The Eden Chronicles Boxset Read online

  The

  Given

  Garden

  The Eden Chronicles #1

  S.K MUNT

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  ©S.K Munt 2016

  The Eden Chronicles

  #1 The Given Garden, Part 1

  #1.5 The Given Garden, Part 2

  #2 The Forbidden Fruit

  #3 The Tangled Trees

  #4 The Wildest Woods

  #The Sequestered Sea

  #The Devil’s Divide

  #The Fallen Forest

  For the girls who know that we are more than our labels.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks you to authors Emm Cole and Howard Parsons for their editing and advice, and to my proofreader, Donella Brown

  Glossary

  Kingdoms Under The Barachiel Empire Of Calliel & Rulers

  Kingdom Of Arcadia

  *Arcadia

  King Elijah Barachiel II

  *Pacifica

  General Atticus Hartley

  *Nitika

  Duke of Nitika, Prince Ewan Barachiel

  *St Miguel

  Duke of St Miguel, Hamlet McPhee

  *Rachiel

  Duke of Rachiel, General Michael Bronx

  Kingdom Of Tariel: Emmanuel Gutierrez

  Kingdom of Janiel: King Jasper Bronx

  Kingdom Of Yael: King Elbert Yael

  Kingdoms Outside of Calliel

  Asiana: Queen Lee Selafiel

  Rabia: President Connor Camden

  New Rome: King Lachlan Gabriel

  Past And Ruling Monarchs Referenced Within Text

  King Miguel Barachiel

  King Elijah Barachiel The First

  King Michael Barachiel

  King Aidan Barachiel

  King Lloyd Barachiel

  King Elijah Barachiel II

  Prince Karol Barachiel

  Prince Kohen Barachiel

  Prince Kohl Barachiel

  Terminology used within The Eden Chronicles

  Castes

  Monarchy

  Descendants of Miguel Barachiel and his mortal love, Gabriella Fernandez.

  Shepherds

  Or ‘Sheps’ members of the nobility who have risen out of their ranks and are charged with the job of spreading the true word of the only God.

  Nobility

  People from all castes who are either born from royalty (Second sons of the Barachiel lineage) or have risen out of other castes via hard work, and who are granted nicer homes and more prominent careers. (Captains, Dukes, Shepherds, Generals and Counts) All ‘noble’ titles are inherited by birth, but surrendered at the age of sixteen in the name of equality.

  Companions

  Sex workers trained within the castle to serve as Courtesans in the same way that escorts of Geishas were trained in the time before.

  Athletes

  Members of society who qualified as champions of human strength.

  Artisans

  Members of society with natural born talent in excess

  Academics

  Those who tested with high intelligence

  Farmers

  Members of society who have risen above their station by saving well and working hard and have purchased their own Farms.

  Corps

  People who are either conscripted by birth, sentenced to punishment or choose to enlist in the Corps because they want to travel or work hard salvaging things from the time before, or exploring and building up or defending new boundaries and territories. There are three kinds of Corps: The Given, The Voluntary and The Prisoners.

  Blue Collars

  The cast that 65% of the population belong to. Blue Collars do manual labour or menial tasks in exchange for early retirements.

  Given

  Children born outside of the Kingdom’s restricted number of offspring allowed, who are voluntarily handed over to the crown at the age of five to be put to use where needed.

  Banished

  Mortals found guilty of rebelling against God’s word who are branded and let outside of the Kingdom’s gates.

  Pirates

  Godless people who belong to none of the kingdoms and travel via the ocean and live in unclaimed territory.

  The Fallen

  Anyone who has turned their back to God in favour of Satan, whether they be born as dark Nephilim or are merely evil mortals.

  Soul Mates: The Twelve original Arch Angels. Have the ability to change form and power that wanes with overuse

  Miguel, Satan, Gabriel, Tariel, Selafiel, Janiel all referenced within this text.

  The Twelve Originals: The twelve mortal and Godless survivors of Armageddon, who were rescued, protected and turned back to God by the Archangel Miguel.

  Light Nephilim: Biological offspring descended from matches of the Soul Mates with mortals. Limited powers, drain quickly. Rarely are born with wings.

  Dark Nephilim: Biological offspring resulting from matches between The Fallen and mortals. More powerful than the light Nephilim, but almost extinct and also rarely born with wings.

  The Six Books Of Creation: The true story of Creation and Armageddon and the re-birth of the world recorded by Miguel Barachiel, Raoul Johnson and the Soul Mate, Rabia.

