Divine Heresy, Part 1: My introduction to Science Fiction! Enjoy my first attempt!
Divine Heresy Chapter 1: Abraham’s Bargain
Source: The Forbidden Gospels, book of Genesis
In the beginning, there were many gods. Whether these gods actually walked among man does not matter. They were personifications of emotion, the raw energy that gives meaning to life and destroys it. From deep in the chaos a single voice appeared. This Elder God was unique in that He was alone. Without counterparts or followers, without the conflict which brings purpose. He called Himself the Elder because He imagined He was first, born of the same word that ignited the cosmic flame. He wanted to give a reason to the clever creatures that had created His brothers and sisters, the false passions that were enslaving humanity. He did so in order to escape the greater evil, a future where Hell conquers Earth and corrupts the eternal stars.
In despair, to escape this singularity, the Elder God attempted to commune with a human. He found a man named Abraham who worshipped the Moon god Sîn. Abraham was already old and his wife had laid barren in his bed for many years. The man awoke one night in a spasm of pain. He had dreamed of the end of his clan. Raiders in an empty camp, the deaths of his wife and relatives. Abraham rolled over carefully, trying not to wake the others in the tent. He moved slowly in the darkness while feeling for the strap that covered the entrance and kept out the sands. Passing into night, Abraham wept silently. He gnashed his teeth, tore at his hair, and fell to his knees in an empty scream. He cursed the universe and his god, remembering the wealth he had sacrificed to a hollow, uncaring void. Abraham drew a knife from his belt and cut both hands to throw his last water upon the desert. The ancestral oath. His arms lifted to the firmament, ignoring the droplets of blood raining down on his face and body. Abraham spoke in the depth of his heart, a prayer of desperation to any power great enough to respond.
“Sîn, my God of the unblinking eye, the watcher in the night, why have you abandoned me? I have worshipped at your temples, slaughtered my finest cattle and rams, and consecrated my house in your name. If you have chosen me to end alone and childless, I can accept this fate. But if you have anointed my clan to die, then first you must appear before me. Speak now, I command it! I will have your attention, even if my soul is shredded by a single glimpse of your holy will.”
At that moment for the first and last time, the sky opened and humanity saw the limitless heavens. Abraham fell to his knees, lowering his eyes in awe and ecstasy. His hands had stopped bleeding. A deafening sound from all sides; a storm of swords.
“Abraham, abandon the gods of your fathers. There is but one beginning who has indeed gifted you with a specific fate. I offer what Sîn denied. Sons, slaves, as many as the grains of sand in all the deserts of the world. You shall be my voice when I go among the multitude, lest my involvement rend the wheel of time. Your children will speak and their words will spread like fire in dead grass. They will enter temples to throw down these lesser gods, and great kings will fall in the wake of their passing. I can lead you down this path, but first you must pledge this house in my name. Ask, and it shall be given.”
Abraham felt his body rise as if weightless. The blood was gone from his face and robes: He had been reborn. He lifted his eyes and witnessed the glory of God. Presently, Abraham spoke.
“I only request that you show me the smallest part of what we could build together. If you bring forth my descendants, display this possibility, I will give you my child itself upon an altar.”
The Elder God was pleased with the request and consented. Abraham’s smile quickly creased as a gasp of horror escaped his mouth. When the wish had been fully granted, Abraham once more fell to the ground and wept. After some time he looked back up, and the Elder God saw terror in the eyes of his chosen prophet. Remaining on the ground, Abraham spoke again.
“This is to be my gift? A thousand generations of bloodshed, of war and murder in your name? You are an endless pain that absorbs the best aspects of humanity and converts them to decay. Parakh your gift! Each of my children, blessed with abilities that drive them into the desert? Constant devotion to your holy name rewarded only by suffering? I would rather be left to die a waterless death than become servant to this holy sickness.”
Eyes closed, Abraham pushed his face in the sand and spoke gently to the howling wind. “I have peered into the infinite void and saw only the mirror image of myself. Begone, I implore you. I reject you. I curse you! There is no God!”
The storm grew and twisted as the Elder screamed in unmistakable agony, “THOU MUST NOT!” Seconds later a million demons shrieked with bitter glee, “The decision is made!” The voices disappeared into the wind and afterwards there was only silence.
