TCO

In the days after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem the brother of the high priest Hilkiah, a man named  Lael, was seen in the cities and countryside of Judah bearing  the Golden Gift as a sign of his commission to preserve a faithful remnant from the kingdom.

Lael went with his wife Sariah. Elam his eldest son came also with him, both he and  his wife  Serach. For Lael's second son Jemuel his father found him a  wife named Iscah from  among the tribe of Judah. His third son Rosh married a young  woman Sela from the tribe of Benjamin. From the tribe of Judah  Lael made  followers of Abner  and his wife Tabitha. With him also went Abner's son Asa and Asa's wife Jemima. Of the tribe of Simeon a man named Josiah  and his wife Keturah joined Lael, together  with Josiah's  son Tobiah  and his  wife Susanna. Of the tribe of Benjamin 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.

And Lael led the Remnant into downfallen Jerusalem one evening until they 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.

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. For they were come to Nyduly Wood in the land of Haaretz  in Kemen.

Gabriel of the B'nei Elohim told Lael that God  himself had  ordained a reflowering of  the House  of Israel in  that place,  as Elyon's counsel that humans could not  remain faithful to the elohim had prevailed on Earth.

On the second day a delegation from the tribe of Zebulun joined Lael's group after  a trek  down the  vale of  the river  Nanki from their settlement named  Alnitar.

The Zebulunites provided shields for the men  among the new  colonists crafted  from the otherworldly trees that grew in the south.

The shields of the Zebulunites 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.

On the third day  men and  women of the  lost tribe  of Ephraim arrived after  paddling  downriver  from  their  homes  in  the settlement city of Hadam. 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.

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.

Then Lael's group carefully forded the perilous  river Sabik to join Hadraniel. The king commanded his small flock of livestock slaughtered by Levites  after making  a burnt  offering to  the Lord. There was to be a feast as the Kemenly southern kingdom of Israelites joyfully welcomed the remnant of the southern tribes of earthly Israel.

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 settlement of Wazol bearing precious stones for the women and girls traveling with Lael to wear and for the men to later trade for goods.

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.

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.

By the evening of the seventh day Lael's  travelers reached the settlement of Kabark, home of  the tribe of Gad. The townsfolk 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.

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 Kemen.

On the ninth day when  Lael reached Adjara the  Issacharites of that city 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.

Within Adjara lay the Kemenly temple of Yahweh which men of the whole House of Israel had begun to build, and  there Levites in exile guarded the Ark containing the Table of the Covenant.

And Bat-El 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.

King Thausael of  Hadal 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.

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.

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.

When Lael's group were transplanted to Kemen the eloah Elyon was known as Kokabiel and Chemah was incarnated as Belphegor. After Belphegor came to Adjara by fold-door it took nearly an hour for his servant Malphas to locate him.

Belphegor crinkled his nose at  the usual open sewage  of human cities but after  a time  it  was bearable. Hy amused himself watching construction of  Bat-El's temple. Belphegor knew the Levites and Issacharites of the city were attempting to build a copy of  the Jerusalem temple. From the progress they had made and the techniques of construction they were using, he estimated it would take at least a century more to complete.

Malphas found him watching a stone block weighing at least a ton being hoisted into position with the  nearly imperceptible pace and inevitability of a glacier moving an erratic. He sank to one knee and said, 'My lord, the villa of the  B'nei Elohim is near to this place.'

Belphegor motioned for his servant  to rise, and asked  of him, "the B'nei Elohim, are they to be trusted?"

"The ones at the  villa are human,"  Malphas warned,  "but they claim to be servants of all elohim, not merely Bat-El alone. The one  named Jashen  claims  to be  the herald  of  Bat-El and  he assures me he will not waste your time."

Belphegor thought it augured  well when  the four  B'nei Elohim waiting outside the house paid  perfect obeisance as was  due a seraph without even the requirement  of being announced to them. When hy beheld the one who identified himself as  Jashen hy saw his features called  back to  those of  the original  colonists brought to Adan from Earth.

