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Across Kemen volcanoes are born below the surface and burn their way through the ice. The ice caps give way around the bulk of them and close back up again to form rugged lands in the shape of teardrops. In one such place, which abounds with geysers and boiling lakes, the avatar of Bat-El touched down once more. Anshar was the name Michael later chose for the hidden land after he surveyed it. So distant is Anshar from the inhabited places along the equator that no angels had ever discovered it, thinking the Northern Ice to be a wasteland that continued without bound.

When Michael climbed back down through the central pillar and reached the ground Bat-El ordered him to walk a short distance away. After he did so, the avatar begin to shrink and change shape until it attained the form of a slender angel of indeterminate sex. The avatar was encased entirely in featureless white, even the face, which remained perfectly smooth with not even eyes to see nor mouth to speak. Yet see and speak it could still do.

The figure pointed across the barren flats to a dwelling made of glass and wood. It said, "Michael, there is only one structure in all of this land and it now belongs to you, solely. Let us draw indoors and I will declare many things."

Michael agreed. He found that when Bat-El walked the ground shook far more intensely than it did under a horse's gait. He said, "I am safe Lord, as you said, I would be, though it was every bit as terrifying as you counseled. Reciting the Creation Litany as you commanded me did help. Yet now I see the Litany is false, and I wonder what other lies were taught to me."

Bat-El told Michael she was the daughter of Elyon rather than his son as the Litany taught.

The house was more glass than wood, built on a stony knoll with an outstanding view of the ever-changing fire torrents of Mount Anshar only two leagues distant across a pumice plain. But there was no danger of lava engulfing the house. A great chasm intervened.

In design the house was merely a single room with an alcove above the kitchen where Michael could sleep with some degree of privacy, but there was no other living soul for a thousand leagues. On the main level were plush cushions and a glass table of superior make. Bat-El required no cushion for comfort. She simply seated her avatar on the stone floor to put its head on a level with Michael's head and began to speak.