Chapter 6: JUDGEMENT

Ferdinando and Thomasina head back to the village in his coach. It is late afternoon.

“You look sad, Ferdinando. Are you not glad to finish this nonsense and leave this place behind, able to return to the comfort and company of Whitehall?” asks the lady sitting opposite him.

“Nay, I think I am now ready to retire, once I’ve written my report on this Curious Case of the Horseless Headman for the King’s Privy Council.”

“Home to your estate and your honey bees, my Lord?”

“Maybe. But ... I don’t buy all that White and Dark Witches nonsense back there at The Lamb at all. Who are you, Thomasina, who are you really?”

“Me?” she replies innocently, with that knowing smile on her lips that Ferdinando has come to know so well.

“I’ve seen my fill of the ‘Possessed’ these last few days, my lady, enough to warn me when one of the possessed has been in front of me all this time.”

“Ah, of course, Fernando, you have been ‘talking’ in your mind with the fair Thomasina,” the voice box of the woman sitting next to him says, “I’ve no idea of what she has been saying to you, but I do agree with you that she is a remarkable woman.”

“Yes, she speaks to me inside my head, the first person who ever has, before even Mary Durnley got into my head and started to warn me off.”

“I know, Ferdinando, Mary’s Angel told me that she’d conversed with you, her mind to your mind.”

“Angel?”

“You are right, my Lord Briant, there are no such thing as witches, white or dark magic, we were trying to avoid the real reasons, naturally, we believe they are too much for mere human mortals to conceive.”

“Why not try me?” Ferdinando challenges, “you might be surprised what strange notions I might be able to conceive.”

“Yes, you do appear to be somewhat different to most other people,” whatever possesses the body of Thomasina says and smiles at him, “If you can bear to believe me, Ferdinando, some humans have Guardian Angels,” she adds, “but then you don’t really believe in God, do you?”

“I said that I don’t believe in religion, but in God, an almighty being? Yes, of course I understand that such a being exists. I know it for a fact.”

“Quite so, only the One who you mortals call ‘God’, we call ‘The Maker’, because he made us all, including the devil that you call Satan.”

“And you believe that Satan is trapped inside Valentine’s body?”

“Not quite. We believe Valentine still carries Satan’s Seed, if passed to a fertile woman, the child born would be Satan’s Son. Valentine tried to pass it to Lady Arabella, but the Seed failed in fallow ground but only after Thomasina was sown with an ordinary seed and forced The Maker into tying up his most powerful Archangel all this time, But now, the carrier Valentine, and Satan’s Seed within him, will live long, frustrated by their imprisonment of the flesh, force-fed through a leather hose, if necessary, for the next 40 or 50 years. The Maker can leave this earth to its own devices for that while, and my job is complete here.”

“So, what happens to Thomasina. Her body and the poor frightened girl within her, that you have suppressed for so long?”

“She is still here in this body, safe, but she’ll be weak. She will need to learn all over how to walk, talk, and fend for herself.”

“I’ll look after her, don’t worry yourself. For how long have you been—?”

“Over 21 years, immediately after Valentine impregnated her. I replaced her guardian angel, who had been tempted to turn to evil by Satan and was perfectly complicit in the poor girl’s seduction. Her child, Benjamin, however, was not the Satan’s Child that we feared, so the Seed was still in Val-”

“Are all men therefore possessed by angels?”

“No, and they are not quite possessed, more guided towards the destiny that The Maker has planned for them. Only key individuals have guardian angels, like Benjamin, Izote and Mary. You don’t have one, I can tell, because we can see them, even if you mortals can’t.”

“Maybe that is why I do the terrible things in the King’s name that I am able to do, without the goodness of an angel helping me?”

“You treat yourself too harshly, I believe that you are a good man, Ferdinando, I sensed that the night we met. Maybe you’re another important part of The Maker’s Plan?”

“The Maker’s Plan?”

“The Maker has a Plan. No one knows what it is, but Angels must follow his lead, towards His long term goal. We believe when He gets it right, we will have the perfect world, a Paradise, populated only by The Maker’s Chosen People.”

