TCF

BHE: Nebuchadnezzar deported  fifty thousand  Jews to  Babylon. Only a very few of the poorest people and a handful of renegade army officers remained behind, hidden in the  Judean hills, but these soon fled to Egypt  for fear of the  Babylonians, leaving the land entirely vacant.

BHF: After  a time  the  Babylonian  forces withdrew  and  hill brigands multiplied in their wake. But among the Jewish diaspora in Egypt there appeared a priest Lael of the  tribe of Levi who came bearing the  Golden Gift  and a  commission to  preserve a remnant from downfallen Judah.

BHG: Lael came with his wife  Sariah. Elam his eldest son came also with him, and he with  his wife Serach. But Lael's second son Jemuel found he a wife named Iscah from  among the Judahite refugees, and his third son Rosh married a young woman Sela from the tribe of Benjamin.

BHH: From the tribe of Judah scattered in Egypt did Lael gather to himself Abner and his wife  Tabitha, as well as  Abner's son Asa and Asa's wife Jemima. Also of the tribe of Judah did Josiah and his wife  Keturah  join Lael,  together  with Josiah's  son Tobiah and his wife Susanna.

BHI: Of the remnants  of Benjamin scattered  to Egypt  in exile there also joined Lael and his  group one Zethan with  his wife Atara, Jabez and his wife Keziah, as well as Rimon the elder son of Jabez with his wife Dinah, and also Asher the younger son of Jabez with his wife Leah.

BHJ: Then Lael  and his  followers left  Egypt and  reached the downfallen southern kingdom in much faster time  than Moses and his forty years of wandering. Every dwelling had been looted by the Babylonians and later completely cleaned out by thieves from the neighboring kingdoms.

BHK: Lael led  the way  through  the charred  debris and  stone littering Jerusalem  until  he  stood in  the  place  built  by Hezekiah that was called the Pool of Siloam. Then Lael descended the underwater stairs until he was completely  immersed, and he came not again out of the water.

BHL: One  by one,  Lael's  followers  overcame their  fear  and entered the water. When they emerged from the pool again, things had changed. They were surrounded by trees rather  than stone. Strangers attended to them with  dry linen and new  clothing to replace their soaked rags.

BHM: When the strangers revealed their Issacharite origin Lael's travelers rejoiced because  they knew  them to  be fellow  sons of Israel who  had  been  lost for  more  than  a century. The Issacharites said Yahweh himself had ordained  a reflowering of the House of Israel in that place.

BHN: On the second  day a  delegation from  the tribe  of Asher joined Lael's group after  a trek  down the  vale of  the river Nanki from  their  city  of  Alnitar. The Asherites  provided shields for the men  among the new  colonists crafted  from the otherworldly trees that grew in the south.

BHO: The shields of the Asherites were hard enough to withstand the strokes of any axe  or blade and  to turn away  all arrows, since the trees that had  been used to  make them could  be cut only by fire. Yet the gifts were lighter than ones of comparable size made of bronze or iron.

BHP: On the third day men and women of the lost tribe of Zebulun arrived after paddling downriver from their homes in the city of Eltan. Their boat carried much food, wine, and many small tools and diverse goods as gifts, that Lael's group might begin their colony in Haaretz.

BHQ: On the morning of the fourth day Lael and his growing group of travelers went east until  they reached the river  Sabik and made camp. On the other bank Hadraniel, king  of Hamar, arrived from the  city  of  Menkant  to speak  with  Lael  and  he  was accompanied by not a few courtiers.

BHR: Then Lael's group carefully forded the perilous river Sabik to join  Hadraniel. The king commanded  his  small  flock  of livestock  slaughtered  for a  feast  as  the heavenly  southern kingdom of  Israelites joyfully  welcomed  the  remnant of  the southern tribes of earthly Israel.

BHS: In the morning King  Hadraniel led the group  overland and ever higher to a shoulder of Mount Menkant. Here they were met by Naphtalis out of the  city of Wazol bearing  precious stones for the women and girls traveling with Lael to wear and for the men to later trade for goods.

BHT: At dawn on the sixth day King Hadraniel  and his entourage took their leave. Lael led his people  further east  until the Wall of God began  to loom  over them. They crossed the upper reaches of the river Arhena and entered the land of the tribe of Dan in the kingdom of Nath.

BHU: In Fatho the Danites made a gift of  much silver and gold, and pack animals to carry them. With the giving of many thanks Lael turned northwest over the saddle between Mt. Fatho and the Wall of God. His folk were drenched in mist as they passed the famed Hundred Cataracts.

BHV: By the evening of the seventh day Lael's travelers reached the city of Kabark,  home of  the tribe of  Gad. The city folk brought forth the bounty of the rich farms of  their land which were watered by canals leading from man-made Lake Enkaa like the threads of a spider's web.

BHW: At noon on the next day day Lael and the colonists arrived at Enkaa Dam. A delegation of  Israelites from  the tribe  of Reuben met  them bearing baskets  of delicious fresh fruit  of a kind none of the travelers from Judah had ever tasted before, as they were native to Heaven.

BHX: On the  ninth day  when  Lael reached  Adjara, Lael's  own nephews, cousins to his sons Elam and Jemuel and Rosh, provided more pack animals for their  goods, and  two of the  asses bore sufficient arms for twelve men, lest  Lael run afoul of  men or nephilim of the House of Bellon.

BHY: The Levites of Adjara offered thanksgiving  to Yahweh that the children of Israel had  been reunited in Heaven,  yet their joy was tempered by news that Lael had found  no living remnant of the tribe of Simeon among the people of the southern kingdom who took refuge in Egypt.

BHZ: Within Adjara lay the heavenly temple of  Yahweh which men of the whole House of Israel  had been building for  a century. Those of Lael's party who had never before seen it wept tears of joy at the sight of the new temple mixed with tears of lament at the memory of the old.

BIA: King Thausael  of Hadal  arrived with  his entourage  from among the tribe  of  Manesseh, and  they bore  the  Ark of  the Covenant. The relic had been withdrawn when Chokhmah feared the House of Judah was too  weak to  protect it from  the marauding armies of the Babylonian empire.

BIB: And Chokhmah had given commandment that the Ark should pass into the safekeeping of Lael and his sons until  the temple was sanctified, that they may both preserve the stone tablet of the Abrahamic covenant  and  secure  the  White  Scroll  of  Leliel contained within the chest.

BIC: King Thausael laid upon Lael and his three sons a charge to bear the Ark on two gold-plated staves through rings in the side of the artifact. And when they were not actively  carrying the Ark they were to set the ends of the staves through four stones pierced with holes.

BID: Every time Lael paused, said King Thausael, the four stones were to be set on pillars  of greater stones gathered  from the ground around the encampment. The king said the Ark must never touch the ground, and save  for the lid  the Ark must  never be touched by man nor beast.

BIE: Then Lael was bid to pass through Eliath  Wood to a choice land prepared for  him. But Lael would  never be  abandoned or forgotten, assured King Thausael,  because the oracles of Yahweh came only through the Ark, and ever men of  the House of Israel would come seeking for them.

BVA: On the edge of Shaula Wood, northeast of Adjara, Lael and his tinby remnant of the tribes of Judah and  Benjamin tended their flocks of animals and slowly wandered east into the hills until they were come to the face of the Wall of  God, two miles high, and could go no further.

BVB: The decorative  sphinx  on the  cover of  the  Ark of  the Covenant rotated to guide them ever north on a maze of paths at the  foot of  the  Wall. Lael knew  that by  means  of the  ark Chokhmah had never failed to lead them to  good grazing grounds for their little herd of livestock.

BVC: As they  trundled  along often  they  would meet  friendly parties who journeyed south from Sastrom. They used the paths at the foot of the Wall of God to reach Fatho where they could find river passage on the Sabik downstream to cities  in Alodra. But few words were exchanged.

BVD: One evening when Lael's group reached  a precipitous bench along the face of the Wall and decided there  to make camp they encountered a party of seven Brown Beards. Lael was delighted to learn that one among them named Marsayas spoke Hebrew and could be understood by them.

BVE: Marsayas begged Lael to grant his travelers  leave to make overnight camp nigh to Lael's group. This, said hy, was laid on hym for want of any  other flat place  to pitch tents. To this Lael warily agreed, but ever he  eyed the ark of  God while the two bands shared provender.

BVF: Lael told Marsayas that most of his people were newly come to Heaven, and that he knew little of the  lands that lay about them, but he led his little migration wheresoever Chokhmah made known to them through the gold-covered oracle Lael and his sons reverently carried about.

