The day was clear and sunny, yet the soulstar that burst through the clouds above shone as bright as if it were midnight. It spiraled out of the sky, exploding as it landed inside the cathedral.

  David’s footsteps echoed off the marble floor as he walked towards the bronze plate at the center of the hexagonal room. The clack of his boots reverberated, the sound ascending into the open sky above. The walls were webs of colored glass depicting murals from the old book: a burning bush, a sea impossibly split in half and the white dove in flight cradling an olive branch in its beak. Glyphs were chiseled into the marble floor that stretched for - and seemed to guide him towards - the apostle plate. Two meters across, the bronze plate bore the image of a goat distorted by flame.

  There were six ash-knights, clad in their armor who circled the plate; they did not guard the plate from outsiders, they faced inwards. Their rectangular shields stretched from their shining chins to the marble floor. When the star landed, their ranks separated with a militaristic rhythm, letting David pass.

  The light from the soulstar cleared, revealing a man lying splayed atop the goat’s mark. His skin was red and blistered with cracked lips and a sun-bleached uniform that was torn to rags. David peered over him, casting a shadow over his stubbled face. The sailor coughed once, spraying a slurry of saltwater and sand that dribbled over his chin. His shoulders were broad and his back was so thick it looked as if he was born with an oar in each hand. The sailors uniform was not what it once was. The black fabric had bleached into greys and yellows and the blue stripes faded to white where the uniform had faced the sun. It was a military uniform, no matter how crusted with salt, but his unit’s patch had been torn off his breast pocket leaving only wilted threads. He had either fallen off his ship, or deserted it. Now he was here.

  His eyes were vacant and glossy, he didn’t so much as twitch when David nudged the sailors head with his boot. An invalid? David wondered. He could make a good candidate, but then the coughing continued and the sailor rose to sit in a sudden jerk.

  ‘Water!’ the sailor cried, his voice mingling with a cough. He clutched at his throat with one hand and David’s collar with the other. He begged using his eyes, red with sand that flecked his ocean blue irises.

  David recoiled, pushing the dead man away with his foot. ‘Get off me,’ he commanded. It only took one push for this once strong sailor to collapse back down.

  ‘Water,’ he moaned again, one weak arm stretching towards the open sky.

  David brushed down his collar and wiped wet sand to the ground. It won't be long now, David told himself, I will be promoted soon and I will never have to deal with this again. David looked at the apprentice priest Leo who stood behind him. He had glossy black curls that covered his ears. I just have to put up with a few more babbling fools, the boy stood with a vacant expression in the corner, and train him to take my place.

  ‘Leo, fetch him a pail,’ David said.

  The boy jumped hearing his name. He shook his head between the sailor and the door as if he didn’t understand the simplest of tasks, but then it clicked. ‘Water? Yes, Father, right away.’ As he ran towards the double-door, two silent figures in red pulled on the handles. The oak door’s rusting hinges groaned as they turned, allowing Leo to run through, his baggy robes shifting with each pace.

  The red figures returned to their motionless stance. They didn’t so much as breath, or if they did they hid it well. David often forgot they were even there. The crimson clergy showed no skin, their entire body covered by a cloak save for an eye slit that revealed only shadows. They were supposedly guards of this room, yet they did nothing when the man who stunk of piss and salt assaulted him. Nothing more than an outdated symbol of power. A glorified door opener.

  Yet a metric of David’s success was how many door openers he could create, and the sailor had almost been one of them.

  The other guards, the ash-knights who watched the plates in their ring formation did nothing to help either, but that was not their task. They were to protect the cathedral from any threats that would emerge from that plate, and that sailor didn’t count. Neither the ash-knights nor the clergy would not respond to any orders from below a bishop, and David lacked the rank, for now.

  ‘Water’, the sailor cried again like it was the only word he knew.

  ‘Yes, yes it’s coming,’ David said. ‘You’re not going to die. Come off the plate and wait, or one of those knights will drag you off.’

  I should be doing more meaningful work. I could help people. I could change things.

  The sailor looked up and met those cold eyes sheltered behind a visor, he seemed to shrink when he was already on his knees and managed to pathetically wiggle his way outside their ring, collapsing again on the marble floor.

  I could revolutionize this world for the better.

  The ash-knights snapped their ring shut, blocking the plate from sight.

  Instead I am here, looking after worms.

  Leo ran back into the room, flustered and sweaty. He held a water skin in one hand and a wooden cup in the other. The mere sound of sloshing water made the sailor rise again with wide eyes that didn’t blink or risk the sand under the eyelid scarring him further. Leo knelt by the sailor and tried to pour him a cup, but the man snatched it from his hand. The sailor poured the fresh water straight into his mouth, then let it run over his face and into his eyes, then drank some more. Finally, the skin emptied and the sailor let out a long sigh. A silence hung over the room as Leo etched backwards and the sailor flecked the last morsel from the skin drop onto his tongue.

