TC-Lael


 * 1) BHA: During the reign of Jeconiah, Nebuchadnezzar II personally laid siege to Jerusalem. King Jeconiah was frog-marched to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar looted all the treasures of the temple of Yahweh and deported the army, the craftsmen, and all the leading citizens of Jerusalem.
 * 2) BHB: The poor were allowed to stay behind and work the land. Nebuchadnezzar appointed the uncle of Jeconiah as king and changed his name to Zedekiah. But later Zedekiah also rebelled against Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar and his whole army marched to Jerusalem and lay siege.
 * 3) BHC: King Zedekiah attempted to escape the city but he was captured and brought before Nebuchadnezzar. The sons of Zedekiah were slain before his eyes, and after that Zedekiah was made blind, bound in chains, and frog-marched to Babylon. The temple was razed to the ground.
 * 4) BHD: Every house in Jerusalem was destroyed, beginning with the palace of the king. The walls of the city were also torn down and every surviving inhabitant was exiled to Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar had answered Zedekiah's defiance by wiping Judah from the face of the Earth.
 * 5) BHE: Nebuchadnezzar deported fifty thousand Jews to Babylon. Only a very few of the poorest people and a handful of renegade army officers remained behind, hidden in the Judean hills, but these soon fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians, leaving the land entirely vacant.
 * 6) BHF: After a time the Babylonian forces withdrew and hill brigands multiplied in their wake. But among the Jewish diaspora in Egypt there appeared a priest Lael of the tribe of Levi who came bearing the Golden Gift and a commission to preserve a remnant from downfallen Judah.
 * 7) BHG: Lael came with his wife Sariah. Elam his eldest son came also with him, and he with his wife Serach. But Lael's second son Jemuel found he a wife named Iscah from among the Judahite refugees, and his third son Rosh married a young woman Sela from the tribe of Benjamin.
 * 8) BHH: From the tribe of Judah scattered in Egypt did Lael gather to himself Abner and his wife Tabitha, as well as Abner's son Asa and Asa's wife Jemima. Also of the tribe of Judah did Josiah and his wife Keturah join Lael, together with Josiah's son Tobiah and his wife Susanna.
 * 9) BHI: Of the remnants of Benjamin scattered to Egypt in exile there also joined Lael and his group one Zethan with his wife Atara, Jabez and his wife Keziah, as well as Rimon the elder son of Jabez with his wife Dinah, and also Asher the younger son of Jabez with his wife Leah.
 * 10) BHJ: Then Lael and his followers left Egypt and reached the downfallen southern kingdom in much faster time than Moses and his forty years of wandering. Every dwelling had been looted by the Babylonians and later completely cleaned out by thieves from the neighboring kingdoms.
 * 11) BHK: Lael led the way through the charred debris and stone littering Jerusalem until he stood in the place built by Hezekiah that was called the Pool of Siloam. Then Lael descended the underwater stairs until he was completely immersed, and he came not again out of the water.
 * 12) BHL: One by one, Lael's followers overcame their fear and entered the water. When they emerged from the pool again, things had changed. They were surrounded by trees rather than stone. Strangers attended to them with dry linen and new clothing to replace their soaked rags.
 * 13) BHM: When the strangers revealed their Issacharite origin Lael's travelers rejoiced because they knew them to be fellow sons of Israel who had been lost for more than a century. The Issacharites said Yahweh himself had ordained a reflowering of the House of Israel in that place.
 * 14) BHN: On the second day a delegation from the tribe of Asher joined Lael's group after a trek down the vale of the river Nanki from their city of Alnitar. The Asherites provided shields for the men among the new colonists crafted from the otherworldly trees that grew in the south.
 * 15) BHO: The shields of the Asherites were hard enough to withstand the strokes of any axe or blade and to turn away all arrows, since the trees that had been used to make them could be cut only by fire. Yet the gifts were lighter than ones of comparable size made of bronze or iron.
 * 16) BHP: On the third day men and women of the lost tribe of Zebulun arrived after paddling downriver from their homes in the city of Eltan. Their boat carried much food, wine, and many small tools and diverse goods as gifts, that Lael's group might begin their colony in Haaretz.
 * 17) BHQ: On the morning of the fourth day Lael and his growing group of travelers went east until they reached the river Sabik and made camp. On the other bank Hadraniel, king of Hamar, arrived from the city of Menkant to speak with Lael and he was accompanied by not a few courtiers.
 * 18) BHR: Then Lael's group carefully forded the perilous river Sabik to join Hadraniel. The king commanded his small flock of livestock slaughtered for a feast as the heavenly southern kingdom of Israelites joyfully welcomed the remnant of the southern tribes of earthly Israel.
 * 19) BHS: In the morning King Hadraniel led the group overland and ever higher to a shoulder of Mount Menkant. Here they were met by Naphtalis out of the city of Wazol bearing precious stones for the women and girls traveling with Lael to wear and for the men to later trade for goods.
 * 20) BHT: At dawn on the sixth day King Hadraniel and his entourage took their leave. Lael led his people further east until the Wall of God began to loom over them. They crossed the upper reaches of the river Arhena and entered the land of the tribe of Dan in the kingdom of Nath.
