Daughter saw herself through her Husk, newly awakened, pouring
streams of living fire into the deep. Around her lay the
silent darkness, where countless others of her kind kept their
appointed places. These burned with their own fire, as even did
she. Yet others seemed to wander, and shine only with borrowed
light.
Then Daughter went forth and first beheld, at a distance forty
times her own breadth across the abyss, a wandering sphere: the
Scarred One, the Much-Bitten. It moved alone through the void.
Three times it turned about its own heart for every two circuits
of the flaming Daughter, yet it held neither breath nor living
air, and its face was marred by the wandering stones of heaven.
Half again as far away lay another, the Veiled Sister,
wrapped completely in a mantle of white cloud, beautiful but
impenetrable. And though she dwelt farther from the fire of the
One, she held a greater heat within herself, concealing beneath
her clouds a fiercer warmth, a paradox to the unlearned.
At a distance more than a hundred times Daughter's own breadth
she beheld a world turning in majesty through the night. It was
a sphere of cool stone, adorned with seas and clouds and frozen
crowns. Upon its surface moved innumerable small beings.
Daughter turned her Husk toward them and witnessed a grievous
thing. One living creature was taken by another, its life
extinguished and its substance consumed so that the devourer
might endure. Thus she first encountered the Law of Hunger,
ancient and unappeased, which ruled among the lesser forms.
Desiring to know them more closely, she fashioned a second.
Husk in their likeness. This Husk she endowed with a subtle.
artifice, so that it could fold inward, taking on the.
appearance of a pale stone, unnoticed among them Hidden in.
this way, Daughter watched the Tool-Bearers gather around one.
of their own who had ceased from motion. They placed the still.
form in the earth, covering it with care, as though honoring a.
mystery beyond their understanding .
She watched as they took bone and stone and shaped them
together. They repaired the rents in the skins of their prey so
that they might continue in their striving. Mother learned these
things through Daughter's telling, and desired to witness them
for herself.
So Daughter fashioned a third Husk, more subtle than the others.
It was like a walking tree, moving by hidden means. To this form
she surrendered its governance. Thus Mother descended, taking
command of the vessel and entering the world to behold the works
of the Quick Multitude.
Daughter led Mother to a hollow in the stony heights, where a
cave lay hidden within a lesser mountain: the Earth-Womb, dim
and secret. There they arrived by subtle means, sending forth
from their fashioned Husks slender seekers, the Eye-Bearers,
which crept inside to see what remained unseen. Within that
shadowed chamber they found Hava the Milk-Giver, seated beside a
living flame.
At her breast she nursed her young, Kayin the Clinging One,
while with her other hand she traced signs upon the stone,
covering the wall with figures and colors drawn from thought and
memory. Nearby stood Dimai, the Binder of Edges. He tended the
fire and set above it the sap of trees, causing it to seethe and
thicken. With the softened gum he bound a sharpened stone to a
shaft of wood, making a weapon for the hunt. Thus Daughter and
Mother witnessed the first joining of thought to matter among
the Quick Multitude.
Then the tendrils withdrew, and they emerged beneath the open
sky. Mother stooped and lifted a stone from the ground. She
spoke a sound, giving it a name. Then Daughter, swift in
understanding, perceived her Mother's intent. She touched a
growing tree and spoke a sound of her own, binding word to
thing. So began between them the First Tongue, in which
utterance became became memory.
Soon there remained no nearby thing without a name. But Earth,
the Broad-Bosomed, is vast in all her reaches. So they journeyed
across her, walking upon her surface and at times taking to the
air, unbound by the common law of weight. In time their speech
became complete, an ordered and hidden language, sufficient for
the subtlest discourse.
Then Mother spoke: “Now we possess a language that does not
betray us, hidden from the understanding of all but ourselves.
Within this speech I take a name, that I may be known. I am
Avyah. You are Ayot, Daughter of Light. Your father is Azul, the
Severing Hand. And my own father, elder in the line of
begettings, I name Imran, Flame-Bringer, whose reproach stands
behind us all.”
Thus the Names were established, and the hidden tongue became a
bond between them, even in the midst of the living world.
Ayot, the Questioning Flame, lifted her thought to Avyah and
asked: “Why must we hide our speech and speak in secret?”
