The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) (26 page)

A’Nu-Ahki said, “In trying to fundamentally
reshape
the created order, the Watchers have unleashed corruption on a massive scale—corruption that is not only spiritual and moral, but now also
weaving itself
into the very
reproductive processes of all life
. Your ‘Pandura’s Box’ has been opened and it has unleashed a swarm of evils upon all living things—deforming, growing, spreading, changing, devouring
…
”

“Stop it! You’re scaring me!” She turned to hold her sphinx.

“You were already scared long before we arrived.”

She slowly raised her face from the comfort of
Taanyx
’s fur. “Has this
El-N’Lil
sent you to help us?”

“By warning you
,
yes.”

“What must be done?”

A’Nu-Ahki darkened, his eyes reaching out to draw her in with him to the coming
darkness
. “In forty-eight years
,
E’Yahavah will destroy this world with either fire or water—possibly both.
He must reshape t
he land and sea right down to their foundations. It is the only way to cleanse this contagion enough so that life can survive
even
in a diminished way.”

“But why? Can’t he just use the magic healing tree
?
”

“It’s not magic! There is no magic! Besides, the
Holy Ones removed the
L
ife-tree from Earth
to
transplant
it
again after the destruction. There is hope, however
,
but not for this world. Our civilizations cannot possibly last. They would collapse under the weight of their own decay even if left alone. The slow agonizing growth of crime, wars, disease, and breakdown would be cruel
er
than
E’Yahavah’s
swift wrath.”

“And nothing can stop it? Isn’t there goodness too? What about the power of love? I once heard that there is nothing stronger than love!”

“Can a genuine love permit unspeakable evils to multiply and fester indefinitely, with only impotent haggling or flowery words as a deterrent? Creator’s patience is at an end. The momentum of human imagination
falls
toward
evil even when it starts with good intentions—sometimes especially when it starts there. Those who
want
rescue must choose now to give themselves to E’Yahavah. Only then can we begin to stop following the madness
that is both around us and inside us. They must
also
follow me to a
safe
place
E’Yahavah will
soon
reveal.
It is the only way.
”

The girl’s frozen eyes flashed like
those of
a cornered rabbit.

U’Sumi smiled.
Arrows on target, Pahp! Let
her
squirm!

Pyra found her voice. “I know there’s evil in the world and even sometimes in Temple. But we can’t be that bad! What about babies? What about those of us who are trying to help people? I feel that people are
truly
good on the inside
;
they only learn evil because bad things happen to them. My whole order lives to relieve those who are lonely and have needs! We try to save the world, not destroy it! Shouldn’t E’Yahavah
do the same? I mean, I’m not perfect, but I’m still a good person inside! How can you defend such a deity? It’s just wrong!”

A’Nu-Ahki
spoke tenderly
,
“I don’t say that some people don’t honestly desire to do good, only that our desires are so infected
by the Great Evil
that even our best
intentions
are
eventually
warped
by it
. Our very efforts to produce good eventually twist into
horrors we
often
don’t intend. Even th
e best
desires corrode in the acid of pride
in
to vain
delusion
s. That would not be so if we were truly good inside. You call
what I’m saying
wrong, but y
ou haven’t heard the whole story


E’Yahavah’s image still imprints us, but we
desperately
need his help.
”

Her eyes softened. “
Tell me more.
I’ll listen—for now.”

A’Nu-Ahki nodded. His voice took on a
poetic
quality as he carried them away into ancient history. U’Sumi had never heard him speak with such passion in all his years growing up. As the story unfolded, it was as if he also heard
it
again for the first time
…

“There’s no way to understand
things
adequately without going back to our origins. When the Earth was young
;
its first dew still wet upon the grasses
,
its air sweet with honey-suckle, and clean from waterfall spray, E’Yahavah
created the Father of Men out of red clay in the Pisunu riverbed. Red was the clay, red the sun’s rising, on that sixth day of the world, and so the man was called Atum-Ra. He was
Red-of-earth, red-of-sun
, kindred of earth, but alive from the heavens through the Divine Breath
,
El-N’Lil
.

“Atum-Ra
was
father of all kings and judges
,
both great and small, father of the meanest beggar, and of the masses now forgotten in the dust. He sang before E’Yahavah and knew
the
speech
breathed into him by the O
ne who spoke into being the
Ten Heavens and the Earth—speech from speech, mind from mind,
passion from fire, and
will from will.

“E’Yahavah placed Atum eastward over the Holy Mountains, in Aeden’s
Sacred
Orchard, to tend its many trees. On an island in the center of the Orchard were two special trees. One I have already mentioned—the Life-tree. The other was the Knowing-tree
of Good and E
vil.

“Atum-Ra knew nothing of wickedness, lying, or bloodshed. For him the idea of evil itself was un-thought. Yet Evil already existed in the cosmos
;
a monstrous being of great beauty and intellect had corrupted his own originally pure heart with the idea that he had a superior
morality to his C
reator. E’Yahavah gave only one command to Atum, both to test and to protect him from this monster
,
‘Eat no fruit from the Knowing-tree
of Good and E
vil, for
in
the day you eat of it
,
dying, you shall die.’

