Tablet of Destinies

  Adapa smiled to endure this roughing up, but cringed when he saw Samson heading his way.

  ‘Many thanks for attempting to teach me how to read.’ Samson placed his arm around Adapa’s shoulders, and whispered the rest. ‘But I got the girl anyway, so … it doesn’t matter much any more.’

  Samson gave a squeeze that almost crushed Adapa’s ribcage and then let him go.

  Adapa nearly dropped like a rock upon release, but Adama caught him up and set him on his feet. ‘Keep thinking, little scholar.’ Adama ruffled his brother’s sandy brown hair as he followed the rest of their kindred up the ladder.

  We’ll be seeing you, Dragon, said Ninharsag quietly and Enki smiled.

  ‘Phase one, complete.’

  It was a howling wind that met them as they entered the world above, but the deeper they moved into the forest the more hospitable the conditions became. Incus, the hunter, led their party, as he knew a route to the eastern mountain ranges and the valley where their transport awaited.

  When they arrived, Marduk’s presence was an unexpected surprise.

  ‘Come to wish me farewell?’ Adama queried his Nefilim brother, but, judging from the dark look on Marduk’s face, Adama doubted that very much.

  ‘In a fashion,’ the Lord replied, as six Nefilim guards filed out of the awaiting craft to stand behind him. ‘Who’s the smart one now, Adama?’

  ‘No!’ Kya backed up in fear, but Geebo grabbed her close to whisper: ‘I will kill us both before they touch you again.’ He showed her a device he had attached to his wrist and Kya actually smiled.

  ‘Where do you think you are going with my women?’ Marduk queried smugly. ‘At least, Kya and Eve belong to me, and the others I shall make mine.’

  Adama nearly died where he stood and Eve’s head had dropped low. ‘You were the other sister? Eve?’

  ‘I was hoping you would never have to know … but of course, my Lord knew that.’ Eve raised her head to look Marduk in the eye. ‘Our misadventure is not the reason you are here —’

  ‘Misadventure? I cared for you!’ Marduk roared.

  ‘There was no care in what took place between us,’ Eve stated bitterly. ‘If you want to know what love truly feels like,’ she moved towards him and held out her hand, ‘I dare you to take hold.’

  Marduk was reluctant to take up her challenge, but seeing that she was keen, he’d just rape her before he killed her.

  ‘No, Eve … what are you doing?’ Adama moved to retrieve her, only to find himself held at bay by Marduk’s will.

  ‘Teach me, Eve.’ Marduk pulled her close, his eyes revelling in his brother’s agitation.

  Eve stood, uncaring of the Nefilim Lord’s groping of her body. Her eyes were closed in silent repose.

  Adama couldn’t watch, but could not turn away either. Behind Marduk his guards raised their hands, ready to will a gruesome death upon his brothers and sisters.

  ‘Stop thinking about him!’ Marduk unexpectedly threw Eve to the ground. ‘I know what you’re trying to do.’ Tears of fury sprang from the Lord’s eyes. ‘And it won’t work. I will kill you. Finish them all.’ He gave his guards leave to go to the slaughter. He held his own right hand out towards Eve’s chest to extract her heart.

  From behind Adama came the aggravated growl of Samson approaching ramming speed. The warrior went charging past him, with his arms spread wide for maximum impact.

  Marduk waved a hand in Samson’s direction, and was stunned when the warrior just kept coming, sending him and several of his subordinates crashing to the ground. The next thing Marduk knew he was being headbutted repeatedly.

  Adama and his brothers followed the example set by Samson and charged the few guards still standing, wailing as they went. Geebo pulled a handheld device from one of the many pockets of his robe and quickly went about prodding the downed Nefilim with it.

  As Kya followed Geebo, watching the Nefilim guards suddenly freeze still, she chuckled with delight. ‘Can I do Marduk?’ she pleaded, and Geebo passed the item to her.

  As Kya took care of the remaining opposition, Samson arose from his headbutting fit, a little dazed but still coherent. ‘What a handy item,’ he commented, relieved.

