Saint of Builders

His symbol, a reliquary containing the shattered yellow arm bones, bound in corded leather, found in the rubble of a bridge that stood for 800 years before being bombed by republican dissidents. The arms once belonged to a young man, a boy some would say, condemned by bad luck and the deranged dream of the local King to be entombed in the bridge foundations, a sacrifice. His lonely spirit listened to the world tramp across the cobbles above and felt the waters course below and the big grey cut stones settle around his withered corpse. A miserable death, all in all.

They found his bones in the wet mud and rubble, after the smoke and drama had long cleared, and at first there was some confusion about the brittle yellow bones. A victim of the bombing, not counted among the original dead? No, too old, too crushed by the ages. A sacrifice, or accident, to the bridge. Much good his spirit had done - the bombing had fractured the nation. Years of blood and resentment followed after, a dam broken. Blood washing over the country like the river water over the rubble of the bridge.