"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die."

- Genesis 6:17

We should have been curious when the unbeliever and his family spent years building a ship larger than the rest of the village houses put together. We should have been concerned when the chieftain went to ask him why and was struck down with a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky. We should have been alarmed when all manner of living creatures, most of which we'd never seen, formed orderly lines to board the ship, with the plants walking on their roots and the freshwater fish flopping along on their bellies. We didn't, because he and his family always got involved in the strangest things.

A few days later a disembodied voice boomed through the skies: "Waters above". I fell to my knees, arms wrapped over my bosom, as it sent a chill right through my heart. In an instant the skies went from clear blue to the black of thunderheads. The voice boomed again, "Waters below", and the calm coastline suddenly frothed with hill-sized waves crashing and churning against one another. "Waters all between," and the skies poured rain in sheets so thick the mountains in the distance faded from sight. Only then did we grow concerned, and by then that ship had already drifted away.

The water line rose, flooding through our village, sweeping away our boats, scattering all our livestock and forcing us to abandon our homes and head inland, taking what belongings we could. The next day the rains continued, and the day after that, and the next. My father Eru, now the village's new chieftain, led us eighty leagues inland and up the slopes of Mount Urartu. It took us a dozen days to reach the top of the tree line. Behind us the high seas rose ever higher.

We formed a camp mired in mud and shivered in the rain as we put up tents and tried to light a fire with soaked tinder. It hadn't been hard to hunt-what with the endless streams of frightened fowl seeking the high ground, the mountainside was so crowded with fauna you could trip over them-but proper cooking proved nigh impossible. All along the way people had been throwing up. I held my nose, turned away from their retching to see the unbeliever's massive pitch black ship in the distance. It had somehow stayed close to the coast even as the coastline swept through the lowlands.

I found father discussing the matter with the others. "He's still following us, must be waiting for us to get over there. He's got enough room for us after all."

My mother Ilia shook her head. "I know how that man thinks, Eru. It will not be easy to convince him to let us board. If only we had the time to build a ship ourselves."

"Best we can do now is build a fleet of boats," father replied.

I turned to father. "Will boats hold out against waves that large?"

He shook his head ruefully, pointed to Noah's ship. "No, Tel. Our meager boats won't last a day out in those waves, but that one will. We just have to last long enough to get there."

So that was what we did. For days the whole village built boats and rafts as best we could in this downpour, and watched as the waters rose ever higher. Then the water rose above the tree line, and we could build no more boats. And as the waters drew close, we watched the colossal waves crash against the mountainside.

Father called us all back together. "Now we don't have enough boats and rafts to bring everyone there in one trip, so we'll make several rounds." He pointed out the families that would be going first.

Of course, as the family of the chieftain, we would be in the first group as well. I watched as father and my brother Dale placed our few remaining possessions in the boat. We entered it, and we were off, with the two men rowing our oars and the rest of the flotilla close behind. The waves crashed into us, completely flooding the boat and keeping mother and I busy bailing out the water. Overhead, lightning streaked from the skies, our sole illumination in the darkness of this endless storm.

A monster wave slammed into our little fleet. We held on to the boat for our dear lives as it struck, and the salt went right into my eyes. In its wake half of the boats disappeared under the waves, to re-emerge moments later. I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"Is everyone alright?" shouted father, followed by cries of "yea". "Put your all into it, men." Another colossal wave fell upon us. "Is everyone alright?" The yea's this time around sounded quieter. Father looked around.

"Nally where are you? Anyone see Nally?" came the worried cry of Talrin, our neighbor, from the rear of the flotilla. "Nally?" I watched as those in the boats near him looked around trying to find his pregnant wife. Nally made the best snacks and told the best stories, and now she was gone. I tightened my grasp on the side of our boat as my vision blurred with tears.

Father grimaced and turned to look forward again only to stare at another monster wave. "Brace yourselves!" This time we rode the wave, and it broke a short ways behind us. Several of the boats resurfaced without any passengers.

"Eru, we have to help them," said Ingris, our village blacksmith, who rowed his boat right behind us. "We have to-"

"If we stay here we're all dead. Everyone push onward," father commanded, his frown deepening. "The sooner we get to that ship, the sooner we will be safe." He and Dale redoubled their pace. Sitting behind them, I could barely hear the wailing and whimpering of the newly widowed over the whistling of the gales.

