Wednesday, March 16, 2022 Aqrabuamelu compound; Flushing, Queens, New York, United States

The drow regarded them silently. Arcsa spoke to the surgeon and thanked him before heading over.

“The doctor removed the two false teeth with poison, the false finger nail also. The poison needles under it were quite interesting. The fine wire in your hair was removed and the implanted blade along your forearm. Your other nails were removed to avoid you clawing your veins open, your teeth removed so you couldn’t bite your tongue like poor Belatsunat. And a feeding tube was installed so you can’t starve yourself.”

The drow couldn’t help it, he looked down at the plastic tube going under the lightweight gown he wore.

“Oh and also, even if you do manage to free yourself from the restraints, your hamstrings have been severed so you can’t run away.”

Arcsa waited to see. The drow blurred in front of his view and the table was empty.

“Foolish Arcsa. I remember you. We once stood next to one another at one of God’s many triumphs. Now you and your people shall all die.”

Arcsa unhurriedly took a small knife from his belt and stabbed right where the drow’s hand had been.

And the drow blurred back into vision. Still bound.

“You people are foolish and Utu-on-Earth has wasted you by not preparing you for this age properly. The humans are the rulers of this dying planet and they rule it far more effectively than Ekerri ever did.”

The drow said nothing.

“Also it was impressive how good your speech was without teeth. And we did not know your kind could use aural illusion. We learn. We learn so much of you.”

“Traitors.” spat the drow.

“Drow, tell me your name.”

But the drow remained silent.

Arcsa sighed and thought about it. There was no leverage here. Perhaps they should give the body for dissection. Could they rig a false escape attempt or disguise someone else as a drow? Such operations had been left to the drow, and the Aqramuabelu had always disdained them. Arrogance had left them unprepared for this.

“His use of illusion was a mistake.”

“How so Davcina?” Arcsa asked.

“He should have used it inconspicuously to change small things, unnoticeable things that could have an effect later. Perhaps hiding something we need or causing someone to stumble over an unseen item at a critical moment. But he wasted the surprise on a primitive attempt at evoking fear.”

“Very good. But he is not savvy to the modern age. How could he know that we implanted multiple trackers and sensors in him? And even if he suspects it, what can he do?”

“Adra, what sorts of inferences can we draw?”

“He remains arrogant. The number of suicide methods revealed by the MRI were overkill.”

“The drow, they are not like us. Their fanaticism is ingrained and essential. They do not struggle with the programmed belief and intellectual truth the way we do.”

“So what next? Tauthe?”

“Skin him and eat him?” Tauthe said sarcastically.

“Davcina?”

Davcina thought for a moment. “You just told us the answer. Tauthe should get it if she wasn’t busy being snarky.”

“I’m not snarky. I am hungry.”

“Hangry you mean.”

“Soldiers!” remonstrated Arcsa at the levity.

They sat upright and waited.

“Tauthe, would you like to try again?”

When is a request not a request? Tauthe resisted a sigh, “His fanaticism and training level probably means torture is out. We don’t know anything about their religion because it is so different than ours. So… faith?”

Arcsa waited a day and then returned.

The drow lay there. Strapped to the gurney. A nurse was just finishing moving him and the sound of air in and out of the bed to avoid bed sores was the only noise.

“Drow. Tell me about God.”

The drow tried to move his arms but the restraints prevented him.

“God is all.” And that was it.

“But what does God ask of you?”

“Nothing.” The drow’s voice was impassive but his shoulders moved a bit.

Arcsa caught the nuance, “God does not ask. God commands.”

The drow was silent.

“Our belief in Utu was given to us like yours was.”

The drow still said nothing. But the heart rate monitor showed the slightest elevation.

“We were once brethren united in our belief in Utu, were we not?”

He hated the drow’s impassivity when they spoke, but every time he said Utu he saw that spike in heart rate.

“And then Utu betrayed us and fulfilled his own prophecy. The prophecy he put into us that we would be cast into hell without him until Blessed Innana came to us and made us whole.”

Bow the drow’s heart rate remained elevated. Just a bit more of a push perhaps.

“So prophecy was fulfilled as he foretold. Which was funny because it was a false prophecy that came to bite him in the ass.” Arcsa held his breath, had he overreached?

The drow was quiet for only a moment more. “There is no Utu, only God. And his prophecies are all true, anything else is blasphemy.” The drow’s impassive voice had broken a bit.

“Well he created us after the mistakes in the drow. I am sure he was disappointed in what he had wrought.” Arcsa sunk the fangs in.

The drow’s muscled bulged and he howled. “Traitors. God's will is implacable. We are the Chosen of God, and you the discards of our greatness.” The fine articulation of the previous day was gone, the drow struggling to enunciate without teeth. He began wrenching back and forth and almost frothing at the mouth.

Arcsa made a hand signal and the doctor injected a sedative.

“And what did we learn today?”

“That they are nothing.” Tauthe grumbled.

Bahu was there today after having reviewed the previous footage.

“Expand on that please.”

“This is why we were created. Their faith, it is absolute. They are limited and there is no depth to their thought.”

Davcina then asked, “How can they spy if they are so limited.”

Arcsa, “How well do we truly know one another? How much do we expect to see of another’s inner life?”

Adra then spoke, “I think, I think that there is a, a dynamic tension between our programmed faith and intellectual… atheism, that is what provides us with our ability to be more flexible than these drow.”

Arcsa clapped his hands together with a crack. “Yes. I think that is right. We knew they were fanatics and had the legends. But our people rarely interacted in the Empire. But now imagine what a human is like… they will feel twenty different ways about what color bedsheets to buy. Without magic, our people just survived on their difference and blind spots. But could we have created this?”

And he waved his hand overhead to indicate the outside world.

“I do not think so. But this dissonance is why they are doomed to fail.”

“How so?” asked Tauthe who was drawn in despite herself.

It was Davcina who answered, “They can absolve themselves of responsibility. Their actions and their thoughts are not congruent and thus they can… they…”

“They lack integrity,” murmured Bahu.

“Yes. A programmer might create software that can be used to launch weapons and wash himself of his complicity. An inventor may create something that can be abused and still not take responsibility for the attendant deaths. They somehow think they are not the owner of their actions and the consequences.”

“And that is why they rule. But also why they will most likely extinguish themselves soon. They destroy themselves even as we speak. But they might take us with them.”