TC2

Men dwell in hollow Kemen under the light of a  miniature  sun. The land of the world was also the sky, and if men's eyes  were more keen nothing would remain hidden from view.

There was a plateau nine leagues across and it was  plain  that forests and lakes dotted its table-top summit as they did  any- where else  in Kemen. Yet a sheer precipuce of hardest  stone ringed the mountain, rising three miles above a bed  of  rugged lesser mountains that themselves rose a mile above  the  flats. The Wall  of God was made all the more unassailable  by  a  lip around the very cusp of the summit rim that no man could negoti- ate with iron and rope.

In the years that followed it was said that only such a one  as Hamon  could  have found the sole way to reach the  top  of  the Mountain of God. For he was a youth of just twenty years,  in the full flower of his strength, yet he was idle, as his  father was recently dead and no work guild would have him as an appren- tice on the counsel of his own word alone. Then, too,  like  many subjects of the king of  Shalem  he  was skilled in casting his little nets to catch fish, and  deft  in trapping small game, so he could live off the land itself as  he made a journey nearly halfway around Kemen. But most crucially, Hamon had a deeply questioning mind and the strength of will to see a task to the end once he had set himself to it.

The question that formed in his mind was simply this: which  of the  four cherubic rulers of Kemen could lay claim to the  Moun- tain of  God?

The answer to his question no one could rightly say.

Yet it  was plain for all to see the great  River  Loenna  that twisted and waxed through the whole land of Sala had its source at the Mountain of God. It seemed to Hamon that if the uppermost stream of  that river descended the Wall of God in  a  cataract then Queen Aurra Firegem could say the whole mountain lay within her realm.

A small thing it might seem to many, yet it was in truth a great labor that Hamon set for his explorer's heart.

For long the Mountain of God hung in the sky, descending by im- perceptible degrees  through  the season  of  spring  as  Hamon trudged toward it. By the end of the summer the mountain of God appeared again as a feature of the land before him.

A road fit only for four feet or two, but no wheels, lay at the base of the Wall of God in a rough ring that nearly encompassed the mountain, yet where the River Loenna emerged this rude path veered far  from the face of the Wall of God through  the  sur- rounding foothills. There the stream was bridged by hopping over scattered rocks, but no man had ever followed the  river  along its uppermost vale. A veritable museum of waterfalls lay  be- tween the flats and the Wall. There were places where the stream cut a deep chasm through trackless stone.

All that autumn Hamon picked his way upstream, making only lit- tle progress each day and frequently being plunged into the cold water.

A pool at the bottom of the highest cataract ever seen by human eyes in Kemen marked the end of the fishable waters, yet  Hamon ascended ever higher, until the last glimmer of the sun was cut off by  the upper lip of the Wall of God. He reached the  very face of the Wall and found the River Loenna did tumble  down  a cataract that was many fold higher still, and he had the  answer to his question.

Yet he spied a rough track that ascended behind the  ribbon  of the  waterfall  by countless switchbacks. Hamon ascended  this track, yet he was perpetually drenched, and cold, for there was no sunlight to warm him, and autumn was drawing to a close.

Near the summit this path bent to follow the stream where it cut a deep  cleft  in the Mountain of God. At last Hamon  saw  it emerged from a pool in the very center of the great summit  pla- teau nearly fourteen miles from the rim.

The white avatar of Bat-El awaited him there, standing upon the shore of this pool. Hamon fell upon his face, partly in rever- ent prostration and partly from exhaustion.

Bat-El awaited in great patience until Hamon stirred once more, for his ascent had been a great deed of legend, at the very edge of what it was physically possible for world-dwellers to do.

BAT-EL: 

HAMON: 

Bat-El's face was featureless with no eyes nor mouth, yet see and speak she could do. She pointed across the pool to a  dwelling made of glass and wood.

Bat-El: 

The house was more glass than wood, built on a small stony knoll looking down  upon the pool. In design the house was merely  a single  room with an alcove above the kitchen where Hamon  could sleep with privacy, yet there was no other living human soul on the whole plateau.

On the main level were cushions and a glass table  of  superior make. Yet Bat-El needed no cushion. She seated her avatar on the stone floor to put her eyes on a level with Hamon and began  to speak.

