{
  "trx_id": "5482584fb5b10bc9b1436fc5d08cf87d33e40d83",
  "block": 35408713,
  "trx_in_block": 21,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-08-09T18:42:51",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "parent_permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-4-of-4",
      "author": "steemitboard",
      "permlink": "steemitboard-notify-wtchmnalexander-20190809t184251000z",
      "title": "",
      "body": "Congratulations @wtchmnalexander! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@wtchmnalexander/birthday1.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@wtchmnalexander) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=wtchmnalexander)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
      "json_metadata": "{\"image\":[\"https://steemitboard.com/img/notify.png\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "34bea833a0181b56141027a4539e6bfe2b346424",
  "block": 32071110,
  "trx_in_block": 5,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-04-15T17:14:12",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "wtchmnalexander",
      "author": "jefflombardo",
      "permlink": "color-challenge-purple-new-york-city",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "d8d9c7861d7143d623266d9e08699408417a21cb",
  "block": 25804917,
  "trx_in_block": 6,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-09-09T09:17:39",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "sybaelle",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "7fa5fad5774b1172e1888228e50e691b7f392517",
  "block": 25804036,
  "trx_in_block": 19,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-09-09T08:33:36",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "sybaelle",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "b7e66ea7e3ed8266292754aef477dc359e496b93",
  "block": 25238323,
  "trx_in_block": 2,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T16:53:21",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "sensation",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "77dc3a5936b20e2ccc8a0adc3edc05d467410934",
  "block": 25238315,
  "trx_in_block": 45,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T16:52:57",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "sensation",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-4-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "3784c969a338deae17f48ffb857cef13cd84edb0",
  "block": 25237176,
  "trx_in_block": 10,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:56:00",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "wtchmnalexander",
      "author": "newschannel428",
      "permlink": "news-now-mega-10-quake-high-solar-winds",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "0cf85814155d1ecc9a2ade93b6e7ee71d412b721",
  "block": 25237125,
  "trx_in_block": 11,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:53:27",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "sensation",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "a537c55199e951c946344c9e056270c98bac6b82",
  "block": 25237107,
  "trx_in_block": 8,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:52:33",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "sensation",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "4cedb1c5d5ff6d0d010182de59afee88e33dc48e",
  "block": 25237066,
  "trx_in_block": 30,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:50:30",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 2 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -95,16 +95,38 @@\n ng novel\n+ by Alexander Lawrence\n . If you\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\",\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "d8258615fd49c1f18d5bb394f82e78355283270c",
  "block": 25237061,
  "trx_in_block": 82,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:50:15",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 1 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -96,16 +96,38 @@\n ng novel\n+ by Alexander Lawrence\n . If you\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\",\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "00f6e92aef6acac07b54018600388ed22491676c",
  "block": 25237056,
  "trx_in_block": 31,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:50:00",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 3 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -95,16 +95,38 @@\n ng novel\n+ by Alexander Lawrence\n . If you\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "b8c98484d13bfb0566604c8b2d019fc6c48c1d95",
  "block": 25237034,
  "trx_in_block": 67,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:48:54",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-4-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 4 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -25346,16 +25346,7963 @@\n  died.%0A%0A\n+===%0A%0ASitting calmly atop his donkey, Ditanu kept his spear pointed at the villagers who had been rounded up outside their elder%E2%80%99s long house. These people, about three hundred in number, were held in check by the threat of death, which had been aptly demonstrated on no less than two dozen of their men%E2%80%94mostly the ones of a courageous disposition. Besides Ditanu, ten other members of Kush%E2%80%99s war band, having arranged themselves in an evenly spaced circle, guarded the crowd. Kush and Raamah had gone after outliers, and Ditanu was in charge until they returned.%0A%0AHe judged the captives silently, making a mental note of which ones he favored as permanent prisoners. He and the other Shinareans had not attacked Mari for love of violence%E2%80%94although some violence had been necessary to gain compliance%E2%80%94but out of necessity. These people spoke the mother tongue, Adamic. Kush had learned that many inhabitants of Mari were descended from Shem through Arphaxhad, which was critical intelligence because, of all the descendants of Shem, only those of Arphaxhad%E2%80%99s line had kept their original language after the Change.%0A%0ADitanu%E2%80%99s thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Mitzraiym, one of the sons of Kush. At an easy walk, he led a donkey which was carrying the body of one of their compatriots. The man was obviously dead, draped face-down over the animal%E2%80%99s back. Ditanu knew immediately from the ghostly skin and bald head that the body had belonged to Goru.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CI found him while searching homes,%E2%80%9D reported Mitzrayim. %E2%80%9CPoor fellow bled out. Got hit with this.%E2%80%9D He held up the killing end of a crude arrow that had been snapped in half.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CWas there any indication who did it?%E2%80%9D asked Ditanu.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CSomeone in a group, judging from the footprints%E2%80%94some large, some small. A family, I guess. They%E2%80%99re long gone.%E2%80%9D%0A%0A%E2%80%9CNo matter,%E2%80%9D said Ditanu. %E2%80%9CWe don%E2%80%99t need them.%E2%80%9D%0A%0A%E2%80%9CThe donkey was grazing, but I coaxed it back.%E2%80%9D%0A%0A%E2%80%9CGood.%E2%80%9D%0A%0AHe was surprised to see that a member of the war band had been killed. Ditanu had expected no loses whatsoever, considering that these inhabitants of Mari were unacquainted with warfare. They knew of war, for they had heard the stories passed down by the sons of Noah, tales of astounding and ceaseless conflicts waged before the Great Deluge, but they had never practiced it themselves. Nonetheless, one of the men of Mari must have brought a killing instrument to bear without much hesitation, for Goru had clearly been shot.%0A%0AAt length, Kush and Raamah returned with seven captives in tow. The bound villagers wore miserable expressions, but four in particular%E2%80%94a woman, a girl, and two boys%E2%80%94were red-faced from weeping. Raamah drove them to the edge of the crowd, then brought his mount beside Ditanu%E2%80%99s. He looked pleased.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CWe certainly have plenty to choose from,%E2%80%9D said Raamah upon seeing the huddled villagers.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CMore than enough,%E2%80%9D agreed Kush. Then to Ditanu he said, %E2%80%9CWell done on all accounts.%E2%80%9D%0A%0A%E2%80%9CThank you, Lord,%E2%80%9D said Ditanu.%0A%0ADitanu motioned to the donkey that held the corpse and said, %E2%80%9CUnfortunately, we did lose Goru. He was shot with an arrow.%E2%80%9D%0A%0AKush looked briefly at the pale body, which gleamed under the midday sun. %E2%80%9CI dispatched the man responsible for that,%E2%80%9D he said, expressing little concern. That wasn%E2%80%99t a surprise; Ditanu hadn%E2%80%99t thought highly of Goru, either. %E2%80%9CGive his body to the river, or else these people may defile it when we leave.%E2%80%9D Mitzraiym heard his father%E2%80%99s command and moved to obey.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CNow, let us see,%E2%80%9D continued Kush. %E2%80%9CWhich of these women do you think it best to take with us?%E2%80%9D%0A%0AA short deliberation followed. Raamah pointed out a few young women who caught his eye for various reasons, but he also said that it mattered little to him. So long as the band took an assortment, at least one would prove sufficient at matters of language. For practical reasons, post-pubescent females were the only ones under consideration%E2%80%94they were unlikely to offer serious resistance, and they had domestic skills that most of the men lacked%E2%80%94but Ditanu thought putting a limitation on their options might be short-sighted.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CThere may be value in taking a family,%E2%80%9D suggested Ditanu. %E2%80%9CNot the patriarch, of course, but the rest. We can leverage them against each other if necessary. And children learn quickly but require less food.%E2%80%9D%0A%0A%E2%80%9CWisely considered, Ditanu,%E2%80%9D said Kush. %E2%80%9CVery well, these four will come with us. As will she.%E2%80%9D He pointed to a young woman who was slumped over the body of her grandfather, weeping. He had been the elder of the village.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CAnd one more,%E2%80%9D Kush said, combing the crowd with his gaze, %E2%80%9Csince we now have an extra mount.%E2%80%9D%0A%0ADitanu indicated with his spear a girl of short stature, whose blond hair was a novelty, and attractive to him. She had delicate features and pale skin, also desirable, and she was almost of child-bearing age. %E2%80%9CHow about this one?%E2%80%9D he said. She cringed under his attention and clung tightly to her father, whose narrowed eyes burned with protectiveness.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CThat one will suffice,%E2%80%9D said Kush. He looked at Raamah. %E2%80%9CBind her.%E2%80%9D%0A%0AWhen Raamah moved in and grabbed the blond youth by the forearm, her father exploded in a verbal onslaught. He did not loose his grip on his daughter even when Raamah yelled back at him. In the end, the man had to be rapped in the temple with the butt of a spear before he let go.%0A%0ADitanu wondered whether he might one day be able to gain the blond girl%E2%80%99s favor even after cruelly removing her from her family. Maybe, once she was made to understand the bigger picture, she would realize that the attack on Mari had served a grand design worth the extreme behavior. Such persuasion would take much patience, he knew, and tireless self-control, but he thought it possible.%0A%0AAs Raamah retrieved a rope and tied it around the blond one%E2%80%99s wrists, Ditanu inspected the family of four which Kush had decided to keep. The mother was obviously chewing on anger, but in a calculating way that suggested intelligence. None of her children appeared weak or frail, and none were unpleasant to the eye, either. Yes, this family would do nicely.%0A%0ARaamah saw him staring and said, %E2%80%9CThat elder boy there has nerve. He could prove troublesome.%E2%80%9D%0A%0ADitanu nodded. %E2%80%9CNot to worry, we will break them all in time, either with little pressure or much.%E2%80%9D%0A%0A%E2%80%9CI do not doubt it. Your experience taming beasts will translate well. Men are but inventive beasts%E2%80%94cultivated, but still beasts.%E2%80%9D Before the Change, animal husbandry had been Ditanu%E2%80%99s main occupation. Never before had he used those skills on humans, of course, but he agreed with Raamah%E2%80%99s assessment. He was, in fact, eager to try.%0A%0AAfter the chosen prisoners had been separated and roped to donkeys, Raamah gave a short blast on a ram%E2%80%99s horn, calling in the five men who had earlier been tasked with looting. They returned with what foodstuffs and clothing they could carry, and loaded them onto the pack animals. One man, Laga, had found and taken a small clay idol of the pregnant mother goddess, which he then proudly stashed in his own bag%E2%80%94for luck, he said.%0A%0AKush gave order to Ditanu, saying, %E2%80%9CSend two of the men back to Uruk with whatever copper their animals can handle. Havilah will put it to good use.%E2%80%9D%0A%0AKush had left his son, Havilah, to rule Uruk in his stead. Ditanu thought it somewhat risky to be sending the interim leader a heap of metal that could be used to upgrade his retainer of troops%E2%80%94after all, with well-equipped soldiers, Havilah might be able to prevent Kush from retaking the throne, if such was his desire. But Ditanu kept his opinion to himself. He simply picked two individuals to return home with the copper, and sent them to the smelting pits to collect it.%0A%0AAs the Shinareans readied to leave, Raamah looked over the traumatized population of Mari and frowned. %E2%80%9CI feel sorry for them, truly,%E2%80%9D he said. %E2%80%9CThey did nothing to deserve this. But what must be done, must be done.%E2%80%9D And with that he put them at his back and rode.%0A%0A%E2%80%9CTo the Nile,%E2%80%9D said Kush in a loud voice.%0A%0A\n **If you\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "b463df262f06e51addbd63345a82d87b7b1f407c",
  "block": 25237031,
  "trx_in_block": 31,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:48:45",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "moby-dick",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "17197767a26ef7a431e2a00b73309d4df4fe9c10",
  "block": 25237001,
  "trx_in_block": 0,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:47:15",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-4-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 4 (of 4)",