BVG: Marsayas said this presented a perfect opportunity to tell a tale, and he assured Lael's company that it was true in every detail, but although it recounted  the actions of  very foolish men, it was a solemn tale of caution rather  than one of mirth, and none should laugh.

BVH: Then Marsayas spoke  in aside  to his  own band  using the strange tongue of the angels in Heaven. As hy did so, Lael made his sons Elam, Jemuel, and Rosh stand nigh to the Ark while the wives of all the migrants seated themselves in a circle between the fire and Lael's sons.

BVI: Together with Lael within the ring of women  sat Abner and his son Asa, and Josiah with his son Tobiah. But Zethan, Jabez, and his two sons Rimon and Asher stayed with the small flock of animals on  the edge of the  little plateau to ensure  they were not lost over the edge.

BVJ: 'You call this land Haaretz,' Marsayas told  them, 'but we call it simply  The Land We Know. Towards the setting suns lies Thalury, the great  Western  Sea. Ships ply  between ports  in Sastrom,  Alodra, and  the Saiph  League, and  they sail  up the River Sabik as far as Atria.

BVK: The  coast continues  north  and  south farther  than  any mariners know, for they ever turn back after sailing for a month or two, yet there are innumerable  coves and many of  these are settled, it is known, and they survive by trading fish and wares with folk of other coves.

BVL: From the beginning  of days  sailors of  the Land  We Know heeded the commandment of the gods never to sail out of sight of land. No captain, drunk or  otherwise, dared steer his  ship so far to the west  that the haze caused the Land  to fade from the view of the aft lookout.

BVM: An order to sail west was good cause for the crew to mutiny and throw the captain overboard. It was an ancient and bedrock article of common  law  that  no such  crew  returning to  port without their captain would ever face punishment  if their tale held true under questioning.

BVN: But in  the days  when  Demonstroke raged  free there  was revolution in the  Land. The Saiph Republic  flourished for  a time, and many longstanding laws were overthrown. Reason reigned over custom, and when the time was ripe angels, nephilim and men were found to crew two ships.

BVO: These  sailors  were   willing  to  disregard  the  strict commandment of  all  the  gods  never to  sail  much  west. So stiff-necked were they it was never imagined the gods cared for the lives of mariners. Instead, there spread rumors of a choice but unconquered land far across the sea.

BVP: It was spoken among  them of a  land the gods  created for their own enjoyment, a beautiful realm filled with gold, rich in abundant fruit, never without the  most select game,  and their divine interdict was merely to keep it from  being despoiled by angels, nephilim, and men.

BVQ: The two ships commissioned  by the revolutionaries  of the Saiph Republic were  named Will  O' The  Wisp and  Fire of  the Covenant. They drifted in the slow current with sails unfurled. Down on Thalury the  currents move stately  to the  west, while winds blow reliably to the east.

BVR: In two days the gray band that was the  Land We Know could no longer be seen in the east  by reason of the  sea mist which had entirely shrouded it, and some of the older sailors muttered in fear, since  the tradition  was deeply  carved within  them, while certain others scoffed.

BVS: One night the lookout manning the highest mast  of Fire of the Covenant screamed  that the horizon ahead was  closing in on them. There was a sharp  edge to  the sea! Captain Dogtrapper signaled with lamps to Will O' The Wisp that he was raising his sails and veering off.

BVT: Captain Skulldagger aboard  the Will O'  the Wisp  did not alter his course until  it was too  late. With billowing sails Fire of the Covenant barely escaped, but the current became too strong for her sister ship. She was seen to tip  over the edge and was never seen again.

BVU: The Will O' The Wisp and all aboard had indeed fallen over the edge of Heaven. In the uttermost west Thalury pours over a great cataract, a  vast waterfall with no bottom. Long the ship fell partially submerged within the waters of the sea, which had become a white sheet.

BVV: The waters of the sea and even the  air fell together with the ship, and there was little breeze. The ship tumbled, resting on nothing, and the crew felt no weight. They floated freely in the air, as though swimming  under water, but some  floated far away from the ship. BVW: The small but constant breeze broke the sea sheet into globes of water, some the size  of a man's head, others the size of a barn. Fish were seen swimming in many of these balls of  water, and when the rations aboard  the Will ran out these fish were the only source of food.

BVX: But none of the doomed angels, nephilim,  and men suffered thirst as is common among marooned sailors of Earth. Thalury is a freshwater sea ever renewed by ice melt. As the crew continued to fall, the dark underside  of heaven became  visible overhead like the inside of a mask.

BVY: So it was seen and understood by the  falling sailors that the Land We Know is really  just the lowest step  in an endless stair, vast beyond all mortal imagination, and there is a second step rising to the east. This step we know from this  side of Heaven as the Wall of God.

BVZ: But the breeze blew the globes of water far apart one from the other and the heat  of the two  suns caused them  to shrink until none of the water globes which remained near the ship held living fish. The survivors began to starve, and  they pondered killing each other for meat.

BWA: By the time  the sailors were  desperate enough  to become cannibals they were too weak to successfully  attack each other or do anything more than make pitiful moans. Then came the final days when they passed from the living one by  one, according to their remaining strength.

BWB: The sailors found that death was not the end. They awoke in new bodies untouched by any scars of battle or the lash, looking down upon The Land We Know from the very rim of the Wall of God, two miles of sheer and implacable stone which none of the living have yet scaled.

BWC: The sailors who tarried  at the  Wall of God  heard feeble voices carried by the wind through a trick  of sound reflecting on the stone precipice. Ever they walked the ramparts of Heaven hoping to hear the voices of their loved ones, and when they did they deemed it bittersweet.

BWD: As time went on the newly dead found they were forgotten by their friends and even their loved ones sooner  than they would have liked. The more impact a person had in their life the more fragments they heard  so  they lingered  more,  but the  humble accepted the truth sooner.

BWE: At great length nearly all the dead came off the precipice and rested on the narrow lawn behind it, before  the Upper Sea, waiting, they were told, for a white ship to come and take them east to an unknown destiny. The elohim refused to speak to them of their final fate.

BWF: The dead  were told  only, 'Great  gifts are  sweeter when they are  but  revealed   in  their  fulfillment  unspoiled  by hasty  tidings.' Within  twenty  years every  member of  Captain Skulldaggers's dead but resurrected crew passed  over the Upper Sea to the east,  and he alone  remained. BWG: Skulldagger has attained a form of immortality through infamy, and  never a day passes but that his name is spoken aloud by  someone below. Yet more often than not his name  is spoken with a  shudder, as the story of the  Will  O' The  Wisp  is told  again  to every  new generation.

BWH: I tell you all these  things not that you  should not fear your own death,' Marsayas said, 'which indeed  is truly nothing to be feared, but that  you know  what you must  do, presently, when each one of you  find yourselves resurrected  and standing the brink of the Wall of God.'

BWI: When those words were spoken Marsayas drew out a weapon and cried out, 'All  glory be  to Belphegor,  Lord of  Magodon!' Hy thrust forth with  a cruel knife that was more  like a sharpened pipe with four twisting edges. The blade punched through Lael's ribs to core out his heart.

BWJ: As though by a pre-arranged  signal the six other  yeng of House of  Larund withdrew identical  weapons and made  to assail the men of Lael's little  band of nomads. But immediately they grew dismayed to find  the little humans,  both men  and women, were ready  to  defend  themselves. BWK: Lael's  wife  Sariah restrained Marsayas'  arm  to  prevent hym  from  striking  her husband with a second blow but she was unaware Lael was already bleeding out. The six Brown Beards who  had traveled  with hym quickly jumped out of striking range of Abner,  Asa, Josiah and Tobiah.

BWL: But the Judahite  woman named  Serach and  the Benjaminite woman named Sela restrained two of the fleeing  Brown Beards by embracing their  calves. As they were dragged, four  other yeng were free to burst through an open hole in the ring of womenfolk seated around the campfire.

BWM: At the death cry of Lael the men who had been watching the animals on the rim of the  camp immediately took the  bows they carried on their backs and fitted arrows to them. They fired at Marsayas and two of the  newcomers, shooting over the  heads of the women hindering them.

BWN: Still, four  of Marsayas'  company were  free to  make for their real target and rushed toward the Ark of  the Covenant to seize it. Lael's sons Rosh, Jemuel, and Elam had not been lulled to sleep by  Marsayas' tale  and had  already drawn  the swords dangling from their waists.

