TCC

TCC The eloah Daat, in the guise of a yang named Israel, made a journey to Canaan to see the place with his own eyes and judge for him- self whether Chokhmah had truly raised up to herself a covenant people capable of long maintaining a strict obedience to the elohim.

Israel took little thought for his own personal safety. Chokhmah said Yakob was more the son of his mother than the son of his fa- ther, by all accounts a man who preferred the womanly arts of whis- pering and plotting to more masculine action on the field of the hunt or battle.

When Israel caught up with Yakob he was crossing the Jordan River. There Yakob sent messengers to meet his brother Esau and mention that he had a lot of spare animals, hopefully to smooth over any hard feelings Esau might still have from being cheated out of his blessings.

Yakob and Esau were twins but Esau had become a cunning hunter, a extroverted man of the field, while Yakob was an introverted man dwelling in tents.

Esau derived his abundant life from the earthly goods which he was able to obtain by his own efforts. Yakob, as the more interior man, would never be able to compete on those terms. Yet he was a survivor. He would obtain more abundant life another way. The first step was to claim the Birthright, which entitled Yishak’s son to a double share of Abraham’s estate.

Only one time did Esau’s rugged individualism fail him. He came in from the field famished and near death. He begged Yakob for some food. Yakob provided bread and lentil soup, but the price was Yi- shak’s Birthright that was Esau’s by dint of being born just mo- ments before Yakob.

Esau was more than willing to trade his Birthright away, so close to death was he. Esau left with a full stomach and convinced himself the Birthright was nothing much anyway. The real prize was the Blessing, which conveyed authority. But Yakob soon snagged that too.

The messengers returned with a report that Esau was coming out to meet Yakob with four hundred men, so he divided his caravan in twain. If Esau smote one the other might escape. Yakob prayed to Chokhmah for deliverance, then set aside a portion of his herd as a gift to Esau. Yakob sent two hundred twenty goats, two hundred twenty sheep, thirty horses, fifty cattle, twenty asses, and ten foals, which his servants took to Esau. As for Yakob himself, he hung back as a rearguard, not against Esau but against someone else he happened to see.

Yakob hid himself amid thick vegetation near the place where the Zarqa River merged with the Jordan River. When the stranger ap- proached, unaware of Yakob’s presence, Yakob assailed him suddenly and there ensued a bitter fistfight that changed into an epic wres- tling match.

The stranger kept grasping Yakob’s clothing to hurl him around, so Yakob shed his clothing and fought entirely in the nude. Then Israel saw how Abraham’s grandson bore the peculiar genital mutila- tion that Keter had demanded in hyz bid to sabotage Chokhmah’s ex- periment.

Israel wrenched Yakob’s femur out of its socket at the hip, causing intense agony, but Yakob refused to yield. At dawn Israel, a full cubit taller than Yakob and far more bulky, was at the end of hyz own resources and near exhaustion. Hy commanded Yakob to let hym go.

Yakob said, “I will not release you until you say who you are, and bless me.”

Daat said, “No longer are you called Yakob, but Israel, for you have contended with gods and men, and you have prevailed. You have even wrested my name away, and taken it for your own.”

Then Israel unhanded the bruised, living avatar of Daat, nameless now. Hy had sufficient dark energy banked to crack open a folddoor little more than a cubit tall, just enough to wriggle back into Heaven like a maggot. He never came again closer than the Earth’s moon.

Three of Israel’s sons found their father beaten and unable to stand, with a dislocated hip. Two of them held him down with a bit between his teeth while the third popped it back in place. Soon he was able rejoin his wives, but he walked with a pronounced limp for life.

Esau drew near with his men. Israel put forth his eleven children with their four mothers, then passed in front of them and bowed before his brother. And to Israel’s everlasting surprise, Esau did not strike him, but rather embraced and kissed him, and they both wept.

So the great family feud was ended, yet there never really had been a feud. After Yakob had fled many years prior Esau forgot that his Blessing had been stolen by his twin, since he obtained most of Yishak’s possessions anyway, and soon he had come to miss his twin brother.

Israel introduced his children and their mothers to Esau, and he begged his brother to accept the gift of herd animals he had al- ready sent to him, saying, “Take them please, my lord, because God has dealt graciously with me, and I have enough. Indeed, more than enough!”

Throughout the meeting Israel was courteous to his brother and called him ‘my lord’ though the Blessing required Esau to call Israel lord. The love Israel had for his brother outshone all that. And Esau assured Israel that none of his men gave Israel his ass kick- ing.

Esau agreed to go on ahead because Israel had children and young animals and a limp, and he could not travel very fast. So they parted on good terms and both brothers rejoiced that things had tran- spired so. When next they met, in a year, it was to bury their fa- ther Yishak.

Yishak never felt much love for Chokhmah after his boyhood brush with death, and this ambivalence seemed to breed true in Esau, who didn’t know what to say when he helped Israel lay their father in his tomb. Israel was a more devout son, made the more so by the fight.

As the head of his large and still growing family Israel was also the high priest who mediated the covenant Chokhmah had initiated with his grandfather, but only his third son, Levi, was willing to aid him in making the required yearly sacrifice of the best animals.

Israel knew he could do a thing that would assure his progeny would never dwindle in their devotion to Chokhmah, simply by making it in the best interest of his son Levi, and Levi’s sons after him, to maintain that devotion. This he did by forbidding them ever to own land.

Israel lived to see his family grow to seventy persons, and when he died there was no single patriarch holding authority over all his descendants. But the seed of Levi scattered among their kin and dependence upon them for victuals became the glue that united the clan.

When Levi died, his son Kohath became high priest. He introduced the special garments that the progeny of Levi wore when they made burnt offerings to Chokhmah. And his son Amram was wed to Ko- hath’s sister Yochebed. Such close marriages were not yet forbidden by the clan.

