TCD

The Adanite army led by Bezaliel had blocked and garrisoned all the roads leading to Salem from the north, south, and east. Salem itself lay on an island within a large lake fed by meltwater from a place where the northern and southern sheets of ice came together as one.

During the days of mourning for the father of King Melchizedek the Seraph Michael spoke in council of the movements of the Adanite army hy had discerned with the avatar of Chokhmah. “The forces now moving in the field are five times again what came against Salem before.”

“Five, or half, or a hundred times greater,” said Melchizedek, “it makes no difference. So long as I reign over this city, none shall face the enemy in the field.”

“My brother and lord,” said Lilith, “we have ships, and time enough to carry all the people of the city away.”

“But where would they go, Lil? There’s a hundred rustic coves scat- tered around the Sea of Aramel where little clans of fisherfolk barely survive from what little they catch and what lesser still they trade. The vale of the Dashok is too rocky. No crops will grow there.”

“Even so Your Majesty,” said Michael, “I beg you to release to me one seaworthy craft, at least. I would send spies to the very source of the river Dashok. Samael maintains a fortress in an ice cave there and supplies it by fold-door. It blocks any escape to the west.”

“Where are your thoughts leading, Michael?” asked hyz wife.

“Your brother is very wise, Lil. Hy knows Samael’s quarrel is really with the ruling family and your Fallen Angels, not with the ordinary subjects of Salem. There is a way out of this. Salem can live in peace.”

King Melchizedek queried, “Do you think the Fallen Angels can win through the cave?”

“As things now stand, Sire, that is impossible. Samael has me at a disadvantage. Hy knows precisely where the cave lies on the surface of Heaven and I do not. Lilith’s spies can remedy this.”

“Azarael and Jael would be perfect for this job,” Ophan Lilith said. “They’re ghosts. They could travel light and live off whatever sup- plies they find in the cave.”

“Then they shall have their barque,” said King Melchizedek, “and what provender and weapons they might need.”

It could not be hidden that the full might of House Gerash was drawn up against Melchizedek. As Salemites mourned Cherub Melchiyahu for the full twenty-five days, forces led by Bezaliel closed in until Salem stood isolated on the island that was coterminous with the city.

Melchizedek considered abdicating the throne, but no one believed Sa- mael would seat Princess Lilith on the throne to succeed hym, and a successor more to the liking of Samael was unthinkable to everyone who was now dwelling in Salem. Yet a siege would be even worse.

Hy said, “Beloved sister, the time has come for the Fallen Angels to quit Salem or renounce the sword for so long as they dwell within the city walls.”

Lilith replied, “Sire, this is a bitter edict, for my yen have already sworn their hand shall ever cleave to the sword.”

“And where shall they go, Lil?”

“Sire,” Michael said, “I propose to call together a council of royals with the aim of uniting all Heaven against Samael. I will fly Lilith and Leliel to Anshar but Raphaela will lead the Fallen Angels and all who would go with har to Rumbek.”

“And Raphaela? Where is sha? Let har stand forth.” Lilith’s second-in- command approached the throne and dropped to one knee.

Melchizedek waved for har to stand. “Do you, Hashmal Raphaela, under- stand the task that lies before you?”

“I confess that I do not, Sire.”

“There are no towns between Salem and the Ice other than a few scat- tered hovels and not a single road. You will ford the river many times and find little provender fit for angels along the way. Even the for- age for your horses will fail as you trace the Dashok to its source.”

Michael said, “I have made arrangements, Sire, to make it more likely that Raphael will prevail.”

“Excellent,” said the king. “Then if by good fortune sha safely passes to the lands held by the House of Larund, sha will find the Brown Beards are no friends of the pursuing Adanites.”

Michael said, “Sire, King Metatron boasts hy will welcome any refu- gees departing from what hy terms ‘the unlovely lands ruled by Keter’. So steadfast is this enmity that I plan to commit Queen Aurra and King Uriel to the council before I even meet with the Larund king.”

“We shall see if Metatron is willing to stand by hyz boast when the first refugees arrive to accept hyz hospitality. But I think you are overlooking something, Michael. If you can send me to Earth through a fold-door what stops Samael from sending yeng to hyz fortress?”

Michael said, “The king knows that elohim are living suns but perhaps hy does not know, and indeed hy could scarcely imagine the crushing forces that exist in the heart of suns. There is a dark light made by elohim that stays this pressure and allows their life to endure. The body of Daat is really a layer in the cold sun thinner than the finest gold leaf. It takes a full seven days for Daat to make sufficient ex- tra dark light to fatten his bridge to Keter such that a yang could use it. If this were not so Salem would have fallen long ago.”

“Lord Michael, you have made me come to believe the Fallen Angels will win through to Rumbek after all. I thank you.”

“And I thank you also, King Melchizedek for your years of service to me in the other world. I have made far greater demands on you than you ever did of me.”

“There has been a spring in this city,’ said Melchizedek. ‘It has lasted far longer and tasted far sweeter than anyone dared to dream. But if winter must now come to Salem, Michael, may the flowering we have known take root outside of the lands trampled by House Gerash.”

“Will you reconsider your rejection of the Change so that your sister may not be parted from you forever?”

“It is tempting, yet as the centuries wore on I think would become something alien to the living, like a stone smuggled into a nest of eggs.” The King saw how Lilith grew supremely unhappy at these words.

“Then Sire, think on the refined cruelty of the Eyes of Keter, and what you may suffer should you fall into their hands. Your sister ac- cepted the Change and not even the pains of childbirth made har blench. At the very least you could die at the moment of your own choosing.”

Melchizedek said, “I have no fear of that. Every moment that I remain alive in their captivity the Eyes will fear I will be snatched out of their hands by my sister, with all the attendant damage that would entail. They do not know sha will be whisked off to Anshar instead. No, Michael, my end will be quick and sure.”

Melchizedek saw how Lilith was allowing har tears to flow freely. Hy was moved to drop the airs of a king, step down from the dais, and embrace har one final time as any brother would the sister hy loved. Hy said, “I regret the years I had to admire you only in my thoughts.”

But Lilith could find no words other than to merely sob, “Oh, Deck, this parting is bitter. Bitter!”

Hy held har gently apart from hym and said, “Michael told me your dar- ling Leliel is the firstborn of the B’nei Elohim. The Children of the Gods! How fortunate you are, Lil!”

Then like the shadow of a cloud passing over the white sun the King saw how they were inflicting torment upon themselves as cruel as any- thing devised by the Eyes of Keter by letting the necessary parting linger too long.

