THE FALL (Rapha Chronicles #1) (The Rapha Chronicles) (9 page)

“You know my deepest thoughts, O Adonai. I desire my mate, she who would remain by my side, who would govern with me; she who would be made complete by joining her life to mine even as I am completed by joining my life to hers. She who would be the deepest expression on this earth of your lovingkindness toward me.”

Rapha’s brow raised as the boy’s eloquence flowed. Had Adam composed that heartfelt speech when he tossed and turned so long into the night?

But that question was forgotten as someone appeared beside the Father, one who shone so bright it seemed a separate ray of light was emanating from the Lord’s essence. A lithe form with hair like windswept clouds on a starry night came into focus, clothed in shimmering threads of light spun finer than a spider’s web.

The most striking feature was her eyes. Rapha discerned a keen intelligence and inquisitive nature that overcame her shyness as she peered back at her spectators. However, it was evident she was seeking
him.

When she saw the manchild, a smile lit her features that made even Rapha, the creature of light positioned farthest from this tender meeting, burn brighter—as something deep inside, some care-encrusted core, melted.

Adam stood unmoving, his face turned away from Rapha’s vantage point, but he must have looked stunned because Adonai prompted,
“Do not forget to breathe, son.”

A wave of chuckles flowed through the crowd and Adam, as if released from a spell, remembered the gifts he bore. “Um… oh! These are for you,” he stepped up and placed the enormous bouquet into her arms. Suddenly eloquence returned. “They
were
the most beautiful things in the garden… until now.”

Rapha would not have thought it possible but, at the young man’s words, the womanchild glowed brighter and her smile grew even more dazzling. She said nothing (later Rapha was to realize how unusual this was). However, her expression communicated more than the most lyrical poem.

When Adam put a hand to his chest where his life’s rhythm was felt most strongly, and then held his palm toward her, she copied the movement and fitted her hand to his. As they stood, unified by the light of Adonai, it was as if the observers no longer existed. There was only Adonai, the man and the woman, an interwoven cord of three, the Maker’s plan for their future. Rapha could not foresee, in that moment brimming with promise, the horrible path required for that promise to be fulfilled.

Adam’s voice cracked a bit as he broke the silence, “So, what do I call you?”

“Adam,”
Adonai answered with a hint of a smile in His voice,
“we are leaving that up to you.”

Again, Adam’s face betrayed uncertainty but after a moment’s pause he said, “Then,
officially,
I will call you ‘Woman’ because you were drawn forth from me. Will that do?” He addressed the girl.

She smiled and brought his hand to her heart. “I was taken from your side but now, I will never leave it.”

A murmur of approval swept the crowd.

Rapha walked toward the throne, the dainty, golden circlet shining in his hands. The memory of that slow walk was to remain so clear even thousands of years later. As he was swept up in the overflow of their gratitude toward Adonai, Rapha felt—there was no other way to describe it—
younger
.

Adam’s hands shook as he took the crown and reached to place it on her gleaming head. Her crown for him was heavier but still simple, an interwoven circle of three golden vines that slipped down on his forehead, as yet a bit large for his brow.

Then Adonai spoke.
“These tokens are a testament to the authority I bestow. If you feel unprepared to rule… good: I am here to instruct and guide you and these faithful of the celestial host are vessels of My knowledge as well. In this place, the one thing you need—wisdom—is ripe for the taking.”

Then He addressed the assembly,
“This man and woman are the first fruits of this new age. Honor them as my anointed ones. Stand with them and protect them. Their welfare affects all life and through their offspring all creation is restored.”

Again the Maker addressed the young man and woman who continued to sneak glances at each other.
“Today, you are betrothed. You see in each other the promise of future fulfillment. You will grow and learn together. Then, when you are prepared to rule, the two shall become one flesh. Until then you will learn of your calling to lay down your own lives to ensure the welfare of all things, from the least to the greatest. Abide in Me and your joy shall be secure.”

