“Is that the name of this place?” I asked.
“Yes, but don’t you have something to do, you little treasure trove of data? Flying? Claws? Probably bad breath? Heading right for us?” She rubbed her chin in thought, gazing at the hordes of demons below. “Some of these creatures have been created with very odd designs, strange indeed. I wonder what their primary purpose would be if…” she muttered, her voice trailing off.
I didn’t know why Enheduanna was here, but I believed her that she wasn’t going to help me. This gave me the focus I needed to gather myself, ready to deal with my immediate problems. The approaching flying demon was hideous and frightening on its own, but as it grew closer, I could feel-see something else approaching with Surround Vision. There was something behind me too. When I turned my head, I couldn’t see anything, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. The closer it got, the more it looked like some sort of creature, and I was not going to take any chances.
With a flex of Flight power, I spun and delivered two quick air drills at the mass moving toward me. The attacks hit, and one of them blew something’s wing off. As it plummeted, it became visible, and I saw what had been approaching me unseen.
Its head looked like a swollen fruit, studded with many eyes. A long tongue hung out of a mouth with broken-looking, jagged teeth. Long, thin arms had an unnatural number of fingers and claws. It had cat-like legs, and a stinger on its tail. I’d blown one of its wings off, so it was still very alive and hissed at me as it fell.
To deal with the other demon, I flew up in a fast corkscrew, then I dove before it could react. This demon was also fairly large, but one of the least bizarre-looking demons I’d seen so far. It almost looked like a cross between a dragon and a flying monkey. I landed on its back, and easily punched about a dozen holes in it with Eneus, my arm and weapon moving like a sewing needle.
As it convulsed and began to drop, I hovered in place and watched it fall for a few seconds before snapping my eyes back up to Enheduanna. She hadn’t moved, and was picking her other ear now, lying on her side in midair. She wore some sort of leather-looking catsuit with heeled boots. Her fingers were full of rings, most of them gold, glittering against her dark skin.
I briefly wondered why anyone would wear rings made of a worthless metal like gold but shook my head and let it go. Who knew why Enheduanna did anything?
“That was good,” she said. She gracefully rotated in the air until she seemed to be standing on nothing. “I really didn’t expect you to live long after choosing Vibration as your primary ‘Bonded path. To think we would be here years later, the researcher and the subject, it’s somewhat moving.” She theatrically sighed and a single tear trailed down her cheek.
Even after the day I’d had, fighting for my life and being stranded in this place, I had to fight disbelief over the sheer randomness and lunacy of this meeting. “Where the hell did you come from?”
“I flew through the portal when you did, silly. Actually, I was beginning to wonder if you were going to do it. The situation was quite touch and go there for a while. Fascinating. Your adomopathy may be one of the greatest reasons you are still alive. Do you actually understand how highly you have polished your combat skills? That is a serious question. As I’ve thought before, sometimes it is difficult to tell whether you are simple or brilliant. Muffin agrees.”
When I ground my teeth, the sound echoed in my armored helmet. “So you were watching me the entire time that I was fighting?”
“I feel as if we have had this conversation before. Have we had this conversation before? No matter. There is a great deal of research I must get back to, and this mission is already dragging on.”
The High Priestess’ tone and mannerisms were all different now than when I’d met her in Tolstey. In that moment, I truly made my peace with the fact that I would never understand Enheduanna. I put a hand on my hip, and asked, “How did—”
The demigoddess’ face grew flat and she held up a hand, silencing me. She cocked her head before a gust of wind blew over us and another woman floated before us. The newcomer looked like she might have been Areva in the past. Now she looked demonic, with a large horn jutting out of her forehead, another set of eyes, and ragged wings growing from her back. A long tail with a split end curled in the air behind her.
“You are trespassing in Dread Asag’s—”
“Oh my, what terrible manners. Can’t you see that we are having a conversation here? Also, I really do not want to be here right now. No more wasting time. Off you go, shoo. Shoo.” She made waving motions with the back of her hand.
The horned woman’s eyes widened in surprise, then anger. I gulped. An aura of power sprang up around her, making my teeth itch. My instincts were screaming at me that this was not an opponent I could beat.
The devilish woman dashed forward, her murderous intent obvious, but before she even reached Enheduanna, the High Priestess appeared above her and held out a hand. The winged woman could only let out a startled gasp before an orange net of energy shot through her, like a blade through boiled neu-cod. A moment later, the dead woman literally fell apart, her cubed body parts raining down.
I was fairly sure that the horned woman had been this world’s version of a High Priestess.
Suddenly, after another wave of pressure, a new woman stood several yards away. She glanced down at the falling fragments of the other demonic woman before her eyes narrowed in anger. She looked a lot like the dead woman had, but with a taller build and a different color horn. Her lips firmed and her shoulders tensed but she made a visible to effort to calm herself. I could almost feel how quickly she was thinking as she stared at Enheduanna. “Who are you?” she asked.