  The sailor looked around the room as if he just realized he was no longer at sea. He gave a suspicious look to David, but then glanced down at the empty skin in his hand which he dropped to the ground as he stood up. He nearly fell over while rising, but caught his balance.

  ‘You’re welcome for the water,’ David said. It was as if the sailor’s courtesy had died with him.

  The sailor grunted in response and gave a head nod which must have been navy speak for thank you. ‘Where did I wash up?’ the sailor asked, and he looked at David’s skin color, ‘Is this Egypt? We were sailing past Greece when I…’ he trailed off.

  ‘This is not Egypt.’ However, David was surprised how good the sailors eye was, picking out David’s home country.

  ‘No you are right,’ the sailor said, ‘That would be too far to drift, even if the currents were fierce. Did you bring all the way back to a French hospital? You do speak excellent French for a black man.’ The sailor speech was getting faster, growing into a full-fledge ramble; a conversation with himself. ‘Well thank you for saving me regardless, but I need to get going. If the navy finds out about me, it’ll be the guillotine. Also I must say this is a funny looking hospital.’

  The man took a breath, his mouth gasping like a fish out of water and before he could go on another tirade, David jumped in just as quick. ‘This isn’t France, I don’t speak French and no one saved you.’ Then to make sure he understood. ‘You are dead.’

  ‘Huh, are you crazy?’ The sailor looked down at his hands, counting his nine fingers, ‘I can’t have died, I saw them coming for me. I saw them.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ David said with what he imagined was a sympathetic smile, ‘but whoever you saw either didn’t make it in time or was never really there.’

  The sailor looked back to his hands, as if making sure he counted correctly. He muttered “I saw them” and “they wouldn’t leave me” on repeat, attempting to convince himself he was still alive and this was some dream.

  David beckoned Leo closer and whispered in his ear, ‘At this point we have done our job. We aren’t paid to deal with trauma. We just need to move him into the classroom now.’

  ‘But Father John said that we need to make them feel at ease before we put them into the group.’

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  ‘Father John doesn’t know his left from his right. Did you know he was seventy-six when he arrived here? The codger can get all the healing magic in the world, but it won’t fix dementia. The fool doesn’t even de-age past sixty, he likes looking like a bony-assed grandpa.’

  Leo didn’t seem too pleased with that explanation so David continued, ‘John says that we need to put them at ease. The man was trying to strangle me mere minutes ago, now look at him.’

  The sailor was still staring at his hands with wide unblinking eyes telling himself “I saw them” on repeat, each time with more conviction.

  ‘Never seen a calmer man in my life,’ David said, ‘Now go take his hand and lead him into the classroom. We need to make room for the next entry.’

  ‘Yes Father,’ Leo said. He looked doubtful, but he went and grabbed the sailor by the hand all the same. The man didn’t resist and was led away by the curly haired boy.

  The room felt desolate without Leo and the sailor. The ash-knights were chiseled from stone in their focus and the silent crimson clergy that guarded the door were hard to consider people, the walls reflected mirages of warped color and the floor’s glyphs whispered in a foreign language. The fact that David couldn’t read the glyphs on the floor always perplexed him. David had never studied language on Earth, but he had no trouble understanding anyone since arriving in purgatory a decade ago. The Tower of Babel fell on Earth, not Purgatory, so there was no reason he shouldn’t be able to understand the meaning of words, written or spoken. Which indicated the symbols on the marble floor either had no meaning, or they were not human. David placed a palm on his forehead and squinted, forcing himself to look away from the glyphs. He pulled a pocket watch from the inside of his cloak and realized the next star was overdue. It wasn’t a scheduled event, but people died regularly enough.

  Leo returned to the room. He looked shaken with smatterings of sand in his dark, curly hair. Something had happened, but that was part of the job. Leo had to learn to deal with incidents on his own if he wanted to make it as priest within the Church.

  David gave his silver pocket watch one more glance before putting it away. A small trinket, one of the new inventions he and Marie were trying to bring to Purgatory. If he could get the funding, who knew the magnificent creations they could build here. How they could change the world, but first he needed to be promoted from a priest to a bishop and to do that he needed to excel in his role and his training of Leo.

  ‘The next star should be landing soon,’ David said, ‘I want you to handle this one.’

  Leo shied away, ‘But I'm not ready. I was told to watch and learn.’

  ‘No better way to learn than to do.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘You can, it’s easy. Just do it exactly how I did. Calm them down, then push them out.’

  Leo only frowned further at that comment. He pursed his lips, looking ready to rebuke David when he was cut off by an explosion of light. A soulstar as bright as the last crashed into the cathedral. David squinted against the blaze and when it dimmed it revealed a woman standing on the bronze plate. She was screaming from the moment she entered this world. She had glossy black hair that tumbled over her shoulders, contrasting with her pale skin. Blood spilled from her slender fingers clenched around her neck down onto her stomach, staining her white silks. The blood flow had stopped, her fatal wound being healed in the transition from Earth to Purgatory, yet the woman continued to screech as if her head was being cut off. Women were always too dramatic for David.

