Temple Sword

Chapter 181 Destiny
1322, Great Ramadan (February)
Margaret Island, Buda, Hungary
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Two people are walking on the soft snow, a woman and a man.They walked quietly, slowly moving away from the ferryman behind them, who was contentedly counting the new dinaris in his hands.

Before their eyes, the huge structure of the Dominican convent spread out from behind the bare trees, its gray bell tower rising like a warning finger.

Antal knew the island well, and his uncle William took him from Dubica to the Templar Monastery on Margaret Island, where he spent the best and most thrilling time of his youth.

But at that time, he didn't care about practice at all. He chose this place just to get close to his secret lover, and broke almost all the rules to continue his taboo relationship with her.

He was later forced to leave the convent upon becoming a vowed knight in white robes, and Agnes became a Dominican nun so she could wait forever for Antares.

As a nun, she never took vows because she just didn't want her father to marry her off for profit, she didn't know what fate awaited her with Antal, but she decided to become a novice Sister, continue to wait for him.

Then, time showed mercy to them, and young King Charles married her to the chief knight of his court, the Knight of the Lilies.

Antal never thought that he would return to the island again, and this place binds him with many ugly and beautiful memories.The closer they got to the monastery, the more excited the knight was.

He still remembers the first day of spring when he first got here, he didn't even have to look around to know where he was, they were at the south end of the island, in front of the former monastery of the Knights Templar, now it's the Knights Hospitaller property, and to the north is the castle of the Archbishop of Esztergom.

Between them were the Franciscan and Premontrey convents, and the Dominican nunnery to which the two of them were now going, where Agnes would become a sworn nun.

Every step was more and more difficult for the knight, and he would have carried his wife on his shoulders, carried her home with all his strength, and never left her again.But he loved her with all his heart and knew it would be selfish to bring her home.

He knew that no matter what he did, she would never be happy again.At first Antar thought his wife was overwhelmed by the horrors she endured and the absence of her family, and that once they were together again, everything would be fine.

Yet even after spending three months with the knight at his entreaties, the bitter and distressed Agnes did not change her mind.

Antar realized that something in his wife had been broken forever, and after accepting Ire's death, a part of them had disappeared with the painful parting.

Antar had always considered himself to be his wife's support, and when he discovered that was no longer the case, a terrible sense of despair overwhelmed him.

Finally he understood that if he really loved her, he had to let her go.It was like he let go of the manor he had struggled for many years, let go of all the children one by one, and slowly let go of his dreams.

But it was harder for him to let go of Agnes than anything, and his heart was against him until the end.

"Here we are," the woman stopped ten steps away from the gate, "give me my luggage."

Antal untied the sack full of clothes and some personal items from his back and handed it to Agnes.

At this moment, he couldn't bear it anymore, and the despair buried deep in his soul finally broke out after nearly a year and a half of depression, and the bitter water spewed out, and the man suddenly burst into tears.

He was sobbing like a child, trembling and vulnerable, and Antal could no longer pretend that everything was fine.Agnes struggled to hold back the tears in her eyes and hugged her husband tightly one last time.

"Don't cry," she whispered love, "don't cry, my lord, my heart is breaking! Think of the happy times we had together, think of those springs of love! "

"It's useless," the man tried to control his choking, "A thousand memories of spring can't resist the cold of winter..."

"You need to calm down," Agnes continued softly, "Simon is waiting for you on the other side, don't let your brave squire see your tears!"

"It's not too late now," Antal tried one last time, "the ferryman will still be able to send us both back, we'll move to Visegrad in the spring, who knows, we might even have another child……"

"We're old enough." Agnes smiled sadly, slowly breaking free from his arms.

The knight stopped sobbing, but his face was still hopelessly sad.

"We are not old!" he protested. "The king is thirty-five years old. His first heir is only now born. I am only one year older than him!"

"But this year will be my No. 40 summer," the woman reminded, "We are not young anymore, and it is time to become mature, you and I are both. I have made up my mind and will not change my mind again."

"But even if you want to repent, why can't you repent beside me? At home, in happiness..."

Agnes reached out and stroked her husband's cheek lightly.

"At home, in happiness, in comfort, in negation..." She shook her head, "You still don't understand anything. The breakdown of our family, the death of our child, all of these are God's blessings on our life To commit a sin, submit to the punishment of our love.

You have even broken your oath to the Lord, now is the time for you to realize that we cannot escape punishment forever, we have sinned and it is time to accept His verdict...

Everyone we love, all our servants, all our loyal friends died or suffered because of us, all because we thought we were above the greatest law in the world.

I know you'll never understand this, but one of us has to wake up.I love you, so I am willing to atone for you, this is the place where I deceived the Lord for the first time, and I will spend the rest of my life here to repent..."

"Love is not a sin," Antal shook his head, "William told me that loving someone is never a sin!" No matter how much the knight tried to persuade him, his wife remained unmoved.

This is crazy, he told himself, and even though he'd heard it so many times over the past few months, he still refused to believe it.It's crazy, it's all crazy.

"I think, I will visit you from time to time..." Antal suggested.

"Even if we die of missing each other, we shall never see each other again," Agnes' words stabbed Antar's heart like a dagger, "repentance is of no value without real pain and remorse. "

"You know, as we searched for each other and our son across the kingdom, we both made a serious decision." The sadness on Antar's face slowly receded, and suddenly, he became hard and cold, This surprised Agnes a little.

"You chose to withdraw from the world and beg the Lord for the redemption of our souls, but that's not why I came back to Charlie.

I didn't reswear allegiance to him because I gave up looking and hoping, and I never told anyone, but I swore vengeance, and I will avenge everything that happened to us! "

"Don't talk nonsense!" Agnes looked disappointed and angry. "Don't take revenge, my love, and leave everything to God for judgment, for the Lord said, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.'"

The woman closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she looked at Antar again, she seemed to be no longer angry.

"'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our sinners,'" she said in a soft, soothing voice, "do you remember what you said to me? You received Your fate, put on your old clothes.

Now is the time for you to accept your destiny and follow the path of God.You have to understand that you can't be a hotheaded teenager forever!It's time to realize that the world doesn't exist for us, that the sun doesn't rise and set for us.

In this life, our desires mean nothing and just get us in trouble time and time again. "

They stared at each other for a long time, and after a silence, Agnes spoke again.

"No matter what you think of me now, I will always love you. But we can't belong to each other anymore, we can't sleep in the same bed, we can't touch each other, we can't dream of the future together..."

Antal exhausted all the courage in his body not to cry again.

"You once said," he whispered, "that you were born to be mine."

"I've never belonged to anyone," Agnes replied, "but my heart will always be yours."

After speaking, she turned around and walked quickly towards the convent without looking back once.

(End of this chapter)