 * 21) BHU: In Fatho the Danites made a gift of much silver and gold, and pack animals to carry them. With the giving of many thanks Lael turned northwest over the saddle between Mt. Fatho and the Wall of God. His folk were drenched in mist as they passed the famed Hundred Cataracts.
 * 22) BHV: By the evening of the seventh day Lael's travelers reached the city of Kabark, home of the tribe of Gad. The city folk brought forth the bounty of the rich farms of their land which were watered by canals leading from man-made Lake Enkaa like the threads of a spider's web.
 * 23) BHW: At noon on the next day day Lael and the colonists arrived at Enkaa Dam. A delegation of Israelites from the tribe of Reuben met them bearing baskets of delicious fresh fruit of a kind none of the travelers from Judah had ever tasted before, as they were native to Heaven.
 * 24) BHX: On the ninth day when Lael reached Adjara, Lael's own nephews, cousins to his sons Elam and Jemuel and Rosh, provided more pack animals for their goods, and two of the asses bore sufficient arms for twelve men, lest Lael run afoul of men or nephilim of the House of Bellon.
 * 25) BHY: The Levites of Adjara offered thanksgiving to Yahweh that the children of Israel had been reunited in Heaven, yet their joy was tempered by news that Lael had found no living remnant of the tribe of Simeon among the people of the southern kingdom who took refuge in Egypt.
 * 26) BHZ: Within Adjara lay the heavenly temple of Yahweh which men of the whole House of Israel had been building for a century. Those of Lael's party who had never before seen it wept tears of joy at the sight of the new temple mixed with tears of lament at the memory of the old.
 * 27) BIA: King Thausael of Hadal arrived with his entourage from among the tribe of Manesseh, and they bore the Ark of the Covenant. The relic had been withdrawn when Chokhmah feared the House of Judah was too weak to protect it from the marauding armies of the Babylonian empire.
 * 28) BIB: And Chokhmah had given commandment that the Ark should pass into the safekeeping of Lael and his sons until the temple was sanctified, that they may both preserve the stone tablet of the Abrahamic covenant and secure the White Scroll of Leliel contained within the chest.
 * 29) BIC: King Thausael laid upon Lael and his three sons a charge to bear the Ark on two gold-plated staves through rings in the side of the artifact. And when they were not actively carrying the Ark they were to set the ends of the staves through four stones pierced with holes.
 * 30) BID: Every time Lael paused, said King Thausael, the four stones were to be set on pillars of greater stones gathered from the ground around the encampment. The king said the Ark must never touch the ground, and save for the lid the Ark must never be touched by man nor beast.
 * 31) BIE: Then Lael was bid to pass through Eliath Wood to a choice land prepared for him. But Lael would never be abandoned or forgotten, assured King Thausael, because the oracles of Yahweh came only through the Ark, and ever men of the House of Israel would come seeking for them.
 * 32) BRA: On time scales comprehensible to humans and nephilim and angels, the elohim are effectively immortal. But when Chokhmah worked out how to achieve physical union with a world-dweller this did not extend the life of the subject by any means, and even tended to shorten it.
 * 33) BRB: After all, the ability to take possession of another body at any time naturally leads one to take less thought to maintenance of the body one already has. When Keter wore out his Samael body, and Daat his Israel body, they moved on to different and ever more 'containers'.
 * 34) BRC: Just two elohim plowing through the ages and taking new bodies and new names, serially, gave human demonology endless fodder. When Lael's group were transplanted to Heaven after the fall of Judah, the eloah Keter was known as Kokabiel and Daat was incarnated as Belphegor.
 * 35) BRD: After Belphegor came to Adjara by fold-door it took nearly an hour for his servant Malphas to locate hym. Belphegor crinkled hyz nose at the usual open sewage of human cities but after a time it was bearable. Hy amused hymself watching construction of Chokhmah's temple.
 * 36) BRE: Belphegor knew the Levites of the city had been attempting to build a copy of the Jerusalem temple for over a century now. From the progress they had made and the techniques of construction they were using, hy estimated it would take at least another century to complete.
 * 37) BRF: Malphas found hym 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. Hy sank to one knee and said, 'My lord, the villa of the B'nei Elohim is near to this place.'
 * 38) BRG: Belphegor motioned for hyz servant to rise, and asked of hym, '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 Chokhmah alone. Jashen assures me he will not waste your time.'
 * 39) BRH: Belphegor thought it augured well when the four B'nei Elohim waiting outside the house paid perfect obeisance as was due a seraph. When hy beheld Jashen waiting on the threshold hy saw his features called back to those of the original colonists brought to Adan from Earth.
 * 40) BRI: Indoors Belphegor was treated with more decadent luxury than hy experienced even in Rumbek at the heart of the Larund realm. The wine was cold, the roast beef was hot, the furnishings of such fine make hy said to Jashen, 'I had not thought such wealth existed in Adjara.'
 * 41) BRJ: '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 Heaven.'
