Ishtar Rising

by Natalie Gibson

  Oren spoke quickly to Hurrit and the man nodded his head. Kay didn't give the man time to interpret. “What language is that? Where are you guys from?”

  Hurrit set his now empty glass jar on the toadstool beside his puffball 'chair'. “Sumerian. And we are not from the same place. Or time. Sarrum Arakiel was born in ancient Mesopotamia, what would become Sumer, before it could even be called a civilization. He was born over 9000 years ago, though time was counted less universally than it is now so his exact age is impossible to know. He came to me in a spirit walk when I was a young adult. I had a wife and a son when he made me vitala, who were both dead from old age by the time he left me as protector of his family line while he slept. I am now over 6000 years now myself.”

  Kay tried not to freak out about the numbers that were being thrown around so casually. She needed to call the Daughters of Women and tell them about this. They needed to know but she was still mad at their Abbess, Nathalia, for throwing her out. If she was honest with herself, she knew that Nathalia hadn't thrown her out but given her a choice. Kay had chosen wrongly and almost gotten herself killed in a SOFE circle. She knew it was true as soon as she thought about it but she couldn't recall any details of what happened to her.

  “You were human, but he made you vitala. What's that? And how did he 'make' you into anything?”

  “You would know it by the more modern name: vampire. I live on blood but need very little to survive. In fact, that is how he chose me to be his surrogate guardian. He held a competition to see who among my tribe could deny themselves the longest in the face of great temptation. I went for one hundred four days without food or anything to drink other than water. All the while a huge feast was held around me and the other seven contenders, my brothers. We had to fulfill our normal duties with no nourishment. I beat them all. Vitala are made in exactly the way folklore says vampires are made.” He paused. “Sarrum Arakiel's blood is very powerful. He chose to give it to me and in exchange, I protected his family line to ensure you were born. I am his oldest child.”

  “You said you were his child of light, but in every story I know of, vampires are not real fond of sunlight.”

  Oren spoke to Hurrit again for an extended period and when he had finished, Hurrit started again. “Sarrum Arakiel is the first Nephilim born. Nephilim live on the prana, or life force, found in every living thing, always battling the hunger inside them. If they give into their hunger beast and take another Nephilim's blood they become Akhkharu. Akhkharu are violent and evil. Their bodies cannot stand the light of the sun and their blood creates children of darkness. Their creations are the opposite of the Nephilim's. The Nephilim struggle against the hunger that could destroy them until the time of the Sinnis. The prana of their Sinnis will quench their thirst. Sinnis means woman. Your full title is 'Sinnis Ina Ummum Zumru'. You are the woman from his mother's body. You are destined for each other. Your blood has already quenched his thirst and tamed his beast. He will serve you for all eternity.”

  Chapter 4

  Abbess Maeve Lovejoy watched from the window as her daughter, Genevieve, toddled across the yard. Genevieve was a beautiful child. She'd been born with a head full of dark hair to match Maeve's. The abbess, who's rule was almost exactly as old as her daughter, had worried when a few months later all that chocolate brown hair had fallen out. It was quickly replaced with golden red. Aaron, Maeve's mate, assured her that his did the same thing when he was little.

  Genevieve was petite; Aaron and Maeve weren't tall, but they also weren't terribly short either. She was absolutely dwarfed by the guardian who followed her toddling closely. Harith Samsiel Maru was 'he who is for the One' and he was convinced that Genevieve was that promised messiah. Maeve wasn't sure. Every parent thought their daughter was a princess, but a goddess was a little harder to believe. Sam, which was what Maeve and everyone else had taken to calling him, had barely left the baby's side since her birth. Maeve didn't think that a single injury had befallen her little one in all those first days of learning to walk. Her diapered and padded rump had never felt the thud of failure. Even now Sam walked on his knees behind her, giving aid almost before it was needed whenever Genevieve teetered. They were going to have to invent a new word, spoiled didn't nearly cover it.

