The sun sank in the west and we stopped for the night. The empty crater would take us days to get out of, then it would take days more to reach Edom. It would be weeks before the others reached Atlantis. This camp was a bit different than traveling with my family though. There was a fire, but it had no purpose other than to make our camp look normal to anyone who saw us. The cooking was done on a device like the ones I had seen Elara use. It was a metal plate with a glass or crystal rim that was ornately designed. Another one was used to provide heat so we didn’t need to crowd around the fire against the night chill. This one ceramic with veins of the crystal running through it in parallel strips. Any time I got near one I could feel a shiver run down my spine and my ears began to ache.

I approached with trepidation and wonder and was surprised when Elara clicked on another device to light up the inside of the wagon. I gritted my teeth against the headache and refused to run away. The others were  securing the animals and cooking the food which gave me a good opportunity to talk to Elara in relative privacy.

“How do these things work?” I asked.

“If you want to know all the science behind it then it would be better to ask Aaron,” Elara answered. “But,” she continued, “the general gist of it is that everything is made up of vibrations. So if you can make the right vibrations you can get sound or heat or light or really whatever you want.”

“How is light a vibration?” I asked.

“I told you to ask Aaron about the science,” she responded. “It just is.”

I chewed on the concept for a moment then asked another question. “What powers it?”

“Power?” she asked in return.

“You know, like springs or weights or fire. I don’t see a space for any of that in these little things.”

Elara cocked her head, opened her mouth, closed it and hesitated before saying, “I’ve never thought about it before.”

“I’m just an ignorant, uneducated savage,” I muttered, “so what do I know?”

“I never thought of you as savage,” she said defensively. I was ashamed that there was hurt in her tone as well. Shame did not bring out the best in me.

“But still ignorant and raised by backward people,” I countered. I was angry, hurt, and had been through a lot in the past few days. It was no excuse for my words and if I could take them back I would, but there they were out in the open. Both of us felt hurt and ashamed and angry. Neither of us knew how to cope. She didn’t say another word, which was probably the best thing she could have done, and stormed off to help feed and water the animals. I chose the opposite direction and strode out into the empty desert.

The distance cleared my head. It is never easy to stay rational when you’re in pain. I was just beginning to cool off and get the sense that I should go back when a few things happened. I felt the cold seeping into me and turned back, I saw how far I had wandered, and the ground crumbled beneath me. My foot twisted as I scrambled from the hole and, in the next few limping steps, I nearly fell from the pain. Nothing was broken, or I thought nothing was broken, but I knew I would not be able to walk for a couple days. I was grimacing at the dark hole in the ground that had tried to swallow me when a voice echoed from the darkness.

“Are you alright? That was quite a stumble.”

I started and nearly fell into the hole again. As I tried to regain my balance I stepped on my bad ankle, cried out in pain, and crumpled to the ground.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Let soothed and kneeled beside me. “Let’s get you back to camp.” He put a hand under my arm and helped me to my feet. “What brought you out here in the dark all alone?”

I bit off my words twice before I answered. “What do you know about Elara?”

“Ah, woman troubles.” Let smiled. “I know nothing of women and even less about Elara. She keeps to herself but I can tell you this much, her origin makes us look like spoiled children having a pity party as they traipse down candy lane.”

I tried to imagine something that bad but was so absorbed in my own problems that I couldn’t manage it. He had to be exaggerating.

“She appeared in Zion six months ago,” Let continued. “Although she is just a little girl, she went to Enoch and convinced him to make this group of spies.”

“Not very good spies if you give away all your secrets,” I said.

“Elara vouched for you,” Let chuckled. “We have nothing to fear from you. Besides, I haven’t told you any secrets yet.” He supported me to the heating unit in the wagon, but I protested until he took me to where our token fire blazed. I winced as I sat down. My ankle was beginning to swell and I knew that soon I wouldn’t be able to move it at all.

“Looks like a nasty sprain,” Let commented, then dug around in the wagon for a few minutes and came back holding one of the strange Atlantean devices. They all looked the same. How could they tell them apart? Aaron came out next with a splint and some bandages.

“What’s that for?” I asked Let suspiciously.

“Just to help with the swelling,” Let answered. He activated the device and I felt the same humming in my skull as before. As he passed it over my ankle the swelling began to go down, then stopped. He continued trying for several minutes before he decided that the device must have cracked and gave up. I was relieved when he turned off the headache machine and left. Aaron wrapped my injured foot and I only cried out from the pain three times.

That night as I lay down for bed I wondered. My father had told me that he found a dead woman in the boat that I washed to shore in as an infant. That was one death. Let told about how his mother and grandfather had died before they could reach Atlantis and get help. Two more deaths. Only days ago I had witnessed another. At the same time it was believed that human death had never occurred before. I had never even heard rumors of any others save the story of Cain and Abel. And yet, if I had seen it and my father had seen it then why not Let and why not Elara? I had been too quick to dismiss her pain and tragedy as less than my own. I, of all people, should have known better.

She didn’t speak to me the next day nor the day after. We traveled southward and, like Let had predicted, I had to ride in the wagon for a day and hobbled so slowly the next that they perched me on top of a camel again. I spent my empty travel time trying to come up with ways to talk to Elara, ways to apologize. Each one was worse than the last until on the third day I spoke up knowing that further waiting would only make things worse.

We were nearing the edge of the crater now and tufts of grass and sage dotted the still brown land. Soon we would have to start switching back on the slope to climb the final lip of the crater.

