Peniel

[Patricus I]

“It is such a letdown to rise from the dead and have your friends not recognize you.”
Velvet Elvis

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The mere fact that somewhere in the northern European forests of the Baltic states the Pope in the back of a car sparked a wildfire among people. The Vatican Secretary of State was quite pleased with himself, believing that it was his will that inspired the Pope to promenade around the countryside. Patricus promptly corrected the ill-inspired Cardinal with the order to halt their convoy at a national park.

The sky was a murky gray when he emerged from the car. His back was knots, but he embraced the discomfort with a glare that the others stay back while he walked along the path alone. Gravel crunched beneath his soft steps. The landscape smelled of decayed logs and loneliness. Marshes were like that.

As he walked, his thoughts narrowed to questions. The trail ended at the shore of a lake where the water was flat as glass. Like his time in Estonia, the end had come. He was done waiting around for something to happen. “I have something to say to you,” he spoke to the water, but his spirit was oriented elsewhere. The sun flared pink across the sky when he returned to his feet. His head throbbed, and the knots in his back from the car were no better for the walk let alone time on his knees.

Upon turning, he found the patient statue of his assistant waiting at the wood line. As Philip approached, he was shown a tablet. “Holy Father, this was sent from the Vatican. It seems that the Head of the Ecclesiastical Archives is urgently trying to contact Your Holiness.”

Philip looked at the screen with a brief moment of speechlessness. The assistant gently continued. “Holy Father, if you desire privacy, this setting plays the message.” After showing him, the assistant departed several steps ahead. Then, along the solitude of the lake, the connection linked and Philip waited to hear from a man seemingly returned from the dead.