When Amram’s son Aaron became high priest Chokhmah left in his keeping a tablet made as it were of stone, deep black, with ten lines of proto-Sinaitic cuneiform characters into which molten gold had been poured. This was the Abrahamic covenant but Aaron couldn’t read a word. Nevertheless the origin of the tablet was literally out of this world. Aaron’s son Eleazar built a chest of wood to contain the relic, and with his brothers Nadab, Abihu and Ithamar he would carry it before Aaron from settlement to settlement among the children of Israel.

By the time Eleazar begat his son, Phinehas, the twelve clans of Israel had become tribes in their own right, and enough gold had been collected by the Levites to completely cover the cabinet con- taining the tablet of the covenant. The box or ark became itself a holy relic. It would not do to let the now holy ark to be exposed to the elements, so the high priest Phinehas caused a tent of fine linen and the skins of animals to be constructed to cover it.

By the time his son Abishua became high priest even this tent had become holy in turn. So the extra special fort of blankets was cov- ered by even more blankets, and accessed on the Day of Atonement through a run-of-the-mill fort of blankets.

The first time Abishua did this, Chokhmah spoke to him from the ark of the covenant and told him to remove the tablet. Chokhmah walked Abishua through the ten lines of gold embossed symbols on the black tablet that captured the Abrahamic covenant, beginning with the first declaration, ‘I AM YOUR GOD.’ In generations to come the ‘I AM’ or ‘Yahweh’ would be taken to be Chokhmah’s name.

Chokhmah told Abishua the next line said ‘SERVE NO OTHER GODS’ and in the future this would seem strange to the children of Israel after they came to believe Yahweh was the only God in ex- istence, and there were no other gods to serve in any event.

The next imperative was ‘COUNTENANCE NO INJUSTICE’ and this led to the rise of courts and judges to settle disputes within and between the twelve tribes and to punish wrongdoers. There flourished among the people a deep reluctance to testify falsely or to break oaths.

The fourth row on the tablet said, ‘CRAVE NOTHING OF ANOTHER’ and it struck at the impulse that led to theft or even adultery.

This was followed by ‘DO NOT IMITATE THE STRANGERS’ WAYS’ which led to prohibitions on marking the skin and certain sexual practices.

The sixth precept was Daat’s contribution to the experiment. It said, ‘DO NOT CONSUME BLOOD’ and there was no objective reason for this to be included. It was a capricious whim introduced merely to test the willingness of the human participants to adhere to the cove- nant.

Two line items proscribing the ingestion of pork and shellfish were from Chokhmah, who thought they might prevent foodborne ail- ments. When archaeologists dug up sites in Canaan thousands of years later the Israelite towns were the ones entirely missing remains of pigs.

Keter’s favorite one was there too, commanding the males among the Israelites to be circumcised. He added it to sabotage the whole operation, but they did it anyway, even unto the third generation as Daat confirmed, and there was ample evidence they still did so.

The final imperative written on the tablet was to observe the annual Day of Atonement, and this represented the sole opportunity Chokh- mah had, according to the original conditions of the long experi- ment, to have direct contact with the people through the high priest. But as far as Chokhmah was concerned the experiment was es- sentially over. Keter could no longer call for the destruction of the human race on the grounds of disobedience. In this way Chokh- mah’s promise to Abraham that ‘all the Earth shall find blessing in you’ was fulfilled.

By conversing with the high priest and shaping facts on the ground Chokhmah was able to gradually increase Levite influence un- til, culminating in Eli, they became judges over the confeder- ation of tribes. But contact was limited to a yearly basis and hence inflexible. What Chokhmah really wanted was a prophet, but not like Zadkiel, who had gotten hyz marching orders while groveling at the feet of Keter. What she did instead was use a small fold-door to leave a gadget the size of a grain of rice inside the head of a young man named Samuel. Then she would tell Samuel to go around saying things like on a certain day at such-and-such a valley the Philistines would be swallowed by the Earth, and sure enough, a sink- hole would open under the feet of a company of Philistines, making them easy pickings for archers.

On occasion, very rarely since Chokhmah was not nearly as cruel as Keter, the Philistines would be the victims of Divine Fire. More frequently, she would convey to Israelite army commanders, through Samael, intelligence on enemy movements. By degrees Canaan fell in line.

Chokhmah communicated to Samuel that the religious function of the meeting tent, or tabernacle, should be transferred to a permanent structure to fulfill her original promise of making Canaan the perma- nent home of the children of Israel. She chose the city of Jerusalem.

It took twenty years to build the temple and Samuel did not live to see its completion. But when it was finished the chieftain of the Judahites, Rehoboam, thought it lent a sufficiently beautiful and glorious ambiance to Jerusalem that he declared himself to be a king.

Not to be outdone, Jeroboam of the Ephraimites put on kingly robes himself. He built up his capital first at Shechem in the saddle between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, but them moved his court to Penuel east of the Jordan River where Jacob once fought Israel to a draw.

To prevent the people from going down to the new temple in Jerusalem to worship there, Jeroboam set up a golden calf at Bethel and told everyone it was God Most High all along, and the feast days for the golden calf were timed to coincide with the feast days in Jeru- salem.

Nadab succeeded Jeroboam upon his father’s death and reigned as king for two years before falling prey to a plot among the offi- cers within his own army. He was slain by Captain Baasha of the tribe of Issachar, who made himself king and waged war against Judah continually.

Baasha was succeeded by his son Elah, but Elah drank to excess and was slain by General Zimri, who commanded half of his charioteers. Then Zimri destroyed the whole house of Baasha, leaving no male heir alive. He ascended to the throne himself in yet another palace coup.

But when news spread that Zimri had set himself up as king in Elah’s stead, the army proclaimed General Omri as the true king of Samaria and marched from Gibbethon to lay siege to Tirzah for a week. Zimri let the palace burn around himself rather than be captured alive.

The Israelites of the northern territories held forth that Tibni was their king rather than Omri. Civil war raged four years until Tibni was slain, but following this bloodshed was a long peace even with Tyre and the Judahites.

