Dime did the honors and woke me up again through our mental link. I know that raptors love to hunt in dawn and dusk because of the long shadows prey make but he really has to tune down on the gloating. I had no idea what he hunted but I bet it was some big game. All I knew was that he was around his old nest. I ended up jumping out of bed because I was feeling rested even though I had less than three hours of shut-eye. My circadian cycle was messed up and it wasn't the only one. I double-checked for the absence of any speck of red in my fluids. You see, you spend your whole life complaining about it, but when it goes AWOL, you get worried sick. Maybe it was the radiation damage. I absorbed enough that I shouldn't even call myself a living being anymore.

At least I don't have to worry that it was suspended by natural causes.

I mean, Clark went to infinity and beyond on the third base. To think that my lousy gameplay was even praised! Theresa would become a goddess in this world. Speaking of which, where was he? I really hoped he wasn't wounded in action. I sighed. He had his job to do and I had mine. Even though Nanna thought I shouldn't be doing it, I'm doing it for the people, not for Nephew. Our interests meet and I think I got a good compromise. And if he crosses me he can breathe all the chlorine he wants. I doubt Ishtar would save him from that.

You see, that's why those authoritarian systems all failed. There I was, a minister of the state, plotting regicide. Pushing those dark thoughts aside, I did my morning beauty routine, stretched, and struggled to don my mail hauberk after spending some time admiring the royal blue metal. I donned a short-sleeved gown underneath to show the mail around my arms. I just had to remember to avoid too much exposure to the sun so I didn't sweat buckets underneath the gambeson. But I adapted to the heat of the place very well, If I may say so.

I decided to try wearing the mail without the arming doublet underneath. Just a bra and a shirt to protect my nipples. The first thing I noticed was that the armor felt just a bit lose. It would take time to get used to the feeling of metal touching me over the thin fabric but it was better than cooking inside the padded armor. I spent too long on these steps. I was definitely looking to hire a squire.

I wished myself good luck in finding a female squire. Maybe some former gladiator? I bet they put chicks to fight. I decided to ask Huzzy-Ya for some tips on where to find one.

Underneath the dress, I was wearing cargo pants and hiking boots. Reviewing my schedule for the day, we were going to clean up the burnt blocks. I'd love to show them the Peltier devices but I had no way of powering them without a good DC power source. The voltaic cells were too bulky and slushy to carry around. The best I could get with what I had in hand was five Volts DC or 120 Volts AC from the battery. No good.

I dropped by the kitchen and took a mug of kefir and some flatbread with bean paste. Very similar to hummus but these were not chickpeas. After that, I went to the barracks looking for Huzzy-Ya. I found him with Abil-Kisu off-duty guards, playing some game of chance with numbered clay tiles. They would spin the tiles and bet on which faces they would fall.

"Milady!" The hulking Tiwatura was the first to notice me. Not a hard feat since this rattly mail armor ruins any chance of being stealthy.

"Hello, everyone. I'm here just to ask a quick question. As you can see I got myself a suit of armor..." I paused because Lah-Ueri was almost groping my arms to feel the exposed metal. He had so much admiration in his eyes that it didn't creep me out. I had to trust my own staff. So I smiled, pulled back just a little and asked him. "Did you like it?"

Caught, the former miner blushed for a bit. "Yes, yes. I was just wondering what is this blue metal. That color should not exist."

"It's 'titanium' and I can coat it in almost any color but it is a dull gray. Tell you, I'm making matching armor for all of you out of it, it will be our heraldric signature." I extended an arm next to him. "Go ahead, you can feel the metal."

He touched with reverence and I couldn't hold back a giggle. "Okay, that's good enough. This armor is the reason I came here. It is a bother to don and doff alone. I need a squire, a female squire. But I had no idea if female squires are a thing. I guess not. So maybe there are female warriors? Gladiators?"

Huzzy-Ya nodded. "Sometimes they throw females in the arena. Not a nice sport, they barely receive any training but the spectators like new stuff. But if it is just to put on armor you can do alone, any girl would do," He shrugged. "Besides, there are rumors of problems in the slave market."

"I would like someone that could fight to protect me where you men can't," I explained and their reaction shocked me.

The guards of Abil-Kisu's side-eyed my guards with wary eyes but then one of them spoke. "Aren't they all eunuchs?" To which all the others looked at him as if he had just found out that the rock was hard or the sky blue. It enraged me but I kept my temper and just retorted.

"What does the lack of a cock have to do with the gender of a person. You are born men, you behave like men, you are men. It changes very little."

