Author Information
Bradley
At 25 he was considered well past the age a man should have already been married and fathering children. One of his brothers was 2 years younger and had a wife, a kid and another on the way. He'd tried to keep putting it off by going on missions, but recently it had been strongly suggested by his presbyter that he wed soon. He had been paired with the youngest sister of one of his father's wives who was just 17. They had spent time together and he found her to be very intelligent for a girl so young. She was also quite pretty. If he didn't decide soon she would be given to someone else. He had discussed with the elder at length on several occasions that he had doubts about marrying, that he preferred contemplative life. However there was no room in their religion for solitary practitioners. The only one that could possibly hear God's voice was the overseer at the top of the pyramid. Any challenge to that doctrine was considered blasphemy. So he had never disclosed to anyone that he had been having visions since he was 10. One in particular had been impressed upon him repeatedly. But how could he tell the men who ran the church, the men who believed only in long lives and many wives and lots of children & grandchildren to control, slavishly employ, trade, barter & use as leverage in their endless pursuit to keep the top spots, that the next leader of the church was meant to be a woman.