BWO: A fold-door appeared with Lord  Belphegor standing within, ready to take possession of the Tablet of the Abrahamic Covenant the instant one of the nephilim were able to seize it. But dark light is at a premium and time was critical. Belphegor could not delay for very long.

BWP: Three separate sword  duels commenced,  and they  were far more fierce than  any of  the yeng  had foreseen. This left a fourth  yang free  to draw  near to  the Ark  and seize  it, but Chokhmah entered the fray. When the angel touched the relic hy immediately stiffened and fell dead.

BWQ: Belphegor shifted hyz gaze to the triple melee with blades and watched the humans vanquish their taller opponents one after the other. Hy was reminded of the tenacity of Jacob  when they fought all night, and his distant descendants were proving to be not a whit less valiant.

BWR: Every beat of Lael's heart let out more of his life's blood and he sank to his knees. The body of Marsayas and  two of the yeng in hyz party fairly bristled with arrows. Jemima, Keturah, and Susanna slipped  daggers between  the ribs  of the  angelic strangers to finish them. BWS: Atara, Keziah, Dinah,  and Leah then dragged the three angels to one edge of  the plateau where the men tending the flocks of animals helped cast them over the side, still living  or no  they cared  not. Belphegor saw that Marsayas had failed hym and that hy had ran out of time.

BWT: The fold-door, which always  resembled a glass  or crystal ball taller than a man owing to the way  it bent light, snapped out of existence. Belphegor's first attempt to seize the Ark had failed, and the Laelites knew the Ark was a prize much sought by none less than a seraph.

BWU: A grieving Sariah  sought to revive  her husband,  but his life had already slipped away. She held his body throughout the night and when the white sun became visible over the rim of the Wall of God the sons of Lael  buried him on the  flat of ground where they had made camp.

BWV: By that evening  the shock  of what  had happened  to them faded. None of the Brown Beards, if any had survived, crawled up to the plateau to renew their attack. So the three sons of Lael began to dispute which one of they would take  up Lael's office of high priest and chief.

BWW: Jemuel sank to his knees and said, 'O living God of Abraham and Yishak and Yakob, if  you will, make  known what man  of us shall  be  high  priest  and  hear your  voice  on  the  Day  of Atonement.' And in reply the  graven sphinx decorating the cover of the Ark rotated  to face  Rosh. BWX: Then Rosh  removed the cover of the  Ark  of the  Covenant with  his  bare hands,  yet Chokhmah did not smite him. And Rosh took the White Scroll and found the place where his father Lael had added his own words to the words  recorded by  Leliel,  the  daughter of  Michael  and Lilith.

BWY: And  Leliel had  written  upon  the scroll  in  characters unknown to Rosh, but the husband of Leliel, the man Jashen, had copied the  words  of  his  wife  as  Hebrew  that  Lael  might understand them. This same Jashen had been seen by all of them, and Rosh marveled that he never died.

BWZ: Rosh read aloud the words of his dead father from the White Scroll, 'On a night without the  orange sun I, Lael,  went into the wilderness nigh to Adjara to pray. There a nephil appeared to me carrying a torch that cast white light  but did not burn, and I sank to my knees.

BXA: And the nephil said to me, 'Rise, for I am no seraph, but a mere erel called Gabriel Shybear. The Seraph Michael has bid me to seek Lael of the Levites, the son of  Joiakim.' 'I am Lael,' said I, and I rose to my feet as I  was commanded. Gabriel drew near with the light."

BXB: 'This was the weapon of my mother's  mother,' said Gabriel as che held forth a relic. 'Have a care. Crushing it firmly in your hand will cause it to send forth a black shaft that nothing can withstand. It will drink everything into oblivion, even the very air around it.

BXC: 'Know, Lael, the kingdom  of Judah has fallen  to enemies, and the temple of God is  no more. The last living children of Israel on  Earth have been  scattered from the land  promised to Abraham  by  the  unbelief  of his  descendants  yet  God  would preserve a remnant from among them.

BXD: 'It is appointed to you,  Lael, to take your  wife Sariah, and your sons Elam, Jemuel,  and Rosh, and Elam's  wife Serach, and go to the other world  to seek survivors from  the tribe of Judah, and the  tribe of Benjamin, and the tribe  of Simeon, and bring them to dwell in Heaven.'

BXE: Then Rosh  read the  names of  the remnant  that Lael  had gathered to himself from the exiles in Egypt, and he read of the many gifts given to them by their long-separated brethren in the kingdoms of Hamar and Nath, and how even the very Ark of God had been entrusted to them.

BXF: 'I will  add to  this scroll  an account  of last  night's battle at the foot of the  Wall of God,' said Rosh, turning eyes to his brothers Elam and Jemuel, 'and of the death of our father at the hand of enemies who would steal the Ark. We will fulfill the charge laid upon him.'

BXG: Elam pondered this silently for a time, then he said to his younger brother, 'God favors you to be the High Priest, that is plain, and so the oracles of  God shall be committed to you. But think you strangers will never again attempt to take from us the Ark of the Covenant?'

BXH: Rosh shook his head. 'No, Elam, they will return,  and I know of  a certainty  that you  are the  most warlike  of Father Lael's sons. But when this yoke was laid upon our father it was the will of God that the office of both priest and judge should be in the grasp of one man.'

BXI: 'Let it never be said that I doubt  our Lord God,' replied Elam, 'yet recall when this visitor Jashen had finished writing in that scroll, how he took the weapon of his wife's mother from the hands of  our father. Had he not done  this, mayhaps  our father would be alive today.'  BXJ: Rosh thought to  rebuke his brother for his words of faithlessness, yet wisdom prevailed and Rosh knew Elam spoke only from his grief. He said, 'I loved our father no less than did you, Elam, yet God is  the giver of all life and God it is who can withdraw the gift once given.

BXK: In like manner, I  perceive that God makes  alterations to his stated  will according to  the intercession of the  men with whom he treats. We see this in  scripture, do we  not? Abraham tried to save the life of  his kinsman Lot by  negotiating with God to spare the city of Sodom.

BXL: So let the offices of  priest and judge be  carried out by two sons  of Lael according  to our  temperament. I will set my foot on  the path  marked out  by the oracle  of God,  spoken or otherwise, but  in all  other things,  beloved brother,  I shall obey as though you were our father.'

BXM: Then Rosh set the White  Scroll of Leliel within  its clay pot and set the pot within the Ark of the Covenant. When he set the cover upon the Ark to conceal them Yahweh did not strike him dead. Therefore Elam was persuaded that Yahweh had accepted the intercession of Rosh.

When the days  of  mourning for  the High  Priest  Lael of  the Levites had passed, Lael's third son Rosh took he  the Table of the Covenant and  held it forth in front of  him. Then turned he in a slow circle until  a sound like  that of a  shofar trumpet came forth from  the relic. And Lael's third  son Rosh  said, "Behold, I am constrained to go there." And Elam, the chieftain of the Remnant, was compelled to follow his younger brother that he might be true to his word. But Elam said to his brother Rosh, "Behold, the very Ark of God dwells in no  tent. Would you have the snow fall upon our holy relic? Make you, therefore, curtains of fine  twined linen. Adorn  them with images of  sphinxes, and link them  with blue rings and  gold clasps." Then Rosh and his Benjaminite wife Sela toiled through the night to carry out the commandment of their chieftain  Elam, but  they could  not even fairly begin to fashion the curtains before it was dawn and the Remnant broke fast to  prepare for that  day's march  north and west.

When they made camp at dusk Elam had more words for his brother Rosh: "Make another tent from goats hair, to cover  the tent of linen for  the Ark of  God, but this time  the clasps are  to be made from brass." And Rosh persuaded his widowed mother Sariah to aid him and his  wife in  the mounting tasks,  bending brass over a fire. Late into the night did Rosh and  Sela and Sariah toil.

When the Remnant ate supper the following day Elam said to Rosh, "Yet a third covering for the  tent shall be made  of ram skins dyed  red, and  over this  you shall  lay badgers'  skins." Then Josiah and his son  Tobiah left  the camp  to hunt  through the night. Zethan the Benjaminite and  Asher, son of  Jabez, killed four rams from the flocks of the Remnant for their skins, while Zehan's wife Atara prepared herbs to make the red dye, but Elam forbade his wife Serach from helping Atara, and Jemuel too held back his own wife Iscah. When the Remnant made ready to make the next march Josiah and Tobiah returned with the badgers they had killed but there were not enough to cover the  Tent of Meeting. They pledged to continue seeking more  until Elam's commandment had been fulfilled. And the people moved out.

