Soulside Journey
Year Of Our Lord Christ The Saviour, 1152, early winter, Paris
The day of departure had come. Daniel said a few words of kameraderie to his fellow knights, and the squires, servants, and the chaplains who will stay in Paris and treat the local headquarters. He became fond of them, but, much more, he grew fond of the place. the place where he found a new meaning, a new light, the light of God. Still, there was no sorrow in his heart, for there can be no sorrow when you go to the Holy Land, to cleanse and purge it in the name of thy Lord. After murmuring one last prayer in the chapel, he and those who would go with him, to complete their training and test their mettle, left a few minutes after dawn.
Southern France, near the Bourg-des-Saexes
Seeing his old, ancestrial home left an interesting feeling. Not really homesickness, but something else. Like someone else, maybe his old, hedonoistic, sorrowed self, and even the older, the young boy in the dark of his home chapel, had feelings for this place, that hovered somewhere just around the corner of Daniels eye. His new self, however, only felt this little, curious, uncatchable feeling. Besides that, the bulinding ment nothing to him. It ment very much to his order, a new fortress in the south, that was plagued by heresy, and he was quite happy for that.
Then, just, for a moment, some other feeling, maybe originating not even from him, crushed a barrier, flickered trough him mind, a new sensation, never flet before. But as it came, it vanquished. Daniel could hardly remember it afterwards, only a feeling of something amiss remined. He fell back into his silent prayers, and cleansed his soul of such irregularities.
Two days afterwards, one of his fellow knights, someone who noly joined for twenty years, was confonted about this by his borthers:
- Brother Thierry, why did you only join our order for twenty years? Are you unsure of the call of your heart?
- Alass, this is as it is, my borthers. I have done many things in my life, most of which I have told you when you accepted me, and the rest, i will take with me to the Throne Of God. Even our code says that we should not accept those who are not yet ready, to not accept those, who are sent to us by someone, not out of their hearts call.
- But You did join us becouse of your heart. Does your heart falter?
- I do not know, it may. I love our order more than I loved everything in my life, but I am still a man, though created by God, influenced by this unclean world, frail, and twistable. I may stray from the course. And I will not take my borthers with me, if that happens.
- Fear not, brother, for we will help you in your journey. You will not fall with our hands holding you on the right way. You wont fall, becouse we wont fall.
- Nothing lasts forever, borthers, I learned that in my life. I simply do not wish to stay with you if my heart and soul say otherwise. Sould a man not know himself?
- We will help you, brother.
- I will pray for your success.
Genoa, a month later
The rest of the journey to Genoa was uneventful, apart form an attempted robbery of a few sorry soul, who had no chance against the militia christi.
Genoa, on the other hand, was a city bristling with activity and commerce. Such buzzing disturbed Daniel and his companions, who were used to the solemn silence of their home, and the darkness of the chapel. They preyed hard, to protect their soul against the taint of such a city.
For wealth, bring, first and foremost, corruption. For corruption of the wealth itself, the crooked underhand shady business, Daniel gave only a few thoughts, for money did not interest him. But the blight in peoples souls, the rot caused by the excesses of flesh - and they were many in the city, drinking, gambling, woman, even man of fleshly arts, depths of hedonism encountered only in books so far - in this new Sodom did give him much to grieve about. So many souls, lost to his order, lost to the light of God, neck-deep in the filthy of flesh.
He scolded himself for this rejection of all things fleshly, though, for monks may have the luxury of feasting, but a warrior has to stay in good health, and their regula objected strongly to ascetism of any kind.
They set sail after two days, with all templar happy about this. Being a shining beacon in this filthy was a good test, but a very taxing one, more fit for a monk than a warrior monk. Daniel wondered how the Order managed to get them a ship of such capacities, but he knew the Order was very wealthy. It did not trouble him, though, for he knew the wealth was put to good use: the cleansing of the Holy Land.
It was a very long journey, and Daniel had to discover that he was sea-sick. In the brief interruptions of continuous vomiting, the eldest of he brothers briefed them, and told them what few words he had picked up in the Holy Land of the language of the muhammadanians. They may be enemies, but “know thy enemy” was a proverb the Templars knew very well.
Acre, the Kingdom Of Jerusalem
Finally, dry land, Daniel though, and thanked the Lord for surviving the treacherous sea.
Acre was a strong fortress of Christendom, its stone walls and its port enabling it to withstand almost any siege, and thus, very few attempts were ever made. Most of the city followed the Light of God, but there were some jews, tolerated but not welcomed, mostly bevcouse of their bad reputation, and a very few select Moslems, kept there either as hostages, or as ambassadors and sometimes, spies. Outside the city, however, were all the faiths and folk the region had ever seen. Moslems trading, living, loving with Christians, Jews, and a sew obscure sects, all without any restrictions towards religion, for when the necessity that the desert forces, comes, everyone prays for one thing: water.
This hodge-podge of religions and cultures scared and trifled Daniel. How could true God-fearing Christians mingle with muhhamadanian enemies? How could even the soldiers of the Kingdom do business with those who had occupied the Holy Land? Was the christen army Christian only in name, and opportunistic devil at heart? Daniel knew about the necessities of war, but this was far more than that. This was not out of any necessitiy, but out of laziness. The Kingdoms soldiers had grown
lazy of fighting!
He saw that his brothers were unmoved by this, though they were not uncaring, as they explained, they simply knew the frailty of man, and assured Daniel that the Templars will always be true to the call of God, and that their actions will save these fail man, for this is the cross every Templar carries upright.
While this did strengthen his heart, news from Jerusalem grieved him. Baldwin, the King, wanted his rightful place, and decided to take it from his mother, by force. There was infighting even amongst the chrisitans! Unspeakable! Daniel vowed the instant he heard this to cleanse the Holy Land of filth not only form without, but also from within. The moment he made this vow, a strange light seemed to flicker for a moment in his soul, as if he had found a hidden gem.
Temple Mount, near the Well Of Souls
A messenger arrived, handed the Master a parchment, and then sped off again. The Grand Master Of All Templars read it, then nodded silently, and smiled within. Someone promising was coming.
Near Jerusalem, weeks after landfall in Acre
Finally, the journey was nearing its end. Daniel had heard the news of Baldwins victory, and also heard that it was not Baldwin, but his mother, Melisende, who forced the fight, unwilling to give up her rule, and even cooperating with the saracens! Daniel was happy now. Baldwin may even be a true, God-fearing christian.
As he murmured his hundered-and-twelft Lords prayer out of the prescribed hundred and fourty-eight a day, he glimpsed Jerusalem.
The City Of God, in all its glory, all its holiness, all its walls and towers and churches piercing the sky, and the Temple Mount, the very center and origin of the Christian world, lay beautifully ont he horizon.
