Severus and Lucius proceeded along a tunnel flooded to their knees, following the route Lyall Mayer had shown them.
"Look." Lucius pointed into the distance.
There was a spot of light in the darkness, like a lit torch.
They quickened their pace in that direction.
When they drew closer, they discovered a small chamber, also flooded. The walls were covered in vines resembling Devil's Snare. At the center of the vines was a bulge, and through the gaps between them they could see an almost translucent red-glowing "egg," with Alessandro lying inside.
Time in that world differed from time in the normal world. A normal person's body would age rapidly if it stayed there too long, so those "observation ports" were all temporary.
What usually entered was consciousness, like the humans lying in biological pods in The Matrix. The difference was that Alessandro had no socket at the back of his neck.
The Song of the Saints section of the Dead Sea Scrolls listed a series of monsters, including Lilith, the "Queen of the Night." In reliefs left behind by the early Sumerians, Lilith was depicted as a woman whose wings were not fully spread. Angels also had wings, except angels possessed no sexual characteristics whatsoever.
Goddess worship itself was tied to reproduction. Lilith had originally been Ishtar's handmaiden, and Ishtar was the Venus goddess of beauty, harvest, and war in Mesopotamian mythology.
Adam in the material world represented the Fall, for he had put on the outer appearance of "skin," abandoned his spiritual nature, and become imperfect. Men and women in the material world were both flawed, and could not become whole through the union of their bodies. Yet their union could produce children. The Declaration of Independence spoke of "created equal," that all men were created equal, yet