On Morning 21, when Sandra raids the palace treasury in search of irradiated matter and to seize the unlawful bribes (in her head) Marduk gave the late Enshi Es-Kina and Nephew, it wasn't clear that she got all the torbernite. I made some changes. Many thanks to @blue09 for his PM.

I like PM. Send me more.

Changes:

[...] I moved slowly around the room, focusing my Decompose sense. A few minutes later I'd found where the torbernite was.

Was.

Two chests of the same size and slightly fancier than the one Hama-Tula had his ore were side-by-side, empty. The guard moved the torbernite to another location. If I had to guess from the size of the chests, Nephew combined both his ore and the late Enshi's.

I checked the map, he didn't leave the room before he returned to the room and the steps ended inside this room. He probably put my heavy box on the ground while he worked. It meant the two torbernite samples I'm missing could be anywhere. [...]

I went inside and the trail of wrongness was stronger. After rummaging through the furniture, I dug through a cabinet's bottom and found the two huge and very active weapon-grade chunks of torbernite along with a stash of gems and gold. I encased the radioactive ore with the last of my lead and checked the valuables. Not enough time passed to contaminate them significantly.

And my petty sense of vengeance made me take it. In fact, I owned everything nephew had. Four months in the depths. I was okay with sparing him the trip down, but I'd be twice damned if I let him have the money Marduk paid him to kidnap me and that was mine by law. Which law? Ask that to Mr. Schwarzenegger. I was angry and thought Nephew was unworthy to keep the bribe because it was a BS bribe and he didn't deliver the goods. So I bagged all of it..

Totally in the moral gray area, I know.

I went back to the room, carrying the lead orb. I entered the conference room and presented the orb to the general.

"The poisonous ore is inside. Do you want to see it?" I challenged him.

And now the Q&A from the comments. I'm moving backward from the comment list for the fiction. I actually already have three days drafted but I need two things done. First address the comments and second, write a cast sheet for weeks 3 and 4. I went over them and now have to backtrack.

Blue09 on Morning 26

Oh... i kinda wish someone would hit her in the face. So its ok to bring those 3k soldiers and get them to enjoi the ishta-bordell above sending them away even if that means bloodsheed. She herselfe isnt willing to partake, but its totaly o.k if others are brought there, even if its against their will. gz for high moral values.

Her first impulse was to bring it all down. Then she talked to Nanna and Arwia and decided to let the "Ista-bordell" happen. It is their religion and since Nephew depends on Ishtar's blessing to survive the radiation poisoning, he's cornered. If she were to strongly oppose (she is an agreeable person, so she wouldn't) it would bring her into conflict with Nephew and the rest of the city. What would come next when the conflict escalated? Regicide? You've read what happened when Es-Kina the Uncle was killed by Tarhun. Massive exodus and hundreds or thousands of deaths in the road from banditry.

She decided to work with the goverment and try to enact changes from the inside. That's why she took the ministerial position.

Blue09 on Day 25

I wasn't yet hostile toward Es-Kina the Nephew but I hoped he wouldn't try to push that crap my way. But I was boiling inside at the situation.

Thats what you call a hypocrit, right? Lets ignor the plite of others so we who have the power to intervine can say we stood to our "moral values" to not bring harm to others. Lets follow Pontios Pilate and wash our hands of guilt. What does it matter that others suffer as long as our conscience is as clean as our hands, right?

She's not Batman. Elon Musk is not Batman. And she is not just washing her hands. She is working on her own way to prevent the worst. Starvation and total chaos. She has sixteen children to look after. Can she afford to take action without knowing the consequences and hope for the best?

Blue09 on Day 23

What would i ask nana if i wher therer? Hmmm. Hey Nana, you can entchant stuff. Cant you entchant my glasses so i can see magic and learn to do it? xD You seriously have to love plot holes.

We don't know what enchanting can do and what Nanna would be willing to make. If magic detecting devices were possible, wealthy individuals would have them. They don't.

Calavente on Morning 28

thanks.

I expect the cursed necklace will bite her in the ass... unless it's your author's generosity working to help us go over this crippled period quicker than what could have been.

thanks for the water clock description, it was realy interesting.

Not the author's. I learned that an author's job is to make the characters suffer, not give handouts. If you think a bit about the necklace and who gave it to her, you might find out what it really meant later.

Dragrath on Afternoon 28 - Friday, Bull 20th

This king is worrysome and really wants to make her a high preistess of Ishtar going so far as to try and mind magic her then selling his allies under the bus when it didn't work out... Well at least she got the position for agricultural reforms. What is Ishtar after exactly? Interestingly it seems priestesses of Ishtar were the only women with fairly equal rights in the sense they weren't somone elses property and were able to own property. No way in hell Sandra would except based on principals regardless which should be fairly obvious thus far to anyone even a goddess.

Enshi Es-Kina the Nephew is an antagonist, but he's the rightful ruler of the city. As much as the will to spark a revolution exists, what happens next? She knows the history of most revolutions and how things weren't all roses afterward. The city already underwent a major political turmoil with the death of Es-Kina the Uncle, and she is afraid it wouldn't survive another.

As for making her the priestess, she's the female with the biggest magic power available (maybe we're disregarding another potential choice, but Sandra is younger). You have to remember this is a society based on Mesopotamian-Anatolian Bronze Age cultures. The fact he didn't FORCE her to submit was already (in his view) a big concession.

Ishtar is after what gods want. Faith. That's Tarhun's rationale to kill his faithful when they attack her. He kills ONE person and earns the fear, respect, and faith of hundreds. I'm not justifying, just explaining, and these gods might as well be shitty as hell (maybe that's why they had to flee Earth).

The priestess aren't the only females with rights. For example, Madam Cloe the seamstress owns her own business and she held a seat at the city council. And Sandra noticed explicitly that no priests were present in the council meetings at the palace.

The biggest dilemma there is, do her XXI century sensibilities have the right to trump over the religious beliefs of the people? They've been doing it that way for centuries. She even conjectured that the first son of most men might not be their biological children. I'm not condoning with the customs, just putting them up for discussion.

Andrew Meyers on Afternoon 28 - Friday, Bull 20th

I give him a week, maybe a month, tops. As such a hated ruler that betrays his allies and deceives everyone, basically nobody will want to keep him alive.

Long live Queen Sandra!

That's our hope for all villains, that they suffer horribly. I don't know if I can top severe radiation poisoning though. As for Queen Sandra, if you look at my three other works, I've had enough with royalty. Sandra does not wish to rule over a city-state (they don't have countries or nations like we know). She could've tried to take over during the council before Nephew was pardoned and crowned but she didn't.