Omri was strong enough to make Samaria the greatest power between the Nile and Euphrates rivers during the time of turmoil when the Bronze Age made an uneasy transition to the Iron Age. Omri ruled for twelve years and when he died he left the kingdom to his son Ahab.

Early in his reign Ahab forged an alliance with the Phoenicians by gaining the hand of Princess Jezebel in marriage. Her father was both king of Tyre and a priest of the fertility goddess Astarte. Jezebel herself had been trained to attend to Baal, the consort of Astarte. The rot started small. Queen Jezebel needed a shrine to keep up her Baal priestess certification so Ahab caused one to be made for her in the city of Samaria. But Baal looked so lonely there all by himself, not moving an inch. He needed a shrine for his wife Astarte too. By slow degrees the Phoenician shrines multiplied in Samaria, and with them their attendant priests and priestess- es. There was a new prosperity that came with the alliance and the people grew willing to accept the religious encroachments of their glamorous new queen.

But bringing over from Tyre the priests and idols of alien gods was too much for Chokhmah to stomach. A man named Elijah thought so too. He made it a hobby to get in the king’s face about the issue and constantly reminded His Majesty that his God was Yahweh.

At last Queen Jezebel got tired of the insolence of this Elijah and convinced her husband to bring matters to a head with a public dem- onstration. Two altars were prepared with slain bulls. The first priest who could get his god to magically light a bull on fire wins. Jezebel, who considered religion as a political tool, thought it was much more likely that neither god would actually strike fire, in which case the arrangement was for Elijah to speak no more to the king of Yahweh and allow the people to choose which would be their god.

When Baal seemed to be taking his own sweet time setting his bull aflame his chief priest called in forty reinforcements to wail and plead and rip their garments and pluck hairs from their beards. Elijah called for jugs of water and completely dowsed his own bull. Then it was show time. Chokhmah opened a tiny fold-door inside her bull and allowed a small burst of hot fire from the upper layers of her stellar body to slip across. It was enough to kindle the fat in the bull and get it burning despite being entirely soaked in water.

There is nothing like a spectacular public miracle to renew a peo- ple’s loyalty to their god. The spirit of the crowd was such that Elijah was able to incite them to deadly violence against the priests of Baal standing there, although Chokhmah never asked him to do it.

Neither was Chokhmah able to much influence the ebb and flow of Levantine geopolitics. Two major defeats at the hands of Ara- mean kings brought Samaria under a foreign yoke, only to be reversed when Damascus was defeated in turn by the resurgent Assyrians of Meso- potamia.

During the forty-one year reign of King Jeroboam II Samaria attained the greatest prosperity it had ever known. The population grew to 350,000 people. They worshiped the golden calves at Bethel and Dan but at least they paid lip-service and called them images of Yahweh.

A massive earthquake that killed many thousands of people seemed to herald a decline in the fortune of Samaria that was con- current with the rise of the Assyrians into the first true empire the world had ever seen and the model for all empires which would follow.

Chokhmah understood the logic of the Assyrian policy of relocation from their point of view. It was an effective way of dealing with nationalism. But she had told Abraham a large nation would spring from his loins and she would not be held faithless in her Cove- nant with him. So Chokhmah exercised her option to bring colonists to Heaven. It was an arrangement hammered out with Keter when the father of the Israelites was yet living in the household of his own father, Yishak.

The first condition of the arrangement was that the colonists were constrained to settle Haaretz west of the Wall of God. The second condition was that every ‘agent’ (Keter’s word) that Chokhmah brought to Heaven could be matched by one of his own brought to the worlds circling her, at a time of his choosing.

But Chokmah for her part insisted Keter’s colonists must only settle in the outer solar system.

Chokhmah sent elyonim to choose righteous families from among the tribe of Ephraim. They built the city of Hadal far in the north- east of Haaretz, in a cool vale between Shaula Wood and the very face of the Wall of God. Hadal became the leading city in the kingdom of Nath.

The Levites were forbidden by Father Israel to ever own land in a tradition that had been heartily affirmed by the other tribes, but this was set aside in Heaven since the colonists did not pos- sess the Ark of the Covenant and the priestly ministry that went along with it. So the tribe of Levi founded Adjara on the western edge of the Shaula Wood. It became a great crossroads in the land and the center of a weapons craft that rivaled that of the Black Beards. In time a Temple of Yahweh would be constructed in the heart of the city.

The Reubenites built Mizal near Mount Naratha but the lee of the uplands was dry and impoverished. Ever they struck north against the Red Beards of Linan for the rich fruit of the orchards round about that city, and stole much cattle. At length the newcomers pre- vailed.

The tribe of Gad founded their city of Kabark on a plain that also lacked for water. So they built a mighty dam of cunning stone- work across the river Armak and dug many canals and ditches fanning from the resulting lake to water lush farms that became the envy of Haaretz.

The tribe of Dan built the city of Fatho at the foot of the Wall of God where many natural caves lay. The Danites delved deep with pick and spade to reap precious stones and much gold, but they possessed little in the way of arable land to grow their own food.

The colonists Chokhmah transplanted from among the tribe of Issachar were settled in the Nyduly forest. This wood stretched along the southern bank of the river Sabik. The Issacharite people grew skilled in felling and shaping timber, and they excelled in wood- craft.

The tribe of Zebulun settled far up the vale of the Nanki on the road between the Saiph League and the kingdom of Nath. There cara- vans transferred their goods to rafts fashioned from logs felled from the endless forests of pine blanketing the foothills of the Wall of God.

At the midpoint of its long course the river Nanki tumbled over a series of cataracts that would dash any cargo-carrying rafts to splinters. Here the tribe of Asher portaged the goods to new rafts made from the same logs sent individually down sluices to below the falls.