Way to go, Sandra. I could see the conflicting looks in them. I had some idea of how important a penis was to them as some idiots back home thought that it would make a nice greeting card for prospecting sexual partners - it didn't, if there's one thing I'm glad I'll do without in this world are dick pics - but to build up all their identity around an organ that is used for its intended purpose less than one in every ten thousand living seconds? Nope. But my cluelessness aside, I hit a very tender spot - pun intended - with my speech.

"Look. I didn't mean to offend. I know some of you even chose to have it cut off to take this profession. But it doesn't change what you are unless you let them. Yes, the paranoid husband won't have to worry about who is the father of the children if the only men his wife has contact with is unable to produce offspring but that's that. Just to guarantee succession rights. And if you weren't still considered men, there wouldn't be a need to be wary of you.

"Besides, I know plenty of stories of harem eunuchs giving pleasure to the harem ladies without a cock so there's that," I paused because someone snickered and giggled in the back. I intentionally refrained from seeing who, I don't want to know about their harem adventures. "I don't regard any of you as less than a person because you were mutilated. And I wouldn't ever enslave or mutilate people so they would fit some twisted world view of mine."

I felt a knot in my throat and the confusion on the part of Abil-Kisu's guards was painful to look at. My own guards knew my point of view already but they couldn't get rid of the shackles of their society. I grabbed Lipit-Ea's arm and touched the burn mark of the released iron.

"Ask any of my men. The first thing I did with them was to release them from slavery and offer them the chance to go away. Or to work for me for decent pay. Which I have to remember paying soon."

Some of them laughed. Lipit-Ea nodded and retrieved his arm when I released him.

"We are honored to serve, milady." Huzzy-Ya roared. "And yes, you might find some in the caravanserai slave trader. I'll go there with you whenever you want."

"In three days then. I'll be busy cleaning up the city until then. You could go scout for me. What do you say, Huzzy-Ya? Visit the caravanserai and buy me some female guards? I'll release all of them but I expect at least four years of service before I do. They will earn their wages as well."

"Can do," He nodded.

I turned around and summoned my handbag on a desk. It dropped a few centimeters with a loud clinking noise. Poor designer bag, it is sagging from too much gold. #RichPeopleProblems aside, I took a handful of gold coins. "How much do you think you'll need?"

"Five gold mina will buy you a small army," He answered with a snort. "It is more a problem of availability. And I don't think you want the slavers to go and find strong women to capture, so it is better to keep it modest. I'll go there today and check for prices then you give me the gold when I report."

I put ten gold shekels aside and stored the rest. "No. Take Kanu-Kasu to haggle and Tiwatura for intimidation. If there's someone already available, I want you to release them. Also, I need people good with their hands, craftsmen, and all the women that are willing to work. Same deal, four years working for me and they're free."

It pains me to keep people as slaves but I know it is useless to just throw money at the problem. As in buy all the slaves and release them right away. It went so well the first time I did it... Sarcasm apart, I also can't just finance slavery. I'm holding into the permits I have and the Enshi won't issue more. Maybe that's the problem Huzzy-Ya mentioned. A lack of authorized slave traders.

"You're the boss, milady. Your mission is accepted," He nodded and pocketed the coins in the holder I made for them, splitting them to the other two because he won't hold all ten.

"Ah, Sandra!" Shamash went 'aha!' as he remembered something. "A message arrived this morning. Dipa-Tsu will arrive tomorrow or the day after with widows Banunu and Rubati."

I smiled. That was awesome news. Despite trying to murder me, I got attached to her children. I wished the two widows could rebuild their lives with their offspring. "That's good. I will spare some time tomorrow to talk to them. But it is getting late, I have to go now. Thanks to all of you and don't spend all your money gambling!"

After waving them goodbye I left the barracks and went to the stables to pick up Penny but the mare was already saddled when I got there.

"That's a very smart horse you have here," the stable hand that was fastening Penny's saddle told me. "I could swear she one day will saddle herself."

I petted her head, "That she is. Honey Cake and I, we saved each other's lives enough," I whispered as I pressed my forehead to hers. "And we make each other stronger. Where I come from, all girls love horses."

Especially the colorful, magical cartoon ones, even boys did. And that was awesome.

"I too, love horses, milady," The young man cooed. "I wonder why she doesn't wear a bridle though."

"Oh, that's easy," I replied. "We can talk through our minds. Honey Cake knows where we have to go or what to do. Come, girl, we have work to do."

I recalled Dime and mounted. Penny was happily parading out of the stables, oddly relishing the attention. I let her be and just let myself be carried. We left the estate and I vowed to soon take a day off to talk to my people. If I could find a good place for the ministry HQ, I could reclaim my house back. The walk down the road was uneventful, the guards of the other wealthy estates already used to seeing us around. Some even greeted me to which I energetically waved back and replied with a smile.