“How would it have been?” I said. Elara was sitting in her customary seat by the driver and I sat right behind them in the cover of the wagon. “How would it have been?” I repeated.

“He will keep this up until you answer,” the driver murmured.

“What?” Elara asked in exasperation.

I sighed with relief. She had acknowledged me. That meant that the job was half done. “To see an angel fall from heaven and crash into the earth so hard that he left this crater.”

“I don’t want to see that,” Elara answered.

“Really?” I pressed. “You wouldn’t want to see the creation or the history of Eden.”

“The creation would be great,” Elara said. “I would love to see the expanse of Eden, the far reaches and distant shores. I would even love to travel over the depths.”

“But,” I inserted.

“But I have no desire to see angels fall from heaven or from grace.” Then she added so low that she thought I couldn’t hear, “It was bad enough before.”

“I don’t know about those other places, but I could take you to the shores or onto the deep,” I offered. I opened my mouth to say more but stopped when I saw the look in her eyes. “What did I say now?” I asked.

“You’ve been to the shore? You’ve been out in the sea?” she asked in wonder.

“Yes, my whole life,” I said. “My dad found me in the sea.”

“From the western edge of Atlantis I have seen the sea,” Elara said. “But I don’t know anyone who has been there.”

“I don’t think I could live without it,” I said. “What I wouldn’t give now for a salty sea breeze. The call of the gulls. The crash of the waves.” I looked at the barren crater below and breathed the dry hollow air and felt, not for the last time, how truly far from home I was. A hand rested on my shoulder and I was shocked to find it belonged to Elara. In her eyes I saw what I at first mistook for pity, but it was neither that nor the apology I wanted. It was something infinitely more valuable. Understanding. That companionship was all that I had really wanted for a long time.

Over the next couple weeks of travel things were better between us. She never opened up to me like she might have and I never pushed her like I wanted to, but our small talk and childish attempts at flirtation kept us more than occupied until we came to the land of Seth in the Red Mountains. As we approached the first settlement I noticed how Let wrapped himself in a cloak and concealed his face. It brought to mind the story of his mother and put me on edge. What kind of welcome would we receive from these pale heathens, nevermind that all of us save Let were of the same color. Clouds rolled in and it began to rain as we approached the village. The town was nestled between two lush green hills and was surrounded by orchards of trees that bore fruit of many colors. I had never seen their like. As we parked on the edge of town a woman approached us.

“Good day,” Aaron called.

The approaching pale woman with dark, vibrant red hair waved and smiled. “Where do you hail from and what can we do for you?”

“We have been following the mountains westward,” Aaron answered. “Our destination is Zion.”

The woman relaxed at the familiar name. “Well, you are still hundreds of leagues away, but you are welcome to rest here if you will.”

“Thank you,” said Aaron. “I apologize for not introducing ourselves, but we have learned to be cautious. What land and village is this?”

“Any friend of Enoch and Zion is a friend of ours,” the woman said. “This land is led by Lamech, grandson of Enoch and is called by the same name.”

At that name I froze. I told myself it was a different Lamech, but it still took time to let air back into my lungs and relax my tense muscles.

“My name is Aaron, Atlantean by birth.”

“I am Betenos,” the woman said. “Welcome and may you find peace in your travels.” We left the wagon and she led us through the well manicured town. I noticed that even though this town had only a few hundred residents, the streets were paved and clean. I felt out of place again and longed for my country home.

Betenos led us to a house near the town center and opened a thick wooden door without knocking. The door intrigued me in place of the thick curtains I had always seen in doorways. I may have spent a moment too long inspecting it and making myself conspicuous.

“Lamech, darling,” Betenos said. “We have visitors.”

A young man rose from where he sat on cushions at a short table. “Thank you my love,” he beamed back and Betenos left with a smile of her own.

“I see you are betrothed,” Aaron said.

Lamech nodded and shifted his feet. It only then occurred to me that Betenos had been wearing a close hood in spite of the warm weather.

“She is beautiful. I am happy for you,” Aaron complimented.

“Thank you,” said Lamech. “Now, what can I do for you gentlemen?” He saw Elara and amended his words, “and Lady.”

Aaron looked around the room and lowered his voice before speaking. “We have come on an errand from your grandfather.”

Lamech’s eyebrows rose but he made no sound.

“We also found a stray Edomite.” Aaron gestured to me. “And he does not wish to return to Atlantis with us.”

“What house is he from?” Lamech asked. “Let him return there.”

Let stepped forward and removed his hood. “He has no house like many that the world does not speak of.”

Lamech’s posture stiffened and his mouth opened with what I imagined was a snide remark, but he stopped himself. After a moment he said in controlled tones, “He could always be taken to Edom. The first father will know where he is from.”

As the others decided my fate as if I wasn’t there I noticed Elara glance at me and fidget irritably. What did she know? As the conversation drew to a close I felt afraid. From here on I would be really alone. Even Elara, as troublesome as she was, would be gone. I thought I was already lost and empty, but if I had fallen into a pit before, then now I was plunging into the deep. The others turned to leave me with Lamech, each of them saying a short goodbye. When Elara passed she embraced me. I was shocked. Then I heard her hiss quietly in my ear, “Don’t listen to them. You are not of Edom. You are like me.”

I was numb and confused as my four companions walked away and left me in a village of strangers. I reminded myself that I had chosen this as I watched them to the last moment. Once they were well and truly gone Lamech put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Now, my young friend, let’s figure out who you are and where you come from.” His tone was friendly, but I was wary of him and was careful of my words.