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asked.

Azov said, “These tablets were discovered among the items in the settlement, and we’re certain

that the settlement was Noah’s home after the Flood.”

“What is your proof?” Vera asked.

“Carbon dating, the location of the settlement, identifiable personal belongings. And, most

important, the tablets themselves.”

Vera turned the slab of wood over. It looked like something out of an Egyptian tomb. “If this is as

old as you claim, it is simply incredible that it exists at all,” she said. Carved into the grain were

more symbols, many of them partially washed away. “What is this alphabet?” she asked, trying to

mask the growing excitement in her voice.

“It is a language called Enochian,” Sveti said. “It was given to Enoch by God, and Enoch used it to

write the original story of the Watchers and the Nephilim. It is a common belief that a pre-Deluge

lexicon—a universal language that contained the original power of Creation—existed. Some believe

it was the language God used to create the universe, and that it was the language used by angels and

Adam and Eve. If Noah was the last human being to carry antediluvian traditions to the new world, it

makes perfect sense that he would have been versed in the language of Enoch.”

“Noah was a direct descendant of Enoch,” Azov added. “Which could explain how it was

transmitted.”

Sveti continued. “Enochian script was revealed to an angelologist named John Dee in 1582, and

was called Sigillum Dei Aemeth. His assistant, Edward Kelly, transcribed the script at the instruction

of an angel, and went on to fill many volumes with it. It was considered by most angelologists to be a

revealed language—authentic, but impossible to trace historically. Enochian script seemed, in the

sixteenth century, to literally come out of nowhere. Of course, there are those who believe John Dee

simply made it all up. Linguists have analyzed the language and concluded that there is nothing

particularly remarkable about it. But if these tablets are authentic, they would not only verify Dee’s

script as the language used by Enoch’s descendants, they would also support Dee’s claim that the

language was not composed but revealed by God. The magnitude of such a discovery would be

enormous.”

Sveti paused, as if detecting objection in Vera’s face, but in truth Vera was fascinated by what she

had just heard. She had studied John Dee’s historical role in angelology extensively—from his angel

conversations to his extensive classical and biblical library—and knew that he was the only known

human after Mary who survived the act of summoning an archangel. But, like everyone else, Vera had

always believed Dee’s Enochian script to be a hoax.

Sveti continued. “This list of the seeds Noah carried on his ark is most likely a fragment of a larger

catalog. The entire record must have been enormous, ranging in the hundreds of thousands.”

Vera thought of the pages of flowers in the album, thousands of petals pressed behind paper. “Why

the interest in Noah’s plants in particular?” she asked. “Have you connected the seeds in this list with

flora in existence today?”

Azov looked circumspect, as if weighing whether he should disclose a long-held secret. “As you

know, Vera, I have devoted my life to the mysteries of Noah and his sons. At the heart of this is an

obession I am reluctant to admit to—my own El Dorado, if you will.” He glanced at Sveti, as if

looking for support, and continued. “I have been trying to replicate the medicine of Noah, the one

cited in the apocryphal Book of Jubilees.”

She had expected Azov to offer some insight into the vagaries of antediluvian geography; she had

hoped that he might give her some understanding of the flowers in Rasputin’s album. Never had she

imagined how momentous this visit would be for her career, for angelology itself, possibly for all of

humanity. “Thus the evil spirits were precluded from harming the sons of Noah,” Vera said, reaching

into her bag for Rasputin’s album.

“It is the most cryptic—and therefore the most ridiculed—text in the ancient canon,” Azov replied.

“Of course, the project has been a challenge from the beginning—there is no description of the

formula in Jubilees, and only a few references are made to the medicine in ancient literature, but I

believe in it.”

“Perhaps,” Vera said, pulling out the album full of flowers, “you are not alone.”



• • •

Azov studied the pages of the album, pausing to puzzle over the equations written in the margins, his