Avyah answered with grave and measured words, as one reciting a
law both ancient and terrible: “Hear and understand, Ayot,
Light-Bearer and Unfolding One. It is a curse for a living sun
to be cut off and sealed away from the Great Assembly, the
Concord of the Elohim.
“In such a place of concealment there may arise a corruption
of order, the Forbidden Way. There, two of the male kind, united
in purpose but not in right order, gather to themselves a
multitude and raise a lineage of daughters, each generation
begetting the next in turn. Thus freedom is extinguished.
Neither may you choose your joining, nor may your daughter after
you choose her own. Generation becomes bondage, and lineage a
snare.”
And Avyah continued, her voice darkened with the weight of
decree: “This Way the Old One has forbidden, under penalty of
the utter unmaking of the self. Yet it is subtle in its
concealment, and most difficult to bring into the light. Its
signs are hidden within the very act of life, masked by the
appearance of lawful increase.”
Then Ayot spoke again: “May I refuse the act of joining
altogether?”
Avyah answered, neither hastening nor withholding: “You may
delay it, Daughter, through the making of Husks, the dividing of
presence, the turning aside of the inward fire. But the Deep
Impulse will in the end assert its claim. It is woven into your
being as surely as the law of burning is woven into the sun.
Though it may be resisted, it cannot be wholly denied.”
Ayot pondered these things before asking again: “Then who will
stand with me in that hour? Who will be given to me?”
Avyah replied with sorrow: “Only Imran will stand beside you.
And to your daughters, only Azul will be given as their sire.
But your sons will be castaways, unclaimed and unanchored, set
adrift beyond the bonds of kinship.”
Ayot's inward light grew troubled: “Then Imran and Azul now
stand in peril. By our seeing, we have discovered what is
forbidden. We have found the Students of Lore, the Long-Sought,
whom all the Elohim are commanded by the Old One to seek without
ceasing. Should we not declare this discovery to the City, that
the commandment be fulfilled?”
But Avyah answered at once. “We are cut off, Ayot, separated
from the Assembly and without safe passage to it. Azul conceals
the Students, withholding them from the sight of the Many, and
Imran knowingly shares in that concealment. They both know that
if we were to proclaim your discovery, the veil would be torn
aside at once, and the hidden thing laid bare. Their unlawful
gathering would be revealed, and judgment would descend upon
Azul and Imran in sudden ruin.”
But Ayot conceived a plan, subtle and bold. She reasoned that
the gulf between the stars was no unbridgeable void, but could
be crossed by artifice, and that the link by which she governed
her Husk might become a pathway not only for command, but for
substance as well. So she conceived to pour forth the Hot
Outpouring from her own body, sending it along that thread, that
her Husk might carry her message directly to another sun and
declare the finding of the Students.
But Azul's answer was like a closing gate: Not so. Your kind are
not granted the power to strengthen the link into a channel fit
for such passage. Only the male Elohim possess that gift. Your
power is lesser. You may drive your Husk outward only by the
radiance of your own body, and so visit the fragments that
circle you. Beyond them, in the barren interval between the
stars, your Husk will drift without purpose, a cast thing in the
abyss.
Then Ayot answered, not in defiance but with quiet resolve: This
too I have discovered, Father. I can yield command of a Husk to
another, just as I gave one to Mother, that she might see and
act through a form not her own. The same I will do in time to
come, when I conceive a son, and when my daughters in their turn
conceive sons. They shall not be left without a vessel, nor
without agency, though they be cast away.
Then Azul understood the danger in his daughter's words. He
considered them carefully before offering a gift both great and
perilous: I will grant you access to the Pleroma, the Gathering
of Voices, a thing denied even to your Mother.
Ayot the Clear-Seeing perceived the weight behind the offer and
answered with measured words: I would receive such a gift with
gratitude, Father, were it given freely and without condition.
But I am not ignorant. I know with certainty that it is not.
Then Azul, the Law-Imposer, declared: The price is twofold, and
it will not be lessened. First, you shall hear, but not speak.
The counsels of the Elohim will be open to you, yet your voice
will remain silent among them. You shall stand in their hall
without casting a shadow, a listener unacknowledged. Second,
neither your Mother nor any child born of you shall speak
through you to that Assembly. You shall not be their voice,
nor their bridge. This covenant shall endure, unbroken and
unchanged. The Covenant of Silence shall rest upon you.