      "body": "<center>http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg<center>\n**The following is a sample from a forthcoming novel by Alexander Lawrence. If you like what you read, please visit the [Kickstarter campaign](http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU) for Reign of the Rebel.**\n\n**The first four chapters are also available in audio format at https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4**\n\n[Click here if you missed chapter three.](https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4)\n\nCHAPTER FOUR: DAWN OF TERROR\n\n*Nine months later*\n\n1633 Anno Mundi\n\n\nThe dream acquainted him with terror.\n\nAbel, son of Indubar, woke up abruptly, joints locked, limbs shaking with adrenaline. His mouth was open wide in a silent gasp, but he had taken in no air. Salty sweat stung his eyes and dampened his whole body, as well as the sleeping mat beneath him.\n\nAll he could see in the dim light of the hut was the underside of the reed roof. It was a familiar sight, but it brought no comfort, for Abel’s inner vision still displayed the afterimage of the nightmare. He still heard echoes of his father’s scream, still saw his look of agony as he grasped the shaft of the weapon that had been shoved through his chest. The dark countenance of his father’s murderer burned itself into the boy’s memory as the afterimage faded.\n\nThe paralyzing tension within Abel suddenly released, and he inhaled, a short, deep breath, like a man who comes up for air after too long submerged. Then he cried. He cried great, heaving sobs as he scrambled to his feet and ran outside into the dawn light to escape the dream.\n\nAbel had never seen one man kill another. He had never heard of war, or imagined it. He knew nothing of those things, and the lack of understanding made the fear of what he had just witnessed all the worse. He had no recourse but to find his family and get their assurance that the nightmare was a fantasy only, or a lie, the work of one of the Lilin demons, perhaps.\n\nSquinting against the sun’s morning rays, Abel frantically scanned the homestead in search of his parents. He spotted his sister, Aya, beneath the nearest cluster of spreading poplars. She was seated on the milking stump, doing just that—milking one of the goats. His father and brother were nowhere to be found, but after clearing away some of the tears with his palms, Abel was able to see his mother picking pistachios in the distance.\n\nAbel dashed to his mother’s side. He buried his face in her skirt and continued to cry.\n\nThe boy’s mother, Natori, knelt and put down her basket to embrace her son. “Abel, what is it? What’s happened?”\n\nHe answered her, but all she could make out amid the sobs were the words “my dream.”\n\n“Did you have a nightmare?” said Natori as she stroked his matted hair. “It’s okay now… it’s okay. Peace. Breathe slowly and tell me what frightened you.” He tried to do as she asked, and the sobs lessened to whimpering.\n\n“I, I saw Appa…” stammered Abel. “I saw him fall down dead because… because a man with horns put a spear through him.”\n\n“Oh, Cricket,” she said, using his nickname, “that’s a terrible dream. No wonder you’re upset. Banish it from your mind!”\n\n“He was bleeding a lot,” he remembered, beginning to cry anew. Now the words rushed out. “We were all there, you and Aya and Niqpa, and we couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t stop it. He bled and died, and you were holding him. I don’t want Appa to die, Mamma!”\n\nShe hugged him tightly. “He won’t die.”\n\nJust then his father and brother came from the river valley hauling the day’s supply of water. They detoured from their path when they heard Abel’s laments, and approached with concern on their faces. \n\n“What’s wrong with Abel?” asked Niqpa as he and his father set down the water skins.\n\n“A bad dream awoke him,” said Natori to her eldest. She related the little that Abel had told her about it.\n\nIndubar scooped up his son and held him so that their eyes were level. “Stop that now, Abel,” he instructed gently. “It was only a dream, however scary. Just imaginings and not real.”\n\n“Yes, Appa,” Abel said, working to plug up his tears.\n\nNatori untied the goat-hair ribbon from the end of her braid and handed it to her husband. He used it to dab at the boy’s wet cheeks. “I know why you had this dream,” his father told him. “It’s because you went hunting with me and the other men for the first time this year. You watched us spear the bison, and you saw the horns on the beasts and how dangerous they are. That was only two phases ago.”\n\n“But it seemed very real, Appa. Not like other dreams.”\n\n“Fearful dreams are sometimes the most lifelike kind. Maybe it’s because we have strong instincts to survive and be safe. That makes sense, don’t you think?”\n\nAbel nodded and looked down solemnly.\n\nIndubar shifted Abel in his arms and made an exaggerated grunt. “Oi! I must put you down this instant, or I won’t be able to use my arms for the rest of the day. You’re far too big now! I thought crickets were supposed to be small and light.”\n\nThat made Abel laugh a little. He was getting big, that was true, but it was funny because Indubar was strong from working with metals at the smelting pits every day. A boy of eight summers weighed little compared to the crates of copper ore that came down the Euphrates river from the Taurus mining settlement to their village of Mari.\n\nNatori picked up her basket of pistachios, Indubar his water skins, and they all headed for the huts. Having finished with the goat, Aya came over to them right as Natori said, “I think some comforting food is in order. I could make a sandgrouse soup for breakfast. How does that sound?”\n\n“Wonderful!” blurted Aya. Then her face lost its enthusiasm as she remembered her manners. “I mean, may I also have some, please?”\n\nNatori chuckled. “Of course you can. I meant it for everyone.”\n\n“You should also eat well this morning,” Indubar told Niqpa. “We have a long day’s work ahead of us.”\n\nThere had been no shipment of copper ore recently, so Indubar could focus on farm tasks instead of going to the pits. Niqpa, being four years older than Abel, was expected to help with much of the work around the homestead. Currently, he and Indubar were constructing a permanent dwelling to replace the reed huts. They baked mud bricks for the walls and coated them in plaster. Abel was excited to live in it once it was finished, but the house was only half-way done, and that half had seemed to take ages, so his excitement had cooled to a simmer. He did sometimes shape mud-bricks for his father, hoping to speed up the construction process, but that was only when he wasn’t off playing or doing things for his mother. She always had plenty of tasks for him. Not as many tasks as his parents had for Niqpa and Aya, though, and for that Abel was as grateful as a young boy knew how to be.\n\nNatori gave Abel a kiss on the head and set about making breakfast, boiling the fowl with onions and leeks in sour goat milk. To pass the time, Abel quietly followed after his sister as she collected dung left by the sheep and goats. The family used the dry manure in combination with sagebrush to cook food and warm themselves at night, so gathering the fuel was a nearly daily chore for the women. Abel kindly held a basket for Aya while she scooped up the droppings with an old, bleached shoulder blade. He made no conversation, though, only stared at the dirt or out at the blank horizon.\n\nThe boy was usually quite boisterous in the mornings, almost annoyingly so, and to see him out of character saddened Aya. To fend off the melancholy, she took to singing. She sang a simple, happy tune that a neighbor’s wife had dreamed up last winter when the women of Mari sat together in the long house making sandals. Aya had a lovely voice, and her use of it lightened the mood.\n\nBreakfast was ready before long, and, as his mother had promised, eating a bowl of her delicious sandgrouse soup worked wonders. By the time he had finished the meal, Abel was back to his normal self, chatting with his family about nothing in particular, making meaningless noises to himself whenever the conversation lulled.\n\nAfter breakfast, the day proceeded like most any day. The sun was well-mannered and the spring weather as fine one could hope for, and Abel joined up with other village boys to play along the banks of the Euphrates. For a while they occupied themselves searching for the special, flaking kinds of stones that the adults could use to make knives and axes.\n\nIt was the time of year when turtledoves arrived in droves to gather in the trees along the river, as they did also in Autumn. The boys took advantage of the opportunity by bringing out their slings and competing to see who could bring down the most birds. Some of the boys, including Abel, scored more than a few birds; others bagged only one or two, and that by luck owing to the sheer number of targets. Only a single child, the youngest of the group, failed to bring down any doves whatsoever. Abel saw the disappointment on his friend’s face, and he felt sympathy. His conscience moved him to share, so he reached into his leather bag and handed over a bird from the top of the pile.\n\nAs soon as he had done it, something shot up out of the bag in a flurry of white feathers, striking Abel in the face before ascending swiftly out of reach. The bag dropped from his hands and he staggered back with a look of complete shock. For a second, no one made a sound or even breathed, but the silence was broken as, all at once, the boys burst into laughter. Evidently one of Abel’s prizes had not been dead, but stunned only, and had gotten its revenge on its persecutor. The hysterical laughter at Abel’s expense put them all on their backs, and he himself bellowed the hardest.\n\nEventually everyone left the river valley together, tittering and skipping, happy with their lot, for there was honor to be had in returning home with any number of animals—whether many or few—for the family to use.\n\nIt was midday as the young men walked across the flood plain, toward the village. And it was midday when the strangers arrived.\n\n===\n\nWhen Abel found them, Indubar and Niqpa were sitting in the shade, refreshing themselves with water and berries. They were both sweaty from working on the house, and tired enough to nap, for their eyelids drooped even as they ate. Abel’s sudden appearance from beyond a half-finished wall startled them out of their languid state.\n\n“Appa!” said Abel, pointing to the east, the direction from which he’d come. “A bunch of men are coming on donkeys. I saw them.”\n\nIndubar put down his cup of water. “What did they look like?” he asked.\n\n“I don’t know. I couldn’t really tell, because they were too far away, but some of them looked very dark. Their skin was darker than normal.”\n\n“It’s too soon for the caravan from Rapiqum, and none of those people are dark.”\n\nThe village of Rapiqum, like Mari, sat along the Euphrates river, but further southeast. The men of that village always came to trade at the tail end of both Spring and Autumn, after the harvests. It had been so for as long as Abel could remember, and even after the confusion of tongues, Rapiqum had still sent men to barter. Without shared words it had been difficult to trade, but not impossible.\n\n“It could be Hamites,”, Indubar added, thinking of the black-skinned son of Noah.\n\n“Perhaps they’re from Babili,” offered Niqpa.\n\n“Or one of the new settlements I assume have sprung up since the Tower fell, yes.” Indubar popped a last berry into his mouth and got to his feet. “We’d better go greet these—”\n\nBut he did not finish his words, for just then, a woman screamed. They looked toward the sound but could see nothing. Even though the land was flat, several dwellings and bushes stood in the way.\n\n“What was that?” asked Niqpa.\n\nIndubar’s face went tense. “I don’t know,” he said.\n\n“What if they’re bad men?” Abel asked his father.\n\n“I’m going to go find out,” Indubar told him. “Stay with your brother. Niqpa, get everyone into the hut. And take up one of the spears.”\n\n“A spear?” he asked. But the unspoken question was, Will I need to use it on a person?\n\nIndubar was already moving away from them. “Go, son,” he replied over his shoulder.\n\nAbel followed Niqpa toward the hut, but looked back thrice to watch his father recede with quick, long strides, then disappear behind the neighbor’s houses. Worry clawed at Abel like a thorny bramble. He didn’t want his father to go, but he had no say in it, so he stayed silent.\n\n“Mother, Aya, please go inside,” Niqpa said from a distance. “Father wants us all out of sight.”\n\nAbel could see as he approached their work area that Natori and Aya had been grinding grain before the scream; half-crushed heads of barley filled the wide grooves of the stones they used for mortars. But now they were on their feet, looking uncertain, their pestles abandoned as they stared in the direction that Indubar had gone.\n\nThere was another scream, accompanied by shouts from angry men. Abel felt his pulse quicken, and Aya stifled sudden tears. Natori ushered them both into the large hut that was their home, while Niqpa went to the smaller hut that the family used for storage.\n\n“Niqpa, where are you going?” Natori said, stress evident in her voice.\n\n“I’ll be right back. Father said to get a spear.”\n\n“Hurry!”\n\nNiqpa did hurry, and soon entered through the hanging animal skins that served them for a door. As soon as he joined them, Niqpa turned, putting the family at his back, and held the shaved tip of his weapon towards the door. Abel could see his brother shaking. Then he looked down at his own hands and realized that he also shook. As much as he wanted to be brave, the tears came back unbidden.\n\n“Niqpa, don’t stab your father if he enters,” Natori warned.\n\nThe boy nodded, said, “Yes, Imma.”\n\nNatori grabbed up a femur bone which had been shaped on one end for use as a ladle, and she gripped it hard, like Niqpa was gripping the spear. She stood beside her eldest, facing the door, ready to throttle anything unwelcome that came in. “Get back, children,” she said with a wave of her hand.\n\nAbel and Aya moved to the far end of the hut, which was not far.\n\n“What’s happening? Does someone want to hurt us?” Aya asked in a shaky voice.\n\n“I don’t know,” answered Natori. “Hush, now, stay quiet.”\n\nAya wrapped her arms around Abel, and they both tried their best to keep to soft whimpers. They waited, motionless, for what seemed many minutes, but was in reality not half that long. Then they heard the thudding of running feet coming their way, stopping just outside the hut. No one breathed.\n\nA hand pulled aside the hide, and a man looked in. Though the light was at his back, they immediately recognized him as their father. Relieved, everyone sighed together.\n\n“Come out quickly,” he said. “We’re in danger.”\n\nLowering weapons, they filed out, asking questions over each other.\n\n“Strangers are attacking the village,” Indubar explained, “and we need to get away as fast as we can.” As he spoke, he walked swiftly to the storage hut, and the others moved with him.\n\n“How?” asked Natori. “Which direction is safest?”\n\n“These men have mounts. We can’t just flee onto the plains. They’ll ride us down.” Indubar ducked inside and emerged with the family’s hunting bow, and a quiver of arrows. “But if we get to the boats, we can escape by river.”\n\n“No one is upon us yet,” objected Natori, looking around. “If we run south now, maybe they’ll be preoccupied.”\n\nIndubar shook his head. “Maybe, but there’s no time to argue about it.” And with that, he began to run.\n\nAbel heard the conversation between his parents, but it barely registered. A mild shock had overcome him as his young mind struggled to understand not only why this frightening thing was happening, but how he could have known about it beforehand. He was sure, somehow, that this attack was what the dream foretold. Did that mean his father was going to die today? Was it something that could happen, or that would happen?\n\n“We don’t have our things!” Aya cried after her father.\n\nIndubar paused to look at her and make a sweeping motion. “Forget them, we’ll come back later. Let’s go!”\n\nEveryone moved; they did as they were told because they had to. Together, they put the homestead behind them and rushed with all speed westward, away from the invading force. They kept to the outskirts of the village, the dwellings and gathering-places all a stone’s throw to their right. Eventually they would turn north, Father said, and make for the place on the riverbank where two basket-shaped boats were kept.