The creator of all's Arc

Chapter 3 of 13

The creator watched the garden through the night. Eve slept curled beside Adam near the lamb. The golden tree stood quiet at the center of the floating island. He thought the day had passed safely. Then a light moved in the east. A star fell slow across the sky and did not burn out. The creator knew the shape of it. His first angel. The brightest one he had made. The one who had begun to call humans small. Lucifer landed at the edge of Eve's sleep. He did not touch her. He bent close and spoke into the shape of her dream. His voice was flat and certain. "He keeps the tree from you," Lucifer said. "He knows what it holds. He does not want you to know." Eve turned in her sleep. Her hand opened against the moss. "He calls it a rule," Lucifer said. "It is a fence. Ask why." The creator felt the words enter her the way rain enters soil. He could have struck the fallen angel down. He did not. He had given her free will. The choice had to be hers, or it was nothing. Morning came. Eve rose before Adam. She walked across the clearing without the leaves for the lamb's bed. She stopped under the golden tree and looked up. "Eve," Adam said behind her. He had followed. "He is keeping something from us," Eve said. Her voice was small. "I want to know what." She reached up. A red apple hung low on the branch, bright and heavy, one small mark on its skin. She pulled it free. She bit. The creator felt it as a break inside his own chest. Not anger. A quiet caving in. Eve held the apple out to Adam. He looked at her face. He looked at the fruit. He took it and bit too. Then they saw each other. Eve pulled her leaves tighter across her body. Adam stepped back. They ran into the ferns and crouched low and would not look up at the sky. The creator turned away from the garden. He went to the hall where the heavenly hosts kept the stars in their rings. The luminous spheres turned slow around him. The hosts gathered close. Lucifer stood at the front, calm, hands open. "You said your creation was good," Lucifer said. "They have already broken it. Let us pull them up. We can clear the field by night." The other angels waited. The creator felt how many of them leaned toward Lucifer's voice. "No," the creator said. "You would pull the good with the bad. You cannot tell them apart yet. I can." Lucifer's face did not move. His hands closed. "Then watch what they do to it," he said, quieter now. He turned and walked out of the hall. Some of the hosts turned with him. The creator counted them as they went, and did not call them back.