Sunday, March 13, 2022 Aqrabuamelu compound; Flushing, Queens, New York, United States

“Charlotte will be so disappointed.” Adra said to her the next morning. They had just finished doing rounds of calisthenics in full combat gear, rotating two people out at a time to keep watch. Zaidu never let up and today Bahu was there to act as a sparring partner.

Zaidu was a warrior through and through, his motions economical and honed from thousands of years of repetition. Bahu was elegant, her movements having a fluidity and grace to them. Zaidu still put her to the ground multiple times and Bahu was going to have significant bruising.

“Hmmm?” asked Ella.

“Charlotte has been talking about seeing you for weeks.”

“I know. We chat all the time but it just isn’t the same. I don’t even see her in class since she dropped out of the program.”

That Adra and Charlie were a thing was still so alien to Ella. Charlie had suddenly turned into a thirteen year old girl with her effusive messaging about him. Ella wondered if Charlie had ever truly been in love before.

At least Adra seemed to return the affection. Even he blushed when mentioning her.

“She seems happy,” Adra said, “she even got an final round interview at some finance firm. She was proud that she did it without leaning on her father.”

“Yeah, she mentioned something about an interview. That is great.”

“I think it is tomorrow. Ignus Capital or something like that.”

“Wait! Ixus?” Ella suddenly had a much better idea of what Charlie was up to.

“Yes, you know them?” Adra perhaps was taken aback by Ella’s sudden intensity.

“Umm…” Ella prevaricated, “I interviewed with them once also. I should talk to her about it.”

Ella was about to call Charlie when she felt an urge to look at the door. The door opened and Zaidu was there. Her little magic tripwire had lasted a bit longer today. She had taken to timing it.

He nodded at Etana who was geared up and had watch duty and waited for the rest of them to line up.

“We found another dead soldier last night. That makes the High Priestess, Tethal, and Shamash.” Zaidu’s voice was a whisper.

All of them, including Ella albeit poorly, were able to say in Akkadian, “May Innana guard their souls and value their service.” And Ella thought about it, and if she was actually Innana and if she could provide that comfort she would have.

Zaidu’s eyes widened a bit at seeing her speak a ritual phrase.

But it didn’t seem to change anything, “Suit up. We are going drow hunting again.” His eyes lingered on Ella, as if expecting her to protest or screw up on the spot.

But Ella had kept her gear at the ready and was the first one back in line.

The mission briefing was simple. Patrol. The entirety of the complex had been searched, breach points walled off, and groups of guard posted.

But the deaths continued. Another guard was found killed, this time tortured. The details were gruesome and made Ella turn green.

Davcina seemed unhealthily interested in the details which didn’t help. And then revealed she was interested in taking enhanced interrogation courses. Sweet Davcina was actually cold as ice underneath.

Something had to change soon. Ella alternated between training, patrolling as if there were an army of insurgents could be around every corner, and studying physics and videoconferencing into her classes. She claimed COVID as why she couldn’t attend classes in person.

The camera gave her some ideas.

Tauthe held her fist up and pointed around the corner. Two adults, one maybe armed. Ella and Etana moved up to the corner and hand signaled back and forth.

Fuck it, thought Ella. She grabbed a flashbang. It had been two weeks of nights prowling the corners, of tensions being high, she felt strung out and the others felt the same. The whole facility was worn down. The deaths had continued each night. The tortures increasingly varied.

They could hear one of them talking but it was indistinct. Ella hadn’t figured out how to use any of her skills to hear better but she surreptitiously drew a magic tripwire at the far end beyond the two targets.

She was peeking around the corner as she did it, crouched, flashbang in hand. But one figure, the one that was clearly in the dominant position, the assassin most likely suddenly looked down the hall and then blurred and vanished.

“Shit!” yelled Ella and threw the flashbang.

All five of them took up shooting positions while Ella and Adrah advanced the hall. They could hear moaning from the one that was left, who slumped against the wall.

And then Ella realized that the figure wasn’t slumped, she was nailed to the wall, her eyes hanging out by their nerves. And saying over and over again, “There is no human. There is no human. There is no human.”

Blood and fluids trailed lazily down from her eyesockets. One of her eyeballs was punctured and deflated like a shriveled grape.

Ella leaned over and vomited noisily. And again. Until there was nothing left in her stomach where she dry retched instead.

“Who is she?”

Arcsa sat across his desk, covered in papers, and regarded the very incensed Zaidu.

Belatsunat, are we found out? He watched a vein on Zaidu’s head throb. Something in thousands of years Arcsa had never seen before from Zaidu.

But Arcsa and Belatsunat had prepared for this. They knew the layers of their obfuscation would be peeled away — if not quite so quickly.

“Who is she? I think I already explained it to you. A trial, someone with exquisite skills and drive, but capable of learning and accepting the Faith of Blessed Innana.”

“Bullshit.” Zaidu screamed. He stood up, fists clenched. Arcsa had never heard Zaidu raise his voice above his trademark hissing. Even in combat. Today was a day of firsts.

“My brethren lie dead and tortured. Zae lutumu. Now who is this lukurra?”

Perhaps Arcsa had misjudged how truly angry Zaidu was for him to start swearing in ancient Sumerian. But if he gave up the first layer too easily, it wouldn’t ring authentic.

“Zae shabarra! Do you doubt my loyalty?” Arcsa stood up to face Zaidu and pounded the desk, scattering a pile of papers that would take him an hour to reorganize.

Zaidu stood there staring, not answering.

“Sit down!” Arcsa ordered.

After a brief hesitation, Zaidu relaxed his posture and sat. Arcsa sat down and smoothed down the papers he could. What a mess.

“Eleanor is… complicated and this is only know to a few, Belatsunat already felt too many knew.” The other soldiers who had witnessed Ella’s magic had been sent off on a long, remote mission to look for the missing pieces of imperial regalia. That stupid island, Arcsa remembered the place and knew the guardian, he had no intention of going there. Let the humans waste their lives.

Zaidu had flinched at hearing Belatsunat’s name, but now that she was dead, her name was returned to her.

“She is… she is Ekerri’s heir,” he let it out with a rush of breath. Dissembling with many of the older Aqramuabelu was difficult, they had seen too much. But Zaidu was too forthright.

“She is the heir of that bastard? Why is she not in a stewpot right now? It’ll rip her apart right now!”

“Shut up. She is Ekerri’s heir. And he set her up to be a target for his enemies, which includes us. Let us just say she was not enamored with any of this.”

Arcsa waited and watched Zaidu work through it. Surely even he could draw a straight line between two points. But it looked like his brain was working overtime, the stupid bug.

Arcsa could see the very moment it all came to the fore. Zaidu opened his mouth twice, “And so you hope to co-opt her against him?”

“Not quite. She found us and has asked us for alliance. It aligns with our own goals of opposing Ekerri until Blessed Innana returns. She is… for lack of a better word, already co-opted. And that is why the drow is here to kill her. And why only your small group knows there is a human here. We are fortunate she had similar coloring, it would be hard to explain a human - everyone assumes she is from another crèche.”

Zaidu sat there thinking. Arcsa imagined he could see dust from unused parts of his brains being stirred up.

“Anything the Bastard God wants, I oppose.” Zaidu was nothing if not fanatical.

“Exactly.”

“But… then we have bait.”

And that exposed the huge flaw in this partial disclosure. Could Arcsa truly put the potential Innana Reborn at risk? How did that balance against the drow accidentally killing her or exposing the truth too early?

“No. Let’s pick another of the cohort.” Arcsa decided. Sacrifices may be needed.