The Moon reappeared from dust covering the dunes. When Abraham lifted his head, the desert was empty. His hands had begun to bleed. Time passed and Abraham entered the tent. He went from person to person, slitting their throats. After his wife he turned the knife on himself. The Elder receded as promised, leaving the many to their nefarious devices. And none were left who saw the blasphemy released into the stars by leaving the choice to man: If one God could die, so too can they all.
Divine Heresy Chapter 2
Satyric Myths, Excerpt from Volume Five: The Rise and Fall of Empires
Understand, first, that our race advanced more in the four centuries after Rome collapsed than any other point in history. Warfare created new technologies of destruction and trade forced the development of efficient forms of travel. When Rome collapsed Neg-125 CA and lacking another guiding force, Europa engaged in 50 years of near-constant warfare. The Treaty of Marseilles brought a temporary peace by centralizing power in the Merovingian ruler of Gaul. Left over from Rome’s aristocracy, the Merovingians were just kings and only fifty years later had consolidated their hold on Europa through marriage and brilliant strategy. They funded the arts, gathered talented military leaders, and most importantly patronized inventors. The development of hydraulic power was quite tragic, but allowed the Merovingians to dominate sea and land trade while requiring a substantial re-investment in the field of Alkhemy. New metal alloys were developed which did not rust, bend, or break. The creation of the steam engine marks the beginning of the Current Age. It is interesting to note that the Greeks and Romans measured time by the observance of religious feasts and festivals, not secular events. The advance was so rapid that by 100 CA the entire Oestern Continent had been colonized and named Nor Novoroma and Sur Novoroma.
During the first 200 years of Merovingian rule, Aegyptos expanded to control Africa and substantial portions of Southern Asia. The technological superiority of Europa allowed de-facto rule over Aegyptos until the development of gun powder by the Chin dynasty, then under the Pharaonic Dominate. For the next several centuries, the world’s only two remaining Imperiums waged sporadic but devastating wars. The results were largely inconclusive, with most battles taking place in Asia or Novoroma. Both superpowers maintained navies in the Mare De Terranean but avoided local conflicts since the proximity of the capitols made total destruction a distinct possibility. Each side imposed death penalties on the transfer of their sacred technologies, although samples were inevitable captured and studied. Merovingian siege machines combined with gunpowder led to the death of millions, even as more of the world became modernized. It is estimated that from 450 to 500 CA ten to fifteen million died in a series of relatively minor wars. I say minor for two reasons. First, few of the casualties were Gallic or Aegyptian citizens but rather proxies, slaves, mercenaries, and colonial conscripts. Second these wars, surreal though they seemed at the time, were practically skirmishes compared with the nightmare to come.
Shocked by the sudden slaughter the Merovingians and their allies pumped vast resources into metallurgy and technology. In 509 CA the Royal Akademia at Marseilles managed to artificially harvest wave energy, which their best researchers had hypothesized as the basis of matter. Electricity (combined with Aegyptian chemicals) allowed the storage of force demanded by flight. This discovery was aided by the fact that the symbolic forms necessary to design an aerowing had existed in Aegyptos for centuries before the steam engine. The basic principles required almost no adaptation. Had the ancient society not survived to this point, it is probable that the rediscovery of these equations would have slowed the growth of humanity for unknown generations. My compendium on the Eye of Horus fractions is already being burnt across the System, but rest assured the Royal scribes were the real source of every Europan invention since the fall of Rome. The Pharaohs themselves were a dilemma to the Merovingians. Aegyptos had remained virtually intact since the reign of Ozymandias I. Greece, Persia, Alexander of Macedon, even Julius Caesar all failed to conquer the Nile Valley. The Merovingians succeeded because they stole the sacred mathematics of the Pharaohs and created a weapon of unimaginable power. Three years before the Siege of Cairo, the Europan economy collapsed. Terrified at the possible end of their six hundred year dynasty the Merovingians turned to their strongest and smartest Strategos, the Spartan Tyrhenneus.
