Forty-Two: Of the Harrowing

Thomas endures a timeless succession of torments in Hell—physical mutilations, desecrations of love and loyalty, and blasphemous mockeries—until his rage and humor are broken. In a vision of plague-ridden Paris, devils pin him with arrows as he lies bloated and unable to move.

A cart arrives within a dome of golden daylight, driven by the girl he once knew, yet more than her. Unclean things cannot enter the light. She gently removes Thomas’s arrows and closes his gaping mouth, but Thomas suspects another cruel illusion and resists while she waits.

Hell convulses as six infernal princes descend bearing the smoldering body of a fallen angel; Lucifer is cast down, and Mammon now rules. This cosmic shift opens a kernel of trust in Thomas, and he finally nods to follow.

The rescuer—neither him nor her—explains she came in the form Thomas would love and follow, once two things together, then one, now two again. She declares Thomas no longer damned and asks if he wants to remember their love—Delphine included—warning that love brings pain. Thomas chooses to remember.

She lifts him into the cart and drives beneath true night with proper stars. The world feels harmless and warm. Promised deliverance from Hell, Thomas rests and sleeps as they depart.