In Eridu Part 2
Title: In Eridu
Full warnings, summary and notes at Part 1.
1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6a. | 6b. | 7a. | 7b.
.In Eridu.
2.
The moment Enlil announced he'd found something- a summoning spell hidden, obscurely coded on one of the oldest tablets in the libraries of Nippur- Enki had known it wasn't going to end well. The priests had sliced up the entrails of a goat, burnt and mixed with foul smelling spices, and declared that this was the only way.
For a long time Enki had suspected that the priests’ omens were bullshit, and from the worried looks on their faces Enki guessed they were just as scared and clueless as everybody else about what was happening around them. Enlil's spell was the first solid idea anyone had come up with. It was hope, and the priests clung to it like it was a certainty.
Five days later in the halls of the Temple of the Earth at Girsu, the priests there slaughtered another goat, ripped out its insides and came to the same conclusion; this spell could save them. Enlil bought it all, and looked at the stars with the astronomers and spoke with the oracles and Enki took to pointedly not following him around. His brother knew his stuff, sure, but the priests had taken to looking at Enki like he was one of the idols they worshipped. It was creepy and disconcerting and at the first sign of Enlil being finished with whatever the hell he was doing Enki packed them up as fast as he could and demanded they leave. He wanted out of the oppressive smell of incense and oils and the priests' watchful gazes. Enki didn't know how Enlil could stand it, had never really understood it, but his brother had always seemed to somehow fit in to life at the temples in ways that made Enki think his brother should've maybe become a priest. It would certainly have been a better life than what they had. It had to be the libraries, Enki guessed. Enlil had always preferred to hang out among rows and rows of dusty tablets rather than on the road. He'd always been good at learning, and was as comfortable walking the steps and the palisades of the Great Houses as he was wielding a knife against a demon. It wasn’t a surprise to Enki, then, when Enlil protested the hurrying, didn't want to leave without reading more and something else and some other crap, but as far as Enki was concerned they'd learned all they could. It was time to move on.
"I don’t know what your problem is," Enki said as Enlil dragged his heels and sulked like a child. "There are more things to read in Eridu." They passed through the city gates, guarded on either side by the great guardians, venerated and adored, but to Enki little more than a waste of expensive stone and hours of labour. The spells chiselled into their sculptured lion bodies and the bones buried beneath the gate posts did more to protect the city than any fine carving.
Enlil still looked back longingly.
"You're the one who said we were running out of time," Enki reminded him.
Two days south the rains began to fall.
Up to that point it had been nothing more than heavy grey clouds in what should have been a clear sky but this turned to light rainfall, more welcome than ominous along the hot, dry roads. It was spring, the first month, out of season, sure, but not unheard of.
Except that it didn't stop, and the spring heat didn't chase away the clouds. Instead, the rain fell harder with every hour, turning the parched ground to thick, sticky mud.
Along the road there was no shelter, and nothing Enki and Enlil could do but keep right on walking, miserable and cold, the route increasingly difficult to follow as the rut created by hundreds and hundreds of footsteps was washed away, indistinguishable. The air smelled wrong, heavy with something Enki couldn't make out. Enki had hunted for as long as he could remember and trusted his instincts with his life- with his brother's life- but this was something different. Something bigger. If there was one thing that Enki understood it was that this rainfall wasn't natural.
Every hut and house and farm they passed had earth freshly dug beside the doorways, roughly-hewn lions and spirits carved into walls, and red stains where blood had been freshly spilled across boundaries; the most basic protections from evil spirits and monsters. It was like everyone knew that everything was going to shit. They met no one on a road that should have been walked by traders and travellers and nomads. Not many would tempt fate, or whatever, out in this rain, and Enki couldn't blame them. Things hadn't been right for a long time, months of omens and weirdness building up to this.
They had seen spirits that should have gone on peacefully to wherever the dead went turned into vengeful, spiteful Edimmu in the Foothills. They'd seen families torn to pieces, ripped apart with a ruthlessness and cruelty Enki had never witnessed in all his years of hunting. It had been a desperate fight to exorcise them, salting and burning the bones of pretty much every corpse they could dig up because there were so many of the damn things, no time to find the right graves, and none of it made any sense.
There were Udug in the villages of the East, sly bastard demons with black eyes and a taste for malevolence. The land was soft and dark there and people were so well fed they could waste the surplus on making copious, pointless offerings to their gods. Enki and Enlil hadn't often found work with the farmers of those lands. It wasn't like there was much interesting to fuck up, or possess or whatever. But there was disease, and murder, and a child possessed who burned down the reed houses of the fisherman and all their stores. Enough that it would make for a hard, maybe fatal, winter.
There, the exorcism had been long, and Enki didn't think he'd ever poured so much salt and holy water in his life.
He should've seen it coming, should've expected that sooner or later they'd come up against something strong, something out of place, again. And four days out of Girsu, along the banks of the Western river, a Rabisu set upon them, out of nowhere, not long past noon.
For a creature that was supposed to hate the daylight, that as far as Enki knew had always lurked in the shadows and darkness, the thing sure didn’t seem bothered by being out in the open. Enki didn't get the chance to berate himself for his lack of attention, nor time to wonder where the hell the thing had been hiding, before it's ugly-ass face was right up in front of him, trying to claw his eyes out. There wasn't time to even pull out his knife before he was being pushed back, mauled, so all Enki could do was kick out, trying to back away, hoping that Enlil was going to help him pretty damn soon.
The Rabisu was doing one hell of a lot better on the waterlogged, muddy ground than Enki. Its long, ugly clawed feet were digging into the earth while Enki slipped and fell hard on his back as he tried to twist away from the thing’s sharp, poisoned teeth.
It was on him before Enki could draw another breath, sinking fangs as sharp and thin as needles into his shoulder and fuck it burned.
He heard himself swear, and he cursed the gods and the guardian spirits Enlil believed watched over them because his arm was trapped behind his back where he'd fallen and he couldn't get to a single weapon. With his free hand Enki tried punching the thing's face. It hurt like hell, skin tough as leather, red and peeling like the skin off roasted meat, but it howled and rolled away. This close Enki could smell the sulphur, its putrid breath, and he turned away, gagging and clawing at the ground to put some distance between them.
His shoulder felt like it was on fire and not even the steady, cool rain falling on his skin made it any better. It was distracting though; something else to concentrate on, and after a time Enki could move again without wanting to fucking die. And Enki knew he had to get up. He could hear Enlil calling to him from somewhere close, or maybe far. It was hard to tell. Enki was still breathing though, so his brother had to be fighting the Rabisu now, and Enki had to help.
All his life he'd protected Enlil- kept him safe, that'd always been his job- and Enki wasn't about to stop now.
