Wednesday, June 1, 2022 Aqrabuamelu compound; Flushing, Queens, New York, United States

“We need to take the fight to Ekerri.” Arcsa said. “Nobody fights off this many assassination attempts without a scratch

“Umm, excuse me, I have been stabbed, and I spent two weeks on a coma.” Ella felt cross at Arcsa dismissing her injuries.

“Without a scratch,” Arcsa repeated smoothly. The High Priestess snickered. Which was very un-High-Priestessly of her, Ella thought.

Zana sat at the other end of the table, her feet up on the corner. Her long black hair was pulled back into artful cascading curls, she was wearing a green wrap dress with palm leaf prints, and some suede boots.

“You look nice,” Ella said.

“Been busy doing a bit of recon. On Mister Everett Marr.” Her eyes twinkled. “He is very wealthy and very connected. Funds Super PACS, Federalist Society, etc. The usual.”

“Anything more?”

“Not quite yet. It had been a long time since I have been out in the field. And this isn’t even like real field work. This is more like a movie version of spying. Fancy dresses, expensive cars, huge houses. Positively delightful!”

“Glad you are having fun.”

Zana just winked.

Arcsa cleared his throat. “Back to the topic at hand. We need to stop being defensive.”

“Marr is our only lead to finding Ekerri.” Zana put in.

“We have had soldiers posted in that subway tunnel since we found out about it. Nothing.”

“I’ll keep working it,” Zana said. “But we need to create more opportunities, this one is going to be quite hard to work.”

With that unsatisfactory ending, they adjourned.

Ella went down to see Seb first. He was running the shoothouse, again. He apparently ran it every chance he got, trying to make the course record. He wasn’t even close, but the Aqrabuamelu indulged him. She tsked when she noticed he was not wearing adequate hearing protection.

In fact, the Aqrabuamelu had all turned out to be very concerned parents. Many of them had been parents to their own human children in the many centuries since their escape from Kur, and the one thing they had rarely shared was their true nature. And Seb was the favored son that could know the truth.

After he finished his latest run, he came to Ella panting. “I’ve run it fourteen times today. Only missed two targets! And my time is so much better.”

Ella reached over and tousled his sweaty head like she used to do for Harish. “C’mon. Let’s get something to eat and then you can clean up and tell me how Alicia and Sally are.”

“We should just invite them to come get lunch.”

“Yeah, that’d be great. Let me check on my family and I’ll meet you there.”

“Hi mom, dad, brother mine. Have you had lunch yet?”

“Yes dear. We just ate. When did you leave this morning?

“Around 4:30? I usually go do some lifting, before training gets going. Zaidu drives us pretty hard.”

“And Zaidu is that grumpy fellow?”

“You could say that. Today was traditional weapons practice and I swear he just liked to give me welts.”

“How much do you bench sis?”

Harish, if still incredulous and nervous in the Aqrabuamelu compound, had at least come around a little bit. He still looked at her oddly at times, but Ella figured it would just take time.

“135 last time I checked.”

“Hmm. That is pretty good.”

“I thought so.”

And then she was off. One hundred thirty five kilograms was more than pretty good, Ella thought. But she really didn’t know. She probably should try to do a max again, it had been a long time.

Harish thought, well at least I can bench 185 pounds so still have that on her.

Ella piled up her MREs while enviously looking at Sebs fried chicken. At least the rations were a different brand this week, looked like PRC PLA ones.

Zaidu had relented and let them have vegetables since, in his words, he had never thought they were so pathetic that they wouldn’t have at least scored one shot on him by now. So Ella greedily loaded up on the mixed veggies.

She saw Tauthe sitting with Davcina and Adra and waved hi. Tauthe, who still was training despite showing, was probably closer to scoring on Zaidu than Ella would ever be. They were just finishing up and Ella grabbed the table.

Alicia was making a face at the meal in front of her, “Do we have to eat all of the vegetables?”

Sally said, her mouth stuffed with food and it falling out “Mmmm. I’ll eat them…”

“No… Alicia, you know you made a deal with Tamzi. So eat up.” Seb said and Alicia groaned but started eating the limp, overboiled vegetables.

Ella dug in with gusto on the vegetables though. She was so thoroughly sick of military rations. She had to get a hit on Zaidu for some real food.

“So Tamzi is helping take care of you? Do you need anything else? Is it scary being here?”

The girls nodded yes, no, no. Well then Sally held up her cleaned plate, “More veggies”.