At the ministry provisory HQ everything seemed fine until one of the guards at the gate broke protocol and shouted, "The minister had arrived," probably to announce the others to hide their shady dealings, I joked to myself. They hadn't shouted to announce me before. It was very suspicious.

There was rustling and some sounds coming from the house and my intuition told me something was really amiss. Maybe they were doing something shady. Just some snacks and pep talk wouldn't convert these guys to my cause. And I had no intention of using religion to ease the process. Getting away from my thoughts for a while, I checked my surroundings. The wagons and barrels I asked them to rent were there, ready to roll with the oxen and the drivers. I wanted to gather a lot of materials and clean the most of the burnt lots I could in a day.

I walked with my head up into the house and found the scribes lined up and smiling. Like kids that broke the porcelain vase and were trying to hide it. It was not a hand after sunrise and they were already working hard. It was awfully suspicious. And from the bags under their eyes, these scribes were pulling an all-nighter. I could see the table was moved to the corridor where it would get better airflow and there were several scrolls on it, drying. Their ink was made of charcoal, acacia gum, and water. It took a long time to dry even in this hot weather and it seemed they were penned at night. That was awfully strange.

"What is going on here? What were you doing before I arrived?"

"We found some discrepancies with the records and the real properties and were fixing it, milady," Kuma-Nu said.

And by fixing it they probably meant changing the records so some wealthy and influential people took over the abandoned buildings around them. I narrowed my eyes and steeled myself. Two could play that game and I would at least get to know who was bribing my subordinates.

"I see. Did you find them by yourselves or someone else told you there were some problems?"

The young scribe opened his mouth but one of the senior scribes harrumphed, clearly intimidating the younger civil servant into shutting up.

"What is your name? Fara-Wil, I believe?" He just nodded. "Well, you won't mind if I inspect your work, would you? Nobody touches anything," I warned and moved to the table.

I summoned my phone and the LED lantern. It was the day but another light source wouldn't hurt. I held one device on each hand and slowly recorded an HD video of the whole stack of tampered documents. I could see scratches where the ink on the parchment was erased and the new ink was easy to see as it still had that wet look. I hoped it was captured on video too. I took care to cover the screen with my palm so they couldn't see that I was recording video but I felt dumb after the fact. It wasn't like they even knew what that metal-and-glass brick did.

After I was done recording the evidence, I frowned and studied the documents. Then I moved my hand over the fresh ink and summoned the water to my hand using Decompose. I took care to only take the molecules of water itself, and not break down organic compounds for their oxygen and hydrogen. It had the side-effect of making the new ink quite distinctive.

"Are these our documents?" I asked Kuma-Nu. "Are there copies in the courthouse and palace?" He nodded and then Fara-Wil took a step and entered in front of the junior scribe.

"Everything is fine, milady. These are just routine work, we wanted to hurry up with the job. The lady was so busy we all felt motivated to work overnight."

Corruption. Forgery. And now he'd throw in my face that I spent two days at the smithy? Fuck it, I was doing volunteer work here. Whatever material benefits I earned from this endeavor, it wasn't worth wasting my time here. I had so much I could do instead. What Nanna told me played back in my head. Was I making a fool of myself? Being so naive as to think I could make a difference just by playing minister like this?

What should I do? I wished someone could tell me, or at least state clearly my options and what they could cause. Because I thought I had a goal but now it seemed that I was just running blind. What good is to do all of this work so jerks could come and modify the size of the deeds? I checked the modified deeds again. They gobbled up some small properties, not all of them abandoned and the scribes were changing the deeds to match this new reality. These smaller properties were changing hands without the owners' consent and for less than a third of the price. And by the looks of it, they were very greedy. Some of them claimed entire blocks of the city.

I clenched my fists. These Bronze Age barbarians understood only profit and power. They would take whatever they could if they had the strength to keep it, the damage to others is damned. They waged wars to capture the defeated as slaves to give them free labor. And by the smug look in the senior scribe's face, he thought he could earn quite some gold behind my back. A thought floated in my mind and I quickly dismissed it.

I could kill them for betraying my trust. Nobody would bat an eyelid as it was my right. I was a minister. Second only to the Enshi.

I turned my back to him to hide the scowl that was forming. And to avoid escalating things, I was too angry to hide my feelings. I doubted he had anything that could kill me or even the guts to do the deed. I took the documents and piled them. Fara-Wil said something about wet ink but I already took care of that. Once I had all the documents piled, I summoned a plastic bag, one of the hundred-liter ones and shoved them inside. I twisted the mouth and after tying a crude knot, it vanished.

