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Galatians  

The Gospel of Paul  

Paul can be forgiven for equating the destruction of Israel with the end of the world. Everyone who loves Israel wants to save her, the controversy between the Judaizers and Paul was over how to do it.  
From The Interpreters’ Bible:  
"Introduction  
-1. Occasion and Purpose  
Conservative preachers were persuading the Galatians that faith was not enough to make sure of God’s kingdom. Besides believing that Jesus was the Messiah, one must join the Jewish nation, observe the laws and customs of Moses, and refuse to eat with the Gentiles (2:11-14, 4:10). One must have Christ and Moses, faith and law. Paul insisted that it must be either Moses or Christ. (5:2-6). [Mind you, the congregations were literally segregated at meals according to whether the male members’ foreskins were circumcised; compare with the trouble regarding the allocations between the two groups of widows reported in Acts.]  
Not content with raising doubts concerning the sufficiency of Christ, the Judaizers attacked Paul’s credentials. They said that he had not been one of the original apostles, and that he was distorting the gospel which Peter and John and James the Lord’s brother were preaching. They declared that his proposal to abandon the law of Moses was contrary to the teaching of Jesus, and they insinuated that he had taken this radical step to please men with the specious promise of cheap admission to God’s kingdom (1:10). If he were allowed to have his way, men would believe and be baptized but keep on sinning, deluding themselves that the Christian sacraments would save them. Claiming to rise above Moses and the prophets, they would debase faith into magic, liberty into license, making Christ the abettor of sin (2:17). The Judaizers were alarmed lest Paul bring down God’s wrath and delay the kingdom. They had not shared the emotion of a catastrophic conversion like Paul’s, and they found it hard to understand when he talked about a new power which overcame sin and brought righteousness better than the best that the law could produce.  
Another party attacked Paul from the opposite side. Influenced by the pagan notion that religion transcends ethics and is separable from morality, they wanted to abandon the Old Testament and its prophetic insights. They could not see how Paul’s demand to crucify one’s old sinful nature and produce the fruit of the Spirit could be anything but a new form of slavery to law (2:19-20, 5:14, 2-24). They accused him of rebuilding the old legalism, and some said that he was still preaching circumcision (2:18; 5:11). Whereas the Judaizers rejected Paul’s gospel because they believed it contrary to the teaching of the original apostles, these antilegalists felt that he was so subservient to the apostles as to endanger the freedom of the Christian Movement.  
Actually Paul had risen above both legalism and sacramentarianism ... his faith was qualitatively different from mere assent to a creed (5:6). He was living on the plateau of the Spirit, where life was so free that men needed no law to say ‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Thou shalt not’ (5:22-24). But this rarefied atmosphere was hard to breathe, and neither side could understand him. The conservatives were watching for moral lapses… and the radicals blamed him for slowing the progress of Christianity by refusing to cut it loose from Judaism and its nationalistic religious imperialism.” (Stamm, TIB 1953, vol. X pp. 430)  
Paul’s defense of his gospel and apostleship was the more difficult because he had to maintain his right to go directly to Christ without the mediation of Peter and the rest, but had to do it in such a way as not to split the church and break the continuity of his gospel with the Old Testament and the apostolic traditions about Jesus and his teaching. …  
To this end Paul gave an account of his relations with the Jerusalem church during the seventeen years that followed his conversion (1:11-2:14). Instead of going to Jerusalem he went to Arabia, presumably to preach (1:17). After a time he returned to Damascus, and only three years later did he go to see Peter. Even then he stayed only fifteen days and saw no other apostle except James the Lord’s brother (1:18-20). Then he left for Syria and Cilicia, and not until another fourteen years had passed did he visit Jerusalem again. This time it was in response to a revelation from his Lord, and not to a summons by the authorities in the Hoy City.  
Paul emphasizes that neither visit implied an admission that his gospel needed the apostolic stamp to make it valid. His purpose was to get the apostles to treat the uncircumcised Gentile Christians as their equals in the church (2:2). Making a test case of Titus, he won his point (2:3-5). The apostles agreed that a Gentile could join the church by faith without first becoming a member of the synagogue by circumcision. … They … recognize[d] that his mission to the Gentiles was on the same footing as theirs to the Jews – only he was to remember the poor (2:7-10). So far was Paul from being subordinated that when Peter came to Antioch and wavered on eating with the Gentile Christians, Paul did not hesitate to rebuke him in public (2:11-14). (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 430-431)  
Paul’s defense of his apostolic commission involved the question: What is the seat of authority in religion? A Jewish rabbi debating the application of the kosher laws would quote the authority of Moses and the fathers in support of his view. Jewish tradition declared that God delivered the law to Moses, and Moses to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the men of the Great Synagogue, and that they had handed it down through an unbroken rabbinical succession to the present. If Paul had been a Christian rabbi, he could have treated the Sermon on the Mount as a new law from a new Sinai, which God had delivered to Jesus, and Jesus to Peter, and Peter to Paul, and Paul to Timothy and Titus, and so on through an unbroken apostolic succession until the second coming of Christ. Instead of taking his problems directly to this Lord in prayer, he would ask, ‘What does Peter say that Jesus did and said about it?’ And if Peter or the other apostles happened not to have a pronouncement from Jesus on a given subject, they would need to apply some other saying to his by reasoning from analogy. This would turn the gospel into a system of legalism, with casuistry for its guide, making Jesus a second Moses – a prophet who lived and died in a dim and distant past and left only a written code to guide the future. Jesus would not have been the living Lord, personally present in his church in every age as the daily companion of his members. That is why Paul insisted that Christ must not be confused or combined with Moses, but must be all in all.  
The Judaizers assumed that God had revealed to Moses all of his will, and nothing but this will, for all time, changeless and unchangeable; and that death was the penalty for tampering with it. The rest of the scriptures and the oral tradition which developed and applied them were believed to be implicit in the Pentateuch as an oak in an acorn. The first duty of the teacher was to transmit the Torah exactly as he had received it from the men of old. Only then might he give his own opinion, which must never contradict but always be validated by the authority of the past. When authorities differed, the teacher must labor to reconcile them. Elaborate rules of interpretation were devised to help decide cases not covered by specific provision in the scripture. These rules made it possible to apply a changeless revelation to changing conditions, but they also presented a dilemma. The interpreter might modernize by reading into his Bible ideas that were not in the minds of its writers, or he might quench his own creative insights by fearing to go beyond what was written. Those who modernized the Old Testament were beset with the perils of incipient Gnosticism, while those who, like the Sadducees, accepted nothing but the written Torah could misuse it to obstruct social and religious progress. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 431-432)  
To submit to circumcision would have betrayed the truth of the gospel because it contradicted the principle that all is of grace and grace is for all (2:5). Perpetuated in the church of Christ, the kosher code and other Jewish customs would have destroyed the fellowship. Few things could have hurt the feelings and heaped more indignity upon the Gentiles than the spiritual snobbery of refusing to eat with them.  
The tragedy of division was proportional to the sincerity of men’s scruples. The Jews were brought up to believe that eating with Gentiles was a flagrant violation of God’s revealed will which would bring down his terrible wrath. How strongly both sides felt appears in Paul’s account of the stormy conference at Jerusalem and the angry dispute that followed it at Antioch (2:1-14). Paul claimed that refusal to eat with a Gentile brother would deny that the grace of Christ was sufficient to make him worthy of the kingdom. If all men were sons of God through Christ, there could be no classes of Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female (3:26-28). What mattered was neither circumcision not uncircumcision, but only faith and a new act of creation by the Spirit (5:6; 6”15). (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
Church unity was essential to the success of Christian missions. Friction between Aramaic and Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Palestine had to be eliminated (Acts 6:1). The death of Stephen and a special vision to Peter were required to convince the conservatives of the propriety of admitting the Gentiles on an equality with the Jews; and even Peter was amazed that God had given them the same gift of the Spirit (Act 11: 1-18). This hesitation was potentially fatal to the spread of Christianity beyond Palestine. Many Gentiles had been attracted by the pure monotheism and high morality of Judaism but were not willing to break with their native culture by submitting to the painful initiatory rite and social stigma of being a Jew…. Had the church kept circumcision as a requirement for membership, it could not have freed itself from Jewish nationalism.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
III. Some Characteristics of Paul’s Thinking  
… “the law” of which Paul is speaking does not coincide with “law” in a twentieth-century state with representative government. His Greek word was νομος [nomos], an inadequate translation of the Hebrew “Torah,” which included much more than “law” as we use the term. [When “תורה ThORaH” appears in the text I translate it as “Instruction” – its literal definition - capitalized.] Torah was teaching on any subject concerning the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. Since the Jews did not divide life into two compartments labeled “religious” and “secular,” their law covered both their spiritual and their civil life. Nor did Paul and his fellow Jews think in terms of “nature” and the “natural law.” They believed that everything that happened was God’s doing, directly or by his permission. The messiah was expected to restore the ancient theocracy with its power over both civil and religious affairs.  
The Gentiles too were accustomed to state regulation of religion and priestly control of civil affairs. The Greek city-states had always managed the relations of their citizens with the gods, and Alexander the Great prepared the way for religious imperialism. When he invaded Asia, he consolidated his power by the ancient Oriental idea that the ruler was a god or a son of God. His successors, in their endless wars over the fragments of his empire, adopted the same device. Posing as “savior-gods,” they liberated their victims by enslaving them. The Romans did likewise, believing that the safety of their empire depended upon correct legal relations with the gods who had founded it. … Each city had its temple dedicated to the emperor, and its patriotic priests to see that everyone burned incense before his statue. Having done this, the worshiper was free under Roman ‘tolerance’ to adopt any other legal religion. … Whether salvation was offered in the name of the ancient gods of the Orient, or of Greece, or of the emperor of Rome, or of Yahweh the theocratic king of the Jews, the favor of the deity was thought to depend upon obedience to his law.  
One did not therefore have to be a Jew to be a legalist in religion. … Since Paul’s first converts were drawn from Gentiles who had been attending the synagogues, it is easy to see how Gentile Christians could be a zealous to add Moses to Christ as the most conservative Jew.  
This is what gave the Judaizers their hold in Galatia. The rivalry between the synagogue, which was engaged in winning men to worship the God of Moses, and the church, which was preaching the God who had revealed himself in Christ Jesus, was bound to raise the issue of legalism and stir up doubts about the sufficiency of Christ.  
Gentile and Jewish Christians alike would regard Paul’s preaching of salvation apart from the merit acquired by obedience to law as a violently revolutionary doctrine. Fidelity to his declaration of religious independence from all mediating rulers and priesthoods required a spiritual maturity of which most who heard his preaching were not yet capable. … Paul’s gospel has always been in danger of being stifled by those who would treat the teachings of Jesus as laws to be enforced by a hierarchy. (Stamm, TIB 1953, X pp. 434-435)  
V. Environment of Paul’s Churches in Galatia  
The conclusion concerning the destination of the epistle does not involve the essentials of its religious message, but it does affect our understanding of certain passages, such as 3:1 and 41:12, 20.  