Moving hurt like a bitch but Enki had had worse, much worse, so he gritted his teeth and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. His fingers slipped in the mud and he had to shake his head to get the rain out of his eyes.
Standing carefully, because his balance wasn't quite right, Enki took in how far he'd been thrown, how close to the river's edge he'd ended up. The water flowed so fast it had turned almost to rapids and Enki had never seen anything like it except high, high up in the mountains. On any other day Enki would expect to see boats sailing up and down the river, big and small, fishermen, life, but there was none.
That was all shit to worry about later. Enki turned, looking for his brother and the creature, and seeing them up the bank- and fuck knew how they'd gotten all the way up there- he dug his toes into the ground and scrambled towards them.
Enlil was holding the creature off with their last skin of holy water and his knife, the flint already blunted by the monster's thick hide. Enki could hear the dull thud of the blade edge against hard skin. He was upright though, and Enki couldn't see any blood or gaping wounds so it wasn't even close to the worst situation they'd ever found themselves in. Except the Rabisu wasn't tiring out and it wasn't shying away from the holy water as much as it should have, and its jaws snapped and spat like the thing was crazed.
The hot ache in Enki's shoulder promised to be one bitch of a problem later but there was no time to worry about it when Enlil was red-faced, covered in streaks of mud, and fighting off something Enki had once seen ripping the throat out of a lion. Feeling for the knife in his belt, gratefully finding it still there and not lost somewhere in the dirt, Enki drew the weapon and cautiously approached the fight, trying for surprise.
Even though Enlil hadn't made any move to acknowledge him, Enki knew Enlil was aware of what he was doing. To keep the creature's attention Enlil picked fights, drawing it around to face away from Enki's approach. His brother got in a lucky cut across its face and in response the Rabisu screeched in pain redoubled its angry attacks, hissing and spitting when Enlil threw holy water at its chest and into its eyes.
Gripping the bone handle of his knife, Enki gauged the distance, the ground under his feet, the way Enlil dodged clawed fingers to the left, to the left again, before he launched himself at the creature's back. He put his whole body into pushing the knife straight up to the hilt into the creature's bared back.
Its scream was so loud that Enki's ears ached, made his fucking teeth hurt. It lashed out blindly at him and Enki was forced to stumble back, away from the sharp claws, wincing as the movement pulled at his shoulder. Enlil took the opportunity to slam his own blade into the underside of the creature's jaw, and Enki could see its thick, black blood dripping down Enlil's knife and onto his hand.
"Enlil," he called urgently. "Let go of the freaking knife!" Because Rabisu blood burned away at skin and flesh and that was not happening to his brother.
For once, Enlil did as he was told and withdrew, and Enki ran to his side, shoving his hand into the wet ground, washing off the blood with thick mud and puddles of dirty rainwater.
"I'm fine" Enlil insisted irritably, trying to take his hand back. He lifted his chin towards the creature. "Finish that thing."
The Rabisu was writhing around in agony on its knees, head to the ground. Not dead yet, but dying.
There was none of its polluting black blood on Enlil's hand and his brother didn't look like he was in pain at all so Enki let him go.
Injured, the demon was more dangerous than ever and Enki moved closer carefully, knife outstretched in his hand. He wished he had arrows, but they'd lost those at some oasis weeks back fighting a Gidim and they'd had nothing to trade for replacements. He wished he had salt, but the last of that had been used on a Lamashtu hiding itself in the narrow streets of Uruk. All this work, Enki thought, and they had nothing to show for it except a shit-load of scars and a mostly dead family.
Sometimes he wondered why he did this. The monsters never stopped coming. As far as Enki could tell they had always been there and always would be. They were always stronger, faster, more ruthless than any human hunter could be. They knew every trick, learned to overcome every ward making it a constant battle to reinvent magic, remake traps, forge ever stronger weapons so that every single victory was a triumph. It was all Enki had ever known. This had been his life since he was a kid and now Enki couldn't imagine doing anything else; he wouldn't know how.
Hunters like them were always outsiders, pretty much unwelcome wherever they went unless there was something for them to kill. They were seen as harbingers even though they were always the ones left to deal with the monsters other people wouldn't even dare to get close to. Hunters, Enki guessed, represented all the things normal people feared. All that evil and all that was unnatural and different and wrong that normal people had no control over. Worse, hunters were almost always travellers and strangers, never stopping in one place too long, relying on the kindness and gratitude of others for food and shelter. They didn't always receive it. They weren't priests and they weren't soldiers and they weren't farmers. They certainly weren't kings. They had no place in anything normal, to most people almost as bad as the monsters themselves. More often than not they were feared, and that was how it had pretty much always been for Enki and Enlil. Dad had always said it would be this way.
Despite the suspicion and the distrust and the hostility, they did good. Who knew how many humans this thing had killed? There was something deeply satisfying in making sure it wouldn't be around to hurt anyone else ever again, the same way other monsters, other unnatural things had destroyed his own family. He wouldn't wish that on anyone. Sometimes, that was enough.
It made it simpler, too, that this asshole of a demon had bitten a chunk out of his shoulder, and spilled poisoned blood all over his little brother, and Enki was soaking wet and cold and in pain and tired. He was really tired of not knowing what the fuck was going on with the world. Taking all his anger and frustration, it was almost easy to slash and stab, driving away the creature's sharp nails, opening cuts along its arms even through its tough skin. Enki was sure the edge of his knife had long since become blunt, so he drove harder and deeper, scouring across the creature's back as it tried to twist away from him. It was one hell of a lot slower now, weakened and in pain, lashing out mindlessly most of the time. Enki hoped the thing wished it had never attacked them. Enki would make it wish it never had.
Thick, black blood stained the ground, mixing with the rain, spreading out in long streaks of poisoned water and Enki had to watch his step, trying to keep his bare feet out of its reach. This place, this ground, Enki thought, would become cursed. They had no more holy water to purify the soil. They had no images to bury.
Then, Enki heard Enlil call out, "Stop torturing it and kill it!" and all Enki could think was that the fucker deserved it.
But they had things to do, places to be, more important than some lay-demon on the road in the middle of nowhere.
The Rabisu, blinded by agony and a couple cuts to the eyes, was easy prey. It wasn't hard to get past its claws and drive a knife up into its heart. It screamed again, so Enki slit its throat, slowly, feeling it die under his hands, twisting the flint knife that Enlil had left lodged in its jaw.
Its cry cut off suddenly and the creature's body crumpled to the ground. Finally unmoving. Enki let the rain wash the black blood from his knife, passed Enlil's back to him when his brother came to stand beside him.
Looking down at the dead demon, Enlil said, "That was messed up."
Enki didn't deny it.
Maybe people had good reason to fear them after all.
***
In Eridu, Enki took one look at the knife, the expression on Enlil's face, the size of the bowl he held out and said, "This is so not a good idea."
