After some time getting all the papers together, Mister Lux had signed all the necessary ones.

— I don’t need to do anything else, right? Not even paying or bringing him anything from home?

— No, sir — said Priest Noah, with a gentle smile. — We assure you we have all that your beloved son needs. Food, clothing, books, good teachers, and a home to stay.

— Well, unlucky him if he wanted to come without being prepared, am I right? — Judah’s father laughed and stopped — Okay, I gotta go now. — He turned to his son with a forced grin. — Behave… kid…

— I… — Judah tried to mention anything, but his dad didn’t wait any longer and was already out of the church. — S___...

— Don’t worry about it, Judah — Jay said comforting him. — You will be just fine.

— But not you, Jay — Priest Noah said with an unfriendly face. — I can’t believe what you did today. I need to take care of the church all the time! How could you, my son?

— I have my reasons — Jay smiled with his hands up and wide open.

— Listen here, boy — Priest Noah held Jay by his collar. — We are not letting you get away with this! You are going to respect the Lord’s orders!

— I didn’t do anything wrong — Jay said calmly.

— You know what you did! — Priest Noah was losing it. — We are overloaded with problems outside the church! We are barely able to take care our choirboys! We have no time for you to start playing with the church’s orders! Or you start learning how bad your sins are or we will need to excommunicate you!

— Is it that bad? — Judah didn’t know what that meant and asked Peter discretely.

— Yes — Peter answered in a lower tone. — They mean they will need to kill him.

— Woah… What was so bad that they need to kill the kid? Never heard anyone taking s___ like that!

— This is hard to explain — Peter continued, trying to keep it low. — If you sin, your magic may go bad and be dangerous to everyone. The only way they can stop you from using your magic is by killing you.

— Wait… Which sin did he commit that was so bad again?

— Loving you.

— Oh… Do you mean…?

— We can’t like each other in this church. We are only boys here…

— You should be aware of the Lord’s creation, mister Lux — Priest Noah interrupted, knowing well what they were talking about.

— I don’t like him if that’s what you are asking… — Judah explained trying to sound natural.

— We know you are a good boy, my son. But Jay’s behavior is sinful! And he’s trying to drag you into his own corruption! You can’t stay together! I will make an order to take Jay to another parish as soon as possible.

— Wait, what? No, no, no… There’s no need! He is being very helpful! I swear! Nothing ever happened!

— Silly boy — made Noah. — We know what you two did… you tree, I mean.

— We didn’t do anything! We were learning magic! I didn’t do anything bad! I… I…

Noah made a sign with his hand, closing it in the air, and Judah couldn’t speak anymore.

— You must know we don’t take any sinful act slightly. This is for your own good, my son.

— Now, now… — Jay passed his hand in front of Judah’s mouth, depleting the power of the bind priest Noah just did. — We don’t need to start binding each other right now. He just arrived!

Judah felt relieved and coughed.

— You can’t send him away! — He shouted, but only coughed more.

Jay massaged Judah’s back.

— You have been planning this all along, didn’t you? — Priest Noah inquired with half-open eyes.

— Can’t say that I didn’t. You know I’d skinny-dipped into his life with a purpose. I accept my sacrifice. They live, I’m happy. But he’s not strong enough to deal with them…

— Who? — Judah asked, feeling a lot better.

— The ones I told you — Jay simply said. — The priests need to be hard on us because of them…

— Darkness is the most sinful power of them all — Priest Noah said.

— I disagree — Jay interrupted. — It’s in reality, the most unstable element.

— What do you mean? — Judah questioned.

— Darkness is the power only few can bear because it makes you go crazy — Jay confirmed with a large smile.

— Will you be okay? — Judah asked.

— Yes. For now. Things are not as easy as it seems. You will need to be strong for both of us.

— But I know nothing… I barely used magic today! — Judah complained.

— Yes. But you already made a bird come to life with Peter’s help.

— Yeah… — Judah smiled. — That was awesome!

— Why are you seducing him into this? — Priest Noah inquired.

— Comfort — Jay smiled. — You can’t use magic without comfort.

Priest Noah slapped Jay’s face hard. Jay barely moved and his hair covered his face.

— You know we don’t use ‘magic’ here. We work miracles here, boy — Priest Noah couldn’t hold himself anymore.

Jay spat some blood as the slap force made his gums bleed.