From the earliest times that part of the world had been swept by the cross tides of migration and struggle for empire. The third millennium found the Hittites in possession. In the second millennium the Greeks and Phrygians came spilling over from Europe, and in the first millennium the remaining power of the Hittites was swept away by Babylon and Persia. Then came the turn of the Asiatic tide into Europe, only to be swept back again by Alexander the Great. But the Greek cities with which he and his successors dotted the map of Asia were like anthills destined to be leveled by Oriental reaction.  
About 278 B.C. new turmoil came with the Gauls, who were shunted from Greece and crossed into Asia to overrun Phrygia. Gradually the Greek kings succeeded in pushing them up into the central highlands, where they established themselves in the region of Ancyra. Thus located, they constituted a perpetually disturbing element, raiding the Greek cities and furnishing soldiers now to one, and now to another of the rival kings. Then in 121 B.C. came the Romans to 'set free' Galatia by making it a part of their own Empire. By 40 B.C. there were three kingdoms, with capitals at Ancyra, Pisidian Antioch, and Iconium. Four years later Lycaonia and Galatia were given to Amyntas the king of Pisidia. He added Pamphylia and part of Cilicia to his kingdom. But he was killed in 25 B.C., and the Romans made his dominion into the province of Galatia, which was thus much larger than the territory inhabited by the Gauls. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 437-438)  
War and slavery, poverty, disease, and famine made life hard and uncertain. In religion and philosophy men were confused by this meeting of East and West. But man’s extremity was Paul’s opportunity. The soil of the centuries had been plowed and harrowed for his new, revolutionary gospel of grace and freedom.  
Not all, however, were ready for this freedom. The old religions with prestige and authority seemed safer. Most Jews preferred Moses, and among the Gentiles the hold of the Great Mother Cybele of Phrygia was not easily shaken. Paul’s converts, bringing their former ideas and customs with them, were all too ready to reshape his gospel into a combination of Christ with their ancient laws and rituals. The old religions were especially tenacious in the small villages, whose inhabitants spoke the native languages and were inaccessible to the Greek-speaking Paul. To this gravitational attraction of the indigenous cults was added the more sophisticated syncretism of the city dwellers, pulling Paul’s churches away from his gospel when the moral demands of his faith and the responsibilities of his freedom became irksome. This was the root of the trouble in Galatia. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 438)  
VI. Date and Place of Writing  
Some consider it the earliest of Paul’s extant letters and place it in 49 … In support of this date it is said that Paul, who had come from Perga by boat, was met by messengers from Galatia, who had taken the shorter route by land. They reported the disturbance which had arisen in his churches soon after his departure. He could not go back immediately to straighten things out in person, because he saw that he would have to settle the matter first in Jerusalem, whence the troublemakers had come. So he wrote a letter.  
But … [w]e do not know that the trouble in Galatia was stirred up by emissaries from the church in Jerusalem … Moreover, this solution overlooks the crux of the issue between Paul and the legalists. His contention was that neither circumcision nor the observance of any other law was the basis of salvation, but only faith in God’s grace through Christ. … On the matter of kosher customs, as on every other question, he directed men to the mind and Spirit of Christ, and not to law, either Mosaic or apostolic. That mind was a Spirit of edification which abstained voluntarily from all that defiled or offended.  
We may say that the situation [in Galatia] was different – that in Macedonia it was persecution from outside by Jews who were trying to prevent Paul’s preaching, whereas in Galatia it was trouble inside the church created by legalistic Christians who were proposing to change his teaching; that in one case the issue was justification by faith, and in the other faithfulness while waiting for the day of the Lord.  
The letter to the Romans, written during the three months in Greece mentioned in Acts 20:2-3, is our earliest commentary on Galatians. In it the relation between the law and the gospel is set forth in the perspective of Paul’s further experience. The brevity and storminess of Galatians gives way to a more complete and calmly reasoned presentation of his gospel. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 438 - 439)  
At Corinth, as in Galatia, Paul had to defend his right to be an apostle against opponents heartless enough to turn against him the cruel belief that physical illness was a sign of God’s disfavor … and they charged him with being a crafty man-pleaser … He exhorts his converts to put away childish things and grow up in faith, hope and love…  
Most childish of all were the factions incipient in Galatia, and actual in Corinth … He abandoned the kosher customs and all other artificial distinctions between Jews and Gentiles and laid the emphasis where it belonged – upon the necessity for God’s people to establish and maintain a higher morality and spiritual life… He substituted a catholic spirit for partisan loyalties ... (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 440-441)  
VII. Authorship and Attestation  
If Paul wrote anything that goes under his name, it was Galatians, Romans, and the letters to Corinth. … F.C. Baur and his followers tried to show that the letters ascribed to Paul were the product of a second-century conflict between a Judaist party and the liberals in the church, and that they were written by Paulinists who used his name and authority to promote their own ideas.  
[But] the earliest mention of the epistle by name occurs in the canon of the Gnostic heretic Marcion (ca. [approximately] 144). He put it first in his list of ten letters of Paul. A generation later the orthodox Muratorian canon (ca. 185) listed it as the sixth of Paul’s letters. … While the first explicit reference to Galatians as a letter of Paul is as late as the middle of the second century … the authors of Ephesians and the Gospel of John knew it; and Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians quoted it. Revelation, I Peter, Hebrew, I Clement, and Ignatius show acquaintance with it; and there is evidence that the writer of the Epistle of James knew Galatians, as did the authors of II Peter and the Pastoral epistle, and Justin Martyr and Athenagoras. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 441-442)  
VIII. Text and Transmission  
Although the epistle was composed neither carelessly nor hastily, the anxiety and emotional stress under which Paul dictated his cascading thoughts have produced some involved and obscure sentences … and a number of abrupt transitions… These have been a standing invitation to scribal clarification. … Paul’s debate with his critics takes the form of a diatribe, which is characterized by quotations from past or anticipated objectors and rapid-fire answers to them. Paul did not use quotation marks, and this accounts for the difficulty in 2:14-15 of deciding where his speech to Peter ends. The numerous allusions to person and places, events and teachings, with which Paul assumed his readers to be acquainted, are another source of difficulty. All theses factors operated to produce the numerous variations in the text of Galatians." (Stamm, 1953, TIB p. 442)  
From Adam Clarke’s Commentaryⁱ :  
"The authenticity of this epistle is ably vindicated by Dr. Paley: the principal part of his arguments I shall here introduce …  
'Section I.  
As Judea was the scene of the Christian history; as the author and preachers of Christianity were Jews; as the religion itself acknowledged and was founded upon the Jewish religion, in contra distinction to every other religion, then professed among mankind: it was not to be wondered at, that some its teachers should carry it out in the world rather as a sect and modification of Judaism, than as a separate original revelation; or that they should invite their proselytes to those observances in which they lived themselves. ... I … think that those pretensions of Judaism were much more likely to be insisted upon, whilst the Jews continued a nation, than after their fall and dispersion; while Jerusalem and the temple stood, than after the destruction brought upon them by the Roman arms, the fatal cessation of the sacrifice and the priesthood, the humiliating loss of their country, and, with it, of the great rites and symbols of their institution. It should seem, therefore, from the nature of the subject and the situation of the parties, that this controversy was carried on in the interval between the preaching of Christianity to the Gentiles, and the invasion of Titus: and that our present epistle ... must be referred to the same period.  
… the epistle supposes that certain designing adherents of the Jewish law had crept into the churches of Galatia; and had been endeavouring, and but too successfully, to persuade the Galatic converts, that they had been taught the new religion imperfectly, and at second hand; that the founder of their church himself possessed only an inferior and disputed commission, the seat of truth and authority being in the apostles and elders of Jerusalem; moreover, that whatever he might profess among them, he had himself, at other times and in other places, given way to the doctrine of circumcision. The epistle is unintelligible without supposing all this. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 361)  
Section VII.  
This epistle goes farther than any of St. Paul’s epistles; for it avows in direct terms the supersession of the Jewish law, as an instrument of salvation, even to the Jews themselves. Not only were the Gentiles exempt from its authority, but even the Jews were no longer either to place any dependency upon it, or consider themselves as subject to it on a religious account. "Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto faith which should afterward be revealed: wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but, after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Chap. [chapter] iii. 23-25) This was undoubtedly spoken of Jews, and to Jews. … What then should be the conduct of a Jew (for such St. Paul was) who preached this doctrine? To be consistent with himself, either he would no longer comply, in his own person, with the directions of the law; or, if he did comply, it would be some other reason than any confidence which he placed in its efficacy, as a religious institution. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II pp. 366-367)  
Preface  
The religion of the ancient Galatae was extremely corrupt and superstitious: and they are said to have worshipped the mother of the gods, under the name of Agdistis; and to have offered human sacrifices of the prisoners they took in war.  
They are mentioned by historians as a tall and valiant people, who went nearly naked; and used for arms only a sword and buckler. The impetuosity of their attack is stated to have been irresistible…’” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 369)  
From The New Jerome Biblical Commentaryⁱⁱ  
"Introduction  
The Galatai, originally an Indo-Aryan tribe of Asia, were related to the Celts or Gauls (“who in their own language are called Keltae, but in ours Galli”) ... About 279 BC some of them invaded the lower Danube area and Macedonia, descending even into the Gk [Greek] peninsula. After they were stopped by the Aetolians in 278, a remnant fled across the Hellespont into Asia Minor …  
Occasion and Purpose  
… He … stoutly maintained that the gospel he had preached, without the observance of the Mosaic practices, was the only correct view of Christianity … Gal [Galatians] thus became the first expose` of Paul’s teaching about justification by grace through faith apart from deeds prescribed by the law; it is Paul’s manifesto about Christian freedom.  
... Who were the agitators in Galatia? … they are best identified as Jewish Christians of Palestine, of an even stricter Jewish background than Peter, Paul, or James, or even of the ‘false brethren' (2:4) of Jerusalem, whom Paul had encountered there. (The account in Acts 15:5 would identify the latter as ‘believers who had belonged to the sect of the Pharisees.’) … The agitators in Galatia were Judaizers, who insisted not on the observance of the whole Mosaic law, but at least on circumcision and the observance of some other Jewish practices. Paul for this reason warned the Gentile Christians of Galatia that their fascination with ‘circumcision’ would oblige them to keep ‘the whole law’ (5:3). The agitators may have been syncretists of some sort: Christians of Jewish perhaps Essene, background, affected by some Anatolian influences. … (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC pp. 780-781)   END NOTES
ⁱ The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The text carefully printed from the most correct copies of the present Authorized Version. Including the marginal readings and parallel texts. With a Commentary and Critical Notes. Designed as a help to a better understanding of the sacred writings. By Adam Clarke, LL.D. F.S.A. M.R.I.A. With a complete alphabetical index. Royal Octavo Stereotype Edition. Vol. II. [Vol. VI together with the O.T.] New York, Published by J. Emory and B. Waugh, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the conference office, 13 Crosby-Street. J. Collord, Printer. 1831.  
ⁱⁱ The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Union Theological Seminary, New York; NY, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (emeritus) Catholic University of America, Washington, DC; Roland E. Murphy, O.Carm. (emeritus) The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC, with a foreword by His Eminence Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini, S.J.; Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990  
  Chapter One  
…  