\n\nThey ran through a long stretch of rough grass, around a copse of short oaks, and across a plot of unharvested peas that belonged to a man named Eli. The wind was at their backs, speeding them along. The children could not race nearly as fast as the adults, who slowed their own pace accordingly, but even so, motivated by fear, the group covered ground quickly. They crossed a third homestead, passing through a herd of grazing sheep and onto a freshly threshed field.\n\nIt was then that a rider appeared at some distance to their right flank. His upper half was naked but for a thick necklace, and only a leather loincloth adorned his lower half. Though he was not old, his head was hairless. Neither was his face encumbered of hair, for he was shaved clean. If not for the fan of hair on his chest, Abel thought, he would have looked like a muscular baby.\n\nThe bald rider saw Indubar’s family and started toward them, but stopped when Yadiv the Tanner emerged from his hut to see what was astir. Yadiv asked the stranger something and received no reply. The man just stared, assessing him. Yadiv was unable to see that the mounted invader held a stone mace at his hip on the side which faced away.\n\nPerceiving the danger, Indubar came to an abrupt halt, and his family did likewise. \n\n“Yadiv! He’s an enemy!” yelled Indubar in the hopes of helping his clansman avoid harm. All that the warning accomplished, however, was to make Yadiv turn his eyes curiously to the family, at which moment the invader stepped his donkey closer to the tanner and swung at him with the mace. The blow struck Yadiv in the temple and easily toppled him. The unsuspecting villager landed hard and moved no more. Aya screamed, and Abel squeezed his eyes shut against the violence, but he couldn’t unsee what he’d already seen.\n\nHe opened his eyes again almost immediately and saw his father set an arrow to his bow. Abel stepped back involuntarily, then found himself lifted off his feet and carried away by his mother, who anticipated what was about to happen.\n\nThe killer kicked his donkey and charged at Indubar. The rider leaned forward to make himself a smaller target, and the defensive tactic worked. Indubar let loose an arrow, but it went high, passing harmlessly over the man’s left shoulder.\n\n“Appa, get him!” blurted Abel.\n\nIndubar notched another arrow and took aim with an intensity of focus that his family had not seen from him before. He did not try to sidestep, did not even flinch in the face of the charging animal which was nearly on him. The attacker, mace held high, let out a feral roar.\n\nIndubar released his flint-tipped missile without a moment to spare. This one flew true, striking the bald man in the upper chest so that he rolled backwards off his mount and was knocked senseless when he hit the ground.\n\nIndubar strafed out of the charging animal’s path and snatched at its reigns as it passed, but his fingers only brushed by without hooking the thing. The creature kept running, free of humans, out to pasture. After spitting a curse, Indubar looked down at the injured stranger and determined that he was no threat to them now. They could move on.\n\nNatori set down her son and went to her husband, cupping his face in her hands. She said something to him which Abel did not hear.\n\nThe children stood silently over the felled opponent, morbidly fascinated yet appalled by the sight of the wounded man. They stared, mouths agape, wondering how his injury must feel, and gawking at his peculiar appearance and weapon.\n\n“Ugh. Monster!” said Aya after a moment. She spun away from the bald man.\n\n“Come on, now, quickly,” Indubar said to the whole family. Abel realized as well as did his father that defeating one foe wasn’t going to solve their predicament.\n\nAt once they started off again to the west, running faster than before, spurred on by the increasing clamor nearby. As they ran, they glanced repeatedly towards the inner zone of the village, where huts and clay houses were closely arranged, for they were able from their new position to see much of the commotion. Four or five invaders fanned their way through Mari, and frightened locals scrambled to escape them. Few did. The enemies herded people like cattle towards the central long house, felling any who resisted.\n\nOnly after Indubar had led his family swiftly across half a furlong of farmland did he turn north. He had blazed a trail through every neighbor’s plot and come to untended plains, and now changed course for the river valley. As they turned to skirt the western edge of the village, Abel and Aya declared exhaustion. They could not push themselves to run any further, so they slowed to a brisk walk. No sooner had Indubar and Natori stopped and picked up their children, Abel in his father’s arms and Aya in her mother’s, and turned to run again, than two riders came towards them chasing another family. That family of three was just close enough for Abel to make out their panic-stricken faces, to read their hopeless eyes as the trailing hoof-beats grew louder. He couldn’t tear his gaze from the sight, even as Indubar spun and renewed his dash for the river, and Abel was jostled in his arms.\n\nThen Abel’s focus shifted from the pursued to the pursuers, and fear and hatred awoke in him at once. He recognized one of the riders, the older of the two—he knew him from his dream. The man had a thick gray beard and skin the color of mud. From the front of his helmet rose two horns like a crescent moon, just as Abel had seen in his nightmare.\n\nHe was going to say something about it, but just then his mother began yelling at Niqpa, who had not followed his parents in their break for safety, but had instead run headlong at the riders. Abel realized why: one of the villagers being chased was Niqpa’s best friend. Abel’s brother bravely charged, spear in hand, to his friend’s defense, roaring as he had heard the bald man roar.\n\n“Niqpa, no!” screamed Indubar, but the boy didn’t heed him.\n\nHastily, Indubar lowered Abel to the ground, freeing access to the bow which he had slung over his shoulders. He nocked an arrow as he ran after Niqpa.\n\nAnxiety for his family now filled all of Abel’s thoughts. He wished with an aching that he had brought his sling or some other weapon, anything at all with which to join the fight, but even as he thought it, he knew that he was too scared to dare attack those grown men, with their fierce faces and strong bodies. Paralysis took him, and he stood rooted to the spot where Indubar had set him.\n\nThreatened, the riders abandoned their original pursuit. They split up, the younger, black-haired man dismounting to face Niqpa while Graybeard rode straight at Indubar.\n\nAbel’s brother lunged with the spear as soon as he was within range. Blackhair dodged nimbly to one side, then to the other as Niqpa thrust again. On the third attempt, the invader caught the shaft and yanked, pulling Niqpa off his feet and into Blackhair’s free hand. In one smooth motion the man discarded the spear, twirled Niqpa until he was facing away, and wrapped a thick arm around his neck.\n\nMeanwhile, Indubar had gotten close enough to make a precise shot but was suddenly blocked by the body of his own son taken hostage. Perceiving the relationship between the young spearman and the archer, Blackhair had smartly shielded himself with the captured youth. Indubar could do nothing but turn and defend himself, for Graybeard was bearing down on him, holding aloft a copper-tipped spear.\n\nBy the time Indubar decided to change targets, it was too late. He pivoted but didn’t get the chance to aim before Graybeard let fly his weapon. The spear struck where intended, impaling the archer through the heart as the attacking rider galloped by him. Indubar cried out in pain and shock, spewing droplets of blood from his mouth. He looked down and grasped the shaft that protruded from his chest, as if to convince himself that it was real. Then he fell to his knees, and his hands dropped to his sides like heavy weights.\n\nNatori shrieked and ran the short distance to her husband, leaving behind Aya, who stood affixed with horror. Niqpa, who had been flailing his body in a futile attempt to get free of Blackhair, suddenly went limp. His will to fight had vanished, and he simply stared, mouth agape, at his father. Unnoticed, his friend’s family continued to flee without so much as a backward glance.\n\n“No, no, no! Please don’t leave us!” pleaded Natori as she took Indubar in her arms. “My beloved!”\n\nFace locked in an expression of disbelief, Indubar looked at his wife but his eyes seemed to look through her instead. His last words were: “He knew.”\n\nFor a second time that day, Abel watched helplessly as his father died.\n\n**If you've enjoyed the story and want more, [please back the Kickstarter](http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU). Thank you!**",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "36f62be4b919263c3422de5e70f5e24a686eeea9",
  "block": 25236768,
  "trx_in_block": 18,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:35:36",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 3 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -483,16 +483,27 @@\n ER THREE\n+: AFTERMATH\n %0A%0AIt too\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "6f7935086e5d85b3ff0dd27703fe3cfc2c5235e2",
  "block": 25236761,
  "trx_in_block": 67,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:35:15",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 1 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -340,16 +340,36 @@\n PTER ONE\n+: THE DIVINE COUNCIL\n %0A%0AFresh,\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\",\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "a43a6fb4a54e214c68545cb66c8d6e02e335e490",
  "block": 25236757,
  "trx_in_block": 18,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:35:03",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 2 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -481,16 +481,23 @@\n PTER TWO\n+: BABEL\n %0A%0A1632 A\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\",\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "eb177f18cef71a533c6b85ca54eebf155d52b0e7",
  "block": 25236726,
  "trx_in_block": 17,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:33:30",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 2 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -34777,16 +34777,17 @@\n s more! \n+%5B\n Go on to\n@@ -34801,10 +34801,89 @@\n r three.\n+%5D(https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4)\n **\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\",\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "766bfd9801c36d1e5c5f478245397bf2c07f555c",
  "block": 25236706,
  "trx_in_block": 27,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:32:30",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-3-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 3 (of 4)",
      "body": "<center>http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg<center>\n**The following is a sample from a forthcoming novel. If you like what you read, please visit the [Kickstarter campaign](http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU) for Reign of the Rebel.**\n\n**The first four chapters are also available in audio format at https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4**\n\n[Click here if you missed chapter two.](https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4)\n\nCHAPTER THREE\n\nIt took a great effort, but Raamah and Ditanu eventually extricated themselves from the brawl and made their way through throngs of upset and confused people back to the Forum, stopping only to dunk their faces and drink greedily from the water of a animal’s trough.\n\nThey found Kush just where they had left him, but alone. He sat hunched over on the lowest tier of the benches that filled two opposing sides of the hall. The Forum had emptied out once the fighting began. Everyone had since returned to their homes, where they no doubt tried to determine what to do next.\n\nWithout straightening, Kush lifted his eyes to accuse his son. “I heard what you did,” he said flatly. “Havilah saw it.”\n\n“But you do not understand why,” said Raamah.\n\n“No. How could I? You went to rescue the man, not kill him. Without Kainam—”\n\n“Take heart, Father,” interrupted Raamah. He reached to the belt of his kilt, gently removed with his fingertips the map which had belonged to Kainam, and gave it over. “Opportunity is at hand.”\n\nKush unfolded the square-shaped hide and examined it. The drawing on its inside surface had been made in ink, a resource not found in Shinar.\n\n“I recognize this,” Kush said. “It is a map of the earth like the ones my father preserved from the Flood. Why did he draw a star near the Nile?”\n\nRaamah didn’t answer the question. “Now look at the back,” he said.\n\nKush flipped the hide and saw a river sketched as if from ground level, and near it a resting lion. A giant lion, based on the neighboring trees which did not reach even to the clavicles. Perhaps it was a statue. Behind the lion was a hole in the ground. It dawned on Kush that this rudimentary drawing was what Kainam had seen at the place marked with a star on the map.\n\nKush started, “This map is—”\n\n“—directions to the records of the Watchers,” finished Raamah excitedly, “the place that Kainam discovered. This was the only document that Kainam hid in his garments as he tried to escape the Tower.”\n\nKush took a deep breath. Now he understood Raamah’s power play, and he also understood what his son was capable of. The boy had become formidable.\n\nKush looked the two young men up and down. “You could have gotten yourselves killed. Both of you are bruised horribly. And your hands… sahla zahni!”\n\n“We will heal,” said Ditanu through swollen lips. “But hopefully not too quickly. I am enjoying this less pretty version of your son.” When he wasn’t battered and marred, Raamah was sickeningly handsome.\n\n“How quickly you have regained your humor,” said Raamah.\n\n“Let no one else know of this map,” Kush commanded them. “If they press you regarding Kainam, tell them you thought to appease the gods with his sacrifice, since Kainam was the man most obsessed with entering the astral plane.”\n\n“Yes, Father. You speak wisely.”\n\n“At almost three centuries old, I should hope so.” Kush tugged at his substantial gray beard. “And you, though young, are not without wisdom. By removing Kainam, you have freed us from our dependence. As soon as we find the writings of the Watchers, all men will look to us as the keepers of the Secrets.”\n\nRaamah lifted his chin. “Noah’s God has thrust humanity into darkness, and our family can be the one to save them from it.”\n\n“There is only one problem with your plan to use those writings,” said Ditanu, crossing his arms.\n\n“What?” asked Raamah.\n\n“We can no longer read them.”\n\n===\n\nMastema stood upon the fronds of a date palm in the plain of Shinar, staring pensively at the ruins of the Tower. The fronds of the tree did not bend under him, and if any mortal had been present they would have seen naught but a palm swaying in the wind.