At long last we drew aside the ship. It towered over us, almost five hundred feet long and rising thirty feet above the water. Then it was only twenty feet higher than us as a gigantic wave raised us up, before the wave passed. I marveled at the construct. Any normal wooden ship this large would have torn itself asunder, but this was no normal ship. I passed my hands over the surface. The black pitch covering the entire hull felt dry. I found myself both awed by and angry at the unbeliever. Here our boats were getting capsized and his ship wasn't feeling a thing.

"Noah!" Father called out.

Far overhead, Noah leaned over the railing and looked down at us.

"'Noah, throw down some rope and let us get on board." Another wave crashed into us, almost knocking father off our boat.

"If you wanted a ship you should have built your own."

"Gods, Noah, we thought you were crazy. How could we have known that this flood would happen?"

"You didn't think, after watching me spend yearsbuilding this ship, that there might be something to it?"

Father clenched his fists.

I looked away. Of course it seemed reasonable in hindsight. But at the time it had just seemed so outlandish that anyone who'd dared to say that maybe Noah had a point, would have been laughed out of the village.

Mother grasped father's shoulder. "Arguing with him won't do any good."

Father sighed. "You were right, Noah, and we should never have doubted your oracular powers."

"No, Eru, I am no oracle. I merely believe the Lord, and obey His every whim," came Noah's choking reply. "I built this ship at the command of my Lord, and He has commanded that no one besides my family can board."

Another wave swept through the fleet, capsizing a dozen boats, and several babies on those boats started crying again.

"And what does your lord command of the rest of us? What are we to do?"

"They are your responsibility. After all, I'm the madman and you're the chieftain, Eru."

You must know what will happen if this rain continues. Don't you care for the people of your own village?"

"As the Lord has declared, you will die for your sins and for the evil in your hearts."

We saw the incredulity showing on each other's faces.

"Whatever have we done for you to call us evil?"

"Can you honestly tell me you haven't killed a soul, Eru? Or that the people of your village haven't sinned? You think the one true Lord doesn't know you hold disbelief in your hearts?"

The next moment a massive wave threw us all out of our boat and deep into the freezing water. I headed for the surface, struggled and gasped as the saltwater flooded into my mouth and stung in my eyes. By the time we had all gotten back to the boat another wave was about to fall upon us. When it passed our boat had flipped over. I gasped upon spotting a shark fin snaking through the upturned wrecks and rushed to clamber onto our boat and out of the water.

"So we defended ourselves from bandits. So we don't follow your customs. So we didn't believe. You'd see us die, just for that?"

"God does not take transgressions lightly, and obedience to the Lord is most important of all."

"Look, we're sorry that we ever called you unbeliever. We're sorry that we laughed at you all those years that you worked on your ship. We're sorry that we were blind to the truth of your god. We swear that we will amend our ways, by our gods and yours, whatever you would have. Won't we?" Eru asked turning to the three of us with a demanding look on his face.

I looked to mother and Dale. "We swear," we said.

"You've sinned against the Lord your entire lives. You think a moment's atonement will erase your sins? You think to fool the Almighty?"

"What more would you have us do?" Father's words barely carried over the screams behind us as another wave crashed upon our boats, throwing men and women into the water.

"Do whatever you will. I cannot help you." With that he turned away and went out of sight.

Another wave crashed into us, submerging our boat. When it emerged, it was back to being upright. I spit out the saltwater in my mouth. "Father, it's hopeless. We need to get back to land or we will all drown."

"No, we have to get on that ship, it's the only way."

Ingris drew up to us in his boat. "The man is mad. He wants to see us all drown, he as good as said it himself." He spat into the water. "How that god of his does not smite him for his inhumanity is beyond me."

I heard a scream behind me, turned to see another looming wave crash into the fleet and winced.

Dale turned to father. "We could hack a series of footholds into the side of the ship to climb our way up."

"Doesn't seem like we have any other choice." Father reached into his satchel to pull out a hatchet. With our boat right alongside the ship, father swung his hatchet. The hatchet rebounded. Eru stared at it in shock and I noticed its blade had chipped. The ship hadn't been marred at all. Father shook his fists. "Damn you and your god, Noah!"

The skies crackled and lightning struck the boats. I sat, stunned by the blinding flashes and the deafening claps of thunder. Innumerable times it struck, and in rapid succession. When it ended I could see streaks of light and darkness etched into my eyes, could feel the painful ringing in my ears.

When I could hear again I heard only the raging of the wind and the screams of the dying. When I could see again I saw wrecked boats, shattered rafts and scattered shards of wood strewn all about. The dead floated all around. I turned to see Dale's dazed eyes, and mother shaking in fear. And father... where was father?

