The Descent of the Gods

Taken

Night had overtaken the city as Naamah and Azrael descended the mountain. The marketplace was buzzing with activity, and slaves lit torches that cast shivering orange light over the crowd. 

Through the middle of the market, slaves dragged massive stones - stones mined from the mountain which were being transported to the walls growing in height and length around the city. 

Naamah stopped at the exotic animal kiosk she had visited weeks before - the day she had met Maori and stood up against the slave master. The shopkeeper recognized her - he would never forget the girl that had released one of his animals, even if she had paid for it. The shopkeeper opened his mouth to send her on her way, and shut it immediately upon seeing Azrael with her.

"The finest exotic creatures to be found anywhere east of Eden, my lord," the shopkeeper said, adding to his reverent tone with a half-bow toward Azrael.

Naamah began playing with a furry bundle of legs and a snout. The baby mammal, although timid at first, was quickly convinced by her gentle voice to stretch out its head to her caresses. 

Azrael watched, and for the first time in his centuries as an angel, he experienced a human phenomenon - déjà vu. Only weeks before, he had stood in the same place in front of this kiosk, watching Naamah play with an animal, but he had watched from another realm, another dimension. Here he stood again - but the sounds were really entering his eardrums, the smells were sensed by his physical nostrils, and his flesh and blood eyes collected the image before him.

Here it was that Naamah had stood up against the brutal treatment of a slave and fought back. And Azrael remembered that in that confrontation, she had lost something precious to her - the necklace from Eden Cain's wife had treasured for so many years. Azrael hadn't thought about it until now. He looked around through the crowd, orienting himself. He tried to remember what he had seen during those moments, perhaps he could remember where the necklace had fallen.

His déjà vu lasted until she turned, looked in his direction, and her eyes met his - and remained there. Last time he stood here, she could not see him. This time, her eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

She was saying something. He shook the feeling with effort.

"Come on, he won't bite!" She was saying, holding the animal out toward him.

Azrael touched it gingerly. The fur was like velvet, and he stroked it, mesmerized. Suddenly, the animal unwound from Naamah's embrace and wrapped itself around Azrael's forearm. He wasn't sure if he should be alarmed, but there it seemed content to stay, because it made low rumbling sounds as Azrael continued to pet it.

Azrael grinned, and Naamah was laughing.

"He likes you! You should keep him!"

At that, Azrael's smile faded and he removed the animal gently but firmly from his arm. He was not sure why, but he felt angry.

"We were not granted companions like you," he said flatly. Naamah's face fell. She took the animal back from him and returned it to the shopkeeper. 

"Who do you have?" Naamah asked, standing by him.

"I have my mission, and my brethren," Azrael said, his anger building. "There is nothing else for us here! We can't stay."

He turned to leave, but Naamah seized his hand and stopped him from going.

"Why not?" Naamah asked, her words pleading. "What will we do without you? What will I do?"

"Don't you understand?" Azrael's voice strained. "This isn't our world!"

He looked down. Their hands were intertwined. He withdrew his firmly from her clinging grasp.

"We've been here too long already. You have your duty, we have ours."

Now Naamah was angry. 

"So what are you waiting for? Why not leave already?" She rushed away and disappeared into the crowd. Azrael thought he saw tears welling in her eyes as she had whirled away from him.

Azrael held forth the hand Naamah had clung to. It was trembling, and Azrael stared at it worriedly.

Then he remembered. Someone had found her necklace in the street that day. They had admired the fine craftsmanship and were about to make off with the priceless heirloom from Eden. The necklace had been dropped, it had fallen into a crack in the stones, and it had been left.

He found it quickly, borrowing a knife from an awed shopkeeper and sliding the thin blade down between the two stones where he remembered the necklace dropping. With one try, he recovered it and returned the knife to the shopkeeper.

There, in the middle of the bustling night marketplace illumined by firelight, he held the necklace, looking at the tree and rolling water at its base intricately carved in the pendant. His hand still shook where Naamah had grasped him. As much as he tried to still it, he could not.  

"What have I done?"

Azrael fled from the market. Never had he imagined that his coming could create such feelings within him. Feelings for a human. For a young woman.

As the feeling grew, Azrael grew afraid. Of what he was afraid of, he wasn't yet sure, but he knew that he had reason to dread the future. And the Watcher from heaven fled in the dark. 

And he did not see the hands that reached out from the dark and snatched Naamah from her own retreat through Nod's winding alleys.

Enoch did see the abduction take place.

Upon entering the marketplace, he had observed Naamah storming away from Azrael. He had threaded his way through the crowd to intercept her. He almost lost her from view when several dark figures suddenly darted out of a cavernous alley and she disappeared among them as they spirited her away from the light.

Enoch let out a yell, but in the bustling market, no one even looked his way. He tried to push his way faster through the crowd, but there were too many people. He wasn't going to be able to aid Naamah this way.

Slaves were still dragging massive stones through the market, soldiers accompanying each stone. Enoch leaped atop one of the stones. The soldiers leading it howled at him.

"Listen to me!" Enoch shouted back at them. "Lamech's daughter has been taken! Find Azrael and tell him immediately!"

Then, without a backward glance to see if they had heard or were acting on his instruction, he lept to the next stone, and then the next and the next until he neared the place where Naamah had vanished. 

He launched himself forward and landed with a roll in the dark alley, and kept going, running flat out down into the darkness that had swallowed up Naamah - his only friend in Nod.