4.4 Kane and Abel

Book IV: The Curse of Y’AH-Way
Chapter 4: Kane and Abel

With my God-persona “Yahway” now in play, with the concept of sacrifice becoming ingrained in the psyche of my beloved human pawns, and with the Eye of Seraphiel burning a hole in my sleeve begging me to use it, I was ready to move events forward again.

One night, as Adam and Eve slept, I was lounging in a chair in my chambers and gazing into the Eye, watching the future of my pawns unfold.

I saw Kane’s fury simmering, his resentment towards Abel growing each day. I saw Debor’s inner turmoil and the darkness creeping into her soul. Naturally I used the Eye to amplify their feelings, whispering to them through their dreams, always planting seeds of discord and despair.

When the children reached puberty, Adam and Eve noticed the way their kids began to look at one another — it became clear that they were going to start breeding soon. The man and his mate were thrilled by this prospect and were eager to have their children produce more offspring  — since this was merely a natural progression of the species and as far as they knew they were the only humans on the planet. 

As Yayway, I instructed Adam to pair his children as follows: Kane with Kala, and Abel with Debor.

“But what about Aklima?” Adam asked me, as we sat on a hillock overlooking the family’s farm.

“Ah, Aklima the beautiful.” My Yahway smiled, observing the fair maiden as she gathered herbs with her mother.

“I fear Kane and Abel both want her.” Adam advised, although he failed to admit the obvious — that he lusted for his daughter too.

Here it was that I laid my trap. “The solution is simple. Have Kane and his brother make an offering to me. I will judge their work and whoever pleases me more shall be awarded Aklima.”

Adam took the bait and both of the boys worked hard to prepare their best sacrifices. 

By this time Kane was a skillful farmer and that season he had produced a bountiful crop. From this bumper crop Kane offered a beautiful sacrifice to his father’s god. Meanwhile, Abel had become a sheep herder and he chose to offer one of the many fattened calves from his herd — one which his mother helped him select. 

As the fires rose in the sky over their gifts, what none of the family knew was that I made it appear that Kane’s offering was not accepted, while at the same time, causing Abel’s to seemingly receive Yahway’s divine favor.

The result was as you might expect – Abel received the praise of his parents, he was given both Debor and Aklima, while Kane was stuck with only Kala and left to wallow in disillusionment and jealousy.

As Abel relished in the pleasures of having two teenage girls to amuse himself with, Kane soon became depressed – exactly as I had planned. The Eye of Seraphiel showed me the exact moment to push him over the edge, ensuring that his actions would bring about the maximum amount of suffering for his family – and that moment was fast approaching.

Taking on the persona of an evil sprite, I made sure that Kane understood just where his life was heading: focusing on the powerful significance of being rejected by his father’s god, that he’d been unloved by his mother since the day he was born, and that most likely he would soon lose his father’s birthright.

As I told Kane, “Surely your spiteful mother Eve will convince Adam to give these benefits to her beloved Abel – especially since your brother is sure to produce more offspring then you and that will make him more valuable to your father.”

All of this proved too much for Kane to bear and he soon gave vent to his wrath — murdering Abel in a blind rage [and with that my plans were back on track!].

When Kane finally struck Abel down in a fit of rage, it was, of course, the culmination of my careful machinations. His fratricide was more than just a murder; it was the birth of sin among humans – fracturing the innocence of mankind and making them even more susceptible to my influence!

This is important because as humans continued to multiply, I knew the legacy of Kane’s sin would spread like a dark stain, embedding itself into the very fabric of humanity and making them descend into a state where they could be fully controlled by me – yet free enough to think they had a choice.

As for Kane, much to his chagrin, not only did murder of his brother not yield him the rewards he wanted, but instead only further served to alienate him. To begin with I disguised myself as Adam’s creator god yet again and forever cursed Kane with The Mark of Immortality – making it impossible for him to die a natural death or to be killed by his own hand or anyone else’s. I placed the mark on Kane’s forehead as a single, dark slash etched deeply into his skin. His future was inevitable and even though he didn’t know it yet, I could see it before it happened…

What Kane didn’t know is that his scar would remain as an unhealing wound, ever so slightly glowing with an eerie, otherworldly shadow – a constant reminder of his curse. Its simplicity was its horror, a grotesque brand that would forever mark him as the first murderer – and EVERYONE would know it – FOR ALL TIME!

And yet, my magic is many layered – and beautiful. As such, I fashioned Kane’s scar so that tendrils of the mark wrap around his temples, pulsing with a dark energy that kept the man unyielding to time by secretly (but slowly) siphoning the life force from the surrounding environment, ensuring Kane’s his immortality. Although it wasn’t apparent why, being around Kane for extended period caused plants to wither, animals to die, and even people to age faster – making the man a pox to all who encountered him.

Meanwhile, Abel’s murder also caused great pains to Adam and Eve — Eve never looked at Kane again, while Adam, with a broken heart, cried as he cast his son out of their presence, forcing Kane to fend for himself in the wild lands of the world. 

Yet it was Kane who had the last laugh — [following my instructions] the young man secretly returned to his parent’s farm and kidnapped Aklima [not realizing he was writing the girl’s death sentence].

So it was that Adam and Eve were left to wallow in grief, while at the same time trying to console Debor and Kala. Yet it only got worse from there — using Seraphiel’s relic, I gave a quick pull on Debor’s threads of destiny. It worked like a charm – a few days later Debor drowned her sister in the river. Then while her parents were busy retrieving Kala’s body from the water, the half-mad Debor ran away screaming. 

[Since Debor wasn’t part of my long term plans and since I was busy dealing with the aftermath of Kane, I didn’t have time to worry about Debor’s mental health. I assumed she was going off to kill herself and that was fine by me].

Meanwhile I turned my attention back to Adam and Eve – as you can imagine they were a mess. That was perfect – so to add to their remorse I had Yahway visit them to remind them that all these woes were yet a consequence of their original sin back in Eden, hoping these recent disasters would make them hate their creator god.

“The pain is too much to bear.” Eve cried at the feet of the god figure I presented to them.

As Adam tried to console his wife, he asked “When will it all end, my Lord?”

“That is for me alone to know.” I was stern in my reply. “I don’t think you fully understand the pain you caused me back in Eden. Until you atone for that, your misery will continue. Remember, I am a jealous god – you shall worship none besides me. That includes your children – you doted over them too much. You took your focus away from me. You forced me to take your children away from you. Therefore it is YOU who are responsible for their deaths.”

The conversation crushed Adam and his mate to their core, yet their lamentations were music to my ears – a symphony of despair that fueled my ambitions. With each passing day, I knew their faith in Yahway grew more desperate, their hope for redemption more elusive. 

Eve was particularly distraught at my harsh words, yet Adam remained dogged in his faith. In a stupor he went around muttering, “Y’ah. The Way. I will find the way back to you, Lord. I will sacrifice. Don’t give up on us.”

Realizing they were not ready to hate A’H completely yet, I strung them along, “It will take much sacrifice for you to atone for these new sins. Do not let me down.”

After that, I left the couple alone for a while — who knows how many animals Adam sacrificed to his god yet little did he know that no one was listening.