"What did you do?" He asked. "We need those documents back!"

There was a bit of fear in his voice.

"Yes, they are with me and they are safe. We are coming back to them soon. Don't worry, I'll return them." I looked past him at the other scribes. I gave them a polite smile, swallowed my outrage and ordered. "I want everyone outside. Now."

As they moved, I summoned the bag with the longsword and attached the weapon to my belt. Some scribes saw it but soon everyone knew. I went behind the last one of them. There were some of the soldiers outside, from both the original group and the smithy recruits. I waved a hand to call one of them. Tamiwa came.

"What can I do for you, milady?" He asked.

"Lock the gates and let two soldiers there. I want everyone else gathered here and lined up for an inspection. On the double."

The idiom didn't translate well but he was a soldier, used to following orders. I didn't have to explain myself. Outside, asked the wagon drivers to ready their vehicles to depart at the front gate and gathered everyone except the two guarding the gate at the back, where the vegetable garden used to be. It was all trampled dirt now.

A few minutes later, I had everyone lined up as if for a military inspection. My intention was to get them with their hands dirty. Not that they had the habit of washing their hands. But I knew I could find out the corrupted ones with a handshake. And that was what I did. I went around the line, shaking the hands of every scribe and soldier and using my power to inspect what was in their hands. I had to use Decompose to clean up my hands so no contamination would go from one person to another and cloud my judgment. After a full round of hand-shaking, I had the information I wanted.

If I sprung on them now, there would be an armed conflict. I moved my evidence over my forearm and attached it to the rim of my armor. The tiniest spot of yellow amidst the royal blue. it is inevitable. When you handle a metal, a lot of its atoms will get stuck to your hand. And if it was a metal that is not usually handled, I could detect even the faintest traces of it. So I scanned for gold on each of their hands.

My bet was that the ones that took the bribe yesterday would spend a lot of time counting and admiring their loot. Once I separated the grime, ink, and dirt from their hands, what was left was less than a milligram of gold but it was obvious who had their hands covered in the metal and who hasn't.

"Ok. Now, back in my world, we have these team-building exercises. We are going to do one of them now," I told them. It was a ruse to get them to lower their defenses. "I want to separate you in pairs. I will give one of your parchment and a pen, the other one a picture. Sit back-to-back to each other. The one with the picture will describe the picture but without saying what it is. You can only tell the lines of the drawing. The other will attempt to reproduce the drawing.

"The teams that score the best will earn a prize, so look forward to it! Oh, and participants should drop your equipment."

We move the chairs and lecterns from the house and I separated eight guards to work with the scribes. Since the soldiers were barely able to scribble with the pens, the scribes were the ones doing the drawings. We wasted one hour doing two rounds of the game but the end goal was clear. And since I was the judge, I could cheat my evaluation to eliminate those I wanted.

The game in itself was pointless. I just wanted the corrupted ones singled out in the middle and unarmed. On the third and final round, I had just that. I moved to put myself between the men and the pile of equipment they kindly removed to play the game.

"Last round won't be a drawing contest. I want the ones in the middle to write an essay of no less than one thousand words on why selling themselves out is a bad thing. Why corruption hurts all society. And why it cannot be allowed to fester. Bribes, doctored documents."

They were all staring at me. Fara-Wil slammed his lectern and stood up. "That is preposterous! What are you accusing us of?"

I drew my sword. It was the longsword I looted from Balthazar's caravan months ago. I had to get my titanium weapons from Samus soon. Or I wouldn't be able to fight and use Decompose on the enemy's weapons. I pointed the blade at him.

"Guards, don't let any of the men in the middle move away from that. On my authority as a minister, they are under arrest."

Five scribes and five guards. There were more guards involved in the corruption scheme but the ones in front of me were the ones with the most gold in their hands. I could let a few of them slip by to avoid punishing an innocent, like someone with a fetish to rub a gold coin every night before going to bed for luck. I addressed the group in the middle next.

"You can come clean and confess you took a bribe to steal properties from good people. Your punishment will be a soft one. No bodily harm. Otherwise, I'll apply the code. I know there are entries specifically for fraud. And I have plenty of evidence that you indeed sold yourselves so don't try to deny it. Look around. All of your accomplices are there in the middle with you."

I was bluffing. I had no desire to mutilate them. For an artifact that was used in this world for millennia, the Code of Hammurabi suffered little changes from what I had in the Earth databases I brought with me. My choice of words was deliberate to show them what was coming. Or at least what I wanted them to think was coming. I feared I'd be forced to follow through with my threats if they didn't give in though.

