Uphill Battle

[Brian]

The first questioner was probably the leader.  The second one folds under the pressure of Tom's glare: "The texts say that the gates are to be used primarily for travel!" he squeaks in alarm.  "That the ability to change things is a gift!  But if we hold the secret of safe travel, we can guide and protect people!  Men are beasts, in all forms.  It's the duty of the Church to make them more, and greater!"

[Dracos]

Dracos tapped his cheek, eying the catanoic priest and watching the other one as Tom questioned him.

Dracos

[Dracos]

"I suppose he's a beast too?" Dracos gestured at the leader of the bunch.

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"Why can this secret not be shared?" replies Tom, impatiently. "What is wrong with the freedom to know one's own way?"

[Brian]

"He's....   He's no beast!  He follows the laws of chivalry; we all do!"  He grimaces.  "Except for you lot.  We were given this power by the Creator.

"Why would he tell us, and us alone, the way to travel the Gates safely, if he meant for everyone to know?"

[Dracos]

"For us to be the messangers to the people.  The prophets showing them a way to climb above where they stand by their own strength and divine providence.  Now...  You raise an interesting point.  The Creator, blessed with wisdom beyond our ken, has given us such things.  Simply, he could also take such away.  I, as your friend suggests, have taken the wrong path... yet the gates answer my call as readily as ever, perhaps even more so.  And this man here has the light of reason shining in his eyes and is questioning, seeking to understand rather than releasing the rage inherent in being treated like an animal, while he," Dracos gestures back, "when faced with something contradicting crawls back upon himself like a mewling babe."

Dracos

[Brian]

The Questioner -- he looks younger, on closer inspection -- is struck dumb for a minute, before he spits out, "I don't understand.  He's....  We're...."  He trails off, then asks, "Then why were we alone given the knowledge?"

[Carthrat]

"But consider where you learned your knowledge in the first place," replies Tom, frowning. "From books, you say? But anybody can write a book, as long as they know letters."

[Brian]

"You wouldn't know," the priest says, recovering some of his conviction.  "No man could shape that stone -- only the hand of the Creator.  Nothing else can make a mark on it."

The dazed priest that Phil reprimanded into submission first nods weakly.

[Dracos]

Dracos shakes his head.  "It is so simple.  It is a test... not only for us who have it, but for all of us.  To see if we can progress beyond our base urges.  If we can share and find more plenty than any alone would have.  To show that we are beyond simple primates at a spiritual level as well... that we would not walk by a starving man caring food yet unwilling to give.  We were given a solemn duty to better the lives of those around us, to be the messangers of hope and of the creator's glory, and instead we have hoarded this knowledge for ourselves."

Dracos

[Brian]

"For the greater good!" pleads the first priest.  "We are ready!  This is the truth -- but the world outside of Stonehold isn't!  The Church's word should remain there, until everyone is together, united.  And that can't happen if we're fractured; then we're just waiting for the Anabarans to destroy us!  They use imperfect knowledge of the Gates, but they improve, bit-by-bit.  Some day, they may learn the secret of crossing safely.  And then we are doomed, if we are not together.  What weapons are more devastating than those that destroy the Shroud itself?"

[Dracos]

Dracos pulled back on reflexes he hadn't used in ages, turning and going face to face with the man as he thundered.  "They are not ready because WE have not made them ready.  The Anabarans move towards our 'destruction' because of ignorance of the wisdom that we alone could share with them.  We were given the Creator's message for a reason.  Understanding is a sword that cleaves such, a shield against such disaster.  We must not simply share knowledge...but the wisdom behind such knowledge.  We need not to hoard it in fear of misuse, but to be shouting it out until our voices run hoarse to make those who are not ready to understand reach understanding."

Dracos
OOC: This may possibly be more an oratory thing than a persuasion thing.

[Brian]

Tears run down the younger priest's face.  "Why?" he moans.  "Why did they choose to hoard this information?  It's true!  We wouldn't have suffered for years if-"

"Silence!" the elder questioner shouts.  "Silence!  I won't have you listening to this heresy!  If this knowledge was shared, we'd have been exterminated by every army willing to destroy the shroud!  That information is wicked, and the gates don't control travel, they control information!  We can't allow knowledge like that to be free!"

"Lies," the younger priest whimpers.  "Lies, all!  We've done nothing but worsen our lot!  Deacon Bloom speaks the truth -- and that man there -- that Anabaran who retains his memories, he proves it all beyond question!"

[Dracos]

Focusing entirely on the older priest, Dracos continued, tying back to early arguments he had made, to maintain somewhat of a consistent image placed  in the man's head.  

"So trapped in your fear, you would hoard it until, like a chain it strangled you.  The knowledge, the wisdom dividing you from others leaving those who are frightened of us on one side, who beg for every crust of bread we would spare, and those who want to kill us on the other.   Not only scared to share the Creator's word, but willing to come and cut down those who would."

Dracos

[Brian]

"For the greater good!  Others would make poorer choices!" the older priest protests.  The younger shakes his head in denial.