BAT-EL: <We call ourselves the Watchers. Malkuth calls men his servants, but I call you the Students. Contrary to the Litany of Creation that you have been taught I did not make your kind,  I found  your ancestors living in another world than this. It was the most important discovery we Watchers have ever made. World- dwellers are  fully awake even as the Elohim are. Malkuth and Kether ever  contrive to have you destroyed. When you are  re- vealed to the other Elohim one day it will uncover their trans- gressions. For the time being Malkuth has laid  certain  bonds upon me, yet he cannot stop me from sharing with you everything we Elohim know. But how shall I do it, Hamon? Shall I  lecture and hope you understand? I have found another way, but I am not like my  father Malkuth. I would not force you to  accept  the changes required>

HAMON: 

BAT-EL: <Your  identity as Hamon will not be  altered,  but  my memories  as  an eloah will be added to your own  memories,  and your memories as a young man of Shalem will be added to mine. My will shall be manifest in your mind always, and I shall see the world through your eyes. You shall be my living avatar, yet you shall ever  remain free to act. Together we shall  ratify  our joining from  moment to moment. But you must  know  beforehand these physical  changes, once they have come to be,  cannot  be undone for so long as you live>

HAMON: 

BAT-El: 

To help explain, Bat-El stood up and found a goblet in the kitch- en.

BAT-EL: <Your  mind is like a glass that you filled  with  wine during your brief life. The new glass will have a greater capac- ity but the first wine will remain. Even when the glass is gone that wine will remain, but not forever. Elohim share the  same fate as all other things, living and non-living, but we live so much longer than humans that I cannot even express the  duration of it to you. Nay, I could not teach this thing even to the wise ones of Shalem! Your culture never had the need to ponder such magnitudes>

Hamon stood  up  from the cushion to  stare  outside  while  he weighed  the words of Bat-El. They had the power to irrevokably change his life. After a time his explorer spirit won out, as it inevitably must. He returned to kneel before the avatar.

HAMON: 

T'oma and Heth were the boys' names and they had taken  to  the road after a bitter family spat. With their father newly dead and their eldest brother Hamon gone missing, their  next  elder brother Anath imagined himself to be the head of the family.

T'oma was not so impressed with his brother. After all  Anath was only older than him by mere minutes.

The boys were looking for income, but they feared to resume the sort of  work that had so recently killed their  father. Their closest kin insisted they do just that.

On the  shore of Thalury the boys wandered until one  day  they found themselves part of a growing crowd of people who had gath- ered to hear a new preacher.

And there was also scattered in the crowd certain newcomers  of the  capital  city of Adan, men of means who had come  by  their wealth by shaking down pilgrims to the temple of Malkuth there. Nevertheless they boasted of their ritual purity, and they con- sidered this new preacher a developing threat to their source of income.

Also present on this morning was the daughter of King Melchiyahu himself, the Ophan Lilith, as well as several of her companions who styled themselves the Fallen Angels. They were all leather- garbed in what the Adanites took to be in mockery of the king's soldiers.

Then T'oma and Heth saw the man at the center of attraction and knew, to  their great surprise, that he was their  own  brother Hamon. A year and more had passed since they had seen him last. Yet so great was the crowd the boys found it difficult to  draw near to him.

On this occasion Hamon first introduced a healing  ritual  that bypassed the mediation of the Eyes of Malkuth. It had the dis- tinct advantage over the old ritual in that it actually worked.

Standing apart from the people was a man named Sibiel  who  was said to have an unclean spirit. He continually cried out in  a tongue that others knew not. But there was, just then, a sub- tle shift in the noise of the crowd. Hamon had begun to deliver his mid-morning sermon, and for this even Sibiel fell silent.

HAMON: A lifetime ago the king of Rumbek conqured our city. He took into exile good King Gordiel and also many of the  leading men of Shalem. Some of the faithless who remained behind adopt- ed the ways of House Larund in the land of Sealiah. They dedi- cated the temple of Malkuth to their king, a man  they  falsely elevated to the status of a god. But even in exile King Gordiel foresaw that a remnant would stand against this evil. Led by his son Melchiyahu so they did. We were independent at last!

HAMON: 

HAMON: 

HAMON: <Within the lifetime of many of you listening today Bat- El will  overthrow the outsiders. But she will not dwell in  a temple to be served by priests who grow fat on the skim from her offerings. Bat-El herself will be our temple, reigning from the Mountain of God. It only remains for you to ask yourself,  are you ready for her direct rule? Your abominations are a  broken chariot wheel  that  mars the road with every  turn. It's not enough to sacrifice an animal and patch the holes in  the  road that trail out behind your transgressions. You must repair the wheel itself  and become pure before Bat-El. Who among you  is ready?>

None stepped forward.

