Two days later (Friday, May 13, 2022) Undisclosed location, New Jersey, United States

After two days, Ella was climbing the walls. She had to debrief with Arcsa, Bahu, and Zaidu still. But she needed to get outside. She needed to be moving, to be doing something.

As it was she was occupying herself learning reproductive biology from the ground up. The Aqrabuamelu had given up on any pretense about her not being their savior, but they still needed their prophecies fulfilled.

Charlie burst into the room. She looked flushed with excitement. As usual, they hugged a bit longer than they used to, as if afraid something would happen if they let go.

“So I finally found out why Xu has been so worried. He sent me an encrypted message that your friends couldn’t open, it was an Ottendorf cypher.”

“What’s an Ottendorf cypher?” Ella asked, bemused at Charlie’s eagerness. If she had been a puppy, she would have been wagging her tail.

“You take a book, and you… wait never mind. It doesn’t matter. Anyway, I decrypted it, and Xu is upset because he sensed something massively magical happen two weeks ago, in the Adirondacks. He was freaking out about it. Apparently other dragons are as well and some of them are thinking about coming to New York.”

“That would be unacceptable,” Arcsa said from the doorway. He was holding a gift-wrapped package in his hands. Bound in a satin, red wrapping and with a complex, layered rope holding it together.

He continued on, “But first things first.,” he knelt and held the package to Ella presenting it with both hands, “Your Majesty, Eesha Jindal-Witten, Crown Princess of the Thousand Kingdoms, Blessed-Innana-To-Be; I return that which belongs to you.” His speech was in the most formal, reverent tones.

Ella had never been addressed as such. Each time she thought she was prepared, and often she could discount Aqrabuamelu reverence as being a bit over the top. But wasn’t that showing contempt for their beliefs and for them? She suddenly was aware she was wearing black fatigues and was grubby from her exercise in the gym. She had neglected to shower right away and she felt so uncomfortable.

But Arcsa waited on his knees patiently.

Ella straightened up and gathered what dignity she could. She let her crown manifest, she let her eyes glow. It now felt more like she was relaxing control rather than trying to draw these things out.

What she didn’t notice was her clothes began to shift, in a way that hadn’t happened since she had first been crowned. The black fatigues shimmered and reshaped themselves into an extravagant golden gown, almost ethereal in nature.

“Arcsa, My Prophet…” as she said this, part of her mind wondered where it was coming from, “I accept this into my keeping. Please rise.”

Surely that was sufficiently formal. She took the package and he rose. Ella’s dress dissolved into dust and she was back in the fatigues. Whatever grace had possessed her was gone and she held the package awkwardly.

“May I open it?” Ella diffidently asked.

“Of course, it is yours, and not a gift, but earned,” Arcsa smoothly responded.

Ella put the package on the hospital bed and noticed that the wrapping wasn’t satin, it was silk. The rope was a cord of braided gold wire and silk. It was extravagant.

The package opened to reveal an unstained aloewood box, fragrant in its rawness. And she lifted the lid to reveal the dagger she had taken from Chile.

When she took it by the handle, for a brief moment her image distorted and became uncomfortable to look at. Just a second where if one blinked they would have missed it.

“The Dagger of Veils,” Arcsa said quietly, almost a whisper, “One of the oldest of the Imperial Regalia. When the Emperor created it, he said it would be a tool of subtlety, of the shadows and illicitly gained knowledge, and of death unseen.”

Ella held the dagger, so similar to the one she had trained with but also different. It had that extra layer of realness that all things magic did. Like it was more there than anything else was.

She twirled the dagger around her fingers, the balance was the same and the knuckle guard made it easy, she refrained from the fancy tricks she had been trying, it felt disrespectful.

There was a leather sheath in the box and Ella was about to put the dagger in when she decided to look at it with magic.

“Ella, what’s wrong?” Charlie asked.

Ella stared at the dagger, it looked like a black void, like it was an absence in the universe. She shuddered again and let her eyes return to normal.

She put it in its sheath and turned to Charlie and Arcsa, “Let’s just say it is not pleasant to look at with magic.”

“It looked weird while you were holding it,” said Charlie. “Like I was staring at it through broken glass. It skeeves me out.”

“It just looked like a dagger to me…”

They both stood there for a moment internalizing what they had seen before Ella turned to Arcsa.

“I’ll assume you know what happened from Adra and the rest. Where are they? I, I couldn’t find one of them when I was looking for them in the forest.”

And so Arcsa told them about what had happened with the others, Etana who was dead and Tauthe who wished she was. Ella stopped him after that and made them take her to Tauthe.

Tauthe was in a dark room in a hospital bed. She winced when Ella turned on the light.

“What the hell, Tauthe? You look terrible.” Ella said worriedly. Too shocked to be tactful.

Tauthe did look terrible. Her expression was flat and she looked pale and weak. Her head was bandaged over one quarter of it.

“Ella. You made it. I didn’t know you had woken up.” Tauthe’s voice lacked the fire from before, her constant irritation. Instead it was a dull statement.

“I did. But I hear you are discharged and just sitting here sulking.” Ella was furious, but not at Tauthe. She didn’t know at what. Maybe herself. Because it was her fault that they had been attacked.

“Sulking. Yes, I suppose I am.” That same lifeless tone of voice.

“You saved us. You got us enough time to set a trap. We killed them all. And I’d kill them again if it would help.” Ella had never felt bloodthirsty like this before, but she wanted to dig up those bodies of those soldiers and cause them pain.

“I cannot see well enough to fight anymore. So what does it matter, princess?” And now maybe some of that old sneer was back in Tauthe’s voice. That ‘princess’ carrying a bit of acidity to it.

“Losing an eye doesn’t make you worthless. The Aqrabuamelu have enough soldiers. You, no we, can all be so much more.” Ella was now pleading.

“More? Our people are dying out there. Dying while we wait for our goddess to come and save us. We are her blades and when we are not a blade, what are we?”

“You don’t know? You have been here two weeks and you don’t know?” Ella had figured her secret was out. How was she to know that Tauthe had isolated herself so thoroughly?

“Know what?”

Ella whirled on Arcsa, furious, “Arcsa. Bring Zaidu here. He abandoned his soldiers. Where are her comrades? Bring him here. We command you!”

Her crown manifested, and it was almost solid. Far away Ekerri frowned as he felt his crown dim again, the tug of war going in her favor.

Arcsa turned and ran out the door.

“Do we now serve Ekerri’s heir?” Tauthe asked despite her depressed apathy.

“No.” Ella turned to Tauthe, her eyes aglow, her crown manifested, “Ekerri’s heir is here to serve you. And also Innana-Reborn.” And there it was, the truth.

Tauthe’s one eye widened and she started scrambling from the bed to get on her knees, but Ella grabbed her on both arms and held her, looking in her eye, and then hugged her, hard and not letting go. Tauthe struggled a bit and then went limp and, finally, started weeping.

She wept for a while and then Ella stiffened and put her at arms distance again. She looked at Tauthe and then looked down and then back at her.

“When did you become pregnant?”