Tiding of [בשורת, BeSOoRahTh, Gospel] one
[verses 6-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
How [כיצד, KaYTsahD] was [היה, HahYaH] Shah`OoL [“Lender”, Saul, Paul] to become a Sent Forth [Apostle]
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

…  
Chapter Two  

Sending forth of Shah’OoL required upon hands of the Sent Forth
[verses 1-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
The YeHOo-DeeYM [“YHVH-ites”, Judeans] and the nations, righteous from inside belief
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

...
-16. And since [וכיון, VeKhayVahN] that know, we, that [כי, KeeY] the ’ahDahM [“man”, Adam] is not made righteous in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction [Torah, law],
rather in belief of the Anointed [המשיח, HahMahSheeY-ahH, the Messiah, the Christ] YayShOo`ah [“Savior”, Jesus],
believe, also we, in Anointed YayShOo`ah,
to sake we are made righteous from inside belief in Anointed,
and not in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction,
that yes, in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction is not made righteous any [כל, KahL] flesh.  

“As a Pharisee, Paul had been taught that works of law were deeds done in obedience to the Torah, contrasted with things done according to one’s own will. The object of this obedience was to render oneself acceptable to God – to ‘justify’ oneself. Having found this impossible, Paul reinforced the evidence from his own experience by Ps. [Psalm] 143:2, where the sinner prays God not to enter into judgment with him because in God’s sight no man living is righteous. Into this passage from the LXX [The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible] Paul inserted ‘by works of law,’ and wrote σαρξ [sarx], ‘flesh,’ instead of ζων [zon], ‘one living.’ This quotation warns us against setting Paul’s salvation by grace over against Judaism in such a way as to obscure the fact that the Jews depended also upon God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies (I Kings 8:46; Job 10:14-15; 14:3-4; Prov. [Proverbs] 20:9; Eccl. [Ecclesiasticus] 7:20; Mal. [Malachi] 3:2; Dan. [Daniel] 9:18).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  
“Justified is a metaphor from the law court. The Greek verb is δικαιοω [dikaioo], the noun δικαιοσουνη [dikaiosoune’], the adjective δικαιος [dikaios]. The common root is δικ [dik] as in δεικνυμι [deiknumi], ‘point out,’ ‘show.’ The words formed on this root point to a norm or standard to which persons and things must conform in order to be ‘right.’ The English ‘right’ expresses the same idea, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘richt,’ which means ‘straight,’ not crooked, ‘upright,’ not oblique. The verb δικαιοω means ‘I think it right.’ A man is δικαιος, ‘right’ when he conforms to the standard of acceptable character and conduct, and δικαιοσυνη, ‘righteousness,’ ‘justice,’ is the state or quality of this conformity. In the LXX these Greek words translate a group of Hebrew words formed on the root צדק [TsehDehQ], and in Latin the corresponding terms are justifico, justus, and justificatio. In all four languages the common idea is the norm by which persons and things are to be tested. Thus in Hebrew a wall is ‘righteous’ when it conforms to the plumb line, a man when he does God’s will.  
From earliest boyhood Paul had tried to be righteous. But there came a terrible day when he said ‘I will covet’ to the law’s ‘Thou shalt not,’ and in that defiance he had fallen out of right relation to God and into the ‘wrath,’ where he ‘died’ spiritually… Thenceforth all his efforts, however strenuous, to get ‘right’ with God were thwarted by the weakness of his sinful human nature, the ‘flesh’ (σαρξ) [sarx]. That experience of futility led him to say that a man is not justified by works ‘of law.’” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  

[Actually Paul changed his point of view as a result of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, not as a result of intellectual contemplation. His many failures hitherto had not led him to this conclusion. The description of Paul in the preceding paragraph is a fiction.]  

“In the eyes of the psalmists and rabbis this was blasphemously revolutionary. Resting on God’s covenant with Abraham, they held it axiomatic that the ‘righteous’ man who had conscientiously done his part deserved to be vindicated before a wicked world; otherwise God could not be righteous. … In Judaism God was thought of as forgiving only repentant sinners who followed their repentance with right living …  
The theological expression for this conception of salvation is ‘justification by faith.’ Unfortunately this Latin word does not make plain Paul’s underlying religious experience, which was a change of status through faith from a wrong to a ‘right’ relationship with God… It conceals from the English reader the fact that the Greek word also means ‘righteousness.’ … (observe the ASV [American Standard Version] mg. [marginal note], ‘accounted righteous’).  
But ‘reckoned’ and ‘accounted’ expose Paul’s thought to misinterpretation by suggesting a legal fiction which God adopted to escape the contradiction between his acceptance of sinners and his own righteousness and justice.  
On the other hand, Paul’s term, in the passive, cannot be translated by ‘made righteous’ without misrepresenting him. In baptism he had ‘died with Christ’ to sin. By this definition the Christian is a person who does not sin! And yet Paul does not say that he is sinless, but that he must not sin. … This laid him open to a charge of self contradiction; sinless and yet not sinless, righteous and unrighteous, just and unjust at the same time. Some interpreters have labeled it ‘paradox,’ but such a superficial dismissal of the problem is religiously barren and worse than useless.  
The extreme difficulty of understanding Paul on this matter has led to a distinction between ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification,’ which obscures Paul’s urgency to be now, at this very moment, what God in accepting him says he is: a righteous man in Christ Jesus. Justification is reduced to a forensic declaration by which God acquits and accepts the guilty criminal, and sanctification is viewed as a leisurely process of becoming the kind of person posited by that declaration. This makes perfection seem far less urgent than Paul conceived it, and permits the spiritual inertia of human nature to continue its habit of separating religion from ethics. To prevent this misunderstanding it is necessary to keep in mind the root meaning of ‘righteousness’ in δικαιοω and its cognates.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 484-485)  

-19. I died according to [לגבי, LeGahBaY] the Instruction, because of [בגלל, BeeGLahL] the Instruction, in order [כדי, KeDaY] that I will live to God.  

“… The Pharisees taught that the Torah was the life element of the Jews; all who obeyed would live, those who did not would die (Deut. [Deuteronomy] 30:11-20).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 488-489)  

-20. With the Anointed I was crucified, and no more I live, rather the Anointed lives in me.
The life that I live now in flesh, I live them in the belief of Son [of] the Gods that loved me and delivered up [ומסר, OoMahÇahR] himself in my behalf [בעדי, Bah`ahDeeY].  

