𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 - 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡: 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐲 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠. From the fictional Sacred Writings of Aureus - 46 of 138 chosen Holy verses.

“Take heed, and be afraid! When harpoons of gold pierce your flesh and colossal golden hammers shatter your bones, remember the name of Aureus.”

“Then grieve! Grieve for yourselves, for you have become heretics. Had he—Aureus—not warned you?”

“They said: ‘Yes! Yes, he had warned us. But for the sake of our own interests, we wished to carve out a place for ourselves in the embrace of Aureus.’ We know that those who extinguished the bloodline of Aureus were once again pursuing oppression!”

“Even when the heretics were sent into exile, they continued to mock Aureus the Messenger. They would say: ‘The mad messiah—Aureus—casts everyone out of the village the moment he gains power and they do something that displeases him.’”

“Surely, they were of the same society as those who laid the sons of Aureus in their graves.”

“We had said unto him, Aureus: ‘Unless your nails are torn out, your flesh flayed raw, your bones crushed into dust, and needles driven into your eyes, who could ever break your purpose—your duty?’”

“Aureus said unto his congregation: ‘You may remain until the sun reveals itself.’ And the followers of Aureus asked him: ‘Why do you grant us more time than the others?’”

“Aureus turned his right side toward them and smiled. In the darkness of the night, the flowing of the river could be heard. The answer Aureus gave them was green tea brewed over the fire.”

“Aureus commanded them: ‘Eat and drink. Eat for the heretics among us. Drink, as though it were the blood of the heretics among us.’ At the words of the Savior, three among the group choked upon their tea. How well they coughed!”

“When Saint Aureus dismounted from his horse, his robe was covered in mud, and his mind was filled with horror.”

“From among the ruins came the tearful cries of the Daughter of the Black Clouds. And We had made Aureus strong so that he might lift away the timbers.”

“After Aureus lifted the timbers, he cried out to his congregation. They took the child of the Black Clouds. We know that she was nine years old.”

“The Saint began searching for the survivors of the village among the fires and rubble. His congregation remained beside him. Aureus had placed the girl upon his horse.”

“He cried: ‘Search every corner of the village! Search for every morsel I have fed you and every drink I have given you; search for every week in which I delivered you from the hands of the Oppressors and gave you your freedom!’”

“Then a voice rose from among the congregation. They had encountered a wounded heretic soldier. He was one of those who had destroyed the houses with gunpowder arrows.”

“There is no doubt in Our justice: We caused his mind to wander, and deceived him into loosing his arrow nearby instead.”

“For deeds of the Oppressors, fires and chains of gold are required in equal measure. Our chain was the supporting timber of the house, and Our fire came from his own arrow.”

“Aureus looked upon him, and then upon the Daughter of the Black Clouds. The Saint commanded: ‘With the golden swords I entrusted to you, cut him at both sides of the waist beneath the ribs, and leave him to suffer!’”

“Surely, there were those among the congregation who grew sick, vomited, and wished not to do it. Aureus himself took up the blade for the Daughter of the Black Clouds.”

“That day was a message from Aureus to the societies of the Oppressors. Fourteen men and seventeen women joined his congregation.”

“And Our message unto Aureus that day was to show him how far the Oppressors were willing to go.”

“Magnus Aureus proclaimed during the Night Convoy: ‘Daughter of the Black Clouds, let my thoughts and my honor be yours... Daughter of the Black Clouds, my soul is given unto you for every moment in which we failed to deliver you from the darkness of the Oppressors. Daughter of the Black Clouds, do not fear—take my hand; take it, that you may feel how I too tremble from my fears. Take my hand, my tortured and innocent child. As we emerge from this darkness, we leave the darkness behind us, that we may awaken in gold.’”

“The heretics would come with wars, false peaces, and theft so long as the Saint did not blaze among them with golden fires burning within him.”

“During the Magnus Night Convoy, the words of the Generous Sage moved the entire congregation and scattered the fire of vengeance into their hearts. That day was the dawn of the oppressed.”

“There is no doubt that We had opened the mind of Aureus. Thus the heretics could not deceive him.”

“When the day came, the voice of one of the Oppressors rose: ‘I am the hand of God!’ he declared. Yet We had already bestowed Aureus Gold upon the Saint, that he might sever the hands raised against the One God.”

“And Aureus did what We expected of him. The hand that had been used against the oppressed was severed. Doubt not that the hand never again held an axe or a whip.”

“And at last, the Daughter of the Black Clouds smiled again. Then We gave unto the Daughter of the Black Clouds the good plague of vengeance.”

“In Our presence, the plague of vengeance would spread throughout the hearts of all the people of the Black Clouds.”

“The Potent Saint bestowed upon the Daughter of the Black Clouds the honor of Magnus. After We took the Daughter of the Black Clouds unto Us, her uncle carried on that honor. Surely, he was prepared to give even his life to care for his orphaned niece.”

“The wounded Daughter of the Black Clouds fell ill during the Magnus Night Convoy. Aureus rebelled against Us, asking why We had not granted him the knowledge to save her. Had he known what We could see, would he have dared to rebel?”

“We had planted the seed of vengeance within the hearts of the people of the Black Clouds. On the day of her funeral, the laws imposed by the Oppressors were broken for the first time, and swords and armor began to be forged among that people.”

“When the Oppressors were asked, ‘Were you not yourselves the children of slaves?’ they answered: ‘Yes, we were.’”

“Had the Oppressors prevailed, We would surely have torn open the heavens and sent down a form.”

“Then the society of the Oppressors silenced that speaking mouth so that it might never open again. How dearly they love to cut and carve!”

“It would possess an asymmetrical head resembling white porcelain, compressed upward in form. We would fashion it from divine light.”

“From beneath its head upward, white eyes would be arranged in spirals. For the Oppressors, escape from its gaze would be impossible!”

“Then We would give it wings that its descent might be softened. Six white wings. Each beat would be powerful enough to raise storms.”

“Had We not given it wings, its fall would have wrought destruction beyond the strength of mankind to withstand. And We would cause the sound of that destruction to be heard from the four corners of the world. Surely, it would take the hearing of some among you.”

“The suffering inflicted upon you is not atonement for your sins. Such suffering does not come from Us.”

“Do you belittle Our power, having known only the hands, the feet, and the filthy minds of the Oppressors?”

“Do you belittle Our power, which brings forth the floods and the earthquakes that strike upon you?”

“And We made Aureus the last of the Chosen. We commanded him to drive back the Oppressors. Do you wish for the heavens to be torn open?”