Chapter 31 - The Penalty and the Promise
Enoch and Yamezerak strode into the seti of Nod side by side.
“You ready for this?” Yamezerak asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Enoch was not looking forward to this visit. “Their banners are high already—makes my task easier.”
(Can you handle this? Delmar asked Azam)
(I must. Beloved’s orders.)
“The elders of Cain assemble at El Teva.” Yamezerak withdrew his bow. “I could escort—”
“I have to do this alone,” Enoch said curtly. “Beloved’s orders.”
(“Stay with Enoch,” Azam said. “I’ll handle Semjaza.”)
Yamezerak nodded. “May the Ancient One guide you—”
“—and grant you peace.” Enoch finished the blessing.
“One can always hope.” Yamezerak said. “I’m going to make the most of this opportunity and who knows—”
They split at the fork in the road. Yamezerak took the narrow way up the hill toward the settlement.
Enoch found the broad path into El Teva, teeming with people. No one paid him any mind—they were too busy buying and selling to notice the hooded visitor in the plain cloak. He overhead a group of sebassi toting water pots chattering by the well—
“I wouldn’t be caught dead with one of them Watchers,” one said. “It’s all flowers and flattery ‘til the baby come, then out with the rubbish.”
“Tis a shame what happened to Naamah,” the other replied. “Ain’t worth being a divine, not even for the finest home in all Adamah.”
“Imagine ye own father sellin’ ya. Best watch ya back,” another sebassi warned, “the wicked ones take whoever they please—not even a proper ceremony, no promise other than to leave your family alone.”
“Horrible they is,” the sebassi whispered, “I’d go plain if I was you—these ain’t the days to be pretty and sassy.”
“Aye, they go for the beauties and leave the plain folk alone.”
A troop of Watchers on horseback galloped by, disrupting the sebassi and toppling their tables. “Make way!” they shouted. “Make way for the sons of God!” Semjaza brought up the rear, riding a white stallion. He lashed a whip at Enoch, barely missing him.
Enoch clutched his staff. He’d seen enough. This was for Naamah and all the others. The burning returned. The One Mind descended upon him, strengthening him. “Do not hesitate,” the Voice said.
Rows of carts lined both sides of the paved trail all the way down to the base where the elders met at the pillars. Enoch rushed to the speaker’s platform and cried out. “This time you have gone too far! Repent of your evil and—”
“What’s that fool?” Lamech shouted. “Is this about little Dani? We heard your Tower burned down with your boy in it and your precious alroue ain’t worth dust!” Father Lamech’s craggy face displayed every vengeful line. “Does Dani need a healing? Admit it, Bearer! Now you need us! My Watchers might work a deal if—”
“Silence!” Enoch’s voice boomed so loud, even he was shocked. “A fool’s greed is his undoing—"
“Semjaza!” Lamech called, “Make him show respect!”
“Gladly,” Semjaza said, “him first, you next.” Semjaza blazed bright and charged the platform on his stallion, rearing back to strike Enoch with his whip. “Make him beg!” The Watchers imitated the move surrounding Enoch, blinding him with flashes of light, snapping their whips in the air.
“Be still,” the Voice said. Enoch squared his shoulders and stood his ground.
The lash came swirling toward Enoch.
Suddenly Semjaza’s light dimmed. He toppled from his steed.
(“Semjaza, former Captain of Alpha Company! Azam shouted, unleashing his tether. It snapped with electricity as it wove around Semjaza’s limbs and snuffed his light out. He writhed on the ground in pain. “You are formally charged with treason—")
“Where’s that idiot Tubal-Cain when you need him—” Father Lamech grumbled. “Don’t let him get away with this. Seize him!” He ordered his scouts, but none obeyed when Enoch became unbearably bright.
“New tricks Bearer?” Lamech stumbled and fell to his knees, unable to move.
