Enid woke up with a start someone was touching her shoulder gently. She rubbed her eyes and looked up at the source of the disturbance. He shared the same dark hair, beard and brown eyes as his brother. She was rather annoyed by being woken up from the best sleep she’d had in weeks of mortality.
“What?”
“Pharaoh is demanding to see Moses and I, but he will not wake.”
Enid groaned.
“Give a mortal a bit of power it goes to their heads.”
Enid sat up and rubbed her face she glanced at the saline drip; It had almost finished.
“He will see us when he sees us, Aaron. First rule of negotiation, establish who is in charge.”
Enid stretched. Then went about hanging a second saline bag and nutrition bag. She linked them into the IV line. Aaron watched her with a curious eye.
“Where does this come from?”
“The Lord provides what I need through this pack. But his generosity only stretches so far. Have you seen my daughter?”
“She helps the women with their morning tasks.”
“She does? What did you threaten her with?”
Aaron gave Enid a strange look.
“She is a woman; She does what women do.”
“Sure, whatever. Let’s go see Ramses. Do you know…what has been done?”
“Only that I hear the wailing of the gentile women.”
Enid’s shoulders slumped.
“That’s the part I was hoping to sleep through.”
“Please, the Lord said you would be as my sister and take Moses’s place.”
“Of course, the asshole volunteered me for this.”
“You speak with disrespect of the Lord.”
“My relationship has been difficult recently. We had differing opinions.”
“We all have times when our faith is not what it should be.”
“It is not a question of faith; It is a question of free will. This is a discussion for another time. The first born of every Egyptian family has just had their lives snuffed out. I believe the Pharaoh had a son that would…be affected. I know from my own recent history the grief of losing a child is profound. Especially when you are at fault. His arrogance and belief in his gods to protect him and his people brought this on them. He will be looking for someone to blame. We must make sure that anger is directed towards the Lord and not your people. I’m going to lie and say that we pleaded with the Lord to undo this thing, but he was unmoved and promised worse if your people are not set free. Well, it’s not a complete lie, I asked him last night if he could avoid it and as usual got no answer. But remember he lost his son; A little empathy and sympathy can go a long way.”
*****
Enid was still wearing her Atlantean armor. She felt like it would start walking on its own she’d been wearing it so long as a mortal. It was all in her mind, given time it cleaned itself and her. She also didn’t have to worry about…waste disposal for the most part. It removed that as well. She’d stopped by Hazel to leave the sword, confident she had enough anti-demon weaponry in her pack to deal with most threats short of a fallen angel and she didn’t feel one here. There was a sense she had when one was in the same time period as her, like her skin was on wrong, she could just never get comfortable. The infestation here was more of an itch she couldn’t scratch. With her armor’s ability to summon an energy blade or form weapons from its plates…she assumed she’d be good. Also, the ability to shoot wings out of her back to avoid dying from falling was another bonus.
Aaron walked beside her and seemed uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure if it was her or it was the unending wailing of the parents who had lost their children. The city was shock. Everywhere Enid looked she saw devastated faces. Nothing was getting done and no slaves were seen.
“You seem disturbed.”
“Such carnage, how…how could the Lord do this, has he no mercy?”
“Did the Egyptians show you mercy?”
“No.”
“Then why should the Lord treat them any differently?”
He nodded. Enid touched his upper arm gently.
“You have lost your wife and your children, you know the loss they are feeling. I have lost my husband and my child. We both know this pain. So we are both wishing we did not have to witness this because we are empathetic people. I know you feel guilty because you helped Moses deliver the ultimatum, but you were like a piece of papyrus with a message written on it, you spoke the words but they were not yours.”
Aaron nodded.
“Personally, I think this was a terrible tragedy and that the Lord is showed his true colors. But we are not here for him, we are here for your people. Your people. That is what matters, you want them to be free of their shackles. All this death wasn’t your fault it was Pharaoh’s, and it was the Lord’s. But your people can benefit from it so focus on that.”
“You are a very wise and shrewd woman. I have never met the like. You take direction from no man.”
“I decided a very long time ago that no man would control me. Those that try find themselves dead or worse.”
“Yet you have been wed.”
“To men who won my heart with love, men who treated me as an equal.”
“What a strange notion.”