Hamon's attention was drawn to Sibiel, for he had begun to make incoherent sounds once again. Hamon grew filled with compassion and drew near to him.

SIBIEL: 

Briefly Hamon was horrified to imagine the inner state of  this man, that  he would speak so. Yet the man retained  sufficient hope to seek out aid from Hamon and the self-control  to  stand where he did.

From the moment of his union with Bat-El Hamon knew  the  human brain was just an organ like any other, subject to ailments. But fear born of ignorance had led people to believe the man's irra- tional shouts were the mark of possession by evil spirits. Hamon saw how all these things presented an opportunity.

HAMON: 

Then Hamon touched the man's bare skin with his hands.

The effect was so swift it surprised even Hamon. Sibiel's head cleared and he was no longer driven to make unfiltered  shouts. Onlookers were filled with wonder that Haman could command  un- clean spirits and they obeyed.

HAMON: 

But at these words the ones who would set themselves in conflict with Hamon were moved to make reply.

RIMMONITE: 

Hamon gestured at another man lying on a mat before  him,  mute and unable to make any movements beyond involuntary trembling.

HAMON: 

RIMMONITE: 

HAMON: 

In the  theology of Kemen all the elohim co-existed  in  peace. Yet only Malkuth had caused his own demands to be put  down  in writing. Hamon knew this partisan of the emperor confused Mal- kuth's explicit commandments for those of Bat-El.

RIMMONITE: <Impossible! He has made no confession of his abom- ination and no temple sacrifice>

HAMON: <But do you not see? Their kinsmen have made interces- sion with Bat-El. Have you ever seen such hope and trust?>

RIMMONITE: <The one who commits the abomination is the one  who shall die>

HAMON: <I will heal this man that you may know Bat-El has  for- given them>

Then Hamon touched the men with palsy, and his tremors  ceased. He was was able to rise from the canvas of his own power, and in a loud voice he offered praise and thanksgiving to Bat-El.

And the  faces  of the Rimmonites were seen no  more  amid  the crowd. They began to say this Hamon declared himself to be the eloah Bat-El come in the flesh, and in this they were  entirely correct, yet Hamon himself never openly said it.

Hamon's enemies had departed but there remained many more  sick among the crowd to be healed. As he made them whole Hamon  won- dered what  it was, exactly, he could teach. Would people  be willing  to accept how the healing was really done,  by  dancing artifacts that were entirely real but too small for  anyone  to see? Perhaps that was a way. The people of this culture imagined invisible spirits everywhere they turned.

At last T'oma and Heth had made their way through the crowd  to embrace  their  brother Hamon. And Heth was brought  to  tears. There was a thing Heth had long wanted to say, but Hamon had de- parted before he could have the opportunity.

While he  yet lived Heth's father Jothan set up and  tore  down scaffolding for  stonecutters in Shalem. Along with Hamon  and T'oma he helped his father labor, but often Heth  would  grieve Jothan with rebukes. He said the work kept them alive for a time but the  enlarged temple they were building would kill  all  of their people in the end.

So great was this new temple, said Heth, this growing  blot  on Shalem, that trees could no longer be felled nearby to make  new lumber to hold fast the stones, or new poles to  lash  together for scaffolding. They used again what they had at  hand,  but these grew corrupt with insects and weather. So the work  grew dangerous. It was Heth who fetched for his father a rotten pole that gave  way under his weight and caused him to fall  to  his death.

Hearing this Hamon clasped both of his brother's hands and  in- fused him with a sense of well-being that brought wonderment to his eyes.

HAMON: <Beloved brother, sometimes there are fatal accidents in our  world that no one can foresee. Be assured that T'oma  does not hold you blameworthy in this, neither do I condemn you, nei- ther does Bat-El hold you guilty>

And Heth's tears became those of joy rather than grief.

Then Hamon's other brother T'oma spoke a few  words  concerning what happened  in their home after Hamon  departed  during  the previous year.

