Wraith

Shrine of Kupen - Ostiarium

He knelt on the cold stone floor of the minute cell, with his back through the wooden door. The room was near of anything except for a pile of straw where he slept, a candle, a stick of incense and a pot where he would relive himself.

A blind servant would come once a day with a tray of water, bread and a thin broth with small strips of meat.

There were no windows in the underground cell. In fact he much doubted that the room had been one. Likely a storage room of some kind.

He went through the usual breathing exercises he was so familiar with. Echoes of the Purger's voice seemed to constantly full his mind. He was gaunt and had shed every ounce of fat from his body in the last few months. But he was sharp once again, his mind focused, given purpose. He had been shown meaning. Pain and death had always been his constant companions but Margrave Otho had shown him true purpose. The Glory of the Pillars.

He knelt on the floor wearing only a loincloth, breathing deep through his nose, his focuses on the shadows that flickered in the wall ahead. He recited the Ritual of Cleansing by uttering the tenets of the Five. Kupen, Cambena, Hoi, Vastad and Zinheim.

He remembered the first time he had been dragged in front of The Purger, how he had looked at up the man and wondered aloud if he was Death incarnated come to take him to his Garden. The man's strange red eyes had bored down on him, pinning him to the ground.
"I am his Mortal Shadow. And you will serve Him through me." Had come the promise and the first of many lessons.

"Atonement for one's sins can be achieved in main ways. But none pleases Zin more than penance through pain." He had whispered in his ears while holding his head up by the hair. "First through your own and later through the pain of the wicked, heathen and unbelievers. Only than will you find redemption."

"I am not a believer." He has replied wanting to sound defiant but sounding meek. He was not one, but he did want redemption for his sins were legion.

A chill had run through his spine as he tried to avoid the pale man's gaze.

"But you WILL believe once I am done with you."

He reached to the foor on his left when he finished the litanies of the Five, grabbing in his right hand a scourge with three tails. Each tail had a knot and through the middle of it there was a sharp nail fixed. He took a deep breath and whipped the scourge against his back. Once, twice, thrice, praying in his native tongue as the tails and nails raked his back.

He was no stranger to pain and he welcomed it. It washed his worries away, along with the blood that flowed down his back, bringing him to a state as close as bliss as anything he had ever experienced in life.

He would whip his back at least ten times or until he could no longer take the pain. And with each stroke he would ask for forgiveness. Giving a piece of his soul at a time to the service of the Pillars.

"Killing without purpose makes one little more than a mindless animal." Came the voice of the Purger again. "No greater mission exists than to kill in the name of the divine. Embrace the teachings of the Gods and you will be find your redemption. Find your true path and destiny..."