Using a new jetstream to power an army of aerowings, Tyrhenneus led a devastating attack on the Aegyptian fleet in the Mare de Terranean. A cold war that had dragged on for centuries ended in less than a thousand days. One by one, the Spartan destroyed colonial armies stationed defensively around the Nile Valley. The surrounded Pharaohs called desperately for reinforcements. None of their former subjects responded with either aid or soldiers. However, after this quick set of victories the war turned into a twenty-year siege. The Pharaohs had wasted the first few mille of their Imperium building monuments to their own Immortality. As Tyrhenneus soon discovered, they spent the next ones building elaborate fortifications. Landing any vessel within the complex was simply impossible. The outer walls at dawn threw a shadow so long that it shaded soldiers before they could see the golden gates themselves. Europan armies crashed on the sides like waves on a rock and almost twenty million died. The Strategos at first assumed that he could starve out the Pharaohs and impose a token defeat. Tyrhenneus did not know that the Aegyptian kings had already poisoned most of their native population, leaving alive only an Elite Guard, the Royal Family, and a small but necessary religious bureaucracy. Their food reserves could have lasted well over a century.
Once the outer walls had been breached, the Europan army found itself in the middle of a massive, trap-strewn stone labyrinth. Thousands surged into the only entrance and hundreds were crushed as the first through the door began to retreat. As the Merovingians had stolen and chemical propulsion and firearms, the Pharaohs had borrowed the principles of electrical energy. Laughing at the simplicity of Alkhemic encryptions and recognizing his own language as the basis of the equations, a scribe named Tolemnos had extrapolated quantum states. They secretly developed a shield capable of repelling and returning any bullet or explosion. In the small tunnels filled with hidden entrances, the presence of ten million soldiers was countered by 700 highly trained swordsmen. Disgusted Europan soldiers quickly realized the Hadron amplifiers were built into a guardsman’s very flesh and would detonate if removed from a host.
The nature of human warfare changed immediately. Tyrhenneus sought counsel with the Union of Europan kings. They ordered him to re-enter the complex and seize a sample of the technology, blaming the Strategos for the tremendous oversight. He complied with the demand at great expense, but more importantly this moment marks the first time Tyrhenneus entered into conflict with his Masters. While replicating a Shield jet, the Merovingian’s personal Alkhemists were amazed to learn the existence of atomic particles. It took them a decade to develop that knowledge into a weapon, although in that time the Siege had progressed little. In 610 CE the Merovingians delivered a nuclear device to Tyrhenneus. He swore a sacred oath of his blood and life to hold their trust as a guardian, but never unleash the still unknown weapon. Of course he eventually betrayed his masters, using the device to annihilate the Aegyptian stronghold and Royal Family. The fact that he removed his troops from the region demonstrates clear intent and purpose. Even the legal histories agree on that. The great mystery of this period is why the Pharaohs failed to develop atomic detonators, when they had sufficient technology and mathematics. The best answer I can give is that the idea simply never crossed their collective mind; the Heir-Apparent was always sequestered with a Harem and some trusted slaves, which added to the traditional inbreeding meant the current Imperator of half the world possessed a child’s mind. Thus the necessary bureaucracy. Ozymandias XXXVI had quite enjoyed his game with the Merovingians.
The first nuclear explosion was so important that some in the Capitol suggested resetting the Current Age to year zero. Their voices were soon silenced. Aegyptos had been destroyed, the Merovingians reigned supreme, and Tyrhenneus expected his masters to reward his efforts. But the Union ordered him to return to the Capitol and stand trial for treason. The Senate had voted that using the device was an act of Malus Mortalis. Instead, Tyrhenneus chose to destroy Gaul and the Celtic Kingdoms in three atmospheric strikes with the nuclear device. The ruler of every Europan Dynasty was gathered at Marseilles to celebrate their worldwide Dominate. The only royal blood spared was that of nine young men and women, who had been sent to an elite Akademia in Novoromo. Tyrhenneus did not know these scions had survived and declared himself Imperator Mundis. Had he proceeded straightforward to the Oestern colonies, he might have remained in power forever. As it was, Tyrhenneus decided to conquer Asia and Africa and leave the relatively unimportant Novoroma for later. The foreign territories universally declared the Nine heirs and Monarchs of the Divine Right. Novoroma’s native population had been relatively untouched by the massive slaughter of the Siege. Almost half of humanity lived in the New World. The Nine used the considerable size and resources of the Oestern continent to raise an army, while the man who would later become the Immortal Set developed a portable light amplifier capable of melting the strongest metal. By 621 Tyrhenneus was aging and had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Fearing his death as all great leaders do, he embarked on a program to create a perfect clone of himself.
