Ella sat in the back of the M113 APC as they traversed the empty New York streets. The convoy taking them to the Aqrabuamelu compound was joined with a similar group from Xu’s office.

The treaded wheels traversed the broken concrete streets. Zaidu sat across from her happy as a bee, going on about how the M113 being reinstated was the greatest outcome of the return of the Thousand Kingdoms. Ella barely followed it over the noise.

The screens outside showed the desolate wasteland of Times Square. Buildings had collapsed in the upheavals and in attacks by the variety of re-emergent monsters that had long been killed. Strange twisted metallic corpses littered the streets and were partially embedded from where people had been killed in bizarre ways. The APC just rolled over the dead metallic bodies.

Tanks lurked at major corners and soldiers stood in cover at alert. The reclaiming of New York City had been hard fought and even as the battles subsided, reconstruction was still needed. Confidence was also in short supply, but the countryside was even worse, so people huddled in the safe zones.

The roar of occasional jets, the thrumming of helicopters, both could be heard. But also a strange howling that could be felt in your bones. A noise that caused all the soldiers to tense up. Occasionally there was the sound of gunfire.

Ella watched numbly. This was her failure. Her sins multiplied exponentially but the weight of each did not feel less. Shouldn’t she be numb to her failures yet?

They reached the Aqrabuamelu training compound in Queens, using a temporary bridge that had been set up by lashing together and sinking cargo ships. Around the compound, the Aqrabuamelu were not even hiding their military capabilities, as soldiers and helicopters buzzed in and out. Sniper towers had been constructed and Ella watched scopes flash as they sighted her.

“Welcome to the Queens Forward Staging Area,” Zaidu yelled. “There are human soldiers here right now, so only certain floors are okay to discuss business.”

Ella watched as Xu emerged from his own transport. Still immaculately dressed even in this new era. He turned to her and bowed formally.

They made their way into the compound. It had changed a lot, new faces were everywhere, military discipline was tight, and they had to go into the warren below and through several guarded passageways to the actual Aqrabuamelu controlled areas.

Major Khouri, otherwise known as the High Priestess of Blessed Innana, was in her half scorpion form but her top was still wearing her US military undress uniform. She was directing other scorpion soldiers in loading weapons and, as Ella watched, some antiques that glowed in her crystalline eyesight. Ancient weapons were being brought out.

She turned and when she saw Ella splayed her legs out and bent forward to touch her forehead to the ground. The other soldiers did the same.

Ella was no god. She was a demon and almost recoiled at the genuflection. She waved them up and yelled a quick, “As you were,” to get them up and moving again.

They came to a briefing room where Arcsa was sitting at the head of, Zana was next to him. Ella was given pride of place.

“Blessed Inanna, she joins us in the new world! The Thousand Kingdoms are reborn, and we are reborn with them!” Arcsa said in ritual Sumerian cant. Ella had been told that her religion was evolving at a breakneck pace, but it was still surprising. Would she get used to it? Did she want to?

Arcsa turned to her, he knew she was a complete mess. But he was also Her Prophet.

“My Goddess and Empress, before we begin, we have assembled soldiers as your guard. They will be with you at all times and shall be your last line of defense.”

Ella did not want the burden and her lips thinned in annoyance, but she had no ability to resist. This was all hers when she had taken up the burden of being their goddess. There was no turning back now.

Zaidu stood up from where he had been kneeling on the ground, forehead pressed against it. Ella hadn’t even noticed he had bowed and was surprised he had. At least her doubts were cleared up when he hissed, “My goddess may be a piece of scum human, but I will serve her as I once did when I was know as Hydarnes. Your guard are the Immortals of infamy, reconstituted in today’s age.”

He left no doubt where he stood when he spat to the side. But it was strangely reassuring to Ella to have Zaidu, who she depended on so greatly, not change how he treated her.

And if there were any questions at all, he eyed her up and down, “You look weak. I doubt you’ve been training. Pathetic.”

It almost made Ella cry out of pure joy to hear that. Her most abusive trainer, one that had led her to cry into her pillow for so many nights, and she was happy to hear that. She was a mess, no doubt.

