0008 To The Arms of His Grace

In a dormitory as big as a hall, the girl walked past several wooden beds, the floor and walls were blocks made of gray stones, at the end of the beds lined up, a large window with a round arch at the top.

The girl wore a white robe, and her feet were bare, her long hair was tied back with a white ribbon, her eyes were dark as well as her hair, and her skin was a tan.

She walked until she reached the window, showing the morning sun, and from there she could see that the height of the room was on the third floor of a large stone building, in the courtyard before him, several women in white robes and hoods covering their heads came and went, men in white armor and golden decorations patrolled the place, while others sat talking.

The building was on top of a hill a few hundred meters high, opposite, there is a dirt road that descended to a town that could be seen in full from the window she is leaning against.

To her right the vegetation showed more slopes to large grasses with greenish meadows, to her left the horizon was filled with smaller hills, but of various sizes, and taken up by scattered trees and small forests.

It was a magnificent sight that the girl had seen almost every day for the past few years.

Brump!

"Alicia, your sister is in trouble!".

Another girl entered the dorm, slamming the door shut, startling Alicia with the noise, but the newly arrived girl's words scared her even more.

"Bella, tell me what happened to my sister?".

"Calm down... You came back from training earlier today and you still haven't seen her?".

"No Bella, stop stalling, tell me!".

"She ran away from the liturgy last night to play with the town's children...

... The Madam Grand Minister found her and put her in the punishment room...".

"No!".

The girl ran from the dorm through several corridors, down stairs, and stopped in front of a large double wooden door, waited a few seconds to calm down and then knocked respectfully on the door with light taps.

"Come in...".

The authoritative voice of an elderly woman came from the other side of the door.

Alicia calmly opened the doors and closed them after entering, stopping in front of a large table piled high with papers, candles, letters, and other items.

"Your hair is messing up...

... Is this how a servant of our god should behave?

In a sloppy way?".

The elderly woman across the table didn't even look at her before sentencing such words, her face full of wrinkles and her hair completely white, brought a feeling of bitterness and discipline.

First of all, Alicia smoothed her hair with her hands finding a lock that had fallen beside her ear, fixing her hair, she just stood there silently waiting for permission to speak.

"It got much better now... Tell me what you want?".

"Great Minister, about my sister...

... Is she still grounded?".

"Your sister will soon get out of punishment, she has to learn to respect our belief...".

"Grand Minister, please, she's only eight years old...".

"Enough!

She is past the age of being a faithful devotee!

We rescued you two six years ago, and since then the church has taken care of you...

... She will be properly disciplined in our religion just like all other children who get the grace to be saved by us...".

"...".

"You should worry about your future...".

"Great Minister?".

"We received a request for support from Cardinal Lourenzo...

... He is on a mission in the name of our Saint Sigun here in the south...

... We are closer to the mission destination, let's send our people...".

During the conversation, the Grand Minister collected some papers and put them in a drawer, then took a letter with a golden seal resembling a 'Y' and opened it to read.

"How are your Confessor skills?".

"Grand Minister, I completed all advanced training last night...".

"Very good, go get ready, you will be sent to Marro tomorrow morning...

... Leave your sister with us, she is in good hands...

... Go! You can go out.".

The Grand Minister didn't look a second time at Alicia, just waved her hand away as she picked up another stack of paper to read, seeing this, Alicia bowed her head in respect and walked out of the Grand Minister's office.

Thoughtfully, she went to the ground floor and reached the entrance of another descent that went underground in a spiral staircase, this passage was slightly dirty, with moss on the stones of the walls, and the smell was not so pleasant, and in some parts, torches lit places that were darker.

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She made her way to the entrance to an open area, where she looked for a place to sit and leaned against a wall there while she waited for her sister to be released from a large wooden gate that descended even deeper into the floor.

Clank! Rhooom...

The big wooden gate made a huge snoring as it was opened, Alicia, who had slept while waiting, was awakened by the noise and looked at the gate, from which two armored men were pushing it to the end, and from there another elderly woman came out holding a wooden bat.

The old woman passed her ignoring her, and just behind her a little girl in a white robe came limping, her face very swollen indicating that she had been crying for a long time, her dark eyes indicating that she had gone through the night without sleep.

"Anna! How are you? ".

"Sister Licia watch out, it's hurting!".

The girl almost cried, but she held on as long as she could, letting a single tear run down her little face, this sight broke Alicia's heart and she released her and slowly led her upstairs to the dormitory.

The ascent took long minutes, as little Anna was walking very slowly, in some of the corridors there were large windows that, as they passed, showed the two of them that it was already getting dark.

Arriving at the dorm, Alicia led her to a wooden bathtub, helping her to undress, he saw her sister's legs stained with dried blood, her knees were lacerated.

"The aunt put me to pray kneeling in the hard corn...

... She said it helps to have more faith...".

Alicia almost cried watching her sister looking down trying not to cry, she understood well what happened, because the same thing happened to her when she was younger, but something new caught her eye.

"What happened to your hands?".

"Aunt hit...

... I was crying because my knees hurt...

... The aunt hit my hand saying it was for me to stop crying...