 * 42) BRK: 'And what are the B'nei Elohim that you become wayfarers in Heaven?'''A little above man, a little below the gods' Chokhmah tells us. No doubt you have heard him tell you that he views the world-dwellers as students. And yet from time to time he is of need of servants.'
 * 43) BRL: '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.'
 * 44) BRM: 'I did witness har cut, Jashen, but what is your errand in Heaven? 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.
 * 45) BRN: 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.
 * 46) BRO: He said, 'Milord, we have heard this light comes from Chokhmah 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 Chokhmah, in a way I cannot understand. Two other relics have such threads.
 * 47) BRP: '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.
 * 48) BRQ: 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.
 * 49) BRR: Jashen cast the undamaged headband back on the table. 'We have destroyed tin snips trying to cut the band. 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?'
 * 50) BRS: Jashen took up the ancient weapon and glanced at his divine guest. 'Again, Lord Belphegor, by your leave?''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.
 * 51) BRT: He said, 'The Lord Keter will affirm that only two fold-lines now extend through his umbilical with Chokhmah.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 Chokhmah.'
 * 52) BRU: 'What is that to me?' snarled Belphegor. 'You say you serve the elohim. It is an eloah who commands you.''Milord, Chokhmah'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.'
 * 53) BRV: 'What do you mean?''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 Chokhmah, and this is held open by a substance we call dark light, made by Chokhmah's body.
 * 54) BRW: If more dark energy is poured inside, the tube will grow larger. But in this case Chokhmah holds the tube at a certain width so the dark light overflows. Whatever this touches, no matter how hard, is immediately turned into dark substance and it disappears from the world.'
 * 55) BRX: Belphegor pondered this for a time. Jashen's information alone was worth the trip to the safe house, if hy or Keter could learn how to stiffen the fold-line. Still, Belphegor saw it was indeed pointless to demand the relic. Chokhmah would simply refuse to make it work.
 * 56) BRY: Hy said, 'And how do you control the weapon if it relies on Chokhmah to operate?A firm pressure by the hand, milord,' said Jashen. 'This is somehow sensed by Chokhmah.You ignorant fool! The sound of your voice is changing pressure. He is listening to everything!'
 * 57) BRZ: 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. Chokhmah is perfectly aware there are unsatisfied factions among the B'nei Elohim.
 * 58) BSA: 'The controversy is an ancient one, Milord, and I am not the first B'nei Elohim to remove to the enemy camp. A nephil named Ariel once served Keter in the time of the dragon Demonstroke. Samael knew this ambi as Joy.''I knew Joy was B'nei Elohim. There are more such Joys?'
 * 59) BSB: 'There are more than you might imagine, Lord Belphegor. Chokhmah 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, but at the cost of ongoing servitude.'
 * 60) BSC: 'And you imagine that I can help you out of your hopeless state of affairs, so you made contact with Malphas, and hy with myself.''Milord, it seemed to us the way out is simply to take Chokhmah's mind away from the obsession that compels him send us on these errands.'
 * 61) BSD: 'And what is it that you think obsesses Chokhmah?''Milord, not a one among the B'nei Elohim is ignorant of the ancient bargain Chokhmah made with Keter never to send an avatar to another star and make contact. But Chokhmah thinks world-dwellers represent a loophole.'
 * 62) BSE: 'If you mean Chokhmah intends to teach world-dwellers to reach the stars and so evade the bargain, we had guessed that in the very beginning. But perhaps Chokhmah hasn't really thought it out. What would world-dwellers actually do after arriving at one of the other suns?'
 * 63) BSF: 'Lord Belphegor, perhaps it will be something as simple as casting a relic into that new sun. A relic with a link to Chokhmah like 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.'
 * 64) BSG: Belphegor was rocked back on hyz heels once more as hy considered what Jashen said. Of course one did not simply 'cast' an object into a sun, one must negate its orbital velocity and allow gravity to do the rest, but it could be done. Yes, Chokhmah was planning this.
 * 65) BSH: Hy said, 'You have eliminated one such relic before my eyes and, we guess, in the hearing of Chokhmah. Yet you speak of another.''Lord Belphegor, the other relic is a slab of stone embossed with the words of the covenant between Chokhmah and the descendants of Abrham.' "
 * 66) BSI: 'For centuries this was carried about on Earth inside a chest of wood covered in gold leaf. Once a year Chokhmah would speak with the high priest through the slab. Now the chest has been taken to Heaven to keep it safe, but the temple here in Adjara is far from complete.
 * 67) BSJ: 'One 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 Chokhmah's verbal command to him. Lael was expecting me to come.'
 * 68) BSK: 'So the Golden Gift was put in your hand,' 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.'"
 * 69) BSL: 'In any event you would have wasted your time even as you are now wasting mine. It is a small thing for Chokhmah 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.
 * 70) BSM: For oft Chokhmah 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 Chokhmah says he cannot make another.'
 * 71) BSN: Belphegor searched hyz memory and realized that Chokhmah, in fact, had not plagued Heaven with an avatar since the war, and found it puzzling that hy had never focused on that before. Hy wondered what scheme Chokhmah might be carrying out in hyz full view, as yet unnoticed.