At hyz command Melchizedek was arrayed in hyz finest raiment, and hy donned a jeweled cloak. Then hy led hyz weeping subjects to the lower levels of the city, and Princess Lilith longed to follow, but Michael gently stayed har, and together with Leliel they went another way.

Two hours later a lone craft neared a dark shore thronged with the enemy after making a nighttime crossing from Salem, but no darts flew, since it was yet too dark to see the identity of the boatyang. Lord Bezaliel passed through the ranks to properly receive the visitor. Suddenly night became day as the avatar of Chokhmah rose over the walls of Salem on a pillar of flame. Lord Bezaliel was not distracted as the other yeng were. Hy recognized Melchizedek and ordered weapons free. As the Cherub foresaw hy perished quickly in a storm of arrows.

The avatar’s light diminished as it bent to the north and picked up speed, becoming lesser in light than the orange cold sun that reigned over the night, then finally nothing more than an ordinary star as it raced out of sight. Never again would Salem know a ruling monarch.

As the Sarim Azarael and Jael of the Fallen Angels slinked their way through the ice tunnels west of Salem only three of Samael’s soldiers ever discovered them. Their bodies were left to be discovered in such a way that their deaths could be explained as entirely accidental.

The two yen found the location of the enemy’s main storeroom of meat and grain. Not even Chokhmah knew the exact position of that space where it sat under the ice, but she knew the position of Lilith’s headband, the one capable of casting a bright light, at all times.

Azarael left the artifact inside a container near the center of the ice cave in such a way that it would not likely be discovered and moved, even if the storeroom were actively being drawn down, which to har eyes it was not. After that sha and Jael moved some distance away.

They moved far down one of the tunnels radiating from the central space like wheel spokes, there to remain until such a time as they detected, as Michael put it using what hy warned was extreme under- statement, a disturbance. “This is not a suicide mission,” hy ex- plained.

They would never starve amid the bounty of stores but it was always cold. Fortunately they had a good remedy that never seemed to get tiresome. In the cozy little rat’s nest they made for themselves Jael slipped nude between fur blankets and purred to Azarael to come to har.

Ice pinched the Belt of Heaven in three places, leaving three unfrozen swaths. Each of these lands were about two thousand leagues long but only a hundred leagues from north to south. The Adanites styled their own the Middle Land. In practical terms it was the East Land.

The ice bridge between the Middle and East Lands was the thinnest of the three, and given much time it would be the first to melt, but it was four hundred leagues across and not smooth by any means. The ear- liest travelers despaired of reaching the end, and turned back. The few travelers who did cross the ice found themselves wading through a swampy tulgey wood that may have run for another four hundred leagues for all anyone knew, since no one found the one trickle emerging from the vast bog that was the ultimate source of the River Loenna.

Long before the humans of Heaven became angels or nephilim they mi- grated west, beating back the lethal native flora as they founded Sa- lem and points beyond. They crossed two more barriers of ice. Ulti- mately they reached a fertile land they called Rammon and went no fur- ther. In Rammon far from any interference from Keter the Gold Beards of the House of Sala developed an enduring culture unique in Heaven. It was based on the Ringhouse, a single common wooden dwelling of about eighty people at the center of a small circle of cultivated fields.

Along the rim of this circle one or two dozen footpaths entered the forest, but only four to six of these trails led to another Ringhouse some five or so leagues away. The rest petered out to game trails or (more likely) dead-ended in a grove of lethal whipping trees.

When girls were of age they were married to a fellow in a neighboring Ringhouse. Most people were born, lived, and died without seeing more than a dozen or so Ringhousen, yet it was very peaceful.

No Adanite invaders would cross the ice and the swamp for such meager loot. What combat, such as it was, came against Saharad, the sole city in Rammon, in periodic raids from the adjoining land of Gerazan by the Red Beards of House Bellon. From time to time Samael appeared to both sides with the latest Adanite weaponry and left with their gold.

And yet in the main the Gold Beards of Family Sala embraced Michael’s revelations of Chokhmah to an extent that rivalled the angels of Salem. To a man they were the proud subjects of a powerful queen, Aurra Fire- gem, whose very existence would be absolutely unthinkable to the Adan- ites.

When the avatar of Chokhmah made landfall nigh to Saharad it did not inspire the fear that once overcame Salem, for this was the third such appearance. The first had been with Michael alone. On the second occa- sion Lilith had joined hym. Now Leliel was present, being just two years of age.

Queen Firegem cancelled what audience her courtiers had prepared for that day to receive instead her unannounced visitors. With her husband Duke Evandr the two made an imposing pair, but the queen was not beau- tiful in the eyes of many men, as she was broad of face and frame.

Upon har introduction Leliel had sufficient discipline to render the Queen a parody of court etiquette before being allowed to roam free, yet neither Aurra nor Evandr were offended, so taken were they with the lovely child. But Aurra guessed that Michael’s news would be bad.

“Your Majesty,” Lilith began with a husk in har voice, and even as sha spoke sha was surprised at the depth of har emotion two weeks after the event. “Your Majesty, my brother King Melchizedek is dead, and even now the city of Salem is being trampled by the Adanite army.”

Dismay edged the Queen’s voice. “Why, Princess Lilith? How did this happen?”

“Your Majesty, the people of Salem embraced Michael as a teacher, even as you and your people have done here in Rammon. Lord Samael would not, nay, hy could not allow that to continue unchallenged. And for hyz part my brother saw how a siege was immanent. Hy deemed that no edict Samael would likely impose upon the angels of the city for their defiance could be worse than their starvation, so hy went willingly to the enemy camp and Michael assures me hy died quickly.”

The Queen glanced then at Michael. “And what did befall Salem, do you know?”

“Your Majesty, Samael appointed a governor over the city who levies a heavy tax. The Eyes of Keter multiply almost as fast as do the mourn- ful ordinances and road checkpoints, and none may depart. And yet for all that, Your Majesty, Samael has utterly failed, because a daughter and a granddaughter of King Melchiyahu remain alive, and both have slipped away from hyz grasp. I now hold Lilith to be a Cherub and the Queen of Salem in exile. Samael will come for har.”

Duke Evandr Firegem said, “Are you seeking asylum for Queen Lilith, your daughter, and yourself, Lord Michael? If so you are entirely wel- come, indeed we are eager to have you live here in Saharad, and if the city is not to your liking you may live anywhere in Rammon.”