Indoors Belphegor was treated with more decadent luxury than hy experienced even in Rumbek at the heart of his Larund realm. The wine was cold, the roast beef was hot, and the furnishings were of such fine make hy  said to Jashen,  "I had not  thought such wealth existed in Adjara."

"Lord Belphegor, on Earth the  lowliest among the  B'nei Elohim enjoy better,  yet it is not  thought to be great  wealth. It is only with long labor that we have made this place acceptable for us to  dwell in Haaretz  as we are  accustomed. Yet we  are only wayfarers in Kemen."

"And what are  the B'nei  Elohim that  you become  wayfarers in Kemen?" demanded Belphegor.

"'A little above man, a little below the gods' Bat-El tells us," said Jashen, and for a  moment he  was thrown off-stride  by an idle thought  that Bat-El's  very name  no longer  reflected his sex. He recovered and said,  "No doubt  you have heard  him say that he views the world-dwellers  as students. And yet from time to  time he  is of  need of  servants. The  Lord Belphegor  must recall  a time  seven centuries  ago  when a  weapon called  the Golden Gift was an heirloom of the ruling family of Salem. First it was wielded  by Melchizedek, then the weapon  passed to Queen Lilith, who cut a line between Magodon and Adan in solid rock."

"I did witness her cut on the frontier, Jashen, but what is your errand in Kemen? You told Malphas this would not  be a waste of my time."

"Milord, I was sent to retrieve the self-same  Golden Gift, and so I have done." Jashen detached the relic from his belt and set it down between them.

Belphegor said, "I see a sword's  hilt covered in gold.  How do you know that is Lilith's weapon?"

"Milord, it is very similar, in subtle way, to another gewgaw I have collected." Jashen set Lilith's headband on the table next to it, after touching the gem to illuminate it. "Milord, we have heard this light comes from Bat-El himself, from the sun that is his body. If that is  true, there  must be an  invisible thread that leads from  this antique back to Bat-El, in  a way I cannot understand. My brother-in-law Ithuriuel  has called it a 'defect in locality.'  Two other  relics have  such threads.  One relic, milord, is the Golden Gift itself.  The other I will tell you of directly, but  first I must  speak of  this headband and  how it defies  every attempt  we make  to destroy  it. Witness,  if you will, Lord."

Jashen placed the relic against the corner of a stone pedestal. In his other hand Jashen  held a  large hammer. He said, "With your permission, Lord Belphegor, of course."

Belphegor waved for  him  to continue,  and  Jashen struck  the headband between the hammer and  a corner of the  pedestal. The brilliant gem never ceased to give light. Then Jashen cast the undamaged headband back on the table.

"We have destroyed many of  our metal  tools trying to  cut the band," he said. "Not the hottest forge we can stoke will begin to make it melt, and no wonder, since a living star made this in his belly. Yet is it proof against the Golden Gift?"

Jashen took up  the ancient  weapon and  glanced at  his divine guest. "Again, Lord Belphegor, by your leave?" With the order to proceed, Jashen squeezed  the Golden  Gift to  allow the  black shaft of nothingness to lick the headband into oblivion. But he could not avoid damage to the table.

He said, "The Lord Elyon will  affirm that only two  defects in locality now extend through his umbilical with Bat-El."

"What you say is of a truth. Now, Jashen, you will deliver this Golden Gift into my hand."

"Alas, Lord, such is  my own will,  but it is  not the  will of Bat-El."

"What is that to me?" snarled Belphegor. "You say you serve the elohim. It is an eloah who commands you to do this thing."

