." The preacher said.

The preacher was coming down the steps from the House of the Infirm. His followers heeded him without question and started to disperse. Thorna looked at Monte again with fear in her eyes, and gratitude. She and one of the wheelbarrow men from before lifted Torsten up and helped him hobble away.

The crowd had the show they'd come for with Torsten apparently, and began to head back to their homes. Before long it was just the preacher, some of his closest devotees, and Monte.

He was helpless. He hadn't had much of a plan, but whatever it was, it had not gone well. His father's sword was in the preacher's hands, and his hands were immobilized. He'd been in bad situations before but this was easily the worst. The only person he thought who could help him had apparently turned to his enemy.

Why did I come here?

"Release him." Monte heard the preacher say.

"And bound his hands. I want to conduct the rest of my questioning in private." The preacher continued. Monte wasn't expecting it, but it was a welcome change. The fool of a preacher was giving away every advantage he had. Monte had been wrong to underestimate the influence he had over the hamlet, but the man was still a fool. Monte was sure that even based on what the man learned about him, there was no way he knew this would be his ultimate demise.

Monte's hands were freed temporarily, then bound again.

"Come, we have much to discuss" The preacher got close enough so only Monte could hear him, and started back up the stairs and into the House of the Infirm.

Monte followed him inside.