Chapter 107

I awoke and glanced around with a growing sense of déjà vu. I was sitting at a campfire on a warm night with a sky filled with more stars than you’d think possible. No Thea, my deceased wife, this time though, but Oonagh was there, sitting opposite me, gazing around with a somewhat wild look in her eyes.

“Relax Oonagh, it’s OK,” I spoke in a calm voice.

“Where are we? How can this be OK as you put it? Are we dead? What’s happening?” the questions tumbled out of her mouth.

“Where are we? I don’t know. Last time I was here it was to have some questions answered about destiny and beating you.”

“Oh ... oh yes. I remember. I was brought here, secured, for you to take back to your Earth,” she nodded somewhat bitterly.

“That’s right. So we aren’t dead and, provided we aren’t here by accident, we should have a few answers soon.”

“How soon?”

“In heaven’s good time I should imagine,” I chuckled. “I suspect at the moment we’re only here to keep each other company.”

“You are sure we will be fine?”

“Providing we don’t irritate any Powers that happen across us, yes,” I replied with a smile.

“Yes, you really don’t want to do that,” came a laughing voice I recognised.

“Jerry?”

“Who else? Greetings to you, Journeyman Mage John, and to you, garment maker Oonagh,” the Angel Jehrameel greeted us, pulling his old trick of making it look like he’d always been there, but we’d just overlooked him.

“Greetings to you too,” I replied, Oonagh simply giving a nod as if afraid to speak.

“Relax, Oonagh. You have nothing to fear here,” he added, looking directly at her.

“Unlike John, I do not have good memories of this place,” she admitted. “I ... I was also not very polite to the guardian you placed over me.”

“Jude understood and forgave you,” Jehrameel chuckled.

“Is that why you’re so odd around him?” I asked.

“Yes. I never expected to meet him again and the things I said to him were shocking ... even for me,” she replied, looking extremely embarrassed.

“Ah, you thought he would tell all at one of our get-togethers?”

“Yes. I do not care for being humiliated, even though it would have been well deserved.”

“He’s not like that.”

“So people keep saying, but every time I look at him I just cringe inside,” she confessed. “Particularly as I like Morgana very much indeed.”

I nodded, finally understanding her behaviour around Jude, though realising that she didn’t understand the man too well, with his innate politeness and good humour.

“So, why are we here, Jerry?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Judgement.”

“Er ... what have we done?”

“Not you,” he chuckled. “Athena.”

“Not guilty,” I laughed. “Can we go now?”

“I think you already know the answer to that and you are not being asked to judge, but to witness the judgement.”

“OK, why us?”

“Right place at the right time ... or wrong place at the right time. Depends on how you view it.”

“Any rules?”

“Don’t irritate a Power,” he laughed.

“Yes, that’s a given,” I chuckled in return.

“They’re ready for us, let’s go,” he said after a few seconds and then opened a door in ... reality, literally, by reaching out and pulling it open and led us through to another place.

“What happened?” a confused looking Roxanne asked Adsila.

“Sarkal overloaded himself and allowed it to explode outwards when Athena got in a death blow. We’d phased the Yr’ch and ourselves away from danger, but the final ... pulse would have got us. John and Oonagh managed to adjust the parameters enough to save us, but not themselves,” Adsila replied.

“They’re dead then? And what of Athena?”

“I don’t know. We need a Theurgist, but Athena’s people aren’t getting a response either.”

“Bugger! See if you can contact Morgana to ask Jude.”

“On it.”

Ten minutes later, Morgana turned up along, surprisingly, with Jude.

“Thought you weren’t allowed here?” Roxanne asked Jude after the greetings.

“It’s over, the ban that is,” he replied. “John and Oonagh are fine; they’re just occupied being witnesses.”

“And Athena?”

“When a Power eliminates one of the primal Powers, there is always judgement. She’s being judged.”

“But she completed a task of the Almighty,” Roxanne replied, looking puzzled.

“That will probably count in her favour, but, there still has to be a judgement.”

