The Council met as a full body in what bore a distressing resemblance to a city council chamber. They all sat in the front of the room behind long tables. Next, facing them was a table and a podium for those addressing them. Behind them were seats for the public. They filled up early.

Stephen was probably the only calm one among the group at the table facing the council. Baylee was tense and it showed. Charlie was just plain angry and that didn't show. The babies were asleep, one in Charlie's arms, the other mine. I hadn't been charged, but I was there because I had witnessed the whole thing. I knew that was subject to change. I found it interesting that no one had mentioned the Reverend. Apparently that secret was still safe.

Marc, as chair of the permanent council was conducting this gathering and he brought it to order without wasting any time. Bella and Maya sat on his left, Margaret on his right and the elected members filling in on either side. He had just finished the call to order and was proceeding to the business at hand when Eli and Tabitha arrived.

It was a delicate situation. They were Stephen's foster parents. They were the oldest known Awakened. They had never signed the Covenant and they had never acknowledged the authority of the Council. They should not even have known how to get there. As a symbol of the alternative to living under the Covenant they were dangerous beyond calculation. Marc despised them and I have reason to think the feeling was reciprocated. Stephen, I saw, hadn't twitched when they arrived and took seats next to him, though I know he wasn't expecting them. Tabitha took the baby from me and settled in. Eli whispered something to Baylee that made her smile and then leaned back, relaxed in his chair, looking for the entire world like a man prepared to be entertained. To eject them would not be wise.

"Did we interrupt?" he asked as no one moved to continue. I'm sorry, please, do go on."

All in all, if I were scoring this as a match, I'd have to give the first round to Eli, although Marc didn't seem unsettled by their attendance, as did some other members of the Council.

Marc proceeded but it did nothing for his temper. And so it began.

"Stephen we have asked you here to explain to us how it comes about that the Awakening of a man known to you as Charlie Palmer was not reported to us as required by the terms under which the Listeners operate as an instrument of this Council and why when he Awoke and was brought to the Listener House of Studies his infant daughters accompanied him?"

So Stephen moved to the podium and told them the story of that morning on the Beltway, told it succinctly and clearly, omitting only the Reverend. He added nothing.

Marc exchanged a look with Bella and Maya, and then began the interrogation, "So presented with a fait accompli as it were in that Baylee intervened in the matter of the mother and took her and the children back to the House before any other disposition could be made you elected to allow the situation to continue?"

"Yes."

"I see," Marc said. 

Maya spoke, "As I said, Marc..."   Whatever else she might have added, Marc cut her off with a gesture.

"Why?" He asked Stephen.  His eyes were locked onto Stephen and Stephen was nearly moved to squirm.

"Because they weren't my children and it wasn't up to me what happened to them following the death of their mother and the Awakening of their father. The only one with the right to make that decision was their father who was in no condition to do so for some time after. When he was he not unnaturally chose to raise them himself."

"I..." Margaret began.

"Quiet!" thundered Marc.

Margaret, casting a surprised look at Marc, sank back down into her chair and listened as the interrogation continued. “Did you explain to him that as an Awakened he was bound by the Covenants and that such a thing was not allowed? Did you explain that the normal course of events would have been to place them in the care of someone else to raise since he must come here and they would not be allowed to accompany him?"

When it was said flat out like that the craziness of it was apparent to the most casual observer. But then we'd all known that for as long as there'd been a Covenant. All Stephen said in response was, "Yes."  He seemed to feel his safest course was to use as few words as possible for as long as he could.

"What was Mr. Palmer's response?"

"He, quite naturally, refused."

"What did you do?"

"I bowed to his rights as their father."

Marc sat forward. He was silent for a moment, and I thought perhaps his views might have shifted due to the debate. The he asked, "Why, in the face of his refusal, did you not inform us?" Ah, that was the rub. Not the decision itself.

