The Descent of the Gods

Rebuild

"In close combat, your favorite weapon - your sling - is useless." Standing in the dust of the area, and circled by a thousand Cainites armed with new swords and ready for training, Tubal spoke rather to Enoch. 

Tubal motioned for Enoch to lift his weapon and step forward. Enoch complied. Tubal attacked and Enoch parried only a few blows before Tubal had knocked aside his defenses and Tubal's blade was at Enoch's neck.

"Again!" Was followed by the same result. And again.

"You must do better than this, Sethite, if you are to protect your home from your enemies."

"What home? It's gone!" A Cainite jeered from the restless mob surrounding them. Tubal watched Enoch for a response. Enoch's face didn't register the jab. Instead, he strode calmly to the wall of weaponry that had been gathered for the day. He picked up a new Cainite spear, capped with an glistening iron point. He ran his hand down the spear, holding it and testing the weight.

Then his iron sword fell upon the bottom length of the wooden shaft in several swift strokes, cutting away about two cubits from the spear's overall length. He let the sword fall into the dust, and held up the now shortened spear as he had once held his father's ancient staff.

"Maybe I just need something more familiar," Enoch said, advancing again to face Tubal, holding the modified spear in a defensive position. Tubal nodded and attacked. This time, only when the spear fell apart from the repeated blows of Tubal's sword did Enoch finally have to yield. Tubal lowered his sword, and his voice was void of his previous scorn.

"With some iron plating, your staff will be a formidable weapon in your hands."

"Our new swords are not your preference?" Semyaza's voice boomed across the arena as he entered. Throwing off his outer cloak, his muscled body loomed over them. 

"Very well, shall we begin your training?" He said, raising his eyes to the crowd of Cainite fighters. "Your numbers may have dwindled significantly, but with your new weapons, and the tactics I will show you, you will be more deadly and feared than ever before! Are you ready?"

The men cheered, raising their swords high. Vengeance against Herab's slaughter of their comrades would soon be within reach!

From the comfort of her porch, Zillah had been watching her son fight with Enoch in the arena. But as Semyaza had entered and unveiled his god-like body, her interest in the proceedings grew. Never before had she seen a man like this! She leaned forward, gazing without shame for she thought she was alone.

"Now the Watchers become the watched," Cain said behind her. She jumped first, and then realizing the speaker without turning, she stiffened. His hand landed on her shoulder. She did not shrink away, but he felt no warmth to her skin.

"I suppose it goes without saying that they looked upon us much as you look upon them now." He droned on indulgently.

"What do you want now?" She hissed. "Will you never leave me alone?"

"Patience, my dear, I'm not finished with my thought yet." He removed his hand  and moved to the rail to gaze upon the training fighters and the angel in their midst.

"Don't you take issue with the knowledge that they spied upon us without reservation? Every secret tunnel that I bored below this citadel, they know of it as if they had designed it themselves."

He faced her, and he noted that he held her fearful attention now.

"Our darkest secrets are bare as the market streets to them."

His word troubled her, and he knew why.

"What if they...?" And she stopped, unable to continue the question.

"They haven't. To them it means nothing more than the rest of the impurities they came to purge. I have been displaced, and mean nothing to their intentions with our people now. My people!" He smashed his fist on the railing and Zillah saw him in a new light. The old man whose mind and body had waned in recent years suddenly had a new vigor in his step. The hard look had returned to his eye, and his words were laced with cunning once again. 

As he stared out at the arena, she saw the bitter hatred in him for the beings that had usurped him - the angels who knew her own secrets. Secrets that could destroy that which she had never valued more.

"We have no leverage, no advantage, nothing to offer them by which we could have what we desire. They hold all the keys, they have all the secrets, and although they guard against much, they do not suspect that to change. And that omission is our opportunity, my dear."

"Opportunity to do what?" Zillah feared what Cain's intentions could be. 

"Don't worry, I'm no fool," He replied. "But is some dignity too much to ask them that shamed me and left me to be forgotten by the people that I begot? Is it too much to ask that your dream be fulfilled and your son sit on the throne and lead our people when they depart our world? My seat is empty since I descended in shame from it. Tubal-Cain must be the next one to sit in my throne."

"How can we negotiate such terms with angels?"

"The right leverage is all that is required. I cannot tell you the details, but if you do as I say, then your son will be the next one to sit on my throne." 

"What must i do?"

"I am left without power over anything. But you still command my household, who go about their regular occupations, awaiting a successor to be chosen by the angels for my throne."

Zillah nodded.

"Put my whole household, every manservant, slave and woman at the angel's disposal with immediate effect."

Zillah looked confused. Cain smiled.

"These creatures are not from our world. They thirst, they hunger - make sure their every need is provided for. Their every need."

He reached out his hand to her. After a long moment, she grasped it, kissed it, and Cain left her.