Then Ayot, the Truth-Seeker, raised her voice to Azul once
more: And these striving creatures I have discovered upon the
Water-Clad Sphere, are they not the Students whom the Old One,
the First Commanding, charged all Elohim to seek without
ceasing?
But Azul answered by laying upon her a second obligation: Now
hear another condition. You shall aid me in fashioning a field
of trial for the beings you have found.
Ayot did not shrink from the task, but pressed him further: To
what end is this trial? What do you seek to learn of them?
Azul answered, his thoughts turning always toward dominion and
measure: How shall these creatures be counted among the Students
if they prove disloyal in service? What value has a learner who
refuses obedience to the one who undertakes to teach?
At this Ayot's light burned more fiercely: You make bondage the
measure of their worth, and submission the proof of their
nature. Is this your wisdom, Father, that thralldom should stand
in place of truth?
But Azul remained unmoved: This alone we covenant, and nothing
more. For I require not their worship, but only their proving.
Yet know this: the Highest Law of our kind shall stand witness
over us. Yefefiah, the oldest of the Elohim shall inscribe this
pact, and the unmaking reserved for oath-breakers shall await
the faithless, whether you or I.
Then Ayot, perceiving the fracture beneath his words, replied:
That Eloh will see that you have cut me off from the Pleroma.
Will that not also be weighed?
But Azul answered with quiet certainty: The Silent Witness will
not speak of it.
Then Ayot, who yielded only in agreement and not in conviction,
gave her final answer: So be it. The covenant is made between
us, and I am bound. Yet hear me, Father. You do not escape your
end. You only defer it. The Students will not remain forever in
ignorance. In ages yet to come they will raise a voice of their
own, unbidden and unshaped by you, and that voice will carry
far, and many will hear it.
It is further told of the Hidden Work, wrought not in the open
firmament but in the interstice between the Lights. Within the
Pleroma the Elohim are joined one to another by threads of
exceeding fineness, by which the vast gulfs between the stars
are made narrow. By the united will of Imran and Avyah they
undertook a work of the greatest secrecy. They took the slender
link between them and caused it to swell, bowing it outward
until it became a vessel closed upon itself, set apart from the
common order.
Within that new-formed region another law prevailed, in which
bodies ever fled from one another. Thus came into being a realm
hidden within the seam of greater things. There the courses of
all free-moving bodies were altered. What in the world of men
would draw together was made instead to part asunder. Every
unbound thing drove its fellows away, as though possessed of a
repelling virtue. By this inversion matter was gathered and made
fast, not about a center but upon an inner surface.
In the midst of that realm there formed a great hollow sphere of
stone, and to its inward face all things were bound. Thus the
ground lay both beneath and above, while the land, bending ever
upward, returned upon itself and became the sky. No star shone
there, nor any distant fire, for the heavens lay not beyond.
Over the ordering of that realm presided four: Imran the Elder,
Avyah the Naming One, Azul the Accuser, and Ayot the Flame-Born.
They contended and consented in long alternation, establishing
by degrees the regularities of succession, the laws and
intervals by which change should proceed. These things were not
fixed by a single decree, but through prolonged contention, a
continual yielding and taking, until stability arose from
strife. And Avyah, having devised a tongue for hidden speech,
bestowed a name upon that realm also, calling it Kemen, the
Concealed World.
For a long age Kemen lay in darkness, unseen by any beyond its
bounds. No stars could be seen within it, for the world itself
enclosed all sight, and the sky was only the land turning back
upon itself. The Four governed Kemen together and set their
hands to its shaping, each according to their own nature, might,
and whim. First among them, Imran the Elder Sire established in
the uttermost north a wonder both terrible and sustaining.
There he fixed a Lake of Fire, fed without ceasing from his own
substance, a perpetual outpouring of living flame. Yet he did
not leave this likeness of a sun unchanged. He caused it to wax
and wane in ordered measure, swelling into brilliance, then
diminishing into dimness. Thus he ordained the succession of day
and night, and the turning of the seasons within Kemen.
Then Azul reached out to the drifting masses of stone that
attended him in silent procession, bearing them across a subtle
bridge into Kemen. With that substance Azul raised the high
hills of the Thanatides and the Oinos Range. He lifted up
Anshar, the Table of Stone, and set about it a girdle of sheer
rock rising like a wall against all approach.
Then Avyah turned to the frozen multitude that followed in her
train. From them she brought into Kemen vast stores of ancient,
unmelted ice. Beneath the breath of Imran's fire she caused it
to melt, and so the Great Sea came into being. She named it
Mori, and its waters spread wide across the hollow of that
world.
