Abraham patted Mark on the head and told him he would be back in five minutes, then hurried toward the temple.

Peeking inside through the window, he saw that the place was crowded — and that everyone inside was young. He was relieved not to see any adults; if someone spotted him and asked, “Stranger, what are you doing here?” he wanted to be prepared.

He rubbed baked clay on his teeth, staining them yellow — at least temporarily. If anyone asked, he planned to show his teeth and lie: he would say he served in the Lord’s private service, which was why he was rarely seen around.

At that moment another thought struck him:

“Where is Melisa?” he muttered, looking through the window again. He couldn’t see her.

“It seems we’re not meant to meet,” he said, and was about to leave when he noticed someone standing beneath the window. Though he couldn’t see the face, he recognized Melisa instantly from her red hair. The moment he realized it was her, he slipped inside through the door decorated with the double-headed eagle symbol.

In truth, no one cared that Abraham had entered, but he kept trying to flash his teeth at everyone, as if to say, “I’m one of you.” The inside looked less like a temple and more like a dining hall. On the raised floor called the “stage,” a group of five children — a small choir — were singing hymns under the lead of an older youth, while the others ate their food scattered around the hall.

“Let me tell you before you ask. These foods and drinks are forbidden to you. They’re for those of us born in sin. Through these meals, God enters us and purifies us.”

Seeing Abraham’s expression, Melisa felt the need to add:

“Of course, it’s symbolic. Not literal — it’s just a representation.”

Abraham smiled slightly.

“So that’s what they told you, and you ate both the explanation and the food, is that it?” he said, then added,
“It doesn’t sound like a very convincing explanation to me, but what matters is that you feel peaceful and happy. I hope, in return for your intention, God really is cleansing you from evil and sin.”

Noticing from Melisa’s eyes that she expected a further explanation, Abraham continued:

“Of course, in this understanding there’s a good intention — a servant trying to draw closer to God. But it’s an interpretation easily misunderstood. For example, the sun is in the sky. Yet through the heat it gives, its reflection on shiny surfaces like water, the life it provides to plants, or the colors it creates in rainbows — we know it affects the world. And we also know that without the sun, life wouldn’t continue.

In the same way, we accept that God is in the heavens, yet through His actions He influences our bodies. But if we think He literally dwells inside everyone, then every living being could claim divinity. And with arrogance at its peak nowadays, everyone would turn into a Lord. Mark my words — if we suffer enough under one Lord, imagine what would happen if there were Lords everywhere.”

Melisa, while setting unshakable thrones in Abraham’s heart as her hazel eyes passed through the mirror of his soul, was also carefully watching her surroundings. She rarely ever saw her father, and she could not imagine he would come to the forbidden area at this hour. But her mother often checked on her daughters, so she had to remain cautious.

Whenever Abraham talked with Melisa—especially about matters like these—he felt an unusual ease in his heart. Because the pounding of his heart—“Melisa, Melisa…”—had finally found its answer.

There is a saying: before humans were created, souls met one another in the pre-eternal realm. Those who got along well there long to see each other on earth, while flowing through life—like a river pouring into eternity—within different bodies. When they finally meet behind their earthly forms, they recognize each other instantly. In that moment, they understand what the angels meant, back in the realm of souls, when they spoke of the meaning of love in the world.

While Abraham’s inner world was setting sail into this boundless peace, his mind was commanding his body:

“Do not look at the heart. We must stay alert until our last breath. At any moment the self may find an opening and desire the wrong things—never trust it!”

Melisa’s soft voice was heard:

“According to what my mother says, God struck this seal on the tooth—the hardest tissue of the body—so that even after the flames of hell reduce the body of a sinner to ashes, the guilty can be recognized again and again.”

Abraham remembered the fire that had broken out in their old neighborhood. His parents had not been with him that day, and like many curious eyes, he too had wanted to see the aftermath. At first, he could not understand the heavy smell of burnt flesh that reached his nose, but then he realized what it was. When he looked at the bodies, he understood that the smell came from burned human bodies. Even the bones had turned pitch-black and unrecognizable, yet the teeth were perfectly intact and white.

That day, he had thought that teeth could be used to identify burned bodies — but it had never crossed his mind that, as Melisa said, God might recognize sinners in hell by their teeth. What Melisa had told him sounded absurd to Abraham. Wanting to provoke her into thinking, he said:

“About those teeth of yours… what if we pull them out? That way you wouldn’t go to hell — or they wouldn’t be able to recognize you. There’s a plant called hemp; we can use it to numb the area where the tooth will be pulled and prevent the pain. What do you think?”

Melisa narrowed her hazel eyes, showing she was angry.