“I thank you, Sire, but leaving myself and my family aside, Samael is pursuing other exiles from Salem even into the land of the Brown Beards. Were I to do nothing to stave off the war that must follow King Metatron would no more welcome them in Rumbek than Samael in Sa- lem.”

Evandr said in reply, “Lord Michael, if, perchance your best efforts to bring peace fail, and war does come to House Larund, know that we humans of Heaven hold ourselves to be exiles also, and Chokhmah to be our only God. We of Rammon will never turn away any who embrace her.”

“For that I thank you and Queen Aurra, Sire,” said Michael, “but if war comes it will hardly stop at Rumbek. Samael means to overawe the kingdoms of heaven one after the other before they can unite to stop hym. I bid you to think on this when next hy appears before you as a merchant of arms.”

After conversing more with Evandr and Aurra on many things of lesser import Michael healed some of the incurably infirm in Sarahad before returning to Anshar with Leliel. But Lilith went on to rejoin the Fallen Angels who had reached the dwindling upper stream of the Da- shok.

As Melchizedek had warned the cache was strongly defended. After the Fallen Angels forced the entrance the garrison commander ordered a slow retreat to the central chamber while dealing out fire. There the bulk of hyz troops made a stand that seemed impossible to break.

As Lilith’s forces emerged from one tunnel or another hy shifted sol- diers to meet the threats when they appeared. Lilith found it impossi- ble to attack the core simultaneously from more than a handful of tun- nels since the cross tunnels were few and the enemy knew them well.

Raphaela spied a drop of water rolling down Lilith’s cheek, and har lieutenant was shocked at first, then sha steeled harself up to rebuke har Queen. It was one thing to feel despair during a battle, it was quite another to allow that despair to be visible to underlings.

But a large drop of water landed square on Raphaela’s head. Sha looked up to see many such drops were falling from the dimly-illuminated ceiling of ice far overhead. The drops became a true rain. The ceiling began to glow with a light of its own and a deep thunder grew.

Lilith ordered the Fallen Angels to disengage and fall back in the tunnels. None witnessed the ceiling of the ice cave glowing orange before exploding, with the more fortunate Adanite defenders killed by house-sized chunks of ice and the less fortunate ones boiling alive.

Only the dying yeng saw the avatar of Chokhmah drill into the chamber of ice with all six engines skewed, some pointing up, some pointing down, others turning from side to side, all six motors spouting fusion fire from the heart of Sol and turning the water to steam. The water boiled away and the bodies of the yeng were crisped by the raw flame until even their ashes were scattered away. Lilith and har lieutenants walked to the ragged end of several tunnels trying to comprehend the chaos of the scene below. The avatar fell silent.

Far across the chamber at another tunnel stood Azarael and Jael, both quite safe. The applause of the two yen echoed across the now quiet space. Lilith dropped to the lowest level and spoke to the inert ava- tar. “Michael, if Leliel is in there with you, you’re dead. And if you left har alone in Anshar where Keter or Daat can get at har by fold- door you’re twice as dead!”

The avatar of Chokhmah began to shrink before har eyes until it was a white faceless figure with a head, arms, and legs. It said, “Do give me some credit, Lil.”

Lilith had quite forgotten that Chokhmah could fly her avatar perfect- ly well without Michael inside. In fact, there were nothing like reins inside for Michael to steer it. Chokhmah marched out of the Adanite supply cache with every footfall sounding like an avalanche.

When the vanguard of the Adanite army reached the garrisoned cache, now entirely in shambles, they were ordered to line the walls of the central chamber at attention. Carrying a fat short staff, black in color, Bezaliel picked hyz way to the center searching for a flat area. Hy found a spot that would suffice for hyz purposes and un- screwed a cap on the end of the staff, revealing it to be a hollow cylinder. Then hy withdrew a gray mat. Hy had been told by Samael hym- self that a whisker extended from this mat to the heart of the sun itself.

Bezaliel could neither see nor feel this whisker, and indeed hy won- dered how it was not cut or snapped when the mat was rolled up into the cylinder, so it was a divine mystery. All hy knew was that unroll- ing the mat would, in effect, summon both Samael and Israel to appear.

Hy let the mat fly open by itself and stood back to wait. The living avatars of Keter and Daat were suddenly seen within what seemed to be a glass sphere. Bezaliel and all hyz yeng fell to their knees as though they were a single body as the two seraphim stepped forward.

When Israel bade the yeng to rise, Bezaliel said, “Look what the she- demon Lilith has done, my lords!”

Samael looked at the sky visible through a gaping tunnel in the cave ceiling. Hy said, “No, this was Chokhmah, and not the first time I have been assailed by her avatar.”

Bezaliel dared not contradict hyz god, but did say, “My Lord told me that were Chokhmah to send an engine of war to Heaven the line running back to her could be no more substantial than spider’s silk, like be- tween yourself and yonder mat. Lord, let your servant understand.”

Samael deemed hyz failure with Zadkiel was in keeping hym uninformed, so hy deigned to instruct hyz new thrall. Hy said, “Chokhmah is my daughter. We share our living substance, which forms a short tube be- tween us in our realm, although our bodies are very far apart in yours. Chokhmah, in the guise of her avatar, once walked to Heaven through this tube, so the link between herself and her avatar is short as well, and she can open a fold-door in Heaven as easily as she can do so on Earth.”

“Lord, I fear the witch Lilith may appear at any time.”

“Of that you may have no fear,” said Samael. “Chokhmah can hold open a tube the width of a finger indefinitely, but a tube the width of an arm, such as when she powers her avatar from the fires of her own body, she can manage only for an hour, and even that only once a day. Every six days Chokhmah’s body makes sufficient dark light to briefly open a fold-door large enough for Lilith to enter, but where would the Princess go other than into the heart of a sun to die? I would not open a linking portal for my enemy, and never would Israel.”

A regiment of the Adanite army was left behind to set the garrison in order. It would be seven days before Daat could summon another fold- door. So there was nothing for Samael and Israel to do but ride with Bezaliel and the bulk of the force in pursuit of Lilith.

During the advance Bezaliel prattled on about the wickedness of Lilith to Samael’s annoyance, yet Samael did nothing to silence his lieuten- ant, as Lilith was indeed hyz foremost enemy in Heaven, and Zadkiel had badly underestimated har to hyz final destruction.

After a number of days the Adanite expedition emerged from the ice and the underlying hills to reach the flats of Magodon, where like numbers of Brown Beards stood across the path of their advance. Two soldiers of the House of Larund advanced alone under flag of truce.

