Submission

  81 The fallen king is beaten, bruised, and burned,

  Yet, he will not yield to call the prophet.

  Eyes are blinded and his bones are broken,

  Yet, Azarius will not be summoned.

  82 In a final act of desperation,

  Bafomet shall bring King Aeon’s traitor.

  Lord Kethu is delivered to the keep,

  Where he is overcome by mortal grief.

  83 ‘Great evil has been done to you, my King.’

  ‘The price of my betrayal is my soul.’

  ‘I am less than worthy of forgiveness.’

  ‘For my sin, my blade will end my torment.’

  84-1 Aeon, who had never known betrayal,

  Now heard the grief that filled his brother’s voice.

  Aeon, who had never known forgiveness,

  Now felt the virtue that remained in men.

  84 ‘Stay your blade, beloved brother Kethu,’

  ‘Your torments shall yet be absolved in life.’

  ‘I shall give to you a sacred duty.’

  ‘By Kethu, Me?’s Children shall be saved.’

  85 Bafomet is summoned to the keep,

  Where Aeon makes capitulation known.

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  In his throes, he calls out for the prophet,

  Azarius then comes within the hour.

  86 Azarius greets Aeon in his grief,

  Even though the doom of king was fated.

  He had raised this king from boy to manhood,

  And to the prophet, Aeon was a son.

  86-1 ‘I rue this hour every time it comes,’

  ‘For I have known you since you were a child.’

  ‘Know that we will meet again in daylight,’

  ‘Though you won’t recall this night of trial.’

  86-2 King Aeon speaks, ‘I make but two requests:’

  ‘Light the Ed? gateway now in shadow,’

  ‘And also, that you guide my brother’s flight.’

  ‘Swear to this and I forgive you, also.’

  87 Azarius agrees to king’s requests,

  And Bafomet demands the gate be shown.

  But Azarius derides the Archon:

  ‘It shall be revealed when I decide it.’

  88 ‘The terms of gate’s revealing shall be thus:’

  ‘Bafomet and host shall cross to Ed?,’

  ‘Then Aeon’s clan and Raptors go unharmed.’

  ‘I go last, preceded by nine dragons.’

  89 Bafomet will protest this arrangement,

  But it knows there is no other recourse.

  Nine Nezulim sarcophagi are marked,

  And Nephilim will lift them from their crypt.

  90 Azarius and Kethu speak alone,

  Unheard by the listening ears of villains.

  ‘Be wary of the priests of Bafomet…’

  ‘Or too few of yours will see a harvest.’