Then the young man and woman turned toward the assembly and the entire valley broke into celebration. Chattering birds took flight, large mammals trumpeted and roared, smaller creatures scampered and shrieked in a joyous symphony.

In the midst of this celebration, the piercing light of Adonai lit upon Lucifer, crouching atop a carved pillar like an eager bird of prey. With a hiss, the fallen angel disappeared.

Chapter Eight

It Is Good

Rapha is staring with unseeing eyes toward distant fires and sounds of chaos. How he has wished through thousands of painful years he could have stopped time to hold them in that place of innocence. All too soon the purity of those days was a golden phantom to taunt him with what might have been.

Although—he cannot help but smile—they
did
have good times.

With the addition of the female, Adam’s education took flight. Her appetite for learning was voracious and her curiosity was unrelenting. Oh the hundreds of questions she asked every day!

“Why do we have to eat and you don’t?” “What makes the honeybee want to sip from the flowers when he could fly over the hills and see so much more?” “How do the stars stay up in the sky?” “How high would I have to fly to touch them?” “Have you ever touched them?” “Why don’t we have a tail to help us climb trees?” “Where does the sun go at night?”

And she was forever digging. The girl had an innate curiosity about hidden things; the roots of flowers and trees, rocks under soil, little creatures that lived beneath logs and small, quick beings that thrived in the dark quiet of cool caverns.

On the surface, Adam appeared to attend more than ever to his studies, but actually he was distracted. As her finger traced the words on the scrolls, Adam nudged closer so her hair brushed his cheek. As they stood pondering the path of the moon that rose even though the sun was yet high in the sky, Adam’s attention wandered. With a grin, Rapha grasped the young man’s head, turning it toward a lunar view once again.

Rapha was their constant tutor and chaperone but he knew his angelic approval was no longer the one most coveted by Adam. Now the young man was spurred on by a driving competition with the female. Her admiration, next to that of Adonai, was his most treasured reward. Each of the young humans had their strengths; he excelled in narrative detail while she was able to grasp deeper meaning behind a story; he was the faster swimmer and runner but she had the greater stamina; she was the one the animals sought for comfort while Adam was prized for rambunctious play; but they each strove to improve where the other excelled. She inspired his former unenthusiastic study of things that grew out of the ground while he encouraged her interest in the cosmos.

Rapha was fascinated by their complementary personalities. She had a gentling influence on the boy when he desired to test his physical limits since she was sure to attempt whatever he did; and he made her laugh when she tended to take herself too seriously. It was a perfect blend, with each encouraging the other toward balance and wholeness. It gave them vulnerability and strength, helping Rapha understand why Adonai would take the risk of making two separate beings so interdependent. In fact, it even caused him to question if the angels’ wholeness could be viewed as weakness in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps if Lucifer had been a bit vulnerable, his pride might not have been his undoing?

Their discussions about history became fascinating. The two humans brought fresh perspective to tales experienced and re-told by Rapha for millennia.

But sometimes the discussion hit a little too close to danger for Rapha’s comfort. The memory of their inquisitive young faces as the angel attempted to describe how his physiognomy differed from theirs was so clear the conversation could have taken place yesterday. That day the young humans had raced up their favorite summit to join the angel by the clear mountain stream for another history lesson. Usually the climb helped to curb some of their energetic nature but this time she had won the race and Adam was accusing her of foul play. The interchange was creating anything
but
a teachable moment.

“You just don’t want to admit I beat you fair and square,” she laughed, tossing her hair back from flushed cheeks.

“You cheated!” Adam stated. In truth, he was too stirred by her flashing eyes and smile to even care about the race. “You tripped and I slowed to help you. If you hadn’t let go of that branch at the perfect moment to knock me down—”

“There! You admit it!” She poked Adam’s shoulder. “You were already losing or you would not have seen me trip.”

“I was being chivalrous by letting you keep up,” he returned the poke.

“Besides, it just goes to show what Rapha says, ‘the race doesn’t always go to the merely swift,’” she paraphrased liberally to goad him. “Strategy is more important than might.”