Neither Samael nor Israel wore emblems of rank. Their raiment was that of common footsoldiers, and no banners flew over them, yet the envoys from the Larund side galloped toward the Seraphim without error. Then Samael saw one herald was Lilith harself, to hyz admiration. The other wore a brass helmet but when hy drew nearer Samael identified hym, from hyz own many visits to the court of King Metatron, to be the Ophan Barachiel. Both hy and Lilith dismounted and sank to both knees, bowing deeply before Samael and Israel with their hands open.

For Bezaliel to see hyz personal monster Lilith crouching before hym on har haunches, with har head offered as though a sacrifice to Sa- mael, was too much. Hy stepped forward with hyz blade raised over hym and screamed, “See Lord how I remove this dart from your flesh!”

Still upon har knees, Lilith reached for the Artifact at har side. Even as Bezaliel’s sword fell, the hissing black shaft extended and raised to meet it, and where they crossed Bezaliel’s weapon simply was not. The severed tip fell to the ground as Lilith lept to har feet.

When Lilith saw that no other attack was forthcoming sha let the black shaft retract into the Artifact and said to Samael, “Has the purpose of our embassy been taken amiss? We come in the name of Cherub Meta- tron to trade words with the lords of Heaven, not blows.”

Samael said, “Alas, Princess, the discipline and even the honor of my army has lessened of late, to my embarrassment. You can remedy this. Behold, Bezaliel here is entirely within your power.”

And Bezaliel was horror stricken as hyz own god turned him over to hyz nightmare. Lilith touched the Golden Gift to Bezaliel’s arms and legs in segments, letting all see how easy it was for har to turn a yang into a limbless ruin. Hyz agonized screams did not last long. Hy bled out at har feet.

“Your weapon,” said Samael. “I’ve not before seen the like.”

“Lord Samael, this is the Golden Gift, the weapon of a cherub. Michael give it to my brother King Melchizedek, and by heritage it came to me.”

Samael grew impatient and told Lilith to state har piece.

Sha said, “Chokhmah is willing to give you that which you most desire.”

Samael said, “I wonder if you could even comprehend what it was I crave most.”

Sha said, “Indeed, the courtship of elohim is beyond anything elyonim can learn, Lord Samael. Yet Chokhmah has put me in something of the role of a chaperone. Thou must please me to please her.”

“Then what must I do to please you?”

Lilith said, “Send the army of Adan back to the land of the Black Beards, and come not again save by leave of the rightful king.”

“Impossible, dear Lilith. Did you forget? I never relinquish one scrap where my forces make footfall.”

Lilith turned to har companion. “What say you to this, Prince Barachi- el? Touching oaths the elohim are never faithless like angels or men can be. Lord Samael’s resolve never to retreat from conquered land would also hold hyz army here just as firmly once his word is given.”

Barachiel said, “This land is of small worth. My father would be full willing, I deem, to give it in exchange for the word of a Seraph that no Adanite boots would ever cross west. And if that Seraph’s word ever proved false that precedent, too, would be worth the land. Yet I am only the son of the King and I have no power to set aside the smallest scrap held by House Larund.”

Lilith gave counsel that hy come before hym and ratify any covenant forged here.

Hy said, “If the Adanites advance no further I will return to Rumbek.”

Queen Lilith struck up the Golden Gift once more. Sha dug a deep trench in the stony ground between har and the Adanites and said, “My Lord Samael, sight north and south along this line. No soldier of Adan shall march west of this line until Barachiel speaks to Metatron.”

Samael said, “So too shall it be a fence barring the east to yourself and the Fallen Angels. You shall be queen in name only, with no city to rule. This doom is upon thee, thy daughter, and all who come after.”

Then Lilith uttered words formally sealing the bargain.

“Such a trifle,” said Samael. “Are you now sufficiently pleased, Your Majesty, that we may proceed to the other thing you spoke of?”

Lilith said, “Even if King Metatron gives hyz assent to our bargain there remains the matter of Demonstroke.”

“Yes, there remains the matter of Demonstroke,” said Samael as hy reached over his shoulder to draw the blade strapped to hyz back in a leather sheath, the diamond sword known as Dragonthorn. “In Heaven, Your Majesty, there always remains the matter of Demonstroke.”

Many creatures imported from Earth were immediately killed by the hos- tile flora of Heaven. Some survived to thrive in various niches or they were herd animals which men had tamed from old. Keter knew they would breed beyond the ability of Heaven to feed them. When Keter in- troduced dragons all that went about on two legs had to keep one eye on the sky as surely as small four-legged creatures feared eagles. But the predators created by Keter were merely taken to be strong threads woven into the growing tapestry of Heaven.

Men honored the wisdom of Keter in creating the dragons, and they were not truly afraid. For it was man and not any other beast who were the most terrible monsters the universe had ever known from the day that fangless, clawless big-brained ape came down from the trees.

On Earth man had contended with fierce predators for his meat. Now that he was unleashed on Heaven so much the worse for Heaven, dragons or no. The beasts were safe enough if they remained in their aeries where they bred only rarely, but emerging, they were hunted. Lays com- memorating the deeds of many would-be or actual dragon slayers were told in roadside inns dotting Heaven, even when only a single dragon remained alive. Keter grew weary of hyz toy at last after burning portions of many towns and cities across every land west of Adan. But Keter held Demonstroke in reserve against the chance that Chokhmah might assail the Adanite army with her avatar.

The Cherub Lilith, speaking for Chokhmah on the flats of Magodon which lay to the west of the ice barrier, offered Samael a mutual disarma- ment.

Samael made the diamond sword Dragonthorn to dart this way and that, and soon Demonstroke was seen in the sky. As he drew nearer the armies of House Larund and Adan drew apart, leaving only Barachiel, Lilith, Samael, and Israel standing at the new border.

The dragon circled to the north and lined up on the border. Even Sa- mael backed away from the line, and the others found it prudent to follow his cue. Lilith was fascinated by the grace of the landing. The wings of Demonstroke spread to their full extent and he sank. The dragon’s hind legs touched first, then he tipped forward to run on all fours. Demonstroke came to a stop and sank to the ground directly be- tween the four nobles exactly on the trench Lilith had carved. Sha saw that the beast did not belch smoke or even seem to breathe.

With the beast so inert, Lilith’s curiosity overcame har caution and sha advanced to touch the creature’s hide. Sha found its scales did not merely resemble metal, they were metal. Lilith guessed a truth about the dragon then, but said nothing to Barachiel.

