The Saint

Cladded in gold and iron, bathing in holiness. She exchanges her soul for the hands of god, abolishing her every right. The saint heals and forgives, leaving her sins behind her. As the light diminishes in the horizon, her followers will gather to the chapel on the hills. They will pray together, chant hymns till midnight, and have a wonderful feast. The saint is beautiful, and suitors from all walks of life wish to take her hand. As expected, the saint would reject them, leaving a scar in their hearts. This had been the normal life for the saint, but it wasn’t always like this. The saint had been given a name, long before she had been blessed. That name had been, Meridia. Meridia was a girl of 16, when she was married off to a noble back in the kingdom of Jiltal. Her beauty was well known through the masses, and many would grow a fondness towards her. Unbeknownst to Meridia, the noble had despised peasantry. The noble wished to brainwash Meridia and keep her away from the masses. The noble would educate young Meridia on the simple do’s and don’t’s of noble life. Meridia was taught to take care of the households and to properly converse with her husband. Meridia’s husband was a rich merchant, and he had his own personal library. During her household lessons, she would quietly sneak out a book from the library and hide it in her chambers to read it later. Through this thorough and stealthy process, Meridia had learned about the history of the land and the hierarchy that stood before her. In the process of it all, Meridia had gained a sort of empathy towards the people, and had set out a quest to help the populace as much as she could. To do that, all she needed was to educate the people. For days on end, Meridia would leave the noble’s home for hours while he was off trading with other merchants. In that time, she had taught the children linguistics and educated them as much as she could. However, the noble had caught wind on Meridia’s plans, and he had decided to teach her a lesson. The noble had three men in the slums to catch Meridia on the act. The noble paid the men handsomely to teach her the price to pay for attempting to break the hierarchy. One fateful day, Meridia was on the way home after a lesson with the children of the town, when the men snatched her away from the crowd and dragged her to an alleyway. The men gagged her and proceeded to take away her purity. Meridia screamed under her gag but her muffled cries were inaudible to the people. She watched helplessly as her assaulters begun to take away her chastity. Her will to fight back had been lost, and she began to question herself whether it was the right call to help these folks at all. When they were done, they left without saying another word, leaving her shaken and defiled body lying on the cold ground. However, even after all that, Meridia’s will had not been crushed completely. She stood up weakly and slowly, managing only small footsteps. Fortunately, a peasant had noticed her coming out of the alleyway, naked in the open. He immediately sprinted towards her, aiding her. The peasant covered her up, and escorted her to his home. The peasant’s name was William. William had been living alone with his little sister ever since their parents had been murdered at the dead of night. From then on, William had become the protégé of a blacksmith. From then on, they had been living a decent life on the streets of Jital. William’s house was a simple cottage near the town’s square. As the two entered the cottage, William’s little sister, Susie, gave a look of astonishment. Susie had frequently attended Meridia’s lessons in the town square, and she respected and looked up to Meridia. William gently sat her down on the dining chair, and brought her some water. Meridia held a grim look through their entire journey, constantly reminiscing the events that had transpired only moments before. Like a curious cat, Susie went close to her and examined her. Meridia noticed the curious child before her and gave a weak smile. However, Susie’s curiosity only grew into concern. William quietly sat down at the chair opposite from her, attempting to get her to respond. Meridia however, would not rather speak of the experience. After a momentary pause of silence, William broke the silence and asked politely for a response. Meridia could only look down to the water flask presented to her. William however had already caught the gist of it, she had been raped and was too embarrassed to speak about it. William let off a sigh and allowed her to stay at the cottage. So, Meridia stayed at the cottage and started recovering from her trauma. At the dead of night, a knock on the door woke the house up. William went to answer the door. To his surprise, the noble was at the door. The noble was looking for Meridia who had been missing from the house for far too long. Realising that the woman he had brought home was the noble’s missing fiancé, he immediately went to wake her up. Meridia woke up to find William staring straight at her with a tinge of happiness. William told her that the noble was outside looking for her. As soon as Meridia had heard the noble’s name, a look of fear engulfed her being. Meridia did not want to return to the noble after losing her chastity. William, however, did not want Meridia to stay here at the cottage as his wages could not feed another mouth. After much convincing, Meridia reluctantly accepted to get up and return to the noble. William escorted Meridia out of the room and they were greeted by the noble. The noble forced a welcoming tone, hiding his ill intent behind his words. Meridia went to the noble’s side and thanked William for his hospitality, but, the noble was not done with William. Behind the noble was 2 guards, who were waiting to arrest William under the accusation of kidnapping Meridia. The guards approached William menacingly and tied him up. William struggled to break free from his captors, and the guards beat him to submission. In the heat of the moment, Meridia protested to William’s arrest and told the noble about the events that had transpired. The noble however did not listen to Meridia’s pleas, instead he was enjoying himself, from seeing the man getting beaten down. It was at this moment, Meridia understood the noble’s intent. The noble ordered the guards to bring him to the dungeons as he escorted Meridia back to their home. As the doors close to their front door, the noble turned to Meridia and proceeded to reprimand her terribly. The noble slapped her right across her cheek, blaming her for being