"Because you used to consult the queen on her dreams, and she praised your skills graciously." Asqudum stated flatly. "I noticed that you even wrote to the king concerning a dream you had several months ago. I have your letter here. May I read it?"

Miszatu was both frightened and confused at the suggestion that her letter to the king in confidence should be read aloud, but she nodded her consent.

Asqudum read: "My King, I, Miszatu, Naditu Sha Nanshe, write my lord with a grave omen I received in a dream last night. I thought it wrong to deprive my king of the details of my vision: I entered a deep sleep and Ziqiqu shifted me to the halls of the Eykugbabbarani, but Zumun was not there, and a heavy sense of something missing hung over his house. As I turned to leave his sanctuary to go out in search of him, a phantom in shadows hung over the door, and the shade murmurred "Tura Bazi, Return Bazi, Tura Bazi". I left the sanctuary in search of Lord Zumun and Ziqiqu led my feet to a place far beyond the rings of Kharani. It was barren save the moors and the thicket of crooked orchard trees that lay strewn across the valley. I began to hear the heavy beating of drums and the crash of symbals. I groped deeper and deeper into the thicket, and as I continued to struggle through the blackness and the dark, a pale light began to glow down, it was like moonlight, but not moonlight. Its intensity increased the further into the swamp I would go, and finally, I came to the clearing at the end of the thicket, and before me I saw a great silver wild bull, three humps along its back. It looked down at me with black and cold eyes before Ziqiqu lifted me towards the arms of Shamash and Nusku."

"Yes my lord, I did indeed write that and submit it before the king, but it proved inconsequential. It was clearly an agricultural omen, and that was almost a year ago and the country's fields remain in good health." Miszatu tried to demur.

"Are you saying that your consultation for our lord was composed in falsehood?"Asqudum asked sternly.

A deep pang of fear was thrust down her spine. Asqudum smiled cruelly.

"Do not fear. I have no suspicions as to the veracity of your oneiromantic talents, quite the contrary. Now, allow me to tell you about Nawirnushu's dream last night:

The sharru awoke in his own bedroom in the palace. He was clothed in the costume of Shumu nobility. The queen was similarly costumed in the ancient fashion, and the two of them attended a costumed banquet on the palace grounds. The king and queen were seperated. The king listened to a band who sang a haunting lamentation for Kharani. Then he began to drink and eat and saw that he was surrounded by the ancient kings from Kharani's past. He distinctly named the old kings: Itud, Zumun-danum, Sharrukan, Nin Pakinana, Kisrisulupi, and his own father, Imeirilu. The king then saw his fallen nemesis, Enlil-bel-abli, and drew his weapon against him. A voice then cried out "Where is Bazi!?" and then Zumun disappeared into the black of the night."

Miszatu lost her breath.

Asqudum continued. "All the party guests disappeared and the king was left alone in the black night. The king wandered the streets of Kharani, which were empty and without a soul. The king heard the howl of wild animals, and then..." Aszudum paused to swallow. The portents of the story disturbed him as well. "The king was chased down by wild-dogs, and was himself torn apart in the shadow of an enormous bull, then he was swept away by Ziqiqu to the arms of Shamash."

"Alas, when the sharru awoke in the morning he walked out towards the very same garden in which the banquet of his dream had taken place, and peering over the balcony into the canal, he discovered the sight of a corpse. A boy of only a few years old, torn apart like a butchered lamb."

Miszatu gasped, her hands clasping to her mouth. These omens were terrifying.

"How do you interpret the king's dream, Miszatu?" Asqudum asked her.

Miszatu took a moment to breathe and considered the elements of the two dreams.

Then she began her analysis. "...So the king finds himself at a banquet in honor of the ancestors of the city, the importance of Kharani's lineage seems obvious. The seven people you mentioned that the king saw at his party, Itud the founding king of Kharani, Zumun-Banda and Pakinana were infamous rulers of the Silver Age, Sharrakam was one of the very early Amuru kings, back when they still took the name "nugal", and Kisrisulupi represents the Hatti governorship and restoration of the city after the Hanigalbatu occupation. Namrazit, the king's father, of course, represents the current dynasty. Even the king's enemy, Enlil-Bel-Abli, is accounted for. This implies the complete ancestral line of the city's kingship.

I do not know what to make of the great bull in my king's dream, but concerning my own dream, I thought it to imply some kind of rural theme, a warning for the earth itself. That prediction that I made did not come to pass, but the barren orchard, the hills, and I had read the silver wild bull as something to do with the wilderness country. Its three humps were clearly representing the mountains of the KUR sign, suggesting foreigness, savagery from the wicked places.

