TC02

Binah knew when the plants and animals of Kemen and Earth multi plied their offspring were of like kind, but not identical, and this was proper, as the conditions on both worlds were always changing and life must change to meet this. Binah sought to create a living avatar, but the attributes she sought had never been fastened upon by any living thing because the changes, such as the ability to override pain, undermined that organism's ability to compete with others in the shared environment.

The possible changes were constrained by Binah's desire to have the mutations breed true in the subject's offspring. Binah gnawed away at the problem of creating a living avatar for eight hundred years following the Long Winter. She used animals simi lar to humans to guide her inquiries before arriving at a proce dure that could reliably prepare a world-dweller for something akin to union with an eloah. When all was ready she flew her avatar to the city of Shalem.

Outside of Shalem's walls the people of the city rejoiced over the harvest. Just as the celebration of Hellberry Days reached a fevered pace something the size of an engine of war descended on white flame heralded by a terrifying roar that scattered the crowd. The first Shalemite to return to the pavilion was not a soldier of the warrior caste nor one of the elders of the coun cil, but a young human male. Yet this boy on the verge of man hood proved more valiant than the men who ran away. Curiosity had overcome fear.

The blast of the descent uprooted the fabric of the pavilion tent and blew it far away. The young man stood his ground, but at some distance. He was curious about the object but not eager to be burned. A loud voice then rang out from the avatar.

BINAH: [Shalemite man-child, if you are willing, draw nearer]

The youth obeyed. He saw how by resting on six legs the avatar of Binah remained shoulder high above the ground. Underneath the central pillar a round hatch dropped open on a hinge.

BINAH: [If it seems good to you, climb inside]

The boy squeezed between two of the six legs to look inside the hatch. The center was hollow and there was much light within. Ribs embedded on the interior wall formed edges to be grasped. As he crawled up inside the core Daughter requested his name.

HAMON: [I am Hamon, son of Jophar and Ma'or. I am apprenticed to a stonemason]

Hamon noted how the hatch below closed of its own accord. He continued to climb until the core flared out into a larger space.

BINAH: [Be not afraid, Hamon. I have much to teach you. If you withdraw now, your life shall resume as before. If you tarry, I shall bear you to a far land quickly and safely, but the passage would terrorize even the most valiant of len and there can be no succor]

HAMON: [I will stay]

DAUGHTER: [You are bold in a way that belies your years, Hamon. Allow me to make you steadfast] Several straps embraced Hamon as though they were alive.

The avatar of Binah spouted flame once more and Hamon was whisked into the sky. Steadily hy grew almost too heavy to breathe. The young lan was brave but Binah spoke truly of the terror of the passage.

At the top of the arc made by the avatar the strange invisible burden was abruptly gone and Hamon felt blessedly free. Were it not for the straps hy would swim in air. Binah dimmed the sun itself to cool embers as her avatar drew near to it, lest Hamon be scorched.

Hamon began to feel the weight again, but his mouth remained open in wonder.

Half of the land of Sala was an impenetrable bog but in the midst thereof is a small elevated land, an isle of rock where no man has ever set foot, though it is tantalizingly visible in the sky from elsewhere in Kemen. Anshar was the name Hamon later chose for this place and there the avatar of Binah set down.

After Hamon descended through the central pillar Binah ordered him to walk a short distance away. After this, her avatar changed size and took on the form of a slender white woman.

Binah's face was featureless with no eyes nor mouth, yet see and speak she could do. She pointed across the barren flats to a dwelling made of glass and wood.

BINAH: [The only house in this land now belongs to you, solely. Let us draw indoors and I will declare to you many things]

HAMON: [I am safe as you promised, though the passage was not one whit less frightening than you counseled]

The house was more glass than wood, built on a stony knoll. In design the house was merely a single room with an alcove above the kitchen where Hamon could sleep with privacy, yet there was no other living soul for a hundred leagues. On the main level were cushions and a glass table of superior make. Binah needed no cushion. She seated her avatar on the stone floor to put her eyes on a level with Hamon and began to speak.

BINAH: [We call ourselves the Watchers. Malkuth calls men his servants, but I call you students. Contrary to the Litany of Creation that you have been taught I did not make your kind, I found your ancestors living in another world than this. It was the most important discovery we Watchers ever made. World-dwell ers are fully awake even as the Elohim are, so Malkuth lives in fear and contrives to have you destroyed. When you are revealed to the other Elohim it will uncover his transgressions. Malkuth has laid certain bonds upon me, yet he cannot stop me from shar ing with you everything the Elohim know. But how shall I do it, Hamon? Shall I lecture and hope you understand? I have found another way, but I am not like my father. I would not force you to accept the changes required]

HAMON: [What are these changes?]

