Revision

So, one of the problems with posting a story as you write it is that sometimes you revise what you've already posted. So, the last post that I put up now has a slightly different ending. I went back and revised that so that you can go back and read to semi-finalized version. Do go back and read it again or much of what is going to follow after will make no sense to you at all. What follows is actually part of a longer section, but it was much too long and ungainly to be put all at once. I will have the second part up tomorrow, hopefully. As always, you are quite welcome to leave feedback. In fact, I want you to, good or bad, complimentary or not. It all helps in some way. Now that that explanation is out of the way, let's keep moving forward in what I can only hope will turn out to be a grand adventure!


As Cador rode leisurely along, he had to laugh at the memory of Father Paulus’ face on the plain. The hilarity of the situation may have escaped him earlier, but it did not do so now. If only poor Paulus knew how ridiculous the whole affair really was, he thought to himself. Perhaps he should have been let in on the joke. Of course, that knowledge would probably have only angered him further and added to the trouble Cador was already in. It was too bad that the priest did not have a better sense of humor. They might have got along better if he had.
Cador and Father Paulus were not enemies by a long stretch, but they were generally antagonistic to each other and the blunted war they waged had a long history by this time. When Cador had been brought into Arthur’s house as the king’s foster son and heir, he had been forced to put aside his pagan ways and embrace the new religion that called itself Christianity. That had been fine with him since he was not especially attached to one or the other. Most of the time he thought it the smallest of the sacrifices he had had to make during that change in station, the greatest being having to live in that stuffy Roman house Arthur kept as his primary residence. From the beginning of his life he had been accustomed to the smoke-filled, yet expansive homes of his people. A round-house was where he was most at ease, but it was more important to him to be close to his mother. However, he refused to dwell on this point and had become inured to an atrium and triclinium even he had not grown accustomed them.
On making this change to Arthur’s religion, he had been baptized in the church just outside of the fort and the care of his instruction in it and the Latin tongue had been given to Paulus, who became at that time the only resident clergy in Luguvallium. Paulus was a full-blooded Roman with a pedigree to boot, which had been Cador’s initial reason for disliking him. Eventually he discovered others, such as his lack of a warrior’s spirit and stamina, his condescending manner and his insipid conversation. Unless he was talking about some spiritual matter or lecturing one outright, Paulus lacked the capacity for talking beyond the weather and one’s health. This not only made him an extremely vexing person, but an excessively boring one as well. The one thing Paulus had succeeded in was teaching Cador to speak and write in tolerably good Latin. There had been no such success beyond that.
That was where their battling began. For instance, Paulus had once tried to explain to Cador the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity was the concept of God being one Entity with three Persons within that Entity. He was Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but still only one God. As far as Cador was concerned, if God was God then He could do whatever He wished and if He wished to have three Persons to gallivant around in, then that was fine by him. Paulus tried to complicate this by saying that no man could possibly understand this doctrine. If no one could understand it, then why was Paulus belaboring the subject? Because it was an important Christian doctrine that he had to believe in. Okay, point made, shall we move on? Paulus did believe that his young charge did not fully grasp the fullness of this mystery. If it was a mystery how could he possibly hope to understand it? He could not, Paulus declared, because God did not wish him to. Why did not Cador go and contemplate this wondrous mystery in the church for an hour or two? Why should he go contemplate something God did not want him to know? Cador personally thought that the best thing he could do was respect God’s privacy. Today’s outburst had only the been the latest in a long succession of tactical maneuvers. That was behind him now and, except for the punishment he would have to undergo later that evening, he could look forward to an enjoyable close to the day.