— He’s right — Judah said. — People don’t like to teach me anything! I swear I wouldn’t have learned what I did today if it was someone else!

— Still, he’s abusing his privileges as our current prophet — Priest Noah got tired of standing and sat on his chair behind his desk, thoughtful.

— Oh, I know — Jay pulled a chair for himself and also sat. — I know how much you want to blame me for my sins. Still, I’m just showing my commitment to it. Going crazy or not, I know who I’m helping here.

— Do you think I can stop you if you go mad? — Judah asked, sounding more serious while taking a seat as well.

— No need. I know we have plenty of time. Eventually, the priests are way too worried that I would go mad before because I love you.

— I’m straight, okay. I wouldn’t fall in love with you.

— Oh, I know that… Still, that’s not how love works. Wish I could shake your heart enough so you can return my feelings. But I’m more than happy to see you aren’t taking my promises with hate — Jay smiled once more, this time sporting his blood on his teeth and licked them trying to clean his mouth. — The taste of blood. You know how much people just kill a person just because they show any affection in the wrong way.

— I… I know…

— I’m happy. Really — Jay simply said, looking away, remembering something.

— It’s a sin. Nothing less — Priest Noah reiterated.

— Why? — Judah asked confused.

— Let me explain this, reverend — Jay interrupted. — Two powerful cities from ancient time once said to be taken by a powerful demon’s will met something humanity could ever achieve… freedom.

— Wait, what? I didn’t get it at all!

— Wait and see my friend. You know people have limits, like, I wouldn’t be your friend if I always hit you on the face. Those limits hold humanity down from falling into violence, indecency, torture, and anything bad.

— Sins — Priest Noah said abruptly.

— Yes. The priests here always call it sins but barely explain anything.

— Yeah! I need people to explain things right! — Judah said showing how Jay was being helpful.

— I’m sure you are learning, Judah. — Jay got back at it. — One thing eventually grew too much in those two cities and broke them into debauchery.

— Into… what? — Judah asked.

— Sex. People were getting too much into sex — Judah nodded positively to Jay. — They seem to have got to the point of using sex as a coin. If you couldn’t pay your taxes, they would force you to turn your back to the tax collector and let your pants fall. Simply like that, the taxes were paid and everything was back to normal… if you know what I mean.

— Oh… Can people do that? — Judah asked.

— As I said — Jay continued — those two cities reached the freedom to do as they were pleased.

— And pleasure leads to sins — Priest Noah concluded.

— In other words — Jay continued — freedom leads to sins, to bad things. They simply stopped doing normal things and were having sex all the time. And that included men with men, women with women, adults with kids, and people with animals. It was a horrible scene, you see, mostly because nothing would stop them. If they still wanted to have sex with someone, even if they didn’t want to agree with it, they would simply be raped and no one would help them out.

— Dang… — Judah made.

— Yeah. Even though humans have free will to do as they please, the Lord couldn’t take it anymore and sent some angels looking like men to check the cities and they were found by Abraham, who persuaded them to look into the city and find anyone worthy to be saved. If there were ten people worth saving, they would spare the city.

— Abraham is whom the reverend Bishop is named after — the priest quickly said.

— Oh… — Judah was surprised.

— Anyway — Jay continued — going to the city, the angels were found by Lot, who was a fair man, and pleaded to have the angels as his guests noticing they were no ordinary people. The angels didn’t want to stay and wanted to pass the night in the middle of the square, where everyone would see them. After Lot insisted a lot… — Judah giggled — the angels agreed to go into Lot’s home but, before they could sleep, lots of men, old and young, from all around the city, came to his door demanding to have his guests for their ‘fun’. Lot pleaded to them to leave them alone, as they were in his house and people should always respect any guest, and even offered his own daughters to be used instead, but they refused to have the ladies. They demanded to have the guests. Can you guess what happened?

— Not at all! — Judah promptly said. — Probably nothing good!

— Yeah, you got it right — Jay continued. — The two angels took Lot inside before the men could break the door and suddenly blinded all the men that were outside at once, so they couldn’t ever find Lot’s door. I can’t help but imagine how beautiful the angels were…

— Jay… — the priest called his attention.