I scanned our surroundings. Amidst the wreckage I saw old Marge, who had nursed Noah and his family back to health when they had run a fever so high they couldn't move about for days. Now Marge's corpse floated belly-up upon the waves. I saw Tem, the young man who had helped his sons log the trees whose lumber went into that ship. He lay in smoking ruin. Ingris, too. Utter dread grew within me as I searched, my heartbeat racing, upturning debris and calling father's name over and over. But he was nowhere to be found.

Dale grasped my hand. "He's gone, Tel."

I shook my head. "No, no he can't have, he was just here, there wasn't even a wave just now..." I struggled against his grip as I looked around and renewed my search.

He gripped harder. "He's gone."

He's gone. Those words awakened a throbbing pain in my chest. How could the world be so cruel? Mother wrapped her arms around me, and we cried and sobbed into each other before the next wave picked up our boat and smashed us against Noah's ship.

I fell deep into the water, and the brine entered my lungs. Gods no, it can't end like this, I thought as I flailed about in panic, tried to hold back that desperate need to inhale. The wave passed, my head broke the surface of the water and I choked, spat out the water, gasping and wheezing as my nose and lungs seared with pain. I whirled about, and the three of us formed a ring as we held each other's hands, all of us shivering in the water.

"What will we do now?" I asked, still sputtering. "We're losing everyone... we have nowhere left to go."

Mother spurted out water. "We'll get aboard that ship if it's the last thing I do."

"What, how? That god of his will kill us with lightning long before we breach the hull," I pointed out. "And there's no one left to help us."

"Noah will help us."

I stared at mother, disbelieving.

She explained, "He said that no one besides family can board, right?"

"We and Noah are not family," I retorted.

"But we can be. Noah's youngest is unmarried, no? I believe he's fourteen, same as you."

I cocked my head. That would be way too obvious for Noah not to realize what we were up to, would it even work? And marry Japheth? I'd seen him before but, when I tried to recall when we'd last spoke to one another, I drew a blank. Not because I'd never talked to him, but because he'd not cared to reply.

Dale looked from mother to me to mother. "You would have your own daughter be married to a son of our father's murderer?"
"The world is coming to an end, Dale, everyone's dying. Time to put your pride aside."

Another wave crashed into us, separating us and sending us plummeting down through into the water. I swam back up, saw Dale holding onto a shattered raft with one hand and propping up mother with the other. Mother was in a coughing fit and vomited out seawater. How it pained me to see her so. I held no love for Japheth, but I loved my family, and if their god required a fee to spare them from his wrath, I would gladly pay any price.

I swam up to them, held their hands. "I will do it." Dale looked up, but the fight had been beat out of him. I continued, "You've taken care of me all my life, and I've always known that I'd have to marry someday. If my doing so could save my family, I would be honored." I gestured all around us. "Besides, seeing as how everyone is drowned or will drown soon, there's precious few other men left." I turned to the ship. "Noah!"

Noah reappeared at the railings a moment later. "You... you survived?"

Mother replied, "Clearly your god has spared us for a reason. Now let us up. We have much to discuss."

Noah turned to the sky. "Good Lord, what is the meaning of this?" Rumbling thunder answered. Noah reached for the rope beside him and cast it down. I couldn't believe my eyes. After all the others had died trying to get aboard, a few well-chosen sentences was all it took?

Mother clasped my arm, smiling, and gestured at the rope. I grasped it and began to climb. Another wave swept past, leaving me swinging side to side while I dangled on the rope in midair. Fearing for my life, I held tight to it. "Are you alright?"

"We're fine. Keep climbing, we're right behind you."

I scrambled the rest of the way up and collapsed on board, panting. After catching my breath, I turned around to see mother just getting on board, and we turned to help Dale on board as well.

My head spun. We'd made it on to the ship, alive. I couldn't believe it. "Thank you for letting us on board."

"Don't thank me, thank the Lord, for He's the one who spared you."

Mother turned to regard the sea. One could barely make out Urartu's peak in the distance. "Only the mountaintops are left. Your god told you as much, hadn't he? That you should build a ship, because all the rest of the world, everyone else, would soon be drowned?"

"God in His infinite wisdom saw it fit to cleanse the world and all the evil that dwelled upon it, and in His mercy He spared His followers."

I took a good look at Noah and his family - his wife and three sons, and their wives, seven in all. Of all the world, these were the only ones his god cared to save. How heartless did Noah and family have to be, to not plead with their god to spare anyone else, and what did that make me, for making this deal with the devil?