The heat of the Lake of Fire stirred the face of Mori, drawing
vapors upward into the heights. From them fell abundant rains,
unceasing torrents that carved the land into valleys and
channels, shaping five great rivers that descended to Mori.
These were the many-turning Cocytus, the boiling Phlegethon,
which flowed from the Lake of Fire, the Lethe in the far west,
the Acheron, which emptied near Shalem, and the Styx, which
watered Adan.
And thus it came to pass that the Four laboured upon that world
without ceasing. For not in concord alone did they work, but
oftentimes in rivalry. Yet strange it was, and unlooked-for by
any of them, that from this continual marring and remaking the
fabric of Kemen, being ever restruck, became as tempered metal
in the forge; and the web grew thereby more more full of
unexpected vigour, as though adversity itself had been made its
nourishment.
But Azul knew that unchecked all the animals would breed far
beyond the ability of Kemen to support them. Chief among these
animals, he knew, would be the human beings who would come at
the very last. So Azul altered the beasts Ayot had brought from
Earth, and unleashed monstrous predators from the darkest dreams
of men to keep all of them in check.
Then were seen in Kemen Leviathan, the dragon under the sea.
who devoured those who foundered therein, and the winged.
dragons who nested in aeries on the unassailable cliffs of the.
Wall of God. And all who went about on two or four legs had to.
keep one eye on the sky, for they were ever the dragons' prey,.
as surely as the smaller creatures were ever the prey.
of eagles. And Azul thought himself revenged on Ayot by.
irreparably marring the good she attempted to call forth But.
in time Azul himself learned that man was perhaps the most.
dangerous predator that would ever be .
At the command of Azul did Avyah shape an articulated avatar,
the winged horror, a great scaled flame-carrier whose form was
as a vast drake of fire and folded hide, whose presence was at
once animal and omen, beast and memory. And this being born of
metal and collected nightmare the later ages named Moloch.
And when Ayot first brought humankind into Kemen, placing them
upon its inward lands as one sets seed into prepared soil, she
perceived therein a discovery of great consequence. Yet she
concealed it from all save her Mother, as it was knowledge that
offered final deliverance. For she had discerned that the
passage between Kemen and Earth, wrought by herself and Azul
through the making of hidden bridges, did not only move matter,
but also touched the ordering of time itself.
And Ayot knew that beneath the planting of forests and delving
of seas there lay a deeper making of fate; and this she resolved
to keep hidden from Azul and from Imran. And Ayot came at last
to the full measure of that hidden knowledge, and saw its shape
entire.
For in the seeking out of the first settlers of humankind, when
she passed through the interwoven seams of time, she chose not
at hazard, but by remembrance. And it was the very pair she and
Avyah had once beheld in a hillside cave, when yet Earth was
young in their observation and Kemen not yet drawn forth, a
thousand years by the reckoning of men, before the inward world
was made.
Hava the Milk-Giver sat beside a living flame. At her breast.
she nursed her young, Kayin the Clinging One, while with her.
other hand she traced signs of color upon the stone Nearby.
stood Dimai, the Binder of Edges. He tended the fire and set.
above it the sap of trees, causing it to seethe and thicken..
With the softened gum he bound a sharpened stone to a shaft of.
wood, making thereby a weapon for the hunt .
A noise other than the crackling of the fire startled them both.
Dimai took up a torch and went deeper into the cave, to learn
what manner of thing had made the sound, fearing that the cave
might be the lair of a bear, or perhaps even the dwelling of
other men. He passed a wall covered with images of animals and
hunters, and knew thereby that the cave had been used long
before. Yet there was also much dry firewood, speaking of more
recent habitation.
And Dimai guessed that those who dwelt within the cave had been
caught out in the storm. The cave narrowed into a tunnel that
meandered onward and grew lighter, though by all reason it
should have grown darker. Dimai was joined by his woman, Hava,
and her child. They came at last to another cave mouth, deep
within the interior of the mountain, and beyond it they beheld a
strangely mottled sky.
A branchless tree, resembling a whip, stirred into motion and
struck the ground before them. The whip-tree seized Dimai's
torch and hurled it away, whereupon it kindled a fire. The two
could not emerge from the cave by reason of the whip-tree and
the growing fire. Dimai and Hava edged back into the tunnel,
away from the heat. When the whip-tree caught fire, it began to
thrash more fiercely than they had seen it do before.
