The Chapel or Judge Eternity Pt 10
Wennal the 10,000 year old Judge contemplates his opponent the source of his immortality and ancient enemy
While the big man ate he went over the plan again.
It was simplicity really, Wennal would continue speaking with Martin Luther. The monk only required a few nudges in the right direction. He was a logical man and only needed to be pointed in the right direction. Frederick would see to the monks physical safety by either patrolling the area or providing sanctuary.
The trick was for Wennal to avoid being seen, while most of the Blood retained their human appearance Wennal had not been so fortunate, being descended directly from Aeratu his veins and tendons stood out in relief, and while he was incredibly strong he appeared almost skeletal. He also had Aeratus sharp teeth and iron like nails. Like Aeratu it was necessary to hide himself from the sun which burned his skin and blinded him.
With the girl in France he had spoken to her from his mind and had taught her the way of the sword at times seizing control of her body so she could feel how to move the sword. The result was a girl of fourteen who could best anyone who did not have thousands of years of practice with the blade.
It had been a mistake of course because the nobles had not accepted her nor had the church, but what it had done was shake the confidence of the common person in the church.
The plan with the Templars had been much the same but in both cases he had underestimated Aeratus skills as a manipulator. The ancient revenant was like a marionette playing spider. His webs were connected to everything and he masterfully played them like a harp.
By comparison Wennal was a gardener. He planted unknown seeds and waited for them to grow. Sometimes they bore fruit.
Frederick was his scarecrow frightening away those who would root out the new plants before they were mature.
The Templars were his first attempt, he disguised himself as a leper hermit and would speak to various of the brothers over the years.
He started with pointing out that their faith was almost the same as the Jews and the Muslims. He introduced moral lessons from some of the trades in the holy land. Even when they were declared heretic and outlawed by the church they served his purpose. Most of them escaped the stake and hid in the countryside. They set aside their mantles and became simple knights or tradesmen, but the lessons they learned about equality spread.
The commoners had watched men that had given them free bread be burned at the stake and they had wondered how someone that was supposed to be so evil had been so caring.
The Frankish girl was his next attempt and it would have been unsuccessful had it not been for the churches suppression of the Templars.
The Maid of Orleans had been a firebrand in the defense of France, and the French had kept their country to a point but the gentry had grown to fear her and they sent her to the same fate as the Templars.
This time Wennal included the gentry and he did so in a way that would incriminate them if they did not support the plan, of course it could lead to another purge like the Albigensian Crusade. Wennal had not believed that Aeratu could orchestrate such a murderess undertaking of neighbors killing neighbors. The arch fiend himself had ridden with the army to Carcassonne and when it was noted that Christians were intermixed with Cathars, he had instructed the army's General on how to deal with the problem by saying "Kill them all, God in his infinite wisdom will know his own."
On another occasion he preached a sermon before the common masses telling them that "Any Christian who died that day purging this evil from the land would sit in heaven and those who survived would have what they took to keep for themselves."
With a mighty cry of "Deus Vult!" the commoners leaped across the guarding ditch and slaughtered any who came to hand. As he walked through the ravaged city he turned to a serving monk and said, "They must have been guilty else God would not have allowed their death. . . see how simple it is, the common man worried for his soul is inspired with Gods own righteous fury .".
In a letter to the papacy he said "while discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low degree and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms!", within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Béziers was taken. Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt, as Divine vengeance miraculously..."
Aeratu was an incredible opponent. He manipulated humanity by nudging here and pushing there but he wasn't above taking the field if he needed to and unlike many intellectuals he was physically forbidding as well.
Wennal had once found a place that Aeratu considered refuge, and rallying the inhabitants of a small city Wennal sent them against the evil that slept in a cave nearby. Of the thousand armed men that went in to the Earth, not one emerged. When night came Aeratu slaughtered the other five thousand who called that place home.
Wennal never sent a force to directly oppose Aeratu again.
It was simplicity really, Wennal would continue speaking with Martin Luther. The monk only required a few nudges in the right direction. He was a logical man and only needed to be pointed in the right direction. Frederick would see to the monks physical safety by either patrolling the area or providing sanctuary.
The trick was for Wennal to avoid being seen, while most of the Blood retained their human appearance Wennal had not been so fortunate, being descended directly from Aeratu his veins and tendons stood out in relief, and while he was incredibly strong he appeared almost skeletal. He also had Aeratus sharp teeth and iron like nails. Like Aeratu it was necessary to hide himself from the sun which burned his skin and blinded him.
With the girl in France he had spoken to her from his mind and had taught her the way of the sword at times seizing control of her body so she could feel how to move the sword. The result was a girl of fourteen who could best anyone who did not have thousands of years of practice with the blade.
It had been a mistake of course because the nobles had not accepted her nor had the church, but what it had done was shake the confidence of the common person in the church.
The plan with the Templars had been much the same but in both cases he had underestimated Aeratus skills as a manipulator. The ancient revenant was like a marionette playing spider. His webs were connected to everything and he masterfully played them like a harp.
By comparison Wennal was a gardener. He planted unknown seeds and waited for them to grow. Sometimes they bore fruit.
Frederick was his scarecrow frightening away those who would root out the new plants before they were mature.
The Templars were his first attempt, he disguised himself as a leper hermit and would speak to various of the brothers over the years.
He started with pointing out that their faith was almost the same as the Jews and the Muslims. He introduced moral lessons from some of the trades in the holy land. Even when they were declared heretic and outlawed by the church they served his purpose. Most of them escaped the stake and hid in the countryside. They set aside their mantles and became simple knights or tradesmen, but the lessons they learned about equality spread.
The commoners had watched men that had given them free bread be burned at the stake and they had wondered how someone that was supposed to be so evil had been so caring.
The Frankish girl was his next attempt and it would have been unsuccessful had it not been for the churches suppression of the Templars.
The Maid of Orleans had been a firebrand in the defense of France, and the French had kept their country to a point but the gentry had grown to fear her and they sent her to the same fate as the Templars.
This time Wennal included the gentry and he did so in a way that would incriminate them if they did not support the plan, of course it could lead to another purge like the Albigensian Crusade. Wennal had not believed that Aeratu could orchestrate such a murderess undertaking of neighbors killing neighbors. The arch fiend himself had ridden with the army to Carcassonne and when it was noted that Christians were intermixed with Cathars, he had instructed the army's General on how to deal with the problem by saying "Kill them all, God in his infinite wisdom will know his own."
On another occasion he preached a sermon before the common masses telling them that "Any Christian who died that day purging this evil from the land would sit in heaven and those who survived would have what they took to keep for themselves."
With a mighty cry of "Deus Vult!" the commoners leaped across the guarding ditch and slaughtered any who came to hand. As he walked through the ravaged city he turned to a serving monk and said, "They must have been guilty else God would not have allowed their death. . . see how simple it is, the common man worried for his soul is inspired with Gods own righteous fury .".
In a letter to the papacy he said "while discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low degree and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms!", within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Béziers was taken. Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt, as Divine vengeance miraculously..."
Aeratu was an incredible opponent. He manipulated humanity by nudging here and pushing there but he wasn't above taking the field if he needed to and unlike many intellectuals he was physically forbidding as well.
Wennal had once found a place that Aeratu considered refuge, and rallying the inhabitants of a small city Wennal sent them against the evil that slept in a cave nearby. Of the thousand armed men that went in to the Earth, not one emerged. When night came Aeratu slaughtered the other five thousand who called that place home.
Wennal never sent a force to directly oppose Aeratu again.
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