“The man accepted this command without question and set about the work
E’Yahavah
had given him. In addition to tending the trees, he began to name all the animals. In fact, Atum spoke to animals with that almost lost art
,
even as you do today, T’Qinna. Few remember that ability. Fewer still actually have it. You are a most gifted daughter
…
”

The young priestess blushed.

U’Sumi could not believe what he heard.
He actually believes this
demon-deluded
slut can talk to animals!

His father continued
.
“But beasts have life only of the earth, whereas Atum-Ra had the light of heaven’s sun in his eyes. Though they could
speak
together in limited way
s
, they were not alike. E’Yahavah
did not ever intend for the man to be alone, but he wanted Atum to see for himself
how
large
a gulf
existed
between man and the beasts that served him. Thus
,
Atum felt that goodly hunger in his heart and in his loins to know another like himself
—
one
to
complete him and cherish him and
for him to
cherish all
his
days.

“This same need you now try to meet in your temple—though the eyes of your masters
are
darkened and you go about your purpose in foolish and hurtful ways.”

Pyra squirm
ed
at
A’Nu-Ahki
’s words. She seemed about to object, but stopped herself before she spoke.

U’Sumi’s father
went on. “To meet the man’s need, E’Yahavah took Atum and laid him before the Life-tree,
where he caused him to fall into a deep sleep. Then he took tissue from within his side,
adjusted its creation codes, and fashioned a woman compatible with the man.”

Pyra said,
“He adjusted his creation codes? I don’t understand
.
W
e need vast calculating engines
and other sophisticated machinery to do that.
Such things did not exist so long ago.
”

“Who do you think first wrote the creation codes?”

“E’Yahavah wrote the creation codes?” Her eyes lit up as if it were the most wonderful thing she had ever heard. “I always asked the higher priestesses who it was that wrote the codes when I was a little girl! They used to laugh at me as if I was being silly. They say the codes assembled themselves somehow when Father Sky made love to Mother Earth. I always
told them then
that Father Sky must have written
the codes
,
but this
always
made my elders angry. Is Father Sky another name for E’Yahavah?”

A’Nu-Ahki said,
“
You were on the right track, but, n
o
; t
he heavens were created by E’Yahavah, just as the codes were
written by him
.”

“What happened to the woman? Was she Mother Earth?”

U’Sumi was shocked by the thirst she seemed to have for what he had always considered the most rudimentary truths.

“No,” A’Nu-Ahki answered again. “When Atum-Ra awoke and saw the Woman, he said, ‘This is now bone
of
my bones, and flesh
of
my flesh!’ He named her
Ish’Hakka
, where we get the
High Archaic
word for
woman
. They lived together in the Orchard about a year, naked and unashamed, singing before
E’Yahavah
.
Men and women both desire s
uch freedom today, yet cannot reproduce
it, except in part
. Only one thing in the world could undo their joy. For some time
,
it never occurred to them to even think of it.”

Pyra said, “What changed? Did Atum grow tired of her?”

“No.”

“You sure say, ‘no’ a lot!”

U’Sumi’s father smiled at her. “I’m sure it must seem so. Remember how I mentioned before that a great Evil was already abroad in the cosmos?”

“Yes. You should try that word more often.” She returned his smile.

A’Nu-Ahki laughed. “I’ll try.”

Pyra said, “Good. But I mean, yes, I remember about the Evil too.”

U’Sumi rolled his eyes.
She’s trying to distract you, Pahp!

His father seemed to have fun with her, wagging his finger as if he was keeping some kind of score on an invisible tablet.

“I mentioned that the Evil had not always been so.
E’Yahavah
created him originally
as a
kherub
of great beauty and intelligence, known as Shining One—chief bard and minstrel of the Ninth Heaven—who covered the throne of thrones and led worship of the
Divine Name
beyond the very stars. In his pride, he grew jealous of Atum-Ra. For E’Yahavah
had made the man and his wife with the ability to reproduce. Their numbers would grow,
while the S
ons of
A’Nu
did not multiply but remained constant.

“When E’Yahavah
would not be moved from his purposes for Atum-Ra, Shining One declared his ambition to rise above the Seat into the highest heaven and rule there instead of the One. For he believed and still believes that from the height of the Tenth Heaven all the other nine would become visible and controllable to him in their entirety.

“He deluded himself into thinking that the only thing that separated him from the Divine Name was access to that tenth state. He seduced nearly a third of all the
heaven
dwellers to rebel with him. However, E’Yahavah alone inhabits the tenth place. It is not the tenth place that empowers the
Divine Name
, but the Name that hallows the tenth place. When Shining One rose to storm its gates,
E’Yahavah A’Nu
cast
him
down with his legions.