"Yes, and once they're all dead, who will be left for young Japheth?" asked Mother as she turned to Japheth.

Noah stared grimly at her. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, that in your god's wisdom and mercy, he's delivered your son a woman meet for him."

They finally took stock of my presence. Noah turned to mother. "You are offering Tel's hand in marriage, Ilia?"

"I am," said mother.

"And Tel has kept her maidenhead?"

"She has," lied mother.

Noah turned to his youngest son. "Japheth?"

Japheth just stared at me, motionless. Panic rose in my chest. What if he rejected me? Would we be cast right back out into the sea and left to drown? Please don't say no, please don't say no-

After a long, silent moment, he took a step forward. "Tel is meet for me."

We all breathed a sigh of relief.

Noah nodded with a flicker of a smile before becoming his sullen self and turning back to us. "The wedding ceremony shall be held tomorrow. Till then, make yourselves at home. I don't expect you to be familiar with our customs, so I will send Shem to instruct you on what to do and what to say." He turned to Shem's and Ham's wives. "Jezebel, go show our new family to their rooms. Tarla, prepare three extra meals." He turned back to his son. "Japheth, come with me."

We followed Jezebel into the bowels of the ship. She showed us to our cabin and brought us dry garments to replace our ragged, soggy excuse for clothing. She waited outside while we changed. When we finished I opened the door and asked Jezebel, "We're done, what happens now?"

"For you to marry into our family you must first know our customs and about our God."

I nodded. "So tell me, what is his name? Is he a storm god?"

"The Lord needs no name, he is the one and only true God, who created the world and everything in it."

I looked askance at her. Powerful I would admit, but a creator? I couldn't picture this god of flooding and lightning also being a god of blooming flora and golden sunsets, a god that would do both would have to be mad. "And how exactly do you know this?"

"God said so, and anything He says must be truth. Be careful, Tel. He won't suffer doubt and disobedience."

"Is that why he destroyed this world?" asked Dale. "He could have created another world if the first one displeased him, but chose to destroy the first one instead?"

Jezebel glared at him. "Only a fool questions the Lord. It is enough to know that God works in mysterious ways."

"Yes, going through all this trouble when he clearly doesn't have to, how very mysterious indeed."

"It won't be a mystery what'll happen to you if you keep up that kind of talk," I said, rounding on him. "He doesn't create new worlds because he's a petty tyrant. You do realize it's dangerous to challenge a tyrant?"

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't," he retorted.

I winced as mother slapped him on the cheek. "Good work trying to get us killed, Dale."

Dale glared at mother and I and Jezebel in fury before stomping away.

Tarla stepped in, bringing us our food. The moment she finished setting it down on the table, she made to leave. "We're not going to be eating together?" asked mother.

Tarla shook her head. "Noah commands that we dine only with family," she replied, and left with Jezebel.

We ate in silence.

Shem showed up a short while later and began to lecture us on their family's strange marriage customs, pointing out any mistakes we made in our rehearsal. He needn't have worried. After seeing the insane wrath of this god, none of us would dare make the wedding anything other than perfect. After we'd finished our rehearsals, he nodded and turned to me. "And finally Tel, for you to truly be one of us, you will have to convert to our faith."

I nodded. "What do I need to do?"

"Do? Nothing. Pray to Him, believe in Him. And if your faith is true, He will answer."

That night I knelt down to pray to this god. I figured, after all I had seen, anyone who still called Noah 'unbeliever' had to be mad, what with the lightning and the flood and all. I believed, truly believed, that none of the other gods could hold a candle to this one. So I clasped my hands together and asked for forgiveness for my sins and the sins of my family and our village, and I felt Him answer, a light touch on my mind that swept away all my anxiety, all my fear. Don't worry, He seemed to say, Just obey my command you shall have salvation.

And I asked, And what salvation will the others have, those who even now drown upon the mountaintops and all the others who'd already died?

Just like that He fled from my mind, leaving me alone in darkness, weighed down with even more anxiety and fear than before.

The next morning we woke to the disconcerting feeling of being dry and warm. After all those days trudging in the endless rain, none of us had any desire to get up, so we stayed in the comfort of our beds till noon.

When we finally emerged from below-deck, the black clouds straight overhead had parted in such a way that the entire ship seemed warm and dry and illuminated in a beam of light, even as rain continued to fall in sweeping torrents everywhere else. I squinted against the brightness. That god really could make a beautiful sight when he cared to.

