Epilogue
Six Years Later
Caldric Fenn smiled as he looked the class over.
The headmaster was now teaching a group of twelve boys and girls. No longer did he teach on the sly and in secret. Instead, he taught in a large, sunlit schoolroom just outside Ömstead.
They had offered him a position within the city walls, but he had declined. Caldric preferred the countryside and the sea. Here he could take his pupils on long walks and teach them about God’s creation firsthand.
Only yesterday they had visited the lighthouse on the coast. Jonathan and Magdalene lived there now, together with their friend Asher, the blind man. They faithfully tended the great beacon that shone across the waters each night. Standing beneath the towering structure, Caldric had reminded his pupils that they too were called to be lights in a dark world.
This afternoon they would travel to the shore, where a kindly fisherman named Alaric had promised to ferry them to a narrow stretch of land called Lumenreach, a place every child in the district longed to see. But first, near the end of the morning lessons, the best part of the day was about to begin.
Just before recess he would tell a story from the book of Scrolls that lay right before him on his big desk. The book, a formidable tome, written by hand and bound in brown leather and embossed with a golden cross on the front, was no longer outlawed.
Not that the entire country had become Christian. Far from it. Yet the persecution was over, the Council of Four was gone, and the Scrolls could now be read openly throughout the land. In fact, the new ruler had outlawed the Book of Order, saying it was non-sensical, hard to grasp, and entirely outdated.
Everyone now had access to the Scrolls of God. Even children could read them for themselves and the influence of the wondrous words of God in the country was clear to all.
Caldric Fenn quietly thanked God for all the wonderful changes.
Someone pulled at his arm and he looked up.
It was seven-year-old Jorben. The child with its happy freckles and blue eyes looked at him with an expectant smile. “Master Fenn, can we read more about Jesus today? I have finished my sums.”
Caldric Fenn gave the boy a warm smile. “Of course, Jorben. Where did we finish yesterday?”
Jorben narrowed his eyes and searched in his memory. “You read about Jesus who said that He was the bread of life. Can you read again that story about the woman at the well, we all love that story, Master.”
“Go sit, Jorben. Let’s just wait until everyone has finished their sums. In the meantime, I will find the passage.”
Jorben scooted away and Caldric Fenn pulled the Book of the Scrolls closer.
The sun fell on the brown cover, warming it. It caused him to smell the leather. There had been a time when a man could lose his life for owning such writings. Now it rested openly on a schoolmaster’s desk while children waited eagerly to hear its words. And what a blessing that there had been people who dedicated their lives to collect all these different Scrolls and put them together in one volume for everyone to read.
All the children were done with their sums and Caldric Fenn opened the book. His eyes fell on the words in the beginning: “This is the word of God. Copied by Calen and the Scribes of Bramblebrook.”
Yes, he remembered Calen. That man had been one of the faithful ones. He had started copying in that cave, but he and his entire crew of scribes had moved to a large building near Ömstead. He and that remarkable woman. What was her name again? Marisa. She had stood beside Calen through every storm and was still there.
He smiled and began to read, his voice warm and rich: “There came a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink…”