“The danger was that Paul’s Gentile converts might claim freedom in Christ but reject the cross-bearing that made it possible. Lacking the momentum of moral discipline under Moses, which prepared Paul to make right use of his freedom, they might imagine that his dying and rising with Christ was a magical way of immortalizing themselves by sacramental absorption of Christ’s divine substance in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church has always been tempted to take Paul’s crucifixion with Christ in a symbolic sense only, or as an experience at baptism which is sacramentally automatic. It has also been tempted to reduce Paul’s ‘faith’ to bare belief and assent to his doctrine, and to equate his ‘righteousness’ with a fictitious imputation by a Judge made lenient by Christ’s death.  
Against these caricatures of ‘justification by faith,’ Paul’s whole life and all his letters are a standing protest. He never allows us to forget that to be crucified with Christ is to share the motives, the purposes, and the way of life that led Jesus to the Cross; to take up vicariously the burden of the sins of others, forgiving and loving instead of condemning them; to make oneself the slave of every man; to create unity and harmony by reconciling man to God and man to his fellow men; to pray without ceasing ‘Thy will be done’; to consign one’s life to God, walking by faith where one cannot see; and finally to leave this earth with the prayer ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.’  
… When Christ the Spirit came to live in Paul … Paul was guided at each step, in each new circumstance, to answer for himself the question: What would Jesus have me do? And the answer was always this: Rely solely on God’s grace through Christ, count others better than yourself, and make yourself everybody’s slave after the manner of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.  
… The phrase εν σαρκι [en sarki] … means, lit. [literally], in the flesh. Someday – Paul hoped it would be soon – this would be changed into a body like that of the risen Christ, which belonged to the realm of Spirit.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 490-493)  
“Christ lives in me: The perfection of Christian life is expressed here … it reshapes human beings anew, supplying them with a new principle of activity on the ontological¹ level of their very beings.” (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC p. 785)  

-21. I do not nullify [מבטל, MeBahTayL] [את, ’ehTh (indicator of direct object; no English equivalent)] mercy [of] Gods;
is not if [it] is possible to become righteous upon hand of the Instruction, see, that the Anointed died to nothing [לשוא, LahShahVe’]?  

“It is not I, he says, who am nullifying the grace of God by abandoning the law which is his grace-gift to Israel, but those who insist on retaining that law in addition to the grace which he has now manifested in Christ.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 495)

  Footnotes   ¹ Ontological - relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being  
An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible

I'm in Virginia.
In early May, a glass contractor sold me a mirror for $328.00. The line items on the invoice were $178.00 materials and $150.00 installation. I have a paid invoice and proof of payment.
It was installed as a part of a bathroom renovation with new cabinets. I served as my own General Contractor.
The glass contractor told me verbally to leave the 2X4 supports in place for "3 or 4 days." I removed them after 5 days. The mirror fell a few minutes later, breaking of course, left minor scratching the new wood cabinets and a tiny gouge in the new solid countertop. I have pictures of the broken glass all over the bath and the scratches in the cabinets. The countertop damage doesn't really show in photos.
I called him to inform him of the mirror falling. On the phone he said that all he could do was install a new mirror and that the glue varies in curing time depending on temperature and humidity. I said "but what about the cabinets?" He said he would come by the next day and look.
The next day I received a text stating that he had a family emergency out of town and had to cancel. I sent him polite texts 6 days later and 2 weeks after that asking him to respond. I also left polite voicemail messages. No response was received to any of these.
I want at least a refund plus whatever it costs me to file the small claims lawsuit. The value of the damages to the cabinets and counter would be difficult to document but I'm open to ideas.
Do I have a case? Thanks for your help.

I don't know if you leaving me right now makes this rock-bottom or if I was already there and you leaving made me realize it.
I loved you with all I've got. I wanted you to myself, for the rest of our lives. I wanted to wake up next to you, smiling and wondering how you ever fell for me. I wanted that for the rest of my days.
Today, months after breaking up, and you moving on. I'm still here, at the bottom, trying to climb my way out, and falling back into the pit, at every thought of you. Every good thing I hear about your life makes me fall back to the bottom of the pit. I want great things for you. I want all the happiness and the good things the universe has to offer to be yours. I wanted to be right by your side when you were happy. I still do, but you're engaged now, and I'm here giving up. Hope is the last thing you give up, and I'm about to give that up.
You're the best thing that happened to me. I never deserved you for a second. I always told you that you're unbelievable, and you thought I was putting you on a pedestal. That was until you saw the truth and left me saying "I know what I deserve, and you don't deserve me"
I never put you on a pedestal, just where you deserved to be.
I've seen death from up close before. I've seen close family members pass; I've seen a friend take their life. I've cried for a few days, questioning everything and why the universe is so cruel to take someone away. And then I lost you from my life. You're still out there, happier without me, and I'm here crying, months after you've walked away from a life with me. It saddens me that you've left me but the rest of the world gets to experience your presence, and that you're someone else's sunshine now. Maybe the reason this hits harder is because with death, I lost people in my life, but with this break up, I've died in your eyes. I'm dead to you, and that hurts more than any person I've lost before.
If all the books, movies, and tv were right, shouldn't I be happy that you moved on to a happier life without me? Why do I wish you hadn't?
Why did you have to be happier without me, while I'm miserable without you?
I will miss you for a very long time. You were my sunshine, and the reason to keep moving. You've changed me for the better.
I started to type "I loved you like I loved _______" but then I couldn't come up with anything else I loved like I loved you. You are the only person I've ever really loved. And I know you didn't feel the same. What started as a great love story ended up as unrequited love.
You are both the greatest joy, and the greatest sorrow of my life. I love you, and I miss you.
I hope some day, you look back at me, as you're sitting with your family, and smile for the good times we've had. Smile, thinking of us, one more time.
Keep being the sunshine the world desperately needs.

Hi all. I am a MB and we’ve had our lovely nanny for about 1.5 years for our 2yo. We just got off a daycare waitlist and we accepted the spot, which means saying goodbye to nanny. She doesn’t know we were on waitlists so it will be a bit of surprise and she’s been going through some personal issues so I know she won’t be thrilled. We will miss her dearly but it’s time for 2yo to socialize more and to cut back on what we spend too. What’s a good way to break the news? There isn’t a good way that I can think of! How do we cushion the blow? We will pay out all of her unused vacation days because she was saving them for a trip. Not sure how much of a severance we can afford on top of that. We want to stay on good terms for future occasional babysitting opportunities (not sure if she will want them). 2yo will no doubt miss her too. Any advice or tips on how you would want your family to “break up” with you? Tips from other moms for whom this has gone well and you were able to preserve a good relationship?

I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way in the past I’ve been with men who mistreated me so much and even after breaking up with them Id only crave their attention.
This is the first time I’m missing someone fully I’m not going crazy like a junkie the love we shared was so calming it’s just extremely distressing and I feel grief it feels like my closest friend is dead.
We were in a long distance thing but lately things didn’t feel right I brought it up and I thought we’d come up with a solution but he said he didn’t know what was up because everything with me was perfect and I had never made him feel bad and was the best girlfriend he had but he felt out of it and had no clue and we broke up it was very civil and we had an hour long conversation about it. He said that he wanted me to be happy and he didn’t know how to fix things.
During the period of time I’ve been with him I transformed as a person for the better- he was there for me when my antidepressants tapered off he was there through several medical treatments when I was 50kgs to when i was 65kgs and back to 55kgs it was only around 6 months back when everything started to fall into place I was working hard in school and eating clean and exercising and but we broke up now. While I know i’ll be able to keep my shit together its not impossible but knowing that he would never hold me again feels so hard.
I just want to turn back time and be with him even if its just for a day, I didn’t really ask him to try this once cause it felt like a disservice to me and him both if i had to beg us to be together so I just let go.
I’m kind of glad we parted ways early on instead of hating each other by sticking together in a limbo but at the same time i do feel extremely hurt that he didn’t really fight for us. I think we were snapping at each other lately and I didn’t necessarily like it so I tried to do my best to fix things that were under my control, but I knew I needed to have a talk with him because i couldn’t have done this alone.
I feel anger towards him because he just gave up so easily but I don’t or i can’t possibly hate him.
He was the most wonderful person I’ve been with and it feels like this hurt will never stop. It’s so much easier to part ways with someone you knew wasn’t good for you but he was good in every way possible. I never felt so safe around someone, he made me feel at ease and now we’re supposed to be strangers.
What’s worse is I can’t imagine being w someone else even in the distant future because there’s no one except him I’d rather be with, but again I don’t think I’d ever ask him to try to be with me because i shouldn’t have to beg someone to be with me.
I know he’s proud of me for how far i’ve come and so am I for him. But it’s heart wrenching we won’t get to see each other grow.
What’s even harder is knowing it was great but not feasible to stay together. Its so much easier to breakup with a bad partner, I lowkey wish he had cheated on me.

