Justice and the Theif
Brendan sat on the steps of the great cathedral, his head sitting heavily in the palm of his hand. It had been too long and he was getting bored of all the people who walked by staring at him in surprise. He moved his head to his other hand with the tinkling of chains. The door creaked behind him and a purple robed woman sat down on the steps next to him in silence. Her slender hands were neatly folded in her lap and she sat up perfectly perpendicular to her bent legs.
“I have no doubt you know the extent of your actions,” she said calmly, her voice low so as not to attract any attention. People stopped staring at them as soon as she came out and Brendan sensed the magic aura around her. A shiver ran up his spine and he subconsciously sat up straighter.
“Stealing from the Goddess of Justice was quite a reckless thing for you to do.” The woman pulled a set of keys from her robes and unlocked the shackles around his wrist. “I have sought guidance from my Goddess and she has given me the knowledge that you have a greater purpose than this.”
She stood up with him, but kept perfect eye contact. He stared at her gray eyes, feeling that he was drowning in the color. She kept her stony expression, but suddenly looked down at their feet. “I have also been to told to allow you shelter in our temple for the night should you chaos
He looked at the people passing by, momentarily forgetting that seconds ago they were staring at him. He remembered the embarrassment of his reaction by being chained up by a small, apprenticed priest. The urge to slip into the building and forget the past event was very strong and he nodded. “I’d like to accept if you wouldn’t mind.”
The woman’s expression softened just slightly and she held open the door for him.
“What I don’t understand,” Brendan said to her as she led him to a secondary room apart from the main hall, “is how your Goddess knows what my future is.”
“The Goddess of Justice can sense if you are a criminal or not. If this little incident were the start of a great turmoil of other thefts, she would not have let you get away. However, she knows that you are innocent and that this particular incident was not the start of others, but a meager need to get food. Besides, justice has been served: the money was returned and you stayed quite a bit of time outside in the shackles. She trusts you and she knows that your actions will not result in more injustice.”
Brendan nodded, but not completely comprehending what the priestess had said. “Well thank her for me,” he said, as the beauty of the shared room he was getting gradually turned into joy before sleep.
For the first time the priestess smiled. “You should thank her yourself, you are in her halls.” The priestess closed the curtain to the room and walked toward the alter, becoming increasingly ethereal with every step. Her human form was now a pinprick of light and she floated up gracefully to the ceiling and out into heaven again.
At midnight, Brendan approached the alter cautiously and got down on his knees to pray for thanks. He could feel guilt melt away as a new feeling of righteousness replaced it. Then deciding that he was done with his obligations snuck back into the room and fell back asleep. The Goddess of Justice smiled at him and carefully picked up the butterfly that was his prayer. She put it in the glass dome with other prayers and watched it flit around with others of its kind, its bright colors of sincerity standing out brightest of all.