His early attempts failed, as the constantly replicating cells all contracted the same cancer that was slowly killing him. He gathered the remaining Alkhemists in his Imperium and demanded they create a mirror for his royal image. The Alkhemists encountered the same problem and looked for a model that could successfully reproduce itself. They found one, in plants. A type of poorly-understood cellular duplication that occurred only in lower forms of life. The Aegyptians had named the process Fragmentation. Nearing death, Tyrhenneus ordered the Alkhemists to modify his genetics in any way necessary. The Alkhemists managed to create five identical copies of the insane Imperator, who hereafter would insist his followers treat him as a God. He sped their development with anabolic hormones and after five years the clones appeared between twenty and thirty years old. Tyrhenneus rigorously oversaw their education, training them in a regimen of strategy and shielded combat. Fighting in the catacombs of Cairo, the former Strategos learned that Hadron chains would collapse for one second after human flesh entered the jetstream. This allowed a skilled swordsman to pass metal objects through a hole in the particle field with an awkward flicking motion. The Spartan’s knowledge of this flaw prevented his immediate destruction by the Nine Saviors, as they were popularly called after their first serious victories on Europan soil in 625 CA.
Tyrhenneus had been a cruel leader. Before ten years passed the Nine drove him and his children to the colony on Sîn. Every government that had arisen after the nuclear age fought the tyrant eventually. But Tyrhenneus learned from the enemy as well as any of the Empires he had obliterated. His defenses at the mining camp were heavier than the ones at Cairo, considering the short time from arrival to completion. The problems associated with landing an invading army on a hostile, occupied planet almost led to another extended siege. The King Set, dismayed by the continued loss of life, searched for an energy source large enough to expand the shield.
He singlehandedly developed a method to extract power from hydrogen fusion, a previously unsuccessful area of research. Set’s accomplishments with Deuterium show the nature of his character; had he chosen to invent another bomb he could have ended the war in a second. Instead, he enlarged the Hadron chains to the size of a small transport ship. The Nine Saviors personally led the attack. Their teamwork was described as single-minded, bypassing the conventional explosives using amplified light cannons and landing an army of elite soldiers inside the compound. One Monarch per fifty soldiers they spread out through the fortifications killing or driving everyone into the vacuum of space. It took a week to clear the entire complex but Tyrhenneus and his copies were completely dispatched, all evidence of his genetic existence burnt.
Peace was restored and the last Kings of the Merovingian bloodline, in one of the most impressive acts in history, offered to lay down their command. This admittedly genuine display of wisdom ironically led to their eternal Dominate. The logic was, and still is, sublime. Their solution was equally flawless. Governments are always destroyed from within, while the public seeks unity from an outside source. Nine bodies with one mind. Humanity has never been more than a hive searching for an Overmind that provides order. In 636 Current Age the Saviors were enshrined as Deities, granted Imperium, and allowed to shape humanity in any way they chose. Each took a name from the pantheon of Earth’s most stable, longest-lasting civilization, because it was Aegyptos that first showed Tyrhenneus how to be both King and God. And the Nine were given the same right they had previously called Abomination.
It must be noted that the next mille was peaceful, contented, and bountiful in a way comparable with no previous period of time. The first Fragmented Set led the resettling of Mars, which he named at the request of his Mirror. After discovering the lost orphans and a seemingly endless supply of Deuterium, the colonization of the cosmos began in earnest. But the costs have been enormous, even forgetting the Inquisition. True, we have spread throughout the Haruspex,
reaching further than any prophesy could guess. The Gods teach that our race will never again face the threat of extinction. But this also brings a threat only I can see. What is the point of humanity if we no longer feel the fear and thrill that drives us to survive? Redundancy is our real death; decay is ignored when the piece is replaceable. Each planet and station has become an Elysian field of contented dismay. What is our goal anymore? Are they the same goals as an Immortal? In the depths of my soul, I wonder if they still have a reason for the Dominate. But should the motivation of mortal and divine ever diverge, then the question must be asked: What are the Gods if not a reverse image of ourselves?
