| Fan Fiction |
by Aelk
Ishtar held her lover in her slender arms and wept. Now cold and lifeless, the almighty Anu laid with his eyes tight shut, as if he was in a deep sleep.
His divine blood of bright crimson flowed away from a deep wound on his chest, dyeing the clouds underneath with the same color, and then seeping through them to reach the world below.
“I’m sorry… “
The goddess’ wailings rang throughout the skies and manifested themselves as violent thunderstorms.
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“Bro! Bro!!!”
Helke’s voice, along with the other children, screams frantically for their brother. Shamash turned to see what the fuss was about, and to his surprise, they have brought back a blood-drenched and unconscious Anzu using a sledge meant for transporting loots.
“She is…!”
Is she … dead? But she was as aggressive as she ever was just a moment ago… Shamash thought suspiciously as he knelt towards her and checked her breathing.
He placed his index finger towards her upper lips, and the rhythmic exhalations of air coming from her quiet breathings calmed him down at last.
He carried her to a spare room and rested her on a small bed meant for the kids.
The huge specks of blood dripping from her clothes were ghastly, but something was not right ---- The blood was not Anzu’s. To have bled so profusely, he though, the person must have died.
“What happened?”
Shamash questioned Helke, who answered promptly.
”We knew you had a little quarrel with her, seeing your expression after you return and all…” Helke paused awhile to catch his breath from all the running he just did, “There was this sudden heavy rain which fell violently on all of us, and it was actually blood!”
The heaven is bleeding? Shamash found it strange to comprehend, but knowing who Anzu is and everything, it might not be impossible. But why? Why was not Helke and the others drenched in it?
But gods or heavens aside, there is something more pressing to do: He has to deliver the machina cube to his client on time before the latter decide to use the children as a threat.
Shamash got up from his seat and swung the heavily-wrapped loot back on his shoulders.
“I’m going.”
“What about this big sister?”
Helke and the others asked.
“I’m leaving her to you guys.”
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[Anzu… he is in trouble]
The goddesss’ voice spoke to her again. Her vision is shrouded in darkness, but she felt at ease.
“He?”
[Yes. Go to him before it’s too late… Don’t lose him like how I lost mine.]
The first person that came to her mind was Shamash. As she tries to recall, she remembered how they were quarrelling about the unjust of Humans, and the corruption of the government.
”I can’t go to him. I can’t change him. He hates me now.”
His heart is ever so far away.
She felt like crying, but tears would not come to her. It was a bitter feeling to not able to cry when one felt like doing so.
[Do not follow my footsteps, Anzu. You have Anu’s blessings now, so go…]
Anu’s blessings? Is it somehow related to the scene she saw, on how Anu died in Ishtar’s hands?
“Wait!”
She called out to the darkness with all her might.
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”Wait!”
She opened her eyes all of a sudden, and the lightings in the room came into view. Anzu rolled her eyes around, and saw Helke and the other children surrounding her.
“Wait for?”
Helke asked with a strange look on his face. He must have thought she had a bad dream.
“Um… where’s Shamash?”
She asked while scanning around for him. Is he still angry with her?
“Bro went to deliver the cube. And he asked for us to take care of you,” the little boy’s brows locked together as he approached the priestess closer, “This is freaky, the bloodstains were all gone the moment you woke up.”
Blood from the rain… Anu…
[He is in trouble]
Ishtar’s spoken words rang in her head once more.
As Helke racked his tiny head to think about how the vanishing stains were possible, Anzu jumped out of the bed and rushed towards the door.
“Where is he?”
“Bro said not to breathe a word to you.”
“His life is in danger!! I don’t know how, but he really is!!”
Anzu shouted in panic; for the gods she has been speaking to since young has never told a lie. Helke shuddered at her revelation. According to his experience, he could tell that this lady is indeed telling the truth.
“C-come with me!”
And so the little boy led the priestess to the thief.
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“The usual place at late noon……”
Shamash mumbled as he approached the meeting place his client arranged. It was at the outskirts of the village where the dealing will take place. Upon reaching the destination, he put down the heavy cube and awaits the client’s arrival.
---- And his wait is short.
“Have you been waiting long? Shadow.”
The familiar cold voice spoke from behind him.
“Cut the warm greeting, you know you aren’t such a person.”
True enough; the same man from the bazaar days ago wearing full-body black robes emerged from his hiding. Shamash hated this dark-robed man who refused to show his face. But he was at the same time the man who would bring business to the thief.
“Hah! You sure know how to make people angry. “
“…”
Shamash unwittingly looked closer at the man’s clothings, which appears to be wet. Though it was not obvious due to the material being black, what has wetted the robes was most likely the same liquid that stained Anzu’s.
“You too…”
“Do you know,” the iffy man-in-black started before he could finish his question, “that I hated the king of this civilization, Nannar?”
Shamash knew his question was purposefully ignored, but strangely enough, the stains were gone in an instant the moment he looked again.
He subjected the phenomenon to a mere hallucination due to fatigue.
“N-no reason to not believe.”
The man then turned around to back face him.
“Good. And so, I have an aspiration.”
“…”
”I aspire to bring him down, pull that useless king away from the golden throne.”
“And then call yourself a king?”
The robed man stopped at Shamash’s sharp answer, his lips curled wryly and smiled.
“Yes.”
His voice was distant and weary, as if he has been planning a revolt for a long time. Maybe this was indeed so, and his actions are understandable due to the oppression by the king, but Shamash did not think that this masked individual is fit to be rule either;
He is a ruthless man when it comes to achieving goals.
Knowing that he will not rest until King Nannar’s head roll, Shamash knew something was amiss.
“To accomplish my goals, Shadow, I will need you.”
A dozen other men emerged from the thickets around the outskirts and cordoned any escape routes available. The thief is trapped.
”!”
“It is a great loss for our country that King Nannar Mursil was lost in a barbaric assassination last night. We have identified the murderer to be the Shadow, the same fiend who stole our national treasure. With the decree from our new king, Marduk Dulanas, we hereby order for the arrest of this wretched criminal, dead or alive.”
The hooded man recited from what will soon be pasted on every corner of the capital and major cities.
”Furthermore, in providing information for the Shadow, the high priestess of the Bahaaj temple will be charged for committing high treason. Due to her services for our lands, however, she shall be exiled as a punishment.”
Marduk, as Shamash recalled from his last visit to the palace, was the developer of the machina himself. To name him as the next king could only mean one thing.
“You are … it can’t be… ”
Marduk wanted the throne for himself and he will silence both Anzu and him to keep the truth from the world. With the invention of the machina, the self-proclaimed king is now unhindered by anyone to wage a war against the world.
“How clever, but you are bringing the truth to your grave… the lady priestess whom you stole, I’m afraid that she must be destroyed too for knowing too much.”
As the henchmen of Marduk advanced towards Shamash, the latter tried hard to think of a way to escape.
His heart is thumping fast. Not that he is afraid to die, but the fact that Anzu and the children back at the house were being targeted too.
He has to run, but how?
Fighting head-on seemed to be the only option now.
Shamash flashed out his small dagger and dashed towards the group of men.
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A/N
*bows*
*kept apologizing for the much-delayed update*
i'm gathering time to restart Soukyuu ni's update
final year project, internship and reports are all done.
:)
currently working, but i will garner more time to write,
promise T^T!
anyway, i'm beginning a short stories account,
lookout for it soon, kay? (wrote 1 story in it only though)
i wonder if anyone will see this message though :(