  The Time before: The world from Creation to 2023 A.D

  The Time After: The New World after Armageddon commenced 1AA (After Armageddon)

  Marriage: A union between a man and woman where vows are spoken before a Shepherd and in God’s names. Marriages are unbreakable, and those who exchange vows and golden rings are granted a savings fund by the crown. Gay and infertile people can be married, but only after their thirtieth birthdays have lapsed. The girl must be virginal unless she was widowed.

  Joined Unions: Temporary unions forged between men and women for breeding purposes only. Joined Unions are dissolved once the youngest, or only child has turned twenty-one, are done twice a year in large groups, and are represented with the exchange of silver rings.

  Brands: Glyphs Burned into the shoulders of sinners to represent their crimes.

  Golden Brand: The glyph burned into the skin of the Royal Family’s ‘Favourite’ Companions if they are asked to stay on in service after their twenty-first year. These are painted with real gold when fresh and are permanent.

  Preliminary Caste Examinations: A testing process undertaken by all 16 year olds on the full moon after their sixteenth birthday to determine which cast they will serve their apprenticeship through. This involves written exams for some, and physical exams for others. Testers score an overall result for their percentile, and separate marks in the various categories that they nominate to sit for.

  Final Caste Examination: Round two of testing done at the age of twenty-one which determines the individual’s caste for life, changeable only via marriage.

  Infertility Elixir: The infallible contraceptive given to women to control child birth. For free citizens, it is taken orally and under their own guidance, but for Companions and singles over thirty, it is inserted into the abdomen and is not able to be removed.

  Prologue

  Some people said that in the beginning, God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Others said that there was nothing until Vishnu hummed the world to life, and some believed that there was no beginning at all and that the world simply grew from energy. There were thousands of stories along this vein: that a beetle sank to the bottom of an expansive ocean and brought up mud until he had pulled up continents, or that one single atom exploded an
d put everything where it needed to be.

  They were wild, irrational stories and some of them were so ridiculous that it would boggle the mind of any sane person. And yet, there were thousands of humans in the time before that believed each- and were willing to die for the right to go on believing in their own brand of theology. They all named and lay claim to God and what he’d done and why he’d done it, and arguments stemmed from these contrasting beliefs from so many differing parties, that speaking on the subject ceased to be enough and it led to tears, screaming and eventually, bloodshed.

  But I know the real story. In our world- everyone knows the real story, and everyone has read the tales of the old. In fact, we are forbidden to read anything on the subject of theology until we have demonstrated that we have a grasp on the only truth there is- a test that is given at the age of four after one year of solid education on the subject. Four, you say? How young! Well no, youth is an illusion in Calliel, as is everything else.

  I’m sure you’ve read the old myths and fable stories too, and have either laughed or prayed or been made into a believer by them, and whatever you’ve chosen to believe is fine with me.

  None of it has any bearing on my story and in the end- our individual stories are the truest reflection of God that can ever be.

  I hope yours is more attractive than mine, because I am named Larkin, I am sixteen years-old and though I have always loved and had faith in God, I am contemplating giving Satan my soul, in exchange for just one drop of happiness that I can hold on to here in this torturous paradise.

  The Creation Story

  Book I of VI

  This text is not to be edited, altered, summarised or translated into any language. Offenders who attempt to will be charged with treason against Calliel and put to death.

  In the beginning, God created the universe and all within it, using singular bursts of energy that came from deep within his very soul. For billions of years he watched the planets that he had created come into being, and then thrive or fail based on their size and proximity to his other creations. Balance was the key to creating something truly spectacular, and when God understood this, he positioned one very special planet just so- between the sun and its own small moon- so it would neither burn nor freeze. Pleased by his progress and spurred on by a sense of self-satisfaction, God focused all of his concentration there- abandoning the other planets in favour of perfecting the planet that we have always called Earth. He did not know why he was doing this- only that he had the urge and the ability to create, and that if he did not, he would surely suffocate under the dense weight of his own power.

  God loved the earth and its diversity, but it was far from perfect and required his constant focus, influence, experimentation and reflection. There were centuries of ice, centuries of beasts and centuries of nothing but the symphony of insect songs, and though it took him eons of time to get the geography of the world just right, he created like a painter in possession of every colour until eventually, God convinced himself that the surface of the planet was perfect, harmonious and most importantly, it made him feel more than overwhelmed for once- it made him feel complete.

  God toyed with the world like a child full of wonder, making oceans rise and fall, wiping out species when he realised that they were incompatible with the terrain, or then wiping out the terrain to sustain a preferred species. Some parts of the earth had to go without in order for others to flourish, and yet every inch of it served some purpose and brought him joy and entertainment.

  But as time went on, God began to grow dissatisfied with his favourite possession and with that dissatisfaction came lethargy and that lethargy weakened him and made it harder for him to influence anything. He loved Earth, but his creation was so perfect and so balanced that he’d become irrelevant to it, and he worried that without purpose, he’d soon blink out like one of the many stars that he had abandoned.