He still felt crappy from the Rabisu bite, his shoulder not healed and not healing no matter how many times the priests had washed and purified and wafted vile-smelling incense at the teeth marks. Like that would help. Enki'd told them a hundred times to give up calling on their gods. No one was listening. And if they were, they were probably laughing it up because in those last two days of the journey to the city Enki had seen more devastation and destruction than he'd seen in his entire life. And he'd seen some fucked up things.
The rivers were flooding. Fields and irrigation ditches and the flimsy reed homes of farmers and fisherman washed away. Crops had drowned and the people they'd passed had been hungry and panicked. In their desperation they prayed and begged and offered up more than they had. The priests were doing a roaring trade, hidden in their high, stone temples as the rain poured day and night, fat on the offerings.
Enki wondered if they actually believed any of the crap they spewed.
"What?" Enki snapped, eyeing the ritual knife, the sharpness of its blade, the way it was pointed at his hands, warily. "I haven't bled enough lately?" He knew how these fucking rituals always went.
Predictably, Enlil shushed him, apologising to the priests within earshot. It was at least some consolation that they looked about as happy about this as Enki did. The presence of hunters was, after all, polluting, and this was their most holy, most sacred of temples. The walls, painted in blues and yellows, depicted gods Enki couldn't believe in but still somehow managed to hate. In the outside world, beyond these carved stones and flickering oil lamps, every day there were more stories of demons and monsters roaming and killing and being places they shouldn't. Enki wanted to be out there fighting them. Hunting, exorcising, killing the assholes, that was what he knew how to do, not this magic crap.
Enki was no idiot though. He knew there were too many. Picking off one demon at a time wouldn't do anything to stop whatever was causing the rain and the unprecedented influx of monsters.
This ritual, the priests said, more importantly Enlil said, was the only way. Never had this been done before, the head priest told them. Never had anyone dared to anger the gods this way. Even the most powerful priest in the city, who commanded hundreds and never went hungry or knew discomfort, had red, tired eyes. His voice was hoarse from prayers and pleas, his white robes damp and more messed up than Enki had ever seen on a wealthy man before. He wondered uncharitably if his washerwoman was dead.
Despite all the assurances, the acolytes' certainty that this ritual would work because the omens had revealed it to be the truth, the half-burnt guts of an ox had decreed it, Enki wasn't convinced. It was one thing to summon a ghost, but a whole other game to summon a god. Or spirit. Or whatever was causing the rains. This was something exponentially more powerful than anything they'd ever fought before, and Enlil had insisted on minimal weapons. That would have bothered Enki more except they had no idea what would be effective against whatever it was anyway.
Even so, the priests meant to beg for mercy. Enki meant to kill the fucker.
In front of him Enlil nodded towards Enki's arm. "It has to be with this knife," he said. It was a beautiful weapon, inlaid with gold and so many precious stones that Enki's fingers itched to pocket them. Just one could keep them both fed for a month.
The priests' eyes watched them too closely, though, and all the riches in the world wouldn't matter if they were all dead.
Enki offered up his arm, let his brother cut deep. He watched as his blood flowed from his arm, streaming across his skin in trails of bright red, dripping into the bowl. Looking up, Enki met Enlil's apologetic eyes. Whatever. They'd hurt each other much worse than this before. It was a shitty thing to think, but it was the truth and Enki wasn't surprised when Enlil lowered his head like he'd understood exactly what Enki was thinking about; betrayal by his own brother. Sometimes Enki wondered if they would ever get over this. If they'd ever be able to trust each other the way they once had.
But now was not the time for any of their shit. Enki reached out with his uninjured arm and gripped at Enlil's wrist, because they needed to stick together on this one. He leaned forward, spoke in a low voice, "If this thing doesn't agree, Enlil, we make it agree."
Enlil frowned, looked around them at the chanting priests, at the painted and carved walls of the temple, at the floor covered in spells, painted in lines of blood and frankincense. For a moment Enki though he was going to argue, but his expression was clear when he looked back. He nodded, certain and determined. No matter how much he might respect the gods, supposedly protective guardians to be loved and worshipped, if this thing turned out to be one of them it still had to be stopped.
It was unlikely any of their weapons would work on something so powerful, and Enki was pretty sure he'd never come up against something that could cause such widespread chaos before. It wouldn't be the first time the brothers had taken on a creature which should have been far beyond a man to defeat. The head priest, with shaking hands and a sickly look as though the gods were going to strike him down just for thinking it, had seemed sure the spell would weaken this thing, so maybe they had a chance. Even if it was only a small chance, Enki would take it.
The room was heavy with expensive incense and the acrid, unpleasant smell of burnt animal flesh and it was kind of hard to breathe. Enki's head felt weirdly light, dizzy, and he guessed that was because half his blood was currently filling the golden-coloured bowl Enlil was holding. He drew the bowl away and Enki clamped a hand over the wound, watching carefully as his brother carried the bowl over to the far corner of the room. A priest in fine, white linen crumbled something that looked like bark into the blood, and some other powders, water maybe, or oil, or both, all the time speaking in a low voice over the bowl, and even through the haze of the room Enki was sure he could see the mixture boiling and steaming.
The priest announced, "We begin," handing the bowl back and directing Enlil to stand beside Enki in the middle of the room and the carefully drawn summoning spells under their feet. Enki spared a doubtful look at Enlil, feeling a lot like a lamb going to slaughter.
He'd been told what he was supposed to do, but he still felt like an ass doing it. Since he'd first seen what magic could do, Enki had hated it. In his long experience nothing good ever came of it, and every time he felt the power of sorcery, the chanted cadence of a spell, the taste of potions, it made his skin crawl. Enki could already smell the stench of the unnatural, words he didn't know but could understand anyway ringing in his ears. Enlil held out the bowl to him and with Enki reluctantly took it, the stone sides warm. Slowly, Enki kneeled down, his knee clicking as he bent and Enki thought, I'm getting old. For a hunter anyway. People like him and Enlil didn't generally have long lives. Their dad had been an exception, until a demon had taken him too. So, maybe not such an exception after all, but he had lasted longer than most; long enough to see his children grown to adulthood and his hair to begin turning grey. An early death was the almost certain reward for all those who made it their life's work to fight against creatures a hundred or a thousand times more powerful than the quickest, cleverest, strongest of humans.
This was just another murdering bastard to kill, Enki told himself, and wouldn't let himself feel afraid as he dipped fingers into the bowl. He'd expected the blood to be hot where it was steaming but it was cool, almost cold, and he shivered.