Descendants of Naphtali built Wazol at the very source of the river Sabik, and 19,000 vertical feet of the granite Wall of God fairly loomed over it. Here the Catwalk of legend touched bottom. The mines of Wazol offered much iron ore, and well as the coal used to smelt it.

Refugees taken from the tribe of Manessah built Menkant in the valley of the upper Sabik between Mount Rasal and Mount Menkant. Their settlement grew to become the leading city among the five tribes in the south of Haaretz. In time these became the kingdom of Hamar.

On Earth, after the death of her son Ahaziah, Athaliah had the entire royal line murdered except Joash, who was an infant spirited away by Jehosheba the sister of Ahaziah. For six years Joash re- mained hidden in the temple of Yahweh while Athaliah ruled Judah. Athaliah introduced the worship of Baal to Judah but she was killed seven years later in a coup orchestrated by the high priest Jehoia- da, the husband of Jeho-Sheba.

Then Joash, who was only seven years of age, was named king of Judah to the acclaim of the people. Queen Athaliah was seized and put to death. The high priest Jehoiada ruled Judah with a compliant Joash as a figurehead until Jehoiada’s death. King Joash, who had never learned to rule independently, soon fell under the sway of pro- Tyrian princes to the near-ruin of Judah.

King Ahaz reigned in Judah while Samaria was slowly dismantled by Sargon II. Jerusalem survived a combined siege by the Arameans and a Samaria in vassalage. Simultaneously, however, the Edomites con- quered the Red Sea town of Elath and drove the Judahites out of it.

King Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign. He removed every vestige of polytheism in Judah, removing the bronze idols of Ahaz, and even tore down the high places, the hilltop shrines to Canaanite gods, that had existed under every king since Rehoboam.

Hezekiah refused to serve the Assyrian king Sennacherib the son of Sargon II who conquered Samaria. Sennacherib therefore laid siege to Jerusalem and forced Hezekiah to pay a tribute of thirty talents of gold, eight hundred talents of silver, gems, antimony, and many jewels. Also sent to King Sennacherib in Nineveh was carnelian, couches and chairs inlaid with ivory, elephant hides and tusks, ebony, and other rich treasures, along with all of King Hezekiah’s daughters, his wives, his musicians, and many slaves, both men and women. King Hezekiah constructed a underground aqueduct to bring fresh water to the Pool of Siloam inside the city as prepa- ration against a future siege.

When the Egyptian Pharaoh Neco led his army toward the River Eu- phrates to link up with the Assyrian Empire, King Josiah went out to confront him, but he was slain on the plains of Megiddo.

Josiah’s son Jehoahaz succeeded him, but he reigned only three months in Jerusalem. The Pharaoh took him captive at Riblah in the land of Hamath and demanded from Judah a tribute of much silver and gold. King Jehoahaz died in captivity in Egypt, the first king of Ju- dah to die in exile.

Neco then appointed Eliakim, another son of Josiah, as king of Judah. Eliakim changed his name to Jehoiakim. After his defeat at the hands of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II and serving as his vassal for three years, King Jehoiakim revolted against Babylon. But he died before the armies of his Levantine allies could reach Je- rusalem.

At this time Chokhmah withdrew the Ark of the Covenant from the temple in Jerusalem lest it fell into the hands of the Babyloni- ans. A fellow named Jeremiah made a name for himself stating the obvious, that Jerusalem was about to come under a massive attack.

During the reign of Jeconiah, Nebuchadnezzar II personally laid siege to Jerusalem. King Jeconiah was frogmarched to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar looted all the treasures of the temple of Yahweh and deported the army, the craftsmen, and all the leading citizens of Je- rusalem. Only the very poor were allowed to stay behind and work the land.

Nebuchadnezzar appointed the uncle of Jeconiah as king and changed his name to Zedekiah. But later Zedekiah also rebelled. Then Neb- uchadnezzar and his whole army marched to Jerusalem and laid siege a second time. King Zedekiah attempted to escape the city but he was captured and brought before Nebuchadnezzar. The sons of Zede- kiah were slain before his eyes, and after that Zedekiah was made blind, bound in chains, and carted off to Babylon. The temple was razed to the ground.

Every house in Jerusalem was destroyed, including the palace of the king. The walls of the city were also torn down and every sur- viving inhabitant was exiled to Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar had answered Zedekiah’s defiance by wiping Judah from the face of the Earth.

Nebuchadnezzar deported fifty thousand Jews to Babylon. Only a handful of renegade army officers remained behind, hidden in the Judean hills, but these soon fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylo- nians, leaving the land entirely vacant.

After a time the Babylonian forces withdrew and hill brigands multiplied in their wake. But among the Jewish diaspora in Egypt there appeared a priest Lael of the tribe of Levi who came bearing the Golden Gift and a commission to preserve a remnant from down- fallen Judah.

Lael came with his wife Sariah. Elam his eldest son came also with him, and he with his wife Serach. But Lael’s second son Jemuel found he a wife named Iscah from among the Judahite refugees, and his third son Rosh married a young woman named Sela from the tribe of Benjamin.

From the tribe of Judah scattered in Egypt Lael gathered to himself Abner and his wife Tabitha, as well as Abner’s son Asa and Asa’s wife Jemima. Also of the tribe of Judah Josiah and his wife Ket- urah joined Lael, together with Josiah’s son Tobiah and his wife Su- sanna.

Of the remnants of Benjamin scattered to Egypt in exile there also joined Lael and his group one Zethan and his wife Atara, Jabez and his wife Keziah, as well as Rimon the elder son of Jabez with his wife Dinah, and also Asher the younger son of Jabez with his wife Leah.

Then Lael and his followers left Egypt and reached the empty and fallen southern kingdom of Judah. They saw how every dwelling had been looted by the Babylonian conquerers and later completely cleaned out by the former vassals of Edom, who had their long-delayed re- venge.

Lael led the way through the charred debris and stone littering Jerusalem until he stood in the place built by Hezekiah that was called the Pool of Siloam. Then Lael descended the underwater stairs until he was completely immersed, and he came not again out of the water.

