The Descent of the Gods

Truce

Tubal was sitting up when Naamah arrived, Zillah at his side.

"He's asking questions, Naamah. But I haven't told him anything yet," Zillah said. "Maybe you would like to?" Naamah smiled - he was not going to be able to believe anything she would tell him of what had transpired since he had fallen unconscious from his wounds.

He didn't believe her. All through her tale, he had protested its truth. Finally, she pulled back the curtains and let him gaze out at the arena. The altar stood there alone, no longer simply a pedestal for Cain's egotistical image of himself. Tubal was mortified.

"It can't be! I thought you said you failed to destroy it? Why did you do something so foolish?"

"I didn't destroy it - not for lack of trying - but remember, I told you that the angel Azrael crushed it under his feet when he landed here."

Rarely had there been a time in their years together when she had seen him looking this lost.

Tubal looked over to his mother to verify Naamah's tale, but she had long since drifted off to sleep on a reclining chair nearby.

"Have you gone mad? Your belief in superstitions has gone to far to..."

His voice trailed as Lamech burst through the door and descended on him.

"My son! Welcome back to the light!" Even as his father embraced him, Tubal's attention was stolen by the man who followed Lamech through the doorway - a god among men. 

Lamech welcomed Azrael into the house with a bow and outstretched arms.

"Son, much has happened while you slept. Has Naamah told you?" Tubal only nodded in response. All his life, Tubal had trained for war. He knew what a warrior looked like, how they moved. The man in front of him was not only a warrior, but matched how Tubal had imagined Cain in his prime - a warrior king that feared not one living creature on the face of the earth. 

"Are you our savior my sister spoke of? Azrael?" Tubal whispered. 

"If one deserves gratitude, it is she beside you," Azrael replied. "Her faith brought us on your behalf."

Tubal couldn't respond, only looking at his sister in a whole new light.

"Tubal... Cain," Azrael said, using his full name for emphasis. "You have done much evil in that name. Will you fight now for a new name?"

"I will, my lord!" Tubal said, his eyes shining. "My life is yours..."

"It is not for my name that I ask your pledge of loyalty."

"Then whose?"

"For now, for Heaven. But I have come to find one that will lead your people to greatness once our task here is complete. Will you fight for the one I name?"

"My life, my sword is pledged to the one you name." Azrael smiled.

"You will have a new sword, one worthy of your new pledge! Are you feeling strong enough to walk? I have something to show you!"

The day after the angels had arrived in Nod, Semyaza had led one hundred captives equipped with digging tools up to the rock mountain on the upstream side of the island. Craters from the angelic impacts pocketed the the rock and hillside. Semyaza had directed them to dig, searching for very specific ores, with instructions that the ores should be collected and brought to the forges in as great quantities as they could be found.