I had never seen something so beautiful in my life before. As my mother gently waved her fingers through the air small orbs of light appeared and began to drift around the room.

  Every time she would do this, it showed me that there was such beautiful magic in the world. It was so simple, yet I loved it with every fiber of my being.

  On this specific evening, she was reading to Dardania and myself the ‘The 12th Great Epic of The Saint’.

  “As Saint Gilgamesh stood face to face with Enkidu, he wept for the friend he once knew. But the man who stood before him was not the same man who had once traveled the world by his side. This man was a man of sin. A man bent on destroying all that was good in the world.”

  My mother loved the Great Epics of the Saint, every night before bed she would read us one of them and put on a little light show at the same time. She very much enjoyed setting the mood, and she had mastered the perfect magic just for that very purpose.

  I remember my mothers long curly chestnut hair. The way it framed her face so perfectly, and the curls just added to her already bouncy personality. She always kept long nails, perfectly manicured, and it always sat in perfect contrast to the tanned skin of someone who spent most of her days outside. I remember her face so clearly, I see it daily in my mind, but I don’t even know if she is still alive.

  Just as much as I remember her telling me the stories, I also will never forget her face the day she turned me in.

  On the final day of work, prior to our days of rest, we would head to the local altar to cleanse ourselves of the filth from the week.

  Worshiping a man who has classified himself as a Saint meant that the followers of the Order were supposed to be just as clean. For how could we follow a saint if we ourselves were sinful?

  The Order didn’t classify every foul thing as sinful. There were varying degrees of sin, all starting with The Foul. The Foul was a set of actions that were most likely to occur on a daily basis, but the harm was negligible. It consisted of rules like no foul language, no lying, and mostly harmless actions such as those.

  Above The Foul was The Filth. It was actions that were a little less common, but still actions that generally most people partake in. For example, using financial gain for selfish means, lusting after another woman’s husband, speaking out against the Order, and weirdly, voluntary work.

  Lastly you have the Sins. While you could cleanse yourself in the altar for The Foul and The Filth, the same could not be said for Sins. The only way to cleanse a sin was by attending a camp. These sins consist of such actions as homosexuality, defying the order, conspiring with the Arcana, murder, and so on.

  As we attended the altar this week to cleanse ourselves, I never knew it would be the last time I ever saw my parents.

  Just like every other week, we approached the altar, filled our hands with water, and washed it over ourselves. You’d think such devout people as us we wouldn’t need to cleanse ourselves, but we did. My mother had opted to take a job outside of what The Order had granted us. She didn’t want our family to struggle financially and our father’s pay alone didn’t give us financial stability.

  After cleansing ourselves we made our way to the same bench we sat every week for prayer. Dardania nudged me playfully as she sat down next to me.

  “Need to confess your sins dear brother?” She asked, a sadistic twinkle in her eye. I smirk at her and nudge her back. Granted she knew the truth, I knew that wasn’t what she was referring to.

  Our parents were extremely devout and did everything in their power to ensure that they nor us were sinners. They asked us to confess our sins to them every week prior to attending altar to cleanse ourselves. My mother claimed it was because she wanted to make sure we could be truly cleansed. That way when we started our days of rest we could enjoy them without concern that the gods would strike us down.

  “What sins sister?” I chuckle softly just before I hear my name called.

  I slowly turn towards the Cleric standing in the center of the church who had just called my name.

  “Avis, please approach the altar.” The Cleric motions for me to join him at the altar. I look to Dardania whose eyes are wide with shock, tears welling up. She gently shakes her head no. I shift my gaze to my parents who are staring forward, doing everything in their power to not look at me.

  “Avis.” The Cleric spoke again as he stared me down. I slowly rise from the bench and start walking towards the altar.

  My feet feel like weights, dragging me down preventing me from moving forward at a normal pace. Even time seemed to slow down as I walked towards the altar. I knew what it meant, everyone in this room knew what it meant. It meant that I was a sinner. That I was beyond being cleansed and the only way to save my soul was to be sent to a camp to be cleansed there.

  There was only one person who I have ever told, and I trusted her with my life. Based on the reactions of my parents, I knew it was them. How they found out, I still don’t know to this day.

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  “Remove your clothes and kneel before me.”

  I take off my shirt and my shorts and throw them to the ground. The Cleric shakes his head.

  “All of them, you must stand before us as you did on the day the gods brought you into this world.”

  I remove my under garment, covering myself, and kneel before the Cleric as I bare myself to the entire town.

  “Avis, The Order has found you guilty for the sin of homosexuality. You will hereby be sentenced to a camp where you will be cleansed of your sin.”

  I turn my head as he fills a pail of water from the altar and throws it over me.

  “In the light.” The congregation chants as the water washes over me. He fills the pail again. I turn towards my parents and lock eyes with my mother for the first time since arriving.

  I thought I would see guilt but I didn’t, it was disgust. Even though I knew they had turned me in, I thought maybe it was reluctantly. Perhaps they were even pressured to do so, but that wasn’t the case. Their faith had caused them to look upon their own son with disgust.