"Milord, Bat-El's power to compel obedience is at  the heart of my quarrel  with him,  and I  am not alone  in this.  The weapon would  be of  no avail  to  you in  any case,  milord. Over  the centuries the B'nei  Elohim have gained an  understanding of how this relic works. There is an unseen tube that somehow stretches directly back to Elyon, and this  is held open by a substance we call dark light,  made by Bat-El's body. In most  cases the tube connects two  fold-doors, and can be  made as thick as  a man is tall, for  a brief period of  time. In the case  of this weapon, there is only the source of dark  energy in the heart of the sun that is Bat-El."

Belphegor saw it  was  indeed pointless  to  demand the  relic. Bat-El would simply refuse to make it work. On the other hand, now that he knew the secret of  it he could make  one very much like it himself. He said, "And how do you control the weapon if it relies on Elyon to operate?"

"A firm pressure by the hand is all, milord," said Jashen. "This is somehow sensed by Bat-El."

"You ignorant  fool!  The  sound  of  your  voice  is  changing pressure. He is listening to everything we say!"

Jashen tried to think  of a  way to  shrug respectfully  in the presence of a seraph but he  could not. Instead he said, "Lord Belphegor, we already  know he is listening, and  it matters not at  all.  Bat-El is  perfectly  aware  there is  an  unsatisfied faction among the  B'nei Elohim. The controversy  is ancient. An angel named Joy once served Samael in the days of the dragon."

"I already knew Joy was B'nei Elohim. There are more such Joys?"

There are more than you  might imagine, Lord  Belphegor. Bat-El promises all  the  B'nei  Elohim  a second  life  free  of  any obligations to  him,  but  we  find a  mere  two  lives  to  be insufficient. We have contrived serial lives  without end, even as you  and  Elyon  have  done, but  at  the  cost  of  ongoing servitude."

"And you imagine that I can help you out of your hopeless state of  affairs, so  you  made  contact with  Malphas,  and he  with myself."

"Milord, it seemed to us the way out is simply to take Bat-El's mind away from  the obsession that compels him send  us on these errands."

"And what is it that you think obsesses Bat-El?"

"Milord, not a one among  the B'nei  Elohim is ignorant  of the ancient  bargain  Bat-El  made  with  Elyon  never  to  send  an avatar  to another  star  and make  contact.  But Bat-El  thinks world-dwellers represent a potential loophole in that bargain."

"If you mean Bat-El intends to teach world-dwellers to reach the stars and so evade the bargain, we had guessed that in the very beginning. But perhaps Bat-El hasn't really thought it out. What would you  world-dwellers actually do  after arriving at  one of the other suns?"

"Lord Belphegor, perhaps  it  will be  something  as simple  as casting a  relic into that  nearby sun. A  relic with a  link to Bat-El like was present in Lilith's headband. A relic that would not be  destroyed by the  fires of that  new sun because  it had been forged in the center of the old sun."

Belphegor was  rocked  back  on  his  heels  once  more  as  he considered  what  Jashen  said,  and he  was  now  beginning  to re-evaluate the man's  worth. Of course one did not simply cast an object into  a sun,  one must  arrest its  motion and  allow gravitational attraction to do the rest, but it  could be done. Yes, Bat-El was planning this. He said, "You have eliminated one such relic before my eyes and you have narrated this, we guess, within the hearing of Bat-El. Yet you speak of another."

"Lord Belphegor, the other  relic is a  slab of  stone embossed with the words  of the covenant made between  Bat-El and Abraham and his descendants."

"For centuries this tablet was carried about on  Earth inside a chest of  wood. Once  a year  Bat-El would  speak with  the high priest through  the slab. Now the  chest has been taken  here to Kemen to  keep it safe from  invading armies, but the  temple in Adjara is  far from complete. A  man named Lael of  the tribe of Levi is the high priest now, milord, and he wanders Haaretz with the chest and the tablet. Lael  bore also the Golden Gift and he rendered it to me after I  sought him out, for such was Bat-El's verbal command to him, again  through the black tablet. Lael was expecting me to come."

"So the Golden Gift was  put in your  hand by this  Lael," said Belphegor, "and the tablet was  nigh, yet  you made no  move to destroy the relic as you did Lilith's headband just now."