I didn't want that.

I lost half of my task force in that incident. But at least I avoided bloodshed. My hope was that they didn't try to do something stupid like fighting. They were unarmed and unarmored. After a few tense and long moments of this stalemate, Fara-Wil spoke.

"Stupid woman, do you have any idea who you are crossing by doing that? These were orders from the Enshi himself, you are going to lose your neck!"

He snorted and chortled like a good villain. But his threats weren't well cemented in reality. Nephew wanted to get in my panties for his ascension ritual. Why would he jeopardize that for mere deeds? What was his gain in getting some...

No. I could see it. I didn't pay attention when I scanned because my mind was elsewhere, but I read the deeds while I was scanning. These deeds belonged to the council members that voted Enshi to the throne. The ones that gave him amnesty. So maybe the order to do so came from the Enshi himself. But why do so in such a convoluted way? He was the king of the city, I bet he could just move properties around as he wished.

"You are willing to bet your life on that, aren't you? Tamiwa, get scribe Fara-Wil away from the group and strip him. The rest of the guards, keep a watch over these traitors."

I had no desire to see him naked but in a world without locks, he would either hide the gold somewhere or keep it on himself. Anything else would be as good as donating it to someone else. The scribe protested but the threat of sharp metal was enough. The others didn't help his fellow corrupt scribe, probably thinking that I'd be satisfied with catching the leader. Hidden in the folds of his tunic, above the belt and out of the way was a concealed muffled coin holder. It was a strip of vellum with pockets for the coins so they wouldn't be too bulky on the outside.

And it was lined with gold shekels and four gold mina. I had a faint idea of how much a scribe earned per year, and that might be enough to be his retirement plan. Tamiwa handed the holder to me and it reeked of sweat. I removed and counted the coins. There were fifty-seven shekels. I placed the coins in a pouch hanging from my belt. It usually only had coppers because it was easy for a cutpurse to get them but I didn't want to mess with storage right now.

The naked scribe was fuming at me but he didn't speak. I could hear the sound of his teeth grinding.

"Fifty-seven shekels. Would I find more if I checked your sleeping quarters, scribe?"

"The Enshi will not--" He protested but I cut him.

"Enshi Es-Kina only worries about himself. And his pact with Ishtar. Do you really think he will crease one eyebrow for some lesser scribe? Is it your wish to go before him and denounce me for my unfairness? Go ahead," I told as coldly as I could.

I summoned the aluminum bag and took two ingots. "Hold his hands on his back," I told the guards. Using Decompose, I shaped cuffs for his wrists. Solid cuffs. "Take him away. Don't hurt or torture him. Also, get him dressed in the clothes he was wearing."

We repeated the same for the other scribed and guards. I could see the rage in their eyes, directed at Fara-Wil. He might've scammed the lion's share of the bribe to himself because I found less than ten gold shekels with each of the other scribes and even less with the guards.

"Milady," One of the scribes pleaded as he was dragged away by the guards. "Please, I'll tell everything that happened if you promise me to be merciful."

GoPro time. I set the camera on a lectern, sat the re-dressed scribe in front and told him to speak only truths to the magical black box. And he didn't disappoint. Some members of the council met with the scribes yesterday outside and gave them the task to steal the properties on their deeds. Fara-Wil later handed them the gold. It had nothing to do with Nephew as I suspected.

"I'll be merciful. You are still under arrest for your crime. Now, Kuma-Nu, Bur-Batolo, and Gu-Muranu follow me as we inspect the scribes' sleeping quarters. I bet we will find even more bribe gold there."

The three scribes closest to me were left out of the scheme. At least I knew I could trust them now. We went to the bedrooms and checked. They wouldn't dig any secret compartment in the solid sandstone walls and floor of the estate so I paused to think. They had the carpenters here, why not ask them to put hidden compartments in the furniture? I knew it was commonplace and some of these compartments were hard to find, especially the ones for coins.

Too bad I could sense the coins from afar. All I had to do was to run my hands along with the furniture and sense for gold or silver. In Fara-Wil's dresser, I found the gold under the second drawer. it has a fake bottom that was thicker just enough for a thin sheet of wood and the coins sandwiched between.

I broke it.

There was a corkboard with the coins slotted in holes. It wouldn't even rattle no matter how you moved the drawer. I saw parts of the opening mechanism, some sliding wooden tiles but paid it no mind. I just added another twenty gold shekels to my stash from that drawer and moved to the others. They had another thirty gold shekels and other denominations of silver. A few gems too. They had to pay back tenfold, that was their law. I confiscated all the valuables and sighed.

It was time to go outside and clean up some city blocks.