  I never in my life thought I would look directly into the eyes of evil, but I did that day. The look on both of my parent’s faces were not that of someone who believed in life over faith, humanity over doctrine, no. It was someone who believed the words that exist in their scripture over the love of their own child. That the human being they gave birth to through their love was less than the words of a man who would never even lay eyes upon them.

  The Cleric throws another pail of water over me.

  “In the light.” Everyone chants again.

  I continue to stare at my mother, and as each second passes it’s as though her eyes begin to hold no humanity. When I stare into them it’s as if I was staring into a void. Some may feel it’s because of the great tragedy of having to turn her son in, but I knew the truth. It’s because she hated me. She hated that she had given birth to a sinner. That she had created a man who loved men rather than women. That she had created me.

  Dardania screamed as she tried to push her way towards the altar, but several members of the town were holding her back. She kicked and punched and cried, but there was nothing she could do to break through the men.

  “Why.” I whisper.

  “No son of ours is a sinner. No son of ours is a homosexual.” My father responds, not once daring to look me in the eye.

  “We no longer have a son.” My mother adds and I break.

  I will never forget that moment. The moment my parents chose The Saint over me. The moment I became an orphan.

  ****

  “Fascinating isn’t it?” Saint Anthony now stands before Dardania and myself. After the town meeting we opted to come to the beach and clear our heads prior to regrouping and figuring out our next move.

  “What is?” Dardania spits at him. He slowly turns and smiles at her before sitting down next to her on the bench and looking out at the sea.

  “Family. The two of you have chosen one another, yet the same can’t be said of your parents.” Anthony turns towards us, his gaze blank, unreadable. “I decided to dig into your history a little bit after your little excursion at the camp. Your own parents turned you in and didn’t even fight when Dardania decided to leave. Parents, am I right?”

  “I entirely don’t think our history is a joke.” Dardania responds through grit teeth.

  “Oh I agree, it is quite tragic indeed.”

  “Why are you here?” I ask, finally deciding to speak up.

  “The original Saint didn’t consider adding child abandonment to the list of Sins, why do you think that was?”

  “What is organized religion but a means to control the masses by manipulating their need for faith to help cope with the unknowable aspects of the universe?” Dardania responds, not quite answering the question. Anthony chuckles slightly.

  “You have quite the opinion of our faith, that much is obvious. I would like to think that caring for one’s child is the obvious choice, one where the inverse need not be listed as a sin. A child is the combination of two individuals who have chosen to create life, the most magical thing that one can do. Life is the most precious thing in the universe, no matter what world you are from.”

  That phrase, what world you are from, why would he say that? There is not some consensus that other worlds exist, most people don’t even consider anything like that, so why would he say that? I cock my head at him, confused. He smiles gently as my reaction.

  “What your parents did was atrocious, and no one deserves such a thing, no matter what sin you have committed. If the fruit of their womb is not protected by them, then they should not be protected by the Order.”

  Anthony stands up and takes a few steps forward and stares out at the ocean for a few seconds before turning back towards us.

  “So, they have been cleansed.”

  “What?” Dardania shoots up from the bench and takes a few steps towards him and he raises his hand, motioning for her to stop walking.

  “What? Is that not what you wanted? For them to be cleansed of the sin of abandoning their children? For them to be punished for what they did for you? I did you a favor, I thought you would appreciate that. I did it out of the kindness of my heart, for you.” He holds his hands over his heart before motioning towards us like he is handing us something.

  “I—” I didn’t know what to say. I hated my parents. Every day since that day all I could think about is how much I hated my parents. They destroyed my life and were the ones who caused me to live through hell, but… I don’t think I wanted them dead.

  “Well, I thought you would take that news better than that. Well, don’t ever say the Order didn’t do anything for you.” Anthony begins walking back towards the town when he stops, spins around, and faces us again.

  “I have done this as a kindness for two individuals who have been wronged by their parents, but it doesn’t acquit you of your crimes. Avis, you are still a wanted man and we have added the Magician to that list for the destruction in Enkidu. He would be wanted for murder but…” Anthony pauses and smiles, “I think you remember what happened.”

  Anthony walks away and with a blink of an eye disappears like he was never there to begin with.

  “I… I don’t know how I feel.” Dardania sits down on the bench. “I feel as though I should be crying, but I’m not. As far as I was concerned they died years ago. I mourned them then, when I left.”

  “I don’t think I wanted them dead, but—” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how I felt. I know that I didn’t feel like crying, no semblance of that emotion was arising. Did I feel grief? Pleasure? Pain? I don’t even remotely know how I feel. “I am free.”

  That’s all I knew, I no longer needed to hold on to that image of them turning me in. I could move past that moment where I first saw true evil, and add it to the back of my memory with the things I didn’t think about daily.

  “I am free of having to worry about them anymore. That’s what I do know.” Dardania sits back down on the bench, wraps her arm around me and rests her head on my shoulder.

  “You are. You are finally free of them, we both are.”