\n\nThe Dark Seraph had mixed feelings about the day’s events. A part of him believed that every catastrophic judgment upon mankind further cast into question the strategy of the Anointed One, thereby strengthening Mastema’s own case against him. But the other part was full of bitterness at being temporarily bested. Mastema had dismissed his entourage so that he could fume in private and think carefully on this turn of events. Later, he would inflict pain on some of his subjects to make himself feel better. At the moment it was more important that he reflect on his failure and form the beginnings of new plans. Plans involving Raamah, son of Kush, perhaps, for he had shown promise, relatively speaking. It was impossible that any of the milk-sucking vermin offspring of Adam would ever impress Mastema, but a few were capable enough to be used as surrogate rulers. Kainam had filled that role adequately until today.\n\nMastema had not been relying solely upon the success of the Shinareans, of course. The Tower-builders’ quest to pierce the veil had been a nearly certain dead end from the start, not for lack of ingenuity or persistence (traits which the vermin unfortunately did possess, thanks to Mastema’s older brother), but because no one likes uninvited guests, especially ones who are villainous skunks. The mortals had gotten the idea of ascendancy in their heads of their own accord, and Mastema had seen no reason to stop it, so he’d invested in it instead. But it was the city, not the Tower, that excited Mastema. All cities were breeding-grounds for filth, but a metropolis whose very foundation was laid in defiance of God? That had potential! He had immediately set into motion a campaign to sway the leaders and blind the followers. Meanwhile, in Urartu, where some of the descendants of Shem and Japheth yet remained, the outcast seraph had continued his subtle work of turning children against their elders and uniting the youth in a spirit of superiority. By encouraging disdain for old ways, he had opened them to lies about the future.\n\nThe Enemy’s attack on language had undone most of that work. Dividing the tongues of men had been an unexpected and efficacious move (and fitting, considering that the Sons’ tongues were literally forked). Mastema chided himself for not anticipating it. And not for the first time, he hissed at the unfairness of his impotence before the Council, that he could never withhold the truth from them when asked directly, and yet he himself possessed no such advantage.\n\nMastema’s meditation was interrupted when the archons of Empyrean showed up unexpectedly. All one hundred twenty of the Sons had returned to Empyrean as soon as the Tower fell, maybe before, as there had been no sign of them when the storm clouds dissipated. Mastema had assumed there would be no further punishments this day, yet here they were again, returned on the threshold of twilight. They descended one after another on the transplanar axis over the rubble of the Tower—it had been built in that spot for a reason—then came down from the ruins to march as a group towards Mastema. It surprised him to be approached instead of summoned.\n\nHe would not, he decided, allow them to perceive the foulness of his mood.\n\nSeven chief archons with their tens of subordinates had come to stand before him. Those in attendance were Susarakh, Agadoth, Yaedrith, Astaphaos, Dahmo, Kalidae, and Tobeleth. The date palm under Mastema’s feet was no throne, but he took pleasure in having his brothers gather beneath his perch as if it were.\n\n“Bravo on a wonderful display of wrath,” Mastema said with an inauthentic glyph of approval. “Job well done. I daresay you could have spiced it up with a dash of burning sulfur or some earth-rending tremors, but who am I to quibble?”\n\n“Hail, Mastema,” said Susarakh, facetiously adding, “Lord of wit.”\n\n“And many such excellencies. Brothers, have you come to gloat? If it be so, why count I but seventy of my kin? Perhaps some among you have begun to see as I see and are not quick to take glee in my misfortune.”\n\n“We are those of whom you speak. We have not come to gloat, but to negotiate.”\n\nThe Dark One was momentarily lost for words. Long had he imagined a day when the members of the Council, however few, would begin to respect his perspective and his plight. After the creation of Adam, a third part of the heavenly host had defected with Mastema, but that fact consoled him little so long as he remained a pariah to his own brothers. But while he had hoped for change, he had never truly expected it to manifest. It strained credulity that more than half of the seraphiym were allegedly ready to talk.\n\nMastema looked into the faces of the other chiefs before looking back at their spokesman. Flatly he said, “Pardon my reticence, but a measure of suspicion is warranted whenever an opponent extends the hand of peace.”\n\n“Deception is your faculty, not ours,” said Susarakh. “This is no trick. Give us your ear.”\n\n“Proceed, then. I wish to know what you seek.”\n\n“We seek cooperation. Recent developments forced us to reconsider our position. We perceive now that you were wise to question the methods of the Anointed.”\n\nMastema’s first inclination was to mock them for being so slow to arrive at the obvious conclusion about humans, but he thought better of it. “If it be so, then this is a welcome surprise,” he said, showing genuine delight. “What convinced you?”\n\n“The Anointed One’s unwillingness to acknowledge the fact that humanity is a hopeless cause, a failed experiment. We have approached the Most High with our concerns and were rebuffed. ‘Revere the Elder, lest he be wroth,’ Father said unto us. ‘Blessed are they that trust in the Lord,’ he told us. Either the Almighty approves the decisions of his firstborn, or he shows favoritism.”\n\n“Father claims to respect all alike,” Mastema said with a dismissive waggle of his fingers. “Nevertheless, know this: the Firstborn has great love for the mortals, a love that blinds him. He loves them more than he loves us.”\n\n“We agree. What else could we think, when the Anointed withholds judgment on a corrupt race for the sake of a tiny remnant in each generation?”\n\n“Moreover,” Dahmo contributed, “the souls of the deceased righteous remain trapped in the Paradise of Sheol by the law of justice. They cannot make restitution for their sins, so they have no hope of entering Empyrean. We cannot fathom this. In the meantime, Torment feeds its never-ending appetite with the souls of the damned. This is madness.”\n\n“For the sake of the whole Creation, a better solution must be discovered,” said Kalidae.\n\nMastema nodded in agreement. “And what better solution may be found than genocide? We must annihilate humanity and start anew. Then the unborn souls reserved in Sheol may be assigned to a new and undamaged species.”\n\n“No,” said Susarakh, “for further attempts at genocide will come to naught. The Anointed One will intervene afresh, ad nauseam. We propose action of a different sort.”\n\nMastema hated the idea of letting mankind continue, but he couldn’t deny that further attempts at extermination were likely futile. He had already corrupted humanity on three occasions, and each time, the Anointed had worked out a way to prevent total loss. “Continue,” he told Susarakh.\n\n“We wish to bring suit against the Anointed.”\n\nThe idea was familiar, and Mastema waved it off. “Do you think that I have not already considered it? We have no basis for litigation. Everything he has done, while distasteful, has been well within his rights. Do not be obtuse.”\n\nSusarakh’s feathers flared out. “You err, thinking us simple. You are not uniquely gifted of intellect.”\n\nMastema concealed a smirk, not of smugness, but amusement. Susarakh had always been a hothead; he respected the pride in that one.\n\n“Susarakh, if I may?” said Agadoth, ever the diplomat. Susarakh gave leave, and Agadoth addressed the seraph in the tree. “Do you consider litigation impossible for lack of victims among the spirits?”\n\n“That is precisely the reason, Agadoth. Where there is no victim, there is no crime. The Maker cannot be sued unless he is responsible for endanger—” Mastema trailed off as understanding dawned on him. He abruptly turned away from the group to think.\n\nHis brothers were right, the situation was different now. The citizens of Empyrean had become potential victims because the mortals had shown themselves capable of entering the astral realm, sooner or later. Humanity was a legitimate threat, and the Anointed One had only stalled the problem, not eliminated it. His refusal to end mankind amounted to transgression against the spirit world. His righteousness had just been thrown into question. So, yes! The Sons had a case! Acting as a single plaintiff, they could indict the Anointed One on behalf of all Empyrean. The seven spirits before God’s throne could be made to try the proceedings. The trial period could be—never mind that, all the details could be hashed out later; what mattered at the moment was the idea’s potential.\n\nMastema felt his heart lift, his vigor renew. If any among the seventy Sons could prove that the Anointed was neglecting his duty, then the king would be forced to step down regardless of whether or not he had the Father’s favor. And after the Anointed had been forced by God’s own justice system to relinquish custody of the cosmos, the fight for his replacement would begin. With the Firstborn found guilty, Mastema would be able to seek pardon on the basis that he foresaw where his older brother’s folly would lead, foresaw that the Anointed One’s unchecked love of the mortals would bring disaster. Who knew? Perhaps he could even break the glory of the Most High and compel him to leave Empyrean. After all, Father claimed omniscience. Wasn’t he aware that the Anointed One erred? Wasn’t it his responsibility as Righteous Father to correct his eldest son, not enable him? Mastema believed that he might actually have a shot at proving either nepotism or indiscretion, and the glee of the thought made thin ribbons of smoke escape from his nostrils.\n\nHe was getting ahead of himself. Mastema first needed to understand what drove the would-be defectors to turn to him. How did they suppose he could help? He could guess, but he needed (and wanted) to hear it.\n\nWith his back still toward the seventy seraphiym, Mastema carefully verbalized his query. “You say that you seek cooperation. To what end? I cannot take part in your lawsuit, for I am no citizen of Empyrean. What, then, do you desire of me?”\n\n“Permission to divide amongst ourselves the mortals of your kingdom,” answered Susarakh almost too eagerly. “We must demonstrate empirically, not theoretically, that mankind is better off in our hands than the hands of the Firstborn. It must be shown that a nation can be brought into submission without depriving them of free will. Therefore each of us should receive a collection of heathen with which to experiment.”\n\n“That request is easily granted,” said Mastema. “Yet I would retain for myself a single nation, that I may receive worship.”\n\n“Of course. We also desire the use of your workforce. We few can in no wise rule over the ever-increasing progeny of Adam without assistance. We must have servants if we hope to prove our case, and where else would we get them? A third part of the heavenly host are at your disposal.\n\n“And there is another matter: when we become adversaries of the Lord of Empyrean, where will we go to dwell? What will we eat? We, like you, will be outcasts, the manna of heaven withheld from us.” Spirits could not starve to death, but they could feel hunger, the pain of which would increase over time.\n\nSlowly, Mastema faced about, a prolonged turning until he once again looked upon his brothers. “God will take the light from you as he has from me,” he said, reminding them of the weight of their decision. “Think carefully before you embark.”\n\nIn response, the seventy serpahiym all displayed sober blue sigils of conviction. Evidently they had already thought it through before making their approach.\n\n“Then I shall give you what you desire, under these conditions,” said Mastema, “that you respect my rule and the laws of my kingdom. You shall enjoy fine dwelling-places, and ride in chariots, and travel freely. You shall sup at my table and be filled. In return, I require your allegiance. Whatsoever men are given into your hands whereby to prove your case, you may exercise full dominion over them, but in all other matters you will defer to my will.\n\n“And if you prevail at court, you must endeavor to restore me to Empyrean and its Council.\n\n“Susarakh, what say you? Are you prepared to accept these terms on behalf of your brethren?”\n\nThe spokesman bowed at the waist, saying, “I am.”\n\nMastema spread his arms. “Then let us swear an oath in the presence of witnesses.” His unfeathered wings unfurled and beat the air so that he hovered over the palm tree. As he flew, a mesmerizing sound emanated from six holes at his ribs. At once droning and shimmering, it was a chorus of voices intoning a single, perfectly harmonious chord. Darkness materialized as a cloud about Mastema, and as the chord he sang swelled in volume, the darkness spread, like blackest ink dropped into clear water, until it had encompassed the whole group of seraphiym. No light could penetrate the cloud, and the spirits within it could see each other only by infrared.\n\nNearby fallen ones, beckoned by the call of their master, arrived quickly and in number. They surrounded the Sons, curious as to what would transpire.\n\n“Behold,” said Mastema to the attendees, “for you are witnesses today that these seventy seraphiym forsake the service of the Anointed One and do pledge fealty to me. Hear therefore the words of the covenant which I establish with my brethren.” And he repeated publicly the conditions and promises to which they had agreed. He declared also the penalties that would befall either party should one break the covenant.\n\nAnd when the deed was done, Mastema took his brothers south from Babili to the coastal spot which had once hosted Eridu, the city built by Iyrad, son of Chanok, son of Cain. Not a trace remained of Iyrad’s city, drowned by the Flood and buried deep beneath the marsh, nor did Mastema care about it. The site was important because of its aquifer, or more precisely, what came up to meet the aquifer: a route to the Underworld, to Sheol. Only a handful of other routes existed anywhere in the world. In the land of Mesopotamia, Eridu alone gave access.\n\nThe Dark Lord led his new followers down through the spring of fresh water that fed the marsh, down through the water-filled fissures in the crust of the earth, and down through the great ocean beneath the rocks, until at last they arrived at the mouth of the Abyss. There, in the unlit waters covering the entrance to Sheol, the city of Leviathan lay.",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "ca64e6f61c5e6b9c0fdd2b0e888ac3db9104b466",
  "block": 25236661,
  "trx_in_block": 32,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:30:15",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "nerdyaidee",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "2ca6f50dfdbc1820188d0e4b1f916563787ea199",
  "block": 25236569,
  "trx_in_block": 6,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:25:39",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 2 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -1,12 +1,62 @@\n+%3Ccenter%3Ehttp://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg%3Ccenter%3E%0A\n **The follow\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\",\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "725fe1da370f1eaf0085e3cda5d75cc7101976aa",
  "block": 25236539,