 * 72) BSO: 'Does Chokhmah explain why no more avatars can be made?' '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. Chokhmah is now male.'
 * 73) BSP: '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.'
 * 74) BSQ: 'Milord, you need have no fear that Binah will do what Chokhmah has sworn never to do. She lives in the clear space where Chokhmah used to create his avatars. Binah is a kind of avatar, but she can never be ejected. She is already compressed, and she can shrink no more.'
 * 75) BSR: 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. Hy said, 'You have spoken true, Jashen.
 * 76) BSS: I have offered only unrelieved hostility, and I would move to reward you for your steadfastness, yet there remains only the 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?'
 * 77) BST: '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 house are trained to fight. Nor is it assured other B'nei Elohim of like mind will come to Haaretz. We are sent as our talents are needed'.
 * 78) BSU: 'Yes, I had nearly forgotten that the B'nei Elohim had special abilities unique to each one. Joy could command the dragon, and Victoria could even fly. What, then, is your talent, Jashen?''Tongues, milord. The men of Haaretz are not understood by any others, in the main.'
 * 79) BSV: 'And the B'nei Elohim who resent thralldom to Chokhmah, what do you call yourselves?''The word we use, milord, is 'groupies' but there may be no equivalent term outside of our own tongue. It refers to the sexual playthings of a troupe of musicians who travel with them.'
 * 80) BSW: For the first time Belphegor seemed amused. 'I am sure the explanation for that is interesting but it is enough to know only the name. Ketar and I shall treat only with 'groupies'. You can tell that to Chokhmah if by chance he is not listening through the Golden Gift.'
 * 81) BSX: 'He is listening, Lord Belphegor, yet I cannot use that fact to summon a fold-door home to Earth. Chokhmah 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.'
 * 82) BSY: 'Certainly Chokhmah will be greatly wroth that you destroyed one relic and conspire to have the other taken.''Milord, Chokhmah can do nothing to punish me. B'nei Elohim are immune to torment and we surmount even death. But of the tablet I counsel that you tarry not."
 * 83) BSZ: 'The king of the Babylonians took three years to carry out his siege of the Earthly temple using his whole army. Should the heavenly temple be completed here in Adjara it would take a comparable effort and Chokhmah, thus forewarned, would simply remove the tablet to Earth.'
 * 84) BTA: 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 Daat to accumulate sufficient dark energy to allow their departure by fold-door. On horseback he made his way south to Enkaa Dam.
 * 85) BTB: There he traded his horse for a raft made from young logs which were slid over the spillway of the dam and lashed together in the river below. Tipping over one perilous set of rapids after another Jashen paddled down the Armak until he reached Alodra in the heart of Haaretz.
 * 86) BTC: The capital, Atria, lay at the confluence of the Armak with the river Sabik, the greatest stream in Haaretz. Jashen let the river take the raft as he went by foot east up the Sabik to a bridge that crossed into Hamar. He fell under the watchful gaze of the Issacharites.
 * 87) BTD: Not all of the children of Israel living in Haaretz worshiped Yahweh alone. The tribe of Issachar and some others among the Hamarites had begun to give adoration to one they called Bat-El, or the daughter of God. She was different from the mute golden idols of Samaria.
 * 88) BTE: For one thing Bat-El had a small pool deep in the forest. From time to time it would glow with soft white light, and individuals like Jashen would emerge from it. Michael said the traditional way of moving about by fold-doors dry invariably cut deep craters in floors.
 * 89) BTF: It worked the other way too. If someone immersed himself in the pool of Bat-El and Bat-El was willing, the glow would appear and he would disappear. In the case of Jashen, Bat-El (Binah) was willing. When he came to the surface it was in another pool and the trees were gone.
 * 90) BTG: When Chokhmah undertook to teach his daughter how to correctly position the end-point of her first fold-door Binah insisted there was success, yet no fold-door appeared before the eyes of Michael in Rammon. Hy was not willing to believe Binah was deliberately deceiving hym.
 * 91) BTH: It took years to determine the problem, and when Chokhmah eventually unraveled the mystery it was truly astonishing.  Binah was correctly locating the end of her fold-door in space, but she was entirely hit-or-miss in time.  Binah had a sense that her mother did not share.
 * 92) BTI: While her consciousness remained in the present with Chokhmah, Binah could 'see' the past trailing out, offering more territory to drop a fold-door. Merely the air flowing through jostled air that was never originally jostled, and so a second world budded off from the first.
 * 93) BTJ: Later still Binah learned to reach back in time and mine unused dark light from the body she shared with Chokhmah. Since she never did that on the original track, it created a second, parallel sun that could be mined in turn. The supply of dark light became unlimited to her.
 * 94) BTK: This and the ability to redact history itself were weapons of such unfathomable power there no longer existed any chance Keter and Daat would prevail. But basic operational security dicated that the enemies of Chokhmah and Binah should never learn their true order of battle.
