Dinner was divine, perfect in every way. As good in flavor, as I was fucked in the head.
My stomach was in knots.
My joints ached.
My skin crawled.
I couldn’t keep my mind off the white and blue dragon tattoo on my back – escape sounded more sane than sitting here pretending all was right with the world. Couldn’t they hear the cables holding heaven aloft, snapping, and whining across the sky? Could they not hear the crashing of worlds?
Each of them smiled to me. They engaged in light conversation, mostly about the end of C-Source and the back of the Cortez Cartel being snapped. While the last bit was not their goal, none of them felt a smidgen of remorse or guilt for the outcome.
“He really was of the Seelie Court,” Quinn said. “I went there after, and inquired about him.”
“Anyone of consequence?” Kane asked, half interested.
“A second prince, and well known for his rants on returning to this realm and reclaiming it,” Quinn told him.
“A second prince?” Slate asked. “Their royal family is based on the female side, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Ore said, in agreement.
“So,” Kane surmised, “No one of consequence, then.”
“Not really,” Quinn agreed.
My hand shook so bad I dropped my tumbler. It fell, breaking my plate, and spilling ice and rum across the wood table.
“Gentlemen,” Inanna said, with a calm, and patient voice. “Would you please see yourselves to the living room? It is time.”
The five brothers stood together, bowed to her, and left the dining area.
It was time? Time? Time to destroy the world, because I was a silly girl?
“Calm down, Misty. Shh. It’s alright,” Inanna told me.
“It’s not alright. It’s never going to be alright!” I whimpered.
“Do you really believe that you are the only one who has had problems choosing?” she asked.
I sobered. “Did you?”
She smiled. “No, I didn’t. It was Kane for me from the start and none of the others were close. But that is not to say it hasn’t happened. In fact it’s more common than my experience. However, none of them had this knowing you have up to this point. By now, at dinner, each of them had a ring chosen. A couple of them put all the names in a bag, and drew letting Fate choose for them. Some made the best choice they could. But by this point, all had a choice made and a name. You still have all the rings in your pocket, don’t you?”
I nodded, unable to speak.
She sipped her wine. “I had to be sure. I had to know. So many began unable to choose, but did. Finally. But each did. I had to know. I knew this would come soon. I just didn’t believe it would be on my watch.”
“What?” I asked, barely able to get the word out of my throat.
“One other chose all five,” she told me. “Only one.”
“Who?”
“Inanna. The goddess Inanna.”
I sat stunned. I knew the first was Ore, so it was not because she couldn’t decide the first time. “Why? Why did she? I know she chose Ore at least once and Raw a couple of times. Why did she choose all five?”
“Because Sumer was taking form,” she answered. “The world had changed. People were becoming human beings. Arts were progressing. Language, written language. Stories, not just myths and legends of the gods or oracle stories of the animals. But human stories about human beings and what it meant to be human. Politics became real, as did law and judgement, and business, and trade. It wasn’t perfect. It was far from perfect, but it was becoming, and they needed a true beginning. An awakening. They needed the aspects of all five so that Sumer didn’t meet the same fate as all the others before.”
“What fate was that?”
“Apathy, or at least what we think of as apathy these days,” she answered. “The dragons did cause motivation, and cities did form, and then countries, but they broke apart. War came, sure, but usually people were moving on, out into the world. Hunters, gatherers were the most common. Farming began, and it was good, but it was also boring and didn’t satisfy the human desires.
“Quinn had center stage most of the time, and was chosen many times, and did a great deal toward keeping people together, but religion failed to make the needed aspirations.
“Sumer was different. Inanna felt it. So did Enki. Both of them saw that humans were ready, but they needed the energy and drive to get them to see it themselves. So, Inanna chose all five.”
My mind reeled…
There are today, cultures and places where polygamy is accepted. Even required. I was once in one of these places on a story, and met a man with three wives. He seemed a nice enough man. He was a good provider, a skilled fisherman. His wives seemed happy. My curiosity compelled me to talk with him. After it was clear that my upbringing didn’t see this as acceptable, and getting through the basics with him, I asked him – How many wives would you want?
