Enoch Primordial (Chronicles of the Nephilim) by Brian Godawa Page A

would not stumble on the rough ground at their feet. Adam turned his face to the sky, unable to see anything. Yet he knew every star’s location.
    “He brings forth the Mazzaroth in his season,” mused Adam as if remembering Yahweh Elohim’s own words. Enoch smiled and looked upon the host of heaven.
    “Elohim’s story for us,” Adam added, still thinking.
    His blind eyes found the right place in the night sky. “Can you see the constellation of the Virgin? The second decans, right about there,” he pointed. “ Comah , the desire of nations.”
    Enoch could see it. One of the benefits of being an apkallu was their learning of the stars.
    “It is my favorite constellation,” added Enoch. “Virgin and child. It tells me there is hope. Hope for purity, for a new beginning. For a new ‘Adam.’”
    Adam welled up with emotion.
    “Father Adam,” said Enoch, “I know this is probably not the time to ask you, but…” He hesitated.
    “But what?” queried Adam. “Speak.”
    “Is it true, the legend about Cain the cursed one?”
    Adam hesitated in uncomfortable silence. He wished Enoch had not spoken after all. It was another sore wound for him in a life of many self-inflicted wounds.
    He sighed. “Cain is a scourge upon my existence. He has made it his one purpose in life to foil the plans of Yahweh Elohim because of his punishment for murdering his brother.” Adam kept using the covenant name of Yahweh because he was in private and knew Enoch was a chosen vessel of Elohim.
    “But how can he deny his guilt?” asked Enoch.
    Adam shook his head. “The mind of man is never so cunning as when it is involved in the art of self-justification. I know, I am guilty as well.”
    Enoch steadied Adam as they stepped over some volcanic rubble on their walk.
    “At first, Cain accepted his exile in the land of Nod. His family line left him when he began to show signs of lunacy. He had discovered that Yahweh planned a new righteous lineage through Seth to replace his own cursed line. Many of the names of the sons of Seth were even similar to Cain’s line, which reinforced the substitution. To be forgotten, erased from the tablets of history was a fate worse than his infamy. Punishment still affirms the value of the guilty party because it shows they had the nobility to do otherwise. But annihilation means they have no value, and they could not do otherwise. Like a clay pot created merely to be destroyed.”
    Adam took a long breath. “Cain learned of Yahweh’s curse of enmity between the children of the Woman and the children of the Serpent . And he learned of the Promise of the Seed that would crush the Serpent’s head even as it bit the Woman’s heel. Cain realized that the only revenge he could inflict upon Yahweh would be the destruction of the lineage of that promised Seed. So he set out to destroy Seth’s bloodline. Unfortunately for him, it had already grown and splintered into many lines of descent, leaving Cain with an impossible goal.
    “ He seeks the chosen line of the Seed of Havah, and when he finds it, he will destroy it.”
    Enoch remained silent. He could not imagine the weight of sorrow that burdened this great man.
    He changed the subject. “Father Adam, it is getting cold. Let us return to the wedding party.”
    “Let me return to my bed to get some much needed sleep,” said Adam in reply. “My talk with you has made me tired.”
    Enoch knew he had been a help to the old man. There was something very freeing that came with confession of the heart. It had the effect of relaxing the soul from what it could not carry.
    “Oh, I almost forgot,” added Adam. He stopped and reached into his shoulder sack and pulled out a couple of animal skins. He handed them to Enoch.
    “I want you to have these. They are the original skins that Yahweh Elohim clothed Havah and me with after our fall.”
    Enoch looked at them with reverence.
    Adam finished, “They were a covering for our sins. May they be a