  Sam had given Maeve his true name. This was apparently a mark of great honor and trust with the Nephilim. She knew she could use it to bind him, banish him, if she needed. She would, if Genevieve was ever in any danger, but so far Sam had only ever shown her daughter acute attention and proper love. Like any new mom, Maeve worried incessantly about her child, but she had an added level of worry. If what Nathalia told her was true, she didn't just need to keep Genevieve safe for her own peace of mind but because if the child were to die it would signal the end of all mankind.

  A knock on her open door broke her train of thought. She turned to see Nathalia step into the room. These had been Nathalia's quarters, both private and public, when she'd been Abbess. They were now converted into Maeve and Aaron's room, Genevieve's nursery, and Sam's room, which was really just a hallway space that was large enough for him to stand in. The man almost never slept and even more rarely left Genevieve's side.

  Good Morning. Nathalia spoke, not out loud but inside Maeve's head. That was her skill; Nathalia was a Vinco, meaning she broadcasted her thoughts and feelings into other peoples minds. She couldn't speak. Her vocal cords were destroyed when she cut her own throat two years ago. She had done it to sever the magical hold an ex-boyfriend had over her. He had been a SOFE, meaning Sorcerers of the Five Elements, a rival coven to the Daughters of Women, to which Maeve and Nathalia belonged. It had worked. Nathalia committed suicide and funneled her death through Michael, killing him.

  “'Mornin'. I know I'm running a little late. I can't tighten this corset by myself.” Maeve was a tight-lacer. She wore a corset of one type or another at least seventy percent of her waking time. Today she was wearing her favorite, her first. It had been a gift from Nathalia when she was Abbess to Maeve in acknowledgment of her ascension to Vinculum Primo, the Daughter's highest rank.

  Maeve wasn't just the Abbess. She was their Vinculum, their matchmaker, their bridge from the couples she made to the Holy Capacitors who collected and stored the energy those couples made. Capacitors served as a kind of magical energy storage system from which all sisters could pull from and use. The restrictive corsets encased her heart and reminded her that her body, and her very life, was a tool, a source of power for all the sisterhood. She had a great power, extremely rare and prized by the Daughters, so she had heavy responsibilities. The corsets served as physical reminders of the restrictions her position placed on her, restrictions that Aaron and their special relationship had eased.

  Nathalia crossed to where Maeve stood. Maeve gripped the window frame and Nathalia untied the strings of the corset. Wrapping the ends around her wrists, Nathalia pulled steadily. She adjusted a few threads here and there until the corset was a tight as it could be. She quickly tied it off. You're going to need a new set soon if you don't stop loosing weight. The edges of that one are now touching. I can re-lace them differently so that we can overlap them but they won't lay the way you like them. I'll have the French chapter send over some material. You still use the same coursetiere over on Lavaca?

  Before Nathalia's conversion, that much conversation broadcasted into Maeve's head would have made them both sick and weak. Nathalia was Sinnis Ina Ummum Zumru of Eiran Kafziel Maru. It meant Nathalia was the woman of the Kafziel family line and mate of Eiran. Eiran had found Nathalia in her last moments. She had been dying from the self inflicted wound to her throat and Eiran had given her his immortal blood, forever changing her. Into what they were still unsure, but what it had done to her abilities was undeniable.

  Maeve nodded. “She's semi-retired now, though. Closed shop a few months ago. She still does the work, thank goddess, but she does it from her home. I've got her contact info in my office somewhere.” That's where they were headed a
nyway.

  The office had been moved across the sanctuary to what they had used as a conference room before. It had more room, was still conveniently located and served very well. They needed an office with more space because, though Maeve was Abbess, she and Nathalia shared the tasks of that position. Maeve kept normal business hours there and she kept her baby with her most of the time. With Genevieve came Sam and sometimes Aaron. Nathalia was needed there and with her came her Nephilim, Kafziel Maru. They were all involved with decisions that affected Daughters and Nephilim and so the much larger office was already needed even before day's petitioners came in to have audience with them.