“So you admit you cheated!” He leaned into her face, inhaling the scent of honeysuckle and herbed oils.

“I never said that!” her hand had been trailing in the stream in preparation for a drink, but she decided on a better use. With a flick of her fingers the water splashed in his face, transforming the smug expression as excitement lit his handsome features. In an instant the splash had turned into a full-blown water free-for-all.

It was both amusing and alarming to view the sexual tension between the young man and woman when they still had no real grasp of where it was leading. No stretching of Rapha’s angelic emotional probing was necessary to recognize the obvious. If left to their own devices, this innocent tussle would follow the natural course of the lions’ wrestling match.

One of his most important directives was to prevent such an occurrence until Adonai proclaimed the proper time, therefore Rapha placed himself between the youthful combatants, breaking the inevitable force that drew the ocean to the shore. He was rewarded for his efforts by becoming their mutual target. He endured the soaking for a moment, then shut down the assault by summoning a strong wave that swept them both off their feet.

Soon the dripping, bedraggled trio flopped to the grass in the warm sun, the humans wringing water from their hair while Rapha shook his head as the heat of his body reduced liquid to steam. Soon he was dry while they continued to drip.

Luckily, this difference triggered her incessant curiosity and shifted the focus of the moment. Unfortunately, Rapha ever after questioned whether his answers could have been delivered in a way less inclined to intrigue.

“So what, exactly, are you made of?” The girl watched the steam rise above Rapha, fascination in her penetrating gaze.

“I am a creature of light and spirit,” Rapha answered.

“But I can’t grasp a ray of sunlight. How are we able to touch you?” She reached to squeeze his arm.

“All matter can be reduced to a flimsier substance; and all matter, if condensed to a high enough degree, can be solid.”

Something about that answer intrigued Adam enough to take his focus off the girl. “So when you go away, are you becoming a flimsier substance?”

“I suppose it could be viewed that way.”

“Can you teach us to do that?”

“It is much more difficult to reduce earth to a malleable state.…” before Rapha could finish, another question was fired, this time by the girl.

“Is it difficult for you to become… solid again?”

“It has always been a simple concept for me….”

“Can you teach us to do that?”

“That ability is not part of Adonai’s plan for….”

“It must be amazing. Are you aware of everything while you’re, um, malleable?”

“The core of my being, my spirit, remains intact, therefore I have no lapse in….”

The girl leapt to her feet and spread her arms wide, “How wonderful to feel so free!”

“The feeling of freedom does not rely on my material state.”

Adam cut in, pondering a different aspect. “Are there females like you?”

That caught the girl’s attention. She stopped spinning, her eyes riveted on Rapha.

“Ah! There’s a difficult question… actually, no.”

“Have you never requested a mate? As you told me, Adonai will give you whatever you ask…”

“…in accordance with His will,” Rapha finished, hoping the conversation could be steered from the rocky shoal that lay ahead. “Adonai guides our desires and….”

“Why have you never requested a female?” Her voice was steady as her eyes searched his.

“Please understand, while we look similar in elemental ways our… requirements… are dissimilar.” Rapha sighed. He was handling this poorly. “Like the animals that surround you, you and Adam will one day have offspring. Due to our unchanging nature, there is no need for celestials to reproduce.”

“So, in your… society… I am
unnecessary
.”

There it was. The conversation capsized. “That word is inaccurate in this context….”

She didn’t miss a beat, “Then aid my
inaccuracy
. What word would fit?”

The edge in her voice was heartbreaking. He hated the fact that his answers had wounded her, but how could he explain something he hardly understood himself? “Please, perhaps these questions should be directed to Adonai….”

“Why? The question is simple. Am I only necessary for bearing offspring?”

“No! Adonai created you to strengthen mankind,” if only he had stopped right there, the moment might have been salvaged, “and… and for you to be—strengthened together.” Rapha raked a frustrated hand through his hair. Why couldn’t he make any sense while those wide eyes were fixed on him?