One by one, Lael’s followers over came their fear and entered the water. When they emerged from the pool again, things had changed. They were surrounded by trees rather than stone. Strangers attended to them with dry linen and new clothing to replace their soaked rags. When the strangers revealed their Issacharite origin Lael’s travelers rejoiced because they knew them to be fellow sons of Israel who had been lost for more than a century. The Issacharites said God himself had ordained a reflowering of the House of Israel in that place.

On the second day a delegation from the tribe of Asher joined Lael’s group after a trek down the vale of the river Nanki from their city of Alnitar. The Asherites provided shields for the men among the newcomers crafted from otherworldly trees that grew in the south. The shields of the Asherites could withstand the strokes of any axe or blade and to turn away all arrows, since the trees that had been used to make them could be cut only by fire. Yet the gifts were lighter than ones of comparable size made of bronze or iron.

On the third day men and women of the lost tribe of Zebulun arrived after paddling downriver from their homes in the city of Eltan. Their boat carried much food, wine, and many small tools and di- verse goods as gifts, that Lael’s group might begin their colony in Haaretz.

On the fourth day Lael and his group of travelers went east until they reached the river Sabik and made camp. On the other bank King Hadraniel of Hamar, arrived from the city of Menkant to speak with Lael after his people carefully forded the river.

In the morning King Hadraniel led the group overland and ever higher to a shoulder of Mount Menkant. They were met by Naphtalis out of the city of Wazol bearing precious stones for the women and girls traveling with Lael to wear and for the men to later trade for goods.

At dawn on the sixth day King Hadraniel and his entourage took their leave. Lael led his people further east until the Wall of God loomed over them. They crossed the upper reaches of the river Arhena and entered the land of the tribe of Dan in the kingdom of Nath. In Fatho the Danites made a gift of much silver and gold, and pack animals to carry them. With the giving of many thanks Lael turned northwest over the saddle between Mt. Fatho and the Wall of God. His folk were drenched in mist as they passed the famed Hun- dred Cataracts.

By the evening of the seventh day Lael’s travelers reached the city of Kabark, home of the tribe of Gad. The city folk brought forth the bounty of the rich farms of their land which were watered by canals leading from manmade Lake Enkaa like the threads of a spider’s web.

At noon the next day day Lael and the colonists arrived at Enkaa Dam. A delegation of Israelites from the tribe of Reuben met them bearing baskets of delicious fresh fruit of a kind none of the travelers from Judah had ever tasted before, as they were native to Heaven.

On the ninth day when Lael reached Adjara, Lael’s own nephews, cousins to his sons Elam and Jemuel and Rosh, provided more pack ani- mals for their goods, and two of the asses bore sufficient arms for twelve men, lest Lael run afoul of men or nephilim of the House of Bellon. The Levites of Adjara offered thanksgiving to Yahweh that the children of Israel had been reunited in Heaven, yet their joy was tempered by news that Lael had found no living remnant of the tribe of Simeon among the people of the southern kingdom who took refuge in Egypt.

King Thausael of Hadal arrived with his entourage from among the tribe of Manesseh, and they bore the Ark of the Covenant. The relic had been withdrawn when Chokhmah feared the House of Judah was too weak to protect it from the marauding armies of the Babylonian em- pire. And Chokhmah had given commandment that the Ark should pass into the safekeeping of Lael and his sons until the temple was sanctified, that they may both preserve the stone tablet of the Abrahamic covenant and secure the White Scroll of Leliel contained within the chest.

King Thausael laid upon Lael and his three sons a charge to bear the Ark on two goldplated staves through rings in the side of the artifact. When they were not actively carrying the Ark they were to set the ends of the staves through four stones pierced with holes. Every time Lael paused, said King Thausael, the four stones were to be set on pillars of greater stones gathered from the ground around the encampment. The king said the Ark must never touch the ground, and save for the lid the Ark must never be touched by man nor beast.

Then Lael was bid to pass through Eliath Wood to a choice land prepared for him. But Lael would never be abandoned or forgot- ten, said King Thausael, as the oracles of Yahweh came only through the Ark, and ever men of the House of Israel would come seeking for them.

Keter and Daat were constantly enfleshed in a series of elyonim whose names populated an entire taxonomy of demons. At the time when Lael’s group were transplanted to Heaven, the eloah Keter was known as Kokabiel, and Daat was incarnated as Belphegor.

After Belphegor came to Adjara by fold-door it took nearly an hour for his servant Malphas to locate hym. Belphegor crinkled hyz nose at the usual open sewage of human cities but after a time it was bearable. Hy amused hymself watching construction of Chokhmah’s temple.

Belphegor knew the Levites of the city had been attempting to build a copy of the Jerusalem temple for over a century now. From the progress they had made and the techniques of construction they were using, hy estimated it would take at least another century to complete.

Malphas found hym watching a stone block weighing at least a ton being hoisted into position with the nearly imperceptible pace and inevitability of a glacier moving an erratic. Hy sank to one knee and said, “My lord, the villa of the B’nei Elohim is near to this place.”

Belphegor motioned for hyz servant to rise, and asked of hym, “The B’nei Elohim, are they to be trusted”

“The ones at the villa are human,” Malphas warned, “but they claim to be servants of all elohim, not merely Chokhmah alone. The one among them called Jashen assures me he will not waste your time.”

Belphegor thought it augured well when the four B’nei Elohim waiting outside the house paid perfect obeisance as was due a seraph. When hy beheld Jashen waiting on the threshold hy saw how his features called back to those of the colonists brought to Adan from Earth.

Indoors Belphegor was treated with more decadent luxury than hy experienced even in Rumbek at the heart of the Larund realm. The wine was cold, the roast beef was hot, the furnishings of such fine make hy was moved to say to Jashen, “I had not thought such wealth existed in Adjara.”