 * 95) BTL: The world-dwellers Chokhmah had gathered to himself to be servants, the B'nei Elohim, were sent on errands in time past, and no others, since they alone could be trusted never to reveal Binah's power in word or deed, even the ones who were open enemies of Binah and Chokhmah.
 * 96) BTM: Jashen emerged from the warm water of the pool and was given a change of dry clothing by attendants. He was on the well-illuminated lowest basement floor of a large structure of glass and steel, and the perimeter of the building was in the shape of a regular hexagon.
 * 97) BTN: When he was presentable Jashen stood for a few moments in a small room with doors that opened and closed of their own volition. When they opened again he was in what the B'nei Elohim sardonically called the Hostility Suite on the fifty-fifth floor of the central tower.
 * 98) BTO: No one was there to greet him. Jashen crossed the space to stare out of a large window. It was raining, surprise of all surprises. Six dark green towers identical to the core tower rose in a ring around it, and beyond them was a ring of twelve more. Seattle lay beyond.
 * 99) BTP: Outside of the giant rain-streaked window Jashen could see, through a gap in the two rings of towers, a sliver of the downtown core of Seattle with a low cloud obscuring the tops of the buildings. Through another gap he could see the Space Needle somewhat north of there.
 * 100) BTQ: Looking down, Jashen saw how each tower was joined to its neighbor, vertex to vertex, by a sky bridge every ten floors. And at the very bottom was NOLU, North Lake Union, the tongue of land between N 34th Street and Lake Union that once hosted a coal gasification plant.
 * 101) BTR: He heard footsteps and turned to watch his wife and har parents enter the Hostility Suite. Men often boast that their wife is an angel, but Jashen could do so without exaggeration. Seven and a half feet tall, Leliel leaned down to kiss har husband after his long absence.
 * 102) BTS: After they broke their embrace Jashen held out the Golden Gift for Leliel's mother, Lilith. The queen of Salem was now a human in her second life. She had reddish hair, was shorter in stature than Jashen, and answered to the name of the human who had joined with her: Judith.
 * 103) BTT: Judith put the Golden Gift in a leather sheath at her belt and said, 'I didn't need this relic, I just needed Lael not to have it.'Michael said, 'And the Oscar for best portrayal of a B'nei Elohim Groupie goes to Jashen Shybear.'  Hy motioned for everyone present to sit.
 * 104) BTU: Jashen squeezed into one oversized chair with his wife as Michael did the same with hyz own. He said, 'I don't understand, Lord. What is the...Oscar?''It's a small statue of gold that is given for...Jashen, have you seen films yet? Have you taken Leliel to the movies?'
 * 105) BTV: For a moment he only stared at Michael blankly. Leliel leaned in and prodded, 'Galaxy's Fall?'Jashen became attentive. He said, 'Yes! Once I knew only the iron horse and rifles and wires that talked but this new time is filled with wonders beyond count, film best of all.'
 * 106) BTW: Excellent!' said Michael. 'So, Jashen, in 1978, on this time track at least, the director of Galaxy's Fall won the Oscar for the best film. I was giving you high praise for your operational deception, for getting Daat to focus on a MacGuffin.''First Oscar, now MacGuffin?'
 * 107) BTX: 'It's another film term, Jashen, but it has to do with the storytelling craft. Remember how Galaxy's Fall was just one long chase to capture the young Empress? Well, now you've sent Keter and Daat chasing after the tablet, and they'll keep on doing that right up to the end.
 * 108) BTY: So a MacGuffin is an invented word that film writers use to mean something that triggers a conflict but it has no intrinsic importance. Keter and Daat now believe I will use the tablet in the Ark of the Covenant to contact El Elyon but in fact El Elyon will be coming to me.'
 * 109) BTZ: 'Milord could you not have sent an actual Groupie to tell Belphegor about your Macguffin?''Michael shook hyz head. 'No Groupie has your talent for language, Jashen. And don't stray very far. I'm going to shower Keter and Daat with many more Macguffins. This is personal.'
 * 110) BVA: On the edge of Shaula Wood, northeast of Adjara, Lael and a small remnant of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin tended their flocks of animals and slowly wandered east into the hills until they were come to the face of the Wall of God, two miles high, and could go no further.
 * 111) BVB: The decorative sphinx on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant rotated to guide them ever north on a maze of paths at the foot of the Wall. Lael knew that by means of the ark Chokhmah had never failed to lead them to good grazing grounds for their little herd of livestock.
 * 112) BVC: As they trundled along often they would meet friendly parties who journeyed south from Sastrom. They used the paths at the foot of the Wall of God to reach Fatho where they could find river passage on the Sabik downstream to cities in Alodra. But few words were exchanged.
 * 113) BVD: One evening when Lael's group reached a precipitous bench along the face of the Wall and decided there to make camp they encountered a party of seven Brown Beards. Lael was delighted to learn that one among them named Marsayas spoke Hebrew and could be understood by them.
 * 114) BVE: Marsayas begged Lael to grant his travelers leave to make overnight camp nigh to Lael's group. This, said hy, was laid on hym for want of any other flat place to pitch tents. To this Lael warily agreed, but ever he eyed the ark of God while the two bands shared provender.
