Nathan Snake's Arc

Chapter 7 of 13

Nathan was raking leaves near the temple ruins when the daughter from plot seven walked past the church boundary with a leather folder under her arm. She didn't stop at her father's grave. She came straight toward him and set the folder on the stone bench. She opened it and pulled out a surveyor's map dated eighteen months back, marked with boundary lines and measurements. She pointed to the section where plot seven sat, then to the notation in the corner that showed the church's recorded property ending thirty feet short of that location. She said she'd paid for the survey herself after her brothers told her about the temple. She asked Nathan why her father was buried on land the church never legally owned, and why Nathan had let her believe otherwise. Nathan set the rake against the maple tree and pulled the deed from his coat pocket. He unfolded it on the bench beside her map. The paper was old and the ink had faded, but the boundary marks matched her survey exactly. He told her the land was given to the church forty years ago by a woman whose family erased her name from their records. The gift came with conditions — to care for the poor in perpetuity. The church took the land but buried the deed and forgot the promise. He told her he'd found the original document two weeks ago and took it before the deacon could destroy it. Her father's grave sat on land that belonged to the forgotten, not the church. That's why Nathan could promise her brothers shelter without asking permission. She traced the boundary line on her map with one finger, then looked toward the temple ruins where her brothers were hidden. She asked why he hadn't told her the truth when she first asked about the graveyard months ago. Nathan said he'd made a promise to her father that this place would always be safe for his family, but he hadn't known how to keep it until he found the deed. He'd given her an incomplete answer because he wasn't ready to make good on the full truth yet. She studied his face for a long moment, then folded her map and put it back in the folder. She said her brothers were planning to stay through winter if Nathan would let them. She wanted to know if the land was secure enough for that. Nathan pulled the ornate metal crest from his other pocket — the emblem he'd carried since his days before the graveyard, when he'd sworn different oaths to protect different people. He set it on the bench between the deed and her folder. He told her the church would fight when they learned he had the deed, and whoever ransacked his house looking for it would come back. Keeping her brothers safe through winter meant making this ground defensible, and that meant calling in old debts he'd been avoiding. She picked up the crest and turned it over in her hands, reading the inscription on the back. She asked if he was certain. Nathan said he'd made her father a promise, and he didn't break promises. She nodded once and handed the crest back. She said she'd bring supplies for her brothers tomorrow, and she'd help him prepare for whatever was coming.