Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Tel Megiddo 1350 BCE, 165 years before the destruction of Ugarit

Eris walked through the abandoned streets. No lights or fires lit the windows anymore. The sound of the absence of people weighed on her ears, causing a painful tinnitus. No matter how many times it happened to her, she couldn’t get over how distressing the ringing sound was.

Rounding a corner, Eris had to cover her mouth and nose with both hands to stop herself from purging at the smell of disease. She wanted to run from here, but she had to check for survivors.

Magaddu was completely deserted, its people abandoned it to the outlying villages in fear. That was the worst thing they could have done. The dusting followed the fleeing populace, and everywhere they went, new people fell ill. The disease was horrible, causing the skin to turn pale and fall to the ground like light snow. It was at the heart of Magaddu where she first learned of the possible involvement of her kin. She had found a trace of home at the house of the late mayor and his wife. Though she was loath to do it, she breathed deep and reanimated the corpse of the woman. The woman's eyes remained glossy and lifeless as the body of the deceased described a traveler who came to their home and asked for a meal in exchange for a blessing. The person she described was the exact description of her sister, Nanai.

Before she could learn much else, the magic failed and the body fell back to its lifeless state. She could try again, but each successive effort further degraded the body, it wouldn't be coherent a second time.

Over her countless moons she had tried to preserve life as much as she could, but every time she reanimated someone they never clung to “life” for long, always succumbing to the same fate. Eris wasn’t even sure it was a kind of life she gave these people. The first time she tried it for someone dear to her, and in all cases, whatever she tried had not brought anyone back. There always seemed to be something missing; the bodies would never move or speak on their own. They could answer questions or respond to stimuli, but left alone, they remained resting in whatever position they were in last until the magic failed.

The memories did not help with the urges for reversal. Traveling towards the center of the town, she stopped at the well she personally dug last spring. The town had grown and the trips to the river had not been enough to fill the need, so she had helped them build it. Eris leaned on the bricks she helped lay and peered over the edge. She wasn’t expecting to find anything, only needing a moment of respite.

Eris was about to leave the town and continue on to the next one before the water shifted and a glint of something caught her eye. She reached home and grabbed a bit of it to call forth, and the object ascended the well as if from a rope.

“Nanai.”

The simple necklace was of silver and hooked with bronze wire, a gift for her sister as one of only a few to stay with her in this place. What the necklace she gave Nanai was doing at the bottom of the well, she wasn’t sure. Knowing her sister had been here made her head hurt with theories. She tried to find her over their connection to home, but like before, she wasn’t able to “see” her sister anymore. Eris had originally assumed Nanai had gone back home, but even if she had, why would she toss her locket away? There was nothing about their origins that precluded the existence of the objects made here.

◊◊◊

“Hold on.” Tyler interrupted. “Your sister’s name is Nanai? Shouldn’t it be something like, Persephone or Kore or something?”

Eris responded with a hearty laugh. “I absolutely love your imagination. Believe it or not, the name Kore didn’t exist when we first came to Earth. Moreover, we didn’t bother to pick out names for many millennia. When it finally became an issue, we sort of chose descriptors for ourselves. In the first human tongue, ‘Eris’ just meant ‘the one who came first’. Nanai was actually the only one who was given a name. She was exploring what eventually became South America, and someone gave it to her when she helped a mother give birth and care for the child. I don’t know if it means anything today, but she was given the name ‘one who comforts’ and it sort of stuck for her.”

Tyler’s stiff expression melted a little. “It sounds like you had a wonderful sister.”

Eris gave a big smile. “We actually didn’t have any strong feelings about each other when we were home, probably because of our original forms? Emotions weren’t really a thing for us. But when we all came here, the emotional part of the forms we took were so intense that almost all the kin I showed the planet to immediately returned. In the end it was just three of us who remained. Nanai and I became best friends, close enough that we introduced ourselves to everyone as sisters.”

Eris gave a small giggle. “When we first came here, she and I were like children. We played games and everything. Hide and seek was our favorite, but I seldom won.”

“Do you know what happened to her? Is she still around?”

Eris shook her head. “No. I’ve tried a number of times since I woke up, but I can’t find any of my kin on Earth. My only guess is Ur and Nanai probably left for home around the time I was bound.”

Tyler sat on the couch and let Eris’ words digest. It was late in the evening, and Orlando and Kyle had already gone home. Kyle had managed to cheer up by the end, and Orlando seemed to still be in a bit of a shock about the existence of magic. He also seemed weary of Eris when he said his goodbyes, like he wasn’t sure how to treat her anymore.

Tyler hadn’t asked this yet because she could tell it was a sore point for Eris, but she had opened up with a couple of stories of her past now, and Tyler's curiosity couldn’t be held back any longer. “Eris. How exactly was a group of humans able to bind you to a bowl, anyway? And why would they even do such a thing?”