 * 115) BVF: Lael told Marsayas that most of his people were newly come to Heaven, and that he knew little of the lands that lay about them, but he led his little migration wheresoever Chokhmah made known to them through the gold-covered oracle Lael and his sons reverently carried about.
 * 116) BVG: Marsayas said this presented a perfect opportunity to tell a tale, and he assured Lael's company that it was true in every detail, but although it recounted the actions of very foolish men, it was a solemn tale of caution rather than one of mirth, and none should laugh.
 * 117) BVH: Then Marsayas spoke in aside to his own band using the strange tongue of the angels in Heaven. As hy did so, Lael made his sons Elam, Jemuel, and Rosh stand nigh to the Ark while the wives of all the migrants seated themselves in a circle between the fire and Lael's sons.
 * 118) BVI: Together with Lael within the ring of women sat Abner and his son Asa, and Josiah with his son Tobiah. But Zethan, Jabez, and his two sons Rimon and Asher stayed with the small flock of animals on the edge of the little plateau to ensure they were not lost over the edge.
 * 119) BVJ: 'You call this land Haaretz,' Marsayas told them, 'but we call it simply The Land We Know. Towards the setting suns lies Thalury, the great Western Sea. Ships ply between ports in Sastrom, Alodra, and the Saiph League, and they sail up the River Sabik as far as Atria.
 * 120) BVK: The coast continues north and south farther than any mariners know, for they ever turn back after sailing for a month or two, yet there are innumerable coves and many of these are settled, it is known, and they survive by trading fish and wares with folk of other coves.
 * 121) BVL: From the beginning of days sailors of the Land We Know heeded the commandment of the gods never to sail out of sight of land. No captain, drunk or otherwise, dared steer his ship so far to the west that the haze caused the Land to fade from the view of the aft lookout.
 * 122) BVM: An order to sail west was good cause for the crew to mutiny and throw the captain overboard. It was an ancient and bedrock article of common law that no such crew returning to port without their captain would ever face punishment if their tale held true under questioning.
 * 123) BVN: But in the days when Demonstroke raged free there was revolution in the Land. The Saiph Republic flourished for a time, and many longstanding laws were overthrown. Reason reigned over custom, and when the time was ripe angels, nephilim and men were found to crew two ships.
 * 124) BVO: These sailors were willing to disregard the strict commandment of all the gods never to sail much west. So stiff-necked were they it was never imagined the gods cared for the lives of mariners. Instead, there spread rumors of a choice but unconquered land far across the sea.
 * 125) BVP: It was spoken among them of a land the gods created for their own enjoyment, a beautiful realm filled with gold, rich in abundant fruit, never without the most select game, and their divine interdict was merely to keep it from being despoiled by angels, nephilim, and men.
 * 126) BVQ: The two ships commissioned by the revolutionaries of the Saiph Republic were named Will O' The Wisp and Fire of the Covenant. They drifted in the slow current with sails unfurled. Down on Thalury the currents move stately to the west, while winds blow reliably to the east.
 * 127) BVR: In two days the gray band that was the Land We Know could no longer be seen in the east by reason of the sea mist which had entirely shrouded it, and some of the older sailors muttered in fear, since the tradition was deeply carved within them, while certain others scoffed.
 * 128) BVS: One night the lookout manning the highest mast of Fire of the Covenant screamed that the horizon ahead was closing in on them. There was a sharp edge to the sea! Captain Dogtrapper signaled with lamps to Will O' The Wisp that he was raising his sails and veering off.
 * 129) BVT: Captain Skulldagger aboard the Will O' the Wisp did not alter his course until it was too late. With billowing sails Fire of the Covenant barely escaped, but the current became too strong for her sister ship. She was seen to tip over the edge and was never seen again.
 * 130) BVU: The Will O' The Wisp and all aboard had indeed fallen over the edge of Heaven. In the uttermost west Thalury pours over a great cataract, a vast waterfall with no bottom. Long the ship fell partially submerged within the waters of the sea, which had become a white sheet.
 * 131) BVV: The waters of the sea and even the air fell together with the ship, and there was little breeze. The ship tumbled, resting on nothing, and the crew felt no weight. They floated freely in the air, as though swimming under water, but some floated far away from the ship.
 * 132) BVW: The small but constant breeze broke the sea sheet into globes of water, some the size of a man's head, others the size of a barn. Fish were seen swimming in many of these balls of water, and when the rations aboard the Will ran out these fish were the only source of food.
 * 133) BVX: But none of the doomed angels, nephilim, and men suffered thirst as is common among marooned sailors of Earth. Thalury is a freshwater sea ever renewed by ice melt. As the crew continued to fall, the dark underside of heaven became visible overhead like the inside of a mask.
 * 134) BVY: So it was seen and understood by the falling sailors that the Land We Know is really just the lowest step in an endless stair, vast beyond all mortal imagination, and there is a second step rising to the east. This step we know from this side of Heaven as the Wall of God.