... 'If you're gonna cry, I'll give you a reason to cry', she said...

... I... I... Uhurrhh!".

Anna finally cried, and Alicia cried along trying to hug her without touching her swollen and totally purple little hands, some of his fingers were black, many parts were open in bleeding flesh.

"Anna, I'm going on a mission...".

"Sister Licia, please, don't leave me...".

"No, I won't leave you, I'll earn money from the mission, so I can rent a room for the two of us in the city, and you'll be able to play every day...".

"It is true? It is true?".

"Yes Anna, your sister Licia is now strong and can take good care of you!".

"It's a promise?".

"Yes, it's a promise, so be strong and wait for your sister to come back to take you away...".

"Yessss! Little Anna is always strong!".

"I know it is...".

Alicia finished bathing her sister and put her to bed to sleep, the little one was exhausted with everything, It was late at night when Alicia managed to gather all the medicines needed to tend to her sleeping sister's injuries.

She then went to prepare her clothes and equipment for the mission, gathering everything, then lay beside her sister, sleeping beside her.

The next day, it was still very early when she was woken up by one of the servants, she was tired from having spent most of the night taking care of her sister, but not to show weakness she forced herself to go to the exit where there was a cavalry contingent of men in armor mounted on white horses, as well as several carriages lined up.

A servant led her with her luggage to a carriage, inside she found her friend Bella who was lying on one of the seats, shaking her head in disapproval she sat on the other side.

Before long the party began to move down the hill road, Alicia looked out the carriage window, toward the large building she left behind, a huge wooden sign indicated the name of the place, 'Taleno City Librore'.

Coming down the hill towards Taleno City, the group turned left and headed south, weaving its way between the various hills at a steady pace.

So the day passed and turned into night, but to the surprise of those summoned, the entourage did not stop to rest and continued throughout the night, and so it was repeated on the second day of the journey, stopping only on the morning of the third day, where everyone gathered with a second entourage.

Alicia and Bella were looking out the carriage window as the carriage pulled up behind the others in a circle around the provisionally set up camp, in the middle of the circle, a few dozen people in all sorts of white clothes with gold details were seen.

Several tents were set up with several people walking around, then descending from the carriage, Alicia and Bella were led together to a large tent, with two other women from the church.

"How long will it take to arrive?!

My back can't take this carriage any longer!".

"Hump... Seven to eight days of travel to get to Marro!".

Bella walked to a quilt complaining and received a grumpy reply from one of the women who was in the tent eating something, causing her to look nervously at the woman, but Alicia at her side pushed her to sit down and avoid trouble.

"Does anyone know about the mission? ".

"Oohh, I heard that the Marquis of Marro went to meet our Saint Sigun, and his city was taken by heretics...".

"No! They are not heretics, they are demons! Devils!".

"What?".

Alicia casually asked a question, but the two women in the tent gathered around her and Bella and started telling incredible stories that the Marro City was overrun by monsters and demons of all kinds.

"So are we going to fight these demons...?".

"Attention!".

When trying to clarify their doubts, a voice caught the attention of the four inside the tent, a man in full armor holding his helmet in hand entered the tent and looked at the women one by one preventing them from making their salute.

"There is no need, we are all among the chosen of our god Diore... Tell me your functions.".

"I'm a Healer...".

"I'm a Celebrator...".

"I'm a Farmer...".

"I'm a Confessor...".

The man asked and pointed one at a time starting with the short blonde on the left, the tall blonde, past Bella and finally Alicia on her right nodding in response to each of them.

"All are Rank C...

... All right, you Healer and you Confessor, leave and go to the biggest tent on the right...

... The other two come with me.".

Finishing speaking he left the tent, pointed to the right, looking at the women, and called the two who would follow him to follow the left path, thus separating Alicia from Bella.

Alicia was taller than her new blonde colleague beside her, they both walked together silently and cautiously, arriving at the biggest tent, which was as big as a multi-room building, the man guarding the entrance looked at them both before turning and pulling the entrance cloth for the two of them to pass.

Entering there, several people were already discussing various things, many tables were scattered with various papers and parchments, in the middle of it all a high-backed chair was there, with an old man sitting there listening to the discussions.

The man wore a white cloak, and at the edge of each part and end, various details of golden lines, on the chest of the cloak, a golden design that from afar looked like a 'Y', but when you get closer, the drawing can be described as a man with his arms crossed and a pair of huge wings on his back raised upwards.

On the seated man's head, a mitre with the same golden design that hid a short white hair but with several streaks still black, his round, reddened face showed a fat man who was in very good health, at his waist a beautiful short sword with the handle in the shape of the golden design, and in his right hand a golden scepter, probably made of gold and other metals.

^"A Bishop!"^.

As she finished analyzing the old man, she noticed that he turned his head to look at the newcomers who, upon noticing his gaze, they bowed their heads in respect, and then the man stood up, calling everyone.

"Everyone stop, let's discuss our mission...

... The Marquis Honorato left his city a few weeks ago and his city was taken by the enemies of god...

... Our objective is clear! Let's eliminate all of god's enemies and retake the city of Marro to the arms of his grace!".