“Hmm,” said Enheduanna, putting a finger on her chin. “That is such a complex question. Who are any of us, really? If you could go back in time and ask the adolescent me this question, she would no doubt—”
“No, what is your name?” she interrupted. I was impressed with her ability to cut Duanna off in mid-babble.
Enheduanna ignored the question this time. “As I was saying, there are different stages in any person’s life, not least of which—” She abruptly stopped, turning to me. “Actually, we were talking, weren’t we?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Oh. In that case, we should finish our conversation.”
The horned woman couldn’t hide her annoyance that she was being ignored, but still acted hesitant. “What is your name?” she repeated.
“Enheduanna.”
“Oh.” The winged woman blinked. A look of naked fear crossed her face and she began to move back, keeping her eyes on us the entire time. “Do you plan to be in this world for long?” She sounded different now, not exactly respectful, but much less brash than before.
“No. As I said, I will be gone as soon as possible. I would like to be left alone. You do know that I am within my rights to come over there and exterminate you, right? By the Research Treaty, this would be considered a counter incursion, my world being the defender.”
“Yes, elder. And pardon my lack of manners. I am Jivvra,” she said, introducing herself.
“I don’t care what your name is, and I am not going to warn you again. This is a valuable time of learning between my test subject—I mean my precious student—and I.”
A look of genuine confusion crossed the devilish woman’s face before she barked, “Yes, elder!” After that she gave up on dignity and fled.
Enheduanna watched her go for a moment before losing interest and giving me her full attention again. “They won’t be back now. Pity.”
“They?”
“Yes, those winged people are something like High Priestesses for Asag. Most of the Griseus have their own attendants, but some of the Fallen do too.”
I’d been right about who they were, then, but something she just said caught my attention. “Fallen?” Part of my mind was focused on this conversation, but I felt like another part was working on reawakening the rest of my
brain. Some part of me knew that I might be in shock, or at least rebounding from my last fight. This was the strangest situation I had ever been in, ever, which was saying something.
“Dark Gods, Dark Gods, the greedy Dark Gods,” said Enheduanna in a sing-song voice. Then her tone changed, becoming brusque. “I don’t have time to tell you how the world works. Until yesterday I didn’t even know I might be here today.”
“Wait, then why were you watching over me today? Did Dolos send you?”
Enheduanna pulled a glowing tablet from mid-air, making a few entries before studying it, and cocking her head as she stared into the distance. “Yes, he did, mainly because of your spear. I’d worried years ago that if he knew you had it, he might try to take it for himself or reprimand me. Instead, he sent me to help you escape this world if you ended up trapped here. Interesting. Either he doesn’t need it, or like me, he was afraid it would reject and damage him.”
My eyes moved down to my spear and noticed it was starting to glow red. “So without this thing, if I’d shut the gate down like I just did, I would have been here alone?”
“Yes, I believe Dolos was going to treat you like a sacrificial pawn. You tend to always reject help and work by yourself, after all. This is a great way to eventually end up dead. You are reaching the stage in your development where this mentality of yours makes you far less valuable a test subject.”
While I digested that, I held up my glowing spear. “What is happening with this thing?”
Enheduanna’s eyebrows lifted slightly and she reflexively moved back, which surprised me. She’s scared of this thing? I wondered.
Then the demigoddess giggled. “Asag’s servants all fear little ol’ me. Meanwhile, not one, but two weapons like yours have wandered onto this world in the hands of mortals, and Terrans at that!” She laughed louder. “This back-end planet is insignificant. With the rumored news of a new war coming, and all the other changes taking place, the entire universe may not be the same again!”
She wiped her eyes. “The fact you could have carried such a thing for years, but you still use it as little more than a size-changing spear...You know, some of my researchers have placed bets on you, Nora Hazard. We watch you. For one so gifted at combat and survival, for someone who can be so clever, you can also be amazingly dull.”
Irritation grew between my shoulder blades. My feelings of annoyance with Enheduanna actually helped me drop back into floating time. As a result, I barely twitched when a crimson lightning bolt flashed from the sky, striking and sliding around an invisible barrier. I glanced at the flashing sphere and asked, “Your doing?”
“Yes. Lightning can be very rude, and even more so if it is directed.”
“Great. So did you come here to hell just to bully weaker demigods like you, or to insult me? If you really wanted to do something useful, there is an army of demons down there,” I said, pointing. “They are probably all gathered here to invade Ludus. You could probably destroy them without much trouble. Or you know, you could just float up here some more, making fun of me. That seems rotting productive.”
“You cheeky little mouse,” said Enheduanna. She cracked her neck, staring at me. “I like it. Keep doing this.”
Floating time was harder to maintain without combat, but I had a lot of practice. I wished I’d tried using floating time more while dealing with Enheduanna in the past. “Focus, Duanna,” I said.
“You called me Duanna!” She did a spin in the air. I waited with my arms crossed until she was done. “Oh, you are no fun.” She pouted, then changed her demeanor again. “Fine. All work and no play makes Nora a dull girl, you know.”
“I will somehow bear the shame.”
