CHAPTER VI
Eve
Adam writhed at the blow Lilith had applied to his groin. Worse than the pain was the shame for the violence he had committed against his wife. He had succumbed to his worst instincts and committed a despicable act. As a human, Adam was unable to differentiate between good and evil, but instinctively felt his mistake. He wished to run after his wife to show her his repentance. However, the pain kept him on the ground for precious moments, enough for Lucifer to come to Lilith and take her from him forever.
Adam did not know that yet when he finally started looking for her. His immortal skin quickly healed from Lilith's injuries, leaving three ugly marks running through the right side of his face, a testament to his crime. He searched the entire length of Eden's garden. Still, the night came and went without him seeing a sign of her.
The sun was at its peak when Gabriel stood before a distressed Adam. The Seraph told him that the God Who Sees All had sent three of His angels after Lilith, but that they had not returned.
“What happened to them? Where is my wife, Herald of the Lord?” asked Adam in his innocence.
Forbidden by God to reveal the presence of evil to man, Gabriel left in silence.
Plagued by guilt, Adam went through the day unwilling to eat or work. So much suffering ended up dipping him into deep sleep. That was when Gabriel returned, bringing with him two golden instruments consecrated by the Almighty. A curved cutting knife and a small saw.
Kept unconscious by God's grace, Adam did not feel Gabriel's delicate incision in his flesh, nor when he sawed off one of his ribs. The wound quickly closed thanks to his healing powers. Gabriel poured the rib next to Adam and walked away. The bones gained nerves, muscles, blood, skin, and hair, forming a beautiful woman with long black hair, and breasts and hips larger than Lilith's. She lay asleep next to Adam. Gabriel took a seat on a rock and waited patiently until the first rays of dawn light awakened the couple.
Adam was surprised by the woman. She, in turn, marveled at the world around her. Gabriel stood in a flapping of wings and moved toward them.
Adam, son of God and friend of angels, this is Eve, made from one of your ribs to be your companion.
Adam, seeing the scar on the left side of his abdomen, understood what happened.
“She is the bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh,” said Adam.
“I will always be by your side and I will respect you, Eve, my wife.”
Thus, Adam received Eve with an open heart, even though he kept his distance from her, haunted by the memories of his acts against Lilith.
Unlike her predecessor, Eve was docile and submissive, totally devoted to her husband. However, a sorrow flourished in Eve, fueled by the excessive respect that her husband reserved for her. After all, all Eve desired was to touch and be touched by Adam. Still, he did not understand his wife's longings, preferring to devote to her the patience and commitment he had lacked towards Lilith.
Eve felt anxious to shorten the distance that separated her from her husband. But she was too innocent to find a solution by herself.
Again, the opportunity presented itself to the Lord of Darkness. Once again, while Adam was working, Lucifer came to one given to him as his wife. If Lilith were corrupted through her untamed nature, Eve would fall victim to her own innocence.
“God told you not to taste the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden," said the handsome angel, with a serene voice and hypnotic brilliance. “But if you eat it, you certainly won't die. For God knows that the day you prove it, your eyes will open, and you will be like Him, knowing good and evil.”
And seeing Eve that the Tree of Life had golden fruits, good to eat, and pleasing to the eye, and the understanding contained in them could help her conquer her husband, she proved of the forbidden.
Eve felt her head become light and her vision blurred. She was intoxicated by an unprecedented pleasure as if thousands of small hands and mouths caressed her every bit of skin. Her face blushed and a heat grew down her spine. Her soul seemed to leave her body as if she had lost control of her actions and sensations. Lucifer took advantage and grabbed one of her breasts as he slipped the other into his mouth. A strange moisture boiled between the woman's legs. When she realized, she was lying on her back on the carpet of green grass at the foot of the Tree of Life, her legs were open and her heels resting on the wings of the Devil.
Eve was so excited that she reached her first climax as soon as the angel's serpent forced and pierced the delicate skin that stood before her wet and warm interior. She bit her lips to stifle her own cries of ecstasy, not always successfully, fearing that Adam would discover her that way.
Lucifer possessed Eve with force for a long period. First, throwing her heels over his powerful shoulders. Then, sitting her on his lap, with her back to him, grabbing her by the hair and waist. Lastly, Eve ended up like a four-legged beast, her face on the ground and the Prince of Darkness mounted on her hips.
Exhausted by the successive climaxes and shining from her own sweat, Eve fell into heavy sleep.
Lucifer left with a smile. He had planted his unholy seed in the woman's womb.
When Eve awoke, the sun was already coming down on the horizon. She hurried to meet her husband before he noticed her absence. Eve was ashamed of her deeds, and, seeing herself naked, thought of covering her body. Eve needed to make Adam love her before the angels discovered her change and separated them forever.
Eve turned to the Tree of Life, which had diminished from the stealing of the fruit, languished, and died. However, it still had a healthy fruit left on one branch, while the others rested on the grass, rotting with their natural golden fading into a sad pale brown. She got that last fruit and went to look for her husband. The leaves of the Tree of Life had finished withering and fell, the branches atrophied, and the trunk writhed into a horrendous petrified skeleton. Sacred was the purpose of the tree. Divine, its beauty. Terrible was the sin of Man.