The following evening Elam said to Rosh, "Now  to the woodwork. The boards get silver bars overlaid  with gold. You shall make a veil to divide  the tent into two parts. One  part shall be just run-of-the-mill holy, and the other part shall be very holy. The Ark shall be  left in the very  holy part, but you  shall make a table for showbread  and candles and place them  in the ordinary holy part."

And Abner came to the aid of  Rosh to cut tenons  in the boards for the Tent of Meeting,  and to help  build the table  of wood overlaid with gold, with rings and  staves to bear it  like the Ark of the Covenant. His wife Tabitha prepared  the dinnerware for the showbread. Again the people toiled late into the night to aid Rosh as he fulfilled  the demands of their  chieftain to prepare a  tent for the  Ark of the  Covenant worthy of  the God they served. On this evening the curtains with  gold clasps and images of sphinxes were completed.

In the morning,  in  the  middle of  the  clearing between  the thirteen tents of the  Remnant a  fold-door appeared. Two tall figures were  seen  within,  and  they  remained  even  as  the fold-door itself ceased to  exist. The men of the  Remnant had never allowed their vigilance to lapse in  the slightest amount since the attack that cost the life of Lael. Jabez and Rimon let fly with arrows, but these were a clean miss.

Zethan fired one of his own, and it too missed,  but he saw why it was so. Zethan's arrow had flown  true, but in  the instant before it struck the taller of the two strangers it was knocked aside as though by an in- visible hand.

The less taller one, a nephil, said in halting Hebrew, "Hold! We are come in the name of  the God of your  fathers!" The archers ceased firing and the people  gathered more closely  around the two strangers. Both were swart like the Adanites, yet one was a nephil, a rarity in east due to certain proscriptions in the Law of Elyon. Che stood a head taller than the  Laelites and had no beard. To the humans che looked to be a boy, but they noted the hips of the nephil were  a bit too wide  for a young  man, with small breasts under hez raiment. On afterthought che looked to them to be a young woman, but with cropped hair. It was said the nephilim never needed to cut their hair, but that it fell out of its own accord strand by strand.

The other stranger  was a  beardless angel  who appeared  to be older than his  nephil companion, though he might  in truth have been a decade  younger. "I am Remiel," said  he  in the  same halting Hebrew, as though he recited from the  promptings of an inner voice. "I am come with my kinsjen Gabriel  to bear aid to the refugees gathered by Lael of Adjara."

"Lael my father is dead," answered Rosh, "yet we have read what he has written  in the White Scroll, how a  servant of God named Gabriel made the will of God known to him in Jerusalem to gather a remnant out of Judah and travel to this place."

"I am che who met Lael,' said Gabriel after an awkward pause, as though his inner voice had  to provide a translation  of Rosh's words. The people of the  Remnant thought it would be impossible to say if the voice of Gabriel was that of a man or a woman.

"I am the eldest son  of Lael,"  said Elam, lest  the newcomers think Rosh spoke for  them. "Wheresoever the Ark of  God would have us go, we go, yet in all other matters I lead the Remnant."

"The death of your father Lael  is hateful to our  God and your God," said Remiel. "We have been charged to thwart elyomnim led by the incarnation of Chemah  himself, the seraph Belphegor, who would seize the  Tablet of Abraham's Covenant  after his lackeys have already tried and failed."

"n the ninth  hour  of this  day you  will  be assailed,"  said Gabriel "If you look to us  as chieftains for a  short time, we swear the lives people of the Remnant will be preserved."

Elam's impulse was to reject  the aid  of the B'nei  Elohim and rely on his own strength,  but again  he saw how  his followers would take it to be a great impiety, so he was constrained. "Let it be as you have said," he allowed, "and God  grant that it is for a short time indeed."

Gabriel was sufficiently pleased with that answer that che broke out into a smile and reached into hez pack for a leather pouch. Che said, "In the other world, they call me  The Magician." Che inverted the  pouch to  show  there  was nothing  inside,  then restored it  again. Then Gabriel reached  inside  hez  little leather pouch and withdrew a small loaf of warm bread. Che split it open and offered it to Remiel, who had seated himzelf on the ground. Remiel applied butter  to the bread  with a  knife, and gave it to the first willing hand.

The Laelites were delighted by the miracle. Gabriel and Remiel repeated the sign until everyone had eaten their fill. They were all tired of the fare of salted cuts of lamb  they had eaten as they had skirted for many leagues north under the precipice.

Then, after all the people had eaten, Remiel put away the butter and his knife. he stood up, and catching the eye of Elam, asked, "Where is the Ark of the  Covenant?" his eye followed the line formed by Elam's outstretched arm to the most elaborate tent of the Remnant. Remiel and Gabriel saw it was twice as large as any of the other tents of the  people, with curtains of  fine linen overlaid with multicolored animal pelts, walls of fine wood with many gold and  brass  accoutrements, and  even a  jewel-adorned wooden table set up at the entrance.

Gabriel said, "God did not command you to make  such a tent for the Ark, nor did such even enter his thoughts."

"Do we in truth serve the same God?" Elam asked hem. "The God of our fathers is a holy God."

"Yes, our God is holy,"  replied Gabriel. "Holy means entirely other. Our God is a living God, yet his life is wholly different than our life. Do you think God has forgotten this, and you must remind him with  a tent for what is little  more than a document commemorating a covenant?"

Elam grew visibly  angry. "What you  call little  more than  a document  is how  God converses  with  our high  priest, and  it seemed  good to  our  forefathers  to carry  the  Tablet of  the Covenant in an Ark covered in gold rather than a saddle-bag, and they also built a Tent of Meeting."

"But that tent  became  a  temple of  stone  after time,"  said Remiel, "which raised the Tablet by degrees into a kind of god. Chemah also  thinks this way,  and when Belphegor comes  to this camp his problem is much smaller if you keep the Ark inside such a  tent. Hide  it,  therefore,  in one  of  your  own tents,  so Belphegor must search each one in turn, and that under fire."

Elam knew he must comply or  be held faithless. He said to his brother Rosh, "Move the Ark and the table to my own tent, and my goods to the Tent of Meeting."

After the people aided Rosh in carrying out the new commandment of their chieftain to  move the  Ark of  God into  Elam's tent, Remiel said, "I see that some  of the women among  you are with child. Send all of the women  into Shaula Wood with your flocks. They shall not fight."

In the  noon hour  the  women  of  the Remnant  gathered  their livestock and made ready to drive the animals  into the forest, but they lingered, perhaps, more  than to the liking  of Remiel and Gabriel, since neither they nor their men knew the nature of the enemy that was coming.

Gabriel told  Sariah,  the  widow  of  Lael,  "Go  under  God's protection, and take  the flocks by whatever paths  you may find in the forest, and do not turn about. Pause only when it is dark or when you are come again to the other side of Shaula Wood."

When their wives  had  departed,  and even  the  sounds of  the animals trodding through the forest  could no longer  be heard, the men who  had been  left behind  were instructed  by Gabriel thus: "Your foe  numbers eight  mounted len  of Haaretz  led by Belphegor and his chief lieutenant, Malphas."

Elam made a noise of derision. "We slew seven on the face of the Wall of God, and that without any warning of their attack."

"It was a valiant deed, but you lost your  father. God has laid upon me that not one man or woman more of you should die."

"These are eight pikelen," Remiel added. "Your swords will be of no avail until they  are unhorsed. And  Gabriel did  not number Belphegor and Malphas  with the eight, as they  are from Magodon and not the Saiph League. So  the ones who will come against you number ten in all."

"When last our enemies came seeking the Ark," said Jemuel, they "learned we have archers among the Remnant."

"And now these len and the horses they ride  are well protected from your  darts,' replied  Gabriel. "Can  your archers  hit the open face of a foe at full gallop?"

When Jemuel could not answer, an arrow flew from  the quiver of Zethan to  Remiel's hand. He said, "God did not send  the B'nei Elohim merely to serve meals. There is no cause for despair, but tell me, how many bows are found among the whole Remnant?"

This Jemuel could answer. "There would be found among  the men who followed Lael four bows of  good make, and two others." When he saw astonishment on the faces of Gabriel and  Remiel he went on to say,  "Mark you,  there are  only four  among us  who are skilled in the bow."

"This will not be an  unsurmountable burden," said  Remiel, yet his face said otherwise. "The important thing is to  get your darts in the air and flying toward the enemy, and I will take it from there. Give the two bows  that are less good, therefore, to men of you who bear only swords."

