Sunday, June 12, 2022 TriBeCa, Manhattan, New York, United States

When Ella emerged back into the alley, even though it was a warm day in New York, it practically felt like air conditioning. She took off her ballistic face mask and took a deep breath of air.

She called Arcsa first and filled him in on what she had found, he replied, “Sending appropriate weaponry and soldiers, ETA one hour.”

“Bring a squirrel.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Get moving.”

Now it was to the hard part. She went to her knees in front of the waiting Sally and carefully and gently said, “Sally… I am so sorry. Your mother, she did not make it.”

Sally looked up at her, “She… she died?”

Ella pulled out the scarf from where she had stashed it in her pack and Sally suppressed a quick sob before wailing and throwing her arms around Ella and sobbing. Ella stiffened for a moment and then let Sally cry. And then she noticed something, the slightest bit of magic emerging from Sally herself. Something to bookmark for later.

Ella held her and gently brushed her hair back. She didn’t know how long.

Ella felt blank. Like she wasn’t there. Arcsa arrived and made his way through the soldiers in the alley, with Alicia holding his hand.

“Ali!!!!” Sally cried out, “my mom… she…”

Alicia reached out and took over for Ella as Sally started crying again, coaxing her back to the car she had arrived in.

Ella stood up, looked at Arcsa, “Ready? I want us breaching the portal in ten minutes.”

Even Arcsa was a bit taken aback at the sudden transition of tone. Ella didn’t sound angry, just business-like. “Eleanor, your strength isn’t in being cold.”

“Maybe not. But it is what I have today. We have weapons?”

Arcsa took her to one of the vans which opened up to reveal a mix of modern composite compound bows and crossbows. Ella grabbed a crossbow and quiver. The crossbows had optics and looked nothing like what she thought of, narrow with wheel-like gears on the outer edge. She didn’t have a clue about bows. She grabbed some extra gear for her squad. The other soldiers came and started gearing up.

Then she noticed they were going to the other truck and Ella followed them there to see tasers and air dart guns. “Clever, if firearms don’t work, maybe electricity is fine.” She stuck with the bow though. She was in a killing mood.

Arcsa handed her the Dagger of Veils. She grabbed her swordstaff off her pack and dumped the grenades and magazine packs she had carried through.

Once everyone was geared up, she turned to the soldiers who stood in ordered formation.

“Soldiers, I am Blessed Innana,” she started.

And was surprised when they yelled, “The Liberator!”

There was no time. “Sitrep as follows: Nüwa hidden kingdom through the portal. I can hold it open only for a bit, so rapid entry required. Temperature is 40 celsius, 100% humidity. Raining jungle environment. Friendlies are Nüwa, hostiles are orcs.” And Ella was thankful it was that straightforward, this time. “Hostiles do possess some enchanted weapons. Firearms do not function. Fire is slow to ignite and burns strangely, do not use incendiaries or other explosives. Action zone is four clicks away, designation north. Rendezvous is two clicks north. Tree village, orcs hold two-thirds of trees. Objective is to save civilian Nüwa, capture orcs for aggressive interrogation, and exterminate the rest. Feel free to transform as needed, no human presence. Well, besides me.”

There was that light chuckle that soldiers dutifully gave to the boss when cracking a joke.

She pulled down her ballistic mask. Instead of feeling hot or claustrophobic, it felt right. This wasn’t Ella doing this. It was a faceless black mask. The others pulled down their masks. Some of them pulled out ballistic riot shields. Many of them had swords or other handweapons, it was a strange mix of modernity and antiquity. It didn’t matter.

She opened the gate, and the soldiers raced through. She stepped through calmly, using will alone to keep it open.

Adra was on the other side and seeing thirty soldiers pour through the gate in rapid order was a relief to him. He pulled up his mask and began wiping the sweat off and refilling his water.

“We are all black on water. Glad you brought this… The others are still hunting down scouts. Comms are up. Channel three.”

Ella handed him a crossbow without a word. She tapped her radio and listened in.

Scout One, I’ve got enemy patrol in sight. Another quad. Moving towards you. One minute.

Scout Three. Copy.

Ella listened, there was nothing for a bit.

Scout Three. Hostiles are down. About to dispatch incapacitated.

Ella interrupted, “Scout One, this is Ella. Bring one in for interrogation. Do you copy?”

Ella. Scout One. Wilco. Rendezvous location?

“Two clicks towards portal, designation south.”

Copy. En route. Scout Two, Scout Three, on my position. Kill one and bring the other.

Ella turned to her soldiers, “Base of operations to be two clicks north. Let’s go.”

She didn’t wait and started moving immediately. The Aqrabuamelu followed, moving to and from cover like they had lived there their whole lives. They made it there quickly.

“Scout One. Sending squad for support.”

Copy that

She selected a squad and they ran out to intercept and aid the scout team.

The scouting team and their escorts made it back quickly. The scouts were dirty and sweaty and Ella motioned them to the water reserves. It was getting darker, near nighttime and the rain restarted. Lightning crackled across the sky.