Eve found Adam in a small clearing north of the garden. He was happily carrying a fat fish for dinner. Eve convinced him to sit with her for a moment on the soft grass by the arboretum line. Fireflies began to vie for the night with the lights of the thousands of stars that adorned the sky. Only then, Adam realized what his wife was carrying.
“Woman,” Adam was amazed. “Is this not a fruit of the Tree of Life?”
“Yes, my love,” said Eve. “I ate from the tree and brought it so you might prove it too.”
Adam was stunned.
“God said we would die if we ate it.”
Eve touched his face tenderly.
“God was wrong, my husband. I have tasted the forbidden fruit and here I am, alive and with a clearer mind than ever before. I see the world differently now.”
“What do you mean by differently?”
Eve extended the fruit to him.
“Here, Adam. Eat the fruit and learn the difference between right and wrong, savor the freedom that comes with knowledge. May we be really free to become all that we desire to be, my beloved.”
And Adam ate the fruit. Not exactly for Eve's reasons, but for the hope of distinguishing right from wrong and not again committing acts of which he would repent.
Adam felt the inebriation of true libido, one that dispenses procreation and longs for the pure delight of bodies. And Adam took Eve upon the grass of the clearing. And he would have made a son in her if the Devil's seed had not before found refuge in the woman's bowels.
The next morning, Gabriel paid one of his usual visits to the humans. He liked to calmly fly over Eden as it was delightful to feel his wings hovering in the wind.
Gabriel spotted the couple still in their love bed in the clearing. The angel awakened them with his arrival. As they opened their eyes, they realized they were naked and ran to hide behind some trees, searching for fig leaves to cover their shames.
Gabriel raged.
“Adam!” called the angel. “Where are you?”
“I feared because I was naked, milord,” Adam replied.
“Who showed you that you're naked?” Gabriel was dismayed. “Did you eat from the tree that the Lord had forbidden?”
“The woman gave it to me from the tree, and I ate.”
Gabriel peered into Eve's mind for answers. Lies and evasiveness were mangled in it. Such chaos he also found in Adam's thoughts. Knowledge had taken away their innocence and taught them malice.
“Why did you do that, woman?” asked Gabriel.
“An angel deceived me, and I ate.”
Gabriel's natural brilliance intensified like a star and his voice changed, sounding with great power and severity. From his mouth came out the words of God.
“It was the Enemy, the Devil, the Serpent,” said the Lord, through Gabriel, “He is the Prince of Lies. The one who brings ruin to everything he touches. The one who corrupts with seductive words and false promises. Woman, you have fallen into the temptation of the Serpent. I will greatly multiply your pain, and your conception. With suffering you will have children. And your wish will be for your husband, and he will dominate you.”
“Adam, you have cursed yourself too, My son. You listened to your wife and proved the tree you should respect. With the pain of hunger, you will eat of the Earth for all the days of your life. In the sweat of your face, you will eat until it becomes dust, because from it I created you and now for it you will return. You will die as I promised. You are dust, and you will return to dust.”
Gabriel's brilliance went back to normal, for God had left him, but not without first instilling in His Herald how to proceed with the humans.
The Seraph killed two lions and removed their fur to dress the couple. He then expelled them from the garden of Eden, so that from its peace and comfort they would never again enjoy. Exposed to the weather and savagery of nature, they were about to know the difficulties, dangers, miseries, and sufferings that pave the way for free will.
To Eden, Gabriel summoned Azapael, the greatest of the Cherubim warriors, distinguished Celibate leader and member of the Divine Council, established to replace the Council of Five at the top of the angelic hierarchy.
The Divine Council included six Cherubim and six Seraphim, sharing equal powers and responsibilities, thus ending the distinction between the two angelic castes prior to the Rebellion. Among the Seraphim with a seat on the council were Michael, Camael and Gabriel. The headquarters of the Divine Council was in the Palace of the Seven Towers, a complex of buildings located in the heart of the new First Heaven, created by God in place of the Silver City.
Azapael's name was celebrated among the angels and feared by the demonic legions for his deeds during the Great War, when he annihilated hundreds of rebels with Ratorim, the Sword of Fire, legendary as Enoli itself.
Azapael had been a simple blacksmith from the Silver City until the outbreak of the Rebellion, when he became one of the first to fight Lucifer and his followers. At the peak of the slaughter, when the balance of victory seemed to hang towards the rebels, it was Azapael who changed everything, led by a sudden and strange impulse, beyond any reason. Taken by many as an act of divine intervention, Azapael plunged the modest sword he carried in the Fire of God, more precisely in the forge in which he used to work.
To general surprise, including Azapael himself, the blade did not melt. On the contrary, it began to hold the sacred flame, burning eternally on its wire. Hence the name Ratorim. It was regarded by the loyal angels as a sign that God had not forsaken them in their time of greatest need. A powerful symbol that elevated the morale of the angelic army in its decisive push against Lucifer's troops.
For it was Azapael whom Gabriel entrusted, according to God's will, to that new and important task. Until the end of days, Azapael should guard the entrance to the garden of Eden, so that no human or demon would ever set foot on that sacred ground, except with the Creator's permission.
Azapael's longing for the peace and happiness he enjoyed in The First Heaven would be tremendous. However, his obedience to the Lord's designs was greater.
Azapael would spend eternity brandishing the Sword of Fire by the gates at the east end of the garden. The flaming blade of immense power and beauty never allowing a sheath where it could rest.