  "trx_in_block": 5,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:24:09",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 1 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -1,12 +1,63 @@\n+%3Ccenter%3Ehttp://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg%3Ccenter%3E%0A%0A\n **The follow\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\",\"image\":[\"http://i68.tinypic.com/avl7ya.jpg\"]}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "76255cb5658b5179a11862ce1d8eeb95d81a4918",
  "block": 25236405,
  "trx_in_block": 0,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:17:27",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "wolfeblog",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "weight": 2500
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "17df9821cc3fae5b4da7b8fbe24ecb41883036f7",
  "block": 25236367,
  "trx_in_block": 16,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:15:33",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 1 (of 4)",
      "body": "@@ -20650,16 +20650,17 @@\n t more? \n+%5B\n Go on to\n@@ -20672,10 +20672,89 @@\n ter two!\n+%5D(https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4)\n **\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "3c6566d3b5e6f96b1681e32270bd21cb3d81fc71",
  "block": 25236354,
  "trx_in_block": 46,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T15:14:54",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-2-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 2 (of 4)",
      "body": "**The following is a sample from a forthcoming novel. If you like what you read, please visit the [Kickstarter campaign](http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU) for Reign of the Rebel.**\n\n**The first four chapters are also available in audio format at https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4**\n\n[Click here if you missed chapter one.](https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4)\n\nCHAPTER TWO\n\n1632 Anno Mundi (Year of the World)\n\n“I feel as if I’ve been accosted.”\n\nThe words rolled off Ditanu’s tongue as easily as words ever had, but they were not familiar to him in the least. The meaning of the words was correct, conveying as intended his unpleasant thought, but the sounds were all wrong. Speaking, something he had done his entire life, was suddenly an alien experience.\n\nHe looked at his friend and tried again: “What did I just say?”\n\nRaamah gazed back at him with a frown, eyebrows scrunched up. “What did you say? What did I just say?”\n\n“Nothing I have ever heard before.” Ditanu looked down and grabbed the sides of his own head as if to hold in his sanity. “I understand you, but I do not know how I understand!”\n\nThese words coming from his mouth were unwelcome foreigners who had overrun the landscape of his mind. Trespassers, malefactors! Where were the natives? Everyone that belonged in the territory had fled—no, not fled, disappeared, vanished entirely. There was no trace; the foreign invaders had massacred them all and disposed of the husks.\n\n“I saw a great light,” said Raamah. “Did you see it?”\n\n“Yes, it enveloped everything and faded again in a blink.” There had been a bright flash that banished every shadow in the world but for a moment, and with the light had come an uncomfortable shift in his head, as if his inner man had been shoved to the floor and gagged. The invasion had been brief, though, before life in his head returned to normal. “Raamah, my speech is strange, but all else feels unaltered. Do you—”\n\nRaamah cut him off with a gesture and moved towards the window. “Listen,” he said, pointing outside.\n\nDitanu listened, hearing voices but no intelligible words. “I cannot comprehend the conversations,” Ditanu said.\n\n“Nor can I,” said Raamah. He headed for the door. “Follow me.”\n\n“Where are we going?”\n\n“To the Forum. The other constables will think to assemble there.”\n\nThey descended the steps from the second level of the building they were in, taking them two at a time, and rushed onto the street. A woman and her child were standing in the threshold of a house on the opposite side. The woman looked frightened and called out to them in a language they did not understand. It sounded not unlike the chirping of a bird. A man on the roof of an adjacent building also spoke, but his words were guttural and coarse, nothing like the woman’s speech.\n\nWhatever had happened, thought Ditanu, had happened to all.\n\nIgnoring the others, Raamah and Ditanu took to their donkeys and made haste for the city Forum.\n\n===\n\nChaos ruled the Forum.\n\nThe doors to the single-chambered structure had been left open, and nearly half of the city’s constables were standing inside, squabbling, pacing, and gesticulating.\n\nSome of the men were wailing and tearing their garments. Others were trying to communicate with one another through pictures by drawing on the dusty floor with their fingers. One quick-thinking individual had brought charcoal and a tanned goat hide. He used gestures to supplement his rudimentary charcoal sketches. It was a good attempt, but judging by the onlookers’ faces, he wasn’t getting anywhere. Expressing complex ideas through drawings was not an easy enterprise. Most of the constables neither lamented nor made images; instead, they clustered in small groups, talking intensely to those who shared their speech.\n\nRaamah scanned the crowd and quickly spotted Kush and Havilah, his father and brother, standing together at the head of the room. Ditanu followed in Raamah’s wake as he weaved through the crowd to get to his family. As they went, Ditanu took note of the words embossed on a large copper plate affixed to the wall behind Kush. It was gibberish to him now. He knew from memory what the phrase said, though: A better future through togetherness. It made him sigh.\n\nAs Raamah approached his kin, all three of them spoke over each other in their eagerness to test one another’s comprehension. They were relieved to discover that they could indeed communicate.\n\n“On a day of ill fortune, we have this balm,” said Kush while embracing his son.\n\nHavilah told Raamah, “From what we’ve seen so far, family members tend to share a language.” He glanced at Ditanu.\n\n“We speak alike,” said Ditanu in response to the unspoken question. “Raamah and I may not share blood, but it sometimes feels like we do.”\n\nHavilah nodded. Just then, something occurred to Ditanu and he stooped to the ground without explaining himself. He put an index finger to the dust and tried to write the first thing that came to mind.\n\nNothing came out. He didn’t know what letters to use. \n\n“What are you doing?” said Havilah.\n\n“Trying to write.”\n\n“Write what?”\n\n“Anything. Anything at all.” He looked up from his crouch. “I cannot do it.”\n\nWide-eyed, Raamah and Havilah both lowered themselves and made an attempt. They were no more successful than Ditanu.\n\nHavilah put his palm to his forehead in shock. “I… I cannot remember even a stroke. I’ve lost the entire alphabet.”\n\nRaamah pounded his fist on the floor and growled.\n\n“Of course they would take our script,” mused Kush. “It completes the punishment.”\n\n“They? Do you have some idea why this has happened?” asked Raamah. He stood up.\n\n“There is only one possible explanation,” his father said. “Babili, the gate of the gods, has been visited by them.”\n\nRaamah looked down in thought. “We should have known they would take offense at our ascendancy,” he said.\n\n“It had crossed my mind that some of the immortals might not want company. I’m sure Noah’s God and his forces are behind this.”\n\nDitanu scowled, saying, “Is there no end to his cruelty? He is ever striving to keep us ignorant and powerless.”\n\n“And we will ever resist his tyranny,” said a steel-faced Raamah.\n\nKush nodded but sighed, saying, “I would not disagree, but let us admit that we have been incapacitated for the foreseeable future. This was a severe blow.”\n\n“From which we may learn but not cower,” said Raamah.\n\nDitanu smiled at his friend. “He has a lion’s heart.”\n\n“Just so,” said Kush, placing his hands on Raamah’s shoulders, “and we will all draw strength from it, but you must also show the wisdom of the owl and the brilliance of the sun in the days ahead.”\n\nRaamah began to reply but stopped when someone started yelling a word over and over: Miko! Miko! Ditanu didn’t know what it meant but could tell by the tone that something serious was happening. Everyone looked at the shouting man, somewhat perturbed to have their own ruckus overpowered. He stood at a western window, jabbing his index finger repeatedly at something outside.\n\nThe Tower is in that direction, thought Ditanu.\n\nThey rushed to the window and gaped. The sky over the Tower was thick with dark clouds that swirled directly above its unfinished structure. They were looking at a menacing storm cell only a couple of miles wide, alone in the middle of an otherwise clear sky. Ditanu thought he understood what it signaled.\n\n“They mean to bring it down,” he said, hardly believing his own words. “Forty-three years of labor—nearly my whole life—and the immortals are going to push it over in a day.”\n\nAfter a moment of silence, Raamah said, “He’s right. What else could it be?”\n\nKush and Havilah stiffened and looked at one another. They spoke a name in unison: “Kainam.”\n\n“Kainam? Is he inside?” said Raamah.\n\nKush nodded, turning his gaze back to the soaring edifice. “I was there not an hour ago. He was in his study.”\n\n“That’s in the lower levels,” remembered Raamah. Everyone knew Kainam’s worth, so it didn’t surprise Ditanu when he saw the intention enter Raamah’s eyes. “I’ll go warn him, make sure he gets out,” said Raamah.\n\n“We go together,” retorted Havilah.\n\n“No, stay here,” said the young man, hand out. “As elders, both of you are needed. Think of the family.” Raamah didn’t stick around to hear their response.\n\n“I’m with you,” said Ditanu, already out-pacing his companion on the way to the door.\n\n===\n\nWhips flailing, they pushed the donkeys as fast as they would go, which was not nearly fast enough, or so it felt to Ditanu in that moment. The distance between the Forum and the nearest stairway coming off the Tower was over six hundred reeds. To cover that on foot would require almost half an hour, but Raamah and Ditanu needed to cover the same ground in mere minutes, and who knew whether they could afford even that. The layout of the city worked to their advantage, though; it was a straight shot between their origin and destination. As the road was kept even and unobstructed, the donkeys were able to race without great risk. All Ditanu had to do was yell at pedestrians to move, and trust that people would get the gist through context. To be sure, there were very few pedestrians that might obstruct them, because nearly everyone on the brick-paved road was traveling the opposite direction, away from the Tower where so many had labored. Their faces, Ditanu noted, were a consistent mixture of frustration, confusion, and fear. In the long line of men whom he passed, not one displayed any other expression. Disheartened, he decided not to look upon their faces further.\n\nAs he rode, Ditanu turned as much of his attention as he dared to the Tower. The sun was at his back and not yet half-way to its zenith, and its rays fully illuminated the colossus of baked bricks looming ahead of him. Appreciating it anew, he took in the sight intently to make of it a vivid and undying memory. Ditanu knew that he was looking upon its greatness for the last time. The architecture was neither ornate nor complex, for it was little more than a series of progressively smaller boxes stacked one atop another, with ramps connecting the exterior walkways of each level, but the sheer size of the thing, lofty as the mountains and broader than the rivers, demanded awe just short of worship. That man could accomplish such a wonder with little more than mud and sweat, after having clawed his way back from the brink of extinction, was no small marvel.\n\nThe amount of time, energy, and resources that had gone into its construction was nigh unfathomable. To think that it would come to naught before completion, all the work and the years swept away like chaff in a moment’s winnowing, was mind-numbing. Like all of the men of Babili, Ditanu had done his fair share of hard labor on the Tower, rendering back-breaking service for four moons out of the year, year after year. His closest platonic relationships had been formed during those stints.\n\nDitanu kept an eye out for Kainam in the long line of workers moving away from the Tower, as he assumed Raamah would also. The Overseer would be hard to miss, given that he was always the most ornately dressed of the Shinareans, and he would almost certainly be using his chariot. He was nowhere to be seen, however.\n\nRaamah’s donkey hit a bump and half-faltered, then recovered without losing its stride. Ditanu looked over at his friend. He seemed unfazed, but Ditanu could not say the same for the donkey. Raamah was not a small man, and his mount was laboring mightily to sprint under him. Ditanu’s own beast frothed with sweat and burned from exertion, and he wondered whether it would complete the run. It had never been asked to carry a man so far, so quickly.\n\nThe donkeys had taken Raamah and Ditanu more than half-way to the Tower when the lightning began. The riders both twitched in surprise as the storm’s first bolts shot between the clouds. Ditanu willed his mount to make it to the end before the storm built to full power.\n\nHe looked up and grimaced. The unnaturally stationary and isolated storm cell over the Tower swirled more threateningly with each passing minute, and it had taken on an eerie greenish cast unlike anything he’d seen before.\n\nJust then they passed over the short bridge which spanned the square moat around the Tower. It was a narrow, shallow moat but with a perimeter of great length due to the enormous footprint of the Tower. Digging the moat and a trench to connect it to the Euphrates River had taken years. Ditanu didn’t understand what it was for, but Kainam had been adamant about surrounding the Tower with water.\n\nMen were still steadily filing out of the building, looking surprised to see the strange storm clouds twisting overhead. The height of the Tower was such that, even with stairs, ramps, and the pulley system Kainam had devised, it took over an hour for everyone to empty out. Ditanu knew that there were still many men inside, unaware of the danger.\n\nAt last Ditanu and Raamah reached the steps of the Tower, where they dismounted before the donkeys had even come to a stop. Before them stretched a very long staircase that would take them to the top of the Tower’s tall base. The rest of the stairs were inside the building, along with Kainam’s clever platforms that rose and fell by the use of thick ropes, wheels, and trained elephants. There were also wide ramps spiraling around the exterior of the Tower, used to transport bricks to the utmost heights. Workers would stack clay bricks in large numbers onto sleds with greased skids, and teams of oxen would then pull them up the inclines. But work had ceased, and no further teams of oxen ascended with loads.\nAs Ditanu and Raamah arrived, lightning began to strike the uppermost levels of the Tower. The bolts were unnaturally fierce, breaking off chunks of the facade that within minutes would become a serious threat to anyone standing below. Ditanu wondered if the immortals would use lightning or wind to destroy the building, and it awed him to think about how strong either would need to be in order to accomplish the feat. Suddenly he was terrified to approach the Tower. He froze.