The Tribunal

A Reduction

    Memori finished filling out his form in neat print, looked it over once for mistakes and snapped his middle and forefinger together. The paper folded in on itself smaller and smaller until nothing was left. He took a long look at the elevator door before stepping out from behind his desk and heading down the hall to the Patrons’ sleeping quarters.

     Stopping before a dark red door he rapped on it softly with his knuckles. 

The door swung open revealing Hilda, her grey curls trapped in a bun, a knowing smile on her dark complexion, “Come in child.”

     Her words startled him though he remained blank in expression and stepped inside. The upholstery was hunter green, the walls a warm beige, on the small table there were two tea cups set out as if she’d been expecting him.

     “Have a seat, have a seat,” she ushered, herding his much taller frame over to the armchair and settling herself on the loveseat across from him, the table and steaming mugs between them.

     At this point his brows were furrowed and his mouth was gaping slightly; a Patron had never acted this way before.

     Hilda took a sip of her tea waving her free hand airily, “Don’t you fret boy, I know why you’re here, I know why I’m here too.”

     “You do?” his voice jumped an octave higher than usual.

     She pushed his cup closer to him, “Of course I do. The memories are foggy, but I know I’ve been here before, maybe not this exact room, but I’ve been here before. I’m dead so’s Allen, Dennis, Susanna, and Del; we’ve left our earthly lives behind.”

     Memori’s navy eyes were round as quarters as he nodded wordlessly. He’d had Patrons speculate that they were dead, and he’d even had a few that seemed to figure it out just before they boarded the elevator. But the only Soul who has ever pieced it together before has been Del’s Soul, she always figured out – always remembered him – just before she had to leave him again; it was part of his punishment.

     “You are correct,” he said, struggling to keep his tone even.

     She settled back into her seat, hands wrapped around the steaming cup savoring its warmth, “So are you going to tell me where I’m going? Or is that something I just have to find out on my own?”

     He hesitated. He was fairly certain there was no protocol for this and he wasn’t sure what Tempus would say. “You are moving past this place and the earth you have long inhabited,” he finally told her, deciding he didn’t care what Tempus would think, there wasn’t much more she could do to punish him anyway, “you will be heading to the Beyond.”

     Hilda’s eyes sparked with curiosity, “What is that? I know I’ve been reincarnated before, I’ve been getting little flashbacks from other lives since I walked into your lobby, but I don’t think in any of them I ever heard about the Beyond.”

     “Once a Soul crosses into a Tribunal – Animavero being part of a Tribunal – there are three options; Reduction, Reuse, or Recycling.” As he spoke he wonder if seeing Del had rekindled some of his human need for conversation and connection, it wasn’t often he spoke so much or so freely with anyone these days. “Once a Soul is very old and wise and has moved through enough cycles it will be Reduced and sent on to the Beyond.”

     “And what is the Beyond? What’s there?” she asked, no fear in her voice, only a light curiosity.

     Memori shook his head, “I’m afraid I don’t know. I am only a Vitari, I watch the Souls that come through this Tribunal, I read the measure of their lives, and send them on to where they are destined to go. I am not informed on anything outside of my duties.