Morning Prayers

Bootleggers' Pier

Margrave Otho knelt on the ground facing the sea, the litanies of Death, Battle and Storm still fresh in his lips. He looked up at the morning sky, feeling the warmth on his skin, it's light making his eyes water.

Behind him the Silent Flock stood, walking around the assembled warriors that came to hear to his sermon. Men and women stood bare-chested in the morning heat, hanging on every word from The Purger.

Here he was, blessing their souls, their blades, showing them the righteousness of their path and the road to eternal salvation under the Five Pillars. How they would bathe in the blood of the unbelievers and the savages that lived in these lands.

The sound of green wood hitting flesh the only sound that was heard above his prayers as the brothers and sisters of the Silent Flock whacked the backs of the penitents listening to his words.

"Penance through pain." He is said as he flagellated his own back with a grunt of satisfactions at the welt he felt rising on his flesh.

Tomorrow would bring the start of a new Crusade. Tomorrow the land would run red with the blood of their enemies.