Fear of the unknowm (2/3)

Those four soldiers looked at each other before one of them spoke. "We are your soldiers, Father. Let's purge this evil from our lands, brothers!"

"Uuhhoooo!" Another one shouted, but before they could approach Rafael, the two were stopped.

"I'm sorry, but we cannot go against our lord's orders. Drop your weapons."

Rafael saw from a glance that there were two soldiers on his side, blocking the other two who wanted to kill him.

Because of their shouts, some servants left the castle to see what was happening, making the news of the fight quickly spread.

While one soldier was getting up, the other attacked him with a swing of his blade, first horizontal and then vertical.

Instead of attacking more, he stopped moving for half a second. His mind was blank; he couldn't understand how the man dodged all his strikes. That half-second was enough for Rafael to step closer and punch him, lifting the guy from the ground before he dropped unconscious.

"This is an order! Drop your weapons right now!" Edwin stepped close to the two soldiers who rebelled. They looked back at the priests, seeing them in silence with wide eyes.

"Did you see that?"

"How can someone do that?" Not only they but all the servants were stupefied. None thought they could dodge a single attack from those soldiers like Rafael did.

"Who is he?"

"Oh my God! Why are they attacking him?" A fairly large number of people gathered right next to the castle to see what was happening.

"Get out of the way! Move!" Shouts came from inside the castle; soldiers were heading to the area to protect their lord. The only information they got was that there were rebels attacking the Count.

After passing through the crowd and running to the commotion, they saw two soldiers dropping their weapons and two others on the ground next to a young man wearing white and black clothes.

"My lord! Are you okay? Quick, go back to the castle! This place isn't safe." One man stopped by Edwin's side and tried to protect him.

"No, I need you to protect that man." He pointed at Rafael.

"You heard the lord! Protect that man! Now, sir, we need to take you to safety." Only after seeing three soldiers surrounding Rafael, trying to protect him, did Edwin go back to his castle.

I'll have to do something; it can't keep going like this. These motherfuckers won't let me free; they will demonize anything I say or create. Sooner or later, they will influence people's minds to demonize me. Rafael saw the priests going back inside the castle from afar. I'm going to change that, and it will all start with this bad boy here. He looked at the balloon above his head.

Everyone there, after the fight ended, became hypnotized by that strange white object floating above him. Even the soldiers around him weren't stepping closer because they, too, felt that object was strange.

How was such a thing flying? What even was it? Is it black magic? Such thoughts were crossing the minds of everyone there. The idea that magic and witches existed started being spread by the church years ago.

Anything that wasn't normal or couldn't be explained with the common knowledge the people knew was labeled as magic or witchcraft by the church. "Wha-what is that?" one soldier asked while staring at the balloon.

"I hope this will help us win the incoming fight. Hear me out, everyone! Don't be afraid; this isn't magic because magic doesn't exist! This is a balloon, and we are going to use it to scare the enemy. When they arrive in front of our walls, don't panic if you see one of these flying above your heads."

Some people, braver than the others, stepped forward and touched it. Seeing that nothing was happening, everyone's interest overcame their fear. Soon there were more people surrounding him, trying to see and understand the strange flying object everyone was talking about.

Inside the castle, after walking through hallways and other chambers, Edwin closed the door of his room. It was wide, with a king-size bed, large windows, some paintings on the walls, and furniture of excellent quality. "What the fuck were they thinking?!"

That might be our only chance of avoiding the conflict nearing us! This is no time for judgment!

"Someone! Servants!"

Two men quickly appeared after hearing his call. "Yes, my lord."

"I want a meeting with those priests right now! No! I want to speak with the high priest. I don't care if he is sleeping, praying, or whatever; I am talking to him today!" The two servants bowed to him and left hastily, not wanting to be the punching bags of that man's anger.

His mind was drawn back to the strange object from minutes ago. He had never seen anything like that. How could it fly? Was it the fire? This... That thing is so strange and incredible at the same time.

Inside a fairly big church near the castle, sat four priests at a round table. There were 12 chairs for them plus one for the high priest.

"Where are the rest?"

"Calm down, Trach. I sent people to call them all. They'll arrive in no time. Until then, how about you bring me up to date on the news?" An old man wearing the usual attire of a priest spoke. Beside him were three other priests with serious or worried faces.

"Let's wait for the others so I can inform everyone at the same time." After some minutes, everyone was there, with only one chair empty.

"What about the high priest?"

"He said he is coming, but that we could start without him."

"Fine. Brothers, hear me out." The three priests proceeded to describe what happened outside the castle. "That devious thing was flying! There was fire! That man must have put something on the fire as a sacrifice to make the thing lose weight."

"Wait, flying? What do you mean by flying?" one of them asked.

"It was just... just floating away from the ground without anyone lifting it. The thing was floating by itself!"

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know."

"I know how! It's witchcraft! It's black magic! It's the devil!" the oldest priest spoke.

"How could we let this happen? The Fallen One is corrupting our people; he's recruiting soldiers for his army."

"What should we do, then?" They took some time in silence.

"We were warned... We were warned about that man and did nothing. Now look what he created."

"You're talking about our brothers from Calistoga, right?"

"Yes. We should have listened to them."

"Don't let this affect you; it's not the end. I think we should lock him up and burn him in the public square for his crimes."

"Yeah." Most agreed and nodded to that suggestion. That wasn't the first time they did that.

"Unfortunately, we can't or, better saying, I think we won't be able to."

"Why?"

"Because he has Edwin on his side." The rest of the priests grunted or clicked their tongues in annoyance.

"But I have some ideas, brothers, and with Adrian's help, I think we will bring God's justice to that abomination." Just as he spoke, the door opened, and an old man with a brown robe and a yellow stripe entered the room.