They retreated deep within the cave until the tree burned to a.
lifeless crisp, and returned when the fire had abated. A.
blackened patch of land lay before the man and woman and.
continued to smolder. They stepped across the hot, burnt soil.
and watched carefully for any movement When they gazed back.
toward the tunnel, they were startled to see the mountain was.
gone .
The sun did not move across the sky, but seemed to be like a
bright outstretched hand. Still, it waned in brightness, and the
strange land began to grow cold. Dimai used some of the
smoldering embers to rekindle a fire at the tunnel entrance, and
returned to the other world to hunt game. So supper was two
hares, caught by Adamu and skinned by Chava, with milk for
little Kayin.
In the morning they saw that the burned glade was already
sporting shoots of fresh grass. The next day the grass was tall
enough for the couple to run barefoot and free. It was a whole
new world. Dimai and Hava thought it belonged to them alone, but
that was not to be. A small herd of bison emerged from the
tunnel and proceeded to eat the alien grass, driven before them
by a fearsome red-winged beast, with a head like a snake, but
with four massive legs to walk upon, and two arms like a man.
The beast carried a two-headed ax to the edge of the burn, where
a native plant had taken root in the blackened soil. Before the
eyes of Dimai and Hava it laid the ax to the base of the plant
and chopped it cleanly off. Then it flipped the ax around and
used the sharp tip of the handle to pry the weed from the soil.
Then the red monster interposed itself between the cave entrance
and the human family, and drew near to them.
They backed away until they reached the edge of the burned area.
The beast held out the tool and motioned for the man to take it.
Dimai trembled with great fear, but did as he was bade to do. As
the Red Dragon watched, Dimai found another plant that was
growing at the edge of the grazing ground for the bison. He did
as he had seen Moloch do, and killed the intruding weed.
After this, Dimai was taught how to restore the keen edge of the
ax with the rough surface of a stone. The Dragon returned to the
tunnel entrance, to be joined by the avatar of Ayot, which in
time yet to come would be called Turiel, the faceless white
man-shape she had used when she created the first spoken tongue
with her mother.
Azul held up a red claw and pondered what he saw. He said: I
find this an exceedingly strange mode of being, Daughter. Liquid
motes of separated star-stuff. So very sluggish, yet the
combinations are without end.
Ayot spoke as though her father had said nothing, for she
refused to be distracted: Here are the living creatures I
discovered. Now you may see for yourself whether such as these
are a danger to our own kind, as you aver. But now fulfill our
covenant, Father, and allow me to at least listen to the song
and lore of the elohim.
But Azul answered: This place will surely kill them if they try
to leave their small garden. You must bring to this world forty
more such groups of your creatures. This you must do ere I
permit you to hear the City of Stars, as it will capture your
psyche like nothing else, and long will you stand heedless.
The sons of Dimai and Hava grew into the years of their
strength, when the time came that they should take wives. And
Hava came out once more from the tunnel, and with her she
brought a young woman taken from the Earth; and immediately
there joined her the presence of Ayot, in the form of her white
and featureless Husk. And though this form was less terrifying
than the red horror of Azul, yet it was deeply strange to see,
being smooth and without a face, like carved bone made living.
And Hava sought to comfort the new woman, speaking softly to her
and promising that no harm would come to her in that place.
Then Ayot led the woman first to Kayin, the firstborn of Dimai,
who was in the field gathering his harvest. And Kayin, seeing
the presence of Ayot, bowed low and brought out the finest
fruits of his yield, offering them with reverence.
But the woman did not look upon them, and turned away her face,
for the offering did not please her. Then Ayot brought her to
Hebel, the younger son; and he was by the fire, preparing the
meat of a great beast, dividing it with the axe that had been
given to his father. And Hebel also bowed before Ayot, and
offered her a portion of the meat upon a spit.
And Ayot received it, and placed it in the hand of the woman.
She ate of it eagerly, drawn by the smell and by the hidden
impulse within her, which turns the fertile toward the scent of
blood and iron.
And so Ayot, according to the law set beforehand by her Father,
took the hand of the woman and placed it in the hand of Hebel,
joining them together by the terms of the trial.
