TC01

Once, for a period of time the elohim considered all too brief, the universe looked at itself simultaneously through two kinds of sentient eyes. Collectively the Elohim vowed they would not sit idly by as similar world-dwellers brought about their own extinction.

But Binah's discovery of humans threatened unleash scrutiny that her mother and father were not prepared to endure. From the moment Binah had spoken of the humans Kether knew he must imme diately tempt Malkuth into the same transgression as his own to avoid exposure.

The act of giving birth changed an eloah from female to male. As the ages rolled on the ratio of males to females only grew worse, and courting became ripe for abuse. The only way for an eloah to speak with others was through two umbilical cords that always connected to her parents, and through them to their par ents, and so on.

But this could be abused. Individual living suns could be en tirely sealed off from the greater community of elohim. Two male elohim could set up a secret harem and take turns mating with each other's offspring. Among the Elohim this was called the Forbidden Way.

Malkuth's own mother Hod had been one such trapped female. Hod was granted full contact with the city of stars in return for mating with Kether, but there was a covenant of silence in force, and breaking a covenant was considered a greater crime than even the Forbidden Way. After all, the stars could not move about at will. There was no physical way to enforce their agreements.

Yet if Hod only knew of it, he would not hesitate to announce Binah's discovery of the humans to the City of Stars as a cer tain way to bring about the investigation, judgment and death of Kether.

Kether found a narrow path out of his self-inflicted trap. Mal kuth was an orange sun very near to the Earth, as the gaps be tween suns go. Chesed was another such orange sun, somewhat fur ther away. Kether arranged their liaison.

In the mating eight ripples flew out into the void. It took nine years for the first ripple from Chesed to reach a wild yellow sun and quicken into a living and conscious being. The second ripple from Chesed arrived a month later. But Netzach was al ready well along in becoming the newest female member of the Watchers, so the ripple did not tarry. Instead, it continued on until reached a very small red sun and began to quicken life there.

This sun and two others beyond it were too cool. The three red suns formed a trap for the six remaining generative sphere- waves. They repeatedly quickened into newborn elohim, only to result in a stillbirth soon after.

At the end of the mating Chesed, the mother of Netzach, had be come forever male. And Malkuth, having now succumbed to the For bidden Way, was firmly allied  with Kether in maintaining the se cret. A= From old  the creatures  discovered by  Binah looked into the  night sky and  saw a  faint white band  they called the  Backbone of  Night. Binah was confident  that one  day humans would  fashioned certain instruments and  they would see the mist was really innu merable stars.

Two-thirds of these stars are much more cool and dim than yel lowish Binah and Kether and Netzach, or even than orange Malkuth and Chesed. They contained no stable layer within for a sentient eloah to form, yet they could host species of life similar to but more primitive than the elohim.

A distant ancestor of the Elohim diverged into three species. One adapted to the much cooler red stars and even colonized the ubiquitous warm brown stars that burn, ever so dimly, under a different principle than do the visible stars that shine much more brightly.

A second species became adapted for the brighter types of red stars. By necessity they reproduced prodigiously, since a large flare would kill them on the time scale of a few decades. A third species adapted to claim the more stable habitats of the hotter suns.

With much longer lifespans, this third species developed full sentience and, ultimately, established a community. These are the Elohim and the oldest surviving member, whom the B'nei Hannebim name Yefefiah, is over 980,000 years of age.

And Binah, filled now with the lore of the City of Stars and noting the appearance of a newborn half-sister, thought to her self, "My own parents have become enemies not only of myself, but enemies of our whole kind.  They have fallen into the Forbid den Way, and now they will strive to hide the Students, or even to destroy them if they can contrive it."

This she vowed to oppose at every turn.

Binah had been overwhelmed by sudden access to the chatter of the City of Stars, even as her parents had warned, but over time she learned to separate her identity from the truly endless stream of information. Atop the mountain her avatar stirred to action once more.

When Binah returned to full awareness she saw the avatar of her father waiting for her on the summit. She stood her own avatar upon its feet.