Divine Heresy Chapter 3:
The Immortal Set
1989 Current Age
Two cloaked figures stood on a dune, staring out on a massive complex that disappeared into the illuminated night for kilometers. The façade of the building was red sandstone, mined from deep inside the Sear. The design was meant to impress, but the choice also had a practical purpose. The planet’s originals settlers preferred rocks with a high iron content that could resist the strongest winds. The outer and Oestern rooms were largely for show; grand ballrooms and amphitheatres that had wasted a substantial portion of Set’s raw gold and platinum reserves. Seraphat looked out at the desert, then at his companion. He turned away from the anger in his master’s eyes. Set spoke while covering his face from a sudden dust cloud.
“This palace disgusts me, Seraph.”
Seraphat returned his eyes to the Immortal and replied as tactfully as he could.“It’s your design, my Lord.”
Set sucked his breath in angrily. “Not mine. A distant ancestor.”
Seraphat shifted his footing uncomfortably in the sand. “They are the same, master. The image reflected by the mirror.”
Set exhaled explosively. “Don’t ever quote me. Look at that pathetic monument. My Imperium has been reduced to a pile of stones.”
Seraphat had served the Lord of the Red Planet his entire life. He recognized the danger in this attitude, the bitter sarcasm precipitating a necessary murder. Set’s philosophic examinations of the Dominate always ended with uncontrollable anger. Seraphat had read many histories, and knew his master’s predecessors never engaged in any dissociation or self-doubt. This Set never liked reminders of his past lives. “You could demolish and rebuild it, Lord.”
The hooded figure laughed unexpectedly and Seraphat relaxed. Hopefully, the danger had passed.
“No, Seraph. That would take generations. Reassembling the phase core alone would occupy a decade. Starting over would mean more concessions to UNITV, meaning less Hekats for my people. Set Prime is almost tapped for titanium and thallium. Most of all, this desert would spread. The environment would collapse. Our only goal is to preserve order.”
Seraphat was relieved. The reincarnations of Set usually referred to themselves in the plural. Acceptance was a good sign that his master might be distracted.
“Shall we tour the facility?” Seraphat began climbing down the steep dune, toward the enormous weather station. Set stopped him with a small gesture.
“Not there. Follow the curving sand. Otherwise the entire hill will collapse and bury you.”
“I thought that was a gypsy myth.” Seraphat replied.
Set walked along the peak of the dune. “Yes, the legendary nomads. I took the best from them and left only a hollow shell. The Fatherless are a failed culture, but I left some part of them alive.” Set started moving down the lip of the hill, and his servant followed. “My people have forgotten how to live in the Sear.”
It worried Seraphat to hear his master talk like this. The others had not felt such aversion to their status. But then again, they had more problems to deal with than this incarnation. He sought once more to distract an infinite mind. “There is the Peregrine of the Falcon, my Lord.”
“The pilgrimage is a dead ritual, a wandering spirit surrounded by a slave mentality. Parakh!” Set enunciated the last word clearly, using all the training he had denied his Mirror. The command’s tone was full of a dark horror that stole Seraphat’s ability to move or speak. Set had ordered his servant to read histories, even some that directly contradicted the official Book of the Dead. The first Set had discovered the basic vocal and physical movements that could impel obedience or force a man to bite off his own tongue. This one was a kinder master, at least to Seraphat, usually ruling through honor and humiliation. Seraphat knew the meaning of the word, although he considered the possibility that he was the only human who did. Set had a well of memories stretching much further than any mortal man. It was an old language from the first wave of settlers, back when the planet was still called after the Roman god of War. Parakh was to spit sand; the accusation of falsehood, hypocrisy, and apostasy. Seraphat had not moved or breathed. The sand fell away beneath his feet and he almost slipped, breaking the spell. No longer walking, Set grabbed his servant’s arm.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. My anger is not with you, or this monolith. I am...” Set paused, looking past the glowing building into the dunes.
Set realized they were still holding hands and released his servant, face inscrutable. Intimacy of this kind always disturbed Seraphat. His discomfort was not sexual; even though Set always refused the life-extending drugs few had ever taken a lover, and then only females. Seraphat considered his master’s turmoil. These signs of his God’s loneliness and lost humanity were more painful for Seraphat than the memory of any life he had taken.
