Cardinal’s Sin

The heavy stench of death and burning bodies filled the air as the Cardinal's procession came over the summit. Thick smoke filled the air causing everyone in the Cardinal's group to cough and gag. They all started to cover their mouths and noses with a cloth. The Cardinal looked out the window of his carriage. He still saw soldiers with hollow eyes walking with completely defeated looks on their faces walking back the way they came.

Looking down the pass a large open area looking down on the Windsor Kingdom's border wall was seen with several large burn piles spread out with plumes of smoke drifting high into the air. As they drew nearer to the area they realized these huge piles were made up of people. Groups of men with cloths tied around their faces. They stared at the Cardinal's carriage like they were seeing the vilest and most awful people they had ever laid eyes upon.

The Cardinal called out to one of the men working one of the fires, "Excuse me, young man, can you tell me, where the losses to both armies so severe that these dead men couldn't be buried?"

The man shook his head and said, "You from the Church? You should know then, these are all just your soldiers. They came to the Windsor Kingdom to rape, steal, and murder. Our allies from the City of Connaissance came here and slaughtered these... Inquisition animals... After warning them repeatedly to turn around and go home."

The Cardinal frowned and then asked, "There were no casualties from the City of Connaissance? How many soldiers did they send?"

The man shook his head and laughed, "They have a big ship, but I doubt there are more than a few hundred on it."

"The Airship belongs to the City of Connaissance, not the Chadtom Empire?" The Cardinal's eyes widened in shock. "Thank you, I think we may have been given some incorrect information."

The Cardinal leaned back in his seat after calling out to the driver to continue. The procession made its way down the pass until it was stopped by the closed gate to the Windsor Kingdom. the Driver stood and called out, "His Eminence Cardinal Gibson wishes to enter!"

The officer in charge of the gate called out, "Does his Eminence have an invitation from His Majesty, King Andrew?"

The Driver looked down at the Cardinal and asked, "How do I answer?"

The Cardinal shrugged and said, "Tell them we were invited by the new Cardinal."

The Driver looked up at the officer and called out, "His Eminence was invited by the new Cardinal!"

The Officer and his men all laughed, "The new Cardinal? The one who excommunicated the Kingdom? According to that fellow, none of us belong to the Church of the Risen Son anymore. His Majesty, King Andrew expelled the Church from the Kingdom since we weren't members any longer. You'll need an appointment in order to be seen. You are welcome to camp out there five hundred meters from the wall while you arrange an appointment."

The Driver looked down at the Cardinal who sighed and said, "Very well, we should do as he says."

The Driver called out, "Can you send word then that his Eminence is here to make an appointment?"

The Officer smiled down at them and called out, "Yeah, we'll get right on that."

*****

Three days later the Driver walked over to the wall and called out, "Excuse me, has there been any word on when his Eminence will have an appointment to be seen?"

A different officer called down, "We've been a little busy burning all those Inquisition bodies, we'll have a messenger available to send soon."

*****

A week later the Driver walked over and called out, "Excuse me, we are out of rations, would it be possible to purchase supplies at the least? Or has word come back on when we will have an appointment?"

The officer on the watch called down, "I'm sorry, but who are you, and why are you here?"

The Driver looked a little angry and yelled back, "Cardinal Gibson, from the Church of the Risen Son, just wants to pass through the Windsor Kingdom in order to reach the City of Connaissance. He was invited there by Chief Cardinal Pujols who is running the City of Connaissance branch of the Church of the Risen Son."

The Officer smiled down and said, "Oh is that all? Well, you can pass through, I'll have an escort come to get you later today, maybe tomorrow."

*****

The next day the gate closed for the night as the men burning bodies returned once again. The Driver angrily stomped over, "Hey you asshole! You said you'd send someone to escort us through the Kingdom, why are we still waiting? We are out of food and water down here. We can't even turn back home anymore. You might hate the Church for all of this, but some of us are just regular people who work for the Church!"

The Officer laughed and then called down, "Alright, come through the gate. We have a squad ready to bring you through the kingdom. Make sure you understand that you won't be permitted to stop for any official business. We'll bring you to a supply outpost that will have supplies for sale."

The Cardinal said nothing as the Driver continued to swear. The procession finally started to move forward once again and all the Cardinal could think of was all the bodies being burned day after day with no end in sight. He spoke up asking the carriage Driver, "How many bodies did they burn while we sat there?"

The angry Driver offhandedly commented, "The piles were twenty feet high and maybe fifty feet wide, just guessing here, but they're probably a few million?"

The Cardinal asked, "If the Inquisition had attacked the cities in the Windsor Kingdom and those other Kingdoms, how many bodies would there have been?"

The Driver thought for a moment, "The Windsor Kingdom alone has what, sixteen million or so people? I'm guessing it would probably be at least five times as many as we saw burned."

The Cardinal called out, "Stop the carriage!"

