TC06

Avram means "the father is exalted" which glorified Terah rather than his son. In the ritual that sealed the covenant with Binah Melchizedek changed his name to Avraham, which means "father of many nations".

When Avraham's only son Yishak was fourteen years of age Mel chizedek gave commandment:

MELCHIZEDEK: [Take now Yishak and go to the hill country. There you shall make of him a burnt offering upon one of the mountains that I will show you]

At first Avraham searched the face of Melchizedek, thinking it to be a bad joke. Avraham was tempted to refuse outright as he did once before in Harran, but he remembered the covenant. Melchizidek says God Most High now requires the life of his son? So be it.

AVRAHAM: [Let my word be true. I will obey my God, even though I find his demands to be hateful]

When all was ready Avraham left his flocks grazing on the plains nigh to the coast. There he left his wife and all his servants. With Yishak at his side he was led by Melchizedek into the hills that overlooked the Salt Sea.

On the first  night Melchizedek  told Avraham  to look  at the stars and asked if he could count them.

MELCHIZEDEK: [So shall your descendants be]

Avraham got the point. He already possessed many animals and servants and great riches. He did not place his hopes on obtain ing a better second life. The only new thing God could give Av raham was the assurance that his name and his blood and the memory of him as a faithful servant of the living God would be carried into the indefinite future.

They saw no game along the way, so when they drew near to the designated place and Melchizedek pointed out the hill to them, Yishak wondered about this aloud.

YISHAK: [Where is the animal for the offering?]

Melchizedek said nothing. Avraham could not bring  himself to lie to his son.

AVRAHAM: [God himself will provide the offering]

Yishak belived that utterly, and he was excited to see what God was going to bring, so he ran ahead up the hill with youthful energy.

AVRAHAM: [When we reach the top you will help me restrain my son]

When they caught up with the boy on the hilltop Yishak called out.

YISHAK: [Father, there's nothing here!]

Avraham had a length of rope and was tying loops in it. AVRAHAM: [Join me here son, and help with this]

Yishak promptly obeyed his father.

Thus distracted, Melchizadek took the opportunity to seize the boy. Yishak didn't cry out at first because he didn't understand what was happening until Avraham and Melchizedek had lashed him securely to a flat boulder that would serve as the altar. After that Avraham didn't need to work up the will to slay his own son, he was actually in a hurry to do it. Every instant the helpless Yishak lay in mortal terror of his own father tore at his heart. Avraham couldn't stand it. He raised his blade...

Melchizedek was barely in time to restrain him.

MELCHIZEDEK: [Enough! Do not harm the boy!]

To be certain, Melchizedek used the Killing Relic to cut the lad free once more. Yishak ran off to a safe distance and turned to face his father.

Avraham's face twisted as he worked through a storm of dark emo tions. He seemed to arrive at an answer.

AVRAHAM: [A day of testing?]

Melchizedek nodded in the affirmative.

MELCHIZEDEK: [This day will not be forgotten while cold and heat, seed-time and harvest remain. For God Most High knows you will not even withhold your only son from him]

Avraham longed to embrace Yishak but he saw how the boy stood well away. Trust, once betrayed like this, could never return. God had ruined his son's love for him. That was the thing Avra ham sacrificed and it was almost more than he could bear.

AVRAHAM: [Could there not have been another way?]

MELCHIZEDEK: [It would be difficult to explain the full back ground of the controversy. It is enough for you to know the ene my of man has made certain claims and God Most High has chosen you and your descendants to show them to be false]

AVRAHAM: [What I dread most of all is answering the hard ques tions of Sarai after Yishak has spoken to her of all this, which he doubtless will]

Just then a portal appeared on the hilltop. With the crack of a whip a ram rushed through. With a smooth stroke of the Killing Relic Melchizedek separated the head and body of the animal af ter it emerged from the bubble, that Avraham may not be proven false in what he had said to his son.

MELCHIZEDEK: [Farewell, Avraham of Harran! We shall never meet again, but one day other servants may be sent as God Most High commands]

In the audience hall of Melchiyahu one lamp alone was burning to give light. Melchizedek had forgotten how day on one world could be night on the other, and he wondered how that could be.

Melchizedek went to the wing of the palace where Princess Lilith lived, as she was quite nocturnal. When he drew near to her chambers he saw servants going out with wet linen and going in with dry and he wondered if he really wanted to go any further. The worst fears of Melchizedek materialized when he found Lilith to be nude from the waist down with each leg held high in the air by servants, debauched even by his sister's standards. But Hamon was also present amid the flurry of activity.

Lilith spied him approaching and smiled broadly.

LILITH: [Deck, you've come! And just in time!]

HAMON: [The head has breached. Push, Lil! Push!]

Melchizedek remembered little after that, only that it was all very liquid. Afterwards he realized to his surprise that he, a warrior and prince of the city, had fainted. When he was revived the newborn was already skin-to-skin against its mother.

LILITH: [Deck, is Laylah not beautiful?]

MELCHIZEDEK: [I see there have been many changes this past year]

LILITH: [Who more worthy to wed an ophan of Salem than a Seraph?]

She affirmed what  Melchizedek had  long guessed  about Hamon, that he was greater in glory than any king.

LILITH: [And Deck, in your absence the city has withstood war!]

MELCHIZEDEK: [Beloved sister, you are the most valiant and hardy jen I know, but unless I am still unconscious and dreaming, just moments before you went through one of the most difficult and painful experiences possible in this world and did not once cry out]

HAMON: [I gave Lilith a number of wedding gifts. One of them is that she can set aside any pain, if she so chooses]

MELCHIZEDEK: [Yet pain is the not enemy most people think it is. A 'gift' such as that leads only to a short life]

HAMON: [That is true, Your Royal Highness, but only if the gift stands alone]

LILITH (nursing Laylah): [There are things it is well Malkuth and Kether not discover until it is too late. Not the most re fined torment could wrest them from me]

MELCHIZEDEK: [Avraham proved true in the testing, Lord Hamon]

HAMON: [That is so, but he has little love for a god who demand ed the life of his son. Still, I suppose a man might remain loy al to a god he actively hates. Even now he and Yishak are offer ing the animal I sent to them. But come, Melchizedek, your toils on Earth are at an end. Let your mind be at ease and rejoice with your sister. You have a niece! Tomorrow we shall see your father and speak of what has befallen Salem in your absence.]