https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRMnpbk4MYA&ab_channel=moviesoundtrackgod - The Sermon at the SanctumThe voices coming from the hall ahead have taken a different tenor from before, more agitated. You quicken your step, determined to intervene before this gets out of hand.
“And I say who are you to deny any man his right to pay homage as a Cantônian? His birthright!”
“This isn’t about you or I, this is about the will of the Almighty himself! Can you not spare yourself a single night at the footstep of the celestial even to further the divine mission? Are you that selfish?”
“What divine mission? All I hear is the half-baked ravings of that madman’s cult to keep the Sanctum to himself!”
“How -dare- you?!” That’s definitely Father Towbray’s voice, bubbling with ill-concealed rage. “I’ll hear not one word against him, not one word!“
“At best he is mad! Worse still he bewitches you and your cohort into damnation!”
“Blasphemer!” You’ve seen that look in the Reclaimant priest’s eyes before, that same righteous fury as when you set upon the brigands that had been waylaying pilgrim’s on the road from Fallavon. His clenched and raised to strike or grab at another pilgrim, presumably the naysayer in question, whilst behind him his followers press in at a crowd near twice their size.
“STOP!” Hands pause on thick-woven cords and fists halt-mid strike. Every pair of eyes, some fifty odd of them, turns to fix on you before a blow can be struck. “What is this?”
Silence.
“WHAT IS THIS?” You bellow, the crowd flinching at the echo of your voice, even the pair of Knights Comitas flanking you seem to shirk back. “Do we not stand on the very threshold of our most holy site? This is the birthplace of the Brothers, the liberators of our ancestors! And how do we honour them? With strife, with discontent. With… disunity.”
You shake your head, stepping forward into the crowd that parts like a shrinking tide until you stand in amongst the very centre of them. Your words turn from denuciation to appeal, imploring those present to see the light.
“My brothers. Are we a people so divided that even here, even -here-, in this holiest of holies our petty differences see us seek to set one man above the other? Kings may rule men, and common man toil for their noble lords. I am a knight, and well I know the duties and liberties that befit my rank. But these are all temporal titles, corporeal privileges that flee us at the hour of our death. Before God we are all brothers and sisters, there is no one that can be set above the other in that regard. This is not the way, this is not the One True Faith. At least here, if nowhere else in Almighty’s creation, we should stand united.”
Tempers cool and heads nod at your words, not a few of those from some of your moments ago would-be detractors.
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