— Well, they did call everyone’s attention so fast! — Jay said, making Judah giggle. — After that, the angels told Lot what they were going to do with the city and told Lot to take anything he could with him. Lot tried to warn his sons-in-law, and they thought he was kidding when he said the Lord would destroy the city. By the morning time, the angels came once again to Lot and told him to hurry as they were about to destroy the city. Lot, his wife, and his daughters fled to a small settlement. But before doing so, Lot was warned to never look back. And for some reason, his wife looked back and soon she was turned into a pillar of salt, as the Lord descended to the land, destroying everything in the region.

— Did all of that happen? — Judah asked, as he was a little confused.

— Yes — said the priest without hesitation.

— No — Jay said sadly.

— Yes or no?! — Judah said impatiently.

— You know well the sacred books, my son — the priest said to Jay. — Why do you still doubt them?

— There’s a small problem about some old stories — Jay replied. — Most of them were written by someone who collected the stories way past the time they supposedly happened. If anything, whatever that had happened could be altered and people were blamed without reason and yet, it was all taken without second thoughts…

— So tell your friend what you see when you try to watch the past with the Lord’s sigh.

Jay hesitated.

— Is there any problem? — Asked Judah.

— Lots of problems. The first one, when I try to see this specific part of the past, the ones from the sacred books, there’s a blur, like a movie without the main story.

— And you know what that means — the priest insisted.

— Oh, no, I don’t. I know what you suggest me to think it is — Jay tried to explain.

— What are you talking about? — Judah asked.

Jay swallowed dry.

— That it’s possible that, while destroying the two cities, the Lord had also destroyed the knowledge about them. Like the Lord stole all the memories those cities had, even from the earth on the ground and clouds right above… or…

— Or…?

— Those stories never happened at all. And people are blamed to this day because someone was terrified about something bad that happened a very long time ago.

— And with reason! — The priest finished.

— Which reason? — Judah tried again.

— You know — Jay continued — from violence may come defense; from apathy, a way to be fair to both sides; from ignorance, may come the capacity to avoid what’s bad… But from sex… Have you ever questioned why the Lord is male and not a Lady?

— I… have no idea…

— It’s quite simple, really. The Lord is none, not male or female, but if anything, the Lord is the father of the souls, because He doesn’t make souls from himself as a pregnant woman does. He makes souls from his will, like any man when they make babies.

— Oh… That part I know!

Jay smiled.

— I’m sure you know. But the thing here is, souls have no gender, souls don’t reproduce themselves, this way, sexuality is useless. If anything, you are just losing your time having fun with sex, because you can’t have sex in the afterlife.

— What? No, no, no… Are you serious? Man… What about those stories about having I don’t know how many virgins waiting for you and all that if you go to heaven?

— They may be waiting for you, but you would never have anything with them without your body. There’s no need for sex in heaven.

— You can only go to heaven with a pure soul — the priest resumed. — You need to work your mind, heart, and soul together to be free of your sins and we all hope you know there’s no place for sins among miracle workers. Understood, Judah?

— I… I… — Judah tried.

— No need to answer — Jay completed. — I’m sure today was proof enough for him to understand how serious we are.

— Splendid! — The priest said, whipping some sweat from his forehead. — We are too busy lately. Soon we will have lunch and hope you are both ready to help!

The phone in the priest's desk ringed and he dispensed both Judah, Jay, and Peter in a rush.

Alone, Judah couldn’t help but be worried:

— Will you be okay, man?

— Yeah, don’t worry about me. I will be gay ‘til hell freezes over — Jay said laughing.

— You sure you are okay about that?

— Yes, I am. If anything, I have the Lord’s son with me.

— Oh… Forgot ‘bout the cross dude.

— They all do… — Jay smiled. — You see, the Lord’s son made a new promise, one that protects everyone who is good. For me, it doesn’t really matter how genders work, I know how manly you are and how much you make me happy just by looking at you. You are one special guy and I’m sure you can be a good person too…

— Me? I’m the worst! I’m going to make a blast when I learn all your tricks! — Judah laughed out loud and walked ahead.

— I sure hope you don’t lose it — Jay followed, staring at Judah from head to toe from his behind — you sure look good in those clothes.

— Hey! Wait for me! — Peter said following them.

Still in his office, priest Noah had Bishop Abraham on the phone:

— How our boy is going — the bishop asked, with his old and weak voice.

— He’s too powerful… — Noah's breath was failing. — I barely could stand having him… in front of me!

— Trust in The Lord, my son, he’s not so powerful he can’t be stopped.

— I’m sure, reverend, but… I really felt it, sir… Like I was in front of a… demon…