careless. Meridia stared at the noble in fear. The noble however seemed to enjoy this abuse. The noble then grabbed her hand fiercely and threatened her that if she were to ever leave this home without his permission, she would be thrown out to the streets. With that said, the noble released her and walked away from the room. Meridia cried to sleep that night. The following day couldn’t come any sooner. Meridia had to leave with the noble to witness an execution held in the town square. As they had arrived in the town square, Meridia noticed three familiar faces atop the execution stand. They were the men that had raped her. Meridia instinctively cowered behind the noble, shielding herself from the men’s sight. Soon enough, a crowd had gathered to witness the execution. As the guard atop announces the crimes carried out by these villains, one of the men had noticed the noble. He started shouting out his name calling him scum. All the attention turned to the noble and unsurprisingly he defended himself. The noble went on to describe how Meridia had felt after the ordeal that they put her through, garnering the public’s pity. The two men went out at each other for a while before they were silenced. The execution commenced and the 3 men were hung that day. Unbeknownst to the noble, Meridia had pieced together the truth behind the argument. Meridia had realised that the noble had planned for the three men to be hung after she had been raped to show her how scary the world below them really was. However, that did not go as planned as she was aided by William who was in the same class as those men. Her heart sank, and was filled with confusion. The noble had never treated her as a woman but a mere object. Meridia had no answers as to why the noble had committed such atrocities to keep her from ever leaving the house but she needed to do something about the noble. On the way home from the town square, they were stopped by a guard right in front of their doorstep. The noble ordered Meridia to enter the house as he conversed with the guard. Meridia did as she was told but she left the door ajar, eavesdropping on the conversation. The guard had given the noble a key to the cell where William was held and told him where he was held at. As they parted ways, Meridia went to the kitchen and pretended to fix a meal for the noble. The noble noticing Meridia working in the kitchen, ordered her to fix up his favourite meal. He then went off to his study. Meridia had decided that today was the last day she was going to spend with the noble. So, she whipped up a meal for the noble and brought a knife with her. Meridia then went to the study and brought the meal to him. Snickering at the sight of Meridia, he ordered her to put the food down at his desk. So, she did, and walked up to him slowly and surely. As soon as the noble’s attention was off her, she swung her knife deep into the noble’s heart, making him wince and quiver. Deciding it wasn’t enough, Meridia took out the knife and stabbed him in the throat. Blood poured out of the wounds and made a puddle of thick red liquid on the floor. Meridia carefully avoided the puddle and took the key from him. As Meridia was leaving, the noble started calling out her name in an anguished voice, cursing her to damnation. Meridia, however, felt no remorse for the man. As the sun sets in the distance, Meridia had packed her clothes and taken some gold from the noble. She took a clean knife as a weapon and left the house without a trace or sound. Meridia made her way to the dungeon to free William from captivity, the dungeon however had been guarded. Meridia then walked up the guards telling her that the noble had given her permission to meet the prisoner, William. After hearing the noble’s name, they had allowed entrance for Meridia, although they remained sceptical. Meridia then made her way to William’s cell, which was located at the end of the corridor. Meridia arrived at the cell and saw William heavily bruised. He was solemnly looking down at the ground, his spirit shattered. Meridia opened the gate to his cell. William eyes shot up and he saw a silhouette with a golden glow. This startled William and made him cry out. Meridia silenced him knowing the guards will hear them. This was not the case as the guards assumed Meridia was there to torture him. Eventually, William calmed down once he had realised that Meridia was there to rescue him. William weakly stood up from his cell as Meridia helped him up. From the dungeon, the two made their way to William’s cottage. The dungeon had a separate exit which was poorly guarded, so their escape was made easy. As the two reached the cottage, William collapsed on the floor. Susie was frightened to see William in this state and immediately ran to his side, begging him to wake up. Meridia then went to aid William and realised that he had been bleeding waist. He had been losing blood from the way back. William was going to die. So Meridia did the only thing she knew, when times were tough. That was to pray. She went on her knees and pleaded to save William. With that, a miracle happened, an angel had appeared out of thin air, answering her prayers. The angel had come with a gift, but she had one condition, devote yourself to god and I shall save your friend. As vague as it sounded, Meridia had accepted the offer. She did not expect the rules that were to come when she had received this power. So, as she had accepted the conditions, the angel was gone in a spark of light. William was still bleeding, and she had no idea what had happened. By instinct, Meridia placed her hands onto the wound, and by some miracle, the wound started patching itself up. William had become better in an instant. As her hands glowed a bright yellow, William had stopped sweating. William shot right up, looking around only to see that he had returned home. The two stared at Meridia, and bore witness to her powers. In the dead of night, Meridia had convinced William and Susie to leave Jital as of right now they were fugitives, and they no longer had a normal life. So, they set off east, to another town. The angel appeared once more, telling her that a chapel was to be built in that town. In that chapel, Meridia was to be the people’s saint, where she is to repent for her sins for the rest of her life. Meridia had been sworn to secrecy about her powers. William and Susie lived together with Meridia, helping her through all the way. Merdian was then nicknamed the The Saint, for being the leader of the church and the healer of the people. A noble cause from a terrible past.