Present
"Possible memories?" BlueBird frowned at the long glass shards in the merchant's hand, "Why should I spend so much on a possible memory?" ”
The merchant laughed but did not answer. Blue Bird found that this merchant was always a little angry; she always had this attitude of hanging high. But she still has an effort to be cute. Anyway, she's as cute as a Dark person should be.
"Two reasons," said the merchant, "first, the years. You will find that the age of this possible memory is ancient times. ”
"I don't believe it," said bluebird, "I've bought a lot of old memories that have nothing but utter boredom." That's just a possible memory. Therefore, it may have been modified in an unknown number of angry ways. ”
"Then the second reason." The merchant laughed, "The source of this possible memory." ”
The blue bird folded its arms and looked even more suspicious. "Who?"
The merchant turned on a small lamp and adjusted it to leak only a beam of light, which shone particularly brightly in the mist of the shadow market. She wiped the debris and held it up to the light. "Look."
The blue bird leaned over to look. When he saw the hazy dancing images in the glass, his eyes widened.
"Well," said bluebird, "I'll buy it." I'll give you whatever you want. ”
At that time
The man finds Cain, the son of Adam, in the endless wilderness between the two places. The man was nice-looking, with bronzed skin and fluffy black hair. His costumes are made of animal skins and are pleasing to the eye. But Cain was not happy to see him.
Men know his name.
"I am a priest," said the man, "and a year ago you passed through my village. I wanted to follow you, but I was stopped by others. Then the crops failed and the plague swept through our village. Only I can save myself, and then no one will stop me. I've been looking for you since then and now I'm finally seeing you. ”
Cain furrowed his brows. He has tried his best to walk only in certain places, where the land is either barren and full of strength to resist his curse, or where the inhabitants know how to restore the soil that has been impoverished by the curse.
If he needed to pass through civilization, he avoided the fields. He had long since discovered that the curse had a limit—48 wrists around him, or about 12 times his height. Legible to the naked eye.
But when he doesn't realize it, it doesn't work. He was often dominated by an impulse to travel, and sometimes without even being fully awake, he wandered away in a trance. After that, he came back to his senses and may have destroyed the harvest of an entire village.
"I'm really sorry." Cain said.
The man looked surprised. "You are Cain, the Banished, the Lost Son and the Father of the Beast. You are the god of death. The other gods, those little gods, couldn't save my village. I used to worship them. Now I despise them. I'm here to honor you now. ”
"They're your family," Cain said, "and even if they weren't, I wouldn't be happy to bring death to more people who shouldn't." ”
"You are testing me, my Lord." The man bared his teeth, "I promise I won't let you down. I want to be your follower, and your pastor! ”
"Stupid." Cain said, and then went on.
The man followed him.
Initially
Long after being branded, Cain told himself that nothing had changed. His curse doesn't matter. He'll make it irrelevant. He swallowed his grief and guilt into his stomach and made up his mind to go on.
He went to the Land of Nod 2, the land of drifting. There, his curse could not affect the soil, for it was too desolate to grow crops, and life there was too tenacious and alienated.
Settling here seems to have calmed the wandering desires that have been pervading his heart since his branding. He was going to live in Node, and he decided to live a quiet, stable life as if nothing had happened.
Then Cain realized that he wasn't getting old. The metal parts of the body do not rust, the skin does not wrinkle, and the hair does not turn white. His memories, though obscured by his childhood and the time before he was branded, will never fade again. The only sign of aging is that his brown eyes are slowly fading and turning bright blue.
He is free from the ravages of time, just as he is free from the wounds of human weapons. Seriously, this curse is not a curse at all.
Men follow Cain through the wilderness, subsisting on the skills of priests. Emotionally, however, he began to break down.
"They deserve to die, they all deserve to die," he said, "Inanna is a prostitute." Aya is so hypocritical. Belshunu beat me with a stick when I was young. None of them let me choose my own path. Word for word, it was nothing more than kidnapping. We need you, they say. They need to take advantage of me. Just let them rot in the grave!" ”
Cain never spoke back.
"Why are you silent?" The man asked. His face flushed with anger.