“Don’t be ridiculous — how could anyone do such a thing?”

Abraham replied,
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Let’s find another solution,”
and after pretending to think for a moment, he said:

“I’ve got it. First we’ll file your teeth down a bit to make them smaller, then we’ll use a measuring substance we can extract from seaweed to make a mold of your teeth. After shaping the mold while it’s still soft, we’ll coat it with a material that hardens. Once we get the form we want, we’ll place it onto the filed tooth like putting a hat on a head — and that’s it.”
Then he added,
“There you go — you’re saved from hell!”

He was so caught up in his teasing that he nearly reached out to shake her hand in congratulations — and almost hugged her afterward.

“Stop mocking. When God strikes you, you’ll come to your senses!” Melisa said. Abraham looked at her and shook his head.

“Yes, I’m mocking — but not you. I’m mocking the Lord, or whoever it is who made the people accept this idea. I’m pretending to play doctor because there’s a truth I want to show you. It’s good for a person to feel sinful and turn toward God in repentance. Even if one hasn’t committed a great sin, who can claim, ‘I’m sinless,’ or ‘I owe nothing to God’? Of course no one can.

What’s wrong is that you feel inferior, as if you were second-class, because of something that has nothing to do with you. Even if your sin were great enough to deserve a seal, that would still be a matter between you and God.”

Then he continued

“Am I wrong, hazel-eyed one?” he said, finishing his sentence.
If the mind had not acted carefully, his heart would have blurted out, “My hazel-eyed one, my life, the spring of my existence!” But the mind commanded:

“Get a hold of yourself!”

The walls of the temple were decorated with various icons. One of them depicted two winged, human-like beings descending from the sky to a woman on the earth. When Abraham stared at this icon for a while, Melisa noticed.

“If you’re looking that closely, something must have caught your attention.”

“Yes. Judging by the wings of these two beings, they’re angels — but who do you think the woman on earth is? From how she’s portrayed, she doesn’t seem like a very good person. I can guess which event this scene is meant to depict, but unfortunately, it’s been distorted.”

According to her tradition, Melisa believed that the longer she stayed in the temple, the more she would be cleansed of her sins. And since it was still early, she preferred listening to Abraham instead of hearing the preacher’s words — words whose meanings she barely understood. Her heart pounded with the excitement of hearing Abraham’s voice, yet what she heard also captured her curiosity.

“There were once two angels named Harut and Marut,” young Abraham began to explain.

“God sent these two angels down to earth. As a test, they taught people magic — but to everyone they taught, they warned: ‘Do not ever use this magic! We are teaching it only so you may protect yourselves from it.’
But as time passed, some people unfortunately used magic to separate husbands and wives. This is known as a grave sin. It is clear that anyone who practices or commissions such magic will face a severe reckoning in the afterlife.”

Melisa interrupted to ask:

“But they say the Prophet Solomon used magic as well.”

“He never practiced such magic. He subdued certain jinn, yes — but he never engaged in sorcery or anything of the sort, as our divine scriptures tell us.”

Melisa narrowed her eyes thoughtfully and asked:

“I don’t understand. If God doesn’t want people to use magic, then why did He allow the angels to teach it to humans in the first place?”

“It was, as I said earlier, a test,” Abraham replied.

“But you said they taught magic to people. Do you mean they taught it so people could protect themselves from it?”

A good explanation came to Abraham’s mind:

“To protect ourselves from diseases, we must first understand the disease — then determine the proper medicine and treatment. Otherwise, random treatment can even lead to death. In the same way, the nature of the magic must be known so that one can identify how to protect against it and how to undo it. That is why magic was taught.”

Melisa nodded, showing she was convinced by this reasonable explanation. Then she asked again:

“But is magic really so easy to do? On this island, there are quite a few people who practice it — especially to break up marriages.”

“Of course it isn’t easy. These are subtle truths of knowledge that can easily be misused. Sometimes it’s done by sticking needles into human-shaped dolls, sometimes by tying knots like the ‘pig’s knot.’ When strangers enter a house, one must be cautious — they might hide a magical object somewhere inside. And as we know from certain prophetic stories, magic can also be done using objects buried in the ground.”

Then Abraham pointed at the icon and continued:

“The part that doesn’t exist in the original story is this woman. And I know why she’s in this icon,” Abraham said.

“Why? You’re telling me things I’ve never heard before — I’d like to listen.”

“The story resembles the original, yes, but the differences are greater. Don’t listen to this as a religious tale, but rather as a mystical, mysterious, mythological one. Of course, like every story, this one also carries good lessons.”