“Surely they will not take our goddess from us?” Seekta asked, looking horrified.

“It’s out of my hands. I’m surprised they’re actually allowing me to say this much,” he shrugged. “Now we need to go back to Draenoric. I have a task to do there.”

“Aye, well, there’s probably not a lot we can do here other than let the Vultoqi Powers tidy up,” Roxanne sighed as portals opened and the Mages and Yr’ch left Vultoq for the last time.

Once on Draenoric, Jude just raised his arms and chanted in a language no one present was able to understand. Once done he looked around and nodded as a mental ... wind blew and suddenly there were Powers all over Draenoric again.

“Now we wait,” was all he would say about the situation with Athena.

Jerry led us into what, to my senses, looked like an amphitheatre or natural bowl with seats. The memory is not so clear on this, plus Oonagh saw it as the Royal Court in Keldravan, so it obviously wasn’t what it appeared to be. From here on I can only describe things as they appeared to be to me.

“Please sit and observe,” he requested and sat beside us as Athena entered the bowl, moved to the centre and simply stood.

I’m putting all this down as a spoken discussion, though no words were used and other than Athena and Jerry, I couldn’t really make anyone out, though I was permitted to know the names ... I think.

“Power Athena, you have been summoned here to answer for the killing of Säräquyael on the planet known as Vultoq,” a figure I recognised as the Archangel Michael stated.

“He challenged me and threatened my people, the Yr’ch, with extinction ... threatened all people, come to that,” she answered.

“And because of this you took it upon yourself to kill one whom the Almighty crafted personally?”

“As opposed to him extinguishing me, yes.”

“It is forbidden to extinguish one of the Elect!”

“Then you shouldn’t have put me in a position where I had to.”

“You also did not act alone!”

“Säräquyael never mentioned not bringing allies, perhaps he should have.”

“These allies also contributed to the death of Säräquyael!”

“He shouldn’t have attacked them then.”

“You involved mortals in a battle with a Power. This is an unprecedented crime!” Michael thundered.

“He hasn’t changed,” I murmured in an aside to Jerry.

“No, we don’t. It’s why the Creator uses us as servants and soldiers. You on the other hand change constantly and cause us much entertainment. This was one of the biggest surprises Heaven has had in æons,” he replied.

“Heaven, though not the Creator, I take it?”

“Correct.”

“You were supposed to follow the plan ... the plan of Heaven,” Michael stated.

“It was a lousy plan. I hated it. So I came up with a better one. One where I lived and he didn’t,” she shrugged, clearly irritating the Archangel.

“Plan?” Oonagh asked.

“They were both supposed to be extinguished and a new Athena then put into place. One of our own,” Jerry explained.

“I’m not surprised she changed it. It was, indeed, a dreadful plan.”

“Oddly enough a lot here agree with you,” he chuckled. “The real issue is that she involved you. She was supposed to face him alone and we would strengthen her arm to kill him as he killed her.”

“And then no comeback on a Power killing an Elect?”

“Correct.”

Michael’s voice rose. “When you were given instructions on your mission, you agreed to follow the plan,” he accused her.

“No. I said I would aid the forces of the Almighty. I never said I’d follow your plan,” Athena replied. “Säräquyael threatened all. I do not. So I changed the plan. My friends and allies offered to help me eliminate that monster. Something you should have done the moment you realised what a threat to creation the Vultoqi were. The Mages of Earth found a solution. One which you could have implemented shortly after the war with the Enemy ended and when you cast out some of the Elect.”

“It is not for the likes of you to wipe out an Elect!” Michael thundered.

“Why not? He was going to wipe me out!”

“The Almighty Himself created the Elect!”

“Then He should have dealt with them, not me!” Athena hit back, causing a good few murmurs of agreement from the crowd along with a lot of disquiet.

“He?” I asked.

“Artistic license,” Jerry replied with a grin.

“So Jude said,” I chuckled.

“It is against the law for any lesser being to kill an Elect,” Michael pronounced.