"We have arrived, my enchanting lady. This is the cave. I don't know what compels a princess among princesses to enter this place."
"It is none of your concern, shepherd. Wait for me here. If I don't come out for you, return to your home."
"I can wait for you a lifetime, my princess. After seeing you, home resembles a grave."
The shepherd has the right to say this and more. He was carrying "Venus" herself. Let's forget about him now. The sight of the cave did not suggest any significance. It was just a small opening in the mountain. Many men and women were standing in front of it.
I stood with them until the two sorcerers came out to us. And I wish I hadn't seen them.
It was the first time I saw humans more beautiful than myself. Not just one, but two. And not women, but men. It was the first time my heart beat with such strength. Since when did men possess such beauty? Since when did masculinity possess such power? It seems that my mission here has failed before it even began. Just looking at these two men made me forget what I came for.
I entered the cave with the handsome sorcerers. And what I saw inside the cave left my lips open in astonishment. How can I describe something like this? First, before I can convey what I saw, you must erase all the images in your mind of caves and caverns that are always narrow.
This cave was spacious like a palace. Its ceiling was far above our heads. A river ran in front of us, starting at our feet and extending to the horizon. It originated from a nearby freshwater spring.
The walls appear to have something different about them. They are not solid like all other rocks but filled with very fine cracks, that make the overall look of the walls from a distance ornate. This was the first image my eyes encountered.
We were taken by the two men to the edge of the flowing river. They asked us a very strange request. It seems to be the test everyone talks about. They asked each of us to spit in the river three times.
They said it's a small test that distinguishes the sorcerer from the others. I was the third in line. The man standing at the beginning of the line spat first. I looked at the water hoping to see something, and I saw a blue dot flowing with the river. I saw the same on his second and third spit.
One of the handsome sorcerers approached him and asked one of his men to take him to a certain rock whose name I don't remember.
Then the second man spat. I looked at the water and saw a red dot flowing with it. I saw the same on his second and third spit. One of the handsome sorcerers reproachfully said to him:
"This is not a place for those who learned magic elsewhere."
One of the men escorted him outside. And now, it was my turn.
Now I understood the test, so I smiled confidently. I hadn't learned magic anywhere. I spat three delicate spits into the water, and I looked at them and found them all blue. Then one of the men took me to that rock whose name I had forgotten.
It was a huge rock standing proudly in the middle of the river. It was filled with small cracks. But there was a sentence written at the top of the rock in the Babylonian language. The sentence said: "Whoever is fascinated by us is not one of us... Whoever is fascinated by us has blasphemed."
I didn't understand a thing, and I didn't care. The beauty of this astonishing cave is that it has carved chambers on the walls. I feel like this is not a cave. I feel like it's a strange little village.
I learned another piece of information that I didn't know how my stupidity had never thought of before. We will not leave the cave until after a whole year when its door opens, as the locals say. So what will we eat?
The food consisted of preserved delicacies that do not spoil, such as raisins, walnuts, and almonds, which they brought in large quantities and stored for us as sustenance. As for the drink, it came from the pure spring water. That's how I understood how things were managed here.
As for my mission, I don't know. All of this was unexpected for me. Moreover, the two men barely looked at me for more than a second. I know men when they look at me, and I know how they become nervous when they talk to me, but these two made me feel like a wall and that I had no impact on anyone.
But the man that will stand before "Venus" wasn't born yet, and will never be born.
Every day that passed while I was in this cave, I realized the extent of the danger of the mission I was sent on. I learned that the sorcerers who used us for their service were nothing but scum, o' "Hazard".
In fact, animals are purer than you. I learned that your miraculous abilities are not really your abilities, nor are they miraculous. They are the abilities of the demons to whom your dignity was sold. I discovered the true meaning of miracles in that cave.
I learned that of seven planets, the sun, and the moon, which we were taught to approach and worship, are nothing but celestial bodies and that there is one and only God, Abraham's, and that Miracles are on the like of Ibrahim.