\n\nRaamah sprang up the first steps two-at-a-time before he noticed that his friend was not with him. He paused just long enough to turn, read Ditanu’s face, and speak two words: “No time.” Then he took off like an arrow loosed from one of his beloved hunting bows.\n\nI could so easily die, Ditanu thought while watching Raamah go up. I’m only sixty years old; I’ve barely lived. And what will become of me if I perish? Will the gods of the underworld look favorably upon me? I have lived honorably, but is it enough to secure my place? Well, best not to think on those things now. Best merely to act, as Raamah does.\n\nAgainst his better judgment, he thawed himself and followed his insane, courageous companion up the entryway.\n\nFour doorless gates granted access to the Tower, one positioned at each of the cardinal directions, and each gate wide enough to admit an elephant. Two were used for entry and two for exit, and since the workers were still observing that convention for the most part, the entrances stood unobstructed. Raamah and Ditanu only had to first push through a throng of men who had stalled at the top of the stairs to gaze up at the storm. Some of the men knew Raamah or Ditanu, or both, and they called out questioningly but received no answers as the pair quickly forced their way past.\n\nOnce inside, they made a hard right onto the stairway designated for upward traffic. It was empty save for a handful of free thinkers who evidently didn’t see a point in sticking to the rules given the circumstances. Raamah and Ditanu were able to rush nearly unimpeded up the long flights to the sixth floor, which housed Kainam’s study. This they did in less time than Ditanu would have thought possible. Nonetheless, the last two flights nearly defeated him. Using fear and stubbornness, Ditanu forced his shaking legs and burning abdomen to finish the ascent. The pair of would-be rescuers were very fit young men, but the sprint pushed their athleticism to its limits, and by the time they had reached the proper floor, they both had to stop with hands on knees to catch their breath, deadline be damned.\n\n“My heart,” Ditanu gasped, “is knocking… a hole… through my sternum.”\n\n“That sounds terrible,” said Raamah, his speech labored. “I only stopped… out of respect for your plight.”\n\n“Do shut up.”\n\nHe did shut up, but with a self-satisfied smile. Moments later he was moving again, and as much as Ditanu wanted more rest, he also wanted to get out of the Tower quickly, so he followed. At that moment, they heard a muted series of cracks, and the building shook. They paused to determine whether anything else would happen, and when it didn’t, Ditanu said, “We may not be able to get down fast enough.”\n\n“Maybe not,” Raamah said, “But I will not turn back now.”\n\nUnfortunately, Kainam’s study was located on the opposite side of the building, due north, whereas they had come out of the southern stairwell. Every floor was laid out the same way, with a perimeter hallway encircling the whole level. Some floors contained a few rooms off the hallway, others none. The rest of the interior was solid brick—except, that is, for the center. The middle of the Tower consisted of conduits for lifts and a large, central shaft ringed by acoustic chambers every few floors. They couldn’t get across that empty central shaft, so they would have to run the hallway around the perimeter.\n\nAt least that’s what Ditanu thought until Raamah took off down the corridor that led to the heart of the Tower.\n\n“Where are you going?” he demanded.\n\n“The fastest way to Kainam is to cut through the center,” said Raamah.\n\n“Did you learn to fly recently?”\n\n“Perhaps!” That was all the explanation Ditanu received.\n\nThey soon arrived at the end of the corridor, where a copper door blocked the way. Raamah took hold of the crescent-shaped handle and slid the door aside, revealing an octagonal resonance chamber with no ceiling and no floor, whose surfaces were entirely covered by thin plates of silver. Ditanu knew little about the function of the shaft—only a few elders knew exactly how the device was intended to work—but it had to do with magnifying and transporting sound from the base of the Tower to its apex, where it would interact with some kind of fluid and focused sunlight.\n\nThey stepped into the room, to where the floor terminated in empty space. The gap created by the shaft was two reeds long, far too great a distance to jump across.\n\n“What now?” asked Ditanu.\n\n“Take your sandals off,” said Raamah as he removed his own. “Throw them to the other side.”\n\nDitanu did as instructed.\n\n“See the shallow ridge where the paneling ends and the naked wall above it is recessed?” said Raamah, pointing.\n\n“Yes, I see.”\n\n“Grab that with your fingers,” Raamah continued. “Then put your toes on the panels that tilt upward. And keep your torso close to the wall.”\n\nThe paneled walls of the chambers were not flat, but dimensional, made up of many tilted segments arranged in geometric patterns. Raamah meant to slide along three of the segmented walls to reach the other side.\n\n“You first,” insisted Ditanu.\n\n“Of course,” said Raamah. He did exactly as he had described, and it worked, if only barely. Ditanu could see the muscles of his friend’s forearms straining to the maximum to keep him affixed to the wall. Raamah slid his left hand along the ledge and his left foot to the next angled surface. Once he was spread-eagle he shifted his torso over and transfered his right limbs to closer holds. He repeated this process again, more quickly, and again, until he had covered the first of the three walls.\n\nWith a deep breath, Ditanu mounted the wall as he had been shown.\n\n“By the gods!” said Ditanu. “Now I know it is true. Before this I had only suspected you were half a madman.”\n\n“That makes you the other half, Ditanu, because here you are, copying my every move.”\n\n“Which only proves you to be a bad influence. But if your madness gets us through this adventure alive, I promise to retract that and call you gifted and brilliant, instead. A marvel among men!”\n\n“Ha! Now I truly have something to live for!” joked Raamah. “Are you coming?”\n\nDitanu looked down and felt his pulse soar. He fought to keep calm. He didn’t fear heights, exactly, but then again, he had never hung over a chasm by little more than his fingertips. He could hardly believe what he was doing.\n\nDown the shaft fell a cool and steady wind. It helped him. Ditanu used the sensation of the air currents to focus himself, to block out the what-ifs. Once his mind was eased, he was able to make his way across even faster than Raamah.\n\nWhen he was nearly done traversing the shaft, he looked up. Far above, through the unfinished top of the Tower, he saw the bellies of evil clouds light up as jagged thunderbolts hurled themselves down from heaven. The sound of their fury echoed loudly within the shaft.\n\n“Hurry!” said Raamah, who was already standing safely on the ledge, awaiting his companion.\n\nDitanu quickened his pace and soon crossed the gap. When he stepped onto the ledge, Raamah clapped him on the shoulder and handed him his sandals. “You made it look easy,” Raamah said.\n\n“It was almost fun.”\n\nAs Ditanu went to open the door, the Tower lurched. A deafening noise assaulted them as bricks and bitumen cracked, and silver panels bent. The floor shifted to the north, causing Raamah to lose his footing, and he toppled. Backwards he fell, powerless to stop himself from becoming food in the maw of the chasm.\n\nOn instinct, Ditanu’s hand shot out and caught him by the forearm before his feet had left the floor. Ditanu’s other hand gripped the handle of the copper door like an eagle’s talon, and so he kept them both from falling. With a yank he pulled Raamah upright.\n\nHis friend’s eyes were wide with fear. “Thank you,” he said in a slightly trembling voice.\n\n“Kush would flay me if I returned without you,” Ditanu said with a smirk.\n\nDitanu forcefully slid the door into its alcove, and they bolted down the corridor towards Kainam’s study. Dust falling from a ceiling suddenly askew got in their faces as they ran, but they didn’t let it slow them down. They reached the intersection of the hallways, turned, and burst through the portal to the study, nearly tripping over Kainam as they did so. He was lying on the ground, in the dark, half-covered in broken pieces of bricks. The nearest quartz-like permalight had fallen from its sconce and shattered. On the ground next to the Overseer were several leather bags stuffed with tablets and scrolls.\n\nRaamah sighed as he looked down at the man, but Ditanu got on the ground and put his ear to Kainam’s mouth. He listened.\n\n“I hear breathing. I think he lives.”\n\n“Good! Take his feet, and I will take his arms. Leave the bags.”\n\nDitanu stood and shook his head. “Kainam’s attempt to save his library may have doomed us all,” he mused.\n\nThey scraped the rubble from Kainam’s back and hoisted him off the floor, but not before Raamah had taken a coil of rope from elsewhere in the study and slung it over his shoulders.\n\n“Now back the way we came,” said Raamah while adjusting his grip on Kainam’s wrists.\n\n“Not to the stairs?”\n\n“No, we must get to the lifts.”\n\n“The lifts will not be running any longer. Oh, you intend to make use of the lifts’ ropes, is that it?”\n\n“Indeed it is.”\n\n“While holding the Overseer? Is such a thing possible?”\n\n“Do you have a better idea?”\n\n“Not as such.”\n\n“Then let’s go.”\n\nThe lifts operated within four separate conduits arrayed about the central shaft, so Raamah and Ditanu retraced their footsteps down the corridor towards that shaft, moving as quickly as they could manage while carrying a grown man. Raamah explained as they went what Ditanu should do when they reached the lift.\n\nThe building wobbled and shifted twice more before they arrived at the nearest of the four vertical passageways. The conduit housed a single lift which sat uselessly at ground level; Ditanu saw the empty wooden cage as he peered down from six floors above it. The elephant and its handler were missing. As he expected, the workers responsible for the lifts had given up their jobs and fled with their animals when the shaking began. Ditanu had the feeling that whoever remained high in the Tower would not make it down the many flights of stairs before the building crumbled around them.\n\nDitanu did as he was asked, holding the unconscious Kainam up behind Raamah so that he could tie the Overseer’s hands together in front of Raamah’s neck. Raamah would be choked from the dead weight, but only for as long as it took to descend. Ditanu could only hope that his friend was strong enough to maintain a controlled fall with Kainam riding on his back.\n\nThe building was now severely rocking around them. Wasting no time, Raamah leapt with his passenger into the conduit and deftly grabbed the hoist ropes. He grunted loudly as Kainam’s weight crushed his throat. A heartbeat later he was sliding down the ropes, and fast.\n\nDitanu waited only seconds before launching himself as Raamah had. He felt a rush of excitement and terror at a level that he had never known, even when, as a youth, he’d run from one of the great reptiles. Despite his sudden trembling, Ditanu’s hands did not fail to find one of the hoist ropes and grip it tightly, and there he was, dangling in space like a primate from a vine.\n\nDitanu loosened his grip enough to allow gravity to do its work, and immediately he regretted following Raamah’s lead on this. The rope was burning his hands as he fell. In seconds, the skin had been stripped from his pads and palms, leaving raw flesh. Pain lit his vision with crimson fire. He couldn’t let go, he had to keep gripping the rope to slow his descent, but it was torture. Everything in him demanded that he unhand the line.\n\nNo! Ditanu ordered himself. I will not die!\n\nSo he screamed in agony, and kept a hold, and didn’t die.\n\nAnd then his feet touched the floor, and his legs flexed instinctively, but it was a hard landing and he tumbled backwards onto a jumble of broken boards. Raamah and Kainam had hit the top of the lift with too much momentum, and their combined mass had collapsed the entire cage. Now Raamah was on his elbows and knees, coughing to try and open up his crushed windpipe, while Kainam, still comatose, lie on his back beside him. Raamah had his hands open to the air, palms up, bloody and ragged. Ditanu’s own trembling hands were almost as bad; he moaned against the torment of it.\n\nWe cannot stay here, no matter the pain, Ditanu thought.\n\nHardening his will, Ditanu scrambled to his feet. Using his hands as little as possible, he squatted and with a loud grunt scooped up the Overseer. Legs straining, he made for the exit.\n\n“Raamah, up with you! We must move!”\n\nHe wondered then if Raamah could move, or if perhaps his legs had broken upon impact, but the constable did indeed get up as ordered. Wordlessly, gulping air, he stumbled after Ditanu.\n\nA great noise rose as they ran for the gate, a noise of howling winds combined with bricks sliding, breaking, crashing. In his heart, Ditanu became convinced that this was the end for them, but he pushed on nonetheless. He wasn’t going to die lying down.\n\nMuch to his surprise, they did make it alive to the gate, and through it, to the exterior walkway where men fought fierce gales to stay upright as they fled down the stairs. A gush of wind caused Ditanu to nearly tip over as he emerged from inside, but Raamah noticed and shoved him so that he regained his balance. They rushed on, flinching as bricks fell and shattered around them. Just before they reached the stairs, Raamah diverted from the escape route and went towards the nearest ramp.\n\n“Hold there!” he yelled to Ditanu over the winds. \n\nDitanu did not understand, but he stopped anyway and dropped to his knees as his arm muscles gave out. He could no longer hold Kainam. Panting and limp-armed, he looked up fearfully at the Tower. Clouds of dust and debris spun furiously around the structure, making it rock like a drunkard. He saw men sucked out of the Tower and tossed about in the whirlwind, and their distant screams struck his heart.\n\nRaamah came back carrying an empty brick-sled in his raw hands. He set the object atop the flat newel that capped one of the staircase stringers, then he picked up the limp Overseer and hauled him up, growling all the while against the pain of using his hands.\n\nClever, thought Ditanu as he climbed onto the sled, resigned to the fact that this fast method of escape would end in more pain.\n\nAs soon as they were seated in a row with Kainam between them, Raamah shoved off with his hands and sent the sled sliding down the stringer. The surface was steep and smooth, and their acceleration upon it sensational. Ditanu gripped tightly the sides of the sled, heedless of the pain it caused him. In very little time they had bypassed the long set of stairs and reached the newel at the bottom. They shot off the stringer at untold speed and sailed over much ground before the tip of the sled bit the earth, hurling them from the vehicle like insects flicked by a tail. Ditanu landed on his shoulder, rolled several times, and came to rest face-up on the packed dirt beside the road.\n\nThe world was dim for a fair few moments, the sounds of men running and shouting, far distant. Ditanu perceived the steady whoosh of his breath through his nostrils, and considered it strangely predominant but comforting. He didn’t want to move his aching body, but the fog in his head gradually lifted, and fear returned, and Ditanu thought it best to prop himself up to see what was happening.