"Alas!" said Zethon, one of the archers of the Remnant, with his hand against his face. "Our travail is not with the  bows, but the  arrows. We  had  cast some  of our  fallen  enemies over  a precipice, whether living or dead, without removing the shots we had fired from their flesh."

"Do not be  afraid," said  Gabriel. "Bring to me every  arrow possessed by the men of  the Remnant." Then Gabriel reached into hez little leather bag,  with a different  hand this  time, and withdrew another small loaf of bread, as warm as the others had been, for Tobiah to eat. What che planned to do  next would be deemed magic by the men of  Haaretz, but Gabriel knew the secret of it. Che knew it was  entirely natural,  as all  things must needs be. The bag was only to conceal the way hez hand seemed to disappear, which could disturb some watchers.

Jabez returned to  Gabriel with  a bundle  of arrows. "We have sixteen darts, no more. Some are good, but some  are hardly fit to be  used. Our hope  when we reached  this forest was  to make more, but now you say there is no time."

Gabriel received the arrows to inspect them. Remiel looked over hez shoulder to help examine  them. "Get rid of the  ones with black feathers Cousin Gabe. I can't do much with those."

Gabriel replied, "I don't like this pair  either, Cousin Remy," and with Remiel's agreement they were also rejected.

In the end, Gabriel had but eleven acceptable  arrows. Then che put the bundle of eleven arrows  into hez pouch of  skin, which seemed too small to accept them, to the wonder  of the same men who had recently eaten their fill of bread from the same pouch. Che reached in with another hand and pulled them out again. This che did again two  more times,  until he  had three  bundles of eleven arrows each, which che gave to Jabez.

And Gabriel said to him, "Who are the three other men among you skilled with the bow?" Zethan, Rimon, and Asher came forward and were similarly equipped. Then Gabriel said to  Elam, "As  the chieftain of these men you must choose which two shall lay aside their swords and take up the bow instead for the fight that will soon overtake you."

Elam named his brothers Rosh and Jemuel. Gabriel gave them each their own bundle of the three and thirty arrows.

Remiel said, "When the  signal is given  to fight,  the archers must  fire their  arrows  at  the foe  as  quickly as  possible, without delaying overmuch to take aim. The rest of you must hurl stones at them as you can.  I counsel collecting piles of stones outside your tents now."

Rosh asked, "What then shall be your signal to fight?"

"Three blasts of  my  horn,"  said Gabriel. "You must all  be waiting inside your tents before the ninth hour."

Young Asher's hand reached out to squeeze the black rubber bulb of Gabriel's horn, but che said, "Don't."

"I for one will not skulk  inside my tent," said  Elam. "I will meet these horselen on my feet with a sword in my hand."

"That is well,"  said Remiel. "Both Gabriel and myself  shall stand with  you. Belphegor  is one  of the  Holy Ones  and B'nei Elohim custom demands a suitable reception."

Elam and Gabriel  and Remiel  stood alone  in the  camp of  the Remnant as the third hour past noon arrived. The warriors riding with Belphegor arrived at the camp of the Remnant  as Elyon had foreseen, with both len and beast arrayed for battle under heavy layers of black leather  and polished  brass. Belphegor was at once heartened that only three  withstood him, but also dismayed that he could not see the Ark of the  Covenant sitting upon the pillars of stone as it was when he saw it  last under the eaves of the Wall of God. One of the three hailed him by name.

Gabriel went on  to say,  "I regret  we must  receive you  with caution, not  the adoration that is  due the Holy Ones,  but you come against these people girded  for war. Elyon has placed them under B'nei Elohim protection."

"I am not come against this rabble," Belphegor  said, "only the relic they carry about with them."

"If you mean the  Ark, Lord, and  the tablet  contained within, these are the  artifacts bound up with a  covenant between Elyon and Keter, and they have nothing to do with you."

"Nevertheless," replied Belphegor, "I will take the tablet, and whether these people live depends entirely on how difficult they make it for me."

"My Lord, as  I said,  Elyon has  placed this  group under  the protection of his Extraordinary Force. I beg you to reconsider."

Belphegor replied with a furious shout and the pikes he and his len bore, each twice the height  of even the tallest  lan, went from the vertical  to the  horizontal and  were braced  against fittings on their saddles to distribute the impact. They charged the Tent of Meeting.

Elam, Gabriel, and Remiel dove  out of the  way as four  of the pikes caught the coverings of the tent and lifted  them away to reveal that nothing was inside.

Gabriel sounded hez horn in the call for the men of the Remnant to emerge from their own tents and answer  the assault. Eisheth from Zuben Well tried to  ram the  sharpened point of  his pike into Elam's midsection but Remiel made the tip to bend until it snapped off into a blunt splintered end.

Elam was only  knocked  to  the ground,  and  Eisheth was  left holding a long cane of  little heft  or use. Then Eisheth cast away the ruined  pike and  drew  his blade  to engage  Gabriel, striking from horseback.

Belphegor and Malphas  rode  forward and  used  their pikes  to uncover another tent by casting away  the skins, but the Ark was still not seen.

Zethan, Rimon, and Asher fired their arrows simultaneously. With his talent as a B'nei Elohim, and standing well away from them, Remiel took one  of the  arrows,  it didn't  matter which,  and accelerated it into the face of Morax. He was unhorsed.

Zagan came to the aid  of Eisheth,  raising his pike  to skewer Gabriel, as he deemed the nephil to be the  leader. But he took an arrow under his raised arm from Jabez and was unhorsed.

Josiah drew his blade across Zagan's neck under his chin and he bled out. Many stones were in the  air striking  the protected flanks of the horses and len, but one thrown by Abner was guided by Remiel into the eye of the steed ridden by Onoskelis. In pain the horse  collided with  Eisheth's  mount  and both  len  were whisked unwilling from the field.

Jemuel's tent was overturned in  yet another failed  attempt to find the Ark. There were ten remaining and the nest of hornets was quite furious  now. Belphegor still had  no inkling  that Remiel was guiding  projectiles at  him with  a tiny  fold-door temporarily under his control.

Orobas braced his pike against his saddle. he was so intent on skewering  Abner that  he  was caught  off-guard  when the  pole seemed to slide forward on its  own power out of  his hands and into the air, missing Abner by inches. Orobas withdrew his sword to defend himself.

Belphegor guessed the Laelites must have hidden the Ark in their most homely tent in a clever play of  operational deception. He assailed Asher's tent with a pike but came up with nothing.

The air in the clearing grew thicker with arrows  and stones. A rock hurled by Tobiah  was guided  by Remiel  into the  face of Danjal, a  mercenary from Eniph,  striking with enough  force to make him unconscious. He fell at the feet of Josiah, who let out his life's blood.

With three dead and two missing Belphegor had enough. The thong of a stickywhip  curled  around  the legs  of  Elam, the  human Belphegor had seen standing outside the Tent of Meeting with the B'nei Elohim. The whip's  thong adhered  to  itself. Elam was dragged behind  Belphegor's horse  as  his  tormentor bent  the handle around his saddlehorn.

Malphas signaled with a banner and the five surviving len began to ride east. Another stickywhip wrapped around Elam and he was lifted from the ground suspended between the horses of Belphegor and Orobas. The men of the Remnant began to run  after them to save their chieftain.

Gabriel sounded hez horn to capture their attention and shouted, "Hold! You'll never catch them! Protect the Ark of God!"

The Laelites realized che was right and broke  off their chase. Remiel then ordered the men to remove the covers of Elam's tent from the holy  relic. Gabriel said  to them,  "Your enemy  has sought cover in the trees along  the border of Shaula Wood. Your arrows will be of little use  there. I counsel that your archers bear the Ark north  and west deep into the Wood  on the track of your women and animals."

This sounded good to Jemuel, so he ordered Zethan, Jabez, Rimon, and Asher to carry the Ark with the two staves which fit through the rings on  the corners. The four men obeyed  at once,  not questioning that Lael's second son was their  natural leader in the absence of Elam.

"But what of my brother Elam?" asked Rosh.

"Belphegor will  not kill  him  right  away," Gabriel  replied. "though Elam might,  perhaps, come  to wish  he would.  We will remedy that shortly. Belphegor greatly  errs if he thinks hy can beat anything useful out of Elam."

Gabriel and Remiel led the Remnant through Shaula Wood, forming a fence of men lest Belphegor's force doubled back to assail the Laelites carrying the Ark. But Rosh feared they would go astray in the forest and  find they  had somehow  overshot Belphegor's len, and he stated so.