Both kids were still gaunt, but looked like they were making up for their hunger. Alicia’s skin no longer looked loose on her frame at least. She was clean, wearing new clothes, and bright eyed.

“Tamzi is great. We play games like hide-and-seek and he gives us secret missions to do. And candy when we succeed!” Sally was excited especially at the thought of candy.

“Shhh!” Alicia said.

Ella looked at Seb who pretended innocence. Tamzi, who was Zana in disguise, was a spy and seemed to take pleasure in teaching these children spycraft. It was questionable at best.

“You guys don’t have to do those things if you don’t want. I can speak to Tamzi.”

“No… It is a lot of fun!” Sally said. “And everyone is a bug!”

Alicia’s hand went over Sally’s mouth and she looked around, like revealing that would get them in instant trouble.

Ella and Seb started laughing which made Alicia relax a bit.

“Don’t worry, we all know here… Would you like to meet some more humans here? My family is staying here.” Ella asked. The girls looked at each other and then at her and nodded yes again in sync.

She leaned over to Seb while they went to get seconds. “Have you gotten Sally to open up to you? She hasn’t taken off her ring or anything. I’d like to know where she came from.”

“Not yet. I think she would but Alicia always stops her.” Seb said.

“It’s okay. I don’t want to push her or anything. But I would like to help her. I know some elves I could send her to, but who knows if there are different elves somewhere else.”

“You know elves?”

“I dated one for a while,” and Ella smiled a bit.

“Weird.”

“Nah, he was nice.”

Seb was looking at Alicia as she was standing in line. Ah youth, so fickle, though Ella. Well, at least it wasn’t as awkward.

After lunch they walked over to the room where Ella’s family was and she deposited them with Harish who gave her a long-suffering look of being stuck with the children. Her mother was delighted that Ella had brought some children over and took them under her wing pretty quickly.

Next came her father, “I am pleased to see you took them in. You know we are worried about you, right?”

“I know. I think Harish is a bit afraid of me.”

Her father leaned over to give her a hug, “You are kind of scary nowadays honey.” He hesitated, “I had a nightmare last night of that scene in the hallway.”

All of a sudden there was a flash of light. Instead of Sally, the small girl, there was a small creature with red-streaked, fluorescent teal scales and a white belly. It squealed a bit and jumped up and to the side and clung to the wall. The clothes it was wearing

“Sally! Put on your ring!” Alice cried. Harish had recoiled a bit but was now just staring.

“Sorry Ali! I didn’t mean to!” the creature cried piteously. It slowly made its way to the ground and then there was another flash of light and a little girl stood.

Alicia was scolding Sally for always playing with her ring and then looked around wide-eyed.

Harish, of all people, suddenly laughed and said, “Busted!” He hurried over to the bed and grabbed a blanket to throw over the poor lizard girl.

Sally was still scared though, even in her human form she was shaking a bit and looked like she was going to start bawling. Ella moved forward and sat next to her on one of the bunks.

“Hey Sally. Don’t worry. Nobody is going to be upset. You know you can just be you here, right? The Aqrabuamelu haven’t been going about in their bug forms only so they don’t scare you.”

It was the wrong thing to say, the girl suddenly looked very afraid and bolted to Alicia. “Go, let’s go… They will kill us!”

Alicia looked at the girl and the other people in the room and was old enough to recognize nobody was about to kill them at least.

“Why do you think that Sally?”

Sally began to talk, stumbling over some of the words. And Ella heard Emperor, Aqrabuamelu, and a few other words as she talked to Alicia.

Sally clung to Alicia as if she could hide by burrowing in, and Alicia kept stroking her hair.

“Sally, can you look at me?” Ella put on the most soothing voice she could. “Nobody is going to kill you here. I promise. Not the Aqrabuamelu, not anyone.”

“You promise?” Sally drew out the ’s’ sound more this time.

“Do you want to pinky-swear?” Ella asked.

“What’sss that?”

And so Ella taught her how to pinky swear.

“She’s a Nüwa,” the High Priestess said. “Ekerri wasn’t the only ones to experiment with combining creatures. The dragons created them during the war to counter us. They are part elf and part dragon, divided into clans based on their heritage.”

“So you were enemies?” Ella asked.

Zana interrupted, “The worst. We slaughtered them whenever we found them, the young and the old. We burned their forts and villages. We starved them, we tortured them. There was never any quarter given. I… I remember, I was assigned to a legion that sacked one of their great cities. It was beautiful and we brought it all down. I… I… killed everything with scales that I saw that day. They were like grass to me, I did not count them, only cut and stabbed and murdered.”