  ‘Nefilim use it for stunning the larger beasts they have created,’ Geebo informed. ‘It has a very temporary effect on the Nefilim, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Best hit them all again then, just in case.’ Kya gleefully took off with the device to zap all the Nefilim again.

  Adama helped Eve to her feet. ‘Are you hurt?’

  ‘Not any more,’ she replied, calmly. ‘You?’

  ‘I don’t know the meaning of the word,’ Adama assured her with a kiss.

  ‘You make me sick.’ Marduk squeezed out the words, struggling to free himself from the effects of the stun gun.

  ‘I think just the opposite is true.’ Eve crouched beside him. ‘I think we make you feel better and that is detrimental to your current lifestyle.’

  ‘What happened to all the good in you, Marduk?’ Adama crouched beside him also.

  ‘I grew up. I got serious,’ he advised, forcing one arm free as Kya came racing over to hit the Lord again.

  ‘No, don’t.’ Adama put her off. ‘We may as well be done with this now.’

  ‘What?’ Kya stressed.

  ‘He’ll only follow us —’ Adama was clutched around the neck so tight he couldn’t breathe. Immediately, he looked to Eve and allowed the tenderness and warmth he felt for her to flood his senses. It wasn’t long before Adama’s air began flowing once more as Marduk cast his brother to the ground.

  ‘Goddamn it, go! Get away from me,’ Marduk snarled, as he was again forced to wipe tears from his own eyes. ‘I’ll tell Enlil I blew up your ship.’

  Eve urged Adama to rise before Marduk changed his mind.

  ‘Enlil will want to see wreckage,’ Adama pointed out, for how could he know that Marduk hadn’t planted an explosive device on their vessel?

  The question aggravated the young Lord. ‘So … I shall have to arrange some,’ he stated, as if Adama was rubbing salt into his wound. ‘Are you trying to change my mind? Go, and good riddance to you both!’

  Eve had begun dragging Adama towards the ship, and he was left with no choice but to trust that destiny had opened Marduk’s heart to their cause. ‘Do you think we might have heightened my brother’s awareness of emotion?’

  Eve guessed her lover’s concern, for she had been entertaining the notion herself and had no desire to be blown up. ‘There is only one way we shall ever know,’ she replied. And with a brave smile of encouragement, Eve accompanied Adama onto their transport.

  The vision of the past was consumed by a sensation of being submerged in a loving, cleansing fire where the individual soul-mind mingled with the perfect oneness of all creation. This all-consuming state spoke with a choral voice of Otherworldly beings, more beautiful and harmonious to the spirit than the song of the Tylwyth Teg.

  Is there one or many lights burning around you? the primordial host asked.

  I sense infinite lights threaded together inside one glorious flame, replied the soul, who aspired to an enlightened state.

  A truthful insight, granted the celestial fire. Fohat, the vital motivating force of creation, flows freely through you now. Look within to the light that burns within your being. Do you find it different to the light that burns inside any manifested body?

  Difference has no meaning, the aspirant realised. It is only karma that deludes the uninitiated into believing soul and desire is an individual experience. The divine spark inside each living molecule is but a jewel strung loosely on the thread of Fohat, which binds all into the cosmic web of the universal heart. To serve the illusion of individual ego is to deny Fohat’s influence. Only through aiding others can we strengthen our ties with our higher self to whom Fohat endeavours to keep us bound.

  You understand that the link with Fohat can be broken… for braving the lower realms of existence to aid with the creation
of a perfect emotional being, some less developed mental beings have paid the ultimate price.

  The warm cleansing sensation withdrew as darkness and cold consumed the initiate. Not even thought had movement here, just a waking, dense nothingness prevailed. The dreaded fires of Hell would have been a welcome relief from this perpetual night, which inspired a horrid paranoid terror to pour from the core of the soul-mind from whence love and warmth once radiated.

  Could any enlightened being wish this upon itself?

  Thought being the pilot of the vehicle of Fohat, the soul-mind was once more embraced by the euphoric joy of enlightened existence.

