Gabriel sat in quiet contemplation alongside the altar, as one of the clerics performed a ritual of placation, asking for Adora’s loving care through the winter. Many commoners had come to sit in the pews and pray during the rite, some having lost their loved ones due to starvation, some from illness, some from age. This winter was turning out to be unusually difficult. The homeless were frozen in the streets, and many of the poor had taken shelter under Adora’s wing. It was disheartening to see them; the faces of the starving and cold, sometimes children, and knowing that at this rate the food stores set carefully aside for these people would be extinguished long before winter’s end.
Still, The Acolyte did as he always did. Most of his days were now monopolized by prayer and visits to the shelters. He had sent clerics to care for the sick, and pleaded with any owning sympathetic ears to donate what they could spare; clothes, food, medicine. A handful of merchants had lent their support, but the nobles had predictably turned away from the plight of the poor. Expected, but still Gabriel felt resentment stir in him.
And now, to further attempt to help the ones he could, he had opened up extra days to enter the sanctuary, so that any who wanted to could witness the ceremonies usually performed in private. These were at night, but still, many came to see and listen and entreat Adora’s famed mercy and love. Hope and trust still remained in the hearts of Her people.
The service closed simply, with the clerics blowing out the large candle in the center of the altar, and the people who had gathered stood and shuffled to the exits. A few lingered to speak with Gabriel, offering words of praise or bringing his attention to other plights. His approval amongst the farmers and their ilk had been raised with his recent empathetic actions, and even those who would call him a demon or a fraud had held their tongues for the past month. And, of course, as they grew to trust him more, they also placed more of their lives in his care.