From Melisa’s expression, Abraham understood she was saying, “Go on, start telling it.”
So he began:

“God wanted to show two of His angels—who lamented mankind’s sinful nature—the wickedness of the world, especially how dangerous greed and lust can be. Harut and Marut would spend their days doing ordinary tasks in the city of Babylon, and at night they would ascend to the heavens by reciting a sacred prayer. No one ever realized they were angels.

Everything went exactly as foreseen… until they saw a captivating woman — until Zühre arrived. She told them she wanted to divorce her husband. With her charm, she all but imprisoned the two angels in the dungeon of love. I’ll put it that way — you can guess the rest.”

“I understand,” Melisa replied.

Abraham quickly continued the story:

“The angels begged Zühre, saying they would even cross the limits that had been set for them and do anything she wished. Zühre asked them to drink wine and worship an idol. Blinded by their love for her, the angels fulfilled her every request. She even learned from them one of the most powerful prayers — the Supreme Name. Then, when Zühre recited that prayer and ascended to the heavens, God turned her into a star and hung her in the sky.”

Pointing to the shining stars scattered across the dark sky, he added:

“That star up there — the Zühre Star — is the woman who deceived the angels.”

Melisa looked up at the sky, where the stars shimmered like a festival of lights, then asked:

“So… what happened to the angels?”

“According to the story, God asked them: ‘Do you choose the punishment of this world or the punishment of the hereafter?’
Knowing how severe the punishment of the afterlife is, the angels chose the punishment of this world. And since that day, Harut and Marut have been suffering their punishment in a well, hanging upside down.”

Melisa looked at the icon and said:

“I think it’s a beautiful story. It shows that love can lead even angels astray from the path of righteousness.”

She and Abraham locked eyes. From their blushing cheeks, it was clear how inexperienced both of them were in matters of love. Embarrassed, Abraham turned his head away. When he began staring deeply at another icon in the far corner of the temple, Melisa offered an explanation:

“I know the meaning of this icon,” Melisa said. Pointing with her hand, she explained:
“The strong, muscular figure in the middle with shining eyes is the Prophet Solomon. The dark-faced ones around him — with long ears, triangular jaws, long arms and legs, pitch-black eyes with a hint of red inside — they are evil jinn and demons. The icon depicts them trying to capture Solomon with the thick chains in their hands.”

She continued:

“You know that Prophet Solomon possessed an unmatched kingdom — an invincible army made of metaphysical beings like jinn, birds, and animals. But one day, he was imprisoned by these evil jinn. This icon shows that even a prophet can be overpowered by jinn unless God helps him.”

Abraham nodded, showing he agreed. Then he pointed at the being above the image of Solomon and asked:

“So… who or what is this supposed to be?”

Melisa pushed her lips outward and said:

“Probably God.”

Abraham shook his head:

“A God with a human head, the body of a horse, and wings? Impossible. This is Pan — one of the greatest gods believed in by polytheistic pagans and by the alchemists, who can be considered a branch of them.”

Abraham, thinking Melisa’s face had reddened from the nonsense she’d just heard, continued:

“I agree — what these alchemists did is completely unacceptable. Portraying the God who helped Prophet Solomon as Pan is a great disrespect.”

“Are there any of them on this island?” Melisa asked, avoiding Abraham’s eyes.

“The only one I know is my friend Mark. But the fact that so many paintings contain their secret symbols shows that they’re influential in number. And since they value secrecy, we can never know exactly how many they are.”

Looking at another icon, Abraham said:

“There you go — another one! According to this, a Lord-like figure stands above the clouds, and the people on the ground are bowing to him. The message is perfectly clear: ‘The Lord is your god, and you are his servants.’
He has begun to openly claim divinity — presenting himself as God and forcing people to accept his commands without question.”

“First, he’ll make you accept this idea with a painting like this, then the rest of the island. Step by step, he’s turning himself into a god!”

As the worship hall slowly began to empty and people exited through a side door, Abraham pointed immediately to the icon behind them and whispered:

“All of this cannot be a coincidence, nor the result of some simple artistic expression. Someone is systematically trying to declare himself a god. And it’s obvious that afterward he intends to enslave the islanders completely.”

Melisa said to Abraham:

“My mother might come any moment — I have to go,” and told him she needed to leave the temple.

Abraham understood. Even though one reason for Melisa’s departure was her mother, there had to be other reasons he couldn’t identify.

Abraham left right after Melisa, blending in with the few people who remained in the temple so as not to attract attention. His mind was filled with the symbols and figures that had been added to the icons afterward, distorting the original stories. Who was working with the Lord to create this new doctrine? And what was it that troubled Melisa?

Abraham was just about to turn the corner in the darkness of the night when a hand touched his shoulder from behind, making him jump.