  Praise be to the Universe! The aspirant revelled in the light and love flowing into its being via the channel provided by Fohat. I know what must be done to save us.

  The image inside the Tablet of Destinies faded out and Maelgwn was released from his trance state.

  The Tablet shrank in size and re-formed into a small pyramid pendant, which Sacha retrieved from mid-air and re-attached to the chain about his neck. Now you are ready to settle the karmic debt with the Nefilim, the male Deva smiled. He could tell by the light glowing from Maelgwn’s eyes that the Dragon had been touched by the divine inspiration of Fohat.

  Maelgwn rubbed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. The past-life regression had been very enlightening, but the explosion of energies that had followed far surpassed any otherworldly experience he’d ever had. ‘How long until we reach Nibiru?’ Maelgwn was more eager than ever to find his missing wife and evacuate the planet that was under threat of annihilation. His delving into the past had also revealed that without Tory, and the love that bound them together, Maelgwn could eventually cease to exist himself.

  Have no fear, Sacha assured. Nergal is close at hand. He pointed out the front shield to the bright aquamarine planet beyond.

  ‘Why are we approaching Kila?’ Maelgwn stood, inspired by the sight of his home planet.

  ‘Because that’s where Nergal is,’ Sacha advised. ‘Attempting to flush your resistance out of hiding.’

  ‘Not for long.’ Maelgwn was unfazed when he spied the Pantheon fleet parked just beyond Kila’s atmosphere. ‘It’s judgement day for the Nefilim … may Anu be with them and have mercy on their darkening souls.’

  The Creation Station shut down. The Sensor-sphere data ceased to flow from the mound and the outer sphere dispelled. Noah’s body descended to a standing position on the floor, before the inner light cylinder withdrew into the small charichalum dome overhead. The formation around Noah lowered its arms to lay flat in the mosaic on the floor, leaving the scholar unwavering in his stance.

  That had been the last of the twelve stations the Sensor-sphere had to offer. No more information would ever be required.

  Noah raised his eyes to see his wife and Gywn ap Nudd gazing at him with bated breath.

  Rebecca gasped as she noticed the whites of her husband’s eyes; they now shone with the radiance of an enlightened being.

  ‘The Lord Enki was not the prophet whose scripture we seek,’ Noah informed. ‘His soothsaying was hearsay, quoted in the main from the works of Adapa, a collection of my first soul-mind’s foresight.’

  At the time in question, the Lord had no choice but to claim the prophecy as his own. Gwyn defended the ascended Lord. For if Enlil had ever suspected that Adapa was capable of such knowledge, the God would have defied Anu to kill the Sage and his consort.

  Rebecca, having yet to take the last lesson, couldn’t follow their mumbling and didn’t care to. She had greater concerns. ‘You went all the way back then, to Edin?’

  Noah nodded surely. ‘And then some.’

  ‘And do you now know the entire prophecy of Lahmu?’ Rebecca pushed for information, as this particular prophecy had been one of the main reasons behind their quest.

  ‘I certainly should.’ He raised his eyebrows to stress his claim: ‘I wrote it.’

  PART 3

  THE NEFILIM

  CHARACTER LIST

  Head of KEPA

  Rhiannon

  Chief Justice of Kila

  Cadwallon

  Munitions Development

  Ethan

  Marine Research

  Robin

  Marine Protection

  Jenny

  Centaur Prophet

  Kyron

  Dumuzi’s daughter

  Cordella

  Banished Nefilim Lord

  Shamash

  Crone

  Mahaud

  Stony Fire Elemental

  Tobit

  20

  ULTIMATUM

  Noah had come full circle from Edin, to this, his Chosen incarnation; to a place where he’d developed and grown to such a state of being that he could remember and comprehend, in a waking state, all that his higher self endured to reach this moment of human enlightenment.

  Every elemental form in the physical world

  I have transcended to stand here.

  I have been a rock,

  first molten and then crystal.

  I have grown tall in a forest,

  and thrived in abundance under the sea.

