Glory of the Lord
Vincent and Elita Bodine were planning future sermons and going trough applications to join the inquisition when they noticed a group of people coming towards them. "Brothers, what have you brought to us?" Vincent asked as the acolytes and laity carried a large brown bag towards him. They were one group of many that were roaming the countryside, seeking sometimes what Vincent called "heathen" and ungodly, and sometimes what René Mallery called "tangible political, economic and military goals". New acolytes were often quite astonished how often those two goals were one. When Vincent had once heard of this he had held a three-hour sermon about how the trinity were but one thing, and how they could be seen in all things good in this world.
"Lord Inquisitor, we have brought a great thing, one of the witches. She ruled a small town, where she did horrible things. Child-prostitution, human sacrifice, other things... Joseph here managed to sneak behind here, and knock her out cold," the acolyte said, gleaming of pride. When the name Joseph was brought up, one of the men holding the brown bag seemed to also gleam with pride. Vincent assumed the man was Joseph, or quite strange to take pride in the name of someone else. But to him many people seemed strange in their lack of belief. That, he though, was why he was together so much with Elita. Their common surname had made them known to each other, and he found her personality and logic very understandable.
"Vincent, does it not look like they have done an imperfect job. A good one, but imperfect. We must teach them the right way, brother," Elita said, to which Vincent continue "As always." The acolyte who had spoken tried to start begging for forgiveness, but fell silent when Elita continued again. "The which is whole I see, long legs and all. All witches must be severed from their connection to the unspoken one if they are to be saved," she said while she walked towards the bag, picking up a knife from the table while she was walking. The laities holding the bag dropped it to the ground, and she started cutting up the bag.
"Watch and learn all children of the lord, for one day you may need to do this yourself. First goes the eyes, for we cannot let the Underlord see trough them," Vincent said while Elite quickly cut up both of the unconscious witches eyes with her knife. After she did that she very quickly rolled over to the side, and the witch rose up, screaming, trying to do something with her hands to her eyes. Vincent always wondered if they screamed because they had lost contact with their lord, or because of the pain. The witch screamed around for almost half a minute before Vincent shot it with the tranquilizer gun he always had packed somewhere. After that he picked up his saw, another necessary device in fighting witches, and started walking towards the again-unconscious witch.
"After the devil has been blinded, we must make it so that the witch cannot make the unholy symbols with her hands. They must be cut off! You, laity, hold the body steady," he said, and after one of men standing around the body was pushed forward by another one, the sawing started. One of the acolytes puked in a nearby bush, but Vincent didn't mind. After he was finished, he continued speaking "After the arms are cut off, destroy the ears so that the witch may not hear the evil whispers of the devil. And finally, the legs, so she or he cannot run away from the judgment of the lord. Now, learn by doing, and finish the work," he said, then rose up. Vincent handed the saw to one of the acolytes, and Elita gave the knife to the man who was proud at the name Joseph.
Both inquisitors walked back to their table and continued talking about the next sermon. Vincent looked at the group every now and then. They were obviously having great trouble cutting off all the parts. One of the men seemed to try and move towards him, but apparently was too shy. "Yes, what is it laity?" The man stumbled around for a short while, until he finally started talking. "Yes, umm, lo.. lord inquisitor. Won't the witch like, die, you know, from, fro… from loss of blood. Yes, how do we stop the bleeding," the man asked, shaking almost visibly.
Vincent glared at the man for a minute before he answered "Yes, the plan is to make the witch die. Or do you know another way to get someone to the lord to answer for their life? But worry not, the holy flame can stop the bleeding. If you have trouble understanding, as is all too often the case I have noticed, haven't you too Elita, just heat up some metal and burn the wound shut," Vincent said, continued to look at the man for a minute, and then returned to check what Elita had though out for a speech during the interruption.
Next Sundays mass was a great feast at Mbandaka. After the initial purges of the city, mostly led by Vincent, the city had been quite happy to be ruled by the Holy Inquisition. René Mallery had proved himself an efficient manager, and after Vincent had whipped the crowd into a frenzy, everyone laughed as the kids threw stones at the impaled torsos of former witches. Another thing that added to the celebratory mood was the rumor that the city of Boende had fallen to the church without too many casualties. It had been almost 2 weeks since any sign had been seen of a living witch stalking the streets of Mbandaka.