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DANIEL KNOCKED HESITANTLY on the door of his father’s office. It was ten o’clock on Wednesday morning. This was the day and time the diviner had set for a weekly progress report. The ordeal was always embarrassing for Daniel—almost excruciating in the way it underscored his incompetence. Every week he could see the feverish anticipation in his father’s eyes when he entered the room, and every week he could see that anticipation change to cold disapproval at his lack of progress. He hoped today would be different.
“Enter,” a voice commanded from inside.
When Daniel let himself in, he saw that his father was in a meeting with two western community leaders. He felt a spiteful sense of pleasure at their crestfallen expressions. Misery loves company. Apparently, his father was no better pleased with these two than he was with his son. They scuttled from the room after murmuring a greeting in his direction. Their eyes were downcast, their shoulders hunched as if to ward off imaginary blows. The diviner had a way of exposing the hidden weaknesses of his flock. At least Daniel could see that there was nothing personal in his father’s abuse. Castigation was as natural to him as breathing.
Abraham regarded his son grimly. Daniel wasn’t even to be treated to that fleeting look of anticipation this week. “I expect you have nothing new to report,” the diviner said sourly.
“Then you’d be wrong,” the young man thought to himself though he didn’t dare say the words out loud. Instead, he adopted a mild demeanor. “Actually, I do have some news, sir.”
The old man’s head snapped to attention. “Then sit down and tell me.”
Daniel felt somewhat disinclined to slouch today. He strode purposefully across the room and sat in the visitor’s chair in front of his father’s massive desk. The chair was low. It did not allow level eye contact with the diviner. A person would be forced to gaze upward to carry on a conversation. The young man speculated that this was no accident. He sat up straight and tried to look directly into his father’s face.
“I believe I’ve translated one of the lines on the key,” he announced matter-of-factly.
There it was. That look of intense fascination. He was to receive his father’s favor after all.
“Have you, indeed!” Abraham exclaimed. He sprang out of his chair and began to pace, his hands clasped behind his back. “Tell me everything.”
“It’s written in a language that hasn’t been spoken for three thousand years.”
“Excellent, excellent!” The old man could barely contain the jubilation in his voice. He stopped pacing and came to stand next to Daniel’s chair. “I suspected that might be the case. What does the message say?”
Daniel was forced to tilt his head upward. So much for level eye contact. “The text is rather cryptic. I don’t understand what it means. It reads: ‘To find the Bones of the Mother.’”
At these words, Abraham unaccountably fell to his knees beside the desk. “Thank you, Lord! Thank you!” He clasped his hands and bowed his head.
Daniel could see his father’s lips moving in a silent prayer of gratitude. He didn’t know what to do—whether he should join him in prayer or look away and allow the old man a moment of privacy to commune with God. Before he could decide on a course of action, Metcalf sprang back to his feet.
“Observe, Daniel. We see the hand of God in this.” He was pacing again, talking to himself more than to his son. “The righteous are meant to prevail. It is a sign. In hoc signo vinces! This is the Lord’s doing.”
Daniel turned around in his chair to follow the diviner’s erratic movements. “Do you understand what the message means, Father?”
“Yes, yes I do.” Abraham paused to glance at his son, a triumphant smile on his face. “Among other things, it means the antiquities dealer who put me on the trail of the artifact wasn’t lying about it. He said it had to do with the Bones of the Mother.”
“And what exactly are the Bones of the Mother, sir?”
“Something very important to the future of the Blessed Nephilim.” The old man measured his words carefully. “That is all I will say for now.”
Daniel was beginning to feel a sense of foreboding. “If the message says the key will lead to the Bones, then that means you will have to send someone in search of them.”
Abraham nodded vigorously. “Quite right. Quite right!”
The young man’s apprehension grew more intense. Given his father’s volatile emotional state, he didn’t want to upset him further. He tried to keep his voice subdued and calm. “Sir, the language of the key is from a time before the gospels. From a time even before the Old Testament was set down. It is a pagan language, and the key will surely lead to heathen relics.”
The old man gave his son an odd look as if he couldn’t fathom the objection. “Yes, they are heathen relics. What of it?”
Daniel swallowed hard. He didn’t know how to make his next words sound inoffensive. “Father, are you sure that such a mission is part of God’s plan for the angelic bloodline? From the days of Jedediah Proctor, our very first diviner, we were instructed to live blameless lives and wait for the Second Coming. We were to keep ourselves pure from the contamination of the Fallen Lands. For fear of pollution, no member of the Nephilim has ever dwelt among the Fallen. Yet you would be sending someone directly into their world for what could be an extended period of time.”
“Who is the diviner here, you or I!” Abraham thundered. “The Lord speaks to me, not you, and He has told me what must be done. Are you questioning my authority?”
Daniel’s eyes fell. “No, sir. Your direction must be followed in all things.” Even as he said the words, he knew he was lying. For the first time in his life, he doubted the divine origin of his father’s instruction. He even doubted Abraham’s sanity. The thought was frightening. It made him almost dizzy with panic that the person in whom he placed absolute faith might be wrong. Concealing as best he could the turmoil that was churning inside of him, he asked quietly, “Who do you plan to send in search of these relics?”
Again, the old man gave him an incredulous look. “Why you, of course.”
“I?” Daniel gasped. “Surely there must be someone else. I’m hardly qualified—”
“You are supremely qualified,” the old man cut in. “You have learned how to read this ancient language.”
The young man could barely contain his panic now. “But Father, I... I am a scholar. I understand books. I do not understand the world.”
In an almost benevolent tone, the old man said, “Fear not, my boy. You won’t be sent off into the Fallen Lands alone. There is a worldly man in my employ. He performs special tasks for me, and I will send him to protect you.”
Daniel’s concern was hardly alleviated by the thought of a stranger, and a worldly one at that, accompanying him on this mysterious search. “In all likelihood, these Bones are to be found in the place where this language was last spoken.”
“Yes, yes.” Abraham nodded in agreement. “That is very likely.”
“B... but, that’s halfway around the world!” Daniel blurted out.
The old man’s voice held a hint of warning. “Daniel, what is the greatest of all sins?”
The young man sighed and looked down at the floor. “Disobedience, sir.”
“I hope I’m not detecting a wicked obstinacy in you.”
“No, sir.”
Abraham came to stand next to his son’s chair once more. “God has charged me with a great responsibility. I am the servant of the Lord just as you are my servant. We are all links in the great Chain of Being. It will be your task to find me these Bones, wherever they may be hidden.”
Daniel said nothing. He was too appalled to speak. The grim irony of the situation didn’t escape him. He had originally been keenly interested to go to the library in the city and learn about the internet from the handsome young librarian. It was an innocent little adventure not far from home, and he had relished it. At the time, it had been his father who was alarmed at his interest in the outer world. His father who had cautioned him about the dangers of the Fallen Lands. And now it was his father who was pushing him directly toward those dangers to seek out a pagan abomination. Whether his father was divinely inspired or simply gone mad was beyond his power to discern, but he feared that his own soul hung in the balance.
Abraham took his son’s long silence as a sign of consent. He continued. “You will proceed to translate the other symbols on the key. Hopefully, they will give us more information regarding the location of the relics I seek. You will come to me again only when you have deciphered the rest of the code. Then we will prepare for your journey.”
Daniel felt as if he had just received a death sentence. “Yes sir,” he said meekly. “I will do as you command.”