"Milord, had I made the slightest move in the  direction of the ark Lael's archers would have shot me."

"In any event you would have  wasted your time even  as you are now wasting  mine. It is a  small thing for Bat-El  to construct another object and link to it."

"Your pardon Lord Belphegor,  but I  see you  are unaware  of a critical thing that we B'nei  Elohim have long known. Frequently Bat-El sends us east  of the Wall of God where  he and Binah are forbidden to  open a  fold-door, and  we have  begged to  use an avatar as Michael was  wont to do in the times  of old. But that one was destroyed by dragonfire,  and Bat-El says he cannot make another."

Belphegor searched his memory and realized that Bat-El, in fact, had not plagued  Kemen with  an avatar  since the  days of  the dragon. He found it puzzling that he had never  focused on that before, and wondered what scheme Bat-El might be carrying out in his full view, as yet unnoticed by either himself  or Elyon. He demanded of Jashen, "Does Elyon explain why he can make no more avatars?"

"Milord, he has  said  avatars  must be  made  in a  non-living portion of  a sun that  an eloah can nevertheless  safely reach. And only  a female can  compress herself  to create such  a free space. It goes without saying that Bat-El is now male."

"But Binah is female,' Belphegor replied. "Nothing prevents her from creating an object that can  survive a plunge into  a sun, and – hold! I see this is all a feint! Binah has no covenant with Keter. It is she who will send an avatar  to another star and break the interdict!"

"Milord, you need have no fear  that Binah will do  what Bat-El has sworn  never to do. For  one thing, she holds  herself to be subject to the  same covenants that Bat-El has  made with Elyon. The reason for this is that she herself lives in the clear space where  Bat-El used  to create  his avatars,  which thing  Bat-El tells us is  unique in the city of stars.  The other elohim will doubtless hold them to be one and the same being. In an odd way, Binah is a kind of avatar herself, but she can never be ejected. She is already compressed, and she can shrink no more."

Absorbing these claims by Jashen Belphegor tried to imagine how it must be for  Binah. Sexual pleasure for female  elohim came from compression during mating which Binah had experienced from the instant of conception. She lived in a state  of perpetual physical joy. Belphegor suddenly softened his  attitude toward Jashen and said, "I have offered only unrelieved hostility, and I would  move to  reward you for  your steadfastness,  yet there remains one  question: why you  beg me  to take the  tablet from this Lael? Are there no warriors among you in this rebel faction of B'nei Elohim? Why not yourself?"

"Lord Belphegor, I have been a  warrior from my youth  on Earth but  now  I am  summoned  back  there,  and  none of  the  other occupants of this villa are trained  to fight. Nor is it assured other B'nei  Elohim of like  mind will  come to Haaretz.  We are sent by Bat-El here and there as our talents are needed."

"Yes, I had nearly forgotten that the B'nei  Elohim had special abilities unique to each one. Lilith could even fly. What, then, is your talent, Jashen?"

"Tongues, milord. The men of Haaretz are not  understood by any others, in  the main. And  I have  frequently been sent  to have dealings with  the kings of Samaria  and Judah as the  herald of Bat-El."

'And the B'nei Elohim who resent this thralldom to Bat-El, what do you call yourselves?"

"The word we use, milord, has no equivalent term outside of our private tongue. The word is 'groupies;'. It refers to the sexual playthings of a troupe of musicians who travel with them."

For the first  time Belphegor  seemed  amused. "I am sure  the explanation for  that is  interesting but it  is enough  to know Elyon and I shall henceforth treat only with the 'groupies'. You can tell that to Bat-El if by chance he is not listening through the Golden Gift."

"He is listening, Lord Belphegor, yet I cannot use that fact to summon a fold-door home to Earth. Bat-El insists we do that only from  Nyduly Wood.  So I  must now  take my  leave. But  you and Malphas shall  be honored guests  in this house until  such time you wish to depart."