He thought about this for a moment and my mind buzzed with what his answer might be; five? Seven? Ten? Maybe?
He leaned closer to me, glanced in both directions, and then whispered – None.
Inanna however was not looking for five husbands, she was looking for the energy and power to see her people prosper and to become what they could be.
“But how did she get the brothers to accept this?” I asked.
“Come with me dear,” she said, and we left the room, and went outside.
She looked around, and then took a stick and began writing in a language I’ve never seen before, in the dirt. She drew several shapes, which could have been larger letters, or characters like the Chinese or Japanese use, or pictograms.
“Each of us is imbued with this casting or ritual or whatever you wish to call it. Use it sparingly and wisely. I’ve never used it, but several have used it in the past,” she explained, tossing the stick away. Then she straightened up, and commanded in a voice not hers, a voice filled with ancient and compelling power, “Kur, Come Forth!”
Her voice carried across miles and down the rolling hills, and I heard it echo out there. Where her voice went, the ground turned green with life and leaves. Water sprung from the ground into streams. Above, the fluffy clouds turned dark, and then lightning struck.
When my eyes cleared of the after images, I saw a man in dark clothing walking over a hill out in the distance. He walked toward us, and then he came walking over a hill closer, and to the left. Then he came walking over a hill closer to us and in front of us again. Thunder hit, like a hammer and he came walking up to us, stopping a polite distance away.
Taking off his hat, he gave Inanna a slight bow. “Ah, Karen. It is good to see you. I don’t have much time, not much at all. But I understand the questions, and I see the changes. You were, as you have always been, wise to call. And Misty, wise beyond your age. Courage is your strength, but temper is your thorn. Still, you are correct. Yes. I see it is not a girl’s choice, but a woman’s. A guardian’s choice. What a wonderful Inanna you will be. So, to both of you, I accept. Now, I must go.”
Thunder struck so hard I fell to the dirt, and saw Inanna did as well. The dark man was gone.
“What the fuck was that?” I hissed.
“Let’s go back inside. I have a story to tell you,” she said, getting up out of the dirt and brushing herself off.
“You said, Kur. Right? The dragon, Kur?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “The first dragon, the true world dragon. That’s the story I’m going to tell.”
We returned to the table and filled cups with wine.
“Alright, tell me,” I said.
“Back in the near beginning, when there were worlds but little life, Juno had a child. She named her child Kur, and he grew up inside her world’s storm. We know it as the storm of Jupiter. Once grown he spent most of his time in the north, where we now see perpetual lightning storms flashing there. At some point he left Juno and lived on Io for a long time, looking out into the galaxy and the universe. He spoke to those of the spiritual realms and became educated in magic, spirit, life and being.
“A comet or something like one came into the planet’s orbits. Kur watched it, and saw it strike the planet we call Mars. The comet blew out the core of Mars. Its atmosphere was blown out into space. Without its core to spin, she had little protection from the sun.
“Kur left Io to look at Mars closer, and to examine what had occurred. While he was there he heard another, crying. This was Gaia, our Earth Mother. Gaia was young then and Kur learned from her that Mars was her sister. Kur told her that Mars would heal, and perhaps someday give birth to life, as Gaia had already done, but Gaia continued to weep for her sister.
“Kur fell in love with Gaia and moved Jupiter in its orbit so it would protect the inner planets. Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune were large enough that such a hit would do little to them. Certainly, Juno was strong enough to shrug off such an attack. Kur told Gaia, he would protect her, and her sisters Mars and Venus. He also told her he loved her.
“She invited him, but when he tried to come to her, he found he was too large, his power too great. He would break her if he came into the physical world with her.”
Inanna paused, and drank her wine. Then said, “Bring me that vase.”
She pointed to the vase I put the cake in, and I brought it to her.
She unscrewed the bottom, giving me a mischievous smile. Then she tumbled out the sections I had cut to put inside. I didn’t really notice at the time, but there were five of them.
“Chose the best one,” she told me.
I looked them over and said, “They are all the same.”