BINAH: [Your identity as Hamon will not be altered, but my memo ries as an eloah will be added to your own memories, and your memories as a young elyon will be added to mine. My will shall be manifest in your mind always, and I shall see the world through your eyes. You shall be my living avatar, yet you shall ever remain free to act. Together we shall ratify our joining from moment to moment. But you must know beforehand these physi cal changes cannot be undone for so long as you live]

HAMON: [After I am changed will I look very different?]

BINAH: [No, all of the changes will be entirely inside of you.]

To help explain, Binah stood up and found a goblet in the kitch en.

BINAH: [Your brain is like a glass that you filled with wine during your brief life. The new glass will have a greater capac ity but the first wine will remain. Even when the glass is gone that wine will remain, but not forever. Elohim share the same fate as all living things but we live so much longer than elyo nim that I cannot express it to you. Nay, not even to the wise ones of Shalem! Your culture never had the need to ponder such magnitudes]

Hamon stood up from the cushion to stare outside while he weighed the words of Daughter. They had the power to change his life forever. After a time, he returned to kneel before the ava tar.

HAMON: [O Great One, let it come to be as you say, this union of eloah and world-dweller. I am fully willing! Yet do think I crave only to delay my own end until a time beyond all reckon ing. Let us join that together we will both come to know many new things]

Four miles west of of sea where the Chinnouk River emerged from Lake Yarmeth Hamon introduced a healing ritual that bypassed the mediation of the Eyes of Malkuth. It had the advantage over the old ritual in that it actually worked. Naturally the Eyes in question didn't like it. Emperor Rimmon came to believe Hamon was seeding Shalem  and the lands round about  with people anx ious for a new ruler, one who would reorder the laws to favor the destitute and upset the established ways.

A crowd often gathered on the riverbank in the morning. Some were newcomers who had never heard him speak. Others had re turned after prayer and reflection to seek the restoration of body and soul that he offered. Standing apart from the crowd and the river was a man named Sibiel who was said to have an un clean spirit. He continually cried out in a tongue that others knew not.

But there was, just then, a subtle shift in the noise of the crowd. Hamon had appeared among them to deliver his usual mid- morning sermon, and even this Sibiel fell silent.

HAMON: A lifetime ago the king of Rumbek conqured our city. Hy took into exile King Gordiel and many of the people of Shalem. Some of the faithless who remained behind adopted the ways of House Larund. They dedicated the temple of Binah to their king, a man they elevated to the status of a god. But even in exile King Gordiel foresaw that a remnant would stand against this evil and led by his son Melchiyahu so they did. We were inde pendent at last!

HAMON: [But in truth Emperor Rimmon in distant Adan was our real king. He restored the temple of Binah and made it the wonderment of our people. But the cost of remaking the temple drove land owners to become tenant farmers, and tenant farmers to become day laborers, and day laborers to become bandits. The dwelling of our goddess became a net capturing the wealth of the people to deliver it to the hated Adanites]

HAMON: [What do  we  hear Binah  telling  us through  all these  events? After victory in  a violent  revolt we  only managed  to claw  back a  single generation  of independence before  losing it  again. Binah is telling  us only  she can bring a lasting end to the evil of foreign domination]

HAMON: [Within the lifetime of many of you listening today Daughter will overthrow the outsiders with violence. But she will not dwell in the temple to be served by the wicked priests. Daughter herself will be our temple. It only remains for you to ask yourself, are you ready for her direct rule? Your abomina tions are a broken chariot wheel that mars the road with every turn. It's not enough to sacrifice an animal and patch the holes in the road that trail out behind your transgressions. You must repair the wheel itself and become pure before Binah. Who among you is ready?]

When none  stepped  forward  Hamon's attention  was  drawn  to Sibiel,  for hy  had  begun to  make  incoherent sounds  once again. Hamon grew filled  with compassion  and drew  near to hym.

SIBIEL: [Have you come to destroy us?]

Briefly Hamon was horrified to imagine the inner state of this lan, that he would speak so. Yet the lan retained sufficient hope to seek out the healing of Hamon and the self-control to stand where he did. Hamon knew the brain was an organ like any other, subject to ailments. But fear born of ignorance led peo ple to believe the lan's irrational  shouts were the mark of pos session by devils. Hamon saw how these things presented an op portunity.