  Maeve tugged out the ivory chopsticks she used to hold her hair and her hair came tumbling down. She tossed them onto the counter by the mirror and grabbed the brush. Nathalia took it from her and ran it through the mane until it was so shinny that it reflected. Maeve's power was not linked to her hair, but it was enhanced by it. Severely straight and the darkest of brown, her thigh length locks mesmerized and entranced everyone. Though Aaron joked about how he was constantly finding them threaded through his chest hair, Maeve knew her flowing mane put everyone at ease. It relaxed, opened them up to the spells she could cast.

  Maeve led the way out and across the sanctuary. She and Nathalia didn't spare a thought about the room's rare beauty. They had grown accustomed to it's cavernous size, rosy Plexiglas ceiling that provided natural light, and stone inhabitants. The erotic images of women, some single, some coupled, some in small groups, appeared to be ancient carvings. They were in fact the bodies of Capacitors whose constant exposure to the collected power had petrified them.

  There were already people lined up outside, waiting. They greeted Maeve cordially and casually. Getting rid of the formal greetings according to rank was one of the first things she did as Abbess. She smiled and greeted them back. She didn't have to tell them how to order themselves. They knew how the hierarchy worked. It wasn't first come first serve. Women came first, and within that was Primos followed by lower ranking Sophomores, Novices, and un-pledged. Then children and men, of which there were few that needed to stand in line. Ninety percent of children and men living on the compound were linked to Daughters who would bring their requests to the Abbess. Lastly came the Nephilim, as they believed they deserved, as halfbreeds.

  Maeve and Nathalia entered a room already occupied by several Primos, and Eiran closed the door behind them. Libby, the Daughters' eldest active member, was there with her books. Jolie and her toddler, sat on the floor. Ingrid, dressed as the hippie she was, stood near a window. Camilla's tiny frame, well into her second pregnancy, was huddled on her Nephilim Nanae's lap. Camilla was only the second claimed and converted Sinnis in the world. Nephilim were barren and their Sinnis were thought to be also, so her pregnancies were nothing short of a miracle.

  After pleasantries were exchanged and Ingrid served her magic infused tea, Jolie gave her dream journal to Maeve. It was an unspoken agreement that Jolie should always go first. She was the groups Animaverto; she saw the future in her dreams. “I'm having that same dream again, the one where I'm in the SOFE circle. The same glowing tear in reality and feelings of euphoria followed by panic and pain. The light that seems to be shining on us, favoring us, is really being pulled from us, the ones locked in the circle. It is our power and then our life, being taken. Then something steps through the tear. I should say someone because it is definitely a person, but it's got no gender, no features, other than a general human shape. It's made of light and I know it's feeding off of my life. I die. Everyone in the circle dies. I always wake up screaming. It is horrible and if we can't figure out what it is a warning for soon...I feel like I get closer to dying every time I have the dream and one night the shining one might actually take my life.”

  “But you don't recognize anyone there with you? Does the place seem familiar at all?” Libby spoke from her place on the couch. She was responsible for recording the achievements of the Daughters of this sect. She had access to the histories and had been trying to solve this with Jolie for weeks now.

  Jolie shook her head no. “It's wooded around the clearing.” She shrugged. “Some of the trees have spots of bright color.”

  It happens at the beginning of fall, then. We have some time, at least, to avert this from happening again. You're sure it isn't just a remnant of the last time? Nathalia could not only broadcast to a single person but a group of her choosing. She could speak to the whole world if she wanted.

  “Definitely not. It's a different place, altogether.” Juliet started to wine when her mother Jolie ignored her sign for 'milk'. She pulled at the neckline of Jolie's shirt. Jolie distracted her with a biter biscuit but knew it wouldn't work long. It was time to nurse.

  “Seems clear that it's going to happen again.” Both Nephilim in the room grunted in agreement with Maeve's statement. The Nephilim knew that the Shinar would be relentless in their attempts to come through the veil into this world. The Shinar were made of life, they needed to take from other worlds to survive. Earth was of great importance to them as it had, not only abundant naturally occurring life, but a large portion of Shinar power in the shape of Nephilim. “Next time you have the dream, try to ignore the events. I know that's mostly impossible when you are in actual pain, but try. Concentrate on your surroundings. If we can figure out where the gap in the veil will be, we can get a Nephilim circle there to close it back.”

