From: albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [KQ] Marcel [Nester's] Crisis of Faith Message-ID: <15037@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> Date: 24 Sep 1992 03:29:30 GMT The group sat around Azzar's cot, not talking and definately not thinking. Marcel quietly got up, and walked over to the window. The afternoon sun was slowly approaching the horizon. [Acitivating Glare filters.] /Rabbi?/ [Query?] /Never mind./ Marcel quietly drew his sword, stuck the point down into the floor, and knelt on one knee. "What am I doing here?" he thought. "This is a strange cosm. Nobody, save 'Raelf (a warlock, for Heaven's sake), has heard of Magna Veritas. Home...." Flashback...... Marcel fidgeted in his seat. The Cardinal-Bishop was to make some sort of annoucement to the Hospitaliers. Scuttlebutt around Avingnon said that Pope Malraux I had some sort of divine revelation while en route to Earth. Marcel was curious about this other world. His teachers has told him of the Crusades to convert the peoples of these new realms, and Marcel was enraptured with their tales. The Cardinal entered the lecture hall. Everyone stood and bowed. The Master-of-Arms knelt and kissed his ring. The Cardinal looked out over the crowd of eager knights. "My children. I bring you words, direct from Pope Jean himself." An eager murmuring passed through the knights. "A miracle happened on the road to 'Earth'. God himself gave the Pope a new tool to fight the heathen. The Miracle of Cybertechnology." What is Siber-technology, wondered Marcel. "We know, bretheren, that flesh is weak. Pope Jean has shown us how to overcome the limitations of the flesh. 'If a hand offend thee, cut it off.' And put on a new hand, blessed by Pere Jean ... with the power of God. I have learned. Look what Jean has blessed me with." The Cardinal slowly walked over to a covered table. He pulled the cloth from it, to reveal a small brick. "Observe, and wonder." He hefted the brick, and then slowly squeezed. The block shattered in his hand. Gasps echoed in the hall. "Who wishes to be so blessed?" A few knights stood up immediately, and soon all of them were standing at attention. "Good, my children. The Master-of-Arms will arrange a schedule. Our enemies will be chaff in the wind before us. All praise to Pope Jean." "And to God," ammended Marcel to himself. He wondered how the Cardinal was able to crush the block..... Back in Nester's..... Marcel looked at his reflection in his sword. Nobody would know that he wasn't born with his right eye. And the chipholder and datajack were hidden by snythflesh. He let Them cut him open like a melon. Why did he ever join the Hospitaliers, anyway? They were a good bunch, he had to admit, but Malraux poisoned everything he touched. Some went mad from having implants. The monster in the Warehouse made him go mad. What if it happened again? And what if he doesn't stop. Frere Andre had to be shot before he killed a child. That was Marcel's first step towars realizing the corruption of the Malraux Papacy. Towards his becoming a renegade. He should have been a librarian like his father. What must he think of me now? And the rest of his family. His mother and his mother. "Why am I here?" he whispered. "I want to go home." He bowed his head and prayed for strength to help him save Kron's sister. But the power did not come. He waited, and nothing happened. He tried again, expecting the energy to flow through him, but again, nothing. /What's happening to me?/ Malieu taps Marcel on the shoulder. "What?" "Lady Azzar's awake, my friend. We're going down to dinner." Marcel looked outside, as the sun finally sank down below the horizon. Sigh. "Very well." > "I don't know what it was." says Kron. "All I know is that I've had the > damnedest feeling in the back of my skull ever since we started tracking > my sister. I felt like something was peering over my shoulder, you know? > And tonight, that same feeling somehow.....lept into the front. I know > you all felt it." The group is silent. Sister..... Why does the mention of Kron's sister make me uneasy? > "All I know is, my sister is out there somewhere. In the Low City. And > somebody is messing with us along the way. I think they were testing us > when we all went crazy. Still, that doesn't matter to me. I intend to > head for the headquarters of the Wasters and get some real answers. I > don't care if it says "TRAP" in big, hand-painted letters above the door. > I've GOT to find Cheyenne." Sister....save the sister.... > "I guess what scares me most is not that I risk life and limb here. I'm > afraid of my madness. It's terrible. I guess we're all afraid of > ourselves, a little bit. I can't ask you to face that." Why can't I think straight? What's the matter with me? 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' > "If you want out, say so now. I'll understand." Kron pauses. Nobody > says anything. Kron beams: "Good. I'll need your help, now more than > ever." Too scared to go, too proud to not go. It does not matter how I feel. These people helped me. I must help them. Honor demands no less. And Kron's sister it must be awful to lose a sister . > "Shall we?" Marcel wearily rises. "Let's go." -- Rick Jones Systems Support Center albert@bcm.tmc.edu Baylor College of Medicine Voice: 713-798-7352 standard disclaimers apply "No matter how hard you try, you can't bend a cracker." - Linus VanPelt