The Lost Book of Chaos: How to Divide the World (The Secret Wars of Angels 1) (5 page)

“And that’s why people are chasing you,” Judas said flatly.

“My forefathers thought humanity wasn’t ready for such power yet,” Arcana said. “But they also realized that it would not always be the case. If the time came that we needed such power to save the world, it would be good to have it.” Then Arcana handed Judas her blade.

Judas accepted it, it was heavier than it looked. Judas studied the symbols engraved on it. There were ten of them, as if matching the Ten Fragments of the Sephiroth, and as if matching the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

“This,” Judas said, “is the key?”

Arcana nodded.

“And if I run away with this what will happen to your key?” Judas said teasingly. Not that he actually planned to do so. He didn't have a death wish of a jinn trailing him for the rest of his life.

“It will be useless to you without the knowledge that I possess,” Arcana said. “And I can only pass the knowledge if you swear by Blood Oath. It is an unbreakable bond. If you even as much try to break it, you will die.”

“That’s how the secret was protected from the angels,” Judas said, playing along. “And now you are the only one that remains. So if you die, then the secret will be lost forever.”

Arcana nodded sadly.

“That is why you must pass on the knowledge to someone else,” Judas said. “And for some reason, you think I’m a good choice. But why me?”

“I have been watching you in the last few weeks, and when I helped you it was not by mere coincidence,” Arcana admitted. “You were convicted of being a criminal, but even though you had a lot of opportunities you could have used against your pursuers, you still chose not to take advantage of them. For some reason, you were kind, even to your enemies.”

That troubled Judas. How long had Arcana been watching him? Judas had not noticed anyone was following him at all. Was it Varak? Was it more sorcery?

“It was either you were a stupid criminal, or you weren’t a criminal at all,” Arcana said. “But they couldn’t catch you. And that’s when I knew that I could use you on my team. And if, only if, you agreed, you would be a good candidate to receive the Blood Oath.”

“But what made you so sure I would help you?” Judas said.

“I wasn’t. If you didn’t help me, I would just have to find someone else,” Arcana said. “But with something as important as my mission, I had to do something and take risks. Doing nothing poses the greatest danger of them all. Movement is the key to life, idleness leads to death”

“And what about Varak?” Judas said.

“He is already in a contract with me,” Arcana said. “If I die, the knowledge will pass on to him. But knowing Varak, he will lay down his life first before allowing me to die. Besides, he is already known to the enemy, they will know to look for him.”

“But if you receive the Blood Oath,” Arcana explained, “they will not know to look for you. We can go in different directions, and if they catch me I will kill myself, and they will have no idea that you already learned the secret.”

Judas felt sad just thinking of the prospect of Arcana's death.

How gullible...
Judas jumped, the inhuman voice was there in his head again.

Arcana dropped low, in a fighting stance, and scanned the surroundings.

“What is it?” Arcana said, “I sense no danger nearby.”

“Nothing,” Judas lied, “I just remembered something, but it's of no importance.”

Arcana relaxed visibly.

“Go on,” Judas said.

“Again,” Arcana said, “You are the best candidate for the secret. And consider that it wouldn’t be of such a burden to you, since you already have to hide anyway beca— ...”

“...because I’m a criminal,” Judas finished for her.

“I didn't say you were a criminal,” Arcana said.

Judas understood.

It was all beginning to make sense. Why she chose him, why she helped him in the first place. Arcana had thought about it all. Judas shook his head. She went so far just for this mythology that she believed in. But despite her foolish notions, she was honorable. She did not put other people at risk. She picked Judas because Judas was already at risk.

At the least, Judas liked and respected her in that way.

“But would you have helped me, even if you knew I wouldn’t help you anyway?” Judas wondered.

Arcana sighed. “Yes. I can’t stand by and watch as an innocent man is punished.” Judas waited for more, but that was all the explanation she gave. Judas didn’t push.

“I sense that you do not believe me fully,” Arcana said, “and I understand. But there is more to the story of angels, much, much more.” Arcana said as if frustrated at her inability to pass on the entire story to Judas.

Judas nodded to signify he was listening.

“When the angels of Heaven found out what our ancestors had done,” Arcana said, “it was too late to identify who possessed the knowledge and who didn’t. The angels could not figure out how the knowledge was passed despite all that they had done to prevent it.”

“The angels repeated the same steps,” Arcana said, “separated the newborn from the parents, started anew with the next generation. But this time, they implemented a continuous introduction of new languages with each new generation, this lasted for several generations. They took things a step further by confounding knowledge itself! Each angel was introduced with a new name depending on their location. For example, in Sumeria the angel Enki was named Enki or Ea, in Egypt he was named Ptah, in the Golden Lands Of Ophir he was named Lumawig, in Greece he was named Gaia, where they made him 'Mother' instead of 'Father'. In your Scriptures, he is known as the Archangel Michael. Can you imagine the confusion this can cause? It would virtually be impossible to accumulate any knowledge gained from the angels.”

Judas scratched his head.

“Can you imagine what this has done?” Arcana said. “The confusion made it difficult for those seeking the path of Wisdom to piece the clues together. This,” Arcana pointed out, “was made as a mandate to all the angels, to add to the Confounding of Man. After all, if people did not understand each other, then even if the pieces of knowledge survived, the people would not know how to put it all together. Even if clues were found, it would make no sense.”

“The more blocks they put,” Judas said, understanding the rationale behind it, “the more effective it would be.” Whoever came up with this story had put a lot of thought into it.

“I've never thought about the Confounding of Languages this way before,” Judas said. “It's an interesting take, at the least.” Her version of the story was strange, but it did make sense. Despite being a lie, it made for a good story, and Judas made a mental note of it, but only as a collector of stories.

