The next day; Day 12 (Tuesday, May 10, 2022) Undisclosed location, New Jersey, United States

Ella was no longer intubated, the turbulence and strange glowing of the tub had wound down. But she didn’t wake up.

They kept the IVs going, the first batch of trauma and burn doctors were sent home with large payments and very, very pointed warnings to keep their mouth shut. They were, in fact, blindfolded and removed without ever knowing where they had stayed. Arcsa had mentioned they were even flown back to their countries on private planes that did not have windows.

Charlie suspected that if these weren’t famous experts, they would have probably been disappeared instead.

New doctors arrived: a neurologist, a neurosurgeon, and a variety of research scientists. EEGs were performed which were completely aberrant. Pupils couldn’t be examined because Ella’s eyes emitted a torrent of light all of the time. The remainder of the physical exam was unremarkable.

Charlie and Navneet kept taking turns with Ella. Ella’s father, Henry, went home to take care of Ella’s brother. When he got home, he noted that he had new neighbors in two houses, squads sent to keep an eye on him. They made no bones about being anything besides soldiers but the police left them alone.

Xu was becoming more insistent about Charlie coming back to the office. She was working constantly since she had nothing else to do, but he was getting irate.

“Absolutely not.” Arcsa said, “We will not be letting a dragon anywhere near Eleanor in this state. Nor are you allowed to tell him that she is injured.”

Bahu took a more conciliatory tone, “Eleanor explained to us the deal she struck. It is fragile and the balance of power between them is everything. To see her weakened will hurt her cause.”

Charlie was easily cowed. Arcsa and Bahu were the sorts of people that became more scary the better you knew them. Because she knew, they didn’t bother hiding references to ancient history, to the fact that they had devoted their lives to become better at war and slaughter. Ella had also not told Charlie that they were cannibals, which really skeeved Charlie out. So her moment of bravery spent, she retreated.

Bahu turned to Arcsa, “We should kill the dragon.”

Arcsa, however, demurred, “He may prove an asset. And I believe the balance of power is in our hands. We are certainly strong enough to kill him ourselves. And, more importantly, the dagger is here.”

“It arrived?” Bahu was almost giddy with excitement.

Arcsa smiled and walked over to the wall where a safe had been put in, specifically for this purpose. He let the lock scan his iris and typed in a long passphrase on the keyboard and the solid door opened.

Inside, sitting there without adornment was the dagger. The golden knuckleguard handle and the crystal blade. And now, as she looked at it, she could see a bit of distortion around it.

“What is happening to it?”

“This is the Dagger of Veils, Utu-Who-Is-Ekerri told me once it embodies subtlety. He said it was a spy’s weapon. But I never saw him do anything with it, perhaps apropos.”

The more Bahu looked at it, the stranger the distortion became. It was unsettling and only increasingly more so. She wrenched her eyes away from and saw Arcsa do the same.

Zaidu moved his arm experimentally. He could feel the stitches stretch. what was strange is where the bullet had been lodged, it felt like the bullet was still in there but he knew it wasn’t. The bullet sat in a small cup next to him. Another one to add to the collection.

He watched Tauthe’s breathing. It was steady and the repeated, steady beep of the heart rate monitor was reassuring.

Whoever had shot her in the head had just missed the kill shot. As it was, she had lost an eye. Would play hell with her combat capabilities. She would have to take a staff position which, having gotten to know her after training, would not be her first choice.

He got up and rolled his shoulder again, the pain almost welcome this late at night. Exiting the room, he quietly made his way over to the other room and got waved in by the guards.

Eleanor was in a hospital bed, she almost looked like she was sleeping, but her eyes were flashing light through her eyelids. Sometimes slow, sometimes like a strobe light.

Someone was sleeping in a chair next to her with a blanket pulled up over their head.

He regarded his prophesied goddess with something that approached respect. She had recognized the danger, made the right calls, and done what it took to eliminate the threat. Without any mercy. She was the type of soldier that he had wished he had a thousand times and had only met occasionally. She reminded him at times of Brasidas, decisive, intelligent, and a superlative warrior, and what a shame his death had been. They had been friends during the truce and when Athens had taken the field against Sparta, Zaidu had known the only challenge on the field was Brasidas. He had felt bad killing him. Brasidas had laughed at him and Zaidu had always wondered what that final laugh had meant. Strange the things that haunt us.

Zaidu snorted a small laugh. He was reminiscing. Always dangerous for the long lived. But he so rarely allowed himself the luxury.

He closed the door gently behind him, a light smile on his face that would have shocked his trainees if they had seen it