A Saint Who Won't Love a Man Isn't Much of a Saint
READING AGE 12+
The morning the Church accused me of seducing Saint Adrian Vale, I was standing outside his locked bedroom with blood on my sleeve and a key that did not fit the door. By noon, the high altar had become a courtroom, the Archdeacon had produced letters in my handwriting, and the faithful were calling for my neck. They said the gallows would let the Radiant judge whether I had profaned the saint. Adrian could have stopped them with a single sentence. Instead, he looked at me across the chapel and said nothing. I knew what silence cost him. I also knew what it cost me. If I survived the charge, I would still have to decide whether the man I loved had chosen his calling over me—or whether someone had made sure he never got the chance to choose at all.
Unfold
I left the Church compound three days later with my sword returned and my commission suspended.
The Synod had cleared me of trespass and coercion. It had not yet made a ruling about the letter's author. Rusk remained under watch, and his secretary was still missing. The Church called the matter unresolved. The people called it a scandal……
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