“Lord Belphegor, on Earth the lowliest among the B’nei Elohim enjoy better, yet it is not thought to be great wealth. It is only with long labor that we have made this place acceptable for us to dwell in Haaretz as we are accustomed. Yet we are only wayfarers in Heaven.”

“And what are the B’nei Elohim that you reckon yourselves to be wayfarers in Heaven?”

“‘A little above man, a little below the gods’ Chokhmah tells us. No doubt you have heard him tell you that he views the world-dwellers as students. And yet from time to time he is of need of true serv- ants. The Lord Belphegor must recall a time seven centuries ago when a certain heirloom was possesed by the ruling family of Salem. First it was wielded by Melchizedek, then the weapon passed to Queen Lilith, who cut a border between Magodon and Adan in solid rock.”

“I did witness har cut, Jashen, but what is your errand in Heaven? You told Malphas this would not be a waste of my time.”

“Milord, I was sent to retrieve the self-same heirloom, and so I have done.” Jashen detached the relic from his belt and set it down between them.

Belphegor said, “I see a sword’s hilt covered in gold. How do you know that is Lilith’s weapon?”

“Milord, it is very similar, in a subtle way, to another gewgaw I have collected.” Jashen set Lilith’s headband on the table next to it, after touching the gem to light it. “We have heard this light comes from Chokhmah himself, from the sun that is his body. If that is true, there must be an invisible thread that leads from this antique back to Chokhmah, in a way I cannot understand. Two other relics have such threads. One relic, milord, is the weapon of Li- lith, as I will presently demonstrate, but first I must speak of how this headband defies every attempt we make to destroy it. Witness, if you will, Lord.’

Jashen placed the relic against the corner of a stone pedestal. In his other hand Jashen held a large hammer. He said, “With your per- mission, Lord Belphegor, of course.”

Belphegor waved for him to continue. Jashen struck the headband be- tween the hammer and a corner of the pedestal. The brilliant gem never ceased to give light.

Jashen cast the undamaged headband back on the table. “We have destroyed tin snips trying to cut the band. Not the hottest forge we can stoke will fairly begin to make it melt, and no wonder, since a living star made this in his belly. Yet is it proof against the Golden Gift?”

Jashen took up the ancient weapon and glanced at his divine guest. “Again, Lord Belphegor, by your leave?”

“Proceed.”

Jashen squeezed the Artifact to allow the black shaft of nothing- ness to lick the headband into oblivion. But he could not avoid damage to the table. He said, “The Lord Keter will affirm that only two fold-lines now extend through his umbilical with Chokhmah.”

“What you say is of a truth. Now, Jashen, you will deliver this weapon you name the Golden Gift into my hand.”

“Alas, Lord, such is my own will, but it is not the will of Chokh- mah.”

“What is that to me?” snarled Belphegor. “You say you serve the elohim. It is an eloah who commands you.”

“Milord, Chokhmah’s power to compel obedience is at the heart of my quarrel with him, and I am not alone in this. The weapon would be of no avail to you in any event.’

“What do you mean?”

“Milord, over the centuries the B’nei Elohim have gained an under- standing of how this relic works. There is an unseen tube that some- how stretches directly back to Chokhmah, and this is held open by a substance we call dark light made by Chokhmah’s body. If more dark light is poured inside, the tube will grow larger. But if Chokhmah holds the tube at a certain width the dark light overflows. Whatever this touches, no matter how hard, is immediately turned into dark substance and it disappears from the world.”

Belphegor pondered this for a time. Jashen’s information alone was worth the trip to the safe house, if hy or Keter could learn how to stiffen the fold-line. Still, Belphegor saw it was indeed pointless to demand the relic. Chokhmah would simply refuse to make it work. Hy said, “And how do you control the weapon if it re- lies on Chokhmah to operate?”

“A firm pressure by the hand, milord,” said Jashen. “This is somehow sensed by Chokhmah.”

“You ignorant fool! The sound of your voice is changing pres- sure. He is listening to us even now!”

Jashen tried to think of a way to shrug respectfully in the presence of a seraph but could not. Instead he said, “Lord Belphegor, we al- ready know he is listening, and it matters not at all. Chokhmah is perfectly aware there are unsatisfied factions among the B’nei Elo- him. The controversy is an ancient one, Milord, and I am not the first B’nei Elohim to remove to the enemy camp. A nephil named Ariel once served Keter in the time of the dragon Demonstroke. Samael knew this ambi as Joy.”

“I knew Joy was B’nei Elohim. There are more such Joys?”

“There are more than you might imagine, Lord Belphegor. Chokhmah promises all the B’nei Elohim a second life free of any obligations to him, but we find a mere two lives to be insufficient. We have con- trived serial lives without end, but at the cost of ongoing servitude.”

“And you imagine that I can help you out of your hopeless state of affairs, so you made contact with Malphas, and hy with myself.”

“Milord, it seemed to us the way out is simply to take Chokhmah’s mind away from the obsession that compels him send us on these errands.”

“And what is it that you think obsesses Chokhmah?”

“Milord, not a one among the B’nei Elohim is ignorant of the ancient bargain Chokhmah made with Keter never to send an avatar to anoth- er star and make contact. But Chokhmah thinks world-dwellers rep- resent a loophole.”

“If you mean Chokhmah intends to teach world-dwellers to reach the stars and so evade the bargain, we had guessed that in the very beginning. But perhaps Chokhmah hasn’t really thought it out. What would world-dwellers actually do after arriving at one of the other suns?”

“Lord Belphegor, perhaps it will be something as simple as casting a relic made by Chokhmah into that new sun. A relic with a link to Chokhmah like Lilith’s headband was linked. A relic that would not be destroyed by the fires of a sun because it had been forged in the center of another sun.”