Gabriel replied, "Your God and mine has charged both myself and my kinslen Remiel that not another man or woman gathered by Lael shall die at  the hands of Belphegor, nor shall  they die at the hands of one of his thralls. Rosh, have you not seen the hand of God in all that has happened today?"

At Gabriel's rebuke Rosh fell silent. Rosh, whom God himself had chosen to replace Lael as  the high priest, was  deeply ashamed that even he had lapsed in unbelief.

Elam's screams steered the  men of  the Remnant  through Shaula Wood to the place where he was being tormented and they ran into Belphegor's picket of len. Their shouts of warning went unheard by reason of the noise made by Elam.

Remiel used his talent to  shred their  cloaks. A wad of cloak wound up in Ukobach's mouth. Surgat and Orobas found sections of their cloaks wrapping around their heads to both make them blind and stifle their cries. This was utterly beyond their experience and effectively sliced the three of them from the fight.

“There is no cause to slay these three  yeng,” said Remiel. “You can release them  later, one  at a  time. Let them make their way home to the Saiph League, where their tongues may wag. It will be  a generation  before any  come against  the Remnant gathered by Lael.”

Gabriel left Abner, Asa,  Josiah and Tobiah  to bind  the three yeng under guard and take them west toward their camp. Only Rosh and Jemuel remained with Gabriel and Remiel to advance on their enemy. Elam’s every scream weighed heavily on the heart of his brothers. But they were all relieved to find only Belphegor and Malphas with Elam Even Gabriel expected two more.

“Cut the man down!” hy said in the Semitic little changed in Heaven which men  from  Earth understood  no longer. Belphegor hefted hyz blade and replied, “As you wish.”

Rosh saw that Belphegor was about to pierce Elam rather than cut him free, so he loosed an arrow at the center  of hyz back. The range was so short he  could not  avoid striking an  organ, but this didn’t suit Remiel, who bent the arrow  higher, toward a shoulder blade. Belphegor was not mortally wounded but  in hyz shock hy released hyz blade and fell to the forest floor.

Malphas moved closer to hyz lord, shifting the line  of hyz own blade between Gabriel and Remiel. Hy said, “Servants of Elyon and Binah you name yourself, yet you hide behind the humans you claim you have come to protect!”

This was garbage to make either Gabriel or  Remiel angry enough to fight. Gabriel wasn’t having  any of  it and  frankly che could barely hear hym over Elam’s screams.

Gabriel could feel Remiel’s power tugging on his sword, so it was a matter of letting go  and watching it bury itself into the chest of Malphas with no fanfare.

Jemuel and Rosh advanced  beyond Malphas’  dying body  to cut their elder brother from the tree where Elam had been hanging by his thumbs. As they did they grew sickened by how the weight of the stone and the log and Elam’s own weight, plus the swelling induced by the  torment, had  deformed his  hand, possibly  for life.

Remiel knelt over Belphegor and held the arrow where it entered hyz back steady with hyz talent while he bent the shaft with hyz hand. Belphegor was not suffering pain from  the wound anymore. As a seraph hy shared the same internal  remedy for unnecessary pain as any B’nei Elohim.

Remiel and Gabriel gently rolled Belphegor until he was face up, then helped him  to sit  up. "Forgive the touch, Lord,"  said Gabriel. "It pains B'nei Elohim to see a seraph in such straits, no matter what unfortunate disagreements might temporarily exist between we and you."

Remiel dropped to his knees to  put his eyes on  something of a level with  those of Belphegor. he said, "Your mistake, if you will forgive  the presumption,  Lord, is that  you do  not think Elyon to be warlike. But the  B'nei Elohim are Elyon's answer to the ones you call the Eyes of Elyon."

When Elam was free  of his  bonds he  gave a  shout of  rage at Belphegor and pawed  at the blade sticking out of  the corpse of Malphas to no avail. "I'll kill him! Look at my hands! I've been maimed for life!"

"He is of the seraphim,"  said Gabriel. "You will get on your knees even as you see we have done."

Elam saw Rosh with  a bow and  said, "You swore  to obey  me as though I were our father. String an arrow, therefore, and finish this one named Belphegor."

"Your brother agreed to follow me", said Gabriel, "and I forbid it! Killing captives of war is hateful to the B'nei Elohim."

Rosh paused as he weighed his obligations for a time, then threw down his bow and sank to his knees before  the seated Belphegor even as Gabriel and Remiel had done.

Disgusted, Elam turned to Jemuel and said, "Brother, as you love me, kill this angel who put me to torment."

Jemuel made  his choice  with  less  hesitation than  Rosh  and extended his  blade. Gabriel and  Remiel  rose to  their  feet between him and Belphegor. Remiel said, "Jemuel! How fortunate our God has  charged that none of the Remnant  shall die, or you would be dying now."

"Listen to none of their lies,"  Elam told him. "They have not the Ark. The will of God is unknown to them."

"For one day in every year the high priest  among you hears the oracles of God," said Gabriel. "How much more so do we who dwell ever in the very presence of God know his mind!"

Elam hissed "Do it!"

Jemuel moved  toward  the  seraph  with  his  blade  arched  to decapitate him. And Remiel, without touching the  man, twisted the blade out  of his  hand and  hurled it  out of  reach. Then Gabriel and Remiel, who both would have preferred  to leave the Remnant with warm farewells rather than a  stony silence, knelt once again close to Belphegor. A fold-door materialized to port the three of them to  Nyduly Wood, leaving  only a hole  in the ground.

After Gabriel and Remiel departed with an injured Belphegor, the Table of the Covenant  led the  Remnant out  of Shaula  Wood to skirt  along the  northern  shore  of Lake  Enkaa. In time the Remnant and their flocks reached outskirts of the city of Mizal, but the Director did not indicate they should  stop, but rather to continue ever west.

Indeed, the land around that city seemed  overgrazed, and there was in evidence much other livestock. 5R

Elam and Jemuel entered the city to assay what prices they might fetch for their animals, it  it seemed  to them a  pittance. So Elam resolved to continue  west in the  direction urged  by the Director on the Ark. But Jemuel lifted  his eyes and  beheld a large  mountain that  lay  across their  intended  path, and  he inquired as to the name of the peak.

"Mount Naratha," came the reply from one of  the city dwellers, "on the border between Alodra and Nath." Then Jemuel remembered the curse of Gabriel and begged his brother to  turn aside from the way the Ark was leading them, either north or south. But the city dweller told him the tribe of Reuben lay  south, with much cultivated land, and they would not look  kindly upon wanderers grazing their flocks there. Beyond the lands of Reuben was the kingdom of Alodra,  which had  been  a mere  province of  House Bellon in the days of the dragon, but now boasted a king of it's own. And the king had decreed all travelers  among the children of Israel must hold fast to the established roads. So Elam made the decision to turn north.

It only remained to see what Rosh would do, as  he had vowed to obey Elam in  all things except which direction  to travel, when he would obey God himself as made manifest by the Director. But when Elam and  Jemuel  returned  to the  Remnant,  the Ark  was already pointing north.

They journeyed with their  flocks over  a broad  saddle between Mount Naratha and a  smaller mountain  to the  northeast, until they were come to the outskirts  of Linan. Here the lands were even more arid and impoverished, and the Reubenites of the city turned them away before any  could enter, and they  would favor Elam with no parley. "Much lessened is the welcome we received from  the House  of Reuben  when  father Lael  first brought  us here," Jemuel said ruefully.

The Tablet continued to  counsel they  should move  towards the city, but they were clearly not welcome to go on. Puzzled, Rosh said, "I will go where my chieftain leads."

At first Elam led further  west, but after  a number of  days a vast forest  loomed across their  path. And Elam remembered the curse of Gabriel. Not wishing to rush his doom along, he steered the Remnant south and west. But the grass was brown  and poor provender for the animals. They were fed some of the seed grain they were carrying just to keep them alive.

The land began  to rise  once again. Against Jemuel's deepest wishes they reached the western flanks of Mount Narutha. 5S

There in the dead of  night the Remnant  was waylaid by  a band from the Saiph  League  who sought  to obtain  the  Ark of  the Covenant for their paymaster. The night watch was vigilant, and the men of the Remnant were aroused in sufficient time and order to fend the ruffians off, but during the Jemuel was struck down by a foe's blade even as Gabriel had portended.