This is a popular notion, though it's more of a colloquial metaphor in modern times.
Go back a couple hundred years and it's a much more literal idea.
​
Humans used to brew their own beer and wine in their homes. For some cultures, a newly married couple would be gifted fermentation vessels and equipment for their homes. But more than that, people would pass down their active yeast cultures from generation to generation. They would store extra yeast in yeast logs, yeast rings and other vessels and equipment.
This made new fermentation processes easier. Simply dip the active cultures in the brew and the fermentation process is jumpstarted. They had bloodlines (yeast lines?) of the same cultures of yeast for generations, sometimes going back hundreds of years.
In that way humans would truly drink with their ancestors. The same microbial colonies that fermented their drinks is fermenting your drinks now. Ancestral yeast passed down from family to family.
I believe there is more to it than simply easting the same food. There's memory in microbes, especially fungus. It becomes a part of the microbiome. Most ancient cultures didn't fully filter out their beers. The yeast provided valuable nutrients and protein. It was a much fuller source of food and integral to surviving the winter or long voyages. (I've talked about this before, but on top of drinking the yeast, they used a lot of medicinal plants and herbs in their beers so that their beer was highly nutritious and medicinal)
Of course today we've lost that. Beer is made with only a couple of different grains or wheats, the yeast is filtered out completely and the cleaning methods for brewing beer is essentially to bleach everything and they add chemicals to deactivate the yeast process. It's become an industrial process when before it was a spiritual and religious process.
They believed yeast was a miracle, that it came from the heavens, or spirits or gods. It was a magical process that converted food and water into the drink of the gods, helping to build community and health.
Hospitality was centered around the breaking and sharing of bread and wine/beer to the guest. Sharing a meal (microbes) was how people came close. Eating is the most communal activity humans can partake in.
​
Here are some interesting articles for further reading
https://medievalmeadandbeer.wordpress.com/2019/05/04/scandinavian-yeast-logs-yeast-rings/
https://www.exploreyeast.com/what-is-yeast/yeast-one-of-humankinds-oldest-ingredients/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49262255
https://www.soegjobs.com/ancient-hospitality-customs/
https://stacker.com/food-drink/history-fermentation-around-world
https://mattersjournal.com/stories/fermentingillustratedhistory

A light snow had been falling for a few hours before you arrived, blanketing the forest in white. Now you were trudging through it, admiring the purity of the scene. Engrossed in your own thought, you failed to notice something shifting through the snowy landscape - hunting. It approached you slowly, cautiously, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. And when you turned to enter a clearing in the deepest part of the forest, it found it. WHUMPF! You were knocked to the ground by some unseen force, and when you picked yourself up and looked around, everything seemed - larger. You brushed it off along with the snow; it must have been a trick of the light. You were about to keep walking when a booming voice met your ears: "Where do you think you're going?" Trembling, you turned and looked up. Standing over you was a gigantic snowball, looking down at you with cold, black eyes. You couldn't move, you couldn't speak. The snowball grinned and added, "Snowball. But I guess you knew that already." "Standard-issue shrink ray," Snowball explained, revealing the cause of your diminutive stature, but you didn't want any more to think about. Why was a snowball talking to you? Why had it shrunk you? And... why did it have fangs? The fangs were being moistened by a drooling tongue as Snowball eyed you up and down. There was something telling you to run away, but you never got the chance, for as soon as the thought entered your head Snowball reached down and picked you up. You were paralyzed with fear, but unable to break eye contact. Then Snowball opened his mouth. Past those fangs you could see his huge, wet tongue, and beyond that the throat, a bottomless pit pulsating with anticipation. It was only when you were dangling above those terrible jaws when you realized: He was going to eat you. You started flailing around in the air, desperate to escape this disgusting fate. But Snowball's grip never faltered. Still not lifting his gaze from your terrified face, he began to lower you toward his gaping maw. There seemed no point to resisting now. Snowball placed you gently on his tongue and his jaws shut with a snap, shutting you out from the outside world. As you were swallowed, the throat muscles pushing you ever deeper, you heard Snowball's voice echo around you: "Enjoy the ride... heh heh."
---end---

This is a weekly post where you can talk about Ravens news from the past week, discuss sports in general, or any other topics that come to mind. Please be respectful to each other, report comments that break Reddiquette.

Hello, I launched redacted for mods last week and have seen a few customers but nothing spectacular in terms of traction. I do not understand how basic "Add a chatbot to your website" services seem to zoom to multi-thousands MRR, but a novel use of conversational AI falls so flat. I mainly have used Reddit, LinkedIn, and Hacker News to market so far. LinkedIn only gives a couple hundred impressions, the Hacker News posts/reposts fell flat with only an upvote or two. It seems reddit has been my best channel for user growth at the moment.
Redacted for mods is a personal automated journaling/logging tool that uses conversational AI to help people track their thoughts or feelings about any topic through helpful questions and summaries. Think of it like having a 24/7 accountability buddy for $2/mo. A log like this will be fundamental for helping AI companions of the future get to know us enough to further automate parts of our lives and businesses.
I understand Apple may be launching some sort of AI journal soon, so maybe I'll get a lift off of that, but I'm curious on feedback and some actions I can take every day to further the spread?

I do think their relationship was genuinely at its end for a while, I think Ariana knew but was in denial because she has codependency issues. Falling out of love happens unfortunately. I also kind of believe that they both wanted to portray something different to cameras. They did have a brand and a lot at stake. Also Ariana was less concerned about Tom being there when her grandma died then she was when people speculated on their relationship. To say that she will leave the show, leave LA if they break up when she already had a location for SAH and that was running off the ground is a lot. Cheating unfortunately happens and I’m not justifying it. What’s worse is that Tom has a pattern of isolating women, making them believe that he is the only thing that they have and telling them how to feel. Because the only thing we and the cast can see is this affair, these tiny little details that end a relationship have been reduced to irrelevancy. This may be unpopular so I’m prepared to be downvoted lol🤷🏽‍♀️

