Summoned by the Pope

Giotto 

When the elderly Pope summoned him [Francis] one last time, he had refused. This was something no child of the Church would ever do. But he did. He flat out refused.

Firstly, there had been the argument about the gentle creatures and their places in heaven. The Church had been adamant that animals did not have souls, and therefore his services with the small creatures, were considered to be no more than an empty bluff - a charade - a performance - a novelty. Francis was ordered to address the mortals only.

The Holy Father, added to this, had placed stipulations, and confinements upon the activity of his Brotherhood.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

"In 1209, Francis of Assisi led his first eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order which was ultimately granted....

After several days, the pope agreed to admit the group informally, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance. The group was tonsured. This was important in part because it recognized Church authority and protected his followers from possible accusations of heresy, as had happened to the Waldensians decades earlier. Though Pope Innocent initially had his doubts, following a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Basilica of St. John Lateran (the cathedral of Rome, thus the 'home church' of all Christendom), he decided to endorse Francis's order. This occurred, according to tradition, on 16 April 1210, and constituted the official founding of the Franciscan Order." 

Detachment

Perhaps Francis could renounce much of the world, simply because he was not of this world.

It is possible that his detachment, and ability to see with spiritual eyes through the glamour of the material existence - possible, that this was a wisdom known by an ageless heart; one that could sense the need of the many, that would far outcry the needs of his own.

Yet he was not without his own want or will either.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Dangerous Discoveries

It was unnatural for a human to endure this - and Puck felt a little responsible. For it had been his arrow that had caught the man in the first place.

It was only meant to sail past his head to get his attention, but instead it nicked him from behind.

Being also an elvin arrow, it very possibly contributed to the magic which was to follow.

Puck thought of Pietro rather fondly really. He had showed great kindness to Francesco - had always given his best to him. He was a good man, and now an earthbound ghoul of a kind.

Puck had gone after him that day to take him to see Francis where he was camped, but it ended rather poorly. He really did feel responsible - mainly because he was.

And then there was the problem of Johnstone enterprises. Taking over the greater shareholding was one thing in the short term, but not enough to stop its momentum as before.

Johnstone Snr had made some dangerous discoveries just prior to his death. And Humanity, in his opinion, would be better off without these evolutionary contributions. He sighed. It was definitely time for a holiday away from this place.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Soul Migration

It all came down to this: Pietro had suffered an accidental death, and was resurrected by a very gifted simpleton who was touched with the ability to restore life, when life was depleted.

Murmur had helped Pietro reconstruct a human form from the materials in the ditch in which he had died - but (and this was the important part) not all of his new body exhumed had been human - there had been dead animal and leafy matter as well - and the new Peter had in part been all things - at least his body had been.

And this was fine, yet for some inexplicable reason when it came for that body to die, the soul could not leave the worldly realm to depart as it ordinarily might, flying free into the cosmic spheres. It was, as it were, detained.

Pietro then went on to find another, and another form to inhabit, and as the years went on, right up to this century, and to great angst, his soul was still forced to migrate thusly.

Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Prayer Box

The great lion shook his head, and stared very hard at the following.

No-one moved. They did not, they dared not.

"Please can you tell us just one thing?” they asked - for they knew that just one good truth might carry them through to the eternal life.

“I cannot tell you just one thing. I cannot tell you anything. I can try to explain. I can sometimes describe. But I cannot tell you how to live your life, or how to find the eternal answer.”

“Yet we have heard your ear is close to the door of the gods … and so therefore, can you tell us what it is the gods speak off in the silence, and in their meetings?”

“I do not listen, I dare not listen, at their great door - for caution my own ears will explode.” He said this with a rumbling purr, and then continued:

“Give me your prayers and I will put them in a box, and I will keep them for a century in safekeeping; and then at the end of this age we will take them from their safe-nest and you will see each one will have been fulfilled. This, I can tell you.”

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Suitable Cadaver

Now, returning to George and Johnstone, who were watching Chips closely as he was struggling for breath. They followed Peter-Pietro into the adjoining lab and watched him enter the cadaver through its nose. As soon as it moved, they both knew they were watching something they had not seen before.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” George said to Johnstone with a voice thick with want. Neither of the two had reconciled to death, being far too invested in the lives they knew.

As they watched the Asian man push his way out from the glass box they nodded to one another in assent.

“Looks like we have ourselves a project” said Johnstone rubbing his bald head, thinking out loud. George pulled out his pocket book and scribbled, “Project rebirth. 1. Find a suitable cadaver.”

“Got it” he said.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Human Path

Puck was unusually adept with his transactions - his evolution had taken him into the human path, to the point where he not only shared blood with them, but also karma.

There became a certain compelling to follow. Even if he had wanted, he could not simply retire to the etheric world, and live out the next decade of centuries, removed from their strife. No, he was involved.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances