TCE

TCE01: Avram means "the father is exalted" which glorified Terah rather than his son. In the ritual sealing the  covenant with Bat-El Melchizedek changed  his  name to  Avraham, which  means "father of many nations".

When Avraham's own son  was fourteen  years of  age Melchizedek said, "Take now Yishak and  go to  the hill country.  There you shall make  of him a  burnt offering  upon one of  the mountains that I will show you."

At first Avraham searched the face of  Melchizedek, thinking it to be a bad joke.

TCE02: Avraham was tempted  to refuse outright  as he  did once before in Harran, but  he remembered the  covenant. Melchizidek says this Bat-El now requires the life of his son? So be it.

"Let my word be true. I will obey my God, even though I find his demands to be hateful."

When all was ready Avraham left his flocks grazing on the plains nigh to the coast. There he left his wife and all his servants. With Yishak at his side he was led by Melchizedek into the hills that overlooked the Salt Sea.

TCE03: On the first night  Melchizedek told Avraham to  look at the  stars and  asked if  he could  count them. "So shall your descendants be," said he.

Avraham got the point. He already possessed many  animals and servants and  great riches. He did  not  place his  hopes  on obtaining a better second life. The only new thing Bat-El could give Avraham was the assurance that his name and  his blood and the memory of him as a faithful servant of the living God would be carried into the indefinite future.

TCE04: They saw no game along the way, so when they drew near to the designated place and  Melchizedek pointed  out the  hill to them, Yishak asked, "Where is the animal for the offering?"

Melchizedek said nothing. Avraham could not bring himself to lie to his son. "God himself will provide the offering."

Yishak was excited to see what God was going to bring so he ran ahead up the hill with youthful energy.

Avraham said to Melchizedek,  "When we reach  the top  you will help me restrain my son."

TCE05: When they caught up with  the boy on the  hilltop Yishak called out, "Father, there's nothing here!"

Avraham had a length of rope and was tying loops in it. He said, "Join me here son, and help with this." Yishak promptly obeyed his father.

Thus distracted, Melchizadek took the opportunity  to seize the boy. Yishak didn't cry out at first because he didn't understand what was happening until Avraham and Melchizedek had lashed him securely to a flat boulder that would serve as the altar.

TCE06: After that Avraham didn't  need to  work up the  will to slay his  own son, he  was actually in a  hurry to do  it. Every instant the helpless  Yishak lay  in mortal  terror of  his own father tore at his heart. Avraham couldn't stand it. He raised his blade...

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 ran off to a safe distance and turned to face his father.

TCE07: Avraham's face twisted as  he worked through a  storm of dark  emotions. He seemed to  arrive at  an answer. "A day of testing?"

Melchizedek nodded in the  affirmative. "This day will  not be forgotten while cold and heat, seed-time and harvest remain. For God Most  High knows you  will not  even withhold your  only son from him."

Avraham longed to embrace Yishak but  he saw how the  boy stood well away. Trust, once betrayed like this,  could never return. "Could there not have been another way?"

TCE08: Melchizedek said, "It would be difficult  to explain the full background of the controversy. It is enough for you to know the enemy of  man has made certain claims and  God Most High has chosen you and your descendants to show them to be false."

Avraham lamented, "What I  dread most of  all is  answering the hard questions  of Sarai after Yishak  has spoken to her  of all this, which he doubtless will."

Just then a portal appeared on the hilltop. With the crack of a whip a ram rushed through.

TCE09: With a smooth  stroke of  the Killing  Relic Melchizedek separated the head and body of the animal after it emerged from the bubble, that Avraham may not be proven false in what he had said to his son.

He said, "Farewell, Avraham of  Harran! One day  other servants may be sent as God Most High commands."

In the audience hall of Melchiyahu one lamp alone was burning to give light. Melchizedek had forgotten how day on one world could be night on the other, and he wondered how that could be.

TCE10: Melchizedek went to the wing of the palace where Princess Lilith lived, as she was quite nocturnal. When he drew near to her chambers he saw servants going  out with wet linen and going in with dry  and he  wondered  if he  really wanted  to go  any further. The worst fears of  Melchizedek materialized  when he found Lilith to  be nude from the waist down  with each leg held high in the  air by  servants, debauched  even by  his sister's standards. But Hamon  was  also present  amid  the  flurry  of activity.

TCE11: Lilith spied him approaching and  smiled broadly. "Deck, you've come! And just in time!"

Hamon said, "The head has breached. Push, Lil! Push!"

Melchizedek remembered little after that, only that  it was all very liquid. Afterwards he realized to his surprise  that he, a warrior and prince of the city, had fainted.

When he was revived the newborn was already skin-to-skin against its mother. She said, "Deck, is Leliel not beautiful?"

"I see there have been many changes this past year."

TCE12: "Who more worthy to wed an ophan of Salem than a Seraph?" replied Lilith, affirming  what  Melchizedek  had long  guessed about Hamon, that he was greater  in glory than any  king. "And Deck, in your absence the city has withstood war!"

He said, "Beloved sister, you are the most valiant and hardy yan I know, but unless  I am still  unconscious and  dreaming, just moments before  you went through  one of the most  difficult and painful experiences possible in this  world and did not once cry out."

TCE13: "I gave Lilith a  number of wedding gifts,"  Hamon said. "One of them is  that she  can set  aside any  pain, if  she so chooses."

"Yet pain is  the  not enemy  most people  think  it is,"  said Melchizedek. "A 'gift' such as that leads only to a short life."

"That is true, Your Royal Highness, but only if the gift stands alone."

"There are things it is well Shemhazai not discover until it is too late," Lilith explained as  she nursed Leliel. "Not the most refined torment could wrest them from me." TC361:

TCE14: "Avraham proved true in the testing," Melchizedek revealed.

"That is so," said Hamon, "but he has little love for a god who demanded  the life  of his  son. Still,  I suppose  a man  might remain loyal to a god he  actively hates. Even now he and Yishak are offering the  animal I sent to them.  But come, Melchizedek, your task  is done. Let  your mind be  at ease and  rejoice with your sister. You have a niece! Tomorrow we shall see your father and speak of what has befallen Salem in your absence."

TCE15: The "sea" of Aramel is a  lake fed by melt  water from a barren and twisted land, a  low gravelly pass where the northern and southern sheets of ice  came together  as one. In the year following the return of Prince Melchizedek Adanite forces seized once more the land approaches to Salem. The city, built upon an island a league offshore, was completely isolated.

The penultimate stroke of the war came when King Melchiyahu was discussing this development  with Hamon  and the  lords of  the city.

TCE16: The king was speaking in the center of his audience hall where twice his son had been taken by portal to Earth. The mouth of a bridge in reality appeared once more. The king never had a fighting chance. Malphas struck  from  behind,  removing  the sovereign's head with a single swift stroke of his  blade as he cried,  "Sentence pronounced  and  carried out!" The sphere of distorted  light snapped  out  of existence,  leaving the  usual crater. The king's body and his head rolled separately therein.

TCE17: Melchizedek was first to  reach the bleeding  remains of his father  and was  overcome with grief. He called for aides. Lilith met Hamon with  pleading eyes but  there was  nothing he could do.

"I knew Shemhazai had  this weapon in  reserve," he  said, "but there is no defense. I have given much thought to a deterrent."

Instead of bewailing the  death of her  father Lilith  stood up straight and  said to  the assembled lords,  "The king  is dead! Hail Melchizedek, king of the city! Long may he rule!"

TCE17: The noblelen  of Salem  moved  from their  seats in  the audience hall and  sank to  their knees  near the  crater where Melchizedek and three servants, with infinite care, arranged the body and head of the  dead king on a  bier with some  degree of dignity. Lilith and even Hamon joined them in genuflection.

With a word of command Melchiyahu was carried away. The new lord of the city rose to the acclaim of those  assembled before them who shouted, as though with one voice, "Hail Melchizedek King!"i

TCE18: The new king  held out  a hand in  the direction  of his father's receding litter and inquired of Hamon, "Will this, too, be the manner of my passing?"

"Not immediately, Your Majesty. Shemhazai now expects to receive messengers from Salem suing for peace."

"Excellent!" said Lilith. "Then he will not anticipate another taste of war!"

Hamon shook his head. "No, Lil, your own lieutenant has told me the forces moving in the field  are five times greater than what came against Salem before."

TCE19: "Fivefold, or a hundredfold, or half," said Melchizedek, "for long as I reign as king  of this city none  shall face the enemy in the field."

"Your Majesty," said Lilith, "we have ships enough to carry all the people of the city away."

"But where would they go, Lil? There’s a  hundred small coves scattered around  the Sea  of Aramel  where clans  of fisherfolk barely survive from what little they catch and what lesser still they trade. The vale of the Dashok is too rocky to grow crops."

TCE20: "Even  so,  Your  Majesty,"  said  Hamon,  "Release  one seaworthy craft, at  least. I would send spies up  the Dashok to the ice bridge. Shemhazai maintains a fortress there by the same means he sent Malphas to murder  your father here. It blocks any movement  west. The  enemy has  me at  a disadvantage.  He knows precisely where  the ice cave  lies under  the surface and  I do not."

"If my brother and king is willing," said  Lilith, "Azarael and Jael would be perfect. They're hunters and they're ghosts."

TCE21: "Your   spies  shall  have  their   barque,"  said  King Melchizedek, and "what provender they need. But what think you, sister mine? Shall I abdicate the throne?"

"Shemhazai could never stomach me as queen, dear brother, and a successor  more to  his  liking  would be  despised  by all  the dwellers of this city. Yet a siege would be worse."

He said, "Then, beloved sister, the  time has come for  you and your Fallen Angels to quit Salem or become unwarlike for all the days you live in this city."

TCE22: Lilith replied, "My brother and  liege-lord, my fighting yen have sworn a solemn oath their hand shall ever cleave to the sword."

"Then where shall they go, Lil?"

"Sire," Hamon said, "With my  mother's aid I will  whisk Lilith and Leliel to my home  in Anshar. Shemhazai could hardly object. It solves  a number of  problems he  has, the biggest  one being Lilith  herself.  But King  Galizur  of  Rumbek boasts  he  will welcome anyone cast  off from what he terms  'the unlovely lands ruled by Rimmon.""

TCE23: Melchizedek could feel events rapidly accelerating toward a conclusion he had no wish to  see, but no way  to alter, even with his power as king. With a sigh he said to Hamon, "Then so let it be."

"I can never adequately thank you for your service to me in the other world.  I have made  far greater  demands on you  than you ever did of me."

"There has been  a  spring and  a summer  in  this city,"  said Melchizedek. "It lasted far longer and tasted  far sweeter than anyone ever dared to dream."

TCE24: "If winter must now come to Salem," said Lilith, "may the flowering we have known take root outside of the lands trampled by House Gerash."

Hamon said, "Your Majesty,  will you  not reconsider  my offer, that Lilith may not be parted from you forever?"

"It is very tempting," said Melchizedek,  "most especially just now. Yet  as time wore  on I would  become alien to  the living, like a stone smuggled into a nest of eggs."

The king saw how Lilith grew supremely unhappy at these words.

TCE25: "Then Sire, think on the refined cruelty of  the Eyes of Shemhazai, and what  you will suffer should you  fall into their hands. Your sister accepted the Change and not even the pains of childbirth could daunt  her. At the very least you  could die at the moment of your own choosing."

Melchizedek said, "I fear no torment by the enemy. Every moment I remain  alive in  the hands  of Shemhazai  he risks  having me snatched away by  my sister, or so he would  fear. No, Hamon, my end will be quick."

TCE26: Melchizedek saw Lilith's  tears were flowing  freely. He was moved to drop  the airs of  a king and  embrace her  as any brother would embrace  a sister  he always  loved. He said, "I regret the years I had to admire you only in my thoughts."

Lilith could find no words other than to merely sob, "Oh, Deck, this parting is bitter. Bitter!"

Melchizedek held her gently apart. "Hamon told me your Leliel is the first born of the B’nei Elohim. The children of the gods! How very fortunate you are!"

TCE27: Like the shadow of  a cloud  passing over the  white sun Melchizedek saw how they were inflicting torment upon themselves as cruel  as  anything  devised by  Shemhazai  by  letting  the necessary parting linger too long.

At his command Melchizedek was arrayed in his finest raiment. He donned a jeweled cloak and his father's crown. Then he led his weeping subjects to the  lower levels of  the city,  and Lilith longed to follow, but Hamon gently stayed her, and taking Leliel they went another way.

TCE28: A lone craft neared  the near  shore of the  Aramel Sea, thronged with the  enemy,  yet no  darts  flew. Rimmon himself awaited. The living avatar of Shemhazai expected Melchizedek to send forth an underling as messenger, but no: it was the king of the city himself! Message received. King Rimmon ordered weapons free. As Melchizedek foresaw he  died  quickly in  a storm  of arrows. By the end of the day the city was pacified by the cruel Eyes of Shemhazai and would never again know a ruling monarch.

TCE29: Ice pinched the equatorial  latitudes of Kemen  in three places, leaving three unfrozen swaths of  roughly equal length. Each land in the Slush Belt was some two  thousand leagues long but only a hundred leagues from north to south. The ice bridge between the East and West Lands was the thinnest  of the three, and in the centuries to come it would be the first to melt. But the earliest  explorers  despaired  of  crossing  four  hundred leagues of treacherous crevasse-ridden ice and turned back.

TCE30: The first travelers to cross the ice bridge waded through swamps that may have run  another four hundred leagues  for all anyone knew, as none found their way to the outflow of the vast bog that was the source of the River Loenna. Yet the West Lands could still be  reached by  traveling the  long way  around the world. As elyonim and  nephilim multiplied  on Kemen  humans of original stock crossed  two other barriers of  ice and descended the Wall of God to reach a fertile land they called Sala.

TCE31: The Gold Beards  of Sala  developed an  enduring culture unique in Kemen,  based on  the  Ringhouse. This was a  common wooden dwelling with  about eighty  people at  the center  of a small circle of cultivated fields. Along the rim of this circle a dozen footpaths entered the forest, but only half of these led to another Ringhouse some  leagues away. The rest dwindled to game trails or  dead-ended in a grove of  lethal whipping trees. The wealth of the whole land of Sala was scattered in this way.

TCE32: No Adanite would cross  the ice  and the swamp  for such meager booty. What combat, such  as it  was, came  against the capital of Saharad. There were periodic raids by the Red Beards of Gerazan, and more frequently  Rimmon appeared to  both sides with the newest Adanite arms and left with their gold.

In the main the men and women of Sala embraced Hamon's teachings to an extent that  rivaled the Salemites. Yet Hamon had never visited Saharad. To Lilith's  mind  that  raised  a  pressing problem.

TCE33: When Lilith experienced the portal travel that four times had whisked her brother between worlds, and beheld Saharad, she remembered how few in the land  of Sala knew her  by sight, and Hamon none at  all. "What do you imagine  they  will do  when strange elyonim  arrive at  the city gate  demanding to  see the queen?"

"I imagine they will  throw us  in chains.  But I  have already given  some  thought to  this,  dearest  one. My  covenant  with Shemhazai makes only the land of Adan forbidden to my avatar."

TCE34: So it came to pass that Saharad, that great capital city of the land of Sala, knew the terror of the coming of the avatar of Bat-El upon jets of fire from the very heart of Earth's sun. And when it had safely touched down upon a  field of unoccupied land outside of the gates of the city and the flame ceased Hamon walked to stand near  it, and  Lilith went  with him  with baby Leliel in her arms. It was there the guards of  the city found them when they had summoned the courage to approach.

TCE35: To  a man  the  Gold  Beards  they were  proud  subjects of a  powerful  queen,  Aurra Firegem,  which  thing  would  be absolutely unthinkable  to the Adanites. Queen Firegem canceled what audience her courtiers had prepared for that day to receive instead her unannounced visitors.

With her husband Duke Evander the two made an imposing pair, but the queen was not beautiful in the eyes of many men, as she was broad of face and frame. Her skill with the bow was said to be unmatched anywhere on Kemen.

TCE36: Lilith  felt a  little  awed  in the  queen's  presence. Setting Hamon aside, Queen Firegem  (or at the very  least, the Queen Firegem that  was depicted in the words of  those who knew her)  was  the  greatest  influence  in her  life. But a  more important thing was  pressing. Lilith said, "Your Majesty,  I regret to say  my father and my brother were  slain by their own kinsmen on a  single day. Even as  I speak the city  of Salem is trampled  by the  Eyes of  Shemhazai  and forces  loyal to  King Rimmon of Adan."

TCE37: The queen  was shocked  almost beyond  the capacity  for speech. When she found her voice she could only gasp, "How could this come to be?"

"Hashmal Malphas killed  my  father in  a  most cowardly  way," answered Lilith. "He appeared even as Hamon  tells me Shemhazai has appeared before you, by that bridge in reality only Seraphim can summon. He  appeared behind my father's back  and struck off his head  without warning.  He left  no chance  for the  king to defend himself. But I will avenge my father."

TCE38: After the queen  had absorbed this  she said,  "And your brother Melchizedek? How did he die?"

Hamon spoke for  Lilith here. "Your Majesty, Melchizedek knew King Rimmon had brought overwhelming force against his city, and a siege  was immanent. He  deemed, correctly, that no  edict the king of  Adan would likely impose  upon the elyonim of  the city for their long defiance could be worse than their starvation. He went willingly  to the enemy  camp and Shemhazai admits  he died quickly and cleanly."

TCE39: "Your  Majesty,  King  Rimmon has  already  appointed  a governor over the city, and he  has levied a heavy tax. The Eyes of Shemhazai multiply  almost as fast as do  the mournful edicts and the checkpoints, and none may  depart. And yet for all that, Queen Firegem, Rimmon has utterly failed, because a daughter and a granddaughter of  King Melchiyahu remain alive,  and both have slipped away from his grasp. I hold Lilith to be a cherub and to be the Queen of Salem in exile. Rimmon will come for her."

TCE40: Duke Evandr  Firegem was  moved to  speak. "Do you seek safety for your family Lord Hamon? We are eager to have you live with us here in  Saharad, and if our city is  not to your liking you may dwell anywhere in the land of Sala."

"I thank you, Sire, but my family aside King Rimmon is pursuing other exiles from Salem even into  the land of the Brown Beards. Were I to do nothing to stave  off the war that must follow King Galizur would no  more welcome them in Rumbek  than Rimmon would in Salem."

TCE41: The duke said  in reply,  "Lord Hamon,  if war  comes to House  Larund,  know  that  the  men and  women  of  Kemen  hold ourselves to be  exiles also, and Bat-El to be  our only God. We will never turn away any who embrace her."

"I thank you, Sire," said Hamon, "and Her Majesty the queen. But if war comes it will not stop at Rumbek. Rimmon means to overawe the kingdoms of Kemen one after the other before they can unite to stop him. Think on this when  next he appears before you as a merchant of arms."

TCE42: Azarael and Jael of the Fallen Angels  slinked their way through caves and tunnels in the ice far to  the west of Salem. Only three of Rimmon’s  soldiers ever discovered  them. Their bodies were left to be  found in such  a way that  their deaths could be explained as entirely accidental.

There the yen discovered the  enemy’s main storeroom  of meat and grain. Not even Bat-El knew the exact location of that cache where it lay under the ice, but she always knew the position of Lilith’s headband.

TCE43: Azarael left the  artifact inside  a container  near the center of the cache in such a  way that it would  not likely be discovered,  even if  the  storeroom were  actively being  drawn down, which to her eyes it was not.

After that she and Jael moved some distance away. They went far down one of the tunnels  radiating from the central  space like wheel spokes, there to remain until such a time as they detected (as Hamon  described  it,  using what  he  warned  was  extreme understatement) a disturbance.

TCE44: "This is not a suicide mission,"  Hamon assured Lilith's two spies when he briefed them. They would not have to wait for long. Lilith rejoined the main body of the  Fallen Angels where they camped east of the pass.

Lilith's spies could live upon the bounty of stores  but it was always cold. Fortunately they  had a  nice  remedy that  never seemed to get tiresome. In the cozy little rat’s  nest they made for themselves Jael slipped nude between  fur blankets and purred to Azarael to come to her.

TCE45: When the Fallen  Angels forced the  entrance of  the ice cache the Adanites  fell  back  in good  order  to the  central chamber while dealing out  fire. There they made a  stand that seemed impossible to break. As the Fallen Angels  emerged from each tunnel the enemy commander, Bezaliel,  shifted soldiers to meet the threats as they appeared. Lilith found it impossible to attack the core  simultaneously  from more  than  a handful  of tunnels since the cross tunnels were few and the enemy knew them well.

TCE46: Raphaela spied a drop  of water rolling  down Lilith’s cheek. Her lieutenant was shocked  at the  sight of  this, and steeled herself to rebuke her queen. It was one thing to feel despair during a  battle, it  was quite  another to  allow that despair to be visible to underlings. But then a large drop of water landed square on Raphaela's own head. She looked up to see many such drops were falling from the dimly-illuminated ceiling of ice far overhead. As she watched,  the drops became  a true rain.

TCE47: The ceiling began to glow with a light of  its own and a steady  thunder  grew. Lilith ordered  the  Fallen  Angels  to disengage and  fall back into  the tunnel. The roof of the ice cave glowed orange  before exploding,  with the  more fortunate Adanite defenders killed by house-sized  chunks of ice  and the less fortunate ones boiling alive.

The avatar of Bat-El drilled into the supply cache with all six engines skewed, spouting fire from the heart of Sol and turning the ice directly to steam.

TCE48: Falling ice melted to water, the water  boiled away, and the bodies of len were  crisped by  raw flame until  even their ashes were scattered away.

Lilith and her lieutenants walked to the ragged  end of several tunnels and looked down, trying to comprehend the  chaos of the scene below even as the avatar abruptly fell silent.

Far across the chamber at the entrance to  another tunnel stood Azarael and Jael, both quite safe. The applause of the two yen echoed across the newly quiet space.

TCE49: Lilith dropped to the lowest level and spoke to the inert avatar. "Hamon, if Leliel is in there with  you, you’re dead. And if you  left her alone in Anshar where  Shemhazai can get at her by portal you’re twice as dead!"

The avatar of Chokhmah began to shrink before her eyes until it was a  white faceless  figure with  a head,  arms, and  legs. It said, "Do give me some credit, Lilith."

Lilith had quite  forgotten that  Bat-El could  fly her  avatar perfectly well without anyone riding inside.

TCE50: When  the  vanguard  of the  Adanite  army  reached  the garrisoned cache, now entirely in shambles, they were ordered to line the walls of the central chamber at  attention. Carrying a fat staff, Malphas picked his way to the center searching for a flat  area. When he found  a spot  that would  suffice for  his purposes he unscrewed a cap  on the end,  revealing it to  be a hollow cylinder. Then he withdrew a gray mat. Shemhazai himself had said a whisker extended  from the mat  to the heart  of the sun.

TCE51: Malphas could  neither see  nor feel  this whisker,  and indeed he wondered how it was not cut when the mat was rolled up into the  cylinder and  the  cap  installed. It was a  divine mystery. All he knew  was that unrolling  the mat  would signal King Rimmon, the  living avatar  of Shemhazai  and Lord  of all Kemen, to come. Malphas let the mat fly open by itself and stood well away in expectation. Presently something like a glass ball appeared. Malphas and all his  len sank  to their knees  as one body.

TCE52: King Rimmon bade the len to rise.

Malphas said, "My  Lord,  look what  the  she-demon Lilith  has done!"

Rimmon looked at the violet sky visible through a gaping hole in the cave ceiling. "No, this was Bat-El.  But, Malphas,  it was also partly your own doing."

Malphas became fearful and quickly looked at his feet. "The Lord forbid!"

"When you negotiated the no-go zone for Bat-El's avatar you were tricked into excluding the ice.  You must take great  care when making covenant with a seraph."

TCE53: A regiment of the Adanite army was commanded  to set the garrison in order while  Rimmon, Malphas, and  the bulk  of the force rode west into the  lands of  House Larund to  pursue the Fallen Angels.

During the ride Malphas ever prattled on about the wickedness of Lilith, annoying Rimmon to the  extreme, yet he did  nothing to silence his lieutenant. Lilith was indeed his foremost enemy in Kemen, and  heretofore Malphas had badly  underestimated her. It was well that he stoked his own fears now.

TCE54: When the Adanite expedition-in-force emerged from the ice and the underlying hills  to reach the  flats of  Magodon, like numbers of Brown Beards stood across the path of their advance. Two soldiers of the House of Larund advanced alone under flag of truce.

King Rimmon wore no emblem of  rank. His raiment was that of a common footsoldier and  no banner flew over him,  yet the envoys from the Larund side galloped toward the Seraph unerringly.

Then Rimmon saw one herald was Lilith herself.

TCE55: The other wore a  brass helmet  but when he  drew nearer Rimmon identified him as the ophan Barachiel.

Both he and Lilith  dismounted and sank  to both  knees, bowing deeply before the living avatar  of Shemhazai with  their hands open.

For Malphas to see his personal monster Lilith crouching before him on her haunches, with her head offered as though a sacrifice to Rimmon, was  too much. He stepped forward  with his  blade raised and screamed, "See Lord how I remove this dart from your flesh!"

TCE56: Still crouched upon  her knees,  Lilith reached  for the Killing Artifact at her side. Even as Malphas made his stroke the hissing black shaft of Lilith's own weapon extended and was raised to meet it. Where it crossed Malphas' sword  the blade simply was not. The severed tip fell  to the ground  as Lilith jumped to her feet.

When she saw that no other  attack was forthcoming she  let the hissing black pole retract  into the hilt. She said, "Has the purpose of our embassy been taken amiss?"

TCE57: Barachiel said, "Your  Majesty, we come  in the  name of Bat-El and  from King Galizur  to trade  words with the  Lord of Adan, not blows."

Rimmon said, "Alas,  the discipline  and  honor of  my army  is lessened  of late,  to my  great embarrassment.  You may  remedy this, Princess  Lilith. Behold, Malphas is  entirely within your power."

Malphas was horrified  that his  own god  delivered him  to his worst nightmare. With no  hesitation Lilith  struck  off  the Killing Relic and flourished the black shaft.

TCE58: Lilith stood  well away  from her  victim, touching  the shaft to his arms and legs  here and there, letting  all to see how easy it was for her to turn a lan into a limbless ruin. His agonized screams did not last long. He bled out at her feet.

"Your blade," said Rimmon. "I've not before seen the like."

"Your Majesty, this is the weapon of a  Salemite cherub. Bat-El give it  to my brother Melchizedek,  and by heritage it  came to me."

Her meaning was clear. She was a queen, not a princess.

TCE59: "So be it, Queen Lilith, state your piece."

She said, "My Lord. Bat-El is willing to give Belial that which he most desires."

Rimmon said, "You have  not the wit  to comprehend  what Belial craves most."

Lilith said, "Indeed,  the courtship  of elohim  is beyond  the reckoning of  elyonim, yet Bat-El  has put me  in the role  of a chaperone. You must please me  to please her. Therefore send the army of Adan back to your own  realm, and come not again save by leave of Galizur the rightful king."

TCE60: "That is quite impossible, Your Majesty, and you know it. I never relinquish one scrap where my forces make footfall. This all in Kemen know."

Lilith turned to her companion. "What say you, Prince Barachiel? As touching oaths the elohim are never faithless like elyonim or nephilim or men can be. King Rimmon's resolve  never to retreat from conquered land would also hold his army here just as firmly once his word is given."

Rimmon held up his arms. "See how this land is of small worth!"

TCE61: Barachiel said, "Indeed, and I deem my father would give it in  exchange for the word  of a Seraph that  no Adanite boots would  ever across  west. And  if that  Seraph’s word  one day proved false that precedent, too, would be worth the land."

Lilith struck up the  Killing Relic  once more  and dug  a deep trench in the stony  ground between her  and the  Adanites. She said, "My Lord King  Rimmon, sight north  and south  along this line. Henceforth  no soldier  of Adan shall  march west  of this frontier."

TCE62: King Rimmon said, "So  too shall  it be a  fence barring yourself and the Fallen Angels from marching west. You, and your daughter  after you,  shall be  queen in  name only,  forever in exile, with no city to rule."

"So be it." Lilith uttered words formally sealing the bargain as a covenant between elohim.

"Are you now sufficiently  pleased, Your  Majesty, that  we may proceed to the other thing?"

She said, "Assuming King  Galizur does  ratify our  truce there remains the matter of Demonstroke."

TCE63: "Yes, Your Majesty, there does indeed  remain the matter of Demonstroke." King Rimmon reached over his  shoulder to draw the blade strapped to his back in a leather sheath, the diamond sword known by the name of Dragonthorn. "In Kemen there always remains the matter of Demonstroke."

Rimmon pressed on gems  set in  the hilt  and made  the diamond blade to dart this way and that. Then the last dragon in Kemen, Demonstroke, was seen crossing the  sky in the north. The dark shape seemed to grow.

TCE64: As he drew nearer  the armies moved apart,  leaving only Barachiel, Lilith, and Rimmon standing  at the new  border. But soon even Rimmon backed away from the line, and the others found it prudent to follow his cue.

Lilith was fascinated by the grace of the landing. The wings of Demonstroke spread  to  their  full extent  and  he  sank. The dragon’s hind legs touched first,  then he tipped  forward to run on  all fours. He slowed to a stop  and sank to  the ground directly between the three nobles.

TCE65: Lilith noticed that the beast did not belch smoke or even seem to breathe. With the dragon so inert,  curiosity overcame her caution. She advanced to touch  the creature’s  hide and found its scales did not merely resemble metal, they were metal. The dragon was not a he nor a she, but an  it. Lilith had flown with Hamon enough times to recognize the avatar of an eloah when she saw one.

Rimmon said, "Come, Queen Lilith. Let us have  an audience with King Uriel and so complete our bargain."

TCE66: Apparently there was  no chamber inside  the articulated machine to ride with comfort. King Rimmon seated himself forward of a horn on the dragon’s  back. Lilith saw that Rimmon, who was patting his  thighs, expected  her  to sit  forward of  him behind another horn. She sighed and took the indicated position, knowing it was the only way to be done of her errand for Hamon.

Demonstroke sprang to  life. Lilith was not  dismayed by  the sensation of  sudden rapid  flight. She had flown  by  avatar before.

TCE67: As Demonstroke rose into the air Lilith  looked down and saw Ophan Barachiel turn west  to ride  home to his  father and carry out his unenviable task  of explaining why  he negotiated away the eastern hinterlands. She also saw the  Adanite force dispersing to garrison their new province  against invaders who would never come.

The dragon's head bent back over Lilith and Rimmon  on its long neck. Fire spewed out in a jet that propelled the dragon so high the air became almost too thin to breathe.

TCE68: Lilith was pushed  back against Rimmon,  and he  in turn against the bony ridge at  the place where the  serpentine neck joined to the rest of its body.

Then Demonstroke's head  bent  forward again. It extended its wings and with gentle motions the avatar extended  its glide as the wastelands of eastern Magodon  rose to meet them underneath. Then, when the tops of trees native to Kemen nearly brushed the belly of Demonstroke it bent its head back again  and let loose another long jet of flame.

TCE69: They chased the two suns  out over the sea. Lilith lost count of the dragon's cycles. As westering Rigilkent sank below the horizon they  glided  down  to one  of  the many  scattered campfires visible on the  island of Sealiah. A party of Brown Beards were preparing to sup around their fire on  the moors in the north  of the isle  when Demonstroke appeared  and scattered them all away in abject terror.

When the dragon came to a  stop, Rimmon slid off  to check what was cooking, and seemed pleased.

TCE70: Lilith joined him after pissing behind  the beast's bulk and found supper was beef stew  made all the more  delicious by her near  starvation. She smiled and said, "Will your  pet have some? Of course not, with only pulleys and ropes inside!"

"What a clever yen to  have guessed Demonstroke  is mechanical. Tell me,  Queen Lilith, did  you imagine any living  thing could maintain such a hot fire within itself?"

Lilith shrugged. "At least Bat-El's avatar has provision to ride comfortably inside."

TCE71: "Bat-El's avatar can also  scatter Larund len  and steal their food, but  they would already be returning. Not  so with a dragon."

Lilith took a deep swig from one of the abandoned wineskins. "By the gods you have  thought of everything,  King Rimmon!  What a useful toy!"

"But such a toy I am willing to discard, Your Majesty. Tomorrow we will make a gift of it to King Uriel."

"And when you leave the beast  with hem what is  the qualifying stipulation? With you there is always at least one."

TCE72: "I  will make  it  abundantly  clear  to the  king  that world-dwellers must use Dragonthorn to control the dragon, which is true.  And I will also  impress upon hem that  the blade must only be touched by a virgin female or it will grow brittle. That is not true now but it will be true after we reach Jelaket."

"I knew it would be something like that! Do you know that Hamon calls you HaSatan?"

"HaSatan? The Accuser?" Rimmon considered it, then he shrugged, because it was entirely warranted.

TCE73: "No  doubt Hamon  has  also  claimed  that you  are  the Students, the  ones all elohim are  commanded to find. But  I am allowing you,  collectively, to build  the case you are  not the true Students. You  are not the first creatures  of similar kind we have known. There were others, on worlds circling other suns. We spoke  to them  also, but  they did not  heed our  wisdom. We watched  them drive  themselves  to their  own destruction.  The true  Students  will  listen  to  our  teachings  and  obey  our commandments."

TCE74: Jelaket was  the keystone  of Kemen,  a seaport  and the first step in a staircase ascending  the Wall of God. The city was the gatehouse  for  all  goods moving  both  east and  west through Sastrom and she grew fat on the  duties levied thereon. Many subjects in Jelaket  recalled when Demonstroke  came last. None were happy memories. When Rimmon and Lilith landed in the large outer courtyard  of the  castle of  King Uriel,  near the stables, they were most unwelcome, but a fire dragon need never knock.

TCE75: From the ramparts of  his castle King Uriel  watched hez archers assemble in a wary circle around the  beast. Two riders dismounted. One che recognized as King Rimmon, but the other, a yan  arrayed for  war, che  knew  not. They conversed with  the guard, and one man  ran inside. When this soldier  appeared he said,  "Your Majesty,  King Rimmon  is come.  With hym  is Queen Lilith  of Salem.  She says  they have  flown from  the frontier between Magodon and  Adan and they both crave  audience with the king."

TCE76: Uriel said,  "And shall  I treat  with foreign  nobility while their living  engine of war skulks within the  walls of my castle like a blade over my neck?"

"Your Majesty," said the soldier, "King Rimmon  swore the beast would not move one whit, not even so much as breathe, so long as he and the queen remain your guests."

Uriel sighed. He knew Rimmon always coated his menace with words of honey. He told the soldier  to attend to  the needs  of his visitors and send for First Minister Makassar.

TCE77: King Uriel met the nobles in hez smaller council chamber. Che knew the presence of  the dragon, the last  remaining alive and the only one ever to cast fire, must portend some deep form of humiliation that che would rather keep private.

At first glance First Minister Makassar might have been mistaken for the Red Beard  king and  Uriel merely his  son. As a human male, for instance, Makassar actually had a red beard, while the king of House Bellon, a jen, could barely manage a sparse down.

TCE78: Lilith and Rimmon both  stood up when they  entered, but Uriel said to them, "I beg  you, esteemed ones, be  seated once more. There is no need to observe the usual formalities here."

Makassar remained  standing  at the  king's  side,  interposing between Uriel and Rimmon  and armed with  a sword. King Rimmon glanced at it and Uriel glanced at Rimmon glancing at it.

Che said, "Forgive the perceived affront, but Makassar tells me that  you, at  least,  King  Rimmon, will  not  lay your  weapon aside."

TCE79: Deliberately, with  a  pace  that gave  no  hint of  the violence feared  by the  king's  minister,  Rimmon brought  the diamond blade into view and laid it upon the table with the hilt toward Uriel.

He said, "Dragonthorn, Your Majesty, is not really a weapon but it  is, rather  a  talisman  with powerful  spells  that act  as invisible reins upon Demonstroke."

"Then tell me,  King Rimmon,  what  does your  dragon and  this blade, bewitched or no, have to do with me or any of my subjects here in Jelaket?"

TCE80: "Your Majesty, the perpetual family  squabbles among the Black Beards do  not concern you, that much is  true, but should the  dragon escape  my  control  it would  destroy  all life  on Kemen. Queen  Lilith proposes the  talisman that acts as  a rein on  Demonstroke go  into  your  safekeeping. More  specifically, Dragonthorn should go into the  possession of a human female who has never  known man nor jen  nor lan. She must  remain pure for all  the days  she cleaves  to the  enchanted blade  or it  will shatter."

TCE81: "I will ask only once more," said Uriel, "why do you lay this burden upon House Bellon?"

Rimmon answered, "When I brought humans from the  other world I have ever played the natural  philosopher, mixing potions to see what happens. Will one maid child break the glassware?"

Lilith spoke  quickly  to  fill  the  sudden  awkward  silence. "Everyone on Kemen knows you to  be a good and  wise king, Your Majesty.  Who better  to keep  Demonstroke  out of  play than  a consecrated virgin in your own court?"

TCE82: "Take your talisman, King Rimmon,, and make your offer to Queen Aurra or King Galizur.  I am in  no mood for  your veiled threats."

After King Uriel uttered hez decision the blade  began to glow. Blue and white the weapon shone until it became  so bright that Uriel, Makassar, and Lilith shielded their  eyes. Rimmon simply looked away.

When the glow faded once more Rimmon said, "Behold, the deed is done.  Dragonthorn will  shatter  of its  own  accord without  a damsel's touch, and that soon.

"Only a broad outline of  what Lord  Samael wanted to  do, Your Majesty. Not this detail." Cherub Uriel looked into the eyes of Samael then  and saw the  matter was clearly nothing  even Queen Lilith could describe as a joke. Che stood up. "Makassar, send for food and wine and see to our noble guests. A grievous errand has fallen to me and I must be about it."

TCE83: Uriel was supernaturally patient with hez daughter Dafla, With all civilization in Kemen hanging upon one slender thread, the king took the time to listen to the girl of fifteen years as she spoke of last night's dream.

"Beloved parent, I  dreamed it  was  night and  the ground  was covered with sleeping metal children. People came out of the sky in two  tall silver engines of  war that spouted fire,  but they wore armor and I  could not tell if they were  men or women, jin or ambe, yen or len.

TCE84: "One person picked up a metal child and took it into the first tower. Somehow I knew that  metal child was myself, in the strange way of  dreams. The tower flew into the  sky and we were safe. But  the second  person stayed behind  to pick  up another child, and somehow I was also back there watching them, again in the strange manner  of dreams. That second person  was caught by dark iron men who came and killed them. Then I awoke. Parent, is that not the queerest dream you have ever heard?"

TCE85: Uriel smiled at hez Dafla. 'I shall interpret your dream, child. The first person you saw was myself. You feel protected around me, which is a good  thought, because in fact  my entire will is bent toward keeping you safe. The second person was your mother, who wanted to have other children by me, and those were the other little metal people in your dream. But as we know, to our grief, she fell victim to  poison in her drink,  and so was killed by the palace intrigues that never cease here."

TCE86: "As simple as that, Parent?"

"As simple as that. At night your sleeping  mind creates images to  express what  you feel  deep in  your heart.  You are  still dealing with your grief. I take  solace from the content of your dream that you do not blame me for your mother's death."

"Never, Parent!' Dafla was shocked at the  mere suggestion that she would think that, or even dream it.

"If you did blame  me," che  assured her,  "even in  your inner heart, your dream would have been very different."

TCE87: King  Uriel stood  up,  and  walked to  Dafla's  window. Demonstroke still lay idle in  the courtyard. "Now we must set aside talk of your dreams, daughter, and our lingering grief for your  mother,  and our  lamentation  over  things we  can  never change. Did you see the dragon?'

"Oh yes, Parent, but only for a little while. Makassar came and locked my window."

"He did so only at my command,  that you might be  safe. I have been speaking with a king and a queen who came with the creature from Adan."

TCE88: "Who are they, Parent?"

"One of them is King Rimmon. He has come here before on a number of occasions. Have you learned something of the elohim from your tutors, Dafla?"

"Yes, Parent, I learned the elohim  are alive but they  are not like elyonim or nephilim or humans. We see them as stars. Bat-El is  really the  star  we call  Nahash, the  head  of the  snake. Shemhazai and El are so close to us that we see them as suns."

"Did your tutors tell you the  elohim can also appear  to us as elyonim?"

TCE89: "Yes, Parent. They said the first to do this was Bat-El. We know her as the seraph Hamon.  And they told me the hot white sun Shemhazai has King Rimmon as his living avatar."

"The same King Rimmon has just spoken with me," said Uriel. "He has brought Queen Lilith from the city of Salem far to the East. They demand to see you, daughter, but truly I  have no wish for you meet them."

Dafla slid off her bed to  embrace her parent. "Then send them away! Do you not rule this city absolutely?"

TCE90: "You  do  not understand,  dearest  daughter.  Shemhazai created  his dragon  to kill  everyone who  lives in  Kemen. But somehow Queen Lilith  has forced a bargain upon  him. The dragon will stay with us. Demonstroke is  controlled by a sword that is also the  largest diamond ever  to exist.  But only one  such as yourself can touch it. Only a  human female who has never been a wife or a mother. One who must  never be a wife or a mother! Now do  you see  why  I wish  these  guests had  never  come to  our palace?"

TCE91: "I think so, Parent."

"In years to come what you must sacrifice will  weigh upon your body and mind as a terrible burden. Yet what choice do any of us really have?"

"Parent, do you fear that I,  at age fifteen, have  no right to decide  something  for the  Dafla  at  age twenty-five?  Or  age fifty-five? Of course I do! That's just me living my life!"

"Such wisdom in  a child,"  wondered Uriel. "When I hear your words I  hear the voice  of your mother.  But come, let  us meet these foreign guests."

TCE92: Lilith had known early on that only  the king's daughter could safeguard the dragon. Rimmon had conditioned it upon her celibacy, and King Uriel, for as long che reigned, could control that absolutely.

Now, once more seeing the diamond blade lying on the table, and knowing King Rimmon had somehow given it complete power over the dragon, a gentle deception suggested itself to  Uriel. It would be a way to make bearable the heavy lifetime yoke that was about to be laid upon Princess Dafla.

TCE93: Che said, "Behold the Dragonthorn, daughter. Take up the weapon and  none shall have the  power to deny your  least whim, save  in the  matter  in  which we  already  took counsel.  With Dragonthorn in hand the beast must obey you. With Dragonthorn in hand, all my  subjects and even these foreigners  must obey you. If you so choose, daughter, with Dragonthorn in hand even I must obey you."

Makassar, Lilith, and Rimmon immediately discerned what the king was doing and none dared to contradict hem.

TCE94: Then  the  king's  daughter   did  take  up  the  sword, unleashing another light  show that  impressed everyone  except Rimmon, who worked it, and Lilith, wife of Hamon,  who knew all sorcery to be mere showmanship like the ruse Uriel was carrying out with Dafla.

King Rimmon said, "The dragon Demonstroke is now entirely within your power, Your Highness. Furthermore,  you have the  means to travel anywhere in Kemen in a  few days rather than many months, and none outside Sastrom now dare assail you."

TCE95: Uriel said, "Indeed, King Rimmon, I need not see you ever again, peddling the works of Adanite weaponsmiths and departing with the gold of my treasury."

Dafla took this as a cue to put the power of the Dragonthorn blade to the test. She pointed the tip at King Rimmon and said, "Leave at once, you, on foot if you must, and never return!"

Rimmon rose to his feet.

Dafla pointed the tip at Queen Lilith. "You must leave as well, for your part in bringing my parent so much unhappiness!"

TCE96: "Indeed."

Lilith rose to her feet, but bowed to Uriel while Rimmon did not. The portal formed around them. In appearance it was like an insubstantial ball of glass.

She said, "Farewell, Your Majesty! In the name of Bat-El may good fortune be with you and all who look to you."

With a loud report that frightened Dafla to tears they and the portal were gone in the wink of an eye, leaving only the familiar and entirely unnecessary crater in the floor that was Rimmon's calling card.