The Lost Book of Chaos: How to Divide the World (The Secret Wars of Angels 1) (4 page)

“It’s good you were able to keep up,” Arcana said, catching her breath. He could say the same thing about her too.

“If there’s anything I can do well, it’s running,” Judas said, immediately regretting he had said that. Running away wasn't exactly something anyone should be proud of. But he was surprised how far he was able to run, even after collapsing just today. How had he recovered so much in such a short time? And for how long was he out and unconscious? It only felt like a few moments, but he felt well rested. His recovery was too unnatural. “Did you give me anything else aside from the poison?”

Arcana nodded. “You had to be recovered in case we got into a situation like this.” That explained it.

“Did you use...” Judas said, “sorcery on me?”

“It's not really sorcery,” Arcana said, “merely an understanding of nutrition and herbs. Some of the things I do, others who do not understand will call it Magic. But to me, it's simply knowledge, technology, wisdom.”

Then Judas had a thought. “Right now, I could run away from you, and I would be safe from that creature,” Judas said.

“Like I told you,” Arcana said, “I wouldn’t hold it against you if you did. And I’m sorry if we put you in more trouble than you were already in.”

He took a step away, as if to escape. Arcana had stopped too. But then he stopped and looked back at her. He could really escape from all this now, it was tempting. But Arcana seemed like she was in serious trouble. Judas was the kind of man to repay his debts. And, besides, he found that he liked her as a person.

Judas sighed. This was going to be troublesome. “I could run away now, but you did save me when I was in a tight pinch,” Judas said. “I’ll stay with you, but only until Varak returns, and only until you get horses. I can help you with that, but once that’s done we’re even.”

Arcana brightened. At this, Judas felt his face flush.

“But now that I’ve decided to come with you,” Judas said, trying to distract himself from her deep, beautiful eyes, “you should tell me first who you’re running from. I need to know who I’ll be going up against.”

This time it was Arcana’s turn to sigh. “Very well,” she said.

“There are powerful people chasing us,” Arcana said, “because of knowledge that I possess. Several groups are after us, each group more fearsome than the other.”

“This knowledge?” Judas said. “Magic?”

Arcana shook her head. “There is no such thing as sorcery or magic. All magic and sorcery are mere tricks. True power lies in knowledge and wisdom, an understanding of the universe. If you understand even a little about how the universe works, you can use that understanding to influence reality.”

Seeing as Judas did not comprehend the difference, Arcana said, “Magic and sorcery rely on senseless rituals. For example, if you kill a dove and sacrifice it, it would have no effect in the universe. But if you use knowledge of the universe, you can affect reality. For example, with the knowledge that wood floats on water because wood has less density and more buoyancy…”

Judas had trouble grasping what that meant, but he did not argue.

“And,” Arcana continued, “with the knowledge that you can use nails to construct the wood into a ship, then you have used knowledge to affect reality.”

“What I use is like that,” Arcana said. “It is simply Technology, but not just any human technology, but the Technology of the angels. It so happens that the angel Technology is thousands of years ahead that of humans. That is what I do, it is not witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry, magic. I merely take knowledge I learned from the Ancients and use it.”

Judas nodded.

“Have you heard of the Zohar?” Arcana asked.

Judas tried to recall, it sounded familiar but he couldn’t quite remember from where or when.

He shook his head.

“The Zohar is a key to something powerful,” Arcana began. “There is a legend passed down through our clan, that in ancient times, there was a war between the angels of Earth and the angels of Heaven. During that war, there was a weapon so powerful that even angels feared it. In that time, we humans were the servants of angels, mostly mining gold and silver they needed for their Technology. We worked for the angels, we tended to their agriculture and livestock. And we built them temples according to their will, and we managed the other humans for them. Some angels were followed as gods. Some angels were followed as mighty ones. Some angels stood beside us as equals, even as friends. But more than servants, we were also involved in building that powerful weapon, they called it the Forbidden Weapon.”

“From working with them in the construction of the Tower of Babel,” Arcana continued, “humans came to possess the secret knowledge. My forefathers, the Blood of Enmerkar, were the overseers of that project, serving the angels of Earth. We worked directly with the divine beings and their other non-human servants to build that Tower.”

“Non-human servants?” Judas asked.

“Servants such as the jinn we encountered,” Arcana said, “who were not made from the Earth, but from another place in the stars. There's also the demons—the criminal angels. There's also half angels, half humans. Demi gods, if you will.”

“I am a bit familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel,” Judas said. Judas had heard of the Tower of Babel before, but he was not aware of the role of angels in that particular story. “You mentioned angels of Earth, are there other angels I should know about?”

“The angels of Heaven,” Arcana said, “who are also known as the elders and First Keepers. Then there are the angels of Earth, the younger generations. Then there are also the angels who are farther into the Universe, if you look up into the sky you will find them there.”

Arcana raised her hand and pointed in the direction of the stars.

“The stars?” Judas said.

“Not just any star,” Arcana said, “the constellation you know as Orion's Belt.”

Judas had no idea where that was.

“It's the one with the three stars forming a straight line,” Arcana said. “In your Scriptures, was it not written that a third of the angels rebelled? That meant one third of the star system rebelled. All angels originally came from Orion's Belt. They came here on Earth in search of resources that could be used for their Technology, a technology that can traverse the stars. Is it not written in your Scriptures, that 'the gold is mine and the silver is mine?'?”

Judas nodded, perplexed.

“But we digress,” Arcana said. “The angels of Heaven did not approve of the Tower. See, the Tower was built by Marduk, an angel of Earth who wanted supremacy over all. But the angels of Heaven feared that once Marduk gained that power, he would rise and defy the angels of Heaven. That must not happen at all costs. The only thing missing from Marduk was the power to travel the stars.”