“Yes, yes.” She waved away my sarcasm. “I can’t destroy the true-demons down there. For the sake of this conflict, they count as mortals. You may see this as a war, but it’s more of a...sneaky argument. We have rules. Besides, the portals take time to set up, and without them in place, all the things down there can do is sit around long enough for their handlers to lose control. Then they will all be busy destroying each other for a while.”
She scratched her head. “Escape—for you—is more tricky. The last of the portals within a day’s travel will probably be closing soon. Another group from Ludus is some distance away, they have already been here for a while.”
“Another group?” I brightened. “Can I meet up with them?”
“You can’t. They are too far away and probably about to destroy another portal and head back to Ludus. This is lucky, because the original plan to deal with that portal has already failed.”
“Huh?” My heart fell. “So how do I get out of here?”
“This is where your luck has really revealed itself, Nora Hazard. Possession of that spear has made you more important than the vast majority of other orb-Bonded warriors because Dolos does not want that weapon winding up on this planet, in Asag’s domain. If you die here, I have no right to take it with me. Of course, nobody here could probably use it, but stranger things have happened. You are also in a unique position to do another service for Ludus while saving yourself.”
“That’s all very interesting,” I said flatly, “and I believe it means there is another hellgate back to Ludus, right?”
“Yes, but there is no reason to spoil the moment,” Enheduanna complained, pouting again.
“We are floating in the air in the middle of a red storm, on a hell world, with thousands, if not millions of demons below us. You also said you were in a hurry.”
“I was lying. This is somewhat fun, actually.”
My eyes reflexively rolled, even through floating time. This crazy right here— I thought. I’d dealt with Enheduanna enough by now to stay on topic, and I also knew what kind of questions to ask. “Do my chances of escape get better the longer we float up here?”
“Well, no.”
“Then can we hurry this up?”
“Have it your way,” Enheduanna said with a shrug. She pointed. “The portal is over, a long distance on foot, probably about forty miles. There is a city at the base of the mountain you can see in the distance. The portal is behind it. At your flying speed, you should reach it in time to help save the city.”
“Save the...what?”
“The portal leads to Mensk.”
“Mensk? The capital of Berber, Mensk?”
“Indeed.”
My eyes closed, and I poured more energy into maintaining floating time. When I opened them again, I said, “So the longer we have this chat, the more people will die.”
“Potentially, yes,” she said dismissively.
I prepared to leave. “Are you going to tell me anything about this spear?”
“No. But did you ever think to ask it yourself?” With that, Enheduanna gave a mysterious, and incredibly irritating smile before moving up into the flickering clouds above.
“She’s probably going to be watching like she was before,” I said out loud. “Just doing nothing in the middle of all that red lightning.” Then I dropped floating time, letting emotions come back fully to do something I’d wanted to do for years. I shook my fist at the sky, extending my middle finger. I shrieked, “Damn you, Enheduanna!”
The gesture had accomplished nothing, and I was still in incredible danger, but I felt better now. I had no doubt that Enheduanna would be near enough to keep the demigods like her off my back, but now that she wasn’t next to me anymore, I could already see flying demons beginning to approach again. “Rot this,” I said, and began moving toward the mountain Enheduanna had pointed out.
As I flew, I embraced floating time before I could be overwhelmed by all the new things I saw, or creeping thoughts of being stranded in this terrible place. I dropped a hand to Vistvis, using Vibration to open a line of communication. The Areva’s voice came immediately.
“Don’t worry, Vistvis. I don’t plan to go down and fight any demon armies all by myself. Someone would need to be crazy to do something like that, especially those huge things I saw that had tentacles.” I shuddered.
I’d never heard Vistvis sound so humble. “Sure,” I said awkwardly, and ended the connection. She didn’t need to know that I’d been using Vibration to talk to her to make sure I remembered the correct energy pattern.
Why the rot not? I thought, and without further delay, I used the same kind of Vibration ability on Eneus. Immediately, I almost threw up. I slowed in the air and almost blacked out; floating time probably saved me from falling to the ground below.
I was in too deep, being drowned; too much information was rushing into my brain. With a massive effort, I drew back, learning to protect myself every second I stayed conscious. I fine-tuned my connection even as I was bombarded with alien facts and feelings.
Finally, after I got a handle on the situation, I drew a shaky breath. The struggle had taken a lot out of me, and I couldn’t even understand most of the information still seeping into my mind from Eneus. It was all too much for me—I was too limited. I’d somehow held onto floating time, but my thoughts felt slow as I grasped what had just happened.
Eneus was not alive, not like Vistvis, or even Muffin. It was aware, sort of, but more like a dormant animal, or...I couldn’t think of a better analogy. The weapon was obviously more than just a spear, I could see that plain as day now, and it was also so deep and powerful, I couldn’t even feel the edges of it. I was like a teacup that had been under a waterfall. Now the flow was just a trickle, but I was already full, splashing over the sides.
Through the clarity of floating time, I could tell I was getting lost again, and I pulled myself back together. Eneus—it had accepted the name, that was...interesting. It was also absorbing energy from this awful place. I could see now that it was designed to store and transform different types of power.
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