Chapter 23 The Followers of Balkir
Juro had been sickly since he was a child. He could not do the things children his age did and he would always be left out in the games the others played. The constant rejection he felt back then made him bitter. Often he would question why the old gods cursed him with a weak body. When he was older, it was difficult for him to find employment in Torinth where fishing was the primary livelihood of most of the inhabitants. His sickly frame could not handle the physical strain. Limited by his weak constitution, he was forced to sell whatever he could. Often he would buy bread or fish to sell at the town market.
There was a day years back when Juro was not able to sell anything. No customer wanted to buy the bread that he was selling. He was going to go home hungry, he had thought. It was on that day when he had realized that he had never felt this sorry for himself in his entire life.
As he walked home, Juro noticed a man in black robes walking the opposite direction staring at him. There was something about the man that made him return his stare. As they passed each other, the man in black robes said to him in a gentle voice, “There is pain in your heart. Let Balkir heal you.”
Upon hearing this, Juro stopped walking. He stood there for long moments, while the robed man kept walking the other way. Tears fell from his eyes. He dropped the bread that he was carrying and tried to catch up with the robed man. From afar he saw that the robed man entered this new temple dedicated to the god, Balkir. He then followed the robed man inside.
This happened two years before. And Juro now wore the same black robes. He had become a priest of Balkir and he was in the best of health. He had found his real purpose and he knew deep in his heart that serving this new god was the right thing to do.
Finding new followers in Torinth was not difficult. The people who knew him to be a sickly person saw the miraculous transformation he had undergone. And the prospect of more miracles attracted many to his temple.
He was preparing for their dusk ceremony as the followers of Balkir were slowly gathering inside the temple. The blessing he would give them would be a special one, he thought. The sign in the sky had appeared as was prophesied. It was time and everything would soon change. As he thought about the prophecy, he held the stone that formed the pendant of a necklace he wore around his neck.
He would soon be part of the world that the new gods would usher in, he told himself.