I learned that everything you do and say is a deception. I learned that those sorcerers are the weakest beings and that the demons are even weaker. I learned that for every sorcerer's spell, there is a counterspell. I learned that "Azazel" and "Shemhazai" are wicked names spread by the sorcerers about the handsome sorcerers.
Their names sounded very foreign and very beautiful. One of them was called "Harut," and the other was "Marut."
"And they do not teach anyone until they say: 'We are but a trial, so do not blaspheme.'"
These sorcerers did not offer kingship or sovereignty. They did not offer gold or silver. Whoever comes out from under them remains safeguarded, beyond the reach of the mightiest sorcerer, for he knows the truth.
(TN: I think the truth here means science)
As for me, at that time, I decided to combine both worlds. To know the truth so that no sorcerer could have power over me, and to wear gold and silver. And this can only be achieved by completing my mission here and returning to the sorcerers of "Uruk" with everything I have learned. But I will stipulate that I become a princess, O' Hazard.
I will have control over all those sorcerers, and they will bow down under my two beautiful feet, all the kings and the sorcerers who walk the land.
They call me "Al-Zouhra" (Venus) because my beauty surpasses that of all women, like the beauty of Venus among the seven planets. As for men like "Harut" and "Marut", they must have desires like all men, like all humans.
And on a certain night, O' "Hazard", when everyone in the cave was into a deep sleep. I stepped out of my carved room in the rock, and there was nothing on my beautiful body except a small garment that revealed more than it concealed.
Venus is coming. The mistress of the seven moons is coming.
I walked in this cave along the spring to the place where the sorcerers' room was supposed to be. It wasn't the first time I would see that room. Since I have been in this place for nearly nine months.
But it was the first time I walked alone in the cave at this time. There were torches hanging on the walls in several places, illuminating the cave all the time, As we didn't know if it was day or night.
I continued walking, holding my small garment against my enchanting body. When I approached their room, I heard many hymns in their beautiful voices. What exactly are these two men saying, and what language is this? I gathered my breath and entered:
"Is it forbidden for humans in your law to reproduce?"
They look with indifference, oh my God, they make me feel insignificant. So I cast aside the garment of little modesty and stood before them as my mother gave birth to me. I said that I want to take from them what no human has taken before me, looking at my face, only at my face.
"Harut" calmly and seriously said to me:
"Leaving us now is better for you, So my Lord doesn't curse you among the cursed."
"Marut", in a calmer tone said:
"Return to "Uruk", the city of the Euphrates, and do not deny as your people have denied."
I said rebelliously:
"Of You, I'm denying and in your Lord, I'm not believing. You are not human; you are from the lineage of demons."
The earth turned and I saw the sky for the first time in a while, no longer were there caves, cracks, "Harut" or "Marut". This is indeed great sorcery. No, no, this is not sorcery; it is a miracle.
I ran to Babylon, and there was nothing on my body except a short garment that revealed more than it concealed.
"Hazard" asked angrily:
"You only stay for nine months? Have you recorded what you learned?"
"Venus" rose from the ground and looked at "Hazard" with a feminine gaze that she mastered very well:
"Scum like you, among the sorcerers of Urur, took advantage of me and recorded everything I learned. Afterward, I found myself nothing but a headless corpse."
Then her beautiful gaze turned into a terrifying look, and she said:
"I have become cursed forever, O' Hazard. Cursed twice. Once when I attempted to seduce two noble angels, and once when I denied everything they taught me and passed it on to scum like you in "Uruk".
Hazard retreated and lost his sternness as she approached him rapidly. This was her chance.
A necromancer must be strong enough to control the spirit he wants to summon, but he wasn't.
Venus was furious and cursed. She tore his soul apart completely, the soul that ascended with the angels of torment to the sky.
The sky, in which a beautiful red planet shimmered that night. The planet Venus.
END