As soon as the carriage stopped the Cardinal stepped out and started to dry heave over and over before climbing back in and waving at the driver to continue. The Driver looked down into the back of the carriage and asked, "Are you alright Your Eminence?"

The Cardinal looked up at the driver and asked, "From one fellow man to another, is my Church in the wrong?"

The Driver sighed and then said, "It's said that in this world, might makes right. When might was on the side of the Church, who could complain?" He jerked his thumb back the way they came, " Those men at the gate, and the ones burning the bodies they have seen the Church through the eyes of people with more might than the Church. They have given you all the answers you need in the way we have been treated."

*****

Captain Alexander dropped a report on Emily's desk and took his usual seat. Emily looked at it briefly and asked, "That's the third fire this week, was it also intentionally started?"

Captain Alexander nodded, "The constable managed to catch the man starting this one. He called himself part of the people's revolution party." He pointed at the report. "A group of people who resent having to work so hard on building the city of Tomorrow when they aren't getting rich from it." Emily looked like she was about to ask a question when Captain Alexander laughed shaking his head, "No, the wages are up, living conditions have improved from the poorest sections of the villages down below all the way to the top. This kind of thing just comes with more people living close together. The guy across the hall gets a promotion, or suddenly can afford to buy things his neighbors can't and suddenly it's slight. the people at the top are out to get them. They don't look at their own situations in comparison with other people at their own level, instead of looking at the people at the very top."

Emily frowned and then said, "I disagree. The people who are at the bottom measurably do more of the work than the people at the top. Even if I do overwork myself in this office, what I do in this office is far less intensive than someone who is building my city." She tapped her finger on the desk. She picked up the Far Speak and said, "Send for Dean Wilson, please."

A few hours later the Dean knocked on her door frame, "Lady Connaissance, you needed to speak with me?"

Emily smiled, "Please come in, close the door, and have a seat." She waited for him to get comfortable, "The reason I called you over here so urgently is that the city has a problem and I need your expert advice."

Dean Wilson nodded and asked, "The People's Revolution Party?" Emily nodded as he went on, "They attempted to recruit me to come to one of their secret meetings. What they are after is not anything you can or should attempt to solve. What they essentially want is for things to go back to what they were five years ago. They don't like the progress of the city. You can't reason with them because they are not even sure why they want things back to the way it was five years ago."

Emily frowned, "What do you mean?"

He walked over to her chalkboard and flipped it over to the clean side, writing out the word fear and circling it emphatically. "You won't be able to reason with them, because they are afraid. I know you must be thinking, what are they afraid of? You can't reason with them because not one of them is going to have the same reasons for being afraid. Some are afraid that this new City will not have a place for them anymore once they can't afford to live here. Some are afraid that they'll get comfortable in their new residences and be forced to move again. Some are afraid that their current jobs will be replaced by machines. Some are afraid that all the new immigrants will take their jobs because they can do it better and for less money. Some are afraid that the wealthy will cut their wages while raising the cost to live here. Some are afraid to face the fact that they are poor and have no hope of rising out of it by working hard doing the same work they have always done. Some are afraid that people who have these fears might be right."

Emily frowned, "What would you suggest as a way to combat this problem?"

He smiled and said, "This is a problem for every growing civilization. I can tell you things that governments have tried over the years... War. You wage war on an evil enemy sending young men to die. This helps thin out the job market and reduce the population to controllable levels. Increase your territory. Give people more places to live and more opportunities for wealth. Entertainment. You provide the people with distractions, something they can argue about and discuss rather than their own lives. Religion. You allow them to have an invisible boss over their lives challenging them to be better cogs in the machine. Politics. You give them a system with teams they can join and support. You create teams that are essentially exactly the same government that differ on a couple of minor social points. The people have the illusion of change every time they vote, but really everything remains the same."

Emily stared at Dean Wilson and said, "I don't like any of these options. What about education, and opportunity? Why not just make institutions like the college free and assist new business owners with money for their startups?"

Dean Wilson chuckled, "Lady Connaissance, your heart is in the right place, but think about the big picture. You were lucky to be born with looks, brains, and a family with wealth. Imagine having none of those assets. Would free college help you, if you didn't have the mind capable of using that education? Would money help a business startup do anything if you didn't have the charisma of a leader? Would you even have the time to get an education if you didn't have the wealth to not worry about the basic cost of living? Society is a set of rules to give unequal people the ability to live together."

Emily stood up taking her cane and pacing around her office, "I can't believe there isn't a better answer for this, so, people are not equal which means what's good for you might be horrible for me. The hardest working people by design are the least wealthy. The most wealthy are only going to keep growing wealthier while the least wealthy will keep growing poorer. Which leads to most people being burdened with a growing sense of fear. If I walk outside and ask people how to fix it, I'll get the same number of ideas as I will people I ask... This is madness!"

Dean Wilson nodded and said, "Perhaps you should talk to someone who knows madness the best?"

Emily stopped pacing, "Cardinal Pujols?"