#TimeTravelingGhost EP 10: Post 107 1191, Nicosia, Cyprus

#Wss366 stake #TimeTravelAuthors 06/3 raise/rise)

The evening had cooled, and the streets were nearly empty. Mosquitoes had replaced the daytime flies. The stench was unchanged.

The servant hurried us along. His glances around him revealed his nervousness.

Emily scouted ahead. This was an occupied city, temporarily ruled by the iron-fisted Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. We had yet to learn what their link was with the Lapin Cabal, though it seemed clear one existed. Why else would the Templars be hunting us?

The Shrine of Saint George was nearby, and we soon arrived there unharmed. The servant took his leave as we entered a torch-lit courtyard.

Emily and I stopped just inside the arched opening and stood in the shadows to talk. A priest across the yard glanced my way but made no move to investigate.

“What occurred back there?” my partner asked. “Did you really create a relic?”

“Yeah, I think so. Don’t ask me how. When I tried manifesting one a second earlier, I couldn’t, but when I broke off that piece of the crown, it was magical. I didn’t ask for that; it just happened.”

“I lost my faith a long time ago, but I have to ask: Are you a saint? You’re not like any ghost I’ve ever heard of.”

“Absolutely not! I’m not even a Christian. That whole idea makes me very uncomfortable.”

“What if the priest were right?”

“I wouldn’t #stake my ‘life’ on it.”

“Ha ha. A holly #stake, no doubt.”

“I’m #rising in the world,” I thought. “My bad jokes are getting a response.”

“Furthermore, I would ask, which priest and about what? You just saw a Buddhist impersonating a Copt perform a miracle: a fraud, a flagrant liar, and most would say an unredeemable heretic. How does that fit into any conventional theological framework?”

She nodded.

“Regardless, it means something, but what? Why could I manifest a relic?”

She nodded again and turned toward the sound of footsteps crossing the courtyard.

#TootFic #NMFic #TimeTravel #HistoricalFantasy #UrbanFantasy #Mythpunk #Serial #Slowburn #Yuri