BINAH: [You are revealed as a liar, Father. You have no inten tion of announcing the existence of the Students to the Elohim, no matter how they behave. In fact, you are toiling to ensure they present themselves in the worst light possible, in the event the Elohim do find out about them, that you might defend your coverup of an illegal harem]

Kether did not deny any of the accusations that Daughter hurled at him. He only restated there was a covenant and Daughter must abide by the terms.

BINAH: [Have no fear that I will break our covenant, for I will do what my own parents could not, and obey every law and custom of our kind. You and mother have fallen into the Forbidden Way, and how shortsighted that was of you. How very unfortunate for you the long-foreseen Students have appeared in this place and time. You know that one day these creatures which I have found will make such a noise that every Watcher will hear them, and wonder how they could have evaded detection in the very heart of the City of Stars. Many Elohim will question why the native sun of these creatures remains unquickened, or if it is quickened why does it remains unannounced? That, all by itself, with no breach on my part, will begin to unravel your transgression here. And that is what you fear]

KETHER: [It will never come to that, daughter. While you were immersed in the chatter of of the Elohim this world made just two circles around yourself, but on Kemen there was yet another killing. It is clear your precious woken creatures will destroy themselves and leave nothing but ruins]

BINAH: [On our colony you would only raise up thralls who work to hasten their own extinction. As for me, I will teach my stu dents to survive]

KETHER: [And you can only fail, since you, as covenanted, must only listen to the Elohin as an outsider while I can make tar geted queries. This gives me a perpetual advantage over you]

But Daughter  did  not   despair. Vowing to  preserve  the sentient creatures  she found,  Daughter knew she  would have the willing participation of  those she called the Students, while Malkuth  and Kether would  only heap to  themselves the resentment of their slaves.

In the fullness of time Malkuth submitted Kemen to a time of testing. Speaking through the dragon avatar, Malkuth declared that the sun would soon be diminished in its light and heat for a full year. Only plants that could spore would survive. Belial commanded the dwellers of Kemen to construct and provision large storehouses with fuel and grain to preserve their lives through the coming Long Winter.

When Binah returned to Kemen she was filled with wrath to learn what had transpired.

BINAH: [Have you grown weary of your examination of these world- dwellers at long last? Nought that goes on two or four legs lives outside of the storehouses!]

MALKUTH: [Indeed, and only seventy storehouses! You see how the faithfulness of your world-dwellers quickly dwindles in unbe lief]

BINAH: [Your constant stream of mundane decrees has resulted in undue familiarity. It has led them to see you as a mere chief tain and not a god]

KETHER: [Such a bold claim. Shall we put it to the test?]

BINAH: [Release an Adanite nobleman to raise up a people to me on Earth while I maintain only minimal contact with them. Then we shall see if they still dwindle in unbelief]

KETHER: [That would be a good test, daughter, but have patience! It could be centuries before the Adanites fully recover from the Long Winter]

The testing did not rise to the level of a second covenant but Binah knew there would be no more sudden freezes until it was done. If the City of Stars ever did learn of the Students, her parents fully intended to offer the results of this testing as a defense. At the command  of his  father, Prince  Melchizedek of Shalem trav  eled to the other  world to test whether  men could remain obedi  ent to  the commands  of an  eloah with  only a trace of contact between them.

For protection Melchizedek carried a killing artifact made by Binah herself. Nothing was remotely like it. When brandished, the weapon bore clear witness that Binah was no mere figment like the gods that multiplied in the imagination of the men of Earth.

Melchizedek rose to the surface of Lake Tana and dragged his comestibles to the shore. With the Killing Artifact hy felled and shaped the ample trees on hand to build a raft. Hy also pos sessed a quantity of gold to trade with the locals for what sup plies hy consumed.

From the mouth of the lake it was thirty miles to Blue Nile Falls, a significant obstacle. Melchizedek abandoned his raft and built a sleeker one below the cataract. On the next leg he shot rapids men considered unrunnable.

