I'm not a fortune 500 CEO so I certainly have barely escaped the whipping post myself many times, as I wager most have."So nice of you to join us, my young Lord Kest." An evil-eyed priest, dressed in a white robe with a black sash, snarled in his ear. "You have just barely escaped the whipping post."
The story at times reminds me of the plight of the early christians under the lash and persecution of Rome.
My first impression though is how it reminded me of the real world from a theological perspective, if you would call it that. How the prince of darkness rules over this world. Everything current and worldy comes to dust and to evil. The rule that measures and the laws that bind are not the laws of heaven. Safe to say the value systems of heaven and earth are in direct contradiction at least by christian terms imho. To be successful in the world, a great part of it involves money and status, while to draw treasure from Heaven one is called to put away money and worldy things and instead of centering on yourself you center on your fellow man and woman.
So whomever follows the latter must be in the minority, Like Stephen your brother. As you showed us in his writings he, instead of fighting back, let the muggers take his money and harm him. Instead of crying out he told them all they had to do was ask as he took off articles of his clothing. A minority of people who are like him, who follow the laws of heaven and not earth...well minority does not do them justice.
So your protagonist reminds me of these precious few in the earth, in the real world. Where true good is as sparse as drops of blood in the middle of a hailstorm.