  Afraid that his time to enjoy the universe would soon run out, God decided to spend what little he had left upon Earth with the other creatures that he had made, hoping to bond with another life in some way before he became extinct, so that at least one being would remember him after he was gone. God had made many magnificent things with his energy, but his very favourite was a place; a garden full of ponds and fragrant blossoms and lush green grass, that he called Eden. It was, indeed, perfect, and the animals that enjoyed it were more content than any others anywhere else, and so he decided that this would be his home.

  God made himself into a creature that he thought would be perfectly compatible with his paradise. He gave himself hands that could touch the flowers, similar to those of the primates, legs to stand upon, wings to fly like the birds, and a mouth and throat that he could use to expel his joy and fear when he was overcome. He revelled in Eden, and though he was weak enough to be subjected to pain and exhaustion and hunger, he explored the earth from there using his feet or his wings and sometimes by willing himself a tail so that he could submerge into the oceans and lakes.

  But though happy enough, God could not communicate with the other animals and so he was lonely, and when he felt himself begin to wither and age from the effort of sustaining a corporeal form, he used his very last reserves of energy to duplicate himself, filling Eden with more beings that were almost identical to him: six males, and six females who could also fly, speak and run. They were beautiful, kind and fill of wonder just like him, and he decided that they would inherit the earth when he faded.

  God lived with these beings for his last years as a human, sharing all that he had done and enjoying all that he had created through their eyes, and in time, they began to love one another and he called them his Soul Mates, for they were each an extension of him. They expressed their affection for one another physically with kisses and caresses and intimate looks and conversations, and after bouts of frantic couplings, the females would give birth to tiny little versions of themselves who they would love and coddle in other ways. God approved of this reproduction process heartily and encouraged the males and females to do this often- because every time a new soul came into the world, he grew stronger from their love in a way that he never had from the other creatures in his kingdom. To further spur them on, he gifted the winged beings with dozens of infant humans. He was not powerful enough anymore to give them all wings or tails, but each new life was divine in its own way and he adored them, wishing that he could know fatherhood too, but he’d grown too old and frail to do such a thing with his weary body. But the people he had created kept his heart beating and cuddled him and for him- that was reward enough after billions of years of loneliness.

  After a decade, there were hundreds of these human beings co-existing within the boundaries of Eden, and they all looked to God as their leader and loved him so that his heart began to pound with power once more. Eventually, God realised that he’d been so revived by their love that he suddenly had a choice to make: live on with the humans, or return to his omnipotent form? God didn’t like having to make such a choice, but the urge to rest and then create something new was too strong for him to ignore so he decided in the end, to leave the earth to the humans. He would miss his Soul Mates, but he also knew that he would be able to protect them more easily in his true form and that would guarantee their on-going love.

  And they were in need of protection, for the rapid rates of their reproduction were beginning to throw their paradise out of balance. Soon, there would not be enough room or sustenance in Eden to accommodate all of them, and God was determined to shield them from the flaws in his perfect design outside of the garden- like the rains that had been falling for far too long on the rest of the country, inundating the land with water and making hunting difficult outside of Eden, and the sorrow that caused the feathers to fall from every set of wings belonging to the descendants of his original twelve. And the only way he could be everywhere at once, was if he was nowhere at all.

  God knew without a doubt, that love was all that mattered- love was what he had been tryin
g to create for himself from the very beginning. Giving up the ability to feel it in a human way would be a sacrifice, but he made that sacrifice, leaving them with just enough power each to ascertain that they would be able to protect one another when he was at rest. They farewelled him with tears, and no sooner had he returned to his spirit form, did God feel himself throb with the power of undying love. He halted the rains immediately, flexing his power for the first time in one hundred years, and then made the dark sky shatter with a million brilliant falling stars for their pleasure. This feat instantly exhausted him and his spirit demanded that he rest, but he left one large one burning steadily above Eden to remind them of his power and presence, even if they would no longer be able to see him with their human eyes.

  *

  God had created the Soul Mates in his human likeness inside and out, and though he believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that they all loved as fiercely as he did and wanted the same things that he did- God himself was flawed and this became apparent to him as soon as he was out of their sight, and they all within his. He could not only see their weaknesses reflected in some of their actions, but he could feel all of their emotions, and some were so turbulent that he himself shook with uncertainty. WOULD he love them still? Would he be able to protect them? Would they need a leader in his absence that they could follow, or would the star be enough? They didn’t know and so, neither did he. Their love and faith in him flickered, and so did his power. He tried to send more stars to remind them of his love again, but he could not do so without conviction, and so he resigned himself to rest and think it over.