TC03

As Hamon continued to heal and teach his fame reached many towns around Shalem. All agreed he was a major prophet on the order of King Gordiel, but some believed Hamon actually was Gordiel re turned from the dead. The fame of Hamon's deeds reached the ears of Emperor Rimmon in Adan. He sent his son Prince Malphas to be his eyes and ears in Shalem, to assess the damage and try to staunch the bleeding.

For a time Michael returned to his home in Anshar. The people of Shalem continued to form crowds in the countryside, hoping to draw Hamon out from his retreat. Zadkiel found them ripe to hear his own teachings, which contradicted Michael's doctrines pre cept-by-precept.

MALPHAS: Hear now, dwellers of Salem, the utterance of our lord Malkuth, for this holy Malkuth speaks against the false prophet called Hamon: You claim union with Binah in body and soul. Be cause you do not affirm your station as a commoner who carries only human blood, behold, I pronounce the penalty of death. You are doomed to die, for you make the people believe the lie that you are a demigod!']

MALPHAS: [And this too Lord Malkuth has against his own daugh ter: Binah! For your inheritance all of Kemen was created. But this false prophet called Hamon dares to say he exists in union with you, and he garners no rebuke. Every moment he continues to live and spread this lie compounds your crime. Therefore you shall be cast out of the order of elohim. You shall die like any mortal woman among the humans of Kemen, and your temple in Sha lem shall be consecrated to Kether]

MALPHAS: [Now hearken, people of Shalem, to the procedure for the worship of Kether. Four days are appointed with names after the names of the four great families of Kemen. These are Sala day, Bellonday, Larunday, and Gerashday. Three days yyou shalt eat, and on Gerashday, you shall eat a double portion. But on Ketherday you shall eat nothing, and drink only water.

MALPHAS: Four days you shall  work. But Keterday is the day of worship, thou shalt not work on that day, neither you nor any male in  your  whole household. On Keterday you  shall worship in the shrine. None shall be exempted. The old and infirm shall be carried to worship Malkuth.

MALPHAS: This is the essence of worship: You shall give one- fourth of your increase to Kether. You shall present to the Eye of Malkuth your worship card made of crackerwood sealed in a leather pouch together with all the coin you earned on Gerash day.

MALPHAS: [The Eye of  Malkuth shall  inspect the  seal, unwrap the worship card, and inspect the pattern  of recent punches. If the punches are in order, the Eye of  Malkuth shall make a new punch using one of five different punches drawn by lots, a star, a square, a triangle, a circle, or a rectangle]

MALPHAS: [And the Eye of Malkuth shall store the worship card back in the leather pouch, add a seal, and return it to the wor shiper; but the money he shall put in the temple treasury]

MALPHAS: [Women, however, shall not worship Kether, nor shall a woman be found in the Temple of Keter nor any shrine of Kether. You shall not  not  suffer  a woman  or  girl  to earn  income] MALPHAS: [A man shall count his son's income as his own for the purpose of reckoning the correct amount of worship due. But if a man's worship card is found to have a missing punch he shall be put to death for failure to worship Kether]

When Malphas the son of Emperor Rimmon then demanded to meet the ruler of Shalem hy was taken to meet the cherub in his salon with only his own son Prince Melchizedek in attendance. The lack of pomp was striking. Hy surmised the king had no wish to be humiliated before his subjects. But hy was taken to the chamber by the king's daughter, Lilith, a woman garbed in a parody of a soldier. Malphas found it to be personally offensive. Very well. He would trade barb for barb.

Lilith came   to  the   required  number  of   paces  before Melchiyahu and sank to her knees while  Malphas pointedly did not do so.

LILITH: [My father and liege-lord, this man, Malphas by name, claims to be a prince of the city of Adan]

The king ignored the breach of protocol made by Malphas when he refused to bow.

MELCHIYAHU: [I know of one son of Emperor Rimmon by that name. Such a one I have never met. And such a one was never granted leave to make utterance in Shalem]

MALPHAS: [Sire were I the get of a lowly stonemason's apprentice like this young man named Hamon who is disturbing the peace of the Lord's realm, even so I would have leave to preach here in Shalem, for I am the Voice of Malkuth, and your kingdom still lies, however uneasily, within the lands of House Gerash]

MELCHIYAHU: [Yet were Rimmon himself come to Shalem he could not pronounce death as you have done, even for a stonemason's ap prentice. Nor could he reform the temple ordinances. Those are my powers, solely, and the giving of the scepter is without re pentance]

MALPHAS: [Then sire, at the very least I counsel restraining this Hamon by fetters if not by death]

MELCHIYAHU: [Not in haste, O Voice of Malkuth. My daughter ad mires this prophet and puts his words into action, which glad dens my heart in a way I cannot tell you]

MALPHAS [Your Majesty, the ideas admired by your daughter spread through the land like a plague. Already the river of pilgrims who flow to Adan seeking absolution ebbs. Hamon is like a dagger pointed at the heart of the state. The priests have been forced to double their rates!]