I walked to the railings and stretched a hand out. Even as it became instantly soaked under that endless downpour, my arm stayed dry. I couldn't help but feel guilty for just being here. Here I was, safe with family atop a massive ship lit in sunlight, and all the rest of the world was drowning. I spun around, taking in the idyllic panorama of the deck of the ship. If only every day could be as peaceful as this place. If only father could stand here by my side, with our family restored and basking in this warmth together, with our friends by our side, Nally, Talrin, Marge, Tem, Ingris, and all the others... I sighed in resignation, and stepped up beside Japheth.

Under the solitary shaft of sunlight in the midst of the storm, we performed our ritual sacrifices. I could hear shouting in the distance as it grew louder. I couldn't see them from where I stood, but I knew that even now another group braved the monster waves in their doomed attempt to get on board. I turned to see the pained looks on mother's and Dale's faces. I glanced at Noah and his sons, saw the stony looks on their faces as Japheth urged me to continue. I dared not disobey, not when our fates hung on whether we finished the ceremony. Ignoring their pleas of help, we recited our prayers.

We could hear their shouts of "Shark, shark!", desperate cries of "Noah!", and the pained screams of men, women and children dying. I wanted to rush over to the railing, to throw down ropes for them to climb up, but my fear of angering Noah and getting cast off the ship held me back. I faced Japheth and held hands with him, but shut my eyes for I could not bear to see this scene play out. We made our wedding vows, but I could not hear my words amidst the pleas and the screams of the dying.

After we'd finished, Noah and other his sons clasped their hands together in prayer as Japheth walked beside me and took my hand in his. I rejected his grasp. He hadn't done anything to save those below. But then, neither had I. I looked away in shame.

"I know how it feels to lose family," said Japheth. "I know the pain of being powerless to save those you love. I know the shame that arises from dwelling on how if only you'd had done something different, maybe you could have prevented all this from happening. I say this because I find myself needing to say it, because even though we shouldn't ever have to, in this world we do have to say it."

I looked back at him, saw him watching me in silence, saw the glistening trail of wetness down his cheeks. I saw in him the same anguish as mine. I strode away from him, couldn't accept that he couldn't have done anything to save them.

The screams had faded into silence. I approached the railing, clutched it with shaking hands as I looked down at a wide patch of water tainted purple and red with blood, severed arms and legs strewn about and bobbing in the waves. I covered my mouth to stifle a scream. Then those few still alive saw me and renewed their hoarse cries for help. Some called out to me by name.

I passed my hands over the ropes wound around the railing-post right beside me. I could save them now. I took the rope off the railing-post and prepared to cast it over. Then the cold clutch of fear rooted me in place as I recalled Jezebel saying, "He won't suffer disobedience." Mother's words: "Good work trying to get us killed, Tel." And my own: "You do realize it's dangerous to challenge a tyrant?" No, I told myself; those people are dying, they need a lifeline, I have to help them. But I had seen the flood and the lightning, the might of this god. My heart raced, my vision sparked as I went lightheaded, torn between mercy and wrath.

I dropped the rope back on the deck and collapsed in defeat, buried my head in my hands as my cries joined the cries of those out upon the seas.

We drifted closer to the peak of Urartu, though the part of it that remained above the waves could have fit inside a hut. I watched, heart clenching, as dozens of women and children struggled to stay on the peak, arms clasped with each other to avoid being washed away as waves larger than their island ripped into them. I watched, helpless, as men, women and children of all ages fought against the endless waves and fled the circling sharks. I watched, unable to answer, as dozens again swarmed the ship, begging to be let on as they clawed at the pitch. Watched, as fewer heads broke the surface of the water as each wave passed.

Mother stepped up to my right, her hands clutching the railings so hard her knuckles went white. "This ship could have fit them all."

At just the thought of saving those below, fear and anxiety fell upon me like a tidal wave. "We cannot hope to fight against their god."

Mother shook her head at me, a grim smile on her face.

My heart clenched. That sounded like I had just betrayed her. I turned away in shame, and saw Jezebel on my left as she stared out at all the people in the water, tears welling in her eyes.

I embraced her, tried to comfort her. "We've all lost so much. At least we're safe with our families here."

She turned to me with a grimace that told me otherwise. I realized that we had met Noah, his sons, and their wives, but hadn't yet met the wives' families.

"Where is your family?" I asked.

Jezebel indicated Noah and his sons. "They are my family now."

"Where are your parents?"

Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she turned and fled.

I stared at her retreating figure, and tried to recall where I'd last seen her parents. Oh gods. I'd seen Isa and Nalen during our trek up the mountainside. Noah hadn't even spared the families of his sons' wives.

