Torches

Ignatius walked the same north side of the cloister as night fell. He had settled into the same patrol route, keeping watch over the cells where sisters prayed inside. Ever since pestilence had entered the cloister, the sisters kept to their cells, and the communal gathering for the Hours had been suspended. So Ignatius’s presence in the courtyard had been granted as a necessary measure of protection now that even what remained in the convent stores, garden, and orchard had become coveted treasure for thieves and rogues.

Most nights he could make his rounds with his eyes closed, but on this night, a voice spoke to him from the high bars of a narrow window half-hidden between the rose bushes.

”Clear night, isn’t it? But I suppose the mild weather has officially left us for good.”

Ignatius turned towards the voice.

”Abbess Elinor?”

”Pestilent Abbess Elinor now. You may be the only soul I speak to from now until… my fate is decided… Templar Knight.”

”I heard about your misfortune,” Ignatius said. “If there’s anything I can do to put you at ease.”

”I’m in God’s hands now,” she said.

“As we are all.”

“I know you’ve been helping us since this calamity returned to our land. I am grateful,” said Elinor.

Ignatius bowed, but then he thought it over.

”Oh. Forgive me, I….”

“I saw you make your reverence,” she assured him. “I can see the whole world through this tiny window, believe it or not. I have seen you keeping guard every night. Here and with our doctors.”

Ignatius inclined his head again.

”I know there is no love lost between you and the Hospitaller brothers, but perhaps a new vocation awaits a Templar after all,” she said.

”A kind friend once told me that they can use more brains and fewer swords going through brains,” said Ignatius. “Plague Doctor Edgar has asked me to come do rounds with him and learn some fundamental things so that I can be of use. Or, as he says it, learn a little bravery from the baby nuns raised in this convent.”

Elinor laughed.

“For that, I will accept all the glory.”

Ignatius laughed too.

”How are you faring, Reverend Mother?” Ignatius asked then.

”Me?” she sighed. “This misery came ghastly fast. One moment I am writing my ledger, the next every bone feels like it will break. I was told I was burning, but inside, I felt like ice.”

“I pray for your recovery. It seems merciless.”

”We have lost so many. We keep losing more.”

”Yes, but we have seen some turn the tide. Just do what the good doctors instruct.”

”Thank you, Ignatius. I have no intention of being a shrew. Not about this anyway. That said, there are measures in place. Vicaress Cecily is prepared to accept this great responsibility if I…”

Ignatius lowered his head.

“I sense a cruel assassin. Pray that he also be swift. Life goes on, brave knight. Onward.”

The knight still kept silent.

”Absolutely anything I can do for you, send for me. Day or night.”

Elinor paused for a moment.

”One thing you can do for me, Sir Ignatius.”

“Just say the word.”

”Ease my curiosity about…this one thing.”

”Anything.”

Elinor waited for a moment.

”Why did you pay for the burials?”

Ignatius suppressed a gasp.

“I know you were sent here looking for something…rare…or aberrant,” she said.

Ignatius bowed again.

”Yes, Reverend Mother. I was sent to find…something. Anything. And send word back to the brotherhood,” he said. “At first, the burials were a means to draw out any heretics or necromancers. As there were rumors of unholy resurrections. But I simply grew sick of beholding so many die without dignity.”

“I see,” Elinor said.

”Now, can my curiosity beg an indulgence?” Ignatius asked.

Elinor paused before responding.

“We shall see.”

Ignatius laughed softly.

“You knew what my purpose was here. Yet you allowed me to loiter around near the cloister.”

”I did,” Elinor said, sounding quite proud of herself. “So, did you, Ignatius? Did you find your tenebrous sect? Your witch? Your heretic?”

Ignatius lowered his head.

“I… did not.”

“No. And what did you find?”

”I found…” Ignatius mused. “A village in peril. A tavern being run by a tiny nun who fed and sheltered those most at risk. I found warriors who had never needed swords. An abbess who could stand up to an army and protected me, without knowing she had done so. And friends. Unexpected friends.… and…“

Ignatius narrowed his eyes so he could focus better on the strange movement he saw beyond the orchard.

“…torches.”