  Jolie stood, bringing Juliet with her. She took her dream journal and her baby and left without another word. This wasn't a compound where chores magically did themselves. Each woman had her share of work to do to keep this place running. It was time for Jolie to get started on hers.

  “Speaking of getting a Nephilim circle together, how's Minali doing?” Maeve asked Camilla. Minali was a Siren, a breed of witch this coven had never known, who could call groups to her across oceans. She'd come from another compound in Ethiopia that had suffered greatly under the attack of an Akhkharu and his 'children of darkness'. She had been the only survivor to make the move with her coven's Capacitors.

  Camilla stood with a little help from Nanae. The move from his lap to standing actually made her shorter. Camilla was the tiniest of women and only a half inch stood between her being a little person and her being an actual 'little person'. Camilla shook her head and shrugged slightly. She didn't speak much. Her face said it all.

  Minali wasn't doing well. Physically Camilla, the healer, could find nothing wrong. There was nothing to be fixed, yet Minali was wasting away. When she first came to them they had hoped to use her ability to gather Nephilim. She claimed to be able to call specific groups even if she had little or no knowledge about them. Her mother had a variation of the same talent, that had not been diminished by joining the Capacitors. She could attract individuals, but only those she knew. If she wanted a person near her, the compulsion to comply was irresistible. With Minali's mother having lost everyone she knew in the attack, her compulsion was focused on Minali. Minali had to be near her mother.

  Not only had Minali been unable to bring new Nephilim out of the woodworks, the ones that already resided there with the Daughters had reported that their need to stay close was fading. Minali's powers had faded slowly. When they had gone, her health had quickly followed. Minali, when she'd arrived, was a true beauty with flawlessly smooth mocha skin and long curly brown sun lightened hair. Her fine delicate facial bone structure was complimented by a striking set of large liquid black eyes and full lips. All that had worked for her, now worked against her, making her seem more sick, more off. Her skin was blotchy and pale; her hair was stringy and had started to fall out. Her delicate facial features and large eyes made her seem frail and weak.

  “I have been doing some research. I went through the books on loan about Sirens and this has never happened to one. It isn't about her ability. So far I haven't found any records that match her decline in power and then health, but I'll keep looking. I know it's there somewhere.” Libby
wasn't going to give up. Minali had moved in with her and her husband Leonard when their son Billy had left. They had empty nest syndrome and she'd just lost everyone she'd ever known. They had bonded. Libby loved Minali like the daughter she never had and she wasn't about to lose her. No with so much knowledge and ability at their disposal.

  “She hasn't responded to any of my concoctions. Maybe if Tara Kay could come back, she could grow something tailored to Mina...”

  No. Nathalia interrupted Ingrid. Your apprentice made her choice. She chose SOFE and nearly got herself killed. The rest of us too. No, we won't be bringing blood magic back to the Daughters.

  “That isn't your call to make.” Maeve said softly.

  Nathalia tried to keep the fire from her eyes. She almost got Aaron killed. You want that black magic back, infecting our flock? She spoke only to Maeve but Maeve didn't answer her question.

  Maeve hated to argue with Nathalia. They'd been friends their whole lives and lovers for years. Nathalia was used to being in charge but this was exactly why Maeve was Abbess now. She would lead the Daughters into their next era. Maeve never tried to interject her rulings into Nephilim politics. “If any of us can help Minali then we have to try. Even if we don't agree with Tara Kay's methods, I say we reach out to her.”

  “I've tried, Abbess. I left her messages, but for the past year or so her cell has been dead. I'm worried about her. I don't know any other way to contact her.” Ingrid was fighting back tears.

  “Izzy is from the same area. Maybe he knows another way.” Maeve remembered that it was Izzy who had alerted them to the possibility that Tara Kay had been growing and dealing her special brand of medicines before she left. The two weren't friends, only acquaintances, but they certainly weren't enemies. “Maybe he knows somebody who knows how she is.”