And I'd just become one of those wives. My family... "Oh no-"

In a moment the sunlight vanished and the freezing, pouring rain crashed back onto the deck. My drenched wedding garments weighed upon my skin.

Behind me, I heard Noah's haggard sigh, his finishing his otherwise silent prayer: "As my Lord commands."

I turned around to find Noah walking up to us, all solemn. "It is time, Tel. For you to join your new family you will have to say farewell to your old. I am sorry."

No, no, no... I sank to my knees before him as tears welled in my eyes. "Please, my family is all I have left, they mean everything to me-"

Noah fell to his knees before me. "And you all mean so much to me. You think I want to watch everyone around me drown? If I could, I would have brought all of you on board, God knows I would. But I can't, because who am I to challenge the Almighty and risk the safety of my family in such a fool's venture? He has commanded me to keep everyone away, just as He commanded me to keep silent about the flood, and so I must obey."

I looked at him in shock. He had done all this not because he held all the power, but because he held no power? All this time, we

had been wrong to condemn him? Yet I knew it to be true, for I had felt it myself. He had only come to the same conclusion I had, that there was no fighting this god. I heaved, sobbing.

Dale stepped up beside me, snarling at him. "What's the meaning of this?"

Noah turned stoically to face him. "The Lord has decided that only my sons and I, and our wives, may be spared. For that reason Japheth agreed to marry Tel: so that as family, she would be allowed to stay. But the rest of you cannot, for in His eyes you are not family."

"Not family? Not family?" he roared at Noah. "When my sister is your son's wife?"

"We did what we could, but we cannot save you. You will not be allowed to stay on this ship." Tears welled in Noah's eyes.

"You betrayer," he snarled, pulling out a knife and lunged at him.

Noah fell back, his eyes wide.

"Dale, no!" I watched, horrified, as he disintegrated into a pillar of salt and blew away upon the wind. I reached forth, tried to grasp what I could, but what little salt I caught, mixed with the oppressive rain, was no different from the brine that stretched to every horizon.

And just like that, my only brother was taken from us, along with our father, gone the same way as the rest of our village. I'd never see any of them again, never feel the warmth of their embrace, never enjoy the mirth of their laughter, never share another meal together. I felt my hope slipping away, drowning.

Choking with grief, I crawled over to Noah, clutched at his feet. "Please Noah, you don't have to do this," I sobbed. "Just give me a moment to pray to ask our god to spare her, please."

Noah shook his head. "Any argument you could possibly make, I already have. The Lord will not be moved, nor will He be pleased with you trying to do so. You would only incur His wrath. Ilia must leave," he replied as he stepped around me.

I rose to my feet, grasped his arm. "No, you can't do this! She's my mother, I can't leave her. If she is to leave, then I leave too, waves or no." I shook his folded arms even as Japheth stepped forward and parted us, his alarm clear on his face.

Mother's slap across my face made me step back in shock. "How could you say such a thing, Tel? Promise me this, that no matter what happens, you will not throw your life away. Your life is the most important thing in the world."

I stepped toward her. "Mother, how could I possibly-"

She took a step toward me, pointed a finger at me. "Promise me," she commanded. "Swear it!"

"I..." Memories of almost drowning beneath those massive waves came unbidden. That abject fear, my desperate wish to stay alive. I stared at my feet. "I won't throw my life away, I swear."

She wrapped her arms around my head, gave me a long kiss, pulled away. "Remember this, Tel. Do not blame the man for what the powers that be, force him to do; but blame the powers that be. One day this god's powers too shall pass, and then you will know what to do. No one lives forever."

I saw her stepping toward the opening between the railing. "Mother, no!" I made to rush after her, but for Japheth who gripped me by the arm and held me back. "Don't leave me alone," I begged her as I struggled against his firm grasp. Reached an arm out toward her as she gave me one final smile.

"Stay strong, Tel. I'll always be with you."

And then it was too late, she'd stepped off the deck and in a blink she was gone. "Mother," I wailed, sagging as I tried to hold back the vertigo as I felt the world spin. All my family, everyone, was gone. I'd been abandoned, defenseless and surrounded by an oppressed family and the horror they served. I felt utterly alone.

Noah turned to my newlywed husband and I. "And now Tel, to save you from God's wrath, you must consummate your marriage." Lightning boomed above me as if in agreement.

"As God wills it," said Japheth as he turned to me, a pained look on his face.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I was dragged away.

But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee."

- Genesis 6:18