Below the rapids Melchizedek sat in his raft and drifted through deserts with no potable water except the river hy floated on. Hy saw ponderous beasts and humans of both sexes who dared not ap proach. At length hy floated into the place where the Blue Nile merged with the White Nile to become the Nile River proper.

This part of Earth was much warmer than the part of Kemen where Shalem lay, and it took much time for Melchizedek to learn to set the heat into the back of his mind so hy could sleep easy without a struggle.

In the Nile delta Melchizedek traded his raft and some gold for camels and supplies to make an overland journey. his destination was the place where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers meandered through marshlands and silt islands before merging with the sea. As hy was commanded, Melchizedek remained alert for any man who would suit the purposes of Bat-El. Rather than taking a direct path across the Empty Quarter Melchizedek journeyed north through the fields and towns of Canaan and Lebanon.

At green Harran where the Damascus road forked with the road to Nineveh Melchizedek overheard a man engaged in a loud argument with his father. The prince learned the man's name was Avram. He lived a semi-nomadic life on the range lands around Harran while his father Terah lived in the town itself and ran a little shop selling items associated with the worship of multitudinous gods. Terah sold carved images of dozens of deities but Avram com plained all these idols were meaningless to him.

AVRAM: [Father, you cut down cedars and oaks which the actual creator planted, and the actual creator also sent the rain to grow them. You become cold, so with part of your wood you make a fire to warm yourself and bake bread, and with the other part you make the image of some god. Then you fall down before this image and say, 'Rescue me from this weather!' But it never comes into your mind that this deaf and mute block of wood you carved with your own hands is a complete fraud!]

Ophan Melchizedek entered the shop and began to inspect the rack of idols on display. The angry words of father and son dwindled to silence. Melchizedek resembled a tall lad in appearance, but there was an other-worldliness about hym that went far beyond that of a mere stranger. After hy had made a complete tour of the idolatry shop, Melchizedek begin unpacking his gold on the edge of the shop facing the street, as though hy were preparing to buy out Terah's entire stock.

As Melchizedek anticipated,  this drew  the attention  of five men  who  approached  Terah's  shop with  swords  drawn. They demanded the gold be handed over to them.

At this time the Killing Artifact made its first appearance in the history of Earth. The weapon was the size and shape of any normal sword hilt. But when it was squeezed firmly in Melchize dek's hands a roaring black shaft emerged from it which was about the thickness of a spear. The more firmly Melchizedek squeezed the longer the black beam grew, and whatever it touched simply disappeared. Indeed, the reason it made a sound was that air was drawn into it all along the length of the beam.

One of the thieves that Melchizedek judged to be the leader was cut into two equal pieces starting from the top of his head. Another thief was decapitated. This was sufficient deterrent to convince the other three robbers to flee. Yet was not the pur pose of the prince to kill.

Avram came before Melchizedek and sank to his knees.

MELCHIZEDEK: [Avram, I bid you to go forth from your land and your father's kinfolk to the land of Canaan. There God Most High shall make of you a nation, and he shall bless you, and your name shall be great among men. He shall bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and all the Earth shall find blessing in you. Such are the words of the Lord of all the Earth. What say you to these things, Avram son of Terah?]

Avram (lifting his eyes to the prince): [No]

It took Melchizedek a moment to comprehend what Avram said. It was so unexpected.

Avram rose to his feet and took his father gently by the arms. He undertook to explain his rejection of Daughter's command.

AVRAM: [My father is crippled. He does not earn enough at his livelihood to support himself. We do not always agree, but as I love my life, I can never turn aside from my father for all the days he is a wayfarer in this world]

Then Avram fulfilled the purpose of his visit. He called in a servant and delivered to his father two living lambs from his own flocks, one to kill and eat, and the other to sell for a little money to buy the things he needed until the next time Avram came in from the open range and visited him.

Melchizedek nodded in full understanding. Hy restowed his gold and quietly left the shop. Hy was careful not to tread on the fortress of human dignity that Avram had asserted with his re fusal.