The sight of Captain Semjaza crumpled before Enoch in submission shocked the Watchers in league with him into silence. They dismounted their horses and fell prostrate, begging and pleading with groans and great travail. Enoch held out his scroll—
“Hear the word of the Lord you sons of the Most High. I saw in my sleep what I now will relate with a tongue of flesh and with my breath, which the Great One has given to the mouth of men that they might converse with it and understand it in their hearts. As He has created and given to men the power to understand the word of knowledge, thus also He has created me and given to me the power to upbraid the Watchers, the sons of heaven. From now on you will not ascend into heaven to all eternity, and upon earth, it has been decreed, that you shall be bound for all the days of the world. But before this you will have seen the destruction of your beloved children, and you will not be able to possess them, but they shall fall before you by the sword. Petitions for them will not be granted unto you, nor any for yourselves.”
Enoch rolled up his scroll and walked up the steps of El Teva, passing the Elohim who now lay prostrate along the rows, wailing. He stopped at the top step and sealed the decree.
“Hear the word of the Most High God.”
###
“Repent! Judgment is coming. Terrible consequences!” Yamezerak walked the seti of Nod, going from dwelling to dwelling, warning any with light in their eyes, especially the sebassi. The young sebassi he’d spared from Semjaza’s attentions ran toward him.
“Many pardons, B’Nai Yamezerak, I am sore afraid of them double-faced ones. Do you know of the strange whispers and shadows? What be they?”
“Fallen,” he said, making sure no one had followed the girl. He told her everything. “—from now on leave your deliveries at the door, but do not enter. Warn the others.”
She nodded. “Thank you, my lord.”
He smiled at the girl’s response. “If you run into trouble,” He gave her a bottle of oil from his satchel. “Pray!”
Yamezerak noticed the sebassi were more apt to believe—the lowliness of their station granted them a readiness to receive instruction—not kick against it, like the elders and Medici. Even when Yamezerak, an Elohim himself, revealed the truth, they refused to believe! He shook the dust off his feet after leaving those homes.
Lightening flashed from El Teva, crackling, followed by a thunderous boom. Yamezerak’s knees weakened. The Ancient has spoken. But he could still move. “I’m going to make the most of this opportunity and who knows—” he encouraged himself as he trudged back to his workshop.
“Yamezerak!” Tubal-Cain was waiting for him. “I need your help. Please!” Tubal-Cain dropped to his knees. “Save Naamah—you brought me back, you can bring her back. What is it you require? A sacrifice?” He placed his head on the chopping block. “Here. Take my life.” Tubal-Cain wailed. “Just save Naamah. It was all my fault—”
“Tubal-Cain, I am not the Most-High. My remedies only work while there is yet life in the blood. I’m sorry.” Yamezerak pulled him to his feet. “There is nothing I can do for Naamah now. But this is not your burden alone. I am to blame too. There was a moment when this could have been prevented. Instead of protecting, I allowed those entrusted to me to be deceived. I allowed you to be deceived. I could have told you the truth—when I realized Semjaza was lying. At the Ceremony of Union, I didn’t try to stop the Elohim. I didn’t warn you. You are not the only one who hasn’t done what you should.”
Tubal-Cain seemed angry, sad and weary as Yamezerak’s words pricked his heart. He sighed. “What now?”
“We do what we can. Other moments may have passed, but this moment has not. Judgment is coming. I don’t even know my own fate, but I will help as much as I can—
Tubal-Cain sent for Medici Yabbesheth. “She can be trusted.”
The three of them talked through the night, planning how to help the sons of Cain. Tubal-Cain would teach the men, just those who could be trusted, how to craft weapons, concealing them until the time was right.
Yamezerak shared all he knew about healing, transferring the virtue of One Mind and speaking life over the injured with Yabbesheth. Yabbesheth grasped the basic principals of manual mending quickly. She could set a bone, reduce swelling, and stitch a wound enough to teach others. He just hoped it was enough to offset the secrets of the Dark Way he knew Hazazel was teaching the divine. That set of incomplete knowledge stolen from the One Mind by Lord L before his exile could perfectly mimic the force of the Ancient One’s essence, for a time. The divine had no idea the power they were learning to pilfer would eventually destabilize and bring destruction to the user without The Source—The Beloved.
