From the Chair
The creature on the screen may once have been a person…but what the watcher sees before him is little more than a wraith. He is dumbfounded at how pale the skin, how long and dank the hair, how tattered the scarce rags that hang like a tent from the thin limbs.
He's frozen to the spot as it lifts its hands. Fingernails are bitten off raggedly, but not to the quick, and from somewhere that can only be the deepest of muscle memory, the creature pushes its hair back over a shoulder.
No beard. Female.
His shoulders slump in despair. He'd been told this Retribution was for the worst of offenders, and only the men - those who did the most evil of Evil to children, or to their mothers as they looked on. Those who refused to desist after Evaluations, after Reckonings. Those who were deemed Soulless and therefore worthy of utter dehumanization.
What could this apparition - this woman - have done to deserve this? There were other punishments for Soulless females, focused squarely on restoring their humanity at any cost. Or so he'd been told.
As if she can hear him - though she's heard nothing but dripping water for the gods knew how long - she turns her head slowly, slowly. As if hoping for a miracle - though all hope must have long ago been buried - she turns her face upward and opens her eyes.
And Peter screams in abject despair.
*****
Even as he calls her name, unheeding, Eden has already grasped his outstretched arm, cradling his hand gently between hers, lowering it slowly back to the bed. Her silken skin and soft, deep voice relax him, bring him into the world he knows.
"I'm here, darling," she says, and Peter feels her edge closer, kissing him lightly on the shoulder as she trails her fingers through his hair. "You were dreaming again. It wasn't me. I'm here, and I'm fine."
"My love," he sighs in relief. "I'm so sorry." He rolls to his side to look at her, to reassure himself. Thick, dark hair shines in the sunlight, frames her worried eyes and full lips. She runs a perfectly manicured hand over his cheek, smiles, shakes her head gently.
"It can't be helped," she says. "What you saw…"
Peter shakes his head violently, pulls Eden against him to bury his face in her hair. "I can't tell you. You have to be able to say truthfully that you don't know. You can't…"
"Shhh," she whispers. "It's OK, sweetheart. I know nothing at all about it. Only that it's tearing you to pieces."
"After all I did to you - this must be my Reckoning…"
"Peter, don't even say that. You did your job. You did what the Governance required, not only properly but well. They rewarded you. They didn't even punish me for perpetuating Falsehood."
The last word rings in his ears like an echo. He draws slowly back to look at his Eden's face, brushing her hair over her shoulder as the realization dawns on him. "Falsehood," he says aloud. "Eden, that's it. That's how I can get to the bottom of this…this Evil."
Impulsively - almost as if to cleanse them both - he pulls her close again, kissing her passionately, feeling her melt against him as she kisses him back. She protests gently when he pulls away, chanting apologies.
"Darling, don't go. Stay with me. We're safe here."
But even as the words hang in the air, they both know it's untrue. And he knows what he can do, what he must do. On the bedside table, he opens the top drawer, reaches to the back and pushes a button. A white electrocard with his Evaluator's code slides into his hand. He looks at it almost impassively before affixing it once more to his bare chest, over his heart.
When he turns back to Eden, she's sitting up, sheet pulled over her breasts in an uncharacteristic show of modesty. Anxiety has a way of turning his exuberant, bohemian wife into a prim schoolgirl, after all they'd been through. After all he'd seen.
She looks at the emblem on his chest, then looks him in the eyes. He knows what she's thinking, and smiles in a way he hopes is comforting. "It's only a job," he says quietly.
Eden smiles back, and as ever, he's dazzled. "No, my love, it's a calling."
"You are my calling."
She laughs lightly as he rounds the bed. "No time for sentiment, my dear. Go. Save the world. Save a life." She pulls him down to her, kisses him soundly once more. "And then come home to me."
"Always," he says, kissing her forehead as he rushes out the door.
*****
Mere minutes later, after all but breaking the Transport window in his rush to disembark, Peter alights on the steps of the Governance Hall. A tone sounds as the Eyes sense his emblem, not so much an alarm as a questioning.
He knows exactly where to go, though four years have passed since he's been here; stifles a cough as he passes his old chamber, where Eden had appeared for Evaluation, where they'd made love under Governance Eyes when he learned the truth. The spark that had come to life in the back of his mind that day is a full, roaring inferno now…and Peter breaks into a run.
"Evaluator 386," the Guidance Voice says above him. "State your purpose in appearing today."
"Emerging…Falsehood," he pants, rounding a sharp corner. "Questioning…Governance."
"Proceed with caution," the Voice responds.
"Go to the Hells," Peter replies, slamming his hand against a button. The Grand Chamber door slides open, revealing his Counselor Emma, seated below the thrones of three Governors whose names he was never allowed to know.
"Peter," the older woman says, but the sound dies on her lips as the bearded Governor glares at her.
"Evaluator 386. We hope you have a good reason for disturbing the Peace of the Hall," he says.
"What…did she do."
The Panel feigns ignorance. "Counselor Emma has done nothing, of course. I don't know what you mean."
"No! What…did that woman…do."
The Governor squints in distaste. "It is…no longer a woman. It is of no consequence what it did."
"WHAT DID SHE DO?"
The Chamber echoes. Real fear appears on the Governors' faces. Emma weeps silently.
"She…refused Us."
Peter blinks, disbelieving. He knows what this means, but he repeats it dumbly.
"Refused?"
The gray-haired Governor rockets to his feet at this. "The Comfort must do as they're told! In all things! She refused Us!"
Emma's chair falls as she shoves it away from her, finger pointing in accusation. "She refused YOU! You lying bastard! She was still a child, and you gave her the punishment that was meant for YOU!"
"SHE DESERVED IT! THE SOULLESS DESERVE ONLY EVIL IN RETURN!"
"She was only a child," Emma whispered. "You groomed my baby for Comfort and destroyed her when she refused your Evil."
And the Voice...speaks.
As shackles fasten around One's ankles.
"Governor One. You have been deemed Guilty of Falsehood in the service of Greatest Evil. Governors Two. Three. Counselor 106. Evaluator 386. Leave the chamber immediately, or suffer Governor One's fate."
Two and Three are gone before the sound stops. Peter helps Emma to her feet and runs toward the Chamber door, pushing her through and tumbling to the ground after her just before it slams shut.
Just before the alarms begin.
He guides his mentor and friend out the door.
Just as everything goes quiet.
As Titles of all sorts run for the exits, and Peter jumps aboard Transport to rush to his wife's waiting arms.
Just as One begins to scream.