"I bid you farewell, Jashen, but certainly Bat-El will be wroth that you destroyed one relic and plot against the other."

"Milord, Bat-El can do nothing  to punish me. B'nei  Elohim are immune to torment and we surmount even death. But I counsel that you tarry  not. Should the  Kemenly temple be completed  here in Adjara  it would  be  difficult  to seize  it  and Bat-El,  thus forewarned, would simply remove the tablet to Earth."

Then with suitable words of obeisance Jashen left Belphegor and Malphas to dwell in the safe house for the  seven days it would require for Chemah to accumulate sufficient dark energy to allow their departure by fold-door.

On the edge of Shaula  Wood, northeast  of Adjara, Lael  of the tribe of Levi and a  small remnant of  the tribes of  Judah and Benjamin and Simeon 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.

Lael withdrew the  tablet from  the Ark  and turned  in a  slow circle, as he had  been instructed by  Bat-El himself. When he faced in the  direction desired  by  God Most  High the  Tablet sounded with a blast akin to  that from a shofar,  a ram's horn trumpet. Lael believed that  by means of  the ark  Bat-El would never fail to lead them to good grazing grounds for their little herd of livestock.

As they trundled along they frequently met 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, as Hebrew was little known to them.

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 excellent Hebrew much as Jashen could do, and could easily be understood by them.

Marsayas begged  Lael to  grant  his  travelers leave  to  make overnight camp nigh to Lael's group.

This, said hy, was laid on him 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.

Lael told Marsayas that most of  his people were newly  come to Kemen, and that he knew little of the lands that lay about them, but he led his little migration whither Bat-El willed.

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

Then Marsayas spoke in aside  to his  own band using  a strange tongue. As he 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.

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.

"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 from there they sail up the River Sabik as far as Atria.

"The coast continues north to the  ice wall, and bends  west to follow the ice.  There are many coves and headlands  at the foot of the  ice and the people  who dwell there prospher  by trading fish and wares with merchants who  come calling in ships. But in many places the ice reaches to  the shoreline, and this ice ever cleaves into great floating bergs,  such that it is not possible to build a road west to the lands of Gerazan and Rammon.

"But of the coast south of the Saiph League  nothing of certain is known, but it is said there is no like band of land, only the Ice, and far away from both  the western and eastern shores this Ice fails, and there is a  gap of some fifty leagues, though few have ever seen the gap and lived to speak of it.

"From the beginning of days sailors heeded the strict decree of Elyon never to sail nigh to the  Ice in the south of Thalury. No captain, drunk or otherwise, dared steer his ship so near to the ice that its upmost reaches became visible on the horizon.

"An order to sail  thus was  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.

"But in the days when  the dragon 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.

"These sailors were willing to disregard the strict commandment of the God of  Kemen never to sail much south  on the Great Sea. There spread rumors of a choice but unconquered land at the foot of the  Southern Ice, indeed 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.

"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,  for the currents of Thalury  moved stately south, and  tales abounded of ships  that were  becalmed and  drifted south  never to  be seen again.

"In two days the ice reared up over the horizon, and and some of the older sailors  muttered in  fear, since  the tradition  was deeply embedded  within them, while certain  others scoffed. But it was  seen that the  wall of ice did  not continue west  in an unbroken line,  but failed  after a  certain distance,  and some said it was the gate to the choice but hidden land.

"That 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.

"But 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. The  Will O' The Wisp and all aboard fell  over the  edge of  Kemen. In  the uttermost  south Thalury pours over  a great cataract,  a vast waterfall with  no bottom, and ever the waters of the sea are replenished by melting ice.

"Long the ship fell partially submerged within the waters of the sea, which had become a white sheet. 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 sailors floated far away from their ship.

"A 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.

"But none of  the  doomed angels,  nephilim,  and men  suffered thirst as is common among  marooned sailors of Earth. Thalury is a  freshwater sea.  As  the  crew continued  to  fall, the  dark underside of Kemen became visible  overhead like the inside of a mask.