Enki concentrated on remembering the words of the summoning instead, reciting the phrases he'd practiced with Enlil for days on end, careful to pronounce every sound, smearing the shape of a wide circle on the floor in front of him, grit scraping against his fingertips. He drew a line, cutting the circle in half and timed the words to his movements as he'd been taught. More blood on his fingers, then Enki formed the shape of letters in a language the priests said was more ancient than the Earth itself. The blood, the stone, his whole arm grew hot as he drew the foreign symbols, sharp edges, curves the shape of leaves. There was power in these words, or whatever they were, and Enki could feel it doing something.
As he spoke he came to realise that he couldn't hear anything else around him now except the sound of the heavy rain outside, running down the walls, dripping from the doorway, rolling away down the steps to the temple. It was so loud that he thought he could hear every drop of water, every time it hit stone or soil. It was almost like the priests around him- even Enlil- had stopped making any noise at all, not breathing or shifting or anything. All he saw were the shapes under his hands, two more lines, another curve. This was his blood, and to it Enki was binding something that could tear him to pieces, he could feel the tug of it, the way his whole body felt tied to the curves and lines on the ground. It was awesome power, but it was one he really didn't want. He'd asked a thousand times or more why it couldn't be Enlil who had to do this; why it had to be him. Enki was a hunter, nothing more. All the crap he'd done and all the things he didn't believe in made the priests' purifications seem like a joke. There was no cleaning his soul. He knew that there would be no resurrection for him when his life came to an end. Enki was under no illusions that there would be any comfortable afterlife for him, no matter how many lives he saved.
Enki spoke, and found he didn't have to think to speak the words and this too was probably magic bullshit. There was no doubt whatever he was doing was working; there was a sensation like rope tightening around his neck, his wrists, his ankles, with every breath, until he had no more breath left, and the circle was complete and the words were all said.
There was silence then, no movement. Sound returned, the world of the temple and the cold stone and his aching knees coming back into focus as though Enki had been in some kind of trance. Enlil was hovering close by.
Enki blinked, looked down at his hands, palms spread wide against the edges of the pattern of blood. He couldn't remember doing that, pressing his hands to the symbols. He didn't remember being told to do that. The spell should have worked, he thought. It felt like it had worked but when Enki looked up there was the same haze of incense, nervous priests looking at each other, at the circle of blood, at him and nothing had changed. Nothing had appeared. With a certainty that Enki didn't understand he knew it had worked.
Beside him, Enlil was frowning down at Enki, looking uncertain like he didn't know if the ritual was over or if there was something he was supposed to do.
Then, from behind them the voice of one of the novice priests broke the silence. It was different though, voice deeper, rough as sand over stone, and he demanded, "Who has summoned me here?"
It was on instinct that Enki rose to his feet, ignoring the pull of strained muscles, and pulled his knife from its sheath, turning to face this unknown thing. No longer the priest, its eyes were too bright, too old, too cold to be anything other than a supernatural being. Enki could feel the power of it, and the pull of it.
Enlil moved to stand closer. He hadn't drawn his weapon and Enki would get on his back about that later, but his stance told Enki he was at least cautious, ready to fight back if he needed to.
They'd both seen possession before and it looked a whole lot like this, even if the head priests and the librarians at Nippur and Girsu had been certain that no demon could control the rains. But if this thing was a demon there would be no begging it for mercy, or whatever it was the priests meant to do. No demon Enki had ever met gave a fuck about humans.
There was something though, some familiarity or instinct that Enki had gained from all those times battling demons, something that told Enki this creature wasn't something he'd ever come across before. It was freaky, too, the way it stared right at him. It didn't even blink. Worse, Enki couldn't bring himself to look away and Enki wondered if the creature was using some spell on him. From the way the creature looked at him, into him, Enki had the impression it was reading his thoughts. Judging him.
Enki filled his mind with all the times he'd defeated monsters and demons, and thought, I'll do that to you, asshole.
The priest who wasn't the priest anymore titled its head to the side and narrowed its eyes and Enki knew the fucker had heard him. Enki's first instinct, what he itched to do, was to run the thing through with his knife, newly sharpened and a welcome weight in his hand, and worry about the rest later. They needed information, though. They needed to know how to stop this, and Enki didn't think it would be so easy as to kill the creature and the world would right itself. Nothing was ever that easy.
There was a tense silence like they were all waiting for the creature to attack, or speak, or do something. The way it stood, inhumanly still, unafraid and patient, Enki got the feeling the creature could outwait them all and then some.
"What are you?" he asked, because they'd never get anywhere if they all just continued to stand around staring at each other. Not even sure why he did it, Enki took a step forwards, his knife gripped tight and pointed towards the creature's stomach. The thing didn't move, nor look at all concerned, not taking its eyes from Enki's for even the shortest time. Enki didn't think it was breathing. The cloying smell of incense and blood made Enki wish he didn't have to either.
He was actually kind of surprised when the thing didn't laugh at him or growl or spit like most supernatural bastards he'd ever met- and killed- but instead replied evenly, "I am an angel of the Lord."
The words meant nothing to Enki. In all his years of hunting, an angel wasn't something he'd ever heard of but Enki could see Enlil out the corner of his eye looking taken aback, like he hadn't expected that answer. At least he recognised whatever it was they were dealing with.
"A guardian," Enlil said. "You're supposed to be guardians."
The creature spared a glance at Enlil, but kept right on staring at Enki when it said dismissively, "That is a human misconception."
"But you're not evil," Enlil persisted. "Why would you bring the rain? Why would you bring demons."
At that the thing turned its gaze fully on Enlil, frowning and somehow managing to look pissed without changing its facial expression at all. As freaky as having this unknown creature staring at him was, Enki liked it a whole lot better than seeing that creepy attention turned on his little brother.
"I did not bring demons." It pretty much spat in disgust. Weird, Enki thought, that it would deny this so vehemently. It had not, Enki noticed, denied bringing the rain.
"Whatever it is you're doing," Enlil shook his head, "there are more demons now then I've ever seen."
Enki kind of wished his brother would shut up because who the hell knew what this creature was capable of. He knew though that they needed to keep the creature talking. This was their chance and they had to find out what the fuck it had done. Enlil had called this thing a guardian, which made no sense at all.
"We're hunters," Enki added, "We should know."
Grey, inhuman eyes turned back to Enki and it was almost a relief.
"This I didn't intend."
Enki scoffed, incredulous. "Then what, exactly, did you intend?"
"To follow my orders," it replied simply, like that answered everything.
"What orders?" Enki demanded. He knew nothing about the hierarchy of supernatural beings and cared even less. Finally the creature, the angel, looked away, turning its head upwards towards the ceiling as though seeing beyond, listening to something they couldn't hear. Maybe it was.
When it lowered its head again, Enki remembered the young, unlined face of the priest and found nothing of him in the face looking at him now. Everything about it was so obviously something else, something other, that Enki wanted to demand to know what had happened to the kid being possessed. In all his time, Enki had never seen anyone come back from being possessed either alive or sane.
