- Approx. Time
- November 13, first docket of the Brazen Tribunal.
- Holiday
- The Tribunal of Saints.
- Reader Note
- The congregation arrives on the day Hell traditionally audits holy reputations against actual conduct.
They arrived together because they had died together, crushed beneath the roof of the church they had praised for being old, beautiful, and too expensive to repair.
At first they held hands. Habit made them orderly. Habit made them form rows. Habit made them look for the pastor, the choir director, the wealthiest donor, someone with authority to explain where the gates of pearl had gone.
Then the benches appeared.
They were not pews. They were witness stands, arranged in a circle around a floor of smoked glass. Beneath the glass moved every person the congregation had prayed for in public and abandoned in private.
A voice from nowhere said, "All titles will be surrendered at the door. All excuses will be heard. None will be presumed true."
To be continued...