"Father Theodore?"
"Yes! He even tells us to...."
"Silence!"
And old voice sounds from the crowd. A holy man walks out of the crowd followed by two priests. He's a bald middle-aged age man with a slightly square face. His priest's robe has a bit more decoration.
"Father Theodore!"
"Detain him!"
Upon Theodore's word, two priests behind him walk forward. With a kick, they pin the grey robe guy down. The grey robe guy got pushed to the ground with two hands. His head was stepped on by one of the priests. A pain escaped from his mouth.
"Father why...."
"Cut his tongue"
Theodore's order was executed, one priest restrained the guy with his whole body, and one of his hands held the guy's head down. Another priest works quickly, his hand reaches into the guy's mouth and grabs onto his tongue. He stretches it out.
"UUHH ANNT EE DODIN EHHT!!!!!"
The grey robe guy yelled with all his voice but all of them couldn't be understood. Tears start to fall down from his eyes as he begs for mercy in incomprehensible language. But that did little to stop the priest, they brought out a ceremonial knife and placed it on the guy's tongue. Priest looks to Theodore one last time.
Theodore nods his head.
"Father isn't this too..."
Plutus felt uncomfortable with this setup. but he's too late to voice his concern. The knife is brought down on the poor man.
"AGAIGHIAGHOUIHGOHF"
Wailing would be an understatement when the guy's tongue flew off. Reeva avoids the sight. He didn't want to see someone being in such distress. The gray robe guy's mouth is filled to the brim with blood.
"Don't let him die and bring him to the church"
One of the priests placed his hand on the guy's mouth and closed it. A faint white glow illuminated the guy's hand, and the gray robe guy wasn't in pain anymore. But it's not like he could complain anyway.
"Father, isn't this too much?"
Plutus believes in the church but useless violence is not the right way to do it.
"You're too soft Plutus, If you're dealing with a heretic you should be more thorough and decisive."
Plutus grits his teeth, it's subtle but the father is mocking Plutus's way of dealing with the heretic. And he couldn't say anything about it after he let a heretic escape from his grasp. Theodore smiles after seeing Plutus.
"Don't worry, we all got times like these. As long as we follow the lord, we don't need to worry about anything."
Plutus mood improves a bit as he realizes that at the end of the day, they are still under the same lord. Their way may differ but their belief is still the same. He has been a little petty over a lesson that his senior is giving. Suddenly he also realized why the pope sent him to this place.
Maybe to improve his attitude in life.
Reeva was terrified after watching the scene, had he been caught by Tumidus Priest he would be in a world of hurt right now. Theodore, the Bishop has been rather hasty in cutting the heretic tongue. Almost too afraid that the grey robe would say something.
There is something fishy about this
His curiosity has been piqued but following the priest would be considered too risky.... If it was his old self. He would like to follow his feelings this time, he knew that if he followed them and got something from them he would be so happy. It would feel good.
A smile crept up on his face as a yellow mist increased in size.
Even the idea of him getting some secret is making him happy.
The crowd disperses after the whole show is over. Many would fear the church after this act but many would thank them for keeping heretics out of their town. Further solidifying the church authorities.
Theodore leads the way as the two priests carry the grey robe man. Plutus follows right behind the three of them in silence. Reeva also follows them but in a secretive manner. He walked far behind the priest but not so far that he could lose them.
After half an hour they finally arrive at the church. This one is built close to the shore in the central district. Not too far from the harbor. One could get a good view of a ship when looking down south. Reeva arrived after Theodore and the group went inside the church.
He follows them inside, the interior is almost identical to one of the churches in Lmemore, red carpet, big orange glass that has the sun god sigil on it, and a wooden podium that was used for sermons. Speaking of which, it looks like it's about to start.
The sun church sermon happened just after sunrise and sundown, they say it's a way to greet and pay respect to the sun god.
Reeva wasn't interested, what he was after was the two stairs leading downward at the side of the church podium. He lost track of the group when he followed them inside the church. However, he got a pretty good idea of where they go after seeing the stairs which had two priests guarding them.
At this point most people would have quit but, this time, he came in prepared.
"Heretic!"
A woman came in when they were having a sermon. She screams loudly, proclaiming that there is a heretic among them. She points to outside the church. One of the priest's face darkens.
The heretic is getting brazen these days. They even disrupt the sermon! One of them leaves his position to check out the heretic in question.
Reeva waited for something to happen, he waited patiently until the priest walked out of the church door. Then the planned event happens.
BANG!
A loud sound came from outside. A smile crept up on Reeva's face as the event flowed. A look of panic settles in for the stairway priest, and he immediately follows the other priest outside leaving the stairway wide open for Reeva to slip through.