 * 135) BVZ: But the breeze blew the globes of water far apart one from the other and the heat of the two suns caused them to shrink until none of the water globes which remained near the ship held living fish. The survivors began to starve, and they pondered killing each other for meat.
 * 136) BWA: By the time the sailors were desperate enough to become cannibals they were too weak to successfully attack each other or do anything more than make pitiful moans. Then came the final days when they passed from the living one by one, according to their remaining strength.
 * 137) BWB: The sailors found that death was not the end. They awoke in new bodies untouched by any scars of battle or the lash, looking down upon The Land We Know from the very rim of the Wall of God, two miles of sheer and implacable stone which none of the living have yet scaled.
 * 138) BWC: The sailors who tarried at the Wall of God heard feeble voices carried by the wind through a trick of sound reflecting on the stone precipice. Ever they walked the ramparts of Heaven hoping to hear the voices of their loved ones, and when they did they deemed it bittersweet.
 * 139) BWD: As time went on the newly dead found they were forgotten by their friends and even their loved ones sooner than they would have liked. The more impact a person had in their life the more fragments they heard so they lingered more, but the humble accepted the truth sooner.
 * 140) BWE: At great length nearly all the dead came off the precipice and rested on the narrow lawn behind it, before the Upper Sea, waiting, they were told, for a white ship to come and take them east to an unknown destiny. The elohim refused to speak to them of their final fate.
 * 141) BWF: The dead were told only, 'Great gifts are sweeter when they are but revealed in their fulfillment unspoiled by hasty tidings.' Within twenty years every member of Captain Skulldaggers's dead but resurrected crew passed over the Upper Sea to the east, and he alone remained.
 * 142) BWG: Skulldagger has attained a form of immortality through infamy, and never a day passes but that his name is spoken aloud by someone below. Yet more often than not his name is spoken with a shudder, as the story of the Will O' The Wisp is told again to every new generation.
 * 143) BWH: I tell you all these things not that you should not fear your own death,' Marsayas said, 'which indeed is truly nothing to be feared, but that you know what you must do, presently, when each one of you find yourselves resurrected and standing the brink of the Wall of God.'
 * 144) BWI: When those words were spoken Marsayas drew out a weapon and cried out, 'All glory be to Belphegor, Lord of Magodon!' Hy thrust forth with a cruel knife that was more like a sharpened pipe with four twisting edges. The blade punched through Lael's ribs to core out his heart.
 * 145) BWJ: As though by a pre-arranged signal the six other yeng of House of Larund withdrew identical weapons and made to assail the men of Lael's little band of nomads. But immediately they grew dismayed to find the little humans, both men and women, were ready to defend themselves.
 * 146) BWK: Lael's wife Sariah restrained Marsayas' arm to prevent hym from striking her husband with a second blow but she was unaware Lael was already bleeding out. The six Brown Beards who had traveled with hym quickly jumped out of striking range of Abner, Asa, Josiah and Tobiah.
 * 147) BWL: But the Judahite woman named Serach and the Benjaminite woman named Sela restrained two of the fleeing Brown Beards by embracing their calves. As they were dragged, four other yeng were free to burst through an open hole in the ring of womenfolk seated around the campfire.
 * 148) BWM: At the death cry of Lael the men who had been watching the animals on the rim of the camp immediately took the bows they carried on their backs and fitted arrows to them. They fired at Marsayas and two of the newcomers, shooting over the heads of the women hindering them.
 * 149) BWN: Still, four of Marsayas' company were free to make for their real target and rushed toward the Ark of the Covenant to seize it. Lael's sons Rosh, Jemuel, and Elam had not been lulled to sleep by Marsayas' tale and had already drawn the swords dangling from their waists.
 * 150) BWO: A fold-door appeared with Lord Belphegor standing within, ready to take possession of the Tablet of the Abrahamic Covenant the instant one of the nephilim were able to seize it. But dark light is at a premium and time was critical. Belphegor could not delay for very long.
 * 151) BWP: Three separate sword duels commenced, and they were far more fierce than any of the yeng had foreseen. This left a fourth yang free to draw near to the Ark and seize it, but Chokhmah entered the fray. When the angel touched the relic hy immediately stiffened and fell dead.
 * 152) BWQ: Belphegor shifted hyz gaze to the triple melee with blades and watched the humans vanquish their taller opponents one after the other. Hy was reminded of the tenacity of Jacob when they fought all night, and his distant descendants were proving to be not a whit less valiant.
 * 153) BWR: Every beat of Lael's heart let out more of his life's blood and he sank to his knees. The body of Marsayas and two of the yeng in hyz party fairly bristled with arrows. Jemima, Keturah, and Susanna slipped daggers between the ribs of the angelic strangers to finish them.
 * 154) BWS: Atara, Keziah, Dinah, and Leah then dragged the three angels to one edge of the plateau where the men tending the flocks of animals helped cast them over the side, still living or no they cared not. Belphegor saw that Marsayas had failed hym and that hy had ran out of time.
 * 155) BWT: The fold-door, which always resembled a glass or crystal ball taller than a man owing to the way it bent light, snapped out of existence. Belphegor's first attempt to seize the Ark had failed, and the Laelites knew the Ark was a prize much sought by none less than a seraph.