  They always overreact.

  Leo stood stunned, so David gave him a push on the back.

  ‘Go on then,’ David said.

  ‘What do I do?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Calm her down, then push her out. I’ve never seen a simpler case of calm and push in my life.’

  Thank the cardinals I don’t have to deal with that nutcase.

  The ash-knights parted, allowing Leo to walk up to the plate. Their movements had snap and drive. A mechanical unity in their discipline that was like one of those contraptions new to Earth.

  Leo stepped forward with heavy feet, and his voice trembled when he spoke, ‘Excuse me?’ he asked to no avail, ‘miss, ah ma’am?’ he tried again. She continued to scream not even hearing him. His hand hesitantly reached out to grab hers. Right before he touched her, she slapped his hand away. ‘Don’t touch me!’ the woman barked before remembering to cover her non-existent stab wound and snapping her hands back onto her neck. ‘I’m going to die,’ the woman said, dread filling her eyes that shone through streaks of her tangled hair like a sea-monster peering through seaweed.

  ‘You’re not going to die,’ Leo said, ‘Ma’am,’ unsure on how to address the woman. Her eyes locked onto him, and a look of confusion flashed her face as if she only just realized he was there.

  ‘Who are you?’ the woman asked.

  The teenager straightened up, ‘My name is Leonard Hains, I am an apprentice priest with the Church of Iscariot. I am here to help.’ He had his left hand on his chest with his right palm open and inviting.

  The woman's hands dropped from her neck and the color drained from her face. ‘I’m already dead aren’t I?’ she asked.

  Leo hesitated with pursed lips then nodded. Somehow the woman grew paler.

  ‘Is this Heaven? Are you an angel?’

  ‘No ma’am, this is Purgatory. I’m no angel either, just a human like you.’

  ‘So I’m in Hell,’ the woman said. The depression in her face contorted into rage, ‘But I shouldn’t be in Hell. I was a good person; I was better than most. I even went to church. You must believe me.’

  ‘I believe you m-’

  ‘Really, I was a good person.’ She dropped to her knees begging. ‘Please give me a chance, please send me to Heaven.’

  ‘Ma’am, I don’t have any power to-’

  She stood back up and her begging face was replaced by a scowl.

  ‘If anyone should be in hell it's him, that bastard of a husband who stabbed me.’

  I knew she would be a difficult case

  ‘I’m sorry ma’am.’

  ‘You should be,’ she said, but puffing air from her tirade she already seemed to be mellowing out.

  Nutcase.

  ‘I personally think you should be in heaven too. God works in mysterious ways.’ Leo gave her a weary smile. ‘However, I would like to point out that you aren’t in Hell. Purgatory is a second chance. If you are virtuous in Purgatory, then I am sure when you pass for the second time you will wake up in Heaven.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘I’m sure you have many questions and they will all be explained soon. Just know that you are safe and in a better place. Please take my hand. I will take you to others who are new to this realm.’

  The woman seemed nervous and confused, but after taking a long look at the earnest boy dressed in his priestly robes, she took his hand and Leo led her past the crimson clergy and out of the room.

  When Leo returned he had a grin that stretched ear to ear. ‘Did you see me? I did it just as you said.’

  David wanted to point out all of Leo’s mistakes, as he had many, but he decided to let the boy have this one. ‘Good job. I trust you can handle the next one too.’

  Leo gave a sharp nod with an eager look in his eyes.

  ‘Just remember this is serious business. Don’t get cocky because you got lucky on your first entrance.’

  ‘Yes Father, I will remember.’

  Another streak of gold sliced through the sky above. It hurtled towards the cathedral with ferocity as Leo straightened his back in anticipation. The soulstar hit the bronze plate and light bounced off the colored glass walls, filling the room. When the light cleared it revealed a child no older than two. He wore navy overalls, and little blue shoes.

  Leo staggered back, his anticipation deflating in an instant.

  The ring of ash-knights parted yet again, but this time it was not to allow David nor Leo through. The two red priests who had stood silent vigil by the door marched from their posts. They crossed the marble floor and retrieved the child, each grabbing an arm, hoisting him whilst he was still in a half-awake daze. His brown eyes widened to look up at the red figures by his side as they marched him out of the room, the tall oak door slamming shut behind them.

  The ash-knights reformed their ring, another day of normal operation. They did not care for those who fell from stars, they only guarded against those who came through the plate by other means.

  ‘I thought,’ Leo said, his words not forming right. He took a moment of silence with a scrunched brow. ‘I thought there were no children in Purgatory.’