And Cain said: Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that I may murder and get gain. Wherefore Cain was called Master Mahan, and he gloried in his wickedness. And Cain went into the field, and Cain talked with Abel, his brother. And it came to pass that while they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And Cain gloried in that which he had done, saying: I am free.

I saw movement on the side of our tent. Was it morning already? Had I been lying awake all night? The movement came again, like someone peeking between flaps to see inside. As silently as I could I dressed and stepped over my sleeping family to the edge of the tent. When the panel of canvas moved again I was there.

Dark eyes looked from outside straight into mine and I heard a soft yelp, hushed voices, and the scurrying of steps. Whoever it was they were obviously surprised to find me awake. Still hoping to not wake my family, though in hindsight that is exactly what I should have done, I slipped through the panels and pursued the footsteps that led away into the night. The full moon was out and bathed the city in its cool blue light. He hung low in the sky, leaving long shadows to conceal my stalker. With bare feet, in my haste I had forgotten shoes, I hurtled down the street after the receding footsteps. My young eyes could see well in the dark as I tracked the shadow around corners and down alleys. Then the shadowy figure disappeared and the footsteps suddenly ceased. All was dark and my own breathing rattled in my ears. I forced myself to breathe slowly and listened for any sound, watched for any sign of my hidden stalker.

Was that a whisper or just my imagination? I felt a sound or a vibration pulse through my flesh and bones, then there was a small flicker of light before it faded. Almost as if it was drawn behind a curtain. I jumped forward and in two steps pulled back a door hanging. A girl screamed but was quickly silenced. Before me was the dark girl I had seen earlier that day and a pale hand covered her mouth. She was here. They both were. I was struck again by the girl with the pale skin. Her hair was so fair it was almost white. Her eyes were the deepest indigo blue.

She reached around the other girl and pulled me through the door and the heavy curtain fell behind me. I could feel their quick breath in the closeness of their bodies and I was about to scramble away when a voice sounded outside.

“Is someone there?” a man called.

With the smell of smoke the pale girl extinguished her light and the three of us huddled close and breathless.

“Nevermind honey,” a woman soothed. “It was only someone yelling in their sleep. Come back to bed.” A long silence passed and I was about to speak when I felt a tight squeeze on my arm. The humming or buzzing that I couldn’t hear rattled my insides and a small oil lamp flickered to life. The pale girl quickly concealed a small device in her cloak and I wondered what could produce a flame like that. The other girl had been released some time while the light was out. Now the three of us stared at one another in silence waiting for the others to speak. The room we were in was only a small entryway or anteroom with a wooden door that led to the house proper. We all crouched so close together that we were touching each other and with a hot flash running through me I stood and backed to the heavy curtain to the outside, which only put a few handspans between us.

“Why are you following me?” I asked. The pale girl looked at me as if I had just said the stupidest thing she had ever heard, but the dark girl confirmed it.

“You chased us here, you idiot.”

My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. It didn’t help that these were the only two girls outside my own sister that I had ever been this close to. It was distracting but, darn it, I was in the right. They had been stalking me, hadn’t they? Unless they were visiting my tent in the middle of the night for some other reason. Not my tent, my family’s tent. At night, when they wouldn’t be seen. They hadn’t been there for me at all, I realized. They were peeking through to make sure they were at the right place before waking my parents. I gritted my teeth with embarrassment and tried not to let it show as I touched my braids.

“I’m sorry,” I huffed. Maybe I could still salvage this. “I think we got off to a rough start,” I began.

“You got that right,” the pale girl muttered. I tried not to glare, but probably failed.

“My name is Namir,” I said and held out my hand.

The two girls looked at each other before the dark one said, “I’m Juryal,” and took my proffered hand. The other shot me a freezing cold look before she shook my hand as well.

“Call me Elara,” she said. Her touch sent a sort of shock through me, not what the poets and dreamers would call love or anything like it, though I did find her quite attractive. No, this was like the rumble of thunder in a far away storm before it is close enough to hear. A herald come to pronounce imminent doom. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that, even then, I started to love her, but I wouldn’t know that for years to come.