Enid looked at the path before them as she heard another mother wake and find her dead child.
“I swear he is torturing me.”
“Who is?”
“The Lord. Putting me here in this place, to watch all this suffering because of lost children after he took mine. A reminder that he can do worse? He won’t even admit guilt or show remorse. Says it was free will, an act of man. He knows I must do as Moses would have because if I don’t I will lose so much more. He is a master of torment. I have no wonder why the Angels of Heaven rebelled.”
“Tell me of this rebellion and of the thing of darkness you defeated yesterday.”
“Lucifer, the first among his host…after his daughter Seraph, or so I’m told, listened to God’s first creation the great deceiver who made him jealous of humans, so using his status and power, Lucifer gathered many of the messengers to him and they tried to defeat the Lord. They failed of course because he is the wrong target and were cast into a prison, a prison that was supposed to hold for all of existence. Well there were other threats one of which was defeated by… a champion of the Lord, her sister, her daughter, and Lilith, the first woman created by the Lord. In defeating the great deceiver they broke the prison and many of the fallen ones and their minions escaped, you saw one in the Pharaoh’s throne room yesterday.”
“You quote many of our stories, but you speak of new ones. Who is this Seraph?”
Aaron seemed glad from the distraction from the suffering surrounding them.
“She is apparently called the Archangel of the Universe, first among his host. I have only heard of her from an old woman in a temple. She knew many things but on the subject of the Archangel Seraph she has come to many wrong conclusions. So, who knows it could be the delusions of a blind old woman. I mean she cut her own eyes out. There are definitely some issues going on there.”
“Who is the great deceiver?”
“Let’s not get into that, lest we attract unwanted attention.”
Aaron nodded the pair paused before the entrance to the palace he looked to Enid.
“So you are a widow and unwed?”
“According to the Laws of your people? Yes.”
Enid looked at the gate then back to Aaron who looked down at her.
“Look Aaron, you do the talking, I may say something…wrong.”
He nodded and the pair entered the temple. Neither had the Staff of God as it was referred to, but Enid hadn’t seen it with Moses, or at his home. They were escorted to the Pharaoh. Enid could tell he was grieving and that he was angry. He pointed at the pair.
“You! You killed our children, the first of our families, I should execute you both.”
Aaron went a bit pale, Enid had always read he was the mouthpiece of the outfit but he seemed speechless now. Enid frowned and extended her blue energy wings. The royal guards behind her stumbled backwards. The pharaoh held up his hands defensively.
“This was not our doing, Ramses, it was your stubborn pride in the face of repeated warnings from the Lord. I pleaded him last night to spare the children. I know your loss, I wept at my father’s feet. I begged him to change his mind but he was unmoved. If he will kill his own daughter’s child, my child, because I would not heed him, then what did you expect he would do to those who deny his power and cling to false idols? I told you yesterday you would not welcome this dawn. I told you to hug your children close. I also told you that there comes a time when you have to admit, you have more to lose, and he will not stop until he has broken you completely or you comply with his demands. Let the Israelites go, I beg of you Pharaoh, I do not want to see what he will do next. My heart cannot carry more grief.”
The Pharaoh who had stood up to begin his rant fell back into his throne his shoulders slumped in defeat. Enid knew the look on his face well, she’d worn it before she’d stepped through the gateway. She approached the Pharaoh. Aaron tried to stop her but she pushed his arm away gently. She walked to the Pharaoh and took his hands in hers and crouched before him.
“I know your pain. I know exactly how you are feeling. I let the grief and rage eat me up, I struck down the messengers he sent in my rage. I killed everyone who had anything to do with it and it cost me everything else I had. The love of my life. The relationship with my living children. Do not make my mistakes Ramses. One ruler to another. It is not worth the suffering it brings to you and your people.”
He looked down to her and in this moment of shared grief between two parents she saw tears in his eyes. Enid squeezed his hands.
“It was my fault my daughter died. I have to live with that, and now you do as well. Right now is not the time for anger, it is time for you to tend to your people. They all share your loss. Please Pharaoh, do not make the mother’s of your people suffer more than they already have.”
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His voice was a whisper, rough from sobbing before they had arrived.
“But what of justice?”