"I have said everything I should have said," said Cain, "and neither should you speak ill of the dead." ”
"Maybe you're right," said the man, "maybe they don't deserve to die." Maybe you're not God at all. ”
Cain was silent, watching his fist clench and loosen. Overhead sunlight flickered.
"If you are not God, you are a demon. Then you should be damned. "He raised his stocky cane." Let's see if the rumors are true or not. Maybe I can take your life now!" ”
The man attacked him, and Cain stood still. He was hit by this stick, and he felt pain, but he did not move, as always. The attacker fell backwards and fell to the ground, stunned.
Cain looked at the man sitting on the ground and looked up at him in amazement. Fortunately, this blow did not work well. Men will only suffer pain and bruises, not fractures.
"I am not God," said Cain, "and perhaps I am a demon." But even so, I will not lose to you. ”
He continued on his way. Not long after, the man got up and followed.
The more secure Cain was in the land of Nod, the more restless the mark on his forehead became. The urge to wander in his heart grew stronger, but he ignored it.
Instead, he built more cities. Cities grow and prosper. His curse could not be extended in the dense paths that spread throughout Nod, and he built the city where the secret paths converged. The inhabitants of his city traveled by close paths, cultivating sumerian fields and other equally fertile land.
But he still longs to travel. Nightmares also come and go, sometimes every night for months. He woke up sobbing, incoherent and grief-stricken.
He remembered all the crimes he had committed, past, present and future. He remembered all the colors of his brother's blood. What you did to me, his brother's corpse asked, what did you do.
He's going to go on like this forever, he thought. Live forever in sorrow and regret.
Cain was finally furious. He was angry with the heavens. It's your fault. Yours!
Moving everywhere is the legacy of the ancients. Cain, a friend of the ancients, was familiar with the weapons. On this basis, he created new weapons of war for mankind. He could not make those dead works completely restored, but created new ways of metalworking to make up for it. With the wealth he earned with these weapons, he built more and bigger cities; with a large enough city, he began to recruit soldiers.
He led his army into battle. He stood before the great enemy, laughing at the weapons of those who were going to hurt his body, and killed himself. The whole civilization collapsed before him. Then he stained their land with a curse.
Yet he was still in pain. The more he died, the more painful it became, and he corroborated the eternal memory of what he had done.
Men still follow Cain. His reverence and anger are a thing of the past.
"I admit," said the man, "I love them. Indeed, I wept over their passing. I'm trying to hide these just because I want to please you. ”
Cain was silent.
"You have power beyond any mortal," said the man, "and you can get them back." All of them. Everything can be restored to its original state. ”
"I cannot reverse death," said Cain, "and my curse has not given me such a favor." If there is, I will do so. ”
"You can. You must be testing me. What can I do to get you to do this a favor? ”
"I can't bring them back to life," Cain said.
"For a being like yours, this must be trivial," said the man, "please." ”
"I can't bring anyone back to life."
"I will travel everywhere and bring you wealth. My healing power can be exchanged for a lot of money in the big city. I can work and give you all my wealth. I can be your servant—no, if you want, a slave, at your disposal. I can be your messenger, your envoy, your pastor. I'm willing to do anything. ”
"There's nothing you or I can do."
"Please."
Cain decided to put an end to the bloody storm.
This method cannot anger the gods, but only disappoints them. But maybe he could please them. Maybe then, his curse would be better endured.
He wanted to be the head of the family, just like his father. He wants to be a better father. He was going to be who Abel was supposed to be. He will build the city of eternity.
To be the head of a family, you must first have a home. The child of that family cannot be a son born of his blood, nor can he be a lost son who has followed. No. He wanted a home that even those who hated him would admit it.
Nor can he start a family with a loved one; no, it can't. He considered, by and large, those who could bear children for him, those who were considered women by his father's traditional patriarchs. No, nor could it; his father would judge them harshly as women who thought they were men. No, he needs an average woman, a woman who is seen by everyone as a woman, a healthy, fertile woman. There may be other wives after that, and so should be.
Surprisingly, it was so easy to accomplish this. Within a few years, Cain had a wife and a son. The son's name was Enoch 3. He made the name of a city.
Sons give birth to grandchildren, and grandchildren give birth to children. Cain's city grew.