The two dreams are united by this name, "Bazi", but their images are opposites."

"Well, there are two Bazis it could refer to." Asqudum stated. "Either to the second king of Kharani, or to Bazi-riim-ile, the local king of Kharani who regained political independence after the collapse of the Hatti empire."

"I know of the elder king, at least. The shepherd who brought Zumun's cult north from the Sealands and established the most ancient and innermost of Kharani's city walls." Miszatu recollected.

"Wouldn't the invocation of Bazi in the two dreams suggest a symbolic demand for a return to traditionalism? The values of Bazi's time? His faithfulness in name to the city?" Asqudum wondered.

"Actually," she suggested. "I think it sounds likely to be more specific to something. Otherwise, why would such a retinue of ghostly etemmu make use of Bazi in particular to emphasize their incompleteness?"

"Hm. You raise a fair point." He conceded.

"Furthermore, in both dreams, a darkness emerges from the absence of Lord Zuen. In mine, the loss of his cult-image. In the king's, the obscuring of the moon by dark clouds. What troubles me especially is the empty city. For the eshkar ziqiqu clearly states that "If a man should find himself alone in his town; then a death will come to his village". Then the king is beset by wild-dogs. Again the emphasis on wildness, hul, lemnutu, evil." Miszatu explained.

"Then comes the discovery of the boy's body." stated Asqudum.

"It's a terrible omen. Not just for there to be a child murderer on the loose, not just for the such death to pollute the sacred canal, but for the king to be the first to see the death of such an innocent, it is a very grave omen! It mutiplies the danger of all the previous omens! Along with his dream, it is as if in the king having discovered death, the whole city itself has discovered death!" She explained.

"The portents of this sort of discovery marks our land for ruin." Asqudum replied. "Kharani's position in the world as a free port of trade between nations is deeply threatened. Our independence is precarious, standing mostly on a thousand years of tradition and decorum more than anything else.

This murder is also indicative of a grave crime against an innocent within our community. A foolish advisor might, in such an instance of crisis, merely requisition the temple to propitiate the gods in the kingdom's favor, but as you know, the whole point of divination is that causes lead to outcomes. I want to know what evil to befall Kharani would herald itself with a dead child." Asqudum declared.

He continued. "What I need is someone with our profession's expertise to investigate a matter of importance to the city of Kharani and its king. Miszatu, as a hayyadu you can read the signs, you know how to follow an inquiry, and your position as a naditu sha Nanshe would make it easy for you to get close to people in the city. If you can speak to the right people and gather more information about who is behind this death, and how it came about, then we can begin to counter this disastrous forecast."

Miszatu considered all of this for a moment. "Beliya, with respect, I wish to serve the gods and the city, but I do not think that I am cut out for chasing the trail of murderers and evils in the night." she protested.

Asqudum scoffed. "Well, you do not have a choice. If you do not work for me in this matter then I will have to have a talk with your superior sisters about your little secret."

With Asqudum's threat, Nungal's cold claws took grip of her spine.

Asqudum smirked at her reaction. Then his face evened. "Miszatu, there are not many people like us in this city. People who think like us, with personal gods like us. I need you to do this for me. You really may be the best hope that Kharani has."

Miszatu took a deep breath, trying to disguise her indignation at the weight of responsibility heaved upon her.

"Okay. I'll do it." She conceded.

"Right now we must find the parents of the slain child. As the child was found on the other side of the canal from the royal gardens. I would ask around for them in the lower town around the E-anna district. If you find them, learn from them everything that they can recall and follow that as far as it will lead you. We will meet again to discuss your investigation tomorrow morning."

"...Yes, Bel."

"Before you go, I have something for you."

Asqudum got up from his desk and started lightly sifting through the stacks of tablets, stamps, and implements on the shelf behind him. He fished out a slender cylinder seal the size of a finger. In his other hand he took a clump of clay which he had in his office reserve. He rolled the seal across the clay, impressing the stunningly detailed incised scene of a luxurious banquet shared by birds, mice, and fish in the place of human guests onto the spread of clay.

"This seal demonstrates that you are my servant, and gives you full access to most administrative resources in the city." Asqudum pierced her gaze with his squinted, beady eyes. "Do not make me regret entrusting this with you." He said as he placed the soapstone cylinder in Miszatu's hand.

She nodded.

"Alright, you are dismissed."

Miszatu stood up from the chair, bowed, and retreated outside back to the hall. Before departing she stood outside the door for a moment, letting out a deep sigh of relief and a quiet proclamation of gratitude to her lady.

Then her attention fell to the ornate seal she held between her fingertips. She reeled to consider that the authority to alter the city's fate lay in her hand, and resolved herself to honor its trust.