"That is no concern of yours," it said.
"I think it fucking is." Again, Enki didn't know why he did it, because no way was he even remotely going to intimidate this thing, but Enki took a step closer again, lowering his voice. "It's my concern when you're fucking with my world."
For a long time Enki didn't think the creature was going to answer him, its eyes reading him, searching him, looking for something, but it surprised Enki again by agreeing, "Perhaps it does. I will seek revelation." With a rush of sound like beaten cloth and a cool wind he was gone.
The door was still shut fast, the high windows in the walls too small for anyone to escape through, and impossible so quickly. Enki spun around to face the remaining priests, pressed cowering with their backs to the wall, on their knees. "You said it couldn't leave," he accused.
The priests' faces were pale with terror and confusion and Enki was about to lay into them because he had not just given up a shit ton of his blood and resisted every instinct to salt and burn that thing to come out of it all with nothing. But then there was that same weird sound that had signalled the angel's departure. The lamps flickered around them frantically and suddenly the missing priest was in front of Enki again exactly where it had been before it had disappeared.
This time though it fell to one knee with a pained sound and for a moment Enki thought maybe the priest had been returned. Then their eyes met and Enki knew it was still the creature, its distant, old eyes full of rage. Rage, and Enki saw pain there too.
"What have you done?" it demanded. It was breathing now, laboured breaths like it had just run a long distance. It had its arms wrapped around it stomach. "What have you done?" it demanded again, and this time its voice made Enki's ears ache, the sound sharp and piercing like fury turned to sound.
"The spell," Enki guessed. "It binds you to me-"
"Undo it," the creature cut in. The sight of something so powerful brought down to earth like this gave Enki a weird sense of satisfaction. Now maybe they could get somewhere.
"Hey, it wasn't my idea. I have no idea how to undo it. You kind of left us with no choice."
"Choice? Neither of us has a choice. You will release me, human." It rose to its feet, wincing and trying to hide it.
"I told you I can't," Enki said. He hadn't even considered that he would ever need to break this spell. He'd imagined the creature wouldn't need to be released from a binding spell when it was dead.
Beneath his feet Enki felt stone tremble, the lamps flickering wildly. The shadows sprawling across the carved walls shifted and warped until Enki could make out the image of wings; huge, craning wings and Enki had never seen anything like it in his life. It would have been a lie to say he wasn't kind of awed, because it wasn't just that Enki could see them stretching, blotting out the colours of the wall paintings of gods and trees and worshipping priests, but he could feel them too, filling the room. And now he understood exactly what this creature was. He'd seen their images often enough carved into city gates and walls, painted on the sides of homes, their shapes crafted into idols and protective amulets and Enlil was right, they were supposed to be guardians. They were supposed to protect people. Even if he hadn't ever believed they were real, not really, to find out now that these guardian spirits existed but were actually murdering assholes was just confirmation of everything he had ever believed. Or not believed. That there was nothing out there in the world, or beyond, looking out for any of them. That there was nothing good in the supernatural.
In a thunderous voice the guardian spirit ordered, "Release me."
Enki's ears ached and his eyes watered but he stood firm, found himself back in a staring match with eyes that didn't belong in such a young priest's body. "Bitching about it won't change the fact that I fucking don't know how."
The creature's eyes were filled with wrath and burned with anger and Enki thought, well at least the bastard could feel. He didn't seem so distant now.
Beside him, Enlil tried to sound conciliatory, saying, "Look, how about we all just calm down." He laid his hand on Enki's sword-arm. "Put the knife down, Enki." Enki took a moment out of his glaring to shoot Enlil an incredulous look.
"Seriously, Enlil?"
"Yes," Enlil hissed, "I have an idea, okay?"
It went against his instincts, but regardless of everything that had happened between them Enki did still trust his brother when it came down to it, and Enki sure as hell couldn't think of anything else that might get this creature to talk. To stop. Short of trying to cut its head off, and that seemed unlikely with the temple shaking beneath them and its voice alone capable of making their ears bleed. He could feel the warm wetness beneath his ears, could see red lines trailing down Enlil's neck. This, Enki thought, had better be a fucking awesome plan.
Not taking his eyes off the creature, Enki lowered his knife, and Enlil nodded and smiled tightly.
Turning to the creature, Enlil pleaded, "We'll make a deal with you."
Enki saw immediately that this was the wrong thing to say because the ground beneath them shook with new and more determined strength, the stone above them shaking loose dust, grinding together so loudly Enki was sure they were all going to be crushed to death.
"I am not a demon," it growled, and even if Enki believed nothing else he believed that much. "I don't make deals." It spat the last word like it was something distasteful and Enki really hoped Enlil knew what the hell he was doing. No one knew the limits of this binding spell; how much or how little this supernatural creature could do to the one he was bound to- in this case Enki, and fuck did he regret agreeing to this magic crap- or to anyone else around him. Behind him Enki could hear the other priests praying for forgiveness, for mercy. Enki was pretty sure this creature didn't have any.
"No," Enlil tried. "No, I didn't mean a deal like that." He held his hands out, palms up, as though he were praying. "We just want to know why you're doing this. We want to know what we can do to stop it, to save the people out there who are going to die because of what you're doing. You can't expect us to just sit back and let it happen."
The room fell into a tense silence and Enki watched as the creature seemed to consider Enlil's words. It was with immense relief that the ground beneath them calmed and the dark shadows of the room receded, the pain in his ears gone and Enki could breathe again.
Enlil, Enki thought in awe, had somehow got through to this thing. It looked thoughtful, frowning as though undecided.
"These are my orders," it said.
"Orders from who?" Enlil pressed.
"Heaven," came the answer, and Enki thought, if that was true then they really were all fucked.
<<1. | 3.>>
Full warnings, summary and notes at Part 1.
1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6a. | 6b. | 7a. | 7b.
.In Eridu.
2.
The moment Enlil announced he'd found something- a summoning spell hidden, obscurely coded on one of the oldest tablets in the libraries of Nippur- Enki had known it wasn't going to end well. The priests had sliced up the entrails of a goat, burnt and mixed with foul smelling spices, and declared that this was the only way.
For a long time Enki had suspected that the priests’ omens were bullshit, and from the worried looks on their faces Enki guessed they were just as scared and clueless as everybody else about what was happening around them. Enlil's spell was the first solid idea anyone had come up with. It was hope, and the priests clung to it like it was a certainty.