Sariah the mother of  Rosh and  Elam was  struck to  the quick, because she had lost her second  son so very soon  after losing her husband Lael, and all the Remnant grieved with her for many days. Still the Ark gave no counsel which way to turn.

Elam led the people north and west beyond the frontier of Alodra and Nath into lands of Haaretz  that none had yet  claimed. Yet the grass on the golden hills was still to  poor to sustain the flocks, and the  Remnant suffered  another raid  that took  the lives of three of the women. The Ark was still safe, but Elam saw he was constrained to strike north and seek the sanctuary of the forest. Elam said to Rosh, "You, my brother, are  the high priest of the Lord our God. Could you not persuade the Lord I am contrite for my sin against him  at Shaula Wood? My hands cannot now rightly hold a blade. We've lost a brother. Every day we are in danger  of losing the  Ark of God  and the lives  of everyone gathered by our father to protect it."

"This have I done," said Rosh, "and much more besides. I reveal now what God has  said to me: -'I do not hold  everyone to be in service to me, but  of those whom I have set  aside to commit my blessings  and my  oracles perfect  obedience is  demanded. Know you, then, even as night follows  the day, when I am antagonized I will retaliate.'"

The Remnant abandoned  the open  field and  wandered among  the trees of Eliath  Wood, where  at  least there  were many  green leaves for their animals to eat. But the trees therein grew very close together, and it was  difficult to keep the  animals from drifting apart.

Elam repeatedly tried to lead the  people out of the  Wood, but ever they were assailed  by brigands  soon after  they emerged, forcing Elam to retreat into the forest, and each time they made this attempt some of their livestock was driven off.

Elam himself perished during one  of the attacks. Then was the curse of Gabriel fulfilled in its entirety and Lael's third son Rosh became the chieftain of the Remnant, now fifty souls.

In the time of mourning a woman of the B'nei Elohim was seen. 5T

The woman came to the  Remnant leading  a small flock  of their sheep that had gone astray  in Eliath Wood. Under the watchful gaze of four warriors with bows  at the ready she  drew near to Rosh and said, "The B'nei Elohim greet you, Rosh, son of Lael. I am called Ariel, the daughter  of Gabriel, who once had dealings with your  people. I am  sent to retrieve your  missing animals, which errand I have only yet begun, but also I am come to convey a message  from the Lord our  God, who says the  Remnant may now leave Eliath Wood without being assailed,  and go on to the land of your inheritance.  Be of warm heart, Rosh! God  has sworn the Remnant shall  know peace for all  the days that remain  in your life."

Ariel departed then from the presence of Rosh to search for more of thje livestock which had separated from their flocks by ones and pairs, for it was her talent as one of the B'nei Elohim that she could command  animals,  and indeed  many  among the  B'nei Elohim said she seemed to greatly prefer the  company of beasts to that of other people. Certainly it could clearly be seen this genuine affection was returned to Ariel by the animals who felt drawn to  her. Ariel, true  to  her temperament,  shunned  the company of the Remnant to  seek the living creatures  she loved all the greater.

As Ariel  wandered through  the  Wood  working to  restore  the flocks, Rosh led the Remnant to good pastures lying in the open to the west. There he founded a settlement he called Shedal. The ample grass of that land was watered from moisture drifting east every morning from the shores of  the great sea, and  the grass there was ever green. A fence of fallen trees  with sharpened tips was set on the perimeter  of Shedal, with the  Ark and the Tent of Meeting  safely held  in the  center of  the small  but growing new city. Then after a number of weeks Ariel came to the people with all that lived among their lost livestock. She said to them, "The task set before me by the Lord is finished. Now I shall return to the other world where my heart truly lies."

And Rosh said  to her  in reply,  "All my  people owe  you much thanksgiving, Ariel. Our flocks had dwindled to our great alarm, and we feared we might starve."

Ariel said, "It is not I you should thank, Rosh. In truth, I was not eager to  travel to  this shadow  of the  real world,  this frozen figment, to  carry out this task. Thank  you, rather, the living God. It is he who commands and the B'nei Elohim obey."

Then Ariel departed from their sight in like manner Gabriel and Remiel had been whisked away. 5U

The Remnant dwelt  peacefully as  one body  in Shedal  for many years after that,  while they  and their  animals increased  in numbers. In time the people began to  call themselves Roshites, which thing Gabriel also foretold.

When Rosh waxed old he  knew he was  soon to suffer  the common fate of all men. He named his eldest son Jared the chieftain and high priest and commanded  that all the  doings of  the Remnant which came after  his death  should  be recorded  in the  White Scroll. For all his days, Rosh did what was  right in the sight of the. Lord. Then Rosh slept with his fathers.

But after the passing of his father it soon  came into the mind of Jared to take the Remnant to a more suitable land where they could plant crops  as  surety for  their  livelihood, lest  the animals wandered off again, or were stolen by  enemies. Yet the Ark gave counsel they should remain. Thus the Benjaminites among the Remnant broke with  their brethren and  chose to  remain in that place to tend their animals.

Jared held the  Ark  of  no account. He led  the Levites  and Judahites among the people south and west until  they reached a plain nigh to  Thalury, the great sea. They tried to plant seed on a land that gently rose from the sea, but  the soil was thin and sandy, and the crops they grew were poor. Then Jared entered the Tent of Meeting on the Day of Atonement to made supplication to Bat-El, but when he touched the lid of the Ark he was struck dead. Attendant priests dragged his  body out of  the innermost chamber in the Tent of Meeting by ropes that  he had tied about himself, which precaution Bat-El himself had long commanded the high priests should do for  precisely that reason. Thus it was known Jared did evil in the sight of the Lord.

His brother Omar became high  priest in his stead,  and entered the Tent  of  Meeting  to  fulfill the  rites  of  the  Day  of Atonement. Omar, second son of Rosh, was accepted of Bat-El.

And Bat-El sent  a servant,  a lan  of the  B'nei Elohim. This visitor said he answered  to the name  of Kushiel. And Kushiel walked the through the poor crops of the Roshites row by row. He touched each of the withering plants as he passed.

When he was done, he told the people, "By this time tomorrow you will see that your grain has recovered, but that  it is changed somewhat in appearance.  Do not be alarmed by what  you see. The shape of the stalks are a deliberate alteration of God Most High to mark them as different from  natural grain, even as you see I have horns. 5V

"You may eat the seed of  them, even that seed  which you would otherwise save to plant the next  crop, because what I have done to them  does not alter  the underlying principle  which governs the life of the  plants. This is by the design  of our God, lest the stalks which are so  changed should fill Heaven and displace the original.  Therefore, attend  most carefully: you  must make cuttings  of the  plants after  harvest time  and preserve  them through the winter  in your homes, in pots, as  though they were cuttings as from a bush of  roses. These cuttings you will plant in the  springtime. This you  must do until God  himself through the Ark leads you at last to the land he promised your fathers."

The next morning the Roshites beheld the health  of their crops and knew everything Kushiel had told them was true. Then Kushiel departed for the  other world,  and the  Judahites and  Levites dwelt together nigh  to  the  sea for  many  years. There they founded a settlement they named Suhar.

There were much going to and fro between the  Roshites of Suhar and their brethren who stayed  behind in Shedal, and  also much trade. Then Omar waxed old, like his father before him. When he saw he was soon to  die he appointed his  son Abidan to  be the High Priest and to  record the  history of  the Remnant  in the White Scroll. Then Omar slept with his fathers, and for all his days he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

As high priest Abidan said it was the commandment  of their God that the people should make many blades of bronze, "Lest by any means those  who seek  the Ark  should chance  upon us  here and destroy us." But these blades turned he against the Benjaminites who remained in Shedal and he led the men of  the city to march against their separated brothers and demand tribute, which thing was never commanded by Bat-El.

Then Bat-El sent  the Benjaminites  succor by  sending to  them another of the B'nei  Elohim named Raphaela,  who had  been the chief lieutenant of Queen Lilith in the days of the dragon.

A heavy rain fell on  the battlefield  on the morning  when the army from Suhar came against  Shedal. Raphaela knelt with both hands pressed against the  ground, caused  this rain  to freeze wheresoever it touched  the  field. The Levites and  Judahites therefore were made to  slip and  fall, while  the Benjaminites stood their ground behind Raphaela and released many arrows.