T'OMA: <Zvadyah apprenticed Anath to be a scribe. We had to be very quiet as he slowly copied out the Code of Malkuth. Zvadyah told me the priest who had ordered the scroll was paying a daily wage to bring bread to the family, but there was enough to also feed Heth and myself until Anath had completed the work. He said we were of age and we needed to find the means to earn our way. Heth asked  if we could work on his fishing boat with  his  two sons, but he had to refuse, and in this I think he  was  blame- less. Mother wanted us to take up scaffolding again so soon af- ter father was laid in his tomb. I refused. In anger told her it was just a slow way to commit suicide. So I left, and Heth also refused, so he came with me>

HAMON: <Our mother and Anath and Zvedyah are distracted by  the one thing that obsesses everyone in this world>

He put a handful of silver in the hands of both T'oma and Heth. For this  they were deeply grateful, for now  they  could  find lodging, that they would not have to spend another  night  out- doors, and  they no longer hand worried about what  they  might eat.

YESHUA: <Stay  close to me, T'oma, and you also Heth. I will have great need of you in the days to come. The harvest is just beginning, but the laborers are few>

Word of  the healings of Hamon rapidly spread. Soon Hamon  had people taking numbers to be cured and when he passed the basket around it overflowed with copper and silver.

Now all that region was ruled by Melchiyahu, the son of Gordiel, and for the time being it seemed good to Emperor Rimmon to call Melchiyahu king  over the city of Shalem. But the  wealthiest landowners and  the priests who prospered by dipping  into  the river of taxes that flowed from the peasants to Adan all favored the steady encroachments of Rimmon that came through the agency of the Eyes of Malkuth.

Naturally the Eyes didn't much like Hamon's road show. They sus- pected Hamon was seeding Shalem and all the lands  round  about with people anxious for a new ruler, one who would reorder  the laws to favor the destitute and upset the established ways.

Hamon made an end of his deeds at the mouth of the River  Chin- nouk and moved inland but the crowd followed and grew with new- comers arriving from every quarter. In the town of Odargas the Ophan Lilith, the daughter of King Melchiyahu, first  addressed Hamon, for  she had followed him with great interest  from  the moment she witnessed the healing of Sibiel.

LILITH: <Please, Teacher, accept the generosity of  the  Fallen Angel field station in this city>

Hamon agreed to this, and followed Lilith with his brothers  in tow,  but  his enemies were not far behind. Hamon even  invited these to come indoors to eat, and some of them did, if only  to hear what Hamon would say next.

But the Eyes of Malkuth refused to recline at table. They hated how Hamon cheerfully dined with the ophan at the  Fallen  Angel facility, breaking down barriers between people and  gods,  and barriers between human beings themselves. Their livelihood con- sisted of being paid interlocutors. And the Eyes of Malkuth took no thought of decorum, nor the digestion of those who dined.

EYE: <How is it you take yourself to be a prophet of Bat-El, yet are seen eating and drinking with a lawless woman?>

HAMON <Your Highness, please help me, do you see anyone known to be lawless here?>

LILITH: <Not at all, Master. I see only students who would learn from you the lore of the Holy Ones>

EYE: <But you, Princess, and your female followers go about  in the  raiment  of  warriors,  contrary  to  the  stated  will  of Malkuth!>

LILITH: <Yet  from girlhood I have been taught of the  Code  of Malkuth  by  the finest tutors in the palace. I know there  is nothing in the Code of Malkuth forbidding this>

HAMON: <Agreed,  Your Highness. I take such probitions  to  be merely  the vain tradition of men who would create a  wide  dis- tinction where little gap now exists>

LILITH: <Did you know, Teacher, that some of my  Fallen  Angels are actually men who have been driven out of the army for coming up short of some ideal of manliness that actually has nothing to do with how well they can fight?>

All this the Rimmonite ignored. He made one final go at Hamon, demanding a  sign that he had authority to  forgive  abominable defects in ritual.

HAMON: <Bat-El forgives the unrighteous in the very moment they wish to  make amends. The healing itself is a sign, and it  is also a good in itself, because Bat-El herself is good. You seek signs only to plug the holes in your belief>

At this the Eyes of Malkuth and the Rimmonite partisans murmured among themselves  and departed.

Hamon cordially thanked the princess for sharing the hospitality of her safe house and also departed. But by then it had  grown dark, and  Hamon's brothers asked of him where they  should  go next.

HAMON: <I have silver. We shall lodge here in Odargas tonight, and when it is light tomorrow we shall go home>

Indeed there was no limit to the amount of silver and copper and gold Hamon could obtain directly from the body of Bat-El. This wealth needed only a bit of time and a private place  to  cool. He could make pressent anything he kept in Haaretz at any time.

Hamon knew that all the people around him, and in fact the whole culture of Kemen, was obsessed with scarcity. In a world of in- exhaustible riches humans beings faced bitter  lack  everywhere they turned, and they imagined even the gods  themselves  could dole out blessings only to a limited few.