“It’s the presence of the royal government and bureaucracy, centered at the weather station. You are aware of heresy in the inner circle. Do the possibilities created by your long absence here terrify you, my Lord?” It was not a question.
Set looked back at his servant and nodded mutely. Seraphat was relieved to have correctly guessed his God’s will again; Set had sentenced men to death for less. They set off toward the multicolored dome, speaking of what waited inside.
“Absolutely right. How astute. I must not have any doubts about the nature of my image. Can a God exist if even he does not believe in himself? And yet, by playing at Immortality one must also seek perfection. Even a God cannot make mistakes without allowing blasphemy to enter creation. Again, though, the demons we spawn must be themselves worthy of worship, if our original manifestations were perfect. A foolish concern, Set has always hoped. I might as well fear seeing my own reflection.” The Immortal stared into the dunes and slowed his pace. He seemed to want time to talk before reaching their destination.
“The original settlers of my planet were discarded children, orphans, wards of the state. You’ve read the official histories of the Fragmentation?”
“Yes my Lord. As well as several banned gospels you ordered the Censorate to ignore. Most of the orphans died during the Period of the Tyrant, when UNITV rebelled and the shield barrier failed. A military squad stationed on the planet dressed the children in SpecSuits and sent them out in Dune Rovers to find a source of Deuterium. Those who refused were killed. Since none of the children returned, the colony assumed they all died. A week later the remaining adults crammed into a few transport vessels and tried to return to Gaia. They left too late in the season, and both the station and Earth had passed the elliptical access point. The journey took almost two years. AutoNav functions continued even after the oxygen cell died. Had the ships been equipped with modern propulsion they would have survived. As it was, the core memory system led Tyrhenneus to believe the Mars colony had been wiped out. If he knew the truth, your Holy Mission might never have destroyed the desecration.”
Set agreed and increased his pace. The encapsulated city of shifting colors grew closer, and the light produced from the unimaginable large dome became more blinding and oppressive. Seraphat remembered why the construct was important, even vital for the survival of Set. But Seraphat could also see the project upset his master. The dome was a source of power, without which the deserts would return in two generations. Seraphat was sure the original shield wall could not keep the sand out, now that they had cracked the planet’s surface. Dust clouds, fierce coriolis winds that strip the skin off bones, a return of the burning red Eye of Horus; the vengeful sun reborn. This home to billions would be abandoned and all who remained sentenced to death. Even the Gods could not survive that firestorm. Although he had grown to despise eternal life, Set was a creature that sought to impose his order on the Haruspex. The chaos of the unbound Sear impressed itself upon him in the way an abstinate Pontifex might lust after the flesh. Set interrupted the thoughts of his servant, and for a moment Seraphat feared his master has seen the darkness forming in his heart.
“But history was a lie, as always. After the Fragmentation ended and my Royal family was deified the Senate chose me to lead the second colonization attempt. Your ancestors helped create a new shield wall, millions of times bigger than the original. The Hadron Jet was still based on older models from the Siege of Cairo and it consumed more Deuterium than even Sîn could provide. Anubis was forced to colonize the Asteroid Belt just to feed the machines. Only the benevolence of my Holy Brother and a tight hand on UNITV kept the shield wall running. In desperation I sent search parties into the Cavern of Night. None returned. I tried again, but each group, each Strategos disappeared without a trace. I needed a small army to penetrate even a few kilometers into the mist. And what I found even the Gods could not have imagined.”
Seraphat nodded. “Even the official histories agree on that. You found the ancestors of the Fatherless nomads, the lost children.”
The master shook off the tight hood and glanced at his companion. “Can you imagine? It borders on impossible. We were engaged in the Fragmentation for decades and the colony took another fifty years just to plan. I didn’t grow bold enough to venture into the Cavern of the Night for another century. All that time, consider the odds! Surviving on nothing but moss, fungus and cannibalism, deep enough into the ravine to subsist on oxygen and nitrogen frozen inside the planet. They were almost animals, still speaking pre-Concordata languages. The amazement I felt genuinely...there has never been anything like it since. None of the Immortals ever predicted humans could live unprotected on the planet for more than a few minutes. And our best khemists failed as well. Every magnetic scan came back negative for Deuterium. These orphans were using it for heat! With no knowledge of Alkhemy they developed a method of compressing the elemental hydrogen into a safe, containable energy source. Now Hydrogen is our most valuable export. Entire mountains of frozen ice. Those two discoveries motivated the second wave of colonization. Very quickly, my brothers and sisters each demanded a planet to shape in their Divine Image.”