“Now why were you peeking into my tent?” I asked with a grin.

“Roulan,” Juryal said in a sudden panic. “I was sent to get Roulan.”

“Why, what’s happened?” I asked, picking up some of her urgency.

“I don’t know,” she answered with tears welling up in her eyes. “A bunch of men came to our house, some with masks, some with weapons, and Mom told me to come find Roulan and tell him something about Lamech. I don’t know. So, we ran.”

“I’m sorry,” Elara whispered. “They were looking for me.” I hardly heard her because I was stuck on the name Lamech. I didn’t doubt that he would kill me if he saw me again or even that he would hunt me down with a mob. It was easy to see why he would target Elara.

“Then, let’s go get him,” I said with more determination than I felt. “My dad will know what to do.” I pushed aside the curtain and Elara extinguished her lamp. I could almost feel her staring daggers into my back as I strode out into the streets. It only took me two steps to realize that I was lost. This was not my home and I had no idea how to get back to my family.

Juryal stepped up beside me and took my hand but went no further. Should I admit I was lost? Would they know the way if I did? I hesitated until Elara stated the obvious.

“You don’t know where we are, do you?”

“No,” I admitted, glad that it was too dark for them to see me blushing. “I’m not from here, remember?”

“Well, I don’t make it a habit of running around the streets at night,” Juryal countered.

After a moment of indecision Elara growled in frustration. “Fine, I’ll see if I can read it from you.” She stepped forward and gripped my head between her hands.

“Do you have to squeeze so hard?” I pleaded.

“No,” she grunted back, but didn’t slacken her grip. I felt nothing but her hands pressed against my temples and was startled, and a little frightened, when her eyes opened wide with shock. She muttered softly, “You’re like me,” then shook herself and refocused for a minute before taking her hands away. “Juryal, we’re not far. The main street is only two blocks to the north. Will you be okay delivering the message on your own?”

Juryal nodded questioningly before Elara continued, “I’m going back with Namir to see if we can do anything. Bring Roulan as quickly as you can.”

Juryal’s eyes were wide with fear and she hesitated.

“You will be fine. I promise,” Elara soothed and it seemed to be enough for the other girl. She bobbed her head once and jogged away. Elara then took me by the hand and began to lead me off in another direction.

“Where are we going?” I protested.

“To see if we can prevent the birth of others like us,” Elara said. “And maybe save Juryal’s family in the process.”

“What do you mean, like us?” I asked, but she only quickened her pace. She was surprisingly strong for a girl only my own age. I was admittedly small, but the demands of life living on the frontier had made me strong. I  yanked my hand away and stopped. She turned in anger to face me. “What is going on Elara?”

“Listen,” she said with obvious frustration, “who do you think Lamech is after? I would be surprised if your family hasn’t been taken while we had our little chase. Lamech wants me, and he wants you. The best we can hope to do now is to draw him away from innocent bystanders.”

“You mean, my family…” I stammered. I knew she was right. I knew Lamech would go through my family to get to me. I had seen it in his eyes weeks earlier when we first met. “Where are they?” I demanded.

“That’s more like it,” Elara said and led the way onward. She raced down the dark streets and I followed close on her heels. We were far from anywhere I knew when she stopped and indicated a house just a few doors down. It looked the same as any other house and I wondered how Elara knew to come here. The most I knew was that it was nowhere near the town square and not at Hannah’s clothing shop.

Once we had caught our breath Elara led the way to the door she had indicated. She kept to the shadows and out of sight of the building’s windows as much as possible. She didn’t go to the door, but rather to a barred basement window and produced yet another device from her pocket. Just like with the others I felt a buzzing seep through me. She held the device like a knife, but there was no blade. To my astonishment the metal bar began to chip away as if it were being sawn through. After two of the bars were cut away she put the device back in her pocket and listened for any indication that we had been heard.

“What is that thing?” I whispered.

Elara glared and put a finger to her lips, then crawled through the window and dropped into the dark basement. It is common for homes in the desert to be at least half underground as a relief from the heat. So when Elara pulled out another device, activated it, and after the same inaudible humming I could feel under my skin a dim flickering light began to glow, I knew we were going to explore the underground rooms. The light was unnatural and blue rather than the familiar orange glow of fire.