Eris frowned and looked down at her lap for a moment, anguish written on her face.

“If… If you can’t talk about it, it’s alright. I’m sorry for bringing up something painful.”

“No.” Eris gave a big sigh. “No, It’s okay. Maybe talking it through will help me come to terms with it.”

There was a long pause. Tyler wanted to say something, but she held her voice back to give Eris the space to speak. When she did, she spoke with a voice that was a little numb, the kind of voice you have when you’re holding back a strong emotion. “I think I was betrayed.”

Tyler’s eyes widened at the revelation, but remained silent as Eris continued. “By the time I was sealed away I had already placed a number of ley lines underneath the earth’s crust and moved some portion of my home to them, and was teaching people the basics of how to use those ley lines to help with things like crop growth and curing disease. My kin thought that was going too far, and that we should just help where we could. Nanai especially didn’t like it. She was very vocal about not bringing any part of our home to this new world, not even for our own use. I think it was her who taught the binding ritual after she failed to drag be back home.”

“She tried to force you back home?”

Eris nodded. “We eventually grew apart as we encountered different humans and towns. The founding of Babylon was probably the first time we argued to the point of splitting up and walking our separate paths. At the behest of the people there, I helped them separate from the control of their neighbors. Admittedly, I may have gotten used to being praised by that point, and Nanai didn’t like the kind of person she thought I was becoming. Before I could reconcile with her, she disappeared at night. I wasn’t able to see her again until after the fall of Ugarit.”

Tyler didn’t know that much of early human history, but the time periods Eris talked about made her head spin. And she was talking about them as if they were only a few years apart. She shook her head to clear it. “What happened after Ugarit?”

“After the invaders from the sea raised it to the ground, I found one of the raiding parties and interrogated a few. I found that they were provided with ships and tools by a young woman matching Nanai’s description. I couldn’t find her with magic, so I began tracking her whereabouts by following the paths the invaders took. Every time I found a city or town that was burnt, I found the nearest group of invaders and demanded answers. I’m not proud of what I did back then, and if I could go back, I’d do things differently. I wasn’t ever able to find her, but as I got the feeling I was getting close, I fell into a trap and was bound. The town had everyone gather at the village center for a feast after I had helped a young boy return from the woods. I should have realized what was going on, but before I could react, the first part of the ritual had taken place and I couldn’t move or reach home to do any magic. The rest you know.”

Tyler sat in silence, trying to absorb the weight of what Eris had told her. As she tried to put herself in Eris’ shoes, she found that she had trouble holding back tears and pulled her friend into a hug. “I’m so sorry, Eris.”

Eris had trouble holding back as well, and her shoulders shook as she was held.

I guess even Goddesses can cry. Tyler thought. After a while, she helped Eris up to go to bed.

The next morning was the beginning of Saturday, and everyone had woken up earlier than they would have liked. Eris and Tyler were groggy. Tyler had her head resting on the table as her mother placed a couple of cups of coffee down on the table along with a small boat of cream. Tyler  made her coffee with far too much cream, took a sip, and thanked her mother.

“So Tyler.” Her mother started.

“Yeah, mom?”

“Well, I called out of work tomorrow and I figured you and I could finally go shopping and get you some decent clothes. I got a pretty good tip payout yesterday, so we should be fine to splurge a little.”

If the coffee hadn’t already started to wake her up, that would have. She practically jumped out of the chair and gave her mom a big hug. “Yes, please! Oh, I’ve been excited for this all week!”

Her mom laughed and pulled back. “Don’t get too overjoyed, we won’t just be shopping for clothes.”

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“What else will we be getting?”

Christine took a sip of her own coffee and said, “We’ll need to get you your own feminine products… And have the talk all over again.”

Tyler’s face flushed more than she thought was possible and gave a nervous laugh.

“Don’t worry hun. The first time is a little scary, but if you prepare it’s not so bad. And hey, at least you won’t have to go through it at twelve like me.”

Her mom’s words did provide some comfort to her, and she nodded and sat down again. She couldn’t say anything, so she responded by hiding behind her cup as she slowly sipped her extra, extra creamy coffee. Christine looked up at the clock and balked. “Shoot, I have to be at the restaurant soon. Bye hun.” She gave a Tyler a kiss on her forehead and ran out the kitchen door to her car. The sound of the small family sedan rumbled a bit as it took off down the road.

Tyler didn’t feel like going anywhere if she was going to be spending most of the day tomorrow in town and going out later today with Durian, so she looked at Eris and asked, “Wanna watch a movie?”

“Sure!” came the reply.

