“Enough!” said the Angel of Death. “It is my duty to maintain Eternal Order in this realm. I charge you with working to undermine that order, of which charge you are guilty.”

“Now, now,” said Mammon. “Surely I am entitled to some advocacy, some defense?”

“You are not,” said the Angel. “And even if you were, I would know better than to entertain it. You are banished immediately and for all eternity from this country, and none of your properties, titles, or possessions whatsoever may be taken with you.”

“Let’s—uh—” stammered Mammon, “let’s not rush into anything here. What you’re suggesting would create a very dangerous power vacuum.”

“Your concern is touching,” said the Angel of Death coldly. “You keep a steward, do you not? Tall fellow? Fancy trousers?”

“Yes,” said Mammon, “but I don’t see—”

“All your assets shall devolve upon him. That should keep the status quo.”

“I see,” said Mammon, swallowing hard. “Yes. I have misjudged the situation terribly. Do forgive me. I shall strive to do better in the future.”

“You have no future here,” said the Angel.

“Surely,” said Mammon, “surely, we can reach some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“Goodbye, Mammon,” said the Angel, and with an echoing, ragged scream, the little demon was gone.

Turning to Dumah now, the Angel spoke in a tone far softer than before.

“Brother,” he said, and Dumah, bloodied, bashed, and battered, looked up from the floor. “It grieves me to see you here.”

Dumah made no reply.

“I would find it a heavy thing indeed to send you away. But if the things I have been told are true…”

Dumah was still.

“I am told that you conspired to unseat me, to take my task for your own. Do you deny this?”

Dumah was silent.

“Please,” said the Angel. “If it is not so, you must correct me.”

But Dumah was silent.

“Very well,” said the Angel of Death. “You will stand.”

Dumah rose quickly to his feet, and with a sigh, the Angel of Death rendered judgment.

“Dumah, Messenger of Decay, you have strayed from your task. You have erred, and you are unrepentant. The Eternal Order must be upheld. Therefore, as regent in this country, in the Infinite Names of the One, I strip you of your office and relieve you of your task. You, too, are banished. Go and sojourn among mortal men until such time as you die and begin, yourself, to decay.”

Nodding silently, Dumah raised his hand in a final salute.

And then he was gone.

—

Yankl the schlepper brought news of the Rebbe’s death back from Zubinsk the day after it occurred.

Many in Tupik sighed and shook their heads sadly, but Issur Frumkin could not seem to release his grief. He had long relished stories of the Rebbe and his great miracles, long harbored secret ambitions of making his way out through the forest to study at the Rebbe’s feet.