The urge to wander is getting stronger and stronger. He began to suffer from the shaking of the fall to the ground, sometimes for days. He began to sleepwalk, wandering the outskirts of the city, waking up at the beginning of the dawn.
The man still followed Cain. They trekked through the land along the way in snow and rain.
The man was quiet now, breaking the calm only with intermittent sobs. He had not eaten or drunk for a long time, and used his witch doctor 4 skills to survive in vain. He could barely lift his head, and could only step on Cain's footprints after one foot.
They reached the cold shoals of the Long Sea, which was called Never-So- Cain began to build ships.
The man could not help him build the ship, and Cain did not need to help; the skill of forging this metal vessel was foreign to him. Cain had much contact with them; he spent a long time at sea, where his curse had little effect.
When the boat was built, the man boarded the ship with him. Cain did not object, but handed him only a paddle. They paddled forward on the harsh winter sea.
The man muttered to himself in frozen tears. "I should... I should be a better son... Better fathers... Better physicians... Better people..."
"It's me. I killed them. If I abandon them, I will kill them, just as surely I killed them with my hands... I am a physician. They depend on me. I could have saved them, at least some. But I'm gone. If I stay..."
They had been at sea for a long time.
To stop wandering unconsciously, Cain locked himself in Enoch's palace. The urge to wander was relieved and slowed down, but it became an eternal, stable and terrible throbbing in his heart. His descendants try to please their ancestors in prison, but Cain finds himself losing almost all his feelings. He lived in emptiness and numbness, with no joy or sorrow, only the hidden pain in his forehead and chest.
The land of Node is a sea of mulberry fields. One of Cain's cities was destroyed, and then the next. Cain felt that this was also a punishment, but it was not enough to worry about.
Subsequently, the city of Enoch also came to an end. When the city collapsed overhead, Cain was still under the palace, bound by chains.
He felt pain, but he didn't die. He was alive, buried deep under the shattered bricks of the ancient city. Perhaps, he thought, he would be confined to this place forever. Maybe that's the ultimate punishment.
When it landed again, the ship ran aground on a new beach, and the man looked up after a long time. The sun rises. The two watched the sunrise together.
There is a city on the horizon, filled with golden light.
"Let's say goodbye," cain said, "and I'm not going to the City of the Sun today." But you should go. ”
"What am I going to do?" The man asked.
"You have mourned your family," Cain replied, "and you should let them rest in peace." Build a temple in their name. Go find another person. Go and heal others, precisely because you have not healed your villagers. In this way, you can begin to atone for your sins. ”
"I will." The man said.
The man walked toward the city. Cain watched him drift away.
Cain's heirs came to find him underground. They whispered to him. secret. prophecy. For a long time, he ignored it.
Then he began to listen.
Some time later, his children arrived, silently digging the earth and freeing him. Many of the lost sons also came, even the original tall clay statue.
As he wanders through the ruins of his previous life, he discovers that human family members have long since passed away. His city withered away, leaving only ruins, engulfed in the lush and raging wilderness of the drifting land.
The Lost Son tells Cain the path he should take. He obeyed.
He was going to accept his curse. He will roam the world until he finds all the ways to atone for his sins. If peace is still possible for him, then this is how he will seek peace.
Cain walked along the road, embracing the lost and stepping into the vast world.
The blue bird left the shadow market, his eyes shining and looking up, and the glass piece containing possible memories was tucked into the long trench coat.
He opened the secret path to another world and went inside.
Footnotes
1. Translation: The personal pronoun used in the original text is zie/zir, with no gender orientation.
Genesis 4:1-24: Then Cain left Jehovah and stopped seeing jehovah's face, and went to dwell in the land of Nod, east of Eden. The word Nod is derived from the Hebrew root, meaning wandering and fluttering. Therefore, it is said that "exiled to the land of Nod" does not mean going to a place called Nod, but (letting Cain) linger on earth forever. That is, the title of this article refers to. There is also the theory that Node is the library of the exiled.
3. Enoch, the biblical firstborn son of Cain, was not the same person as Enoch, who was taken by God.
4. Translation: The original healer refers specifically to those who heal people by the forces of nature or religious superstitions.