Belphegor was rocked back on hyz heels once more as hy considered what Jashen said. Of course one did not simply ‘cast’ an object into a sun, one must negate its motion and allow gravity to do the rest, but it could be done. Yes, Chokhmah was planning this. Hy said, “You have eliminated one such relic before my eyes and this, we guess, in the hearing of Chokhmah. And Lilith’s weapon is another such rel- ic. Do you speak of yet another?”

“Yes, Lord Belphegor, the other relic is a slab of stone embossed with the words of the covenant between Chokhmah and the descendants of Abraham. For centuries this was carried about on Earth inside a chest of wood covered in gold leaf. Once a year Chokhmah speaks with the high priest through the slab. Now the chest has been taken to Heaven to keep it safe, but the temple here in Adjara is far from complete. Lael of the tribe of Levi is the high priest now, milord, and he wanders Haaretz with the chest and the tablet. For a time Lael bore also the Golden Gift and he rendered it to me after I sought him out, for such was Chokhmah’s verbal command to him. Lael was expecting me to come.”

“So the Golden Gift was put in your hand,” said Belphegor, “the tab- let was nigh, you seek to eliminate Chokhmah’s obsession, yet you made no move to destroy the relic as you did Lilith’s headband just now. You are either lying, or stupid.”

“Milord, had I made the slightest move in the direction of the ark Lael’s archers would have shot me dead.”

“In any event you would have wasted your time even as you are now wasting mine. It is a small thing for Chokhmah to construct another object and link to it.”

“Your pardon Lord Belphegor, but I see now that you are unaware of a critical thing that we B’nei Elohim have long known. Oft Chokhmah sends us east of the Wall of God where he and Binah are forbidden to open a fold-door, and we have begged to use an avatar as Mi- chael was wont to do in the times of old. But that one was de- stroyed by dragonfire, and Chokhmah says he cannot now make another.”

Belphegor searched hyz memory and realized that Chokhmah, in fact, had not plagued Heaven with an avatar since the war, and found it puzzling that hy had never focused on that before. Hy wondered what scheme Chokhmah might be carrying out in hyz full view, as yet un- noticed. Hy said, “Does Chokhmah explain why no more avatars can be made?”

“Milord, he has said avatars must be made in a non-living portion of a sun that an eloah can nevertheless safely reach. And only a female can compress herself to create such a free space. Chokhmah is now male.”

“But Binah is female,” Belphegor replied. “Nothing prevents her from creating an object that can survive a plunge into a sun. But now I see this is all a feint! Binah has no covenant with Keter. It is she who will send an avatar to another star and break the inter- dict.”

“Milord, you need have no fear that Binah will do what Chokhmah has sworn never to do. She lives in the clear space where Chokhmah used to create his avatars. Binah is a kind of avatar herself, but she can never be ejected. She is already compressed, and she can shrink no more.”

Belphegor tried to imagine how it must be for Binah. Sexual pleasure for female elohim came from compression during mating which Binah had experienced from the instant of conception. She lived in a state of perpetual physical joy. Hy said, “You have spoken true, Jashen. I have offered only hostility, and I would move to reward you for your steadfastness, yet there remains only the question why you beg me to take the tablet from this Lael? Are there no warriors among you in this rebel faction of B’nei Elohim? Why not yourself?”

“Lord Belphegor, I have been a warrior from my youth on Earth but now I am summoned back there, and none of the other occupants of this house are trained to fight. Nor is it assured other B’nei Elohim of like mind will come to Haaretz. We are sent as our talents are needed.”

“Yes, I had nearly forgotten that the B’nei Elohim had special abilities unique to each one. Joy could command the dragon, and Lilith could even fly. What, then, is your talent, Jashen?”

“Tongues, milord. The men of Haaretz are not understood by oth- ers, in the main.”

“And the B’nei Elohim who resent thralldom to Chokhmah, what do you call yourselves?”

“The word we use, milord, is ‘groupies’ but there may be no equiva- lent term outside of our own tongue. It refers to the sexual playthings of a troupe of musicians, ones who travel with them.”

For the first time Belphegor seemed amused. “I am sure the explana- tion for that is interesting but it is enough to know only the name. Henceforth Ketar and I shall treat only with ‘groupies’. You can tell that to Chokhmah if by chance he is not listening through the relic.”

“He is listening, Lord Belphegor, yet I cannot use that fact to summon a fold-door home to Earth. Chokhmah insists we do that only from Nyduly Wood. So I must now take my leave. But you and Mal- phas shall be honored guests in this house until such time you wish to depart.”

“Certainly Chokhmah will be greatly wroth that you destroyed one relic and conspire to have the other taken.”

“Milord, Chokhmah can do nothing to punish me. B’nei Elohim are immune to torment and even without Chokhmah’s participation we can surmount even death. But of the tablet I counsel that you tarry not. The king of the Babylonians took three years to carry out his seige of the Earthly temple, using his whole army. Should the Heavenly temple be completed here in Adjara it would take a comparable effort and Chokhmah, thus forewarned, would simply remove the tablet to Earth.” With suitable words of obeisance Jashen left Belphegor and Malphas to dwell in the B’nei Elohom safe house for the seven days it would re- quire for Daat to accumulate sufficient dark energy to allow their departure by fold-door.

On horseback he made his way south from Adjara to Enkaa Dam. There he traded his horse for a raft made from young logs which were slid over the spillway of the dam and lashed together in the river below. Tip- ping over one perilous set of rapids after another Jashen paddled down the Armak until he reached Alodra in the heart of Haaretz.

The capital, Atria, lay at the confluence of the Armak with the river Sabik, the greatest stream in Haaretz. Jashen let the river take the raft as he went by foot east up the Sabik to a bridge that crossed into Hamar. There he fell under the watchful gaze of the Issacharites.

Not all of the children of Israel living in Haaretz worshiped Yahweh alone. The tribe of Issachar and some others among the Hamarites had begun to give adoration to one they called Bat-El, or the daughter of God. She was different from the mute golden idols of Samaria. For one thing Bat-El had a small pool deep in the forest. From time to time it would glow with soft white light, and individuals like Jashen would emerge from it. Michael said the traditional way of moving about by fold-doors dry invariably cut deep craters in floors.