\n\nHis old friend, that great Tower of Babili, was slain. The whirlwind had twisted and torn it asunder, toppling it as a titan of old. It had resisted proudly but in the end was overcome, and now it crumbled under the divine onslaught. Ditanu let out a groan of anguish over the defeat, even as he savored the fact that he himself yet lived.\n\nAnd how was it that he lived, being still so close to the Tower? Ditanu realized that he would survive only because the Tower was falling away from the city instead of towards it.\n\nWe are spared, thought Ditanu, confused. Why has the city been spared?\n\nAll at once it was raining bricks. The whirlwind had thoroughly disassembled the top of the Tower and scattered the pieces so that they pelted the whole land like hail. Most of the bricks had been flung away from the city, in the direction that the tower was falling, but not all of them. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Small explosions of earth marked the spots where the bricks ended their journeys. Ditanu curled up and covered his head with his arms until the deadly shower had stopped. He opened his eyes just in time to see a wall of tan clouds roll over everything.\n\nThough he had not been crushed, he now had to survive suffocation. His fight for air began even before the noise of the collapse had ended, as the whole world became a cloud of clay dust that tried to choke the life out of him. Ditanu quickly squeezed shut his eyes against the airborne grit, but too late, his lids closing over detritus that had already coated his eyeballs. He hardly felt that particular pain, because every breath was an excruciating labor as dirt and dust and sand invaded his lungs, scraping at delicate tissues. He tried to hold his already polluted breath, but it was futile. His body instinctively gasped and, finding little air to use, violently ejected the dust so that he could gasp again, and again. As he coughed uncontrollably for minutes on end, he thought surely he would die, and he silently cursed the God who had brought this disaster. Never mind that he had not destroyed the entire city. Was the present calamity not reason enough?\n\nBut Ditanu did not die. Slowly, imperceptibly, the dust settled and the air became breathable, and his hacking subsided. He blinked over and over as his eyes watered, until finally the grit was washed out. Then, sitting up, he looked around and spotted Raamah and Kainam in a nearby patch of grass, both alive. He breathed a sigh of relief. Kainam was awake and still struggling to clear his lungs, while Raamah unfolded and examined a thick, square sheet of some kind, probably less than a cubit side to side. Something that Kainam had been carrying? Ditanu wondered.\n\nRaamah pointed to something on the document. Ditanu faintly heard him ask, “What is this? Did you make this drawing?”\n\nKainam rose and tried to snatch the sheet out of his hands, but Raamah deftly kept it out of the Overseer’s reach. \n\n“Amara na togo siyk la’shah nu!” objected Kainam in a strange tongue.\n\nDitanu got to his feet, watching curiously as Raamah glanced back and forth between the sheet in his hands and the unhappy Overseer. He noticed that many of those on the road were watching the drama as well, and not a few people were coming out of their homes on the outskirts of the city now that the danger had passed. Everyone around recognized Kainam, the sage of Babili, and many likely also knew Raamah, one of the threescore constables.\n\nAs Ditanu approached the two, he noticed a shift in Raamah’s eyes. A cool certainty set in, and it seemed to Ditanu that emotion had left his friend all at once. Raamah calmly folded the document and secured it in his sheepskin kilt while holding Kainam at bay. Then he kicked the man to the ground.\n\nDitanu froze, a sudden knot in his stomach. He watched in shock as Raamah took up a large brick that lie near at hand. His friend raised the heavy object over his head and with a strong, sure motion brought it down hard on Kainam’s skull. The Overseer’s brainpan gave way, deforming hideously, and he was dead that instant. Ditanu had never witnessed a man’s insides come out, or the disfigurement of a face that has been crushed, and at the sight of it he immediately retched.\n\nThe next several minutes were a blur. Someone attacked Raamah, and others followed. He fought back. In that moment, Ditanu was forced to make a decision: believe that there was a method to Raamah’s madness, and protect him, or cut ties and let him fend for himself.\n\nLifelong friendship won out. Ditanu came to his friend’s aid, and to his surprise, he was joined by those who either thought highly of Raamah or simply wanted to break up the fight. What began as a small brawl somehow spilled over into the western extents of the city, and before long almost all of Babili was fighting. As a single spark sets ablaze a vast meadow, so Raamah had ignited hell in Shinar.\n\n**There's more! Go on to chapter three.**",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"http://kck.st/2Lb3bQU\",\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\",\"https://steemit.com/story/@wtchmnalexander/reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "e7a8fdfc02da9afd3638dcd0aaa93a9d6f311e82",
  "block": 25235924,
  "trx_in_block": 88,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-20T14:53:24",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "story",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "reign-of-the-rebel-chapter-1-of-4",
      "title": "Reign of the Rebel, Chapter 1 (of 4)",
      "body": "**The following is a sample from a forthcoming novel. If you like what you read, please visit the Kickstarter campaign for _Reign of the Rebel_.**\n\n**The first four chapters are also available in audio format at https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4**\n\nCHAPTER ONE\n\nFresh, warm blood dribbled down the man’s beard as he drank. With eyes closed, he guzzled half of the contents of the shallow wooden bowl he held before passing it to the woman at his side. She took it and lifted it to her lips without hesitation. Behind them, a young ox lay on the ground, twitching as its life drained from a gash in its neck.\n\nWhen the woman had drunk her portion of the ox blood, she set the bowl aside and bowed her face to the earth. The man did likewise. Chants of adoration and thanks flowed from their lips unto their god, whose clay effigy, set high on a rock ledge, stoically received their praise.\n\nThough they knew it not, the worshipers were not alone, for a pair of celestial beings looked on from a nearby knoll. The beings appeared as men, but mightier of stature, and radiant. Handsome but grave, they stood silently documenting the scene before them with the use of an otherwordly scope.\n\nAs the man and woman rose from their worship, the onlookers turned and left, satisfied that they had made enough recordings of the humans of Shinar. It was time for the Watchers to return to Empyrean and present their evidence to the archangels, who would take it before the Council.\n\n===\n\nA trumpet blasted, clear and bright. Its long call resounded throughout the third heaven, from the holy mountain to the dark edge of the cosmos. Penetrated by the commanding tone, all of the spirits in Empyrean turned from their tasks to face the Mountain of God. They bowed deeply out of respect, knowing that important events would soon be decided, for the sound of Gabriel's trumpet summoned the Divine Council.\n\nAt the center of Empyrean stood a glorious mountain surrounded by clear waters: Mt. Zion, dwelling-place of Adonai Most High. Its base was broad and its slope gentle, and it glowed softly because of the stones of fire scattered along its granite faces. Halfway up the mountain on the eastern flank grew Eden, the Garden of God, a paradise fed by waterfalls that descended from the peak. As the mountain continued upward from Eden its sides became very steep and altered, and its appearance was like basalt columns made of smoked glass. At the top of the mountain sat the Great City and its Holy Temple, ringed by thick clouds awash in light. The sky overhead rolled with quicksilver.\n\nFigures rose from the water and gathered on the mountain's rainbow shore. Dozens of them arrived from all directions, beckoned by the trumpet call. After waiting silently for their full number to arrive, they gracefully made their way up to Eden on stairways carved in the granite. They were nobility incarnate, stately and radiant in every aspect, possessing not the least flaw. Of all the spirits they were the most beautiful and august, though perhaps not from the perspective of a human.\n\nThese were the Sons of God.\n\nThe Sons of God were the elders of all Creation, beings molded in the primal fire beneath the throne of the Lord of Spirits. At the dawn of all things, before the lower realms had been fashioned, the Sons had been spawned--mature and complete--from the sacred flame. They had celebrated together with legendary praises when the Almighty and his Anointed One, his eldest son, had laid the foundations of the earth.\n\nThe other inhabitants of Empyrean, an innumerable heavenly host, were the handiwork of those blessed Sons of God. It had pleased the Most High to give his sons authority to create the lesser spirits, while the Anointed One and the second eldest, Mastema, had created life on Earth.\n\nThe younger sons had done well, filling Empyrean with multitudes upon multitudes of diverse spirits in but three days. On the fourth day, the Most High had rejoiced greatly over the work of his sons, and had ordered the creation of stars in the firmament for the host to indwell. Much had happened since that day, and now those stars—possessed of spirits—were being worshiped by ignorant and debased mortals. Some of those mortals had begun to drink blood, and to fornicate, and they had established a great city on the earth. The council had come to discuss these matters.\n\nSet in the midst of Eden, the chamber of the council was an imposing, open-sided rotunda second only to the Temple in glory. Its domed roof sat on massive columns of mixed jade and ivory. At each of the four cardinal points were a pair of golden trees between adjacent columns, forming portals. The Sons of God entered through the northern portal, walking five abreast in a line twenty-four ranks long. They numbered one hundred twenty spirits in total. Each knew his place within the arrangement of the chamber, and took it.\n\nThe Sons were not the only spirits in attendance. Nobles filled the terraced pews which ringed the structure, and many lesser denizens of Empyrean stood or floated beyond the columns, eager to watch the proceedings even from a distance.\n\nThe Anointed One of God was the last to enter. He came from the East. Great was his light, and magnificent his garments. The hair of his head was brilliant white, and upon that head rested a crown of purest gold inset with twelve gems. His skin was like molten metal and his eyes like lightning in the midnight sky. He stood still momentarily, giving the Council time to acknowledge his presence, which they did in concert. The one hundred twenty members bowed as one towards the Anointed, and they remained bent until he had taken his seat on the throne in the center of the chamber. They then straightened and with perfect order lowered themselves sequentially onto chairs more splendid than the thrones of any earthly kings.\n\nGabriel, Raphael, and Mezariel, three archangels, accompanied the Anointed to the gathering. They remained standing in a group at the right hand of their lord. Having been crafted by the Sons, the archangels were not numbered among the members of the Council, but they attended the Anointed as his chosen servants. They resembled men, but with skin as hard and translucent as topaz, and faces that gleamed like polished metal. Gabriel held a silver trumpet, Raphael a scroll, and Mezariel a sword.\n\nRaphael frowned as he took in the scene. He tilted his head towards Gabriel and whispered, “I sense a peculiar note in the set of their faces and the form of their postures. Too rigid, I think. Or am I imagining it?”\n\n“Nay, I perceive it also,” said Gabriel, “teeth set on edge, the same as when they learned that Noah would be spared. They worry.”\n\nMezariel nodded and said, “Not without reason.”\n\nThe other angels looked at him inquisitively, and he could see concern on their faces. Mezariel said, “Peace, brothers, I harbor no ill intent. But it pains me to see the mortals degenerate again.”\n\n“And I,” said Raphael. “It is like watching a ship escape the waves of a squall only to crash into a reef.”\n\n“Yet the land beyond the reef may hold the greatest treasures,” retorted Gabriel. “Surely the Lord foresaw these events. Will the Sons not trust him?”\n\nThe question went unanswered. The archangels looked out at the shining aspects of those gathered around them and wondered if any concealed a seed of darkness in their hearts.\n\nThe council’s seats were arranged in concentric rings divided into twelve spokes. Only one member occupied the innermost position of each spoke. These were the twelve chief archons. Behind each archon, on the larger circles, sat sets of two, three, and four lesser rulers.\n\nAlthough these one hundred twenty Sons held various ranks and enjoyed different privileges, they all shared a likeness. In form they were as men, having four limbs and twenty digits, but their semblance was like that of feathered serpents. They were covered in iridescent scales, and beautiful plumage grew from their shoulders, backs, and elongated skulls. In diversity and richness of color they were like hummingbirds, but they had no beaks or talons. Accenting their bold colors were opalescent jewels set at pleasing intervals among their scales. One of their most striking features were golden eyes with irises shaped like four-pointed stars. Their kind were called **seraphiym**, the dragons of Empyrean. Among the sons, only the Anointed One was not a dragon—the firstborn defied classification altogether.\n\nIn a voice both sonorous and sweet, the Anointed addressed the gathering, saying, “Blessed be the Lord of Spirits, whose glory is eternal. May his goodness preside over this assembly.”\n\nAnd the spirits said, “Amen.”\n\n“We have convened to determine the fate of the rebel city-builders of Shinar,” said the Anointed. “Raphael will state the allegations.”\n\nThe archangel unfurled his scroll and held it at arms’ length. He read, “Concerning those sons of Adam who dwell in the city called Babili, the Watchers bring accusation on the following four charges: Count one, contempt of the Most High, demonstrated by refusal to spread out over the face of the earth. Count two, exceptional hubris in attempting to use fame as a recruiting tool against the young. Count three, use of forbidden and unlawfully-obtained knowledge with the intent to invade Empyrean. Count four, additional violations of the oral precepts taught by Noah, including but not limited to the consumption of animal blood. Recordings of these behaviors have been assigned to the sixth well of the Watcher miskenotope.” Raphael closed the scroll and took a step back.\n\nSuddenly the chamber was full of voices as the Sons launched into deliberations. As they discussed the charges, they accessed the Watcher archives through instruments strapped to their inner wrists. By bringing together the disk-shaped devices on each wrist, forearms crossed in an uneven X, a seraph could mentally engage with the miskenotope and other information storehouses of Empyrean.