They were nearing the destination, already near smaller Pyramids that blocked the storms and prevented dunes from growing unchecked. Only an ionized sphere could hold the sands back forever, and short piles were periodically removed from the entrance. The palace walls were angled to prevent accumulation from the few winds allowed inside. Seraphat removed his hood. “The others wanted to kill the orphans, didn’t they?”
Seraphat knew his master would not hesitate to kill children, for no other reason than he felt they posed a danger. Set gave no hint of his emotions. “Correct. My brethren considered them an oversight, a potential weakness to our newfound Godhood. Already they were erring at infallibility. I decided to use the Fatherless ones. They provided a substantial portion of the genetic material for my breeding program. I removed their claws and broke them. Now, you would be hard pressed to tell them from the rest of my subjects.” Set look back into the dunes, away from the intense light. “If stagnation is a disease, the only solution is to neutralize the sickness and recreate it as a cure. Perhaps that was my great mistake. I sought an answer in others. Actually I am the solution, an ancient predator reborn as Savior. In that case, my goal must be to prevent the onset of a more complete death. The desert will return no matter how high I build the walls. My image, my planet, all the solutions designed over centuries were nothing more than a weak attempt to stall my realization of this fact. I have taken my people to the very limit of their potential and am not satisfied. Although Set may never die it seems as if time is the greatest enemy.”
Seraphat gazed into the eyes of his God with undisguised adulation. This was different from physical intimacy. A certain level of friendship had always calmed his master, although now Seraphat sensed a connection to the passage of time he had never felt before. Set broke into his imagination for the second time. “What do you want from this life, my son?”
It was a title Seraphat remembered from childhood. He had never asked the identity of his genetic parents. The Immortal Set would have told him, had it been relevant. Seraphat answered as honestly as possible. “I want only to stay by your side, Lord.”
Set sighed. “Then this next part will be difficult for you. Tell me, do you know the meaning of your name?”
They approached a guard tower. The servant was forced to follow his master, because he could no longer see through the blinding light. Seraphat was confused; Set had never spoken like this before. “No, my Lord.”
“Seraphat was the Roman name of a Semitic protection spirit. He was banned as a False Idol during the Second Inquisition. I revived it for one of your ancestors. It pleases me to see the continuation of certain traits.”
The Soldiers outside the complex bowed deeply and opened the gate without challenge. As the two entered the Grand Hall, attendants waited to take their SpecSuits. Seraphat began to talk, but Set cut him off.
“I told you I was aware of it. Forget this business of names. Earlier I was reading an interview with a historian executed on Serapis almost 500 years ago. I found the man to be quite charming and amusing. How a government treats philosophos varies depending on social conditions. That is the best measure of a culture. When the economy and state are weak, the wise are held in high esteem and occasionally end up ruling. The only mark of an advanced society is that elites force advocates of change to drink poison. But in killing the last enlightened mind, an Aristocracy plots their own destruction. This is where we part ways. I must visit the Mirror.” Set turned to leave.
“Master, Salamis will kill you if he fails.” Seraphat’s words echoed across the bustling stone hall. The guards froze. All movement ceased; even the Immortal stopped. The high arched walls magnified the effects of Set’s voice and emptied the hall of attendants in matter of seconds.
“Were you not listening? My vision extends far beyond yours or the Pontifex Maximus. Can any mortal see into a place I have not yet considered? How could you presume to kill a God without understanding the consequences of such an action?” Set’s tone softened. “But thank you, my friend. Placed beside anything on this planet you are the most perfect. After tonight, I no longer fear the potential hidden on the far side of time’s wheel.”
Set dropped his shield generator on the marble floor and walked through a heavy, unguarded door. It was the sole entrance into the Estern half of the palace where Set’s personal guard had only two orders. First, never be seen. Second, kill anyone who is not the Gods themselves.