Draft

Hamon concluded the Sunset Discourse by healing many of the angels who came to hear hym speak with salves prepared from fireweed and teh bark of vogul trees. And it was his sincere hope that one day the instruments and medicines he used would not be viewed as magic but as the mere tools of an artisan that anyone couls master.

When all that were sick were tended to drew near to the Cherub's seat Hamon announced by Lilith, who at her father's command was still in the temporary role of herald. No titles were given. It was known that Hamon was a lan of the city, the commoner son of a glassblower. King Melchiyahu said, "Your sermon refered to the Student of Bat-El as feminine. Are len excluded from your teachings?"

"Not at all, Your Majesty," said Hamon. 'When I speak in those terms I wish to convey an image. A lan who embraces Bat-El will have a gentle heart and sees others around him as another 'I' yet he will retain his strength and his male nature, as he rightly should." "My own daughter has always had a fierce heart, yet she has come to admire your teachings, and I am not the only one to mark how this has gentled her."

Prince Melchizedek raised his eyes to take in Lilith's red dress and he could not recall the last time he had seen her wear one. He noted how her eyes seemed to be drowning in Hamon and in an instant he knew what was happening to his sister. He asked, "Who are you really, Hamon?"

Hamon drew near to Prince Melchizekek and said, "Your Royal Highness, for years you were not to be seen in Salem but only your father knew that you were in the other world searching for a man who was not content to worship the gods of his fathers." The Ophan was stunned to silence. King Melchiyahu said, "My son found a man named Abram, but Abram's loyalty to his own father's well-being exceeded any loyalty to what was, to him, an unknown god. Melchizedek found no other of his like, and when he returned he reported failure." Lilith said, "I was told nothing of my brother's absence." "Is it not some measure of who I really am," Hamon said to the prince, "that I know what even your sister does not? Yet I will offer one more sign, one far more convincing." Bat-El had no power to open a space-time bridge in Kemen, only did Elyon or Chemosh, but the Abram case remained a piece of unfinished business. Communicating directly with Elyon, Hamon demanded the appearance of a link. A bubble grew to envelop Hamon and through it Earth could be seen. Desert heat seeped through the wormhole into the Cherub's throne room. Hamon stepped out of the spherical mirage and said, "Ophan Melchizedek, know that the father of Abram is dead. Now I bid you to return to the other world and complete the errand your father laid on you. Tarry not to take anything that you think you will need on Earth. I will provide them for you myself." Melchizedek seemed to be frozen in place. Hy firt glanced at Hamon, then at his father, and he had nothing to say. His father said, "Make haste, my son. Do as Hamon commands." So Melchizedek entered the ball of distorted desert light and seemed to shrink as he walked away towards Harran. Elyon, as he had one once before when Melchizedek was sent to Earth, did not raise the bubble before snapping it shut, leaving a crater on the floor of the king's audience hall. King Melchiyahu was so impressed by the way Hamon had dispatched his son to the other world he approached the young prophet and dropped before him on one knee. But Hamon bade him to rise, and said, "Truly, Your Majesty, I am elyonim flesh in union with the one you call Bat-El. Your daughter has heard me say this. But for my part I call you the Students, not our thralls as Elyon would have you be." Hearing this Cherub Melchiyahu rose and said, "Lilith has expressed to me a strong desire to become your leading student, Hamon, if you were willing to receive har. I deem that you would return to me a daughter none could gainsay was a fitting princess of this realm." Hamon replied, "When I used the word Students in the past, Your Majesty, I always had in mind all world-dwellers in general. I never thought to establish a school. Such would demand greater labor than just a few hours away from the castle every day. Would you, Princess Lilith, be willing to part with your father for years? It might be you would never see him again as a living lan." "This I am willing to do so, Lord Hamon," said she, "and much more: I would put the Fallen Angels at your command. But not, let me assure you, as the mere pickpockets they are taken to be."

In that moment Hamon needed no more persuasion. Hy had found willing allies in the ancient dispute with Elyon and Chemosh, and he saw the utility of having some students who were servants as well. Hamon said, "Sire, let it be as you propose. I accept your daughter as the first acolyte of what I shall call the B'nei Elohim, the offspring of the gods." Then he bowed deeply, a god-lan paying sincere tribute to a cherub-king, and the audience was concluded.