Melchiyahu looked at Malphas with a mixture of pity and amuse ment. Abruptly the prince realized Melchiyahu's purpose in lim iting the audience to just three nobles in this private setting. Any grandstanding was impossible. In their raw state his words sounded insane even to hymself.

MELCHIYAHU: [I will listen to this Hamon's words with my own ears and judge whether they disturb Malkuth's peace]

MALPHAS: [Have a care, Melchiyahu! I assure you my father will not hesitate to bring an errant cherub to heel through war!]

Melchizadek and Lilith were both startled, not by the bold words of Malphas but by the deadly calm on the face of their own fa ther in the wake of the affront. The king gracefully rose to his feet.

MELCHIYAHU: [I leave this matter to you, son. Remember, one day you will rule Shalem]

After his father departed, Melchizedek struck off the Killing Relic. The eyes of Malphas grew wide. This confirmed many things. The ruling house in Shalem had divine assistance and the usurper Hamon did not merely imagine hymself to speak for Binah.

MELCHIZEDEK (shouting over the noise of the relic): [Say no more words. You would be cut in twain even as you spoke]

To underscore this threat he sliced the corner of the massive and ornate stone table as though it were made of bread. The sev ered piece crashed to the floor and did not bounce once. Mel chizedek allowed the hissing black rip in reality to fully re tract into the golden hilt hy  held in his hand. Then hy contin ued much more quietly.

MELCHIZEDEK: [A horse shall be given to you with comestibles to see you to the town of Odargas thirty leagues from Shalem. Tarry you there. A messenger shall follow after Cherub Melchiyahu him self has heard this Hamon preach. But Malphas, real son of Em peror Rimmon or no, should you ever return to this city, take heed to do so at the head of a large army]

MALPHAS (ignoring the Prince's  command to be  silent): [That is sound counsel, I deem]

He broke the  clay seal  on the  blank scroll  of parchment that was, in fact, his credentials as the  Voice of Malkuth. At once hy  was surrounded  by a  transparent sphere  in the likeness of a ball of glass  or crystal. The grounds of the palace of Rimmon were seen within.

MALPHAS: [Think you Hamon alone works signs of wonder?]

In an instant the sphere disappeared and Malphas was gone with it, leaving only a crater in the stone floor of the king's sa lon.

In the countryside nigh to Salem Lilith sought out Hamon and invited him to come before her father King Melchiyahu to preach what hy would. Hamon agreed to speak, but only if the encounter was open for any of the people to witness. So Melchiyahu ordered servants to prepare his throne room to seat as many of his sub jects who would come. Lilith attended as well, dressed for once like the Adanite ophan she was.

These are the words Hamon spoke in Salem as the white and orange suns sank together in the west:

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 len 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 Binah.] HAMON: [Some seek long life because they fear death. Some seek an early death because they are reckless. Sha who embraces Binah neither fears death nor hates life. Sha 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 retreating, taken together, are eternal. From the beginning all the generations have come and gone in good order]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth are said to be superior to the animals because they can control their own environment. Sha who embraces Binah is superior to the thralls of Malkuth because she can control her own behavior]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth are famous. Sha who embraces Bi nah sets an example by har deeds and becomes influential]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth accumulate many riches but cannot keep all of them safe. Sha who embraces Binah has few desires, so sha retains all that sha has]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth demand to see good in others, and attribute the cause of a tragedy to a defect in morality or rit ual. Sha who embraces BatEl is too busy addressing the needs at hand to render any such judgment]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth can do what they will to do, but they cannot determine what they will. Sha who embraces Binah makes har own awareness of injustice the determinant of har ac tion. Sha diminishes the bounty of the corrupt to fulfill the needs of the impoverished]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth put their riches and knowledge on parade. Sha who embraces Binah does not tell all that sha has nor all that sha knows how to do]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth never admit a single error. Sha who embraces BatEl considers those who point out har faults to be benevolent teachers]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth speak only of the dead traditions of their forefathers and by coercion leave them in force. Sha who embraces Binah cultivates the new as the coin to buy har way]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth say they are willing to grow yet in truth they live only to quench their endless appetite for a brief time. Sha who embraces Binah fulfills har passions and becomes joyous]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth value only those things which they do not have or what they cannot have, things that do not multiply when shared. Sha who embraces Binah empties har purse and finds har heart being filled. Sha seeks for harself only those things which are possible for har to obtain]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth evaluate how much a yan is worth by how much sha possesses and what sha might do to benefit him self. But sha who embraces Binah looks to what a yan does for others and who that yan protects. That is what sha is truly worth]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth find yen ever falling short of their old standards. Sha who embraces Binah extols har sisters over all existing standards because when yen do go astray it is always induced by the repression of those very yardsticks]

