I have finally found the time to sit at this writing machine and describe how I came to be here. Please be so kind as to forgive me if my writing is poor – where I came from, we are not encouraged to write, but simply obey our holy leaders. The world I come from is very different from the one I find myself if now. I was not taught much of our history in detail and curiosity was not encouraged, but from what I can remember Bronze believes that there was some manner of magical catastrophe several hundred years ago [Bronze’s note: Looks like around the 15th or 16th Century, around what would have been the Renaissance era]. In my time, I was brought up in a Martial Monastery. I don’t remember my parents but that was not unusual, most of the children had been given up to the Holy Orders by their parents as it was their duty to supply the Church with soldiers to fight the demonic hoards.
Life at the Monastery of the Friars of Norton Folgate was dedicated to training us to fight the demons that plagued the world. It was a harsh life and I look back on it with fear and sadness. Your world is so much better than where I came from, you have a freedom that allows you to enjoy life. It has been a miraculous revelation to me! I was trained to fight with the Quarterstaff, a powerful weapon in the hands of a holy warrior as the wood of the staff becomes imbued with the holy spirit of the wielder so can hurt even incorporeal demons and spirits!
How I came to be here is a mystery – one moment I was fighting through hoards of demons and black warlocks then next I was standing in an alley in the city, confronted by zombies and evil sorcerers dressed in black leather. After I defeated them, a group of girls showed up lead by a golden angel but I saw what I thought was a horned demon and made to attack it when the angel begged me to halt and wait for an explanation. What I head defied belief and it was only when they showed me my face in a mirror (we didn’t have mirrors or other such fripperies a the Monastery) that I realised I looked the same as the angel in gold!
Since then My Angel has introduced me to baths, showers (oh what luxury!!), hairdressers, mani… er people who polish fingernails… although I don’t understand why this is as important as My Angel says it is… and most of all clothes shops!! Oh what marvellous things to be able to wear! We only ever had crude homespun robes that were often hand-me-downs, dirty and infested with lice. Here I can wear ANYTHING!!!! My Golden Angel has encouraged me to try all manner of outfits and I find myself blushing at the interested looks I get from others.
Some of these outfits are quite ‘sinful’, but I find myself enjoying wearing them, especially when My Angel takes me to visit this ‘Pocket D’ place where people gyrate in a most unusual manner to loud music. She is teaching me some ‘dance moves’ which are strongly reminiscent of my Quarterstaff training, indeed My Angel has said that I should swap my staff for a pole… but I don’t understand what she means by that or what makes it so funny. [Red’s note: Kallisti Gold frankly has NO SHAME!!!]
It appears that I have achieved something remarkable in this world while fighting not just demons but evil in all its forms and have become and Incarnate, although I am still struggling with what this means. None of the others has achieved this yet and so Bronze is trying to help me understand it.
Recently, My Angel took me back to Albion, flying in a giant metal bird which was rather frightening as it was flying higher than I can jump! When we got to Albion, we were met by her mother and father who are also my parents, although I never knew them. It was a very emotional time as they were lovely people and looked after me in a way I’d never known before. They are wonderful people and I love them dearly, as do all of us Kallisti Girls! Our mother says she is the luckiest mother alive to have so many wonderful daughters and only had to give birth once!
Bronze is still looking at ways of allowing us to return to our home times but I do not wish to go back. I love it here with all the marvellous modern things like hair-dryers and mobile phones and I could not bear to be parted from My Angel and my other sisters now.
Kallisti the Friar’s story continues in these instalments:
