by V. Cobe
CHAPTER 23
Hades
“Well, I’ve read the Book of Revelation from beginning to end and found nothing that could be related to that,” said Hazael.
Alem sighed. He looked at Jaala at his side, sitting on the grass, and asked, “Did you find anything?”
“Not yet. I can’t go around asking people how one goes to….” He mouthed, “Umbra. The day before yesterday I asked my uncle where undershadows came from, and he laughed in my face, saying that it was a story to scare children. As if I was stupid! But when I told him I thought they were linked to something called ‘Umbra’, he told me that if I didn’t want to die immediately, I should shut up and concentrate on my studies. And when he says that, I know I should never mention it to anyone again.”
He took an envelope from his cassock’s pocket and handed it to Alem.
“But I have something else for you. It’s Bit’s.”
Alem took the letter and thanked Jaala with a nod.
“When we discover how to go there… will you tell her?” asked Lael.
“No. It will only be once, anyway. Then we forget all this.”
The other three looked at one another but said nothing.
In his room, Alem sat at his desk and opened Bit’s letter slowly. He didn’t want to tear anything. He sniffed the paper and immediately saw her green eyes.
Alem, my love!
I miss you so much! When do I see you? I’m always thinking about you, I can no longer do anything in class (as if I did anything before…). It seems I’ve gotten silly. And know that this has never happened to me before….
Look, I know we agreed to see each other the day you finally got out of there (there’s still what, twenty-five days left?), but I will be gone the whole month of July, so we’ll have to wait even longer….
Are you thinking of me?
A black stain dirtied the beginning of the next sentence:
…to lie to me. Don’t get upset… the other day I was there next to the monastery with Peter… can you guess what for? I felt like seeing you… I was going to jump the fence where I could (seriously)! But then we gave up, the Brigade has cameras basically all the way around, did you know that? I know, I’m crazy.
Write me, make me smile.
Huge kiss,
Your Bit.
Well, it wasn’t exactly what Alem was waiting for. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the letter. What made him uneasy was the note that they couldn’t meet when he left the monastery. There was not even any justification beyond ‘will be gone the whole month of July’. Doing what?
Without warning, his heart jumped and seemed to come out from his mouth, an adrenaline rush went up his spine, and a tingling awoke on the top of his head. He felt like he was going to die. He rolled his eyes, clenched his fists, still holding the letter violently and threw himself backward, falling off the chair onto his back. In the room shined an orange light, which was emitted by… himself. Then everything around him disappeared; only the urgency, which he didn’t know where it came from, remained.
He’d felt it before, at Sun’s Farm, by the little water stream. With Bit.
As fast as it had appeared, the urgency was gone. His vital signals stabilized, and the room was again what it always had been. But the crumpled letter in Alem’s hands was completely black, as if the paper had burned.
He rose with a jump and threw the letter into the bucket underneath the desk. He ran to the bathroom.
In the mirror, his face was anguished, but his orange hair was serene, no longer emitting any light.
He closed his eyes and remembered the black snake wrapped around his body by the farm’s stream. He shivered at the memory. Something in the connection he had with Bit awakened that. He had felt the beginning of that reaction, although very subtly, when he saw her at St. Matthew’s Square. It was clear now.
He opened the tap, wet his hands and rubbed his face. He pressed his eyes.
He tried to walk straight, at a normal pace, to the bishop’s office on the central building’s top floor. A tenth-year student passed by him and greeted him with a smile. Alem tried to return his gesture but failed.
He knocked three times on the dark wooden door of his godfather’s office and entered.
“Sit down, please, my son. I sent for you for good reason.”
Alem obeyed. The bishop was sitting across the desk, organizing a stack of papers in front of him.
He took one and put it on the side.
“Alemeth Ricardo Sá.” He looked at Alem, “Is that you?”
He tried to laugh at the joke.
“In a month you’ll end your season at Heart of Carmel… It seems like it was yesterday that you came in here with your mother. I don’t get tired of saying that.” He picked up the sheet of paper. “Let’s see where you got in. Ah, the Order of the Hands United at Heaven.”
That was good news. Alem smiled again.
“‘Scarce rain dries the seeds of the Lord. Immoderate rain drowns them.’”
The bishop nodded slightly.
“Of course you know the motto. Was it the order you preferred?”
“Yes.”
“All Orders would have accepted you, let’s be honest. Do you know under which Ministry this Order is?”
“Ministry of Internal Affairs. Where my father worked.”
His godfather never got tired of recalling it.
“Not only did he work there, but he was the minister. Of course, this is helping your fame.” He paused and looked at Alem until he looked away.
“Can you tell me what the Order of the Hands United at Heaven does?”
“It promotes Faith in the Institution.”
“It manages the feeling of faith. Analyzes it, disseminates it, encourages it, evolves it, evaluates it. It is essential that you understand the value of this order’s mission.”
Alem nodded.
“Cultivating the love for God is essential to society. And it is something that gives me great pleasure.”
The bishop laughed, but his serious expression didn’t change, nonetheless.
“You still have to tune that speech, but for a start it’s fine. The current head is Archbishop Eldade Matrimoso, a man of good decisions but dubious honor, though this is another story, one that doesn’t interest you at all. He was also a great friend of your father. Within the Order you will be charged to Priest Caleb, who will accompany you in everything. You’ll be in good hands, I know him well.”
He got up and went to the bar.
“The Convocation Letter, with the information on your first day in the Order, will be sent to the Mansion of Frogs soon.” He took a bottle of whiskey and poured two fingers of it in a glass. “That reminds me of something else. You’ll be eighteen years old this week. You’ll be able to live alone and make decisions for yourself.”
“I will live in the Mansion of Frogs, that was always the—”
“You will also have access to all the money that your parents left you. I think you know it’s a substantial sum.”
Alem nodded.
“I don’t want it. I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t want to know. I will give it all away.”
“You will no longer need my permission for anything,” continued the bishop, ignoring him. “Be very careful, Alemeth. Do not fall into perdition.”
Another nod. The bishop sipped his drink, and Alem took the opportunity to speak.
“Thank you for everything.”
“Why, I am your godfather.”
“You’ve helped me all my life. Me and my mother. I—”
“I really enjoyed watching over you, boy. Come visit me whenever you need. And whenever you don’t need as well.”
Alem rose, approached the bishop and gave him a hug, which was awkwardly reciprocated.
“I’ve got news.”
Maximum temperatures beat records. For the first time in over ten years, students were allowed to bathe in the shallow zones of the Gloque, on t
he far side of the forest, under the nuns’ supervision.
Lael was sitting on the shore, but Alem and Jaala swam in the clean lake water when Hazael arrived.
“What news?” asked Jaala.
“Revelation 1,” Hazael replied.
And that was enough for the other three to join him on the grass.
“Did you find out what it means?” asked Lael.
“Kind of….”
He spread a towel, opened his backpack and placed two Bibles and a pair of folded sheets on it. Jaala reached to take them, but Hazael stopped him with his hand.
“Calm down. I’ll explain.”
He opened one of the Bibles, at a bookmark, and turned it toward the other three.
“The Book of Revelation begins with a very interesting text. Okay, Jaala, you can read it.”
Jaala rolled his eyes as if to say, that’s what I was going to do, and picked up the book. He read the first underlined passage, “‘John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia….’”
“No, go ahead.” He stretched a finger on the page, pointing to a line. “Here.”
“‘…But he put his right hand on me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I’m the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, but look! Now I’m alive forever and always. I have the keys of Death and the Grave.’’”
He stopped and looked at Hazael.
“Are you going to make us guess?” asked Alem. “Or are you going to tell us what it is?”
“Death and the Grave,” he said as he picked up the other Bible. “But there is another version.”
Jaala picked up the book and went to the same line.
“‘…And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, ‘Fear not; I am the First and the Last. I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of Death and of Hell.’’”
“Now it says keys of Death and Hell,” Lael said.
“Exactly. As I couldn’t find anything strange in the first version I read, I decided to go looking for others. Read this one now.” He held one of the folded sheets to Jaala, who read, “‘…Then he placed his right hand on me and said, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.’’”
“Of Hades?” asked Alem. “I’ve never heard that word.”
“It’s no longer used. It doesn’t exist in any dictionary or in any encyclopedia. But through these passages it can be understood that it was another word for Hell. But there’s another meaning of Hades, one that I found in one of those biblical glossaries that used to be made in the past. And it’s not necessarily a hell.”
“What is it?” asked Alem.
Hazael turned the sheet he had on his hand and read,
“Job 10:20-22:
‘Are not my days few?
Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort,
Before I go to the place from which I shall not return,
To Hades,
A land as dark as darkness itself,
As the shadow of death, without any order,
Where even the light is like darkness.’”
“Hazael, why are you telling us all this?” asked Lael. “It’s scary….”
“What does Hades mean?” asked Alem.
“According to the glossary explanation, the first Greek Bible translations used the word Hades to translate Sheol, a Hebrew word. Only then did they began to translate Hades as Hell and other words like that. But it seems that neither Hades nor Sheol were the same as Hell. They meant only ‘the land of the dead’ or ‘the invisible land’. A place where the dead dwell until their resurrection.”
“I see where you’re going,” Jaala said. “You’re saying that this passage of the Bible talks about Jesus having the keys to the unseen land, isn’t it? The invisible earth that means—”
“Yes. But there’s another translation of Hades that’s even more explicit: underworld.”
Jaala gasped.
“I have the keys of Death and of the Underworld,” muttered Lael.
Jaala tried to relativize.
“Maybe it’s a coincidence. After all, underworld doesn’t exactly mean—”
“But there’s more,” interrupted Hazael. “Assuming that in Revelation 1, the word Hades refers to an underground world, read this passage from the start.”
This time Alem picked up the Bible.
“‘…and in the midst of the lamp stands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a gold sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.’”
“That man is Jesus. It was he who then put his right hand over John and told him that he had the keys of Death and of Hades,” added Hazael.
“So you think we should find a man like him, a man who has the underworld keys?”
Hazael took the second sheet and unfolded it.
“There’s a statue like this in Carmel. Of this passage about Jesus having the keys of Hades. A long robe, burning eyes. ‘A voice like the roar of many waters’ suggested that it could be a fountain. But the statue no longer has the hand with the seven stars… someone broke it. So if I hadn’t found this old painting of the statue still intact, I wouldn’t have figured it out.”
The painting depicted a Carmel square with a fountain in the center, on which was a statue like the one described by Hazael. The intact raised left hand was surrounded by seven small stars.
“And you won’t believe what square this is….”