HAMON: [The thralls of Malkuth examine everything about who is speaking except har words, and he hears only what fits his prejudices. Sha who embraces Binah recognizes and sets har own biases aside so sha may understand what is really being said]

HAMON: [When a thrall of Malkuth suffers an indignity hy retali ates by committing another indignity. Sha who embraces Binah knows the greatest revenge is simply to not be like hy who did the injury. The greatest conqueror is sha who has conquered har self]

Hamon concluded the Sunset Discourse by healing many of the elyonim who came to hear hym speak with salves prepared from fireweed and the bark of vogul trees. One day hy knew the arti facts and ointments hy used would not be viewed as magic but as the mere tools of an artisan that anyone could master.

When all the sick received care hy drew near to the Cherub's seat at the bidding of Lilith who remained in the temporary role of har father's herald. The name Hamon was given but no title.

MELCHIYAHU: [You framed the followers of Binah as feminine. Are men excluded from her worship?]

HAMON: [Not at all, Your Majesty. I wish only to convey an im age. A man who embraces Binah will have a gentle heart and see others around him as another 'I', yet he will retain his strength and his male nature as he rightly should]

MELCHIYAHU: [My daughter Lilith has a fierce heart, yet sha has come to admire your teachings, and I am not the only one to mark how this has gentled har]

Melchizedek noticed  Lilith  was wearing  an  extravagant  red dress and hy could not recall the last time  he had seen her wear one of any color. Looking more closely, hy marked how har eyes seemed to be drowning  in Hamon. In an instant hy knew what was happening to hyz sister.

MELCHIZEDEK: [Who are you really, Hamon?]

HAMON (drawing near to the prince): [Your Royal Highness, for years you were not to be seen in Salem but only your father knew you were in the other world searching for a certain man]

Melchizadek was stunned to silence.

MELCHIYAHU: [My son was sent to find a man who was dissatisfied with any of the gods believed by the men of Earth, and he did indeed find such a one, called Avram, but loyalty to his own father's well-being exceeded loyalty to what was to him an un known god. Melchizedek found no other man remotely like him, and when hy came home hy reported failure]

LILITH: [I was told nothing of my brother's absence! What is this other world?]

HAMON: [Is it not some measure of who I really am, that I know what even your sister does not? Yet one more sign will I offer]

Binah was powerless to open a target portal in Kemen, only one of his parents could oblige. But testing Avram remained a piece of unfinished business between Binah and her father. Communicat ing directly with her father, she ordered a link. A clear bubble grew to envelop Hamon and heat seeped through from the landscape of Harran seen within.

Hamon stepped out of the spherical blur.

HAMON: [Prince Melchizedek, the father of Avram has died. Return you now to the other world and complete the errand your father laid on you. Tarry not to take anything you may think you will need on Earth. I will provide them for you myself]

Melchizedek seemed frozen in place.

MELCHIYAHU: [Make haste, my son. Do as Hamon commands]

Melchizedek entered the ball of distorted oasis light and seemed to shrink as hy walked towards Harran.

Malkuth did not raise the bubble before snapping it shut, leav ing the usual crater in the stone floor of the king's audience hall.

LILITH: [Thus did Malphas take hyz leave of us, father.]

MELCHIYAHU: [Thus also did Melchizadek depart five years ago. I see now, Hamon, you are much more than a stonemason's son.]

HAMON: [Your Majesty, truly I am human flesh in union with the one called Binah. Your own daughter has heard me say this in the countryside round about]

MELCHIYAHU: [Princess Lilith has also said sha would become your leading student if you will]

HAMON: [Sire, when I mentioned students in the past, I meant all world-dwellers. I never thought to establish a formal school]

MELCHIYAHU: [And yet, Hamon, were you to tutor Lilith as sha has in mind, I deem you would return to me a daughter none could gainsay was a fitting princess of this city.]

Hamon considered this for a long moment, then turned to face hem.

HAMON: [And would you, Ophan Lilith, be willing to part with your father for years? You might never see hym again as a living lan.]

LILITH: [This I am willing to do, and much more: I would put my Fallen Angels at your command. But not, let me assure you, as the pickpockets and thieves they are taken to be. You will be astonished when you discover what they can really do.

Lilith's idea was beginning to grow on Hamon. Hy had found will ing allies in the ancient dispute with her father and grandfa ther, and the more he thought about it the more he convinced hymself there would be much utility in having students who were also servants. And Hamon too, like her brother Melchizadek, was not blind to the adoration in the face of the princess. Many things were suggested to hym there.

The decision made, Hamon turned to hez father.

HAMON: [Your Majesty, it shall be as you propose. I will take your daughter as my disciple]

Then hy bowed deeply before Melchiyahu, a god-man paying sincere tribute to a cherub-king, and the audience was concluded.