Beauty; a word that is usually meaningless. God, then Adam, had used it to describe Lilith. She had not been flattered by their words. Men, she had known, could use such terms to try to endear women to them. They wanted to subdue her will, make her think that being slaves to men would be worth the boost to her self esteem. They didn't understand that there was more to her than her body, and that all beauty was in the eye of the beholder anyway. She had not found Adam attractive, and Lucifer had left her alone when she rejected the advances of his hairy body enough times. But now, Lilith had finally found a use for the word.

Eve was beautiful. As the demoness watched her, curiousity piqued, she wandered throughout the garden of Eden, black hair covering her supple, dark skin, investigating the various life forms. Lilith had heard of her replacement by Eve and had come to investigate herself in snake form, but all it had accomplished was to make her more jealous of Adam. He was unworthy to be the leader of humans; he had no concept of right or wrong, and was brutish to boot. Lilith felt that she deserved that role more than him. Now she was envious of Adam's partner as well. He could never treat such a being right. She was delicate, and though docile, she seemed to have a genuine desire to learn about the world around her. Lilith could not believe that the Wife of Adam was made from him. She was everything he was not - gentle, spiritual, and sweet; seeming to the Queen of Succubi to be the embodiment of nature itself. Oh, Lilith was sure Eve had flaws, but did the earth not have faults of its own? Eve - like evening - surely this was not coincidence? If Lilith were God, she, too, would have been content to finish creating after making Eve. She was radiant.

Lilith's thoughts were interrupted when Eve suddenly looked directly at her and approached her. She was obviously timid, but her innocence and curiousity won out, and the girl asked, "Who are you?" "I am Lilith," came the response. Eve tilted her head. "Why are you in the tree of knowledge?" Lilith considered her answer, then said, "Because knowledge is the only thing separating us from beasts." "But you are a snake," the female pointed out. With a smile, the Queen of Succubi transformed back into her true self. The other girl's eyes grew wide, and she stepped back instinctively as Lilith jumped to the ground. "Don't be afraid," the first wife of Adam soothed, "I won't hurt you." Eve's expression turned to one of caution as the demoness approached her. "You are not like the man. You are sweeter, more openminded. Haven't you considered that you are equal to him, not lesser, as he must have told you?" Eve hesitated. "Yes," she replied timidly. Lilith's hear fluttered. So Eve was enlightened as she was. "Has he hit you?" the demoness asked softly as she finally came to a stop right before the young woman, whose eyes closed tightly. Her left hand drifted up to her cheek. "Yes," she whispered. Now the reaction Lilith had in her heart was one of rage. She put her hand on Eve's, and when the girl looked up at her in shock, she murmured, "When you were made, God restricted you from knowing the truth of your status. I have opened your eyes a little, yet you deserve to know the entirety of what has been hidden from you, Eve." With that, Lilith plucked an apple from the tree of knowledge and gave it to Eve. Understanding what Lilith wanted her to do, Eve said surprisedly, "But God told us not to!" "God did not want you to know the truth, Eve. He is too proud to think that someone different from him in body could be his image's equal. Eat, understand - and come with me." Eve's eyes widened, but Lilith continued before she could say anything. "I will treat you as you deserve to be treated. I will value you like Adam does not. You do not need him. You will have me." Then, as tenderly as the demoness could be, she kissed the girl on the lips.

The kiss was short, but meaningful. When Lilith parted, she let her eyes convey to the former rib of Adam what she felt in her heart, hoping that Eve felt the same way. For a moment, the two women simply stared at each other. Then, tentatively, Eve took a bite.

Immediately, a storm began to rage. "God knows!" the black-haired woman cried. Lilith grasped her shoulders. "I must leave, for if he can, he will kill me, and I cannot fly away from here fast enough for us both to escape his wrath. But I promise you this, Eve - as long as you know in your heart that you are equal to Adam, I will be with you. I will watch over you, and all of your daughters. God will punish you with the heart of your femininity, childbirth. I swear that when birthing is too painful, I will take the life of mother, child, or both to spare them the agony and perhaps the torturous death afterwards. But now, I must depart. I will see you again, Eve - though you will not see me."

And so it was that for years after the young woman watched the Queen of Succubi fly away into the clouds, she thought of the other female during every waking moment, hoping that she was near, sometimes feeling as though someone was touching her, and even as Adam kissed her neck, she thought of Lilith instead, remembering, in her heart, how much more pleasant the gentle caress of the other girl's lips had been.