Doubts

[Ranger Nicholas]

It was 3 am in the morning when Nicholas' feet had guided him into the small chapel which was part of the castle of Windstorm. The past day had shaken him, to say the least, for in his mind he was certain he had seen the devil incarnate before him. Desperately the young man tried to calm his mind, let the soothing love of God flow through him and thus help him understand and accept what he had seen just mere hours earlier.

Nicholas was no child any longer, he was a man of 25 summers, and a good ranger fearing little. And yet... here he was, fearful, kneeling in front of the altar in the chapel, his hands folded and held tightly in front of his chest, his head bowed and eyes closed.

"Oh father... why did you bring him here? A devil's child who smiles like a normal man? Let me understand, please, father. They say he is a normal man but ... and he won in a spar against his twin... he is the youngest, he is of the devil and yet he won! Father Bertram told me all about these men who look like the mirror image of themselves. One good, the younger one a child of satan. Yet he wasn't killed... they let him live, and now he triumphed. Why ... father.... father ... the others see him and yet don't fear him... but I do! Father Bertram and the mother church cannot be wrong, can they? they speak your word, they proclaim your will... they cannae be wrong… they cannae! Father… please tell me what to do!"

With a despondent sigh Nicholas opened his eyes and looked up to the crucifix upon the wall, hoping his God would deign him with an answer to his questions and guide him regarding those two visitors from Kent.

[Ranger Nicholas]

He had met them again... or one of them at least, and still today Nicholas wasn't sure which of the twins from Kent he had met last eve. He had put aside his believes... and that of the mother church, and accepted the man's hand – e he the good twin or the devil's child. Somehow, since he couldn't tell them apart, maybe trying to distinguish between them was a futile endeavor anyways. If two men were so alike in appearance, their souls and hearts couldn't be that different? And if that was so, the good would carry a bit of the devil inside him, as would the Satan child carry the good of his godly twin.

How, then, could you argue for one to be killed and one to live?

After many a long hour in the chapel, Nicholas had taken the resolve to be as open-minded as possible when it came to those men from Kent, and last eve his open-mindedness seemed to have paid off. Nicholas and Sigehelm... or had it been Regharde?... had shaken hands and wished each other God's speed. Nicholas was actually sad to learn that one of them would soon leave Windstorm's shelter and travel back to his own kingdom. Now that he had taken the leap of being open towards both these men, the young ranger would have loved to further explore what maybe made them different from one another after all.

Maybe there would be other time, for now Nicholas was content to know he had not let his distrust totally ruin his manners towards their two guests and that he was still able to think for himself!