"Firstly because given the fact that Mr. Palmer rejected the Covenant he wasn't, in my view, bound by it and was within his rights to expect and receive the assurance that I would respect his privacy in the matter. In effect it was his position that it was none of your business and I did not consider that I had grounds for disagreeing with him. Secondly because, in my judgment, what happened to his children was up to him. It was his decision." Stephen's voice never wavered from the calm reasonable tone he had used throughout. His eyes, locked with Marc's, hadn't moved. "In my view I had neither the right nor sufficient grounds for interfering between a parent and his decisions regarding the rearing of his children.”

Marc's eyebrow shot up and Stephen was surprised to see a spark of emotion in Marc's eyes. Normally he was hard to read and the only emotions he tended to show were impatience and sometimes a flash of anger. But this was different, and it was clear Stephen felt it boded ill for the rest of the meeting. It would have helped if we understood what that emotion was, but as it was, we had to proceed on and hope for the best.

"Then why did you allow them to remain at the Refuge?" Marc asked his voice dangerously quiet.

"Because I concluded that it was the safest place for them all and while not ideal from the perspective of this body allowing them to leave was even less ideal. In short, it seemed to me, that we would be better served if he weren't running around loose."

"Stephen, you knew that these decisions were in violation of the Covenants and you still made them. Not only did you make them, you did so without so much as consulting us. So I ask you again, why did you deliberately deceive us by withholding information.

"Because in my view neither I, nor this body, has any authority in this matter given the fact that Charlie Palmer has not signed the Covenant and rejects any idea that the mere fact of his Awakening obliges him to do so. In short I concluded that he was correct in thinking the decisions were his, not mine or yours. Are you asserting that he is wrong?"

"It is our responsibility to ensure that the Awakened abide by the Covenant."

"Then, in your view, the Covenant allows you to tell Charlie Palmer that he must sign it and that he can not raise his own children merely because he is an Awakened?"

And so they came to it. What could they say? That they had not anticipated this is remarkable beyond imagining.

Bella and Maya were tense and looked furious. Marc, on the other hand, was calmer.  Not, perhaps, a good sign.

"That is not the issue. The issue is your failure to enforce the Covenant as you were bound to do under the terms of your agreement with this body regarding the duties, responsibilities and undertakings of the person responsible for the Listeners and what happens in the matter of those newly awoken who are in your care, as our agent, as was the case with Mr. Palmer."  No one there missed the emphasis on those three words, the three words that were the weak point in Stephen's armor.  And they were right.  Stephen was their agent and had ignored his obligations in that regard.

Stephen wondered if Marc had purposefully walked him into this admission at this moment, in this way. But, he had to say it. “I am bound, by the terms of our agreement, to enforce or ensure the enforcement of the Covenant on earth with respect to the behavior of those who are members of the Covenant. Now, that's what it says, loosely quoted. I have a copy here in case you don't if you would like to peruse the relevant paragraphs." No one took him up on his offer.

"In light of that I do not see how I am obliged by our agreement to enforce the Covenant with respect to those who are not signatories to it. Secondly and of a more cogent nature, in order to do that I would have had to interfere between a father and his children and the reasonable decisions he was making with respect to their upbringing. I repeat that in my view, I did not have that right, nor was the fact of a clause in the Covenant a sufficient reason to presume otherwise. Mr. Palmer's rights as a parent derive from a source other than the Covenant and are not negated by it. On the contrary, in my view, those rights nullify any authority the Covenant might have had in this matter." He paused again, clearly choosing his next words with care. "In fact, I submit to you that the result of this situation is that Mr. Palmer is in no way bound by the Covenant with regard to this matter or any other. His refusal to accept it has been consistent throughout. In view of that I also would argue that he can not be held to account under it and this Council has no authority in this matter at all."

By the time he'd finished the council room was in an uproar. After Marc had gaveled them into silence, and stared down the few who were not happy about that, he said, "Our authority has nothing to do with his acceptance or rejection of the Covenant. It derives, in this matter as it does in all others, by virtue of the fact that he is an Awakened. That matter was settled when the Covenant was first implemented."