Five days later in the halls of the Temple of the Earth at Girsu, the priests there slaughtered another goat, ripped out its insides and came to the same conclusion; this spell could save them. Enlil bought it all, and looked at the stars with the astronomers and spoke with the oracles and Enki took to pointedly not following him around. His brother knew his stuff, sure, but the priests had taken to looking at Enki like he was one of the idols they worshipped. It was creepy and disconcerting and at the first sign of Enlil being finished with whatever the hell he was doing Enki packed them up as fast as he could and demanded they leave. He wanted out of the oppressive smell of incense and oils and the priests' watchful gazes. Enki didn't know how Enlil could stand it, had never really understood it, but his brother had always seemed to somehow fit in to life at the temples in ways that made Enki think his brother should've maybe become a priest. It would certainly have been a better life than what they had. It had to be the libraries, Enki guessed. Enlil had always preferred to hang out among rows and rows of dusty tablets rather than on the road. He'd always been good at learning, and was as comfortable walking the steps and the palisades of the Great Houses as he was wielding a knife against a demon. It wasn’t a surprise to Enki, then, when Enlil protested the hurrying, didn't want to leave without reading more and something else and some other crap, but as far as Enki was concerned they'd learned all they could. It was time to move on.
"I don’t know what your problem is," Enki said as Enlil dragged his heels and sulked like a child. "There are more things to read in Eridu." They passed through the city gates, guarded on either side by the great guardians, venerated and adored, but to Enki little more than a waste of expensive stone and hours of labour. The spells chiselled into their sculptured lion bodies and the bones buried beneath the gate posts did more to protect the city than any fine carving.
Enlil still looked back longingly.
"You're the one who said we were running out of time," Enki reminded him.
Two days south the rains began to fall.
Up to that point it had been nothing more than heavy grey clouds in what should have been a clear sky but this turned to light rainfall, more welcome than ominous along the hot, dry roads. It was spring, the first month, out of season, sure, but not unheard of.
Except that it didn't stop, and the spring heat didn't chase away the clouds. Instead, the rain fell harder with every hour, turning the parched ground to thick, sticky mud.
Along the road there was no shelter, and nothing Enki and Enlil could do but keep right on walking, miserable and cold, the route increasingly difficult to follow as the rut created by hundreds and hundreds of footsteps was washed away, indistinguishable. The air smelled wrong, heavy with something Enki couldn't make out. Enki had hunted for as long as he could remember and trusted his instincts with his life- with his brother's life- but this was something different. Something bigger. If there was one thing that Enki understood it was that this rainfall wasn't natural.
Every hut and house and farm they passed had earth freshly dug beside the doorways, roughly-hewn lions and spirits carved into walls, and red stains where blood had been freshly spilled across boundaries; the most basic protections from evil spirits and monsters. It was like everyone knew that everything was going to shit. They met no one on a road that should have been walked by traders and travellers and nomads. Not many would tempt fate, or whatever, out in this rain, and Enki couldn't blame them. Things hadn't been right for a long time, months of omens and weirdness building up to this.
They had seen spirits that should have gone on peacefully to wherever the dead went turned into vengeful, spiteful Edimmu in the Foothills. They'd seen families torn to pieces, ripped apart with a ruthlessness and cruelty Enki had never witnessed in all his years of hunting. It had been a desperate fight to exorcise them, salting and burning the bones of pretty much every corpse they could dig up because there were so many of the damn things, no time to find the right graves, and none of it made any sense.
There were Udug in the villages of the East, sly bastard demons with black eyes and a taste for malevolence. The land was soft and dark there and people were so well fed they could waste the surplus on making copious, pointless offerings to their gods. Enki and Enlil hadn't often found work with the farmers of those lands. It wasn't like there was much interesting to fuck up, or possess or whatever. But there was disease, and murder, and a child possessed who burned down the reed houses of the fisherman and all their stores. Enough that it would make for a hard, maybe fatal, winter.
There, the exorcism had been long, and Enki didn't think he'd ever poured so much salt and holy water in his life.
He should've seen it coming, should've expected that sooner or later they'd come up against something strong, something out of place, again. And four days out of Girsu, along the banks of the Western river, a Rabisu set upon them, out of nowhere, not long past noon.
For a creature that was supposed to hate the daylight, that as far as Enki knew had always lurked in the shadows and darkness, the thing sure didn’t seem bothered by being out in the open. Enki didn't get the chance to berate himself for his lack of attention, nor time to wonder where the hell the thing had been hiding, before it's ugly-ass face was right up in front of him, trying to claw his eyes out. There wasn't time to even pull out his knife before he was being pushed back, mauled, so all Enki could do was kick out, trying to back away, hoping that Enlil was going to help him pretty damn soon.
The Rabisu was doing one hell of a lot better on the waterlogged, muddy ground than Enki. Its long, ugly clawed feet were digging into the earth while Enki slipped and fell hard on his back as he tried to twist away from the thing’s sharp, poisoned teeth.
It was on him before Enki could draw another breath, sinking fangs as sharp and thin as needles into his shoulder and fuck it burned.
He heard himself swear, and he cursed the gods and the guardian spirits Enlil believed watched over them because his arm was trapped behind his back where he'd fallen and he couldn't get to a single weapon. With his free hand Enki tried punching the thing's face. It hurt like hell, skin tough as leather, red and peeling like the skin off roasted meat, but it howled and rolled away. This close Enki could smell the sulphur, its putrid breath, and he turned away, gagging and clawing at the ground to put some distance between them.
His shoulder felt like it was on fire and not even the steady, cool rain falling on his skin made it any better. It was distracting though; something else to concentrate on, and after a time Enki could move again without wanting to fucking die. And Enki knew he had to get up. He could hear Enlil calling to him from somewhere close, or maybe far. It was hard to tell. Enki was still breathing though, so his brother had to be fighting the Rabisu now, and Enki had to help.
All his life he'd protected Enlil- kept him safe, that'd always been his job- and Enki wasn't about to stop now.
Moving hurt like a bitch but Enki had had worse, much worse, so he gritted his teeth and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. His fingers slipped in the mud and he had to shake his head to get the rain out of his eyes.
Standing carefully, because his balance wasn't quite right, Enki took in how far he'd been thrown, how close to the river's edge he'd ended up. The water flowed so fast it had turned almost to rapids and Enki had never seen anything like it except high, high up in the mountains. On any other day Enki would expect to see boats sailing up and down the river, big and small, fishermen, life, but there was none.
That was all shit to worry about later. Enki turned, looking for his brother and the creature, and seeing them up the bank- and fuck knew how they'd gotten all the way up there- he dug his toes into the ground and scrambled towards them.
Enlil was holding the creature off with their last skin of holy water and his knife, the flint already blunted by the monster's thick hide. Enki could hear the dull thud of the blade edge against hard skin. He was upright though, and Enki couldn't see any blood or gaping wounds so it wasn't even close to the worst situation they'd ever found themselves in. Except the Rabisu wasn't tiring out and it wasn't shying away from the holy water as much as it should have, and its jaws snapped and spat like the thing was crazed.