An old Foe
Astarte observed the assassin, who matched the description Alice had given her of Rachel’s attacker to a T. That, and their brief clash told Astarte that she was heavily augmented with cybernetics. So heavily that it left the question of whether there was any human left in her.
Astarte wasn’t one to shy away from artificial augmentations. A good forty percent of her body mass had been replaced or enhanced with the fruits of the Toy man’s research. But ripping off entire limbs just to replace them with reinforced metal prosthetics didn’t sit right with her. It was why she had settled for the Toy mans unique brand of augmentation.
There was also the assassin’s supposed connection to Astarte’s past to consider. She had called her Daisey, and that above everything else unsettled her.
She had few friends who had known her as Daisey, and none of them still called her that. Kar had only known Daisey for a few months before she had become Astarte, so he adapted easily to the new name. Lucile, her biological mother, had just shrugged and said ‘Daisey’ was a dumb name anyway. Which had stung a bit, even if she agreed.
Her real mother, Saint Mary, the woman who had actually raised her had just smiled sadly and asked if she could call her Aster for short. Astarte had agreed, not knowing that Asteraceae was another word for Daisey. It was her mom’s subtle way of saying she would always be the same little Daisey to her.
Then there was Alwen, who had teased the name out of her and then promptly ignored it. She…she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
It was a short list of friends who knew her by her original name, and the list of enemies was even shorter. Most, if not all, having died during the battle of Greyland when Astarte led her ship into battle against her old crew.
The assassin could be using info she had dug up second hand, but something about the way she said the name suggested otherwise. That, and the fact that Daisey had never had a birth certificate or any other official documents with her name on them.
Which left with absolutely no idea who this assassin was.
“Sorry you’ve got the wrong person, no Daisey’s here” Astarte said blandly, like the assassin had dialed the wrong number. Then turned her back on the assassin and began to stride away, like someone hadn’t just tried to take her head off.
Astarte got a good ten or twenty meters before the assassin got over the shock at being so blatantly ignored. The sound of rushing, heavy, footsteps soon grew uncomfortably close. Astarte had spotted a reflective bit of glass and had been waiting for the moment the assassin struck a second time. Going for her head once again, and once again completely overextending.
Astarte could have taken this chance to take the assassins arm and break it at the elbow. But something told Astarte that it wouldn’t be as effective as it would normally be. And besides, she also liked going for peoples heads. In one smooth motion she ducked below the assassin’s stab, sidestepped the slash from her other arm, and swung up with Tenken. She misjudged the assassin’s position from the reflection and was aiming a little higher than she had wanted, but a bisecting face slash was just as good as any decapitating chop.
Or, it should have been.
Her sword had a clear shot through the assassin’s guard and was pushed forward with all her not inconsiderable strength. Tenken’s edge cut straight into the assassin’s green bug mask and should have bit in the soft tissue of their flesh with ease. Instead the blade’s edge was stopped, and the assassin was thrown back with the brute kinetic force of the attack.
Astarte stared at the still breathing assassin with shock before glancing down at her blade. There, along the edge that had connected with her attacker, was a noticeable blunted section. Her eyes widened at the sight.
The literal edge of the blade folded back along its thinnest section. Astarte felt her blood boil and glowered at the assassin rising to her feet. “You thick headed bitch, do you know how many hours this will take to fix?” she spat with all the bile she could summon.
She took care of her blade. She had commissioned the most technologically superior blade money could buy and had taken its maintenance very seriously. Hours of sharpening and polishing set aside from her busy schedule. Sweaty sparing sessions in the ship’s gym to keep her skills sharp and worthy of such a fine blade. She even kept a cloth on her at all times to wipe the blood off, even though the metal used in its smithing literally couldn’t rust!
And this bitch just blunted a whole five inches of its blade.
Well better blunted than chipped.
No, wait, there was a chip!
The assassin had the gall to laugh. “I’m here to kill you, and your worried about your stupid sword? You’ve spent too much time with Mizuno.” The assassin spat.
Now that was an old name.
Mizuno-sensei had been a high-ranking member of Greyson’s crew aboard the Black Saint, Astarte’s first ship. He had taken pity on the hafu whore’s daughter from New Mombasa who knew nothing about her cultural heritage and had decided to mentor her. He had been one of the few people aboard the Black Saint who was kind and caring. He had taught her what he could of Japanese culture and had started training her in the ways of the sword and Bushido, though admittedly the lessons in bushido never fully took hold.
He had seen potential in her and had nurtured it.
And in return, when he refused to leave his ‘lord’ Greyson, she killed him.
The only thing that soothed that particular wound in her psyche was that she had the luxury of facing her mentor in one-on-one combat. It was what he had wanted.
The fact that this assassin knew that name meant she had ties with Astarte’s days with the Terran pirates. But that still left a huge question mark over who she was.
“Still don’t remember me?” the assassin growled. “I thought you might be pretending, but you really don’t recognize me.” The assassin said in disbelief.
“How could I recognize anyone behind a mask? The whole point of a mask is to hide your identity.” Astarte snarked. Whoever this woman was, she was prone to angry outbursts and reckless attacks. Better to keep her pissed off and reckless than calm and collected.
The assassin huffed a laugh and lifted a hand to the mask with a huge gash in it. she pulled it off her face and it came off with a hiss. Underneath Astarte saw the dark skin and slim rounded features of a shaved African women. And as someone born and raised in New Mombasa she easily saw the ethnic similarities between this woman and her own Kenyan mother.
But there were discrepancies in her face that triggered something primal in Astarte’s mind. Something that said her face was wrong. Human-like, but not fully human. Like a creepy too real android, or some oddly rendered 3d rendering of a human.
Skin that was just a little too shiny, and not expressive enough. Eyes just a little too wide with a higher reflective quality. And the dark brown coloring of her eye was too uniform. Like a single band of brown instead of the typical variations found in human eyes.
All that, along with the huge dent in her cheek from where her blade had impacted, told Astarte that nothing about this woman’s face was flesh and blood.
She allowed her one surprised blink before Astarte shifted her weight into a more relaxed stance. “So are you a cyborg or an android?”
Body modding was something that had emerged on Earth after first contact. Most however didn’t go full cyborg. Most people were very attached to their flesh and blood limbs, and didn’t want to get amputated for some cold metal replacement. Most people with metal prosthetics were victims of industrial accidents, or like her own men had lost them in combat. Some adapted well to the prosthetic, others couldn’t cope with the loss of the limbs and spent years saving up for a new limb to be cloned.
Only a few chose to go full cyborg. Those like the Toy man who had suffered greatly and then fell in love with their cold replacements.
The assassins eyes squinted in confusion, moving just a little to fast to be natural. Her features just shifting into new expressions with little in between. Which sent a chill down Aster’s spin from the creepiness of it.
“You still don’t recognize me? Really?” the assassin asked in disbelief. As if Astarte was failing to follow some sort of script she had planned for this meeting.
Aster shrugged “Nope, you sure they made your new face look like your old one?”
The assassin glowered, “you steal the love of my life, leave me a shredded bloody mess to rot in a Union prison, and you don’t even remember me? You ruined my life and you can’t be bothered to remember me?”
Again Aster shrugged “I ruin a lot of lives, you’ll have to be more specific.”
The assassin let out a frustrated growl, one that did trigger an old memory.
Aster frowned as she tried to recall where she had heard that growl before. She remembered a faint whiff of spoiled beer and piss, dim lights, and a stab to the back. The scar on her shoulder tingled at the memory. She had been young, sixteen in fact. She had been with Greyson for over a year and had finally started to prove herself in raids. She wasn’t considered cannon fodder anymore and had earned the right to claim some of the bounty to start buying better gear. It was the new Kevlar vest under the Haori from Mizuno-sensei that had saved her life that day.
Greyson had started to take an interest in her rise, and his second in command had taken offense at that.
They had called her the butcher because when she fought she left behind scenes from a slaughterhouse. She reveled in tearing apart weak xenos, literally. She made a game out of it, slowly ripping them like they were tissue paper. Limb by limb.
Seeing it had changed a lot of Astarte’s brash and more xenophobic opinions she had developed as a dipshit street kid.
The butcher would doll out discipline to the crew with cold hard brutality. She had once gotten pissed at one of the cannon fodder kids Greyson hired and began beating them until his face was unrecognizable and he was permanently incapable of walking without severe medical intervention. Daisey had then been ordered to dump the bloody mess of a boy on a station and leave him for the xeno rats. She had instead taken him to a hospital, paid for his treatment, and earned her own beating for not just dumping him in a gutter. Daisey had only been spared the worst because she kept trying to fight back and Mizuno had respected that.
He said it was brave to stand up and fight against hopeless odds. Daisey had just been trying to spite the women by actually fighting back.
That woman always got away with her violent behavior because she was warming Greyson’s bed, and was by all accounts madly in love with him. Emphasis on madly. Woman worshiped him like a god and was insanely jealous and insecure. It wasn’t Byron’s fault that he slept around, it was all the conniving harlots trying to steal him away from her. Or something like that.
And when the brat who had disobeyed her orders, fought back instead of cower, and had been training diligently under Mizuno-sensei’s, drew Grayson’s wandering eye. Well, it seemed only right to kill the girl. Only for Daisey to be the better fighter.
That butcher had never fought someone as strong as she was. She only knew how to bully the weak. And Daisey had learned from the best swordsman in the whole Terran pirate faction. That butcher had growled in frustration as Daisey showed her up and out maneuvered her. Side stepping all her reckless strikes. Just like this assassin who had slaughtered an entire office and tried to attack Astarte in the same sort of sneak attack.
“Zera?” Astarte asked out loud.
The woman, Zera, scowled. “That’s right, finally remembered me.”
“Vaguely. Truth be told I haven’t thought of you in years. How’d you even survive, I left you in a puddle of your own blood missing an arm? I’d be impressed if you weren’t such a crazy bitch.”
She drew in a sharp breath and let it out through her teeth.
She looked like she was about to say something, but Astarte cut her off and waved her hand. “Actually, I don’t care. I killed you once, and I’ll do it again.”
Zera the butcher laughed. “I’m not the same woman I was before.” She stood up straighter and let the big cloak fall off her shoulders. Revealing a body with no visible flesh whatsoever. She didn’t even wear anything under that cloak since there was nothing to hide or be ashamed of. Just the shiny chrome-like surface of a body that was all machine. The only part of her body still recognizably human was her face, and that ended at her neck. “I’ve stepped beyond human limitations, and into a realm you can’t match.”
Astarte snorted. “No, you replaced the malleable limits of deathworlder anatomy for the stagnant hard barrier of titanium.”
“The flesh is weak.” Zera snarled.
“No,” Aster shot back. “Just your convictions. Besides, you’re not the only one to indulge in transhumanism. And I’ll admit I’m a little curious to see whose is superior.”
She settled into a guarded combat stance and the vision in her eye flicked into infrared and then into ultraviolet, scanning her opponent for any weak points. But just as her appearance suggested there was no flesh left in her. The rest was solid metal, wires, and artificial blood.
Astarte looked into full cybernetic augmentation before, but found the mechanical limitations… limiting. She had instead decided to lean into the superiority of Deathworld biology and work with what she had. Much to the Toy man’s delight.
Her bones were reinforced with a crystalline lattice that took advantage of the already sturdy nature of collogen bones and enhanced their structural abilities to allow for stronger muscles. The crystalline lattice acting like the steel I-beams in skyscrapers, taking and redistributing the force of an impact or pressure. It wasn’t perfect, nor as strong as outright metal bones would have been, but by working within the natural healing process of the human body her bones were mostly capable of healing back stronger than before. So long as there weren’t too many fractures.
With the reinforced skeleton the Toy man had been capable of working wonders with the human musculature to better exert force. Most people only ever used a fraction of their strength to begin with, only fully utilizing their muscles in extreme circumstances and often breaking their own bones and ligaments in the process. Simply unlocking the full strength of human muscles would been a miracle in its own right. But such petty accomplishments were beneath the Toy mans considerable skill. He had instead crafted advanced biomechanical ligaments so advanced it wasn’t hard to imagine them arising naturally on a more intense world than Earth.
Those two things, along a hundred other smaller alterations to improve the flow of oxygen and nutrients within her blood gave a her significant boost to the speed, strength, and endurance that made her a menace in a melee. But that was when facing ordinary people and unenhanced deathworlders. She had never had the chance to test herself against a full on cyborg assassin. She wondered how well the Toy mans more biologically focused enhancements compared to hydraulics and titanium.
They stood there staring at each other for a long moment, each sizing the other up. Zera’s glass eyes had flicked to Astarte’s red eye and a brief look of confusion flashed across her expression. Then her eyes flicked across Astarte’s armor, looking for good gaps in its coverage to strike at. Astarte in turn tried to judge whether any of Zera’s limbs could slide open to reveal a nasty surprise. She saw a few places to be concerned of.
Time stretched on, and soon it was just a silent battle of wills to see who would strike first. Each scanning the other for an opening, while also on guard for any fake openings. Astarte had to give some credit to Zera, her patience to stand there and look for openings already hinted at the fact that she had received some much needed combat training and discipline. Something she was utterly lacking in their last fight.
But time was on Aster’s side, and Zera knew this.
A slight lurch forward turned into a powerful standing leap that ate up the meters in between her and Astarte. Astarte heard a hard crack as some sort of mechanism in Zera’s legs sent launched her forward. Maybe some sort of tension spring that was let loose, or maybe something else. She didn’t have a spare moment to glance at the cyborg assassin’s legs as the woman was in her face and cutting down towards her head.
The battle had begun. And the struggle between enhanced flesh and metal cybernetics was fought.
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I have transient paralysis in my legs on occasion. My legs will stop being able to move or support my weight for about a second and a half to three seconds. If I'm standing up, it can be dangerous depending on where I'm standing and whether I have any handholds. What I'm wondering is whether a cane to break my fall when this happens would be practical. I can walk just fine. My mobility problems are minimal. The only use I really have for a cane is to help me fall safely if my legs give out and to help me walk safely if I feel I'm at risk of paralysis, but since I wouldn't be using it to help me get around most of the time, I'm not sure whether it would be more of a help than a pain. Thoughts? Do you have any recommendations about how to keep one from getting in the way too much since I usually won't need it to walk or stand?