Stephen, with no choice really, replied steadily, "Are you asserting that the authority of this body does not derive from the Covenant itself, but rather is, as it were, naturally endowed? Because if that is what you are suggesting along with the notion that it was established when the Covenants were first written, I beg to differ. Would you like a case in point?  "

Marc, ignoring the bait, saw the trap that loomed ahead. If he said yes he was asserting that the Covenant was nothing more than piece of paper and not a contract between a state and its people, freely accepted. If he said no he was admitting that if Charlie rejected the covenant as he clearly had, then the Council had no authority in the matter. If he dodged by saying it was not up to Charlie to reject the Covenant then he was in even more trouble because that destroyed the fiction that the authority of the Covenant derived from the freely given consent of those whose lives were governed by it.

None of this," Marc said, "negates the fact that you were derelict in your duty as our agent in this matter and that instead of informing us of your inability to act with integrity as our agent you did nothing."  He turned to regard Charlie Palmer. "Mr. Palmer," he said.

Charlie stood.  He was a bit overwhelmed by it all.  But he was all the more determined to stand his ground.

"Is it true that you asserted your rights as a father to do what you will with your children, regardless of whether or not it is good for them or acceptable to the society in which you have now found yourself? Is it true you stand in defiance of this Council?"

Charlie blinked.  He looked like he wanted to ask him to repeat the question.  Finally he looked up, determination settling on his features and said, "If I follow your question you appear to have assumed two things.  First that I have asserted my rights as a parent without regard to the welfare of my children.  I defy you to prove that and I'll thank you not to imply any such thing again.  The second assumption you've made," he went on, looking nervous again, "is that I am a member of this society or rather that I am regardless of whether I want to be or not.  I don't concede that's true.  However, to avoid dragging this out any further my answer to your actual question, hostile as it was, is yes I stand in defiance of this council.  If I do not choose to be a part of this society, what difference could it possibly make to me whether my behavior has your stamp of approval or not?  As a matter of fact, there are Awakened in this room who have rejected this society, your covenants and this council's authority.  Are they somehow special and no one else is allowed to say thanks but no thanks to you guys?"  By the time he finished the sweat was starting to show along his collar line.

"Thank you, Mr. Palmer," Marc said. He slammed down the gavel in response to the whispers that traveled through the audience.  The Council members were silent, perhaps stealing a glance or two at one another.

Stephen saved Marc from having to respond further. "If I might make a suggestion?"

Marc had no choice but allow it.

"It should be clear that there are two separate issues here. The first is whether Mr. Palmer has the right to refuse to live under the authority of the Covenant and hence this Council after he Awoke. The second is whether anyone, in enforcing the Covenant may, in order to do so, interfere in the sole and unbridgeable right of a parent to determine the disposition and upbringing of his minor children insofar as those decisions are reasonable and do not place said children at risk. It is my position that this body can not deny Mr. Palmer either right and insofar as the Covenant as written asserts differently it should be amended, if not wholly rewritten. As a corollary, it should be clear that any charges laid against me in this matter are unsustainable.

Hence my suggestion is this. Allow Mr. Palmer to remain at the Refuge with his children as he has done since January. Secondly, impanel a commission, made up of both elected and appointed members to thoroughly review the Covenant and in the light of that and the experience of our people since the Covenant was drafted to identify and present recommendations to this body and the Awakened regarding its revision, amendment or redrafting. And finally, adjourn this proceeding until those recommendations are presented and voted on by this body and the Awakened as a whole. At that time either reconvene or dismiss the charges."

"Thank you so much for doing my job for me, Stephen," Marc responded dryly. "I'll get back to you."  He slammed down the gavel and said, "This Council session is adjourned until further notice."

The Council rose and walked out.  Marc, however, met Stephen's eyes. Stephen felt a pressure on his mind that almost made him feel faint. Then Marc turned on his heel and walked out. The audience broke into excited and worried groups eagerly discussing the play-by-play.  What the Council itself did was something a bit different.