\n\nAfter a time, Gabriel called for silence.\n\n“You have seen how the matter stands,” said the Anointed. “Archons, share your thoughts.”\n\nSusarakh was the first archon to respond. He stood, and a cobalt blue symbol appeared, coruscating, in the air above his forehead. A dot between overlapping crescents, it indicated careful regard. Being an involuntary function of the seraphic mind, it took no effort to manifest such sigils—though, as with breathing, the function could be controlled somewhat. \nSusarakh said, “This turn of events greatly disturbs us. Only a few of the descendants of Noah have not rebelled, a paltry few. How can this be? And while Shem, righteous son of Noah, yet lives!”\n\n“You are right to be disturbed, Susarakh,” said the Anointed. “The mortals are quick to turn away from righteous instruction. Their spirits are dead, thus they succumb easily to desire and deceit. For this reason, Wisdom counseled us that long-suffering would be required on their account.”\n\nAnother archon spoke up: “Yes, Lord, and patiently we waited for men to reform during the days of Methuselah, yet they would not. They shut their ears to the prophets. In the end, they corrupted all flesh.”\n\n“Should we show lenience in the face of renewed defiance?” asked one of Susarakh’s subordinates.\n\n“This latter defiance surpasses the former in consequence,” added Susarakh. “Before the Great Deluge, the wickedness of men was confined to the earth. Now they threaten our very home!”\n\n“Lord, could mortals indeed enter Empyrean?” inquired one of the Sons.\n\nThe Anointed nodded. “It is possible but exceedingly difficult,” he said, “requiring more knowledge than they now possess. Nonetheless, consider: they are one people with one language, and together they have begun to accomplish this. Given time, nothing they imagine to do will be impossible for them.” \n\nIntense murmuring filled the chamber. This new revelation was fuel on a fire, and Mezariel could see that many of the Sons were struggling to keep calm. Mezariel himself was unsure what to think, and even if he’d had an opinion, it wouldn’t have factored into the deliberations, for legislation was not his role.\n\nAfter a moment, a blue-green archon named Agadoth rose to speak. “Mighty One, the disloyal mortals have removed themselves from under the authority of Noah, and thus from under yours. Hence they dwell within the jurisdiction of the Adversary—this we understand.” Some of the Sons glanced involuntarily at the empty, scorched seat to the left of the Anointed, remembering the traitor who had once occupied it. Agadoth continued, “Nonetheless, we fail to grasp the Dark One’s strategy. What does he hope to accomplish with the rebels? Surely he cannot endorse their quest to enter the realm of spirits. Why then has he not hindered it?”\n\nOther archons voiced their support for the query, but it was Susarakh who initiated the request for an interrogation. “Lord,” he said, “Let us bring up the Adversary and question him.”\n\n“Are you certain?” asked the Anointed. “Though he is compelled to speak truth in this chamber, the traitor is a gifted manipulator. His perspective may influence you all in unexpected ways.”\n\n“Our hearts will be flint,” said Yaedrith, one of the chiefs.\n\nSusarakh and five of the others in the innermost circle showed sigils of agreement, but the remaining five displayed unease.\n\nRespecting the consensus, the Anointed gave leave by nodding to Mezariel, who stepped away from the other archangels. He touched the tip of his sword to the floor, which was paved in huge slabs of sapphire. The stones were clear, revealing what lay underneath—not the dirt or rock of the mountain, but deep liquid filled with auroras of shifting light. Mezariel quickly traced a hexagram onto the sapphire before him and circumscribed it with a circle. As soon as the circle was completed, the glyph began to glow, and a blurry shadow rose up from beneath it. When the shadow met the floor, tendrils of vapor swirled up through the glyph and solidified into a kneeling crimson seraph with six pairs of leathery wings. Mezariel stepped back as the red serpent materialized. He kept his blade between them.\n\nMany in the crowd of onlooking spirits hummed with displeasure.\n\n“Mastema,” said the Anointed in an even tone, “the Council wishes to address you.”\n\nMastema was a dragon like the other seraphs, but his aspect had been changed at the Fall. His matte scales and steel-gray apparel clashed terribly with the splendor of his surroundings. He no longer shimmered, and his feathers were gone. The jewels among his scales had turned as black as ink.\n\n“It warms me to be needed,” said Mastema snidely as he rose to his feet. His twelve wings folded in, shrank, and disappeared into his back. Then the traitorous seraph performed an exaggerated bow to the room. “How may I serve, brothers?” he asked in a voice that sounded like a swarm of locusts. \n\nSusarakh looked around at the other Sons, seeking their permission to act as spokesperson. Sigils of affirmation flashed from his siblings, and he proceeded. “Explain why you have allowed men to undertake a project whose end will be the tearing of the veil.”\n\n“As you wish,” said Mastema. “But is it not obvious? I am surprised you need my input.”\n\n“Simply answer the question,” said Susarakh.\n\nMastema laughed at their dullness. “My reason is two-fold, and the first is now accomplished. You see for yourselves that it was wrong to put the divine image into those weak and naïve creatures of clay. They were impulsive from the start, not to mention disloyal, as I proved to my own detriment. Rash, selfish, and inventive: a perilous combination, Brothers. Very perilous. By leaving the humans to their own devices, the Anointed has endangered all of Empyrean, and the Most High allows it.”\n\nMezariel glanced at the Anointed, aware of his zeal for the Father’s honor. The Lord’s eyes were a raging storm, but he kept his peace.\n\nMastema continued, “If the mortals do pierce the veil, they will be sealing their own doom. As I said, they are predictably impulsive, and they will push through before they invent a control valve. My forces will then launch a counter-invasion and annihilate the hairless primates. Their destruction will be of their own making.” The dark archon looked back at the Anointed with arrogant eyes, saying, “It will not be my spirits who open the rift, therefore the Almighty will have no right to stop us from using it.”\n\n“But he has the right to protect those who serve him,” protested one of the lesser archons.\n\n“It is as you say, Brother,” said Mastema, finger in the air, “but even those righteous few must sooner or later die—it is the law. The penalty for sin is death, is it not? I will make a world so inhospitable to human life that reproduction will be unfeasible.” He closed his eyes to imagine the future. “Then verily, verily I will watch as the last of Adonai’s servants age and die, and leave behind a world free of human filth!”\n\nAn uproar erupted among the council, and Mastema smiled.\n\nRaphael looked about with shock. “Never have I seen the sons so agitated,” he said to Gabriel under a sigil of self-control. “This does not bode well.”\n\nAs the Divine Council bickered, Mastema leveled his gaze upon Mezariel, whose expression had gone blank. “I sense indecision within you,” said the Adversary. “It is not too late to join me. Act soon, for I will not extend mercy in the day of my victory.”\n\nMezariel’s eyes narrowed and he scribed the sigil of resolve in the air over his forehead. “You may have crafted me at the behest of the Almighty,” he said, “but I will not entertain your corrupt speech. You are a fool.”\n\nMastema said, “I am surprised, Mezariel, that you do not demonstrate greater courtesy in addressing your own father.” The seraph sounded genuinely pained.\n\n“I have but one father, the Lord of Spirits,” replied Mezariel.\n\n“Am I not called a son of the Most High, he who shaped me in the forge of his brilliance?” retorted Mastema, “And did he not allow me to forge **you** in turn?” As he spoke, he conjured the symbol for loving-kindness, a möbius knot of many colors.\n\nResolve faded from before Mezariel, and he turned his face away. “Adonai rebuke you, Mastema,” he said, but the words were half-hearted.\n\n“My firstborn—” Mastema began, but the Anointed One interrupted.\n\n“Silence, Mastema. You are dismissed.” As quickly as he had appeared, the Adversary faded into the sapphire pavement.\nGabriel called the assembly to order so that the Anointed could speak. “You have heard from our enemy,” he said. “Much is at stake. Offer your proposals, that we may act.”\n\nSusarakh was the first to respond. “The mortals have become hazardous to the entire Creation. We see no choice but to place them under the strictest subjection. As slaves to the upright spirits, they would not be allowed to transgress.”\n“If they are entirely subjected to our will, what of love?” asked the Anointed. “The Father gifted them freedom of choice, regardless of the consequences, precisely because of his great love.”\n\n“He also granted freedom to the Watchers,” rebutted Susarakh. It was all he needed to say, for not a single spirit in Empyrean was unaware of the sins of the Watchers who had lived upon Mt. Hermon and bred with mortal women.\n\n“The Watchers were neither naïve nor deceived, nor driven by the flesh, as are humans. Their mutiny was deliberate and extreme.”\n\n“Which is why we do not suggest that the mortals be eradicated. But it has become obvious that they cannot contend with the desires of the flesh, much less the deceptions of the Adversary. They are… they are weak and wretched creatures who must be controlled!”\n\n“Susarakh, my friend, do not allow the Adversary’s distaste of humanity to become your own.”\n\nSusarakh lowered his head and took his seat without response.\n\n“Further recommendations?” the Anointed said to the council.\n\nOne member suggested a month of impenetrable darkness, another argued for a devastating famine, and still another advocated a regional flood. Finally, an archon named Trinius campaigned for confusion.\n\n“Is it not mankind’s collective intelligence that poses a risk? If we frustrate their ability to cooperate, their schemes will unravel and they will choose to separate,” he said.\n\nThe Anointed One nodded, saying, “Wisdom has spoken through you, Trinius.” The Firstborn stood, and as he reached full stature, his body lifted from the floor and rose nearly into the dome of the rotunda. Ending further deliberation, he declared, “Come, let us go down and confuse their speech.”\n\n**Want more? Go on to chapter two!**",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"story\",\"fiction\",\"christianity\",\"religion\"],\"links\":[\"https://soundcloud.com/user-243061771/reign-of-the-rebel-chapters-1-4\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "257f099625e9e452aef64e8a88beb7e6b9893f8c",
  "block": 24924441,
  "trx_in_block": 17,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-09T19:14:00",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "voronoi",
      "parent_permlink": "steemit-for-artists-a-new-stage-for-craft",
      "author": "wtchmnalexander",
      "permlink": "re-voronoi-steemit-for-artists-a-new-stage-for-craft-20180809t191354611z",
      "title": "",
      "body": "Thank you for sharing this.",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"art\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\"}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "f13f9e6ecd52e069879f0f1bcea9ca593fd783f2",
  "block": 24924417,
  "trx_in_block": 5,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-09T19:12:48",
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "voter": "wtchmnalexander",
      "author": "voronoi",
      "permlink": "steemit-for-artists-a-new-stage-for-craft",
      "weight": 10000
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "e9dedd6529a41527135f6efde54ae8a14398363a",
  "block": 24924143,
  "trx_in_block": 21,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-09T18:59:03",
  "op": [
    "custom_json",
    {
      "required_auths": [],
      "required_posting_auths": [
        "wtchmnalexander"
      ],
      "id": "follow",
      "json": "[\"follow\",{\"follower\":\"wtchmnalexander\",\"following\":\"joshpeck\",\"what\":[\"blog\"]}]"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "715d74ebcac9aa34aa016eb9f914148bd43116f6",
  "block": 24923309,
  "trx_in_block": 26,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-09T18:17:21",
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "wtchmnalexander",
      "memo_key": "STM7UQCjgTersBLekymyVWMunepMiUmxhUgkPzttqPf7pVs1mC27N",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZ6WZkRawoMpCUoc6Bw2XRGNkUbp6yGLBivSHuU5sKoHR/Alexander%20Stylized%20Headshot.png\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYTT5asP5xgRD4u7sQcUAYSSvJAnZUpb3wJTBgiCKXaSn/Intro_Banner-no%20logo.png\",\"name\":\"Watchman Alexander\",\"about\":\"Alexander Lawrence is a family man, author, artist, and lay scholar walking after Y'shua ha-Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah).\",\"location\":\"Austin, Texas, USA\",\"website\":\"https://www.watchmanalexander.com\"}}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "162f77cd6009a6eadc29290ed71bfce038307833",
  "block": 24923217,
  "trx_in_block": 44,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-09T18:12:45",
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "wtchmnalexander",
      "memo_key": "STM7UQCjgTersBLekymyVWMunepMiUmxhUgkPzttqPf7pVs1mC27N",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZ6WZkRawoMpCUoc6Bw2XRGNkUbp6yGLBivSHuU5sKoHR/Alexander%20Stylized%20Headshot.png\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmP8Ej6gp2jtrhXDJfsLZWzgJVybJDxDnm5hizEuAhjMHd/Alex%20preaching%20at%20ME.png\",\"name\":\"Watchman Alexander\",\"about\":\"Alexander Lawrence is a family man, author, artist, and lay scholar walking after Y'shua ha-Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah).\",\"location\":\"Austin, Texas, USA\",\"website\":\"https://www.watchmanalexander.com\"}}"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "7b81f81de1a8d58641be9078e483a9b019fa6b5f",
  "block": 24922826,
  "trx_in_block": 25,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-09T17:53:12",
  "op": [
    "transfer",
    {
      "from": "blocktrades",
      "to": "wtchmnalexander",
      "amount": "0.593 STEEM",
      "memo": ""
    }
  ]
}

{
  "trx_id": "7b81f81de1a8d58641be9078e483a9b019fa6b5f",
  "block": 24922826,
  "trx_in_block": 25,
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-08-09T17:53:12",
  "op": [
    "account_create",
    {
      "fee": "3.000 STEEM",
      "creator": "blocktrades",
      "new_account_name": "wtchmnalexander",
      "owner": {
        "weight_threshold": 1,
        "account_auths": [],
        "key_auths": [
          [
            "STM6s5WiiYw5yiBQojWvdjRriozdtVgRiEHE64QMeNFaV4CBqv46K",
            1
          ]
        ]
      },
      "active": {
        "weight_threshold": 1,
        "account_auths": [],
        "key_auths": [
          [
            "STM6SyQWjXhDw7yKN2atwJtKhC319EfAeJfrDexmjGtjnWvcDPLDv",
            1
          ]
        ]
      },
      "posting": {
        "weight_threshold": 1,
        "account_auths": [],
        "key_auths": [
          [
            "STM7V6oWnfYoejzBugPLQn2ysNApu9QCH78Cp4SJQtDbypcMswLuE",
            1
          ]
        ]
      },
      "memo_key": "STM7UQCjgTersBLekymyVWMunepMiUmxhUgkPzttqPf7pVs1mC27N",
      "json_metadata": "{}"
    }
  ]
}