Thus Abidan, who did evil in the sight of  the Lord, was slain, along with many others among the Levites and Judahites. And this battle of Remnant against Remnant was hateful to God Most High. 5W

The survivors in the force from Suhar, seeing how they had been led by Abidan to fight against their own God, withdrew again to the coast. Raphaela said to the chieftain  of the Benjaminites, Lemuel, that she had fulfilled  the errand  set for her  by the LORD God, and was now to return to the other world as che, like Ariel before times, longed to do.

Lemuel said to hem, "Thus also did Ariel say  when she was sent among us. The other world must be wonderful."

"It is where humans had  their origin," said  Raphael. "Elyonim had human beginnings  long ago,  and the  nephilim sprang  from their union.  The other  world is forty  times again  greater in extent than the part of Kemen that is free of ice."

It came to pass in the wake of the death  of Abidan that Bat-El accepted his brother Cheran,  the second son  of Omar,  as high priest. Then Captain Jaalan of  the city  of Caph in  the Saiph League arrived on  the  coast  nigh to  Suhar  with many  ships arrayed for war, and soon a full cohort of men under arms stood across all the ways to the city.

Sending a herald under guard, Jalaan demanded the Roshites make a choice: either the Ark of God must be  surrendered to hem, or the high priest. And Jalaan thought were the Roshites dared to withhold the Ark and send the high priest in its stead che would shackle him to the prow of hez ship and put the man to such slow and prolonged torment his people would surrender the Ark just to silence his screams.

That evening a stranger,  a man, appeared  in the  city, though none could say how  he passed  the walls. When he was brought before before Cheran, he said, "I am called David, a servant of God like others of the B'nei  Elohim who have brought aid to the Remnant before. I avow in the name of your God and mine that you must never hand over to your enemies the holy Ark."

"Then what shall we do in the face of these  many ships and the warriors who  crew them?" asked Cheran. "If we do nothing, the city will be  assailed and we shall surely be  put to the sword. The Ark will be taken in any event."

David replied, "This Jaalan has demanded that either the ark or yourself must be rendered up to him, yet he has no idea what you look like. God, therefore, has sent  me to be offered up in your stead. Have no fear! It is given to me that no blade or bludgeon or  fire or  water should  harm me." When he finished speaking David fell to the ground as though dead. 5X

The Roshites passed a bier with David's body outside of the city walls and  through  the  lines  to the  jen  named  Jaalan  who commanded the tenth of a legion besieging the city. There Jaalan hemself pierced David's body many times with a  blade as surety that he was  dead. Then Jaalan ordered  the  bier mounted  on stakes, and commanded the bier to be set ablaze.

But while it burned  David sat  up, covered  in flames,  and he leaped  down  with the  Golden  Gift  in  hand to  confront  the soldiers who surrounded him. Kindling the relic, he took many of their heads before a blade from  one of the warriors  stuck his right arm and left the burning limb and the Golden Gift it still grasped lying on the ground. Yet somehow, quicker than anyone could see, David stood with  his arm  intact, as though  he had grown another one as soon as the original had been severed. And the flames were no longer seen to feed upon his skin.

David reached down to retrieve the Golden Gift from his original charred arm and used it to  cut in twain the  nephil who struck him. Then, with none opposing him, David slipped the dark shaft of the Golden Gift through the heart of Captain Jaalan.

When he had done  all these things  David disappeared  from the sight of the invaders with a  loud report, leaving a  crater on the  beach. The surviving  warriors  of  Captain  Jaalan  were affrighted beyond speech and took ship to disperse once more to their  own lands. In the months and  years that  followed they spread tales of the terror that awaited any who  sought to take the Ark of God from the Roshites.

After the attack Cheran sent men of arms south  and east to the mouth of the River Sabik along the frontier with the kingdom of Alodra, and from there posted  watch stations at intervals north and east along  the border  reaching  the hills  nigh to  Mount Naratha, lest more paid  soldiers from  the Saiph  League might come seeking to take the Ark of God. If his own forces could not turn them back, Cheran thought, at least warning of the invaders might pass in good time behind the lines to Suhar.

But after  the  debacle  of  the ships  no  enemy  came  for  a generation. Peace reigned until  Cheran saw  he had  drawn very near to his natural death. Then Charan gave his firstborn son Dathan the White Scroll of Leliel, and named him the high priest of God. Cheran slept with his fathers, and for  all his days he did what was right in the sight of the LORD.

In the third year of  the high  priesthood of Dathan  word came from the frontier that a force was marching from the south. 5Y

They were led by an angel named Mastema who, it was rumored, was the incarnation of Elyon himself, even as Chemah in the guise of Belphegor had come against them in the days of Lael.

It was also said they originated at Toturo in  the Saiph League and had commandeered  the ferry  at  Sadl, though  the king  of Alodra gave them no leave to  pass through his realm under arms. The force  commanded  by  Mastema  was  sufficiently  large  to turn  back the  king's own  frontier guard,  although with  much difficulty. The Alodrans attacked their  unprotected flank  at Melak and were  spent to the last soldier. Yet they took such a toll  in battle  deaths and  other casualties  as to  reduce the invading force by a third.

After hearing tidings of the battle Dathan entered  the Tent of Meeting, taking thought  to beg God for help, though  it was not yet the Day of Atonement appointed for the high priest to speak with Bat-El. When he was inside the tent  he remembered certain writings in the White Scroll. Dathan dared not touch the Ark to remove the  cover, lest he suffered  the same fate of  Jared for his own defect in ritual. Thus Bat-El remained silent and Dathan departed the tabernacle no more the wiser than when he entered.

When Dathan faced the people  he told  them God would  speak no words to him. "Therefore, I will bring the Ark to give to these invaders, lest all the people of the city perish."

But Boel, the second son of Cheran, said,  "Brother, I, knowing how God has always been our salvation, will not be party to such unfaithfulness,  nor will  anyone else  who stands  with me.  We would, rather,  march north  with our backs  to you  than remain waiting in Suhar while you betray  our God and full willing give his holy Ark to our foes.  Have you forgotten the words of David when he came to us in the reign of our father?"

On that day the Roshites of Suhar were  divided, father against daughter, mother against son, brother against sister. Fully half of the Levites went north with Boel, while half remained behind with Dathan. Likewise half of the Judahites departed with Boel, while the rest stayed in the city.

Before he departed Boel said,  "Cursed are you, Dathan,  son of Cheran, for  you have dwindled  in unbelief, and worked  to drag down  half of  the Remant  to share  in your  iniquity. Our  God spurns you. The blades of your  enemy shall cut you off from the living, you and all the men of war who march with you."

Then Dathan with two of every  three men who would  not go with Boel marched south, carrying the Ark of God. 5Z

After two days' march Dathan was come within sight of the great host that was arrayed against him,  and he came forward  with a small party carrying the Ark as a peace offering.

But when Mastema learned the Ark of God carried only an ordinary flat stone the order to give battle was sounded. The army of the Saiph League made quick work of Dathan and his forces.

Then it came to pass Mastema marched up the coast to Suhar where he put to  the sword  the small  force of  men Dathan  had left behind and plundered  the city,  yet the  Tablet was  not found within the walls of Suhar. Twelve survivors among the men who had been left to guard the  city were put to  torment by whips, even to the death, yet of  the whereabouts of the  Table of the Covenant they knew nothing save  they had seen Dathan  take the Ark with him on the march to the south.

In the wake  of this  atrocity the  invading army  commanded by Abbadon departed  to return home  to Toturo, only to  meet their own utter destruction at the hands of the king of Alodra. In his wrath the king had arrayed the army at Melak to lie in wait and avenge the annihilation of his border guard. Never again in the whole history of Kemen  did mercenaries  from the  Saiph League assail the Roshites at the command of Elyon or Chemah.

The Tablet was safe in the possession of the  faithful who went north from Suhar with Boel,  for Bat-El himself  had forewarned him of the  apostasy  of Dathan  and  commanded the  deception. Boel's group traveled with the Tablet up the coast of Thalury as far as Suhar was from Melak. There was found an unnamed river that was exceedingling fair to behold.

On the southern bank the Director on the cover of the Ark began to spin. The people saw how the river emerged swift  and clean from the hills,  then slowed  to a  more stately  pace to  wind through rich bottomland. Boel's group no longer had the cuttings from the grain stalks that  had kept  them alive in  Suhar, but they had much seed, and here they found a  land well suited for planting. Boel named it the valley of the River  Menkal, and he decreed  the  people  of  the Remnant  should  cease  all  their wanderings in Kemen.

For all the days of Boel there was peace on the fertile banks of the Menkal River. From season to  season  the harvests  never failed and the flocks multiplied to fulfill the needs of all the Roshites.