Arcana wore a serious expression on her face. “I am the High Priestess, blood of the Builders of Bab-El, charged with protecting and passing on the knowledge of the Zohar. I possess the key to finding the Ten Fragments of knowledge and putting them together. That is why powerful people, both human and angels are hunting us down.”

“Even the Angels of Heaven want to capture us to silence us forever,” Arcana said. “However unlike the others who hunt for us, the code of the Angels of Heaven forbid them from killing us.”

“So they’re the good guys, the Angels of Heaven,” Judas said.

“But know that there are worse things they can do than kill us,” Arcana answered.

Judas had no answer to that.

“But Angels of Earth and human leaders want this power,” Arcana said. “They are willing to torture us for a piece of information. That was how I have lost many of my brothers and sisters.”

Arcana's eyes looked distant, teary, but she continued. Judas wanted to comfort her, but held back.

“But whether it’s Angels of Heaven,” Arcana said, “or Angels of Earth, or humans, it’s all the same to us. The information must not fall in their hands. We must not fall into their hands.”

Judas let out a deep sigh.

“I’m not sure if I’m ready to take any of what you’re saying as truth,” Judas admitted.

“And that is fine,” Arcana answered.

“But let’s say for a moment that if there is truth to what you say,” Judas said, “then how long will you be holding this knowledge to yourself? When would you reveal it to the rest of humanity? You say that the power is there to save man from danger, to save the world, but what if the danger is already here? What if the world already needs to be saved?”

“What do you mean?” Arcana said.

“Look at the world around us,” Judas said. “In my travels around the world, I have seen the suffering of the people. The deaths from poverty. The hunger. The destruction that wars leave behind. All the indifference, all the apathy, all the hatred. All the pointing of fingers, blaming the other kingdoms, all the maliciousness, it all leads to more conflict.”

“Why,” Judas continued, “if I possessed such power, I would use it to save us all from wars, from poverty, and from suffering. I wouldn’t let such power go to waste. You said so yourself, idleness leads to death.”

“Like what I'm doing now?” Arcana said. “You see my choice to hide the power as a waste. But understanding why or when is not my duty. Using that power to fulfil my own goals is not my duty either. It is forbidden for us to use this knowledge for ourselves. We can channel a bit of its power, but not its entirety.”

“So what you’re saying is,” Judas said, “even if I agree to your Blood Oath, and even if I possess this knowledge, I still wouldn’t be able to use it anyway?” All the trouble that Arcana was going through because of it, and it didn’t benefit her in any way. Who would want such strong power, and yet not be able to use it at all?

“Then I cannot be the person for you to pass it to,” Judas said. “Because once I have it, I will seek to unite the pieces, and use the power to change the world. Even if I cannot use it myself, I will find someone who will.”

“If there is any truth to the existence of such power,” Judas said, “then I believe now is the time to use it. Because the world as I see it is already messed up. It may not be from a great threat, or a great evil, or something that would destroy the world, but the world is still messed up with us destroying ourselves.”

“The least I can do in exchange for saving my life,” Judas said, “is me being honest with you. I wouldn’t want to take that knowledge from you, without you knowing what I would do with it first.”

But Arcana’s reaction surprised Judas. She smiled. “The Ouroboros.”

“The
what
?” Judas said.

“The Ouroboros is the snake eating its own tail,” Arcana said. She raised a finger, and it began to glow. Then with it she drew the figure of the snake biting its own tail, and after she wrote it, it remained hanging in mid air for several seconds. “My mother once explained it to me this way: it is a symbol that represents us destroying ourselves. That seems to be the same thing that you see.”

“The ultimate enemy we stand against is the Ouroboros,” Arcana said. “But it is not really like any enemy we have faced before, because it’s really us. It’s in our human nature—as it is in the nature of the angels—to fight, to wage wars, and end up destroying the world we live in. We kill each other. We compete against each other for survival. The Ouroboros is this: the strong shall live and the weak shall die. It is barbarism, being uncivilized, and the degradation of humanity.”

“In our legends,” Arcana said, “The Ouroboros of the angels destroyed the First Heaven in a war led by the devil Lucifer. Now, the Ouroboros of humanity comes, the only problem is that we don’t know who will lead it. A human version of Lucifer perhaps. All we know is it has happened before, and it can happen again.”

Judas looked dumbfounded. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He had heard those words before, though he couldn’t quite remember.

“It has happened before and it will happen again,” Judas said, quoting from his memory. “Nothing is new under the sun.” Who had said that to him? Or maybe he had read that somewhere.”

While he didn’t believe in everything else that Arcana said, he believed that the threat of the Ouroboros was real. He had seen it with his own eyes. True, he did not have a word for it before, but it was the same thing. It was the tendency of humans for self-destruction. For once, Arcana said something that made sense, something that the two of them could agree on.

“I am still willing to give the power to you,” Arcana said, “perhaps more so now that I understand how you think. And when the time comes to use it, then it will come. For generations, we have kept this secret. Who knows when the right time comes for it to be used? But whatever happens, the knowledge must survive and we must pass it on to the next generations. That is my first priority. I don’t care how you use that knowledge. Plus, if you accept it, I will teach you more about the Knowledge of the Universe.”

Still, Judas was not willing to go that far and put his life at more risk than it already was. It was not worth it, dying for a mere myth, no matter that Arcana believed it as truth.

“Judas, I know this is too much to ask,” Arcana said, there was a mix of desperation and urgency in her voice. “But I may not be here tomorrow. They may already catch us. Time is running out.” Judas understood how that felt. Time was always running out for him too.