Well, contrary to popular speculations, I am indeed alive. Part of my inactivity is due to one of the major religious celebrations of the Byzantine Church, namely the birth of the Prophet Jesus Christ. The continual displays of true devotion to one of the Divine's greatest agents on earth makes it very difficult for me to be out in public. Of late, it had been powerful enough to cause a degree of nausea that has kept me bed ridden. Fortunately, I have a few mortal friends who have been kind enough to sit with me through this particular trying time for me.
But once I was well enough to move about by myself, I was called in and assigned a task from the superiors within the order. There was one person that needed to be dealt with in a specific manner to ensure that he remained dead, and didn't return to bother mortals again. Just my good fortune that I happen to not only know about the person concerned, but the means that he is able to not remain dead. Plus, along with another member of our order, I was able to find out exactly how to deal with it.
But my superiors neglected to tell me about the Janissary contingent already active dealing with the followers of my target. This caused no end of troubles, and is fast pushing me to my limits.
The Janissary sit between the Inquisitors Ordinaire and the Knights Templar in their duties and available firepower and support. The Inquisitors are the Law Enforcement for the Church, performing a similar function to the secular Police Service. The various orders of the Knights Templar are the military arm of the Church, and they take the field to make war on the enemies of the Church that are external in nature, or Secular Political. The Janissary take care of Civil Unrest, minor rebellions before they come an issue for the Templars.
Unlike the Inquisitors and Templars, Janissary are not volunteers in the ordinary sense. Children between the ages of 5 and 7 are gifted to the Janissary, and they are trained extensively until adulthood, when they are assigned to their unit, and most will serve in that unit for the rest of their lives. Prior to the establishment of the order that I serve, they were responsible for removing the more dangerous heretics and other problems of the Church.
This is were our little problem comes in. When I was recruited, the agent sent to retrieve me was assigned a Janissary squad as backup. Instead of a peaceful approach, the Janissary team assaulted my then abode. The resultant fight was brutal, nasty and mostly fatal for the Janissary. I was in the process of sending the agent to meet the Divine when he managed to convince me that I was not being sanctioned but recruited. The Janissary, however, have not forgiven me for that one incident. There have been a few accidents where I was 'mistakenly' identified as a heretic threat. As you might guess, they have not been successful yet in terminating me as yet. On this particular mission, they almost were successful.
It was partially my own fault, as I forgot just how good they are at thinking outside the box, as the term her e goes. When I managed to insert myself into the cult, one of their number overheard my approach, and mimicked it enough to kill their sentry, and get the team in a little closer to do their part of the mission. Before I had a chance to actively engage the cult's leader, the Janissary commenced their assault, which in and of itself, greatly hampered my efforts to deal with the cult leader. While being under direct, deliberate fire, the task became nearly impossible. Since we are both Church agents, I have endeavoured not to kill any of the Janissary when they attack me. It pushed my abilities to the limits during their assault. But, I am not above letting fate deal with them as She would. More than once I could have acted to save a life of one of the Janissary, but my hand remained still and they lived or died by their own actions, or those of their fellows. But circumstances finally managed to play themselves into my favour, and I was able to kill the leader in a manner that ensured he would not return.
This, of course, precipitated another combat where I was going to wind up as a casualty of the heretic's defenders. It took a great deal of work, misdirection and a new near death experiences for them to finally break off enough for me to depart the area and report in. The Janissary reported of my collusion with the heretics, as well as my resisting their attempts to capture me to bring me back in chains to be punished as was fitting. Fortunately, my standing within the Order, coupled with the reported and fully documented death of the cult leader was sufficient to have their claims dismissed, and several reprimands issued to members of the Janissary team. This will be added to the growing list of reasons for them to remove me from the face of Creation.
Of course, I have not brought forward charges of the previous times that the Janissary have attempted to assassinate me, because I have had no evidence to bring forth to support such a claim. Also, when I do bring charges forward, I want them to be watertight, and allow me once and for all to get them to cease their attempts at killing me. Because as the Divine as my witness, there will be those passing Legal judgment that would like nothing more than to have someone such as me tied to the stake and dispatched as any other heretic has been.
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