Yamezerak peered out the window toward the dwellings of the divine. He shook his head as he thought of the incantations and mixtures they meddled in without understanding. Even the Elohim had difficulty comprehending the Beloved and His relationship to the Father and One Mind. All I know is that the Beloved was already there in the beginning and without Him nothing was made and somehow—He is the Word that holds all things together. When I become one with the Beloved, I also become one with the Ancient One. Then I have access to the One Mind. Mysterious indeed. Those closest in this communion access the greatest power—a love so consuming it has power over even death itself.
Yamezerak threw more of the vials and pouches into his satchel. They clinked against one another with increasing frustration as he recalled his last effort.
Last night, he’d tried to tell Medici Yabbesheth of this communion with the One Mind, which would enable one to channel instantaneous mending with mere words spoken—
“If Chalal gets sick again, lay your hands on her,” Yamezerak instructed, “and pray to the Father.”
“But I can’t see the Hidden Father,” the Medici said, looking doubtful.
“It doesn’t matter. He can see you,” Yamezerak said, “if you talk to Him always and seek His Voice, He will answer.”
“He doesn’t talk to us anymore,” Medici insisted. “He has blessed us with herbs and a good mind. We must use them now.”
“The Bearer speaks to the Hidden Father,” Yamezerak said. “The Ancient One healed his son, Dani.”
“But that’s the Bearer. He’s special.” Medici Yabbesheth kept pounding the herbs into a paste. “He doesn’t answer us common folk.”
“If you’re right with the Father, He will answer,” Yamezerak said, “but don’t wait until you need something. It’s best to pray all along. He is not to be commanded. He helps those who love Him and want to be one with His ways.”
“I’d best stick to my ointments and pastes,” Yabbesheth said. “I know they work, and I can get more when they run out.”
“Everything runs out except Him.” Yamezerak packed more of the paste into skins and loaded them onto her cart. “If you have communion with the Father, you need not fear anything. Nothing is too hard for Him.”
“Just the same, I need something I can touch.” Medici Yabbesheth grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “This is real. Maybe if the Hidden Father came down here, where I could see Him, touch Him, maybe then—”
Yamezerak sighed. The woman was too far removed from fellowship with the Ancient One to understand. The most she could grasp was exchange—the sacrifice of one thing for another. She knew if she made a sacrifice, the Hidden Father would respond. So after hours of explaining and answering her questions to no avail, Yamezerak finally advised her to continue the practice of meeting the Most High at the altar whenever there was a need, knowing that temporary grace was better than none at all. One day she would be ready for communion. One day they all would—the Seed would see to that.
He loaded the rest of his things. He only wished he had been sure of that knowledge in time to convince Semjaza of his error. Semjaza’s childling was not the Seed—it was something else.
He scanned the scrolls containing the documentation required by the High Council and placed them in his sack. There it was written by Semjaza’s own hand--three TFs (tainted females) = one DWB (daughter without blemish). Rebellion, treason, and human trafficking! How low Semjaza had become.
A glint of something shiny caught his attention on the floor in the corner of the room. It was a small metal pin. Two jewel encrusted swords crossed in a flame sparkled brilliantly in the sun’s rays. Semjaza had given it to him for outstanding service during the conflict against the Furious Ones. No one had been more loyal than Semjaza—that’s why General Michael chose him to command the Watchers. Semjaza had rescued many an Elohim from the Accuser’s snare before the Great Rebellion.
Knowing from the One Mind filled his heart—"Semjaza was blinded by past victories. Humility has spared you.”
Yamezerak placed the pin in his satchel. He touched his cheeks with surprise. Fine drops of water were flowing down them. I didn’t know this could happen to an Elohim.
He willed them to stop.
I have had on this suit of flesh too long. He made his way up the narrow path away from the dwellings of the divine.