  I have run wild in nature,

  a savage tamed to a domestic ally.

  From the holiest Dhyan-Buddha

  I descended into individuality.

  By my own will and self-devised efforts,

  I have progressed through karma’s trials.

  My prize for this achievement,

  is access to the insight of my own experience.

  Noah smiled as he dwelt on his verse, for it sounded remarkably similar to the text of many an ancient prophet; text that had once read like a complete mystery to the historian before now. The ascended High Merlin of ancient Briton, Taliesin, had written one such verse after his own accidental spiritual advancement in the labs of Keridwen, or Ninharsag, as she was formerly known.

  The connection Noah had established with the Logoi had not dissipated with the Sensor-sphere transmission either. Every adversity unfolding in the material world suddenly seemed beneficial and made perfect sense. Noah truly understood what it was to be a Master of reality.

  From the Otherworldly fortress in which the Sensorsphere had been erected by the Lord Enki to store the ancient knowledge from the dangers of the physical realm, Noah projected his thoughts back into the macrocosm to advise his kindred of the prophecy he’d rediscovered.

  Here ye now of the great design,

  the Alpha and Omega of time.

  All that is, was and will be of our age,

  as prophesied by man’s first Sage.

  ‘Noah,’ uttered Brian, upon hearing the scholar’s words in his mind, and gazing around his council table it seemed that Cadwell, Neriada and Taylnn were picking up the telepathic communication too.

  ‘Did I miss something?’ Rhun queried his people about their sudden vagueness and disinterest in the defence strategy for Nugia.

  ‘Shh!’ they all barked at the Vice-Governor at once.

  Six brothers and seven sisters, I address,

  with whom I first began this quest.

  Hear now the truth of our origin

  for I have been to where it all began.

  Those Chosen who had remained in the hidden underground base to defend Kila were about to launch a major defensive, to prevent tankers full of toxic waste being emptied into the pristine oceans of their planet.

  Enlil had had the tankers flown in from the usual dumping ground in deep space, especially for the purpose of luring Lahmu out of hiding.

  Everyone in the underground control centre, more commonly known as ‘the pit’, began to panic when their commander and Governess, Candace Alexander, their communications technology guru, Floyd and the now acting Head of Defence and long-time munitions development supervisor, Ethan, went into a trance.

  Candace was conscious of her people awaiting her word, but the prophetic verse of the historian resounding through her brain had such vivid images accompanying it th
at even the impending disaster could not snatch her attention away from the soothsaying. For she felt her own primordial memory and inner power being quickened by the telepathic transference.

  Our fate was sealed in ancient Edin,

  where we committed no mortal sin,

  bar claim the right to save our breed

  and plant humanity’s mortal seed.

  ‘Shit!’ Rhiannon cursed. Inside the KEPA base in the Shutura Crevice, three of her key staff turned into zombies. ‘I’ve lost Bo, Jen and Robin, here,’ she advised her husband via her headset-link to HQ, where Cadwallon, the Chief Justice, had assumed control.

  ‘That’s your communications officer and both heads of marine defence, Rhiannon.’ He attempted to reason with his wife, knowing that she would fight this battle alone, if need be, to save her beloved planet. ‘I don’t see how we can proceed without them … we’ll just have to trust they’ll snap out of it, soon.’

  ‘The timing is too perfect,’ Rhiannon argued. ‘What if this trance is some new Nefilim form of warfare?’

  ‘No, Rhiannon,’ Robin managed to mumble, ‘it’s Noah. We’re okay.’

  ‘But Robin —’

  ‘Shh!’ All three of her subordinates hushed her to silence.

  This made Rhiannon furious, but, as she’d been taught from birth to trust the universe in such situations, she took a deep breath to do just that. ‘Alright, we’ll wait,’ she confirmed to Cadwallon, and wondered why the hell she hadn’t been made privy to the historian’s message, when she was one of the undisputed masters of telepathic communication among her kin.

  In the dying days of Anu’s reign,

  the Nefilim shall be judged again,

  Some to shine and some to fade