 * 156) BWU: A grieving Sariah sought to revive her husband, but his life had already slipped away. She held his body throughout the night and when the white sun became visible over the rim of the Wall of God the sons of Lael buried him on the flat of ground where they had made camp.
 * 157) BWV: By that evening the shock of what had happened to them faded. None of the Brown Beards, if any had survived, crawled up to the plateau to renew their attack. So the three sons of Lael began to dispute which one of they would take up Lael's office of high priest and chief.
 * 158) BWW: Jemuel sank to his knees and said, 'O living God of Abraham and Yishak and Yakob, if you will, make known what man of us shall be high priest and hear your voice on the Day of Atonement.' And in reply the graven sphinx decorating the cover of the Ark rotated to face Rosh.
 * 159) BWX: Then Rosh removed the cover of the Ark of the Covenant with his bare hands, yet Chokhmah did not smite him. And Rosh took the White Scroll and found the place where his father Lael had added his own words to the words recorded by Leliel, the daughter of Michael and Lilith.
 * 160) BWY: And Leliel had written upon the scroll in characters unknown to Rosh, but the husband of Leliel, the man Jashen, had copied the words of his wife as Hebrew that Lael might understand them. This same Jashen had been seen by all of them, and Rosh marveled that he never died.
 * 161) BWZ: Rosh read aloud the words of his dead father from the White Scroll, 'On a night without the orange sun I, Lael, went into the wilderness nigh to Adjara to pray. There a nephil appeared to me carrying a torch that cast white light but did not burn, and I sank to my knees.
 * 162) BXA: And the nephil said to me, 'Rise, for I am no seraph, but a mere erel called Gabriel Shybear. The Seraph Michael has bid me to seek Lael of the Levites, the son of Joiakim.'
 * 163) 'I am Lael,' said I, and I rose to my feet as I was commanded. Gabriel drew near with the light."
 * 164) BXB: 'This was the weapon of my mother's mother,' said Gabriel as che held forth a relic. 'Have a care. Crushing it firmly in your hand will cause it to send forth a black shaft that nothing can withstand. It will drink everything into oblivion, even the very air around it.
 * 165) BXC: 'Know, Lael, the kingdom of Judah has fallen to enemies, and the temple of God is no more. The last living children of Israel on Earth have been scattered from the land promised to Abraham by the unbelief of his descendants yet God would preserve a remnant from among them.
 * 166) BXD: 'It is appointed to you, Lael, to take your wife Sariah, and your sons Elam, Jemuel, and Rosh, and Elam's wife Serach, and go to the other world to seek survivors from the tribe of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, and the tribe of Simeon, and bring them to dwell in Heaven.'
 * 167) BXE: Then Rosh read the names of the remnant that Lael had gathered to himself from the exiles in Egypt, and he read of the many gifts given to them by their long-separated brethren in the kingdoms of Hamar and Nath, and how even the very Ark of God had been entrusted to them.
 * 168) BXF: 'I will add to this scroll an account of last night's battle at the foot of the Wall of God,' said Rosh, turning eyes to his brothers Elam and Jemuel, 'and of the death of our father at the hand of enemies who would steal the Ark. We will fulfill the charge laid upon him.'
 * 169) BXG: Elam pondered this silently for a time, then he said to his younger brother, 'God favors you to be the High Priest, that is plain, and so the oracles of God shall be committed to you. But think you strangers will never again attempt to take from us the Ark of the Covenant?'
 * 170) BXH: Rosh shook his head. 'No, Elam, they will return, and I know of a certainty that you are the most warlike of Father Lael's sons. But when this yoke was laid upon our father it was the will of God that the office of both priest and judge should be in the grasp of one man.'
 * 171) BXI: 'Let it never be said that I doubt our Lord God,' replied Elam, 'yet recall when this visitor Jashen had finished writing in that scroll, how he took the weapon of his wife's mother from the hands of our father. Had he not done this, mayhaps our father would be alive today.'
 * 172) BXJ: Rosh thought to rebuke his brother for his words of faithlessness, yet wisdom prevailed and Rosh knew Elam spoke only from his grief. He said, 'I loved our father no less than did you, Elam, yet God is the giver of all life and God it is who can withdraw the gift once given.
 * 173) BXK: In like manner, I perceive that God makes alterations to his stated will according to the intercession of the men with whom he treats. We see this in scripture, do we not? Abraham tried to save the life of his kinsman Lot by negotiating with God to spare the city of Sodom.
 * 174) BXL: So let the offices of priest and judge be carried out by two sons of Lael according to our temperament. I will set my foot on the path marked out by the oracle of God, spoken or otherwise, but in all other things, beloved brother, I shall obey as though you were our father.'
 * 175) BXM: Then Rosh set the White Scroll of Leliel within its clay pot and set the pot within the Ark of the Covenant. When he set the cover upon the Ark to conceal them Yahweh did not strike him dead. Therefore Elam was persuaded that Yahweh had accepted the intercession of Rosh.