“So they’re fighting amongst themselves like humans fight amongst ourselves?” Judas said. “Aren’t angels supposed to be a race higher than humans? Aren't they supposed to be mature, and beyond such problems as war?”

Arcana grimaced sadly. “As above, so below. Man was made in the image of angels. Their problems are our problems, and our problems are their problems.” That sounded wrong, Judas knew that humans were made in the image of The Creator, not angels. But everyone was entitled to their own beliefs, so Judas didn’t argue.

“Why is a tower such a big deal?” Judas said. “A tower can’t really do any harm can it?” Unless if you built it beside the enemy city, and somehow caused it to fall upon the enemy. Judas tried his best not to snicker at the thought. Arcana raised her eyebrows, sensing that Judas wasn't serious. Judas shrugged, so she continued.

“Because it wasn’t just a tower made of stone, mud, and bricks,” Arcana said. “I know that in your version of the story, it was a mere tower. But in ours, the Tower was really a ship that could travel the skies, and even more than that, it was equipped with a weapon that Marduk could use to destroy enemy cities in one blow.”

“The angels of heaven feared,” Arcana continued, “that once Marduk gained dominion over the Earth, he would not be content and would seek to expand his reign among the stars. In our version of the story, the Tower is made of metal and energy, the energy of lightning flows through silver and gold. No, the tower is not made of primitive mud, not bricks, not stone.”

Judas had a bit of trouble imagining why anyone would build a ship made of metal. Metal was heavy. There was no way it would float in water, let alone fly. So much for using 'knowledge', when it didn't make any practical sense at all.

“I know this is hard to take in all at once,” Arcana said.

Indeed, Judas thought so too.

“I’ll try to keep my mind open,” Judas said. He would listen, but he would not believe everything she said. Though he sensed that Arcana truly believed in what she was saying. For that, Judas pitied her. She probably lived her life believing in a lie, worse, getting persecuted by other people who believed in that same lie.

“Marduk was eventually defeated,” Arcana said, “his Tower destroyed. Ibrum, your forefather whom you know as Abraham, led his cavalry in defense of the Angels of Heaven. The story written in the Book of Man's Genesis was true. Though it only revealed the story in partial details.” Then Arcana added, as if in side thought, “Perhaps if you read the Book of Enoch, or the Book of Jasher, or the Book of Endubsar The Scribe, or the Histories Of The Pre-Adamic Civilizations you will glean the bigger picture.”

All the talk of history was making his head hurt. Though being of the tribe of Yahuda, Judas had heard of the Book of Enoch, and the Book of Jasher as they were part of the Scriptures of the Torah, but this was the first time he had heard of the book of Endubsar and the others.

“But even with Heaven’s victory,” Arcana said, “the problem remained—angels of Earth possessed the knowledge to rebuild it once more. The Angels of Heaven had to seal that knowledge away, not only from the Angels of Earth, but also from the humans who had learned to build it themselves. The Angels of Heaven feared that if the humans—in addition to the Angels of Earth—built this weapon for their own use, the Earth would be destroyed as a consequence.”

Judas took a deep breath. “So there is a war between the angels, and now humans too have become a threat.” The story sounded reasonable. But, of course, that’s all it was. A story.

Arcana nodded, and then continued. “So to prevent us humans from using that knowledge,” Arcana said, “the angels scattered us all over the world. They isolated those who possessed the knowledge. But they did not stop there. They took the newborn children away from their parents. The angels raised the human children, taught each group a different language. You are familiar with this, in the Book of Genesis we are told of the Confounding of Languages, and it was in this way that the next generation of humans no longer possessed such knowledge. But even the Confounding of Languages is just the beginning. There is also the Confounding of Beliefs, the Confounding of Names, and so on. In order to save the world, we have to be divided, we have to be confounded. It is too early for humanity as a race to possess weapons of mass destruction. As a result of the Confounding, today, there are so many beliefs, so many languages, so many mythologies.”

“Still with me so far?” Arcana said.

Judas nodded, pretending to be interested. But it was all an out of this world story. He could see why people believed it though, because it was tempting. It was a story that took the facts taken from the scriptures, but twisted those facts so it would become a more interesting story.

Fortunately, Judas would not fall for something like that.

“But our human ancestors were persistent,” Arcana said, “and they found a way to pass on that knowledge even after what the Angels of Heaven did. Our human ancestors believed it was important that they possess that knowledge despite its dangers. Because someday, that power could be used for the good of humanity. However, our human ancestors were also careful that it would not fall into the wrong hands.”

Arcana seemed to stand straighter and taller. “Blood of my forefathers, King Enmerkar, half-human, half-angel, son of the angel Utu, spread ten pieces of that knowledge to different groups of humans all over the world, tasking them with the protection of the knowledge.”

“These ten fragments,” Arcana said, “were known as the Ten Fragments of the Sephiroth, or the Ten Sapphire Stones. These fragments were passed down and protected by ten groups of Human Watchers. You may know them as The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.”

Arcana seemed to wait for Judas’s reaction.

“The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel?” Judas responded, shaking his head. It was getting sillier and sillier. Judas didn't even know where to begin with pointing out that her story was completely flawed.

More like flawed, twisted, and turned upside down.

Arcana nodded.

“Each group had no idea who the other groups were and where to find them,” Arcana continued. “They only knew that they had to protect the secret, until the time when humanity will be in grave danger.”

“I possess the key for uniting them all,” Arcana said, seeming to stand straighter, prouder, if that was possible as she already stood very proud to begin with. Judas tried not to stare at her bosom as she did. It wasn’t proper. Her dress wasn’t proper either. True, she was covered adequately, but the dress clung too close to her skin.