I'll sleep pretty normally for weeks to a month at a time.
However, when my anxiety acts up, I'll start having a lot of issues with falling asleep. It will take me SO long to fall asleep, sometimes hours.
This will start to trigger my anxiety even more, which causes the insomnia to get even worse.
I'll start to worry about the potential health effects of not sleeping, and convince myself I'm going to die, or never be able to sleep again. I also start to feel like a dang zombie during the day because of lack of sleep. It's so hard to focus on anything other than not sleeping.
Two nights ago I slept for 6.5 hours straight, and last night I only slept for about 4.5-5 hours straight.
I currently take Lexapro 10 mg for my anxiety, and I take L-Theanine 200 mg and Apigenin before bed (heard it recommended on Joe Rogans podcast by a doctor). I was also recently prescribed Trazodone 50 mg (I break them in half, so 25 mg)

[←Chapter 52] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 54→]
Efrain woke, and with consciousness reasserting itself came a pain unlike any he’d ever experienced. It was a lugubrious sensation that stretched over the entirety of his body like a giant bruise. It took a further moment to remember that this was not normal, and in fact was quite alarming. He tried to gauge where he was, but found only blackness to greet him.
So I’m blind as well? He thought, with all the dispassionate annoyance of a man finding a favoured tool lost.
He could still feel his feet and fingers, wrapped in cloth as they were, so that was a comfort. Reaching for his head, he found the cold stone of the mask still there, though it lacked a lot of the curse that gave it its ‘hungry’ quality. Tugging it, he felt it resettle into a more natural position, and with it light came in to show his surroundings.
There was canvas arcing over a ribcage of wood, which rocked with every turn and bump in the rode. A gentle sunlight managed to penetrate the cloth, flickering with the passage of leaves. Efrain gripped the wooden frame and drew himself up to sit, trying to remember how he’d gotten here. His groan at the effort attracted the attention of Innie, who was sitting by the open slit near the front.
“Efrain?” she asked, hesitatingly.
“Yes, yes. It’s me,” he said, the words feeling foreign and slippery on his non-existent tongue.
“Efrain?” she asked again.
“Yes! Yes. It’s me. Here, somehow. What the hell happened?”
“You… you absolute fool!” she half-screamed, “you nearly got yourself killed!”
“I-” he said, the phrase ‘got yourself killed’ stirring something of a memory within. It was very distant, without much cohesion, like a memory of childhood. Still, there was enough there to remember some definite sensations, a sight and sound or two-
“You know what,” he said slowly, “I think I might’ve actually been dead, at least for a little bit,” he said, pulling at his hood.
“What?!” she gasped, “how could you possibly know that?”
“I was… somewhere else. I can barely remember, but it was so strange. I had my body again, I think, and it was…” he started trying to piece together the fragments flitting about the edge of recollection.
Her expression suggested that she was actively considering the potential that her partner had gone completely insane.
“It was someplace I don’t think I’ve ever been before, but it was still familiar,” he said, “I think I met somewhere there. Or multiple people. I definitely saw- there was something that-”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“It was- it was very strange,” he said, further efforts to find other words failing him, “well, in any case, I’m back. I think so, anyway.”
“How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been dashed against a cliffside,” he laughed, “I thought I wasn’t supposed to feel pain in this form. That was supposed to be one of the advantages.”
“You scared me. The only reason I didn’t think you were fully dead was that your bones retained their shape, even though you were unconscious.”
“Huh…” Efrain murmured, raising an arm to inspect it, “that shouldn’t be possible. The enchantments holding me together should’ve fallen apart as soon as I went under.”
After a cursory inspection to verify all of his limbs were present and more-or-less correct, he looked over at the cat.
“However it happened, it would appear that I’m not done yet,” he said slowly, only half-sure in the conviction.
There was something different about how he experienced himself, just in the background, but definitely there. It was a sense of disconnection, like he was floating just behind or above his body, experiencing what he did from an outside perspective.
“Well, I suppose that’s… good,” said Innie.
“Don’t cry too much for me,” he said, “anyways what happened? I don’t remember anything after the crypt, other than the fire.”
“We did it,” she said, “more-or-less, the creatures were largely incinerated, good riddance. Unfortunately a defender or two got caught up in the blaze, as well.”
“Oh dear,” Efrain said.
“Are you really surprised? It wasn’t our power, and we certainly didn’t know how to control it. I’m surprised we didn’t burn ourselves in the process.”
“Not an experience I would care to undergo again, that’s for sure.”
Innie’s shiver indicated that she thought much the same.
“Right, right,” he continued, “so then, how did we get from there to here, then? And where is here?”
“A wagon, travelling with the train of troops, heading south for Karkos. The commander offered you a slot, unconscious as you were.”
“I would’ve thought burning a few villagers would’ve soured his disposition.”
“Apparently not. Efrain, I don’t know this man, but he’s clearly playing his own game, and it involves you.”
“I see,” he said, tugging at his robe so that it hung around his shoulder more naturally, “I assume you acted on my behalf while I was… gone, for lack of a better word.”
“I did what I could, which wasn’t much. I was fully expecting them to fall upon us after that, especially you, defenceless. But no, he came to me and proposed that we come with him.”
“He… treated with you?”
“He said that we probably wouldn’t find much welcome among the villagers, and the paladins were not inclined to let us go either. His soldiers, on the other hand, would follow his orders, and he could personally guarantee our safety all the way to Karkos if we chose to come.”
“And you went with him,” Efriain sighed.
“What else was I supposed to do?” None of your ‘friends’ were nearby, and Naia was right about the villagers, to say nothing about the paladins. I don’t use money, nor would most treat a cat given the choice. Did you want me to drag you out into the wilderness and run into a wildling looking for a chew toy, or worse?”
“All right, allright,” he said, raising his hands to placate the wisp mother, “I don’t begrudge you anything. It sounds like you made the right choice.”
There was a silence, in which Efrain clearly perceived that Innialysia was apprehensive.
“Efrain he… and I want you to understand, even with all the things I said earlier, I was still going to refuse him. I didn’t and don’t trust him still but he told me that… that the River had told him that he needed us.”
The revelation was one that ran along his spine, and threw the captain into an entirely different light. Using the River’s words as a bargaining chip, or even just reassurance spoke to a knowledge of the magical world that far surpassed most in his lands. He must’ve known that Innie was loath to speak to the ignorant, and tempered his speech accordingly.
“Well, we’re at his mercy, for better or worse,” Efrain said, “where on the trail are we and how long have I been out?”
“Three nights, so roughly four days of travel,” she said, cocking her head, “I think that puts us two or three days from the city proper. I’m not sure, I’ve rarely come down this way.”
Efrain tried to recall the geography of the region, without much success. After a few minutes though, the aimless maps he drew in his head began to resolve with some clarity. They would be reaching the edge of the forests in a day or two, and entering the outlying highlands of the coast. From there, they’d rapidly come across the farmlands owned by the city that flanked its outskirts. The pain was beginning to subside now that he had started to move his limbs cautiously. To his joy, he could find no fault in them or their function, as far as he could tell.
“Well then,” he said “I guess I should meet with the commander and get a read on what he wants. Do you know where Tykhon is?”
“I think I saw it wandering behind the train, a far distance. It doesn’t want to get too close.”
The wagons had begun to slow, the light outside taking on a reddish hue as the sun began to dip. Obviously they were breaking for camp, which suited Efrain just fine. When they’d come to a full stop and Efrain drew himself up to go outside, he was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a face through the flap.
“Oh!” Aya said, in a half-squeak, “You’re awake!”
“I forgot to mention,” said Innie, “she’s been coming around every now and then.”
“Right, then, yes,” Efrain said, straightening, “how can I help you?”
“Well, I was just coming to chat with the madam,” she said.
“Madam?” Efrain said, looking at the cat who was conspicuously staring elsewhere.
“I didn’t realise that you were awake, I- I’ll just go and come back later. You probably have a lot on your mind,” said Aya, withdrawing through the break in the fabric.
“Well, that was a way to wake up,” said Efrain, listening to her footfalls fading into the distance, “right so… commander! Yes. Just need to get my bearings.”
Outside was slightly foggy, although Efrain gave much praise to gods he didn’t believe in that it wasn’t the unnatural, fear-laced apparition that had plagued them. The trees were less large and intimidating than the ancient northern conifers, the bowes of them dense and green. The breeze that wafted through them was noticeably warmer as well, though it still carried a northern chill.
“Right then,” Efrain said as he clambered down past the hitchings to the ground.
It didn’t take long to find a spirited young man, riding along behind them.
“Would you happen to know where your commander is?” Efrain said, erring on the side of politeness.
“Good evening lord Efrain,” he said, “the commander ordered you to be sent when you awoke. You’ll likely find him near the top of the line, or at the centre of camp, depending on how set up he is.”
He pointed up through the line of horses and various pages and servants. Most were beginning to set up tents and firepits, or leading the mounts to be tied off. Efrain thanked the man and set off in the direction he indicated, weaving between the various groups that were forming. It didn’t take long for him to find Naia’s small tent, the standard bearer in front alerting the commander within.