◊◊◊

Art took a sip of his tea and basked in the cold morning air. Despite the chill, the sun was out at just the right angle to keep things warm enough to be outside with a heavy sweater, and Cathy had suggested they enjoy their tea outside. Art readily agreed to the tea when he got the call early that morning. He initially wanted to turn Cathy down and help out Matthew today as he was going to Tyler's, but something about the young girl made him uncomfortable. Something that he couldn’t quite put a finger on. And Cathy was a warm distraction and good company.

“I take it Matthew couldn’t make it today because of whatever pulled him back to town?”

Art nodded. “Yeah, he went to go see Tyler again to see if he could figure out what happened that day with the fight.”

Cathy took a sip of tea. Putting the china down on the table, she spoke up, “You know, he never did tell me what was going on, or why he was so freaked out. I thought at first he was just worried about Tyler. Especially with how violent Sid can be sometimes. But the way he stressed the question about if there was any blood makes me think there’s something more to this whole story.”

Art grimaced. He was torn between his promise to not tell anyone about magic and his desire to tell his new friend everything. He and Cathy had rapidly become a very close, and he really wanted to do right by her. “I shouldn’t be mentioning this because Matt would get angry at me, but he’s worried that something awful could come out of that trophy if the right things happen to it.”

Cathy squinted her eyes at Art, trying to read something on his face. “Are you telling me that, Matthew. Our Matthew. Thinks that magic exists, and the trophy has some sort of curse or something?”

Art’s eyes widened. He had only intended to tell her a vague idea of what Matthew’s was up to, but she sussed out nearly the whole story. He didn’t think he gave enough info for all that, but maybe not. “Y-yeah, he’s worried a demon might come from it and do whatever it did to get bound to the trophy all over again. Though please don’t mention it to him. He’d be pretty angry with me if he found out I told you.”

Cathy sighed. “That stubborn old fool. He knows I practice witchcraft, he could have asked for help.”

Art’s eyes widened wide enough to hurt from the chilled air. He had to blink a couple of times to get them to feel right again. “I thought you’d call him insane.”

Cathy shrugged. “Just because I haven’t been able to get magic to work for me doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Personally, I think we should corner the stubborn git and tell him we’re helping no matter what.”

Art smiled. He was so glad he told her the truth. He was starting to feel like he was going a little crazy with everything Matthew was going over, and even worried he was being infected by some kind of dementia just by being around him. Having another person, a friend even, not only believe him but agree with him sent his heart fluttering. Or he assumed it was that.

Cathy noticed his small smile and got one of her own, like a yawn she couldn't resist. She looked like she was debating on telling him something. An expression of resolve found its way to her face that only people with decades of life experience could have arrived at so quickly. “Art.”

“Hmm?” he responded, humming instead of verbally replying, as he took another sip of Lady Gray tea.

“I like you.”

Art did a literal spit take, turning his head just in time to have most of the liquid spray onto the grass. He set about using a tea towel to wipe up the cloth table cover. “W-w-w-w-what?” he stammered. 

“I like you, Art. A lot in fact. I knew I liked you the first time we had tea together, and that feeling only grew since.”

Art’s head was spinning as he took in the information. He hadn’t had anyone confess to him since his school days, and he reacted just as badly now as he had then. He could even feel the blush reach his ears as he looked down at his lap and tried to make himself small.

“B-b-but I thought.” He tried to get out.

“You thought I was a lesbian.” Cathy said, as a fact rather than a question.

Art nodded, not trusting his words.

“I am.”

“But. But I’m not. I’m not a—”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about today. Normally, I try to be a bit more careful about this, but I find old folks like us need a bit of pressure to push past all the years of denial. What I’m trying to say is, when I look at you, I don’t see a man in his sixties. I see a woman trying to hide. And that impression has just deepened the more I’ve spoken with you. Are you sure you aren’t a woman, Art?”

Silence fell. A deep and uncomfortable one as Art tried to reconcile with his past over the next few minutes. He always knew something was wrong, deep down. Over the years, they found excuse after excuse to bury that feeling, by either acting out or by outright denying it and hoping it would go away. Art would be lying if they said they hadn’t thought about how good it’d be to not be… this. Art was wizened enough to look at the past with a critical eye, and they knew that a lot of their failings and mistakes to do with sensitivity and with today’s culture came from growing up in the South and living most of their life in Florida. It was not a friendly place to anyone different back then, heck it still isn’t.

Memories of the Stonewall Riots flashed through their mind. They remembered watching the news that day, gripped with excitement when the police and government finally acquiesced to the demands of the protestors. They even wanted to join, but didn’t out of fear of something deep down.

Something she was definitely having to come to terms with at the moment.

Art realized her eyes were swimming as she rubbed at them. She tried to move her left arm to help, but found that she couldn’t. She looked to her left and found that Cathy had moved from her seat and was giving her a side hug as she sat there.

Art never felt such relief as she finally accepted who she was. For the first time since she was a young child, she cried deeply.

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