<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/f0/The_preacher.png)</div><strong>Name:</strong>John Malta<br/><strong>Date:</strong>May 3, 1876<br/><strong>Time of Day:</strong>Dusk<br/><strong>Location:</strong>The stagecoach trail from Lost Angels to Gomorra<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Jaelyn<br/><hr/>The preacher raised an eyebrow, his features long and drawn.<strong>“It would be a poor jest,”</strong>he whispered.<strong>“A poor jest indeed.  No, I’ve seen those kitchens with my own eyes.  I’ve seen what the Angels do there.  There is a sickness in those men.”</strong>He gestured to the corpse that still lay, so many feet away.<strong>”And most are like him.  Harrowed.”</strong><br/><br/>He bowed his head as she began her righteous tirade, nodding like he could almost hear the words coming from his own mouth.  He understood her anger, he understood her rage.  He understood her doubts and her struggle – it was a road he’d walked himself, more than once.<br/><br/><strong>”I don’t claim to have an answer,”</strong>he said.<strong>”Because there is none.  I don’t know why he lets people be butchered, and eaten, I don’t know why demons are breaking loose from hell and wearing people like coats.  Surely, I wish I did.  I wish I could answer all your questions, .  But I’m looking for those answers myself.  I could debate with you on free will and the evil of the world being original sin… but it won’t help you or I any.  Or anyone else.”</strong><br/><br/>His eyes were soft as he looked up.<strong>”The only wisdom I have to offer is – there <em>is</em> a God.  And I think you believe that, too.  He may not grant us the wisdom to understand his ways.  He won’t answer every prayer, but that doesn’t mean we should stop praying.  You have it in you to be one of his chosen.  I believe that.  I believe He sent me in your path because he sees the good you can do.”</strong><br/><br/>He spread his hands.<strong>”But for me… I think all the wickedness in the world is man’s doing.  And so it is to man to undo.   I don’t know why the gates of hell are crackin’ open.  I don’t think it’s God’s will.  I think it’s man, poking around with things he ought not to, takin’ advantage of all that free will he gave us.”</strong><br/>