The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Nine (these events are Ten in the revised scene list)

"Fashion and war, eh? I'm never at peace anywhere I go, Egypt, Mesopotamia. Someone's always angry at me for teaching the Humans to use a new calendar or planning a building that upstages theirs," said Raziel. "I don't know where I'll go after this. I only hope it can be finished in time to stop some of the squabbling. The view from this location should be a good one." He looked up and caught Duma's eye. "How are you faring?"

"I'm holding together," said Duma quietly. He seemed to be gazing at Zerachiel. She was standing with Nergal's arm about her shoulders.

"It's so misty and dark in this land," Zerachiel said, "Are you quite sure there have been no problems with Nephillim Spawn?"

"I have seen just two since I've come up here," Gabriel said. "The strongest ones I know of are in the Far East now; they don't bother us."

"Raziel, will this plan of yours actually work?" Nergal asked.

"Yes, it should, this plan will allow us to sight many events in the heavens, and predict them."

"The equinox? For the New Year?" asked Nergal.

"Everything!" said Raziel.

Nergal waked away slowly then, stood at the edge of the firelight eying the Humans with suspicion.

They were all silent, until Gabriel spoke, "You look good, Jibril. It must be nice to be removed from politics...all this...to sit around and let your humans mine the gold and diamonds."

Jibril shrugged, "Play a game of Senet with me?"

Gabriel immediately went away with Jibril, and Raziel was left sitting before his tent, Zerachiel, Duma, and Raphael nearby, and Morpheus sitting on the ground.

Raphael snatched up Raziel's cards, laughed.

"Give them back," Raziel said.

"Want to play a card game, eh?" Raphael asked.

"You haven't invented a card game."

"I have, it's called Fiftytwopickup?"

"Did you say Fifty-two?" asked Raziel just as Raphael sent the cards flying up into the air.

"Pick up!" laughed Raphael.

Raziel was crawling about on the ground after his cards. "How could you?!"

"It was a joke, oh plumed one, a joke. I'll help you pick them up."

"No!" Raziel cried. He looked at the damp cards in his hands. "I'll have to sit here and count them," he said.

"You could play clock," offered Morpheus.

"Raziel, it was only a joke. You know I love you. I really like your cards, and observatories, well they're very interesting...looking at stars, squinting at slide rules, doing calculations...all terribly romantic."

"Clock?" asked Raziel quietly. He looked up at Raphael who was gesturing wildly to the heavens. "Raphael, go write us a song about it, OK." Raziel picked up the last of the cards. "Clock?" he said again.

"Oh, it's a really fun card game," said Morpheus, "you can play by yourself, and at the end, all the cards are in order."

Raziel took his cards into his tent and dropped them down on a table. "Halfangel, come show me this clock game," he said.

Morpheus ducked into the tent. "Three-quarters, and I've got a name," he said.

Raziel nodded. "Sorry...Morpheus, please, teach me this game."

Morpheus sat at the card table - it really looked to be a card table- and he tapped the cards into a single deck. He dealt out twelve cards in a circle, then one in the center. Then went around covering each of the cards with another till the cards were all dealt. Raziel watched, fascinated. "They came out even, you've got fifty-two," Morpheus said. "Oh, I forgot to explain, this is sort of a time bomb game, if you turn over all the kings before putting the other cards in order then you loose the game...but if you only want to lay them in order you could cheat."

"No, I want to learn the game."

Morpheus nodded. "All right, you do it. Turn over any card, see what it is."

"Three of swords," Raziel said.

"Swords, like in Tarot."

"You know cards and Tarot?"

"I was born a long time from now, but sure, I know. Anyway, you put the three here the rightmost part of the wheel. OK, seven of disks, seven goes just left of the bottom. Like a clock-face, twelve hours, and then the kings, they go in the middle."

"Like twelve months, and then you count one year, the ruler," said Raziel.

"Oh, yeah, kinda neat how it works both ways," Morpheus said. "Oh, you got a king there, three more and you're out."

"It's like a battle, one king already against you."

"I bet you'd love Dungeons and Dragons!" Morpheus laughed.

He walked out of Raziel's tent later, explaining that one form of solitaire was good for getting the numbers together, the other was good for getting your suits all together. One way was interesting because you started with seven piles each having one more card than the one before, there was a lot you could do with seven. And Raziel was explaining that when the stone observatory was complete even the Humans would have no doubt when the Earth came into the next age, that of the ram, and besides you could easily view, solstices, equinoxes, moon standstills, and even predict eclipses, not just one or two of these things like most observatories! It was going to be a very useful structure. Morpheus said they ought to make an observatory that actually rotated, Raziel said that of course they knew about these, but that on Earth they just didn't have the resources and tools they needed.

Opium was nearby then, she was watching Duma and Zerachiel. Duma wasn't speaking to her, only staring at her, and Zerachiel kept insisting he just tell her what was going on. "He likes her, you know, likes her likes her," Morpheus whispered to Opium.

Opium shook her head sadly. "He's never going to be able to tell her what he wants."

"Well, sometimes actions speak louder than words," Morpheus said.

"I'm afraid that they do," said Opium.