“Is justice worth more loss? This is a spiral of carnage. You retaliate, he retaliates. I know your Gods, they cannot stop the Lord above all. Even Isis is powerless before his might. I know you’ve looked into her Golden eyes and saw the weight of ages behind her, you have felt the power she wields, and I tell you this, all peoples and Gods below him, are wheat against the scythe he wields.”
“He killed your child and you do his bidding… why do you kneel to him?”
“I have told you, I have more to lose, and he will take it if I don’t do as he bids. As he will do to you Pharaoh. There comes a time in every war where you must measure the costs of fighting it, versus the cost of surrendering. I decided the cost was becoming too high and I surrendered. You have a slave population that is near rebellion, why risk giving your enemies allies if they invade?”
Enid was surprised to feel his hands fold over hers as she began to pull away.
“If only you had come in Moses’s stead, you speak with compassion, and reason. Perhaps you would have sensed Anubis’s foul presence sooner.”
Enid lowered her voice.
“His minions still reside here. They know me and will come after me. I am hoping to lure them away from your city and people. But they wear humans like a set of cloths, many of your people may die. Look for anyone who seeks to chase me down. They will be the wolves among the sheep.”
“And what should I do?”
“Send them after me, I will end them. Your people will not return.”
“Must it be so?”
“I do not know, I am a soldier, it is the only way I know how.”
His hands pressed against hers.
“I wish I could know more of you. I have many priests, magi and advisors, none of them have spoken so truthfully to me. Even my mother is a lying asp.”
“Isis is an ancient creature, she was human once, if you need a truth seek an audience. I have never known her to lie.”
Enid began to pull away but he held her hands fast. She could have forced the issue with the Atlantean armor’s enhanced strength but chose not to.
“Your daughter, did she…was she? Did you find her?”
“I did, she is safe, my first born passed a long time ago.”
The Pharaoh nodded.
“Go tell Moses’s people they are free, as was ordered we will provide gold and silver. Food and water, oxen and carts.”
“Thank you, Pharaoh, I am sorry for your loss and wish you many good things.”
“I am sorry for your loss as well, if she was as you are the loss to all of us was great.”
Enid squeezed his hands one last time before going back to an anxious Aaron who could not hear the conversation. The Pharaoh stood.
“Hear this, I will let my people suffer no more. The Israelites are to be given gold and silver, oxen and cart, food and water. They are free.”
Aaron looked at Enid, he whispered.
“What did you say to him?”
“I told you, I showed empathy, what my father does not yet understand is that you catch more flies with honey…”
“Dark Mother your kind words and your warnings will not be forgotten. Now go from my sight servants of the Lord so that my people may grieve in privacy. You will receive our tribute in one week. Then you are to leave and never come back.”
The pair left the palace proper and made their way back to the slave quarters. Aaron kept glancing at Enid who was lost in her thoughts. He had made several attempts to speak to her, but she hadn’t noticed. She was on autopilot. Finally, he touched her arm.
“You are one of his angels, aren’t you?”
“If I am, I have none of their power.”
“Yet you know how to do things that are beyond mortal understanding. You have wings.”
“Do you think he would truly have angels who were impure women? Who eat pork, shellfish and at times drink blood? I am a servant of convenience who is well educated in the ways of healing. You see magic because you do not understand the source. When you see lightning, you call it the Lord’s anger, but it is not. It just an imbalance that needs to be corrected.”
“You speak nonsense.”
Enid sighed.
“When a child is learning about the world around them, and look to their parents, the parents seem as to be divine beings who know everything. As they grow, they realize their parents are like they are, just more experienced and knowledgeable. So that is what I am too you, I know more because I have seen more. So magic is just…me understanding the way the world works better then you do. Do you understand?”
“No, not really but I would very much like to.”
The pair lapsed into silence and Aaron spoke again, he was definitely the talker in his family. Silence seemed to bother the man.
“I cannot believe our people are finally free.”
“Yes… but there is much hardship to come, and the Egyptians will come after us…”
“The Pharaoh would go back on his word?”
“No, there are more servants of the fallen one here. They will follow me, and they will be using Egyptian bodies, I will not let them harm your people, but if you’re going to have me along they will come after us, I am very much wanted by them.”
“What have you done to earn such enemies?”