“So Adam was incomplete without me?”

“Well, no. And yes. I mean, you are both complete, but it is a matter of—fulfillment.” There. That sounded better. “And reproduction, of course.”

“Will we ever be more like you? Will we ever be able to become—malleable—and perhaps fly?”

If Rapha’s own emotional state had not been so jumbled he might have read her intent. But he was so glad the conversation had landed on safer ground, he unwittingly ensnared himself. “If mankind grows in harmony with Adonai, nothing will be impossible.…”

“And one day my kind will no longer be necessary for offspring?”

“What? No! That is not what I meant….”

But she had added the known facts and assumed the inevitable. “So it’s only because Adam is less… developed… that I am needed.”

Rapha rushed to redeem the moment. “I am discovering daily the wisdom of Adonai’s plan in creating two individuals who complement and strengthen each other,” he rushed on, though he could tell that her jumbled thoughts were not absorbing his words. “I often wonder if our angelic… completeness… might even be viewed as a weakness… and whether interdependence is actually a strength….”

Adam jumped in, “I would never want to be without you. If being like a celestial means leaving you behind I will remain as I am.” His hopes to score points with his tender speech were dashed.

“That is ridiculous, Adam. Do you think I would thwart Adonai’s plan?”

“No! That’s not what I meant…” He spluttered, echoing Rapha’s predicament.

The girl jumped to her feet and started walking away. After one helpless look at each other they clambered to join her, but she stopped, rolling her eyes in frustration. “Please, I want to be alone.”

She pushed through the trees as Rapha and Adam stood blinking. When the angel probed the girl’s emotions he encountered confusion; she desired to be alone and yet was lonely. He walked to the black leopard that usually shadowed her. Rousing the cat from slumber he held the animal’s gaze, communicating his request, then watched the sleek animal follow the girl’s path. Hopefully, by sending the cat he had provided a subtle presence that would soothe her. Besides, he had noticed a natural aversion among the animals to Lucifer’s presence and, while he didn’t want to voice his fears to Adam, he felt better knowing the animal’s instincts would accompany her. But just to be safe, Rapha kept his awareness open to the girl. If she felt threatened in any way, he would know it.

In a few moments his watchfulness relaxed. She was with the Maker. He could feel the hard knot of hurt unravel as her confusion disappeared.

He took note of the words that finally brought peace to her heart.

“My wholeness—justice and mercy, love and discipline, beauty, and might—is too great, too complex, to be present only in man. Your offspring will better understand Me and the reflection of My holiness is more complete, when the two become one.”

Their conversation continued, deepening her understanding of her destiny, of the balance and strength she would contribute. Like the tiny roots that hold the soil together and yet keep it broken and fertile, she was indispensable.

“Thank you, Adonai,” Rapha exhaled with relief and passed on the news to Adam who celebrated by climbing the cliff. For Adam, emotions required a physical outlet.

Later that day, their delicate balance restored, Rapha watched as the young man and woman made their way to the evening’s rendezvous with Adonai. Each brought a gift, something that was most precious to them. On the girl’s forearm perched a large, brightly plumed parrot, which she had succeeded in teaching several words and phrases. With pride she brought the bird forth, encouraging it with rewards of seeds to show off its skills as the animals pressed around their Maker, nuzzling His hands, climbing on His shoulders or leaning as close as possible with unabashed adoration. Each brought something—a piece of fruit, a rock, a flower—whatever they deemed most valuable.

Even the trees leaned closer and a shower of blossoms fell on the path creating a confetti-strewn carpet for His feet. A large, lumbering sea turtle with a mollusk held in its hooked mouth moved as quickly as its bulky body would allow, inching closer and closer, vying for attention. One female chimp chattered, her voice rising in volume until Adonai turned toward her and laid a hand to her wrinkled, brown face. With unblinking trust she swung her baby from her back and, with the slightest glance of longing toward her child, she held it toward Adonai.