“Report soldiers.”

Davcina took one quick swig of water and pulled up her mask. She was still holding onto the bow they had salvaged. But her quiver of arrows looked depleted.

“Orcs operating in fours. Four scouting squads of four on the ground. Three eliminated. East scout team still active. Unknown check-in time.”

“Did they have comms?”

“Negative.”

“You rest and recover. Resupply is over there.” Ella pointed. “Someone set a guard detail close so we can plan. We are going to execute this quickly.”

Four soldiers started climbing nearby trees to establish viewpoints. The rest gathered around her.

Ella took the pieces of her swordstaff off her pack and screwed them together.

“We are going to have to draw the orcs down and into an ambush. The way we are going to do that is convince the Nuwa to flee. Adra, you are going to establish contact.”

“How am I supposed to do that? If I try and go near those trees, they will just start shooting.”

“Well, you get the fun part. Let me introduce you to the squirrel.”

Adrahasis kicked the metal spike into the tree. It bit and he lifted himself up and kicked the other boot in to get another bite. THe rope he was using around the trunk of the tree was tight and he slid it carefully up. When he hit a branch, he used a second rope to secure above the junction before letting go of the first.

Nobody knew this, but Adra was terrified of heights. Absolutely terrified.

He doggedly kept climbing.

Ella’s plan was suicidal. He had almost said no. And it had amazed him that he could. He was free from an urge to obey her as Innana. The others called her “Liberator”, and if anything had become stronger in belief. Their faith had breached that intellectual divide that had existed before, the one that kept them rational in combat, and some had unhealthy levels of fanaticism in their eyes.

Ella had wanted to free them, but per Arcsa, many of the Aqrabuamelu had become insane. They had declared that Blessed Innana, the Liberator, was truly the incarnation of the Goddess and beyond reproach. For the first time in Aqrabuamelu history, there had been actual brawls in the ranks. There had been military actions against one another, part of their long service had been to make themselves pre-eminent soldiers, and thus they often found themselves on opposite sides of conflict. There had been unbelievers once, they had been purged. That was war. This was… a breakdown in discipline. It was troubling.

He forced himself to focus and made his way up the tree. The tallest adjacent to the clearing. He could see the town in the trees next to them. There was the occasional sound of yelling, and the battle continued. The orcs and Nuwa both could see well enough in the dark.

He looked down and cursed silently. He was going to kill his goddess when he finished this mission.

Ella crept through the jungle. Every step she took was a lesson in how to be quieter, to be the silent killer that Zaidu had tried to teach them to be. Her bow was in hand, her mask on, she hadn’t taken it off since they had arrived. There were two moons overhead, both unfamiliar. The light was slightly redder than she was used to. Perhaps iron dust on those moons? No… that was Ella and not the black mask.

She caught the glow of another enchanted weapon ahead. A sword. This one was a bit stronger magic than the others. She held her hand up and moved forward to establish a visual.

There weren’t four orcs. There were three. And a human. A soldier from Everett Marr’s mercenary company with that same company patch on his tactical gear. He oddly didn’t seem to unnerved to be hacking through a jungle in a pocket dimension with a bunch of orcs. She would take him alive if she could. Maybe another orc if the one Davcina had brought back expired under question.

Davcina eyed the bound orc in a chair. It’s green eyes looked gray in the moonlight.

She continued to sharpen the knife as she looked. “Do you understand me, orc?” she asked in Akkadian.

“Yes. This one understands your language.”

“Good. I have questions.”

“This one will not betray the Great Chieften.”

“No? Our goddess tells me you have no compulsion in you. You can be broken and will be. After all, you aren’t going to die here. You don’t need your eyes nor your limbs to talk. I will start at the bottom and slice off one centimeter at a time. Then maybe we will return you to be useless to the Great Chieftain.”

The orc was young. He shuddered. “The Great Chieften was right. His enemies are evil.”

“Did the Nüwa do anything to deserve this?” Davcina asked. Keep him talking. He wasn’t trained in counter-interrogation, it was easy.

“The dragonlings have always been these one’s enemies.”

“After thousands of years? They didn’t even know what you were. I doubt you knew who they were except for legends.” Davcina put scorn in her voice.

The orc nodded and then caught himself. “We needed to learn these new weapons. But when we came here, they did not work.”

“It is a shame. The Great Chieftain… he sent so many of you. He must not have faith that his own clan would be strong.”

“These ones are strong! These ones told him one hundred would be enough to kill the lizards. He made these ones bring three times that!”

Was there anything else she needed? Pride was his key… Oh yes.

“And that is why he sent so many humans too? The Great Chieften must have really been disappointed.”

“No!” he yelled. “This one killed a human when it overstepped. This one would have killed the remaining ten, but…” And suddenly the orc stopped. He snapped his mouth shut.

“Thank you. Stupid child.” Davcina leaned towards him and cut his throat, watching the purplish red orc blood spill down his chest as he gasped.

She wiped her knife clean. It still had tugged a bit and needed some more sharpening. She wiped off the sweat from her brow and started whistling.