Though Hamon went cross-country there did not lack the lame  to be made to walk, and the dumb to be made to speak, and the blind to be made to see. In the village of Senna on the shore of the great sea Hamon spoke to the crowd that gathered around him.

HAMON: <The  spirit is fulfilled by its activity. The body  is fulfilled by its substance. The people are fulfilled by living. The noble are fulfilled by good governance. The noblest king is fulfilled  by being called the servant of the people. But when the palace is splendid while the harvests are poor, when noble- men gorge on meat and wine while the storehouses are spare, when the rulers of the city carry weapons because they fear the ordi- nary people,  the city has fallen far from the way  of  Bat-El. Some seek long life because they fear death. Some seek an early death because they are reckless. She who embraces Bat-El neither fears death nor hates life. She knows when hellberries flourish it is impossible to walk through them, and when they store their juices for winter the way becomes clear again. Flourishing is not eternal, retreating is not eternal, but flourishing and  re- treating, taken together, are eternal. From the beginning  all the generations have come and gone in good order>

Then was seen in the eleventh hour the boat owned  by  Zvadyah, the husband of Hamon's sister. With him were the sons of Zvad- yah, two nephews of Hamon, Gemalli and Eder by name, bringing to shore the day's catch of fish. With Hamon and his brothers T'oma and Heth, who cheerfully lent their own labor in the final hour of the day, the fish was packed onto wagons to be  driven  away for salting and packing.

But Hamon knew that much of the fish would never get that far. A partion of it would be lost to toll takers on the road  and  in the towns along the way.

In the evening they went across the strait to the great city of Shalem crowding on its island perch. Seated at the rudder, Zvad- yah sailed  to his home in Shalem on a gentle wind,  guided  by city lights he knew so well.

And Hamon's  sister Gera, hearing that they drew  near  to  the city, went down to her husband's pier to greet all of them. She was joyous to see Hamon again after so very long, yet  even  so Gera seemed less happy than he would have liked.

GERA: <Mother  has been stricken with a fever for  these  three days>

Then Hamon went in to see Ma'or, and his brothers went with him. They saw their mother lying sick with fever, and Hamon took her hand. Within just a few moments she rose from the bed and  her thoughts grew clear. Soon Ma'or was even able to join her daugh- ter in preparing supper for Hamon and all who came with him.

Later that same evening Hamon realized that Gera, like his moth- er and Anath and so many others, was immersed in the outlook of scarcity, and she more deeply than most.

GERA: <Now I have seen that you really can heal with  a  touch, even as   Heth and T'oma have told me. How could this come  to be?>

HAMON: <We  must give all glory to the holy ones who  made  and rule Kemen>

GERA: <T'oma says there is a spring in the mountains toward the border with Sala. This spring has warm water that comes out of the  ground. Many people come there to be healed, and they  pay money>

HAMON: <They pay money to tolltakers, but the elohim  made  the spring so  what  right do the toll takers  have  to  take  this money?>

GERA: <Heth  told me you're wandering  around  the  countryside healing the sick for whatever they can scrape up to give you. I think you would be better served to remain here and let the peo- ple come to us>

HAMON: <Gera,  beloved sister, if I did as you say,  you  would only become a tolltaker yourself>

He drew near to Gera with a closed fist. When he opened it, sil- ver nuggests fell into her lap to be caught by her robe, to her great amazement. But Hamon's brother Anath was not  impressed even with this.

ANATH: <I have no wish to see what magic tricks you can do, Ha- mon, if it leads you and all who follow you to be  beaten  with rods, or  thrown into prison, or even put to death! How would your mother  bear  the news of it? Tell me, Hamon,  are  these teachings of yours really better than the rule of Emperor Rimmon if it divides families this way in the very beginning?>

HAMON: <The  rule of Bat-El, beloved brother, like  any  birth, will come with great agony>

Anath turned to ponder these words. As he did, he noted it was dark.

ANATH: <We will make room here in the house of Zvadyah for  you and all who are traveling with you. But in the morning you must go>

HAMON: <They are justified who call you Anath the Righteous>

Anath had spoken true when he said families would  be  divided. He would not go with Hamon as his twin brother T'oma and younger brother Heth would. The sons of Zvadyah and Gera, both Gemalli and Eder, also chose to labor for Hamon, but in so  doing  this left their father's fishing boat idle.