She shuddered, her eyes bright, “I think that is when I knew I wanted to be a spy. I could not avoid serving Utu, he had such control over us, but I thought I could at least deal death slowly and precisely rather than… that.”

“You were much abused in service to Ekerri.” Ella said.

“Zana,” Arcsa said, “I was there as well. I think even then I was numb to what we were doing.”

“Arcsa,” Ella said firmly, “I am Innana Reborn, correct?”

Arcsa knew where this was going. “Of course you are. Tauthe is pregnant with one of ours. When she delivers, there will be no doubt. But until then, there may be some who do not believe. None of them are in this room.”

“You remember what you told me?” Ella asked.

“Of course I do. I held a knife to your throat and told you could not free us. I assume you will try.”

“No knife now.”

“I cannot,” said Arcsa. “And even if I could, I would not. Not anymore.”

“Do you want to be free?”

They all sat there, unable to even voice their desires and that was answer enough for Ella.

“I will not be a slaver. I will have you be free. But with freedom, you will also have to be moral. You will no longer be able to blame anything besides yourselves, you will need to awaken your consciences and deal with any nightmares you have unleashed.”

Arcsa regarded her, “We all have nightmares anyway. Whether we were responsible or not. But I take your meaning. And what will you, Eleanor, do if you free us before you battle Utu-the-Bastard?”

“I would rather not win than win using slaves. I have been talking to your people. Ekerri was a tyrant and cruel, but our world has known worse.” Ella said, and then admitted, “I am haunted by the thought that he would be better for the world than me. That his experience, his power, his ruthlessness, might lead to a better outcome.”

“He will exterminate your kind if he can. You are far more dangerous than he would tolerate.”

“How can I weigh one life more than another?” Ella asked. “Human or a lizard child or a scorpion? They are all just people. I won’t succumb to the tribalism which has haunted my own people’s past and threatened our future. Either I will be a just ruler or a dead wanna-be tyrant. There is no other option for me.”

The High Priestess leaned forward, “You will not be able to avoid immoral action.”

“I know. But here is something I have been thinking about. In human law, there is often mention of the ‘rule of law’ meaning that the law applies equally to everyone. And maybe that would be enough even though in practice the privileged often avoid the consequences of their actions.”

Ella took a moment to form her next words, they had been nebulous in her mind. “I think as my first decree, whether as Ekerri’s heir or as Innana Reborn, shall be this: The privileged should pay harsher sentences than the downtrodden. Punishments will be three times for me, those who serve me, or those who have excessive privilege under me.”

“And what about necessity of action?”

“I think we should still pay for those actions. But how do we measure what is immoral? The greater good can lead to horror. So there is some balance here to be struck and I do not think humanity’s legal systems serve that greater good.”

Ella suddenly realized how pompous she sounded and blushed, “Well… I am working on it anyway.”

The next day Ella spent the next day gliding through her training with Xu in Midtown and then combat training with Zaidu, as she thought about justice and what it meant to her. It wasn’t enough to oppose Ekerri. She needed to articulate what she was fighting for. A set of guiding axioms that she could use, not as dogma, but as a lighthouse.

Her usual afternoon reading time, which was usually spent on physics and developing her own paradigm of magic, was given over to reading texts on justice, economics, and philosophy. And yet she kept coming back to a simple idea, the role of government was to maximize people’s ability to live fulfilling lives.

Where her country had gone wrong was the lack of positive rights. Without guaranteeing a baseline of existence, people struggled to achieve those outcomes that they desired.

In a way, it lined up with what she had been reading before, and it felt right. Putting it into practice would be the tough part. Fortunately she had plenty of time for that, if it happened.

When she returned to her study of physics, she found that the time away had also helped crystallize her thinking there. She knew what her magic would be. It would be the ability to examine non-collapsed wave-functions and then choose how they collapsed. It was the holy grail of physics, and it was in her hands.

It is what she had been doing to spot the drow on their attack - they were shifting themselves into unlikely probabilities where people didn’t notice them even if they were standing right there, manipulating reality to put them slightly askew. Ansheth had described it differently, the framework magic was put in dictated how it was perceived and what could be done with it.

Which meant that these lenses through which magic were viewed were still just a crutch, and there was a more fundamental nature to it that she hadn’t grasped. It ate at the scientist in her, but she needed tools and weapons right now, not theory.

When she presented her framework to Xu, who was very intelligent, even he struggled to follow along with some of the mathematical frameworks she was building, but, being an arrogant sort, he merely waved his hand and said that he was sure it would be fine.