Chapter 571: I Have Come For Peace
"Seek the simplest in all things, in food, clothing, without being ashamed of poverty. For a great part of the world lives in poverty. Do not say, "I am the son of a rich man. It is shameful for me to be in poverty." Christ, your Heavenly Father, Who gave birth to you in the baptistery, is not in worldly riches. Rather he walked in poverty and had nowhere to lay His head."
- Saint Gennadius of Constantinople
Religion.
Created by mankind, believed by mankind, used to serve mankind for various purposes, watched mankind grow from its youth stage to its teenage stage, and slowly it found itself slowly lagging behind time, the things that used to make it shine is slowly getting questioned, even criticised, as mankind started getting more and more realistic after finding out more about this world. But still when crisis and troubles came, people yet relied on their God, their believes, hoping for a saviour to somehow miraculously descend from heaven to save and guide them, while often forgetting that these saviours they are hoping for often comes from the people as well, just a bit more persistent, a bid more hardworking, a bit more intelligent. And it is exactly these saviours that came from people who continued making the belief thrive, reforming the belief to not let it get abandoned by people.
The Ecumenical Patriarch does not see himself as such person, but he is working hard to get his name on the history and be remembered by generations.
He is still waiting for a reply from Thomas Paleologos.
He is sure that the man will definitely come and see him, if he is still sane, if he still wants to keep his legitimacy, if he still has ambitions to ascend to a higher position, then he must come and see the Ecumenical Patriarch, because the Ecumenical Patriarch represents the God, and it is the God who decides whether this Basileus is legitimate or not.
...
But the Ecumenical Patriarch is wrong this time.
Thomas Palaiologos has been seating on his throne for all day long, without doing anything, for he is suffering tremendous amount of pain from his psychological loss and physical torture.
Everyone knows that it is a necessity for Human beings to drink sufficient water in order to survive, but Thomas Palaiologos has barely drunk anything in the past two days, the only source of water he received was the melting snow which has already turned black by people stepping on it with their boots. The nobleman who once drank only the finest wine had to gulp it down like a dog slurping its bowls in order to survive in front of his followers, this caused a tremendous trauma to his mind, so much that he slammed the bowl on the ground, like a rampant kid.
That bowl of melting ice is far from enough from his body’s required amount of water of course, Thomas Palaiologos started suffering from symptoms of dehydration like fatigue, rage, headache and hallucinations that is making him increasingly paranoid.
It would only take a matter of time before Thomas lay his hands on his brown yellowish excrements.
And that is not yet the biggest trauma that he is having right now, the biggest trauma in his mind is the growing thought that he is going to have a defeat. He is going to be crushed by Giovanni Giustiniani, he is going to be thrown into the cells and exiled by these rebels like his brother, he might even be charged and be stripped of all of his prestige and honour, all of these is even worse than taking his life. Because he, Thomas Palaiologos, as a royalty born in the purple, the now only legitimate successor to the Roman Throne, the despot of Morea, the Sebastokrator, is special, he can only accept success, not defeat, in fact he can proudly say that he has never been defeated once in his life, not even by his own brother.
Thomas wants power, Thomas needs power, Thomas is thirsty for power, Thomas cannot survive without power.
He deeply regrets on his decision to not watch over Giovanni Giustiniani beforehand, he curses himself for not heeding his advisor’s advice to flee the city first, he blames his brother for not giving up his position willingly, but out of these people, he hates Giovanni Giustiniani the most for obvious reasons, for pushing a prestigious royal noble like him into a muddle of shame, disgrace, humiliation. He has cursed Giovanni for hundreds of times in a span of two days, but obviously that is not going to do anything to him, it will only deepen the wounds in his mind.
Yes, Thomas Palaiologos is slowly losing his sane without even knowing it.
A knock on the door interrupted Thomas’ curses.
"Who is it?" Thomas asked in a hoarse voice, but soon smiled and ordered. "Fine, no matter who it is, I must appreciate you for not fleeing from my side and surrender to those rebels yet, come in."
It is one of his guards, a hybrid between Roman and Ottoman Turk.
"There is someone outside who wants to see you." The guard stared into his master with literally no sign of respect or anything in neither his words nor his eyes. If it is back in the usual days the guard would be punished for sure, but Thomas does not seem to mind now.
"Who is it? Is it another one of Giovanni’s hounds?"
"I reckon so, he is wearing Christian clothing with a staff of a cross by his side."
"A cross... The Church?" Thomas’ eyes glistened up once again as he scrambled to get off his seat. "Is it someone from the Church? As they finally came to rescue me seeing righteousness in my actions? Has the Ecumenical Patriarch finally decided to pardon me? It must be! It must be!"
Thomas pushed the table away, stumbled pass the door, almost falling down in the process, while the guard just stood there watching with a cold eye without offering any form of aid to his political master.
Thomas stumbled to the windows, grabbed and gulped down some snow attached to the windowpanes, and stared at the square before him. And there he is, the man whom Thomas has wished for the most, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the master of Christianity. He immediately ordered the guards to lower their guards, then attempted to climb down the stairs, only to find himself getting overrun by powerless and fatigue, with no further options he had to let a man go out of Hagia Irene and invited the Ecumenical Patriarch over.
Thomas was expecting the Ecumenical Patriarch to descend as his saviour pulling him away from the hell pit, reinforce him with all the necessities, morale, and support, and most importantly, water and food. However, to his utmost disappointment, the Ecumenical Patriarch came with empty hands, and started questioning him, the successor of the Roman Empire, at the very first second they met.
"Lord Thomas, I need a very good explanation on the presence of infidels inside one of Constantinople’s holiest sanctuaries, have you forgotten about the past? Have you forgot about our antagonising history?"
The smile on Thomas’ face started to freeze.
"This is a church! Lord Thomas, this is the Hagia Irene! The building of the church is supervised by Imperator Justinian himself! Designated to be a holy ground for Constantinople! Do you remember what you have told me when you wanted to use it as your place of residence? You came to me saying that, you have no where to stay because your brother took everything away from you, and you will not disturb the normal way of life in this church, but look at you, what have you done? Now, where are my priests, where is my altar, where are my icons?"
Obviously, the icons have been sold for funds, and priests have been expelled. The Ecumenical Patriarch has all the reasons to feel exasperated, because this man before him, as a Christian, committed the sins of avarice, dishonesty, treasons to the state, and conducting infidel or even heretic activities inside Hagia Sophia, which belongs to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the figurehead of Christianity himself.
The eyes of Thomas started turning eerie as he stared at the Ecumenical Patriarch with hatred all over his eyes.
The Ecumenical Patriarch too realised that he has expressed way too much rage in his words that might heat up the tension, and so he gave the fragile man his pouch of water, and asked in a softer voice. "Now, my child, tell me, what are you going to do next?"
Thomas gulped down all of the water, wiped his mouth, and questioned in a intimidating tone. "What are you here for? Trying to get me to surrender?"
"I am here for no one’s favour my child." Replied the Ecumenical Patriarch. "I am here to host a peace talk between you and Lord Giovanni."