The hot ache in Enki's shoulder promised to be one bitch of a problem later but there was no time to worry about it when Enlil was red-faced, covered in streaks of mud, and fighting off something Enki had once seen ripping the throat out of a lion. Feeling for the knife in his belt, gratefully finding it still there and not lost somewhere in the dirt, Enki drew the weapon and cautiously approached the fight, trying for surprise.
Even though Enlil hadn't made any move to acknowledge him, Enki knew Enlil was aware of what he was doing. To keep the creature's attention Enlil picked fights, drawing it around to face away from Enki's approach. His brother got in a lucky cut across its face and in response the Rabisu screeched in pain redoubled its angry attacks, hissing and spitting when Enlil threw holy water at its chest and into its eyes.
Gripping the bone handle of his knife, Enki gauged the distance, the ground under his feet, the way Enlil dodged clawed fingers to the left, to the left again, before he launched himself at the creature's back. He put his whole body into pushing the knife straight up to the hilt into the creature's bared back.
Its scream was so loud that Enki's ears ached, made his fucking teeth hurt. It lashed out blindly at him and Enki was forced to stumble back, away from the sharp claws, wincing as the movement pulled at his shoulder. Enlil took the opportunity to slam his own blade into the underside of the creature's jaw, and Enki could see its thick, black blood dripping down Enlil's knife and onto his hand.
"Enlil," he called urgently. "Let go of the freaking knife!" Because Rabisu blood burned away at skin and flesh and that was not happening to his brother.
For once, Enlil did as he was told and withdrew, and Enki ran to his side, shoving his hand into the wet ground, washing off the blood with thick mud and puddles of dirty rainwater.
"I'm fine" Enlil insisted irritably, trying to take his hand back. He lifted his chin towards the creature. "Finish that thing."
The Rabisu was writhing around in agony on its knees, head to the ground. Not dead yet, but dying.
There was none of its polluting black blood on Enlil's hand and his brother didn't look like he was in pain at all so Enki let him go.
Injured, the demon was more dangerous than ever and Enki moved closer carefully, knife outstretched in his hand. He wished he had arrows, but they'd lost those at some oasis weeks back fighting a Gidim and they'd had nothing to trade for replacements. He wished he had salt, but the last of that had been used on a Lamashtu hiding itself in the narrow streets of Uruk. All this work, Enki thought, and they had nothing to show for it except a shit-load of scars and a mostly dead family.
Sometimes he wondered why he did this. The monsters never stopped coming. As far as Enki could tell they had always been there and always would be. They were always stronger, faster, more ruthless than any human hunter could be. They knew every trick, learned to overcome every ward making it a constant battle to reinvent magic, remake traps, forge ever stronger weapons so that every single victory was a triumph. It was all Enki had ever known. This had been his life since he was a kid and now Enki couldn't imagine doing anything else; he wouldn't know how.
Hunters like them were always outsiders, pretty much unwelcome wherever they went unless there was something for them to kill. They were seen as harbingers even though they were always the ones left to deal with the monsters other people wouldn't even dare to get close to. Hunters, Enki guessed, represented all the things normal people feared. All that evil and all that was unnatural and different and wrong that normal people had no control over. Worse, hunters were almost always travellers and strangers, never stopping in one place too long, relying on the kindness and gratitude of others for food and shelter. They didn't always receive it. They weren't priests and they weren't soldiers and they weren't farmers. They certainly weren't kings. They had no place in anything normal, to most people almost as bad as the monsters themselves. More often than not they were feared, and that was how it had pretty much always been for Enki and Enlil. Dad had always said it would be this way.
Despite the suspicion and the distrust and the hostility, they did good. Who knew how many humans this thing had killed? There was something deeply satisfying in making sure it wouldn't be around to hurt anyone else ever again, the same way other monsters, other unnatural things had destroyed his own family. He wouldn't wish that on anyone. Sometimes, that was enough.
It made it simpler, too, that this asshole of a demon had bitten a chunk out of his shoulder, and spilled poisoned blood all over his little brother, and Enki was soaking wet and cold and in pain and tired. He was really tired of not knowing what the fuck was going on with the world. Taking all his anger and frustration, it was almost easy to slash and stab, driving away the creature's sharp nails, opening cuts along its arms even through its tough skin. Enki was sure the edge of his knife had long since become blunt, so he drove harder and deeper, scouring across the creature's back as it tried to twist away from him. It was one hell of a lot slower now, weakened and in pain, lashing out mindlessly most of the time. Enki hoped the thing wished it had never attacked them. Enki would make it wish it never had.
Thick, black blood stained the ground, mixing with the rain, spreading out in long streaks of poisoned water and Enki had to watch his step, trying to keep his bare feet out of its reach. This place, this ground, Enki thought, would become cursed. They had no more holy water to purify the soil. They had no images to bury.
Then, Enki heard Enlil call out, "Stop torturing it and kill it!" and all Enki could think was that the fucker deserved it.
But they had things to do, places to be, more important than some lay-demon on the road in the middle of nowhere.
The Rabisu, blinded by agony and a couple cuts to the eyes, was easy prey. It wasn't hard to get past its claws and drive a knife up into its heart. It screamed again, so Enki slit its throat, slowly, feeling it die under his hands, twisting the flint knife that Enlil had left lodged in its jaw.
Its cry cut off suddenly and the creature's body crumpled to the ground. Finally unmoving. Enki let the rain wash the black blood from his knife, passed Enlil's back to him when his brother came to stand beside him.
Looking down at the dead demon, Enlil said, "That was messed up."
Enki didn't deny it.
Maybe people had good reason to fear them after all.
***
In Eridu, Enki took one look at the knife, the expression on Enlil's face, the size of the bowl he held out and said, "This is so not a good idea."
He still felt crappy from the Rabisu bite, his shoulder not healed and not healing no matter how many times the priests had washed and purified and wafted vile-smelling incense at the teeth marks. Like that would help. Enki'd told them a hundred times to give up calling on their gods. No one was listening. And if they were, they were probably laughing it up because in those last two days of the journey to the city Enki had seen more devastation and destruction than he'd seen in his entire life. And he'd seen some fucked up things.
The rivers were flooding. Fields and irrigation ditches and the flimsy reed homes of farmers and fisherman washed away. Crops had drowned and the people they'd passed had been hungry and panicked. In their desperation they prayed and begged and offered up more than they had. The priests were doing a roaring trade, hidden in their high, stone temples as the rain poured day and night, fat on the offerings.
Enki wondered if they actually believed any of the crap they spewed.
"What?" Enki snapped, eyeing the ritual knife, the sharpness of its blade, the way it was pointed at his hands, warily. "I haven't bled enough lately?" He knew how these fucking rituals always went.