“Where did you get all of those?” I asked, keeping my voice as quiet as possible. It earned me another withering glare but as she continued on I heard a faint whisper.

“Atlantis technology.”

The passages around us were all dark. If Lamech had anyone on guard they must have only been in the house above. We traveled down corridors and through rooms and descended deeper into the earth than I thought was common for a dwelling. The basement was far more extensive than it should have been. It was more like a city in itself than a house.

We heard them before we spotted the faint glow of firelight beneath a door. The sound of hushed voices and the occasional cry of pain. As soon as we heard the first sound Elara extinguished her light with a click. The buzzing stopped, for which I was grateful. It wasn’t painful, just annoying. With my mind now clear I thought of what awaited us on the other side of the door. Lamech was hurting someone. Was it Hannah or Naomi? Had he found Juryal? Did he have my mom and dad? Were Fauron and Karala in there? What would he do to them? Most of all, why was he after me and Elara?

Behind the door someone was chanting and another was speaking, though we couldn’t understand the words. Elara and I pressed our ears to the door and the closeness of her made me feel warm in spite of the cold stone around us. I shouldn’t have been thinking of her right then, but I was young and she smelled nice.

“I summon thee in the name of father Cain and his covenant,” Lamech said. There was a stifled cry of pain though I couldn’t recognize the voice. My mind raced first to my mother, then to Naomi and Juryal and a flood of emotions washed through me. Anger at Lamech for hurting innocent people. Fear of what would happen to me if I was discovered. Shame at listening to another’s pain and doing nothing to stop it. I don’t know if barging in would have helped and I suppose I never will because Elara and I only sat and listened at the door until the muffled cries and whimpers stopped. Something heavy and soft hit the ground with a dull thud and I heard another voice cry out in anguish, only this one I recognized. It was my mother.

“What have you done, Lamech?” That voice was my father.

“I am greater than our father Cain ever was,” Lamech replied with a mania in his tone that made me shiver. “If Cain will be avenged sevenfold, I will be avenged seventy.”

I shuffled and reached for the handle of the door. Elara put her hand on my arm and shook her head, but I couldn’t stop. I was no hero, but I couldn’t be idle while my own family was being tortured. I opened the door as silently as I could and hadn’t even put my whole head through when I saw a woman less than a foot away, looking right at me. I recognized her as one of Lamech’s wives, Adah.

“It appears we have a visitor,” she said into a moment of deathly silence. I didn’t have time to react before the door was thrown open and my and Elara’s espionage was discovered. Inside the room was quite the gathering of people. Torches lined the walls of a large cavernous chamber. Adah, who was unusually strong in my twelve year old mind, grabbed Elara and I by the hair dragging us into the chamber and past a row of children and onlookers that I recognized as Lamech’s brood. As I struggled I also glimpsed my parents and siblings tied to rings on the wall. Juryal and two smaller children that I assumed were her siblings were bound as well. Adah ignored my feeble attempts to break free and dragged us to an altar in the center of the room where Lamech stood with a bloody knife in his hand over the dead and mutilated body of Naomi. Juryal wailed and screamed from where she was chained. The body of Hannah fell from the altar to rest beside Naomi, both of them broken and lifeless. Zillah and Noe  stood beside Lamech, each of them with blood on their hands and smeared in letters and designs on their faces. I felt blood in my hair from Adah’s stained hands before she released Elara and me, letting us drop to the floor.

The sight of the blood and slick wetness on the altar was too much to process, as if reality had no more meaning. It was like the ozone smell of lighting. There wasn’t a person there, even among those with blood on their hands that couldn’t feel it. None of us could fully understand what was happening. I need to explain that the world was still young and that the group of us in that room were the only people in all of Eden at that time to have ever seen the death of another human being. Cain had slain his brother centuries before, but since then no one else had died, even of natural causes. Murder was, if not unheard of, at least undreamed of and not one but two women lay lifeless in front of me. The reality of it took precious seconds to sink in, seconds Elara and I didn’t have.