Starting at the dragon’s tail Lord Samael walked up along his back. Hy said to Lilith, “Come, Your Royal Highness. Let us leavest Demonstroke in the keeping of King Uriel and so completest our bargain.” Sha watched Samael seat hymself forward of a horn on the dragon’s back.

Further, Lilith saw that Samael, who was patting hyz thighs, expected har to sit in turn forward of hym and behind a shorter horn. Sha sighed and took the indicated position, knowing it was the only way to be done of har errand for Michael.

Demonstroke sprang to life. Lilith was not dismayed by the sensation of sudden rapid flight. Sha had flown much higher and faster many times within the avatar of Chokhmah. Far below sha saw Prince Barachi- el turn west to ride to hyz father and say hy had given away the east- ern hinterlands of Magodon. Sha also saw the Adanite force dispersing at the command of Israel to garrison their new province against invad- ers who would never come. Samael’s thumb touched gems on Dragonthorn and the beast obeyed, which Lilith thought too mundane a ritual for a spell.

Demonstroke’s head bent back over them on its long neck and fire spewed out in a jet that propelled the dragon into the sky, pushing Lilith against Samael, and hy in turn against the bony ridge at the place where the serpentine neck joined to the rest of his body.

The dragon rose until the air became almost too thin for Lilith to breathe. Then Demonstroke’s head bent forward again. He extended his wings and with gentle flaps the beast extended his glide as the waste- lands of Magodon rose to meet them underneath. Then, when the tops of deadly trees native to Heaven nearly brushed the belly of Demonstroke, he bent his head back again and let loose another long jet of flame. They chased the sun out over the sea. Lilith lost count of the cycles as Sealiah Island grew ahead.

Lilith began to wonder, did Samael never eat or even piss? If it was to be a test of wills sha vowed sha would not be the first to speak. But as westering Rigilkent sank below the horizon they glided down to one of the many scattered campfires visible on Sealiah. A party of Brown Beards were preparing to sup around their fire on the moors in the north of the isle when Demonstroke appeared and scattered them all away in abject terror. When the dragon came to a stop, Samael slid off to check what was cooking, and hy seemed pleased.

Lilith joined hym after pissing behind the beast’s bulk and found sup- per was a good beef stew made all the more delicious by har near star- vation. Sha smiled and said, “Thou must have done this before. Will thy pet have some?” Samael grinned in turn and shook hyz head.

“Obviously, Lord Samael, thy dragon is not really alive. It must needs be a contrivance of some kind, akin to Chokhmah’s avatar, save that it appears to move like a beast. Is that why we must ride on its back? Would we be ducking pulleys and ropes werst we to rideth inside?”

“What a clever yen to have guessed Demonstroke is mechanical after sitting upon its metal hide for hours as it whisked har across the leagues. Tell me, Queen Lilith, didst thou imagine any living thing could maintain such a hot fire within itself?”

Lilith shrugged. “Perhaps I fell prey to the delusion thou hast fostered among angels and nephilim and men that nothing is impossible for any of the elohim.”

Samael said, “Demonstroke has a different purpose than Chokhmah’s toy and was not designed to carry anyone. Think ye Lilith, were this Chokh- mah’s avatar and we had murdered Eyes of Keter, and had destroyed their stores in the ice, and had scattered Larund yeng to steal their food, how soon the Brown Beards would already be returning, like Mi- chael hymself did at Salem. Not so with a dragon.”

Lilith took a deep swig from a wineskin no one would try to reclaim by reason of the nearby monster. “By the gods thou hast thought of every- thing, Lord Samael! But when we leave the beast with Uriel what is the qualifying stipulation? With thee there is always at least one.”

“I will tell the king that Demonstroke is controlled only by Dragon- thorn, which is true, and that Dragonthorn must only be touched by a virgin female or it will grow brittle, and that is not true now but it will be true by the time we reach Jelaket in the land of Sastrom.”

Lilith laughed. “I knew it had to be something like that. Dost thou knowest Michael calls thee Ha-Satan?”

“Ha-Satan. The Accuser.” Samael considered it, then hy shrugged and said it was fair.

“I wonder who it must needs be that accepts thy accusations,” Lilith continued. “Not Chokhmah, certainly. Michael hast said he deemeth humans and nephilim and angels to be students, Lord Samael. The worst thou could do is expose situations where world-dwellers might benefit from more instruction. And thou has vowed thou wilt never speak of us to El Elyon, the great city of all elohim. So it seems the only audience thou hast as thou perform the role of the Ha-Satan is Daat, the mother of Chokh- mah. And that is pathetic, dost thou not agree?”

Samael replied, “I am allowing world-dwellers, collectively, to build the case they are not the Students. For thou art not the first world-dwell- ers we have known. There wast another species much like thee in a cru- cial way, in that they would not heed our wisdom. We watched them drive themselves to extinction. The true Students are those willing to accept our teaching.”

“And thee, Lord Samael, art deluded if thou thinkest thou art the sole fount of wisdom. Chokhmah, too, is elohim, and we of Salem, and Ram- mon, and even some in the other world who embrace Chokhmah art willing to accept all her teachings, making us the Students indeed.”

Angered, Samael briefly considered killing Lilith on the spot for the rebuke. But Lilith read hyz fleeting rage as though hy were an un- furled scroll and said, “Chokhmah is ready to negotiate that thou may join with her, Lord Samael, but my personal safety is non-negotiable.”

“Do not make the mistake of thinking Chokhmah has all the advantages in a courtship, Your Majesty. She has been in existence for seven thousand years, didst thout not know? Most elohim become mothers within a span similar to a single human lifetime. She cannot put it off forever.”

Then it was Queen Lilith’s turn to momentarily reveal an emotion, but it was one of slight disgust. Sha said, “No doubt elohim have physical imperatives, Lord, but I care not to listen to details. Such would be the mommy daddy talk, but for living suns.”

“Then eat thy fill of what our hosts have so kindly prepared for us, nay, more than thy fill. Tomorrow morning we shall rise over the Nine Mile Wall that reareth behind Rumbek. By this time tomorrow we shall pass Elketz. In four days we glidest over the Wall of God.”

Samael stacked fuel nigh to the inert bulk of Demonstroke out of the wind and kindled another fire there. Upon an outer garment hy stretched hymself out, cursing the need of all world-dwellers to sus- pend their consciousness when it grew dark, in Heaven as it was on Earth.