“I’ve killed several of the fallen one’s brothers. Their servants and also the woman I called mother angered the fallen one greatly and he seeks me to lure her to him, but he does not realize she sacrificed herself to save me. So, he rages against a woman who is long dead. But this is good, it means that instead of me having to hunt them down, they will come to me so I may end their existence. That is my true task from the Lord. This whole working with you to free your people, was caused because I was too slow to kill it. Moses should not be in a coma, it should be him talking to you, and him who spoke to the Pharaoh. And the demon should have never been out of hell. This is all wrong.”
“I see.”
“I have a feeling God…the Lord is putting me in this position because he wants to make me bait. Which is fine by me, its less digging through the shit.”
Enid paused.
“I’m sorry, I need to clean up my language, it is easier if they come to me because they are hard to track down in a large city.”
Aaron nodded.
“Thank you.”
“I really am sorry, my sister gets upset with me all the time for the same thing. I’m just…not used to being around people who care.”
“Your sister, is she a woman of the Lord too?”
“That is a loaded question. She was once very faithful. Now she puts more faith in herself. She has done many great things. Though she still wears his symbol and prefers I keep my language clean.”
The pair reached the slave quarters and he put his arm on hers again.
“I will gather everyone, could you dress in something more, respectful?”
“My battle armor isn’t acceptable?”
“It is not, it may create lustful thoughts and many of my people will find it…inappropriate.”
Enid blinked innocently up at Aaron who if you went by looks was twenty years her senior.
“Is it creating them for you?”
Aaron blushed deeply. Enid touched his arm gently.
“I would be happy to change, if I had anything appropriate. I can conceal it with…a trick but it flickers and if people are paying attention, it may disturb them. Zipporah and her daughter are bigger than I, perhaps you could seek out a dress for me while you spread the word of the announcement. In the meantime, I will check on Moses.”
Enid walked into the home of Moses. She was saddened to see he was still in the same position she’d left him, though he had been cleaned up. She checked the IV, it was still secure, the bags were still good. She looked up at the mud brick roof.
“Why are you torturing me? Just wake him up. I was done with you after Miko, now you’re just kicking me while I’m down!”
Enid paused for several minutes and shook her head.
“No answer, of course no answer, there is never an answer, I bet if you are still giving messages, you’ll send someone else. Burning bushes. You are a cosmic asshole and the more I suffer through your bullshit the more I start seeing that Chronos might not have been the bad guy. So yet again you made me your assassin. You’re no different than Sextus but at least him using me made sense. You have fucking Angels you… you… jerk face.”
Enid checked Moses’s vitals. When she looked up from her patient, she saw Aaron looking down at her.
“I did not understand the words, but you sounded angry.”
“Just asking him to wake up your brother.”
Aaron had a bundle of fabric in his hands, and he offered it to Enid.
“Perhaps next time you should try speaking the way you spoke the Pharaoh. What was it you said? I believe it was you catch more flies with honey?”
Enid smiled and shook her head.
“Thank you for the dress, if you give me bit, I will change.”
Aaron bowed his head slightly and left the home of Moses and his wife. Enid changed into the dress placing her armor in her pack. She felt naked without a weapon so under the dress she wore modern underclothes and hooked a couple of throwing knives on her the waist strap. They were light and the fabric of their sheath was soft at least the tab that would hold them up. The dress was a good fit. She still missed the days of t-shirts, skirts, leggings and comfortable shoes. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, pulled her pack over across her shoulders and walked outside. Aaron was waiting for her.
“Thank you, it strikes me that I do not know your name.”
“Just call me Sarah.”
“Is that not your true name?”
“I do not believe my true name would work here.”
“I am curious.”
“Slays-Demons.”
“I see, then I shall call you Sarah. I must say your true name suits you.”
“They tend to, among the people who gave it to me you only receive a true name if you’ve completed a great deed, so most are at least into their teenage years. So, when you are granted it, it is because it suits you.”
“And what great deed did you perform?”
“I slew a hundred demons in a single night and saved their homes.”
“Surely the Lord was on your side.”
“No, I’m just really fast and I had my sword, it destroys them.”
“Yet you left it with your daughter when we went to see Pharaoh.”
“I have other means; I feel safer with him watching over her.”