"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.

"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.

"The sailors found that death was not the end. They awoke in new bodies untouched by scars of  battle or the lash,  looking down upon The Land We Know from the very rim of the Southern Ice. The sailors who tarried  at the edge heard feeble  voices carried by the wind through  a trick of sound reflecting  on the precipice. Ever  they walked  the  ramparts  of Kemen  hoping  to hear  the voices of  their loved ones,  and when  they did they  deemed it bittersweet.

"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.

"At great length nearly all the dead came off the precipice and rested on the narrow lawn behind it.

The sailors rested on the shores of the Upper Sea, waiting, they were told, for a white ship to come and take them further south to an unknown destiny. The eloah named Chemah it was who spoke of the dead mariners, but  he refused  to speak of  their final fate, not to his audience in Rumbek and not  to the unfortunate sailors themselves. 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 reborn crew passed over the westernmost of the Upper Seas to the south, and he alone  remained standing  at the edge  of the Southern Ice.

"Skulldagger has attained a form of immortality through infamy, and never  a day  passes but  that his name  is spoken  aloud by someone below,  even as I have  done today. 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.

"I tell you all these things not that you should be fearless in the face of your own death,  which indeed is truly nothing to be feared, but that you may know  what you must do, presently, when each one  of you  find yourselves  resurrected and  standing the brink of the Ice."

When those words  were spoken  Marsayas drew  out a  weapon and 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.

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.

Lael's wife Sariah restrained Marsayas' arm to prevent him 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 him quickly jumped  out of striking  range of  Abner, Asa, Josiah and Tobiah. 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 len were free to burst through an open hole in the ring of womenfolk seated around the campfire.

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. 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.  But a  fold-door  appeared  with Lord  Belphegor himself standing within, ready to  take possession of the Tablet of the Abrahamic Covenant the  instant one of the attackers were able to seize it.

Three separate sword duels  commenced, and  they were  far more fierce than any of the len had foreseen. This left a fourth lan free to draw near to the  Ark and seize it,  but Bat-El entered the fray. When the angel  touched  the relic  he  immediately stiffened and fell dead.

Belphegor shifted his gaze to the tussle with blades and watched the humans vanquish their taller opponents one after the other. He was reminded of the tenacity of their forefather Jacob.

The body of Marsayas  and two  of the len  in his  party fairly bristled with  arrows. Jemima, Keturah, and  Susanna  slipped daggers between the  ribs of  the angelic  strangers to  finish them. 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 him and that  he had ran out of time. 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.

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 where they had made camp.

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.

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."

When there was no answer Elam moved to remove  the cover of the Ark of the Covenant with his bare hands, but  he was knocked to the ground as though by lighting. Jemuel made no move to repeat the error. But when Rosh touched the Ark Bat-El did  not smite him, so Jemuel considered his petition to be suitably answered.

Then 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. And Leliel had written upon the scroll in characters unknown to  Rosh, but the husband of Leliel, 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 he figured throughout  the White Scroll. Rosh marveled that he never died.

Lael had added his account of bringing a remnant of the southern tribes to Keman, and daily  he had inscribed their  journeys in Kemen as though the scroll were a journal.

Rosh read all the words of his father aloud to the Remnant, then he said, "I will add an  account of last night's  battle at the foot of the  Wall of God 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."

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?"

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."

"Let it never be said that I doubt our Lord God," replied Elam, "yet recall how this visitor Jashen took the Killing Relic from the hands of our father Lael.  Had he not done this, mayhaps our father would be alive today."

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 perceive that God Most High is wise, and employs his servants according to the temperament they each have rather  than fits them uneasily to  an unbending will. So let the offices of priest and judge now be carried out by two sons of Lael according to our skills.  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."

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 Bat-El had accepted the division of the offices of priest and judge proposed by 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.