Before the Deluge, Heaven was nearly completely circled by the Really Big River born on the frozen flanks of Mt. Tureth. It twisted its way east between the Northern and Southern Ice, which were then five hun- dred miles apart. Six vertical miles the river dropped. In those days the River emptied into the largest sea in heaven, known as Thalury. But the Great Deluge intervened to deepen the ice age. The northern and southern glacial sheets moved to within three hundred miles of each other, and in three places the ice was joined.

West of Rumbek the land of Magodon rose to become the very roof of heaven. Here lay the most extensive merger of the two ice caps. Glacier-carved U-shaped valleys delved far into the mountains but only a single way existed to skirt Mt. Tureth and pass beyond. There pairs of large wooden cages dangling from ropes and pulleys carried travel- ers and freight over a staircase of twenty-four cliffs, each one rang- ing from sixtyi-five to three hundred feet. Every haul that went up was balanced by a heavier haul that went down.

South of Mt. Tureth two dozen scattered cliffs merged into a fearsome sheer rock wall nineteen thousand feet high that stretched clear to the southern ice pack. This was the Wall of God, festooned with innu- merable cataracts, and there was not its like anywhere else in Heaven or on the Earth.

Demonstroke pitched over. For three air miles he dropped a mile in elevation, even as the treetops of the extreme western marches of Magodon remained just below his belly. Then he reached the ledge of the Wall of God and was out over the void. Lilith gasped at the view. Sha saw Thalury then, diminished from its antediluvian majesty yet still the greatest sea in Heaven. A bay reached all the way to the foot of the Wall of God, dividing the land of Sastrom from Haaretz to the south. To a dispassionate observer Demonstroke resembled nothing so much as a gnat buzzing outside a castle wall.

At the base of the Wall of God was a jumble of talus with some boul- ders as large as a house. These gave way to foothills that dropped another mile before reaching bottom land. Samael guided the dragon north over a series of forested ridges to reach the city of Jelaket.

At Adan in the east angels numbered in their hundred thousands, and nephilim in their thousands, but humans only in their hundreds. In Rammon in the uttermost west humans numbered in their hundred thou- sands and nephilim in their thousands, but angels only in their hundreds.

Magodon, which had taken Samael and Lilith the better part of a week to cross even by dragon, had angels and nephilim and men, each in the hundreds of thousands. But now Lilith and Samael had crossed over into the three lands of the Red Beards divided by Thalury. There humans and nephilim were counted in the tens of thousands but angels only in their thousands.

King Uriel hemself was of the nephilim while hez daughter Dafla was human. Lilith knew the course of young Dafla’s life was to irrevocably change when they arrived in Jelaket. The city was the keystone of Heaven, a seaport and the first step in the staircase to Mt. Tureth. Jelaket was the gatehouse for all goods moving east and west and grew fat on the duties levied thereon in commerce interrupted only by war or, just once, by Demonstroke himself.

Many of the people of Jelaket remembered when the monster came last, and they were not happy memories. When Samael landed in the large out- er courtyard of the castle of King Uriel, near the stables, hy was most unwelcome, but a flying dragon need never knock.

Watching from the ramparts, King Uriel saw hez archers assemble in a wary circle around the beast as the two riders dismounted. One che recognized as the Seraph Samael, but the other, a yin arrayed for war, che knew not. They conversed with hez guard, and one ran inside.

Uriel reached a silent count of nearly fifty before the soldier ap- peared. “Your Majesty, Lord Samael has arrived, and with hym is Queen Lilith of Salem. Sha says they have flown upon Demonstroke from the frontier between Magodon and Adan and crave audience with the king.”

Uriel said, “And shall I treat with foreign nobility while their liv- ing engine of war skulks within the walls of my castle like a blade over my neck?”

“Your Majesty, Lord Samael swore the beast would not move one whit so long as hy and the queen remaineth thy guests.”

The Cherub Uriel knew of a surety those were the words of Lord Samael, not that che once doubted hez soldier. Che knew Samael could never resist coating hyz menace with a honeyed tongue. Che said, “Attend to our visitors’ needs and seat them in the smaller council chamber. And send to notify the First Minister. When Lord Samael and the queen are ready we shall see them alone, Makassar and myself.”

Uriel knew the dragon must portend some deep form of humiliation and it would not do to receive the visitors in the big hall with others to witness.

At a casual first glance, First Minister Makassar Bronzesaber might have been mistaken for the king of the Red Beards, and Uriel merely his son. As a human male, for instance, Makassar really had a red beard, while the actual king, as a jen, could only manage a sparse down.

Lilith and Samael stood up when they entered, but Uriel said to them, “I beg thee, esteemed ones, be seated once more. I do not relish observing all the correct formalities here. For one thing, Queen Li- lith, thy claim to be Cherub hast outrun any news from Salem.”

They both seemed pleased by this overture and resumed their seats as King Uriel took hez own seat at the head of the table. Makassar re- mained standing at the king’s side as though interposing between Uriel and Samael, and he was armed with a sword. Samael glanced at it.

Uriel glanced at Samael glancing at it. Che said, “Forgive the per- ceived affront, great ones, that Minister Makassar is girded for vio- lence, but my servants tell me that you, at least, Lord Samael, bear a weapon yourself, and would not lay it aside. I am a cautious jen.”

Deliberately, with a stately pace, Samael brought out the diamond blade and laid it on the table with the hilt toward the king. Hy said, “Dragonthorn is not so much a weapon as a talisman, Your Majesty, with powerful spells to act as invisible reins upon Demonstroke.”

“Tell me, Lord Samael, what does thy dragon, or this blade, bewitched or no, have to do with me or any of the House of Bellon?”

“Your Majesty, if thou pleaseth,” put in Lilith, “the answer is bound up with the bloody dispute that rageth within House Adan. My father Mel- chiyahu lies dead. Samael took the natural death of my father as the signal to rekindle the Adanite family squabble and moved on Salem.” Lilith then grew bitter as sha spoke. “My brother, King Melchizedek, suffered a decidedly unnatural death. So I took my faction west but Samael followed us. Your Majesty, Michael has revealed to me that no matter how wicked we might deem a particular eloah to be, without ex- ception all elohim hold themselves bound by their word. So it fell to war to unseat my brother from the throne. A mere edict from Samael would not suffice to undo the earlier edict seating my ancestor on the throne. Also Samael has said that wheresoever the boots of his host go, there is the frontier of the House of Adan, forever, and so it must needs be. Yet I drew a line east of Rumbek, and Samael can do nothing but hold to hyz word that no Adanite arrayed for war shall cross west. Yet I knew with hyz dragon alone Samael could lay waste to every city and town outside of Adan. Naturally the question of what to do with Demonstroke arose as we parleyed. In the proposed bargain, Your Majesty, the Dragonthorn blade is to be kept here in your safe- keeping.”

