by Mark Knight
Saliha sat back. “Tell us what you saw, Uriel.”
The Archangel’s brow quivered. He licked his lips.
“Corruption,” he said finally.
“Elaborate,” urged Saliha.
The initially impassive Uriel was now showing considerable emotion (for an Archangel). It was clear to the Nine that he was finding it difficult to speak.
“The world was new,” he began. “It was a thrill for Phaedra. Her first time on a survey. Phaedra was my charge. I should not have let her out of my sight.”
The elderly male Council member leaned forward in his seat. “Archangel, we would like you to tell us exactly what you saw...
Chapter II
Outside in the anteroom, Phaedra waited silently on the bench. Although her exterior was as calm and unruffled as a marble statue, the tortured thoughts within her were swelling to bursting point.
Then, an Archangel Guard strode through the room, gripping the arm of the bound Erebus. The demon offered no resistance.
“Erebus!” exclaimed Phaedra, standing.
“Have you heard the verdict?” he asked her.
“Not yet, but I’m not expecting a miracle.” She frowned. “They arrested you?”
“He gave himself up,” the Guard informed her.
Phaedra couldn’t believe it. “What?”
Erebus could only offer her a wry expression. “They knew.”
“Your people?”
“Yep. I figured the best place to go was to the Legion of Good Guys here for a little bowing, scraping, and asylum seeking. My people can't touch me here.”
She took two steps closer to him. The Guard yanked his captive back. “But,” she said, “I'm going to be punished. It's certain I'll never see you again.”
Erebus suddenly looked serious. “Our fate will be the same.”
The Guard tugged at his captive. “You have been called,” he told him.
“Hey,” Erebus said to the Guard. “Forgiveness is a big thing here, right? Forgive, forget, all that stuff?” When he got no response, he turned his eyes back to Phaedra. “We're innocent, Phaedra. They can't damn us for our feelings.”
The Guard yanked Erebus away from her, making for the Tribunal Hall.
“Hey—” the demon called back to his lover. “Maybe they’ll give me some wings!”
Alone once again, Phaedra sat back down upon the cold marble bench, and bowed her head in sorrow.
Only minutes later, both Phaedra and Erebus stood together upon the dais. The Council of Nine were ready to deliver their verdict.
Saliha, leader of the Council, stood.
“I, Saliha,” she said, “of the Celestial Council of Nine, will now pronounce judgment upon the transgressors Phaedra, and Erebus.”
Erebus hugged Phaedra close. “Now don't you sweat it,” he told her, eyes as caring as she’d ever seen them. “We'll walk this thing, you'll see.”
“Silence!” came the command from the eldest male of the Council.
For the first time, Saliha allowed herself to show emotion. Her eyes burned with abhorrence. Her voice burned with scorn. “Your secret trysts and carnal pursuits have been found by this Council to be unlawful, immoral, and intolerable. And so, in the name of the Supreme Being, I declare the angel, Phaedra, and the demon, Erebus...banished.”
Phaedra’s brow twitched. She’d been expecting something bad as punishment. She’d been expecting something awful …but this…
Banishment! She felt her world sink around her, and within her.
Saliha continued. “You will be taken to a dark realm - one neither angelic nor demonic. There you will live out eternity together. The two of you - and no others.”
Phaedra tightened her lips. She knew she had to say something. There was really only one thing she could say. It was a thing that could save her, save them, but could just as easily damn them further.
She’d just have to blurt it out.
“And what of my child?” she cried.
Saliha’s eyebrows popped. “Child?”
Phaedra looked to her lover, who could only stare back at her, shocked at the news.
“Our child,” she told them, eyes still fixed upon her lover’s.
The Council was clearly shocked. Mortified. Some of the Nine bowed their heads in dismay. Other glared at Phaedra as though she’d committed the sin of sins.
Which, of course, she had.
Chapter III
The tribunal was finished. The verdict had been passed. Fates had been dealt.
Phaedra and Erebus stood before an oval of blackness. A star-filled portal – free-floating, silent … the window to oblivion. Phaedra’s mentor, Uriel, attended, as did Saliha, the Council leader. Not for support, or to give them a last chance, but solely to bear witness. While Saliha was bound to duty, Uriel wept within. His most beloved charge had crossed the boundary of boundaries, and had put down roots in that which was unforgivable.
Phaedra turned to her mentor. “So,” she said, voice breaking. “This is it.”
The Archangel could not hide his emotions. “This sadness…I fear it shall never leave me.”
“Uriel, thank you. Thank you for everything. And ... I'm sorry for failing you.”
“It was my failing, child,” he told her. “Not yours.”
Saliha stood before the two exiles. “For the sake of your offspring,” she said, “a world has been created within our own realm that will serve as the place of your banishment.”
Erebus threw her a faux smile. “Can't wait to start decorating.”
“We’ll be on our own?” Phaedra asked the Council leader.
“Completely,” Saliha confirmed coldly.
Phaedra’s rage was building. “You - you and the Council are monstrous! How could you do this to a child?”
Saliha did not blink. “If you could prefer,” she said, “the child can stay here with us.”
Phaedra looked to Erebus. His eyes said it all. ‘No way’.
“We’ll take our chances,” Phaedra told Saliha.
She took her demon lover’s hand. Both walked toward the black portal. Phaedra allowed herself a brief glance back at her mentor.
In a single step, they were gone.
Uriel turned to the Council leader. “Have we done the right thing, Saliha?”
Saliha stared into the yawning cosmic portal for a long moment. “Only time will tell.”
Chapter IV
Not such a bad place, Phaedra thought to herself.
As she lay upon the reed mat with her day-old babe in her arms, she smiled into the sunshine that was bursting through the open flap of the teepee. Her son wriggled in her arms. He was not as pale as his mother, nor as dark as his father. The important thing, of course, was that he survived. They’d survived.
Getting up from the mat, she took the babe outside to greet the rising sun.
The world was as lush and green as the world she had surveyed with Uriel. There would be no emerging culture here, because they were the emerging culture – Phaedra, Erebus, and their child. An entire world to themselves.
Erebus, busy stacking freshly-chopped wood, halted in his sweaty work to smile at his loved ones.
“How’s he doing?” he asked Phaedra.
“He’s been a bit grumpy,” she said. “But I think I’ve settled him now.” She took a deep, cleansing breath of virgin air. “You know, it’s not so bad here. No one to tell us what to do.”
“Just the three of us.”
“Yes, the three of us.”
Erebus came over and stroked the head of his son. “We have to name him, you know. Any thoughts?”
She looked at her son’s face, endeavouring to find what potential names hid there. “He won't have an angel name. No - it has to be a name exactly right for this hard, blood-stained life they have forced upon us.”
Erebus gently took the baby from Phaedra. He nodded his agreement.
“A name that means clay,” he said. “Soil…”
Phaedra smiled. She had chosen the perfect name.
“Adam,” she said.