Predictably, Enlil shushed him, apologising to the priests within earshot. It was at least some consolation that they looked about as happy about this as Enki did. The presence of hunters was, after all, polluting, and this was their most holy, most sacred of temples. The walls, painted in blues and yellows, depicted gods Enki couldn't believe in but still somehow managed to hate. In the outside world, beyond these carved stones and flickering oil lamps, every day there were more stories of demons and monsters roaming and killing and being places they shouldn't. Enki wanted to be out there fighting them. Hunting, exorcising, killing the assholes, that was what he knew how to do, not this magic crap.
Enki was no idiot though. He knew there were too many. Picking off one demon at a time wouldn't do anything to stop whatever was causing the rain and the unprecedented influx of monsters.
This ritual, the priests said, more importantly Enlil said, was the only way. Never had this been done before, the head priest told them. Never had anyone dared to anger the gods this way. Even the most powerful priest in the city, who commanded hundreds and never went hungry or knew discomfort, had red, tired eyes. His voice was hoarse from prayers and pleas, his white robes damp and more messed up than Enki had ever seen on a wealthy man before. He wondered uncharitably if his washerwoman was dead.
Despite all the assurances, the acolytes' certainty that this ritual would work because the omens had revealed it to be the truth, the half-burnt guts of an ox had decreed it, Enki wasn't convinced. It was one thing to summon a ghost, but a whole other game to summon a god. Or spirit. Or whatever was causing the rains. This was something exponentially more powerful than anything they'd ever fought before, and Enlil had insisted on minimal weapons. That would have bothered Enki more except they had no idea what would be effective against whatever it was anyway.
Even so, the priests meant to beg for mercy. Enki meant to kill the fucker.
In front of him Enlil nodded towards Enki's arm. "It has to be with this knife," he said. It was a beautiful weapon, inlaid with gold and so many precious stones that Enki's fingers itched to pocket them. Just one could keep them both fed for a month.
The priests' eyes watched them too closely, though, and all the riches in the world wouldn't matter if they were all dead.
Enki offered up his arm, let his brother cut deep. He watched as his blood flowed from his arm, streaming across his skin in trails of bright red, dripping into the bowl. Looking up, Enki met Enlil's apologetic eyes. Whatever. They'd hurt each other much worse than this before. It was a shitty thing to think, but it was the truth and Enki wasn't surprised when Enlil lowered his head like he'd understood exactly what Enki was thinking about; betrayal by his own brother. Sometimes Enki wondered if they would ever get over this. If they'd ever be able to trust each other the way they once had.
But now was not the time for any of their shit. Enki reached out with his uninjured arm and gripped at Enlil's wrist, because they needed to stick together on this one. He leaned forward, spoke in a low voice, "If this thing doesn't agree, Enlil, we make it agree."
Enlil frowned, looked around them at the chanting priests, at the painted and carved walls of the temple, at the floor covered in spells, painted in lines of blood and frankincense. For a moment Enki though he was going to argue, but his expression was clear when he looked back. He nodded, certain and determined. No matter how much he might respect the gods, supposedly protective guardians to be loved and worshipped, if this thing turned out to be one of them it still had to be stopped.
It was unlikely any of their weapons would work on something so powerful, and Enki was pretty sure he'd never come up against something that could cause such widespread chaos before. It wouldn't be the first time the brothers had taken on a creature which should have been far beyond a man to defeat. The head priest, with shaking hands and a sickly look as though the gods were going to strike him down just for thinking it, had seemed sure the spell would weaken this thing, so maybe they had a chance. Even if it was only a small chance, Enki would take it.
The room was heavy with expensive incense and the acrid, unpleasant smell of burnt animal flesh and it was kind of hard to breathe. Enki's head felt weirdly light, dizzy, and he guessed that was because half his blood was currently filling the golden-coloured bowl Enlil was holding. He drew the bowl away and Enki clamped a hand over the wound, watching carefully as his brother carried the bowl over to the far corner of the room. A priest in fine, white linen crumbled something that looked like bark into the blood, and some other powders, water maybe, or oil, or both, all the time speaking in a low voice over the bowl, and even through the haze of the room Enki was sure he could see the mixture boiling and steaming.
The priest announced, "We begin," handing the bowl back and directing Enlil to stand beside Enki in the middle of the room and the carefully drawn summoning spells under their feet. Enki spared a doubtful look at Enlil, feeling a lot like a lamb going to slaughter.
He'd been told what he was supposed to do, but he still felt like an ass doing it. Since he'd first seen what magic could do, Enki had hated it. In his long experience nothing good ever came of it, and every time he felt the power of sorcery, the chanted cadence of a spell, the taste of potions, it made his skin crawl. Enki could already smell the stench of the unnatural, words he didn't know but could understand anyway ringing in his ears. Enlil held out the bowl to him and with Enki reluctantly took it, the stone sides warm. Slowly, Enki kneeled down, his knee clicking as he bent and Enki thought, I'm getting old. For a hunter anyway. People like him and Enlil didn't generally have long lives. Their dad had been an exception, until a demon had taken him too. So, maybe not such an exception after all, but he had lasted longer than most; long enough to see his children grown to adulthood and his hair to begin turning grey. An early death was the almost certain reward for all those who made it their life's work to fight against creatures a hundred or a thousand times more powerful than the quickest, cleverest, strongest of humans.
This was just another murdering bastard to kill, Enki told himself, and wouldn't let himself feel afraid as he dipped fingers into the bowl. He'd expected the blood to be hot where it was steaming but it was cool, almost cold, and he shivered.
Enki concentrated on remembering the words of the summoning instead, reciting the phrases he'd practiced with Enlil for days on end, careful to pronounce every sound, smearing the shape of a wide circle on the floor in front of him, grit scraping against his fingertips. He drew a line, cutting the circle in half and timed the words to his movements as he'd been taught. More blood on his fingers, then Enki formed the shape of letters in a language the priests said was more ancient than the Earth itself. The blood, the stone, his whole arm grew hot as he drew the foreign symbols, sharp edges, curves the shape of leaves. There was power in these words, or whatever they were, and Enki could feel it doing something.
As he spoke he came to realise that he couldn't hear anything else around him now except the sound of the heavy rain outside, running down the walls, dripping from the doorway, rolling away down the steps to the temple. It was so loud that he thought he could hear every drop of water, every time it hit stone or soil. It was almost like the priests around him- even Enlil- had stopped making any noise at all, not breathing or shifting or anything. All he saw were the shapes under his hands, two more lines, another curve. This was his blood, and to it Enki was binding something that could tear him to pieces, he could feel the tug of it, the way his whole body felt tied to the curves and lines on the ground. It was awesome power, but it