HAMON: [Hold your peace, and come out of him!]

Then he touched the lan's bare skin with his hands. The effect was so swift  it surprised  even Hamon. Now at the touch  of Hamon he  was no longer  driven to make  unfiltered shouts. Onlookers were filled  with wonder  that Haman  could command unclean spirits and they obeyed.

HAMON: [Accept the forgiving mercy of Binah and go in peace]

Word of this rapidly spread. Soon Hamon had people taking num bers to be healed and when he passed the basket around it over flowed with silver.

Now all that region was ruled by Melchiyahu, the son of Gordiel, and for the time being it seemed good to Emperor Rimmon to call him king. But the wealthiest landowners and the priests who prospered by dipping into the river of taxes that flowed from the peasants to Adan all favored the steady encroachments of Rimmon. As the fame of Hamon grew some of these Rimmon partisans came out to see the healings by his the new preachger.

HAMON: [Hail to you, O blameless ones. What have you come to see?]

RIMMONITE: [It blasphemes the elohim to tell the ones you heal their sins are forgiven. We would see if you persist in this blasphemy. Only the elohim can overlook the abominations of a man if he seeks out a priest and makes the required sacrifice."

Hamon gestured at a man lying on a mat before him, mute and una ble to make any movements beyond involuntary trembling.

HAMON: [Do you imagine this unfortunate  man can consult a priest?]

RIMMONITE: [Nevertheless, the code of Malkuth is clear]

HAMON: [I tell you Binah has already forgiven this man]

RIMMONITE: [Impossible! He has made no confession of  his abom ination and no temple sacrifice]

HAMON: [But do you not see? Their kinsmen have made interces sion with Binah. Have you ever seen such hope and trust?]

RIMMONITE: [The one who commits the abomination is the one who shall die]

HAMON: [Then I will heal this man that you may know Binah has forgiven them]

Then Hamon touched the men with palsy, and his tremors ceased, and he was was able to rise from the canvas of his own power, and in a loud voice he offered praise and thanksgiving to Daugh ter. And the faces of the Rimmonites were seen no more amid the crowd. But there remained many more sick among them to be healed.

As he made them whole Hamon wondered what it was, exactly, he could teach. Would people be willing to accept how the healing was done? The people of this culture imagined invisible spirits everywhere they turned.

Hamon made an end of his deeds along the River Chinnouk and moved south but the crowd followed, and grew, with newcomers arriving from every quarter. And in Odargas the Ophan Lilith, daughter of King Melchiyahu, addressed  Hamon, for she had fol lowed him with great interest from the moment she witnessed the healing of Sibiel.

LILITH: [Please., Teacher, accept the hospitality of the Fallen Angel field station in this city]

Hamon followed Lilith, with his enemies not far behind. Hamon even invited these to come indoors to eat, and some of them did, if only to watch what Hamon would do next. But the Eyes of Beli al refused to recline at table, and hated how he cheerfully dined at the Fallen Angel facility, breaking down barriers be tween people and gods, and  barriers between human beings them selves. Their livelihood consisted of being paid interlocutors. And the Eyes of Belial took no thought of the digestion of those who dined.

EYE: [How is it you call yourself the prophet of Binah, yet are found eating and drinking with a lawless nephil?]

HAMON [Princess Lilith, please help me, do you see anyone known to be lawless here?]

LILITH: [Not at all, Master. I see only students who would learn from you the will of Binah]

EYE: [But you and your followers go about in the raiment of war riors, contrary to the will of Malkuth!]

LILITH: [Yet there is nothing in the Code of Malkuth forbidding this]

HAMON: [Agreed. I take such probitions to be the vain tradition of men who would create a wide distinction where little now ex ists]

LILITH: [Did you know, Teacher, that some of my Fallen Angels are actually men who have been driven out of the army for fall ing short of some ideal of manliness that actually has nothing to do with how well they can fight?]

The Rimmonite ignored this and made one final go at Hamon, de manding a sign that he  had authority to forgive abominable de fects in ritual.

HAMON: [Belial forgives the unrighteous in the very moment they wish to make amends. The healing itself is a sign, and it is also a good in itself. You seek signs only to plug the holes in your belief]

At this  the  Eyes  of Malkuth  and  the  Rimmonite  partisans murmured amongst themselves and departed.