The Verdict of Hades

De: Janvier Chouteu-Chando

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Jeremiah is a sage with a job that many people envy, even though hardly anyone understands the true nature of the burden the occupation heaps on his soul. As the emissary of ancestors and divines, he thinks he is doing okay until he shepherds the clueless Joseph on a journey that brings him face-to-face with the horrors of his ways.

Joseph needs a lifeline. His earlier life as the inheritor of a legacy that involved wealth, power and goodness has been tainted by his embrace of evil, which leaves death and grief in its path. He knows what he is about to face and thinks that Jeremiah, a man who always reserved a soft spot in his heart for him, is the only soul capable of preventing the verdict anyone could predict.

Would Jeremiah who knows the price to pay for defying the custodians of Hades risk his soul to save a man who does not understand what salvation is all about?

Is destiny or fate responsible for the forces he grapples with? Is mercy a tool for a sinning soul who pleads for forgiveness before acknowledging his crimes?

“The Verdict of Hades" precedes "Ngoko's Folly", and is the forerunner of "The Oaf" in the collection of short stories entitled "The Usurper: and Other Stories."