"Are you staying for the celebratory refreshments?" asked the porter who had first shown them all in and had now come to pick up the recording. The three thanked him, but decided to leave.
"I cannot believe it’s finally all over" said Goober in wonderment at what he had just seen. "I thought for sure he was to be thrown into a flaming pit or something. Still, it shall be agony enough for him I think?"
"Life will go well for him," said Puck grimly, "He can yet derive happiness - and who knows, when the frustration has ceased its nagging and he invests himself in goodness, he may feel the merits of it accordingly."
"Puck, one thing I don't get ... why couldn't we have just cut to the end bit and the court saved the whole twelve days. We could have weighed the heart from the beginning, couldn't we?"
"Repentance makes the heart much lighter. If he had only had the will to change his ways and feel sorriness for all he did wrong, it would have saved him - he could have kept his power."
Puck said this while watching the little dog lick the blood from his whiskers - seeing that the heart had now gone from the plate.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
"Master Yang, will you please join us?” Maat requested.
The huge ape had been reclining near by. He lumbered over to where Forsythe was standing, and put his big hand to his neck commandingly. Forsythe did not resist.
"There is a sheath about you now, which cannot be removed. No demi-god or demon-magi can loose it from your inner skin. This enchantment upon you, from this day on, is one of ineffectiveness.
“Its purpose is to curtail all that you would do. Wherever you are in the cosmos, on any plane or sphere, your ability herewith will be the least, and all actions of yours will be ineffective, unless to the goodwill of others.
“You have been stripped of any creativity. No new design may be conjured by you, forthwith.
“You are free to travel the universe and assist souls who ask you of their help. To begin with, there is a vacancy for a ferryman going locally - you may convey passengers into this court. That will be all. Yang will escort you to your new employ."
No sooner said, then they were gone. Varnished, banished and vanished.
Then came the applause. Puck had finished his scribing and rolled it up neatly fixing his seal before filing the parchment away into a golden tube.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
Nervina noticed that Forsythe was ageing as they spoke and taking on the appearance of a man who was wrinkled. He hoped that this was not happening to all of them sitting in the hall for so long.
Forsythe spoke further, saying, "Catastrophe unites the lower classes, disasters bring people together, famine redistributes the wealth to those who might better manage it ... some humans are destined to be used, and some are so equipped that they might guide and control them. I am proud of my accomplishments and make ownership of all that I have instigated. Yes, I would do it over again. I work for freedom, and the right for the strong to determine fate and dominate."
Maat said to this, "Then so shall it be."
Of course, Forsythe’s power could not match the Court's, yet by his choosing this, they had all decided.
She then took the black feather and dropped it gently onto the disk at the right. The Court watched on. Looking at the two silver plates - one with the heart and the other with the feather - they just sat there, neither moving up nor down. Nothing happened. Nothing at all.
Had the feather weighed heavier than the sad little heart it might have gone well for him. But it did not - neither moved and that was then very much conclusive.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
"Do not step any closer,” Maat thundered.
It was now apparent that the voice at the beginning of the inquest had been that of her own - and she did not need a loud speaker for it to be heard thunderingly.
Forsythe's manhood shrank and his shoulders slumped. He stayed fixed on the spot...
"We have but one question left to put to you" she continued.
"Thank goodness for that" thought Goober, after eleven days his enthusiasm had dulled.
"Think carefully before answering this final point:
"If you could have the chance to go back now and change all that you have done that did cause harm, would you so choose?"
It is hard to say if Forsythe thought this to be a trick question, where he would have to redress his sins for all eternity and be sentenced to some indefinite term of terrible work, or if arrogance just got the better of him - but he replied:
"No indeed, I would not."
The Goddess of Truth was easy to listen to - there could never be a misunderstanding as to what was meant by her.
She went on: "In conclusion therefore little Demon - I can give you the gift of Empathy, a true treasure that will open your soul. It is the seventh sense of nature and it does define oneself through the eyes of others. Will you now take this attribute I offer you?"
"No" he said adamantly, "I will not."
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
Demon beings are incapable of empathy and because they have not the reforms of Hell to periodically show them firsthand what it is to suffer, and their pleasure of causing pernicious mischief is unhindered from guilt or remorse. They feel free to straddle the world as though it was theirs to lay, and are deaf and blind internally to the pains of anyone other than themselves.
Marc-Marsden-Forsythe had been the cause of anguish for many a soul over centuries, and had used a great number names besides - having taken a body here and a body there, to suit his purpose. His ambitions were wide and grandiose. His vanity was strong.
And now that the Committee had a piece of him, he was no longer free to do as he would want. He had come to the end of the forty-two assessors, and was cowering before the Goddess of Truth - Maat. She kept her gaze steadily upon him.
"Come out from yourself" she said sternly.
Within a very long minute or so his form grew high, meeting the size of her own. His body fleshed wider, and became fur covered; his clothing broke off, revealing that his virility had quickened and stood out; and from his head sprang giant antlers that expired a thin red smoke from their tips.
He had become so fearsome to look upon that half of what was left of the hall's occupants audibly gasped.
Maat's gown of stars faded to black and taking her hand up to her head she drew down a jet-black feather and her hair fell loose, tumbling down to the ground.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
Word for word, Puck heard and recorded what was being said as the proceedings continued on. He had to concentrate hard, as the list of crimes was lengthy and becoming tedious.
Debauchery was never examined, as the Tribunal were far more concerned with recounts of the sociopathic harm, profiles of perversive pleasures were of no interest to them. Goober and Nervina had fallen asleep.
Puck's script was surprisingly beautiful for one hurried to keep pace with an endless parchment entry. He noted carefully the events and details of each of the accusing.
The area had grown noticeably brighter, and much hotter too. The intensity of the luminaries present could be deemed as they viewed and reviewed the akashic replays, sifting through uncensored scenes in their entirety - right up to the horrifying murder of Marley. There was little sympathy for his situation, after seeing his merciless ruination of others.
Puck could not help himself from thinking constantly of Marley. He had truly hoped that she might have been called into the inquisition - he wanted to hold her, to be with her. He suppressed this emotion and kept to the task at hand.
Eleven days of questioning ensued. Snacks and meals were brought in, but the elves were beginning to get restless and most of the gallery had now gone home.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
Forsythe addressed her saying: "I have come to you as requested".
She replied coldly, "You have come to us as compelled".
Forsythe did not react to this being said, and the little dog now moved along to the next one very quickly. After a waiting some length of time she asked with the tone of a schoolteacher: "What have you to say in excuse of yourself?"
"I have been an executive of a masterly justice" he began ... "I have overseen the collection of taxes and through my wisdom, I have been both creator and magistrate of the law ... not unlike yourself" he popped in knowingly.
"You have failed to be fair, however" she replied. "Courts of the Physical World were modelled on this supreme tribunal, yet their discernment is blighted and they lack credibility - for the talents of Man's perception are still immature."
As she said this the thirty seats behind Yang suddenly filled. Puck recognized the monks from Tooke's community, along with other spirits of deceased soldiers, related to them. They had come to join with the accusers attesting to the cruelty and exploitation he had brought to the world in his time as Sheriff.
Sirius, who had been sitting patiently, now leapt up and ran to bite Forsythe’s ankle, this time taking a small flap of flesh in his pointed teeth. This moved him very quickly onto the next judge.
More and more seats were becoming occupied - his accusers were congesting the hall.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