“Are they?”
“Yes, all exactly the same size and from the same cake,” I defended.
Inanna looked them over, and then said, “If I give one to each of the boys will they still be the same?”
I didn’t waste time on this one, “Yes, still the same.”
“And yet, once I pass them out, if I take Kane’s and give it to Ore, switching them, is Kane going to sit still for that? Or Ore?”
My practical mind kicked in. Logically, it shouldn’t matter to them. But babies still puked on shoulders and needed diaper changes. “No. It might be subtle but they would both be upset.”
“Because I took their piece of cake away,” she pressed.
“Yes,” I agreed.
“To solve his problem and allow himself to be with Gaia in the physical world, Kur broke himself into five pieces,” she explained.
“You’re shitting me,” I said, stunned. “The brothers are all pieces of Kur?”
She put one of the pieces on her plate. “Yes. I don’t know if Kur meant for this to happen, but it seems that the brothers can’t know this. If you tell them, they will understand and be amazed for a time, but then they will forget their origin. Or they may just laugh at you. However, they are the surrogate Kur, as we Inanna’s are the surrogate Gaia.”
“And each of them are different,” I mused.
“Different aspects of Kur,” she noted. “Yet all of them the same.”
“They are different in personality as well. Each of them their own person,” I continued.
“It has come apparent to me, that individuality grows rapidly as soon as it is sparked,” she noted.
“So, any minor difference or proclaimed difference by another, spirals into a personality, and a physical shape. Even one as subtle as the cake pieces,” I said.
“That’s been my experience, yes,” she agreed.
I only had a single question at this point. “How did they like it when Inanna chose all five of them?”
She worked on her next arrangement for a time, choosing her words. “The first thing you need to realize is that they are men. Despite their origin, they are all men in their human shift and men of great power. Like most men of power, what they want is more power. Kur is a powerful being, and territorial in the extreme. He is jealous, and obstinate. This is his core nature, and so his parts are the same — though he has mellowed over the centuries, a bit. However, this nature is not as dominate in him as his desire for power. So, his parts are also driven by this desire.
“The Inanna is a source of power for them. You are a conduit to the power of Gaia, and being with you, connected to you, allows them access to this power. The Goddess Inanna did not have this desire, but she understood and recognized it — mainly as a way of controlling men. She knew this desire would overrule all of their jealousy and territorial feelings. She offered each of them this connection, or none of them. Given that choice, their desire for power overruled everything else. This is not to say it was smooth sailing or that jealousy didn’t rise between them during that time or that they didn’t have rough areas to deal with. Their egos were bruised with the reverse-harem situation they found themselves in.
“What they failed to note or see was that Inanna’s powers grew as well, five times greater. Her bond-mage connection between each of them, let her know when things were reaching a boiling point, and through that connection she could sooth them and nourish them, calming them down or redirecting their focus, or depleting their rage.”
She took a bite of the piece of cake she had taken. “So, you can expect a bit of shock, but acceptance if you present it right. The Goddess had already had each of them by that time, and had made the choice between them many times. Her approach was to explain her desire for Sumer, and the need for them all to be influential and strong — or for none of them to be, so they wouldn’t be in her way. Given the choice in that manner, it was fairly easy to predict the outcome.”
Presentation was everything. Hell, that was true no matter what you were doing. Didn’t need a goddess to tell a woman that one. But it helped. Affirmation was good too.
For the first time since my arrival I felt able to cope. I might fail, and hell I could die; burned to cinders by a dragon’s rage. But that didn’t matter to me. Failure didn’t scare me. Helplessness did. What mattered was I had a choice, and a way to cope. Where before I was floundering in stormy waters, I could now touch the bottom and had a shore to walk toward. This didn’t mean the waves weren’t crashing or that lightning didn’t scorch the sky. It just meant I had a way.
Inanna ate her cake, and I put my thoughts in order. When she was done, she asked, “Ready?”
“Yes,” I told her.
“Good, let’s get them back in here,” she said, and gave my hand a squeeze. “I knew you were special. All this time.”