1F

1F

Yishak didn't cry out at first because he didn't even understand what was happening until Abraham and Melchizedek had lashed him securely to a flat boulder that would serve as the altar. Abraham would never forget his son's utter terror and the betrayal he must have felt.

After that Abraham didn't need to work up the will to slay his own son, he was actually in a hurry to do it. Each instant the helpless Yishak lay in mortal terror of his own father tore at his heart. Abraham couldn't stand it. Melchizedek was barely in time to restrain him. He shouted, "Enough! Do not harm the boy!" To be certain, Melchizedek used the Killing Relic to cut the lad free once more. Yishak stood at a safe distance and watched his father's face work through a storm of dark emotions.

At length braham said, "So. A day of testing?"

Melchizedek nodded in the affirmative. "It is a day that will not be forgotten while cold and heat, seed-time and harvest remain. God knows now that you will not even withhold your only son from him."

Abraham longed to embrace Yishak but saw how the boy stood well Abraham away. said, "Could there not have been another way?"

Melchizedek said, "It would be difficult to explain the full background of the controversy, but know that the enemy of man has made certain claims and God has chosen you and your descendants to answer them."

Abraham lamented, "What I dread most of all is answering the hard questions of my wife after Yishak has spoken to her of all this, which he undoubtedly will."

Even as he spoke a fold-door appeared on the hilltop and the crack of a whip was heard. A ram rushed through the opening. With one smooth stroke of the Killing Relic's immaterial black shaft Melchizedek separated the head and body of the animal as it emerged from the bubble.

Melchizekek stepped inside the bubble and said to Abraham, "I will return to Earth when Yishak is of age to have his own wife." Then the fold-door winked out of existence and Melchizedek was gone with it.

When Yishak was seventeen years of age Melchizedek returned to Earth and journeyed once more to the town called Harran in the land of Abraham's kin.