“So, are you now Thomasina’s Guardian Angel?”

“No, Ferdinando, I am an Archangel. I’m not born within a child like other Angels. I go where I am sent by The Maker and have done since being created by Him sixty million years ago. He sets me tasks and only releases me from those appointed tasks when He considers it complete. I am feeling that release coming, so that time is soon. Now the crisis is over, Thomasina will not need an Angel.”

“What is an Archangel, exactly?” Ferdinando asks.

“Satan was created as the first Archangel, to be a tempter and tormentor, all part of The Maker’s Plan, but Satan went beyond his role, and led a rebellion of Angels to oust The Maker and dominate the Universe with his own Devilish Plan. He was banished to Hell, where he must remain forever, but Satan was permitted to have Devils, recruited from the rank of souls consigned to Hell and employ them in his name. This is how it has been all this time.”

“If I accept that Guardian Angels exist, I can understand and accept that Devils also exist.”

“But the conflict between Satan and The Maker has escalated. Ever since the Son of God walked the earth, Satan has sought to emulate The Maker’s objective, conversion to worship The Maker. Satan is exiled in Hell but if he achieves having a Child born on earth, converting mortals in their millions to Satanism, he may win this game, immediately leading to Judgement Day for this world.”

“Judgement Day has come up in conversation with Valentine,” Ferdinando admits.

“We think that when mankind reaches perfection, proving The Maker’s Plan, or will be reduced totally to destruction, if the experiment fails.” Thomasina/Archangel continues. “That failure happened before, here, sixty million years ago, when this world’s dominant species was destroyed in a rehearsal of Judgement Day.”

“So, Satan send his Seed through one of his Devils into Valentine, like the Archangel did to the Virgin Mary nearly seventeen hundred years ago?”

“We believe Satan’s Seed was brought to the human world through Lord Albury’s Dark Angel.”

“Dark Angel?”

“Satan possesses people with evil Dark Angels, like Lady Arabella, Shands, and Lord Albury. There are many kinds of angels, as well as guardian angels. There are not enough to go around, so not everyone has one. Ben was born with an Avenging Angel.”

“Why?”

“The Maker wills it,” she smiles. “Ben had the Avenging Angel inside him, and wasn’t even aware of it. Asleep he was, when attacked by Valentine, even after the Avenging Angel was taken from him by The Maker and entered Valentine. Be like witnessed the internal torment as Satan’s Seed and the Avenging Angel fought for control. Hence the madness, as did two locals from the Inn who stood warming themselves by Ben’s campfire.”

“So you have lied to me about this possession, when all the time Valentine has been possessed by an Angel for good?”

“We sought only to preserve your sanity, Ferdinando. Izote is not a White Witch, they really don’t exist, but Izote’s Guardian Angel does have second sight and warned Ben’s Avenging Angel of Valentine’s attack so he could defend himself. Angels never sleep.”

“I still can’t see the point.”

“The Maker was aware of Satan’s attempts to bring Satan’s Son into the world though Valentine from his mother. I was sent by The Maker to this body after she was seduced by Valentine, and was able to confirm that Thomasina’s son in her womb was completely free of possession. So we concluded that Satan’s Son must’ve been conveyed through Lady Arabella. We were proved wrong, when she lost her baby. The King has been Arabella’s lover for the last few months, but still no pregnancy. We believe that her earlier miscarriage has rendered her barren.”

“So Izote was chosen by Satan as mother of his child?”

“We believe so. Valentine was supposed to be carrying the Seed and he seduced Thomasina, so The Maker tied up his most powerful Archangel, meanwhile Valentine impregnated his estranged wife instead, but she lost the baby and Valentine patiently awaited another perfect host for Satan’s Seef.”

“Izote?”

“Aye, and perhaps when she came of age and could not be bribed, Valentine lured Ben away to a quiet hamlet, exhausted from hours on foot trying to keep up the pace and endurance of a horse, and was about to murder him. Ben was warned by Izote, through speaking through his head, something they had shared forever. Ben’s Avenging Angel told The Maker and He transferred the Angel from Ben to Valentine.”