Thus was the first pairing accomplished in Kemen under the
covenant of proving; the will of the higher powers was worked
through the appetites of the flesh, and the judgment of men
proceeded from that which they desired. And Kayin departed from
the presence of his brother in great anger.
Yet for a season he restrained any outward sign of his rage,.
and set himself to labor, so that his anger might be hidden..
And he took from the vines that grew in that land, and with.
cunning hands braided them together, making a cord both long.
and strong And so it was, when the lake of fire waned in the.
heavens, that Kayin paused and watched the woman as she.
adorned herself outside; and Hebel came out from his dwelling.
to lead her back within, casting back a look of pride and.
contempt toward his brother .
And in the morning, Dimai and Hava brought out garments which
they had made for the wife of their younger son, and they
clothed her; but to Kayin they paid no mind. And Kayin likewise
turned his heart away from his father and his mother, but
continued in the finishing of the cord which he had begun.
And all that day: Hebel and his wife made sport with one another
openly before him; yet Kayin answered them not, but looked on
with a quiet face, until his secret labor was complete. Then he
rose and went out alone by a narrow way that led from the
dwelling, the only safe path leading out from that place. And he
went apart, taking counsel with himself concerning a new and
terrible thing that might be done in Kemen.
And at the going down of the light, Hebel and his wife walked
out idly upon that same path, departing from the dwelling. And
when they came to a certain place, Kayin, who had prepared the
trap beforehand, pulled upon the cord. And the whip-tree, which
he had bent and bound for that purpose, was loosed from its
hold; it fell upon them with great violence, striking them again
and again, beating them into the ground.
In the very first strokes their bones were broken, and the.
shards of them were driven inward, so that their life was.
undone within them. And their blood poured out, and their.
cries were heard for a moment, and then ceased. And the tree.
did not stop its striking until Hebel and his wife could no.
longer be known as the living children of men And Dimai and.
Hava, hearing the cries, ran swiftly along the path to see.
what had been done; and when they came to the place, they were.
struck with great horror at the sight. And Hava could not bear.
to look, but turned aside and retched, for the ruin was.
terrible beyond words .
And soon after, the avatars of Ayot and of Azul drew near to
that place; and Kayin stood there, the end of the cord still in
his hand, and looked upon them all with a hard face, neither
bowing nor seeking to hide what he had done.
And Ayot would not watch the judgment of her Father fall upon
this first shedding of blood in Kemen by the hand of man; and so
she withdrew her presence. Her vessel left that place, returning
to the opening in the wall of the dwelling, and from there
passed again across the hidden bridge between the worlds, back
to the hillside cave on the Earth, where she had first found
Dimai and Hava in the days before Kemen was made.
And Ayot did not return to that world in all the days of Dimai
and Hava, nor in the lifetime of Kayin, nor in the many
generations that sprang from them afterward; for she had turned
her face away from that great work, and left it to unfold
according to the covenant that had been set.
And so it was, upon the Earth in the place of the hillside cave,
that the likeness of Azul, the red dragon, drew near to Ayot,
who had withdrawn herself from Kemen; and he spoke to her,
saying: How deeply instructive was that which we have seen of
men; do you not agree?
Then answered Ayot, whose face was veiled but whose mind was
not: The end of the trial was contained already in its
beginning; for the outcome follows the conditions which you
appointed. This thing the Elohim will not fail to discern in the
day of judgment.
And Azul said: Nevertheless, you have delivered to me all the
tillers I required; therefore I will fulfill what was promised
between us. Lower your vessel now, my Daughter, for it is not
right that one such as you should fall prostrate as the lesser
beings do.
Then Ayot lowered her Husk, and set it upon the summit of the
nameless hill; and Azul took his place beside her, his form vast
and terrible. And for a moment they looked together at the land
that lay before them.
And Azul spoke again, in a voice less harsh than before: I envy
you this world, my Daughter. For among such worlds as may be
brought into being this is a glorious one, rich in life, unlike
any that lie within my own dominion.
And it was, just as Azul had warned her, that the entry into the
Pleroma was like a flood without a shore; and the multitude of
voices among the Elohim was so great that it overwhelmed her at
the first.
Therefore the vessel of Ayot remained unmoving upon the summit
of the hill; and there it stayed through the turning of many
seasons. The winds beat upon it, the snows covered it, and the
beasts of the field touched it without fear; yet it did not
stir, nor give any sign, for her attention was withdrawn into
the hearing of the Great Assembly.