And she was perhaps lucky her reflexes held when he launched himself at her with a straight punch. She managed to slip it to the side, but her prosthetic arm didn’t respond and acted spastically at the confused neural commands.

He was standing right next to her facing the other way. “Just like I thought,” he spat. “Pathetic. Everyday at 5:30 am we will continue to train. I won’t defend an Empress who can’t be bothered to defend herself. The rest of the guard will have fun dismantling you every day. Tauthe especially.”

He punctuated that by kicking out the back of her knee and sending her to the ground.

“May we always be in Blessed Inanna’s grace.” He said as he walked away. Ella almost started laughing. She wasn’t sure if she was hysterical or not.

Arcsa pulled up a world map. But it was a new world as entire segments of land had been forcibly inserted into areas at random. Continents had been distorted and political boundaries had completely dissolved.

“The world is approximately seven percent larger, and gravity has gone up the same amount,” Ella said to herself as she looked at the map and flipped through the briefing handed to her.

Each continent had its own summary. Each one was a mess.

Arcsa pulled up a map of what North America looked like, areas were highlighted in threat levels. New York was a yellow which, given what Ella had seen outside meant that the orange and red zones must be quite bad. Ella’s eyes couldn’t help themselves, they looked at the West Coast where her family was. She had spoken to them over satcoms occasionally and they had assured her everything in Los Angeles was fine. Most of California was coded green.

Black, instant death, zones were scattered on the map, but nothing more prominent than the thick line that started in Nunavut, Canada and crossed the continent downwards diagonally through the US to where Torreón, Mexico had been.

“The US federal government has been flying aid around the Black Divide, as it is called, but as it continues to spread, the role of aid has been taken up by California, which has been acting as a second political center. This centrifugal tendency will result in a split, political analysts estimated it at two to three years. Canada has formally devolved power to Vancouver in a recognition of this reality already, but any line of authority between Toronto and Vancouver is fictional at best”

“Nuwa territories have inserted themselves on either side of the divide, here in the middle of what used to be Boise, and here,” he pointed to just across the Hudson River,” are the Daybreak Nuwa that are our nominal allies.”

The Nuwa across the Divide are mostly black in coloring with white markings and are being referred to as Kingsnakes.”

Ella tried to focus at the situation in the US. The Daybreak Nuwa had been taken under Xu’s wing and armed appropriately to hold their lands against aggressors. The situation with the Kingsnakes was a bit more tense but initial contact had been facilitated by a strange glowing creature and, oddly enough, a pair of children.

Washington DC was an armed camp and had successfully defended against a horde of strange orcs that had been armed only with primitive bronze weaponry. Atlanta was marked as yellow and was now under the nominal rule of a water dragon who apparently was in the process of negotiating for official recognition. The dragon itself apparently was popular enough among the human populace as a ruler and stringently anti-corruption.

In a time of strangeness, stability was the greatest virtue.

They finished the briefing on North America after three hours and Ella held up her hand before they could start on South America.

“We can’t do them all. My retention will be too poor. Let’s do one continent a day and rotate with major worldwide threats highlighted. In addition, anywhere that we can intervene to save lives should be prioritized regardless of geography.”

Ella had to make choices here. She needed to focus on what matters.

But even that abbreviated list was massive. The UK had fallen and the new fanatical despot was a religious leader of some sort called the Wolf Prophet and had declared magic anathema. The People that had been unfortunate enough to have landed in those islands had been crucified or otherwise cruelly wiped out.

Australia was entirely black. Strange diseases had killed everyone. And not just the humans but the plants, the animals, everything. The one plane that had managed to leave had crashed into the ocean, but everyone had been dead before then, their skin erupting in boils and their lungs filling with pus.

A few survivors in the far north had radioed for longer, speaking of a green and gray miasma that covered the land which is how the continent appeared on satellite but they also spoke of how this miasma would take form and speak sometimes.

“Resheph has escaped.” Arcsa said grimly. He began to speak of the last of the Nosoi, beings made of pure disease.

At the end of the briefing, Arcsa asked one more question, “What shall be done about Throne?”

Throne, the Kingdom of the Emperor’s castle. Or now her castle.