Naia sat before a small table, furiously scribbling at a scrap of parchment. At his left was Damafelce, still in her riding gear, though she was currently attacking a bowl of something creamy with vigour. Efrain stood in silence for a few moments, watching as the knight pointed out something to the commander and murmured a correction. Both of them looked up as he cleared his throat, and Naia issued one of his sly smiles.
“My, lord Efrain, a delightful surprise,” he said, “in truth, I was beginning to worry we’d lost you for good. It would be an ill thing to carry a rotting body around all the way down to Karkos. Damafelce, you are excused, although I would like you to have that talk with Lethsoco. He’s been getting too eager recently.”
She nodded, and draining the last of her bowl, departed from the room. Efrain was offered a small stool, which he gratefully sank into before the commander.
“I’m sorry if jumping into business immediately might not be to your tastes,” said Naia with a genuine note of regret in his voice, “but there’s some conflicting reports I simply must sort out.”
Efrain laid his elbows on the table and laced his fingers, waiting for the commander to begin.
“Some are from my own soldiers, some are from the paladins, some are from others. I personally have my own beliefs, but I think it’s better to hear it from the horse’s mouth, as it were. Would you mind telling me what happened after I rode away from the village?”
Efrain took a moment to gather himself, and piece together what spare memories he could, before beginning to relay the general account of what had happened. Over the course of the next half-hour, Naia interrupted him constantly, asking clarifying questions, or for more detail on this incident and that.
“Lillian told me that you attempted to burn down the church,” he said, “is that true?”
Efrain caught a distinct impression that the captain already suspected the truth, yet was encouraging him to proffer a lie.
“Well, I can understand why she might believe that,” he began diplomatically, “but no, that wasn’t my intent. The magic I was using was difficult to control, and I had to improvise quite a bit. Desperate times, desperate measures.”
“So the damage to the church was merely incidental,” Naia said, his eyes settling, “would that you could convince the paladins otherwise. They seem quite intent that you were trying to kill all of them.”
“I’m not holding out hope to curry favour with those two.”
“Implying that you might wish to do so elsewhere,” Naia said, the glimmer returning, “although I’ve had my fair share of headaches with those two, they’re more reasonable compared to others. They’re still young, they’ll probably settle with time and the right guidance.”
“They’ll have to learn not to be afraid of things they can’t control, if the children are any metric,” Efrain said, not interested in mincing words.
At that, Naia leaned forward, regarding Efrain with such intensity that the older man felt uncomfortable.
“‘Something they can’t control’...” he said, repeating the words with purpose, “but I do imagine you have some things to ask me, don’t you?”
“Several things,” Efrain said, “but I’ll stick with one for now. Why did you save me? Do you need me for something?”
Naia’s silence was full of purpose, cast in the shadows that flickering candles cast on his face. Without a word, he got up, and left through the front of the tent, exchanging words with the standard bearer outside. Efrain heard footsteps receding as Naia reappeared, sat down, and leaned in to lower his voice.
“I would say I believe I owe you a debt, or at least, that’s what I would say if you were stupid enough to believe that,” he said, “given I’ve already used that justification, I wouldn’t blame you if you were suspicious.”
Efrain leaned in himself, wondering where this apparent candidness had come from.
“If you really want to know, then the truth is simple,” he said, “I was taught from my earliest days that only a fool dismisses talent based on superstition. You might notice that many of my own ranks would be dismissed, if not outright laughed at by others. Damafelce, a knight, and what’s more a right-hand? A woman from the barbarous jungle of Nieth?”
He began to tap his quill on the desk.
“Tools, lord Efrain. I want, and have great need of them. I am not the paladins - my words on this parchment could command a garrison to be built, or a man to be cut down in his home. Creation, destruction, good, evil, all dependent on the whims of the wielder. Magic is the same.”
“And which variety would you prefer me to be?” Efrain asked.
“Both, as the need may take it. I did not get this far without being flexible, and neither will you,” said Naia, “and while we’re on the subject, let me offer you something.”
Efrain would’ve held his breath, but settled for stiffening to attention.
“I want you to come with me, to Karkos and beyond. I want you to serve under me, with all the obligations, and privileges, that implies.”
Efrain was struck genuinely speechless. He had, somewhere in the back of his mind, idly conjured the vision of such an offer, but it was a silly fantasy, not something to be believed, let alone desired.
“I understand if you are hesitant,” Naia said, spreading his hands, “but fate has dropped one opportunity into my lap, and I’m inclined to see if I can secure another. Call me greedy if you wish, but I was also taught to not let such things slip by.”
“I don’t- why would you-” Efrain began, trying to form a sentence to describe the whirlwind of shock within him.
“Consider this, Efrain - a young, up-and-coming commander with a good record. Rather unorthodox in his choices of subordinates, enough for some to whisper in the dark, enough even perhaps, to close off some opportunities for promotion.”
A smile flickered at the edge of his lips - he was clearly enjoying this pantomime.
“Now consider, that the man returns, safely bearing a paragon of the church, who’s been sought for over sixty years, through trial and tumult. His warriors and he are lauded for their ability and leadership, despite their odd origins. What could be in store for such a person? Respect, certainly, but what about promotion?”
“So, you want to be a general,” said Efrain.
Naia smiled and bowed his head, humbly presenting himself.
“And you need me because… why? Please don’t think I believe this whole screed on ‘talent’. You’re doing that to appeal to my own sensibilities about the church.”
Naia laughed openly at that, though it wasn’t the most pleasant sound.
“I see you’ll need more cajoling than that. There are other reasons a mage would be valuable to me, this is true. But I wasn’t lying about talent being valuable to me. All I ask is that you think about this offer, and if you’ll accept it, I’ll tell you the rest.”
Efrain sat in silence for a while, wondering at the strange offer. Listening to the wind whistling through the trees, his hand unconsciously crept up to scratch at his forehead. Naia was looking at him expectantly, perhaps hoping he’d jump into it impulsively to reveal the mystery, but Efrain was intent on gauging the motives of this man.
“You do know,” Efrain began, “that inferno up on the roof. It would be difficult, probably impossible to do it again. And, if I tried, there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t cause significant damage to your own side.”
“I guessed as much, and no, I wouldn’t expect a display like that,” Naia said with a wry smile, “you wouldn’t be of much use to me dead, Efrain.”
So he wants me alive to do something, something with magic? Or something else? Efrain thought. He began to think about what else had changed throughout the last few days, and tried to recall what exactly Naia would know from his reports.
Certainly he would probably have at least a neutral appraisal from his soldiers, but that couldn’t be it. And mages could be found to do all sorts of magical tasks, even in Angorrah, if one was willing to seek them out. So was it for some unique power or ability then? He had shown him the River, but that was also an accident. And he didn’t expect him to use the flames of the Wisp Matriarch, or so he said.
What did Efrain offer to Naia, something that he only, or at least only a few others, could offer him? What had changed the offer of cooperation from simple guidance to something more long-term and involved? Efrain furiously reflected over the last few days, and suddenly he had it.
And with that, a whole web opened up before him, glistening with many unknown strands.
“Commander, before I say anything, I would like to ask just three questions. Quick ones, I would think.”
“Please.”
“You are a commander, aren’t you? I was given to understand that they managed much larger forces than this company. Over whole regions, in fact. That would normally be your duties, no?
The man nodded.
“Usually up to a thousand, though circumstances demand otherwise on occasion. Still, this is the smallest force I’ve wielded for a while now. My trusted and favoured.”
“And tell me, the children, they’re usually guarded by a retinue of paladins, I would assume, back in the holy city?”
“Indeed. Dozens of them.”
Naia’s eyes were glittering.
“And you were heading to do what all that way up north?”
Efrain of course knew the answer to this question, but he needed the cover if he could get it.
“Subjugating a castle, filled with undead, or so the tales go,” he said, “they made quite a big deal of it, back in the castle.”
Efrain sat, slotting pieces into place as he studied the man’s face.
“There’s indeed something you’re not telling me, commander.”
“Oh?” Naia said.
It was a game to him, Efrain was sure of it. A game of guesses and knives in the dark.
“So,” he began, “the church talks up a mission to the far north, all the way across the continent. Some terrible beast, holed up in some old castle. Well, of course, they couldn’t finance a full contingent. Only a hundred measly men. No one wants to take the deal, I assume, so they offer something to sweeten the pot, a crusade, with the two most sacred figures of the church at the head.”
Naia offered the slightest nod and opened his mouth to speak.
“Only, that’s not the real reason,” Efrain quickly interjected, deciding to take his chances, “I was there at the Frozen Vale, laying to rest the evil spirit you claim. And there were undead, weak, of poor craft, but numerous. Enough to man the battlements effectively if the spirit so chose.”
The momentum of the lie carried him onwards to his conclusion.
“So, tell me, why did you have few men, no siege equipment, and little stores? And why were the two most important people in the faith there with two bodyguards between them?”
The darkness of Naia’s eyes reflected the candle, twin flickers of flame and serpentine consideration.
[←Chapter 52] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 54→]