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Michael taught a quiet spirituality of the present that spoke directly to the hearts of yen. Lilith witnessed Michael healing angels with salves prepared from fireweed and the bark of vogul trees. And Michael said, "You have heard it said how Bat-El is the ungrateful son of Elyon and Elchemah. But I say to you Bat-El is their obedient daughter."

After a time Ophan Lilith spoke of Michael to her father, but it was much more than the new teacher's words and deeds that impressed him. Melchiyahu also knew his daughter had stopped dressing like len, and was again seen of evenings within the walls of the castle.

But word of Michael's healings and his teachings also reached the ears of the avatar of Elyon in Adan. He sent a noblelan named Zadkiel to be his eyes and ears in Salem. He was ordered to assess the damage and staunch the bleeding. But for a time Michael returned to his home near Mount Anshar.

The angels of Salem continued to form crowds in the countryside, hoping to draw Michael out from his retreat. Zadkiel found them ripe to hear his own teachings, which contradicted Michael's doctrines precept-by-precept.

He said, "Hear now, dwellers of Salem, the divine law of our Lord Elyon, which shall be for you and for all the inhabitants of Heaven a perpetual decree.

"For this the Lord Elyon speaks against thy false prophet, Michael son of Jophiel the glassblower: 'Michael! You claim union with Bat-El in body and soul. Because you do not affirm your station as a commoner who carries only angelic blood, behold, I pronounce the penalty of death. You are doomed to die, for you make the lie that you are a demigod!'

"The men and women who dwell among you shall be servants unto the len of you, and none shall be set at liberty.

"Even as men and women are servants of len, both len and yen are perpetual servants unto Samael. But the jan, or the ambi, who are both male and female in one flesh, are an abomination to your god. They shall be cut off from all the lands of Heaven where Samael is called lord. If a yen gives birth to a jen or an ambi her own midwife shall strangle the abomination with its own umbilical cord, and the body taken to the Eyes of Samael as token of the husband's cuckoldry. Then the mother shall be put to torment, and the manservant of the household whom she names as the father shall be put to death.