“Did you say him?”
“I did, it’s a long story, but my sword is intelligent. That is why when the priest picked him up, he went mad…then was drained of everything he was.”
“There are so many things I do not understand about you.”
“You don’t need to understand, just have faith in my ability to help your people.”
“You have my faith, I saw the Pharaoh turned from wanting war, to peace with but a few words from your lips. I have no doubt, the Lord has sent you to us, as he sent Moses.”
“Alright, I’m sure people are getting impatient let’s tell them the good news. Gah, I can’t believe I just said that.”
“Good news?”
“It’s just something some believers in the Lord say when they are talking about him to others, that they’re spreading the good news.”
Aaron led her to the remnants of a building that was only the foundation and stepped up. He offered his hand to Enid to help her up. She was a bit insulted at first then realized it was so she could keep her dress in proper order. She took his hand and held her dress to herself with the other. Aaron looked to the assembled people. He motioned to Enid.
“After words of peace from Sarah, the Pharaoh has set us free. He will give us food and water and many oxen and carts. He demands we take this tribute and leave in one week.”
The crowd started to cheer. A voice called out from the crowd a large man with gray hair and beard.
“Who speaks to the Lord now?”
Aaron looked at Enid who stepped forward.
“Moses speaks to the Lord, I am just his messenger. It was his words that calmed the Pharaoh. His words that freed all of you.”
“Where have you come from woman?”
Aaron responded.
“She was sent by the Lord. Do you see her hair, her eyes? Her pale skin? Where else would she come from?”
“I heard the gentiles calling her Dark Mother. Whispering she slew a minion of their dark gods.”
“And she did! I saw it with my own eyes. She drew a blade of light and threw it into his chest. A blade that none save her and her daughter can lift, her daughter who many of you are familiar with. She is a good woman, a faithful woman, she will guide us through Moses’s wisdom until he wakes.”
“If the Lord is so great and strong, why does the chosen not open his eyes?”
Enid spoke.
“The Lord has a great task for him and sent me to keep him while he completes it. I do not ask you to follow me, I just ask that you follow the path the Lord has made and provided to me through Moses. You are free, but the desert is not kind.”
Enid was starting to realize the monumental task before her. She knew that it was only thousands and not millions but the logistics of it were starting to dawn on her. The crowd still looked dissatisfied by the woman beside Aaron. She didn’t trust her memory because the bible often blurred together for her so pulled out her old white heavily used Roman Catholic bible and began to read a passage.
“The Lord said to Abraham: ‘Know for certain that your descendants will reside as aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation they must serve and after this they will go out with great wealth.’”
Enid closed the bible and looked to the assembled Israelites.
“I say to you: You are the descendants of Abraham, that you have been enslaved and oppressed. Has the Lord not brought judgment on your oppressors? Are the gold and silver promised by Pharaoh not great wealth?”
Enid held up her bible and silently hoped she didn’t mess up the Torah, which she didn’t have a copy of by using a Christian bible.
“I read from the Holy Book of the Lord, given me by the Lord. You know the stories of the priests, whispered because the Egyptians banned them. You know of the poems of Edan. You know the covenant between the Lord and Abraham, all of that which was promised was given. You know that your struggle was told to Abraham, you will survive your journey and you will be stronger for it, as a reward you will find the land promised to Abraham for his descendants and the Lord will lay down a new covenant with you. The Lord will not make this journey for you, for through the journey you will find faith and strength as he walks by your side. He has opened the path to freedom and a land of your own, you must choose if you will walk it. He put a path before me, and I refused to walk it and I suffered as the Egyptians suffer on this day. Do not forsake the gift the Lord gives you, and he will not forsake you.”
Enid closed the bible and put it in her pack. She noticed her daughter shaking her head at her. She responded with a tiny shrug. The crowd started to cheer and roar. She kind of wanted to go wash her mouth out with soap, or bleach, pretty much anything. Getting a crowd into a religious fervor left a bad taste in her mouth. Aaron looked at her and to her pack he spoke quietly to her.
“It truly does provide what you need when you need it.”
Enid nodded. The crowd was starting to chant the name Sarah. Enid held up her hands.
“I only speak the words Moses has provided, it is his name you should be chanting and the Lord you should be thanking.”