It worked the other way too. If someone immersed himself in the pool of Bat-El and Bat-El was willing, the glow would appear and he would disappear.

In the case of Jashen, Bat-El, whom the B’nei Elohim named Binah, was willing. When he came to the surface it was in another pool and the trees were gone.

Once Chokhmah undertook to teach his young daughter how to correctly position the end-point of her first fold-door. Binah insisted there was success, yet no fold-door appeared before the eyes of Michael in Rammon. Hy was not willing to believe Binah was deliberately deceiving hym. It took much time to determine the true nature problem, and when Chokhmah eventually unraveled the mystery it was truly astonishing. Binah was correctly locating the end of her fold-door in space, but she was entirely hit-or-miss in time.

Binah had a sense that her mother, and indeed none of the other elo- him, did share. While her consciousness remained in the present with Chokhmah, Binah could ‘see’ the past trailing out, offering more ter- ritory to drop a fold-door.

Merely the air flowing through the fold-door jostled air that was nev- er originally jostled, which caused a second reality to bud off from the first.

Later still Binah learned to reach back in time and mine unused dark light from the body she shared with Chokhmah. Since she never did that on the original track, it created a second, parallel sun that could be mined in turn. The supply of dark light became absolutely unlimited to her.

This and the ability to redact history itself were weapons of such unfathomable power there no longer existed any chance Keter and Daat would prevail in their long controversy. But basic operational securi- ty dicated that the enemies of Chokhmah and Binah should never learn their true order of battle.

The world-dwellers Chokhmah had gathered to himself to act in the role of servants, the B’nei Elohim, were sent on errands in time past, and no others, since they alone could be trusted never to reveal Binah’s power in word or deed, even the ones who otherwise were open enemies of Binah and Chokhmah. A firm psychological lock existed to prevent them from revealing Binah’s power, and they were quite immune from the persuasions of torment.

Jashen emerged from the cool water of the pool and was given a change of dry clothing by attendants. He was on the well-illuminated lowest basement floor of a large structure of glass and steel, and the perim- eter of the building was in the shape of a regular hexagon.

When he had made himself presentable Jashen stood for a few moments in a small room with doors that opened and closed of their own volition. When they opened again he was in what the B’nei Elohim sardonically called the Hostility Suite on the fifty-fifth floor of the central tower.

No one was there to greet him. Jashen crossed the space to stare out of a large window. It was raining, surprise of all surprises. Six dark green towers identical to the core tower rose in a ring around it, and beyond them was a ring of twelve more. The American city of Seattle lay beyond.

Outside of the giant rain-streaked window Jashen could see, through a gap in the two rings of towers, a sliver of the downtown core of Seat- tle with a low cloud obscuring the tops of the buildings. Through another gap he could see the Space Needle somewhat north of there.

Looking down, Jashen saw how each tower was joined to its neighbor, vertex to vertex, by a sky bridge every ten floors. And at the very bottom was NOLU, North Lake Union, the tongue of land between N. 34th Street and Lake Union that once hosted a coal gasification plant.

He heard footsteps and turned to watch his wife and har parents enter the Hostility Suite. Men often boast that their wife is an angel, but Jashen could do so without exaggeration. Seven and a half feet tall, Leliel leaned down to kiss har husband after his long absence.

After they broke their embrace Jashen held out the Golden Gift for Leliel’s mother, Lilith. The queen of Salem was now a human in her second life. She had short reddish hair, was much lesser in stature than Jashen, and answered to the name of the human who had joined with her: Judith Margolies.

Judith put the Golden Gift in a leather sheath at her belt and said, “I didn’t need this relic, I just needed Lael not to have it. At least long enough for Jashen’s show and tell with Belphegor.”

Michael said, “And the Oscar for best portrayal of a B’nei Elohim Groupie goes to Jashen Shybear.” Hy motioned for everyone present to sit.

Jashen squeezed into one oversized chair with his wife as Michael did the same with hyz own. He said, “I don’t understand, Lord. What is the…Oscar?”

“It’s a small statue of gold that is given for…Jashen, have you seen films yet? Have you taken Leliel to the movies?”

For a moment he only stared at Michael blankly. Leliel leaned in aand prodded, “Galaxy’s Fall?”

Jashen became attentive. He said, “Yes! Once I knew only the iron horse and rifles and wires that talked but this time is filled with wonders beyond count, film best of all.”

“Excellent!” said Michael. “So, Jashen, in 1978, on this time track at least, the director of Galaxy’s Fall won the Oscar for making the best film. I was giving you high praise for your operational deception, for getting Daat to focus on a MacGuffin.”

“First Oscar, now MacGuffin?”

“It’s another film term, Jashen, but it has to do with the storytell- ing craft. Remember how Galaxy’s Fall was just one long chase to cap- ture the young Empress because they thought she could see the future?”

“Sure, and it turned out she couldn’t, but the citizens of the Empire didn’t know that.”

“That made her a MacGuffin. It’s something that’s totally irrelevant, yet it serves to drive the plot ever forward. And now you’ve sent Keter and Daat chasing after the tablet, and they’ll keep on doing that right up to the end because they now believe I will use the tab- let in the Ark of the Covenant to contact the neighboring sars. But in fact those stars will be coming to me and it only remains to prepare an appropriate greeting.”

“Milord could you not have sent an actual Groupie to tell Belphegor about your Macguffin?”

“Michael shook hyz head. “No one else has your talent for language, Jashen. If any of the other B’nei Elohim talk to Keter or Da’at there’s a short delay. They can immediately tell I’m coaching them.”

“Except for me,” Judith said. “Or Leliel, who both speak the original Semitic, but females are generally expected to remain silent in that culture, and besides, we’re both busy enough here.”