“More specifically,” Samael put in, ‘the blade must go into the keep- ing of a human female of the House of Bellon. She must be one who has never known man nor jen nor ambi nor yang. She must remain pure for all the days she possesses Dragonthorn, or it will shatter.”

“Again I ask, Lord Samael,” said the king, “why the Red Beards?”

“When I brought humans into Heaven from the other world I have ever played the natural philosopher, mixing potions to see what happens. Can one maid child among thee remain chaste or do I break the glass- ware?”

Lilith spoke quickly to fill the sudden awkward silence as King Uriel fumed. “The Lord Samael makes an unfortunate jest, Your Majesty. All of Heaven knows the to be a good and wise king. Who better to keep the dragon out of play than a consecrated virgin in thy own court?”

“It is equally unfortunate,Your Highness’ said Uriel, ‘that I am in no mood for veiled threats, even when explained away as weak jests. Take thy diamond sword, Lord Samael, and make thine offer to Queen Aurra.”

After Uriel had uttered hez decision the blade began to glow.

Blue and white the weapon shone, so bright that Uriel, Makassar, and Lilith shielded their eyes. Samael simply looked away. When the glow faded once more Samael said, “The deed is done. Dragonthorn will shat- ter of its own accord without a damsel’s touch, and that soon. Nothing will then restrain Demonstroke from carrying out the purpose I in- stilled in him when he was first created. He will relentlessly seek out and extinguish the life of every world-dweller in Heaven, no mat- ter how long it takes. And he will begin killing here in Sastrom.”

“Your orders, my liege Lord?” asked the First Minister, and the king saw his hand gripping the sword beneath his tunic.

“Hold!” Uriel barked. This was the humiliation the king had expected. Che caught the glance of Lilith. “Did you know?”

“Only a broad outline, Your Majesty. Not this detail.”

Cherub Uriel looked into the eyes of Samael then and saw the matter was clearly nothing even Queen Lilith could describe as a joke. Che stood up. “Makassar, send for wine and see to our noble guests. A grievous errand has fallen to me and I must be about it.”

The Cherub Uriel loved hez daughter Dafla above all. Che was almost supernaturally patient with Dafla and denied her not the least thing. Even with all life in Heaven hanging upon one slender thread, che listened to the girl as she spoke of last night’s dream.

Dafla said, “Father, I dreamed it was night and the ground was covered with sleeping metal children. People came out of the sky in two tall silver engines of war that spouted fire, but they wore armor and I didn’t know if they were men or women, jin or ambe, yen or yeng. The first person picked up one of the metal children and they went into the first tower, and somehow I knew that metal child was myself, in the strange way of dreams. We flew into the sky and we were safe. But the second person stayed behind to pick up more children. Even though I knew I was flying away and safe, somehow I was also there watching the second person look for as many metal children as they could find, but that person was caught by dark iron men and killed. Then I awoke. Is that not the strangest dream you ever heard?”

Uriel smiled at hez Dafla. “I shall interpret your very strange dream, child. The first person in your dream is really myself. You feel protected around me, which is a good thought, because my entire will is bent toward keeping you safe. The second person is your mother. Dafla, your dear mother wanted to have other children by me, and those were the other little metal people in your dream. But in real life, as we know, she fell victim to poison in her drink, and so she was killed by the palace intrigues that never cease here in Jelaket.”

“As simple as that, Father?”

“As simple as that. At night your sleeping mind creates images to express what you feel deep in your heart. You are still dealing with your grief. I take solace from the content of your dream that you do not blame me for your mother’s death.”

“Never, Father!” Dafla was shocked at the mere suggestion that she would think that, or even dream it.

The king placed a hand on hez daughter’s hand to reassure her, and che said, “If you did blame me, even in your inner heart, your dream would have been very different.”

“Father why have you not married once more? Do you fear a second wife would be killed as well?”

“Not so, Dafla. Soon a woman will try to wedge herself into my life and I will know the identity of the poisoner.”

Uriel did not yet mention that che would wed Makassar after the assassin was exposed.

“Now we must set aside talk of your dreams, daughter, and our lingering grief for your mother, and our lamentation over things we can never change. Did you see the dragon?”

“Oh, yes father, but only for a little while. First Minister Makassar came and locked my window.'”

“Forgive him, dearest Dafla, he did so only at my command, that you might be safe. Did you know this evening I have been speaking with two nobles who came with the dragon from far in the east? One of them is Lilith, who is the Queen of Salem. I am certain you have not seen har before. But the other noble is a seraph named Samael. In Adan hy is a greater lord than even a king, although hy has no power to rule here. Lord Samael has taken counsel with me before on a number of occasions. Have you learned something of the elohim from your tutors, Dafla?”

“Yes, father, I have learned that the elohim are alive but they are not like angels or nephilim or humans. They never die. We see them as stars. Chokhmah is really the star we call Nahash, or the head of the snake. Keter and Daat are stars which are so close to us we see them as suns.”

“All that is true, Dafla.Your tutors are excellent. But in less than even your short lifetime the elohim have begun to appear to us in the form of angels as well. No one knows how they are able to do this, but the first to do so was Chokhmah. We know her as the seraph Michael. The eloah we see as the cool orange sun called Daat is also seen in heaven as a youth named Israel. And the hot white sun, Keter, has Samael as his living avatar. This is the same Samael who has spoken with me this evening, Dafla, and I would have you meet hym.”

Dafla slid off her bed where she had been sitting and rushed to embrace her father. “Of course I will see hym, simply because you wish it. But many lords and ladies have visited you before and I was never invited to meet them.”

“Truly, daughter, what is soon to happen I do not wish for you.”

“I don’t understand, Father.”

“Samael has already used hyz dragon for murder. It can hunt down and kill every living thing in Heaven. But Queen Lilith has forced a bargain on its master. The dragon will stay with us in the city, forever. But Samael always gives with one hand and takes with the other. Beloved Dafla, this dragon, Demonstroke, is controlled by a talismanic blade, the largest diamond in heaven. But now only one such as yourself can touch it. Only a human female who has never been a mother or a wife. Do you see why I wish the dragon had never come here?”

“I think so, Father.”

“Still, Dafla, you are too young to understand everything that Samael will take away from you if you accept the Dragonthorn. In years to come, what you lose will weigh upon your body and mind as a terrible burden. Yet what choice do we really have in this matter?”

“Father, do you fear that I, at age twelve, have no right to decide something for the Dafla to come at age twenty? Of course I do! That’s just me living my life!”

“Such wisdom in a child,” wondered Uriel. “Do you know when I hear your words I hear the voice of your mother? Now let us go see our noble guests.”

Uriel introduced Dafla to Samael and Lilith, who were waiting with Makassar. Lilith knew all along that only the king’s own daughter could safeguard the dragon. Samael had conditioned it upon her celibacy, and Uriel, for as long che reigned, could control that absolutely.

Seeing the diamond blade lying on the table and knowing Lord Samael had given it complete power over the dragon, a deception suggested itself to Uriel as a way to lighten the lifetime burden that was about to be laid upon Dafla. Che said, “Behold the Dragonthorn, daughter. Take up the sword and none shall have the power to deny your least whim, save in the one matter of which we spoke. With the blade in hand the beast must obey you. All my subjects must obey you. If you so choose, even I must obey you, as well as Queen Lilith, and Lord Samael.”

Makassar, Lilith, and Samael immediately discerned what the Bellon king was doing, and none dared to contradict hym, not even Samael, who smiled broadly at how Uriel had just set hez daughter on the path to her own destruction and che had no inkling that che had done so.

The king’s daughter did take up the sword, unleashing another light show that impressed everyone present save Samael, who worked it, and Lilith, the wife and first disciple of Michael, who knew all sorcery to be mere showmanship like the gentle ruse Uriel was carrying out with Dafla.

Lord Samael said, “I commend you, King Uriel, Demonstroke is now bound by chains that may only be broken by an act of human will. Furthermore, you have the means to travel anywhere in Heaven in mere days that would otherwise take a year or more. And none now dare assail you.”

King Uriel said, “Yes, Lord Samael, I considered that when I weighed laying this yoke upon Dafla, that it should be made lighter with a dragon at her beck and call. I need not see you again peddling arms of Adanite craftsyeng and making off with the gold of my treasury.”

Dafla took this cue and decided to test the power of the Dragonthorn blade. She pointed the tip at Lord Samael and said, ‘Leave at once, you, on foot if you must, and never return!” She pointed the tip at Lilith as well. “You must leave as well, for your part in upsetting my father!”

“Indeed.” Lilith stood up, reached inside har breastplate, removed a fragment of parchment, and handed it to Samael. Sha said, “I do not understand any of the symbols written here, but Michael said you would know them and take this to be our next destination.”

Samael read the parchment and summoned a fold-door, the one bit of sorcery that even Lilith could not put down as a simple trick. Sha and Samael were enveloped by an insubstantial dome that showed forth a land free of snow, roaring with the dim sound of Mt. Anshar in eruption.

Lilith bowed to the king and said, “Farewell, Your Majesty! May good fortune be with you and all who look to you.” Then with a loud noise that frightened Dafla to tears they were gone, leaving only a familiar but unnecessary crater in the floor that was Samael’s calling card.

Michael and Samael went on to the next step, which was to stuff themselves with a meal prepared by Lilith. Afterward both seraphim would be hydrated and nourished only by intravenous means.

When living stars mate the male literally extends some of his living substance across the shortcut in space-time that bypasses the parsecs of real space separating him from the female. The sensation is ecstatic beyond all reason but it is only available to him by mating.

For female elohim the pleasure comes from her living substance being compressed to accommodate the male, which culminates when their living star-stuff merges to form a third individual. But mating is not the sole means of obtaining this compression. She can indulge herself. Put another way, female elohim could masturbate while males could not. Evolution drove this adaption. The female could postpone having inter- course until she found the most suitable mate. Males, in a perpetual state of blue balls, were motivated to make themselves suitable.

For thousands of years Chokhmah had resorted to this expedient, al- though never while in union with the seraph Michael, since the activi- ty captured her full attention to the exclusion of attending to the basic needs of living as an elyon. But now it was safe to do so.

Chokhmah did the thing once more and felt the organized living nuclear matter that was herself pile up in density, leaving a large area empty in the thin layer of the core where she existed. At the same time Keter pushed into her as well, unaware of the ongoing sabotage.

This is what was supposed to happen:

Eight to ten cycles of Keter pushing his substance into Chokhmah over several months, with each cycle culminating in a spherical wave that rang out from the star Sol at the speed of light, seeking a wild F, G, or K sun to germinate.

This is what happened instead:

One cycle of Keter pushing his living substance into Chokhmah over the course of three weeks, culminating in the germination of his eloah daughter in the habitable layer of Sol that had been emptied out by Chokhmah by pleasuring herself first.

The deed was done and Michael, who went into it prepared, was the first to come back to hymself in Anshar. Far away hyz half of the stellar body which hy now shared with a daughter was beginning to transform permanently into male and that brought an abrupt end to the mating.

Lilith helped Michael remove all the catheters, tubes, and needles, get dressed, then gave hym the first hot, solid food hy had taken in three weeks. Hy was pleased to find hy suffered no bedsores. Lilith and Leliel had done well in repositioning hyz body during the coma.

Michael still had his commitment to bring Samael through the coma as well, but only to the point where hy could recover on hyz own. Keter was beginning to realize what had happened and grew more wroth by the moment. The anger would carry through to Samael when hy awoke.

When Samael did awaken hy would find hyz garments cleaned and folded neatly by hyz bed, lukewarm chicken, rice, and greens, plus hot ground outside where Michael, Lilith, and Leliel had just moments before made their exit to the land of Rammon by means of the avatar of Chokhmah.

During the following year Chokhmah’s offspring (whom he named Binah in sounds intelligible to Lilith and Leliel) grew in awareness as a newborn eloah. Mother and daughter shared a single body and Chokhmah had never heard of a similar situation in all of the lore of El Elyon.

Chokhmah learned she could communicate with Binah through direct physical contact in a way that was fundamentally different from the way Keter must do so through a foldline. Binah could never sever the bridge to har father, but she did ensure that no information or substance was ever passed along in either direction. Binah would never establish a fold-door with Keter.

It was Chokhmah’s first real victory. The harem scheme of Keter and Daat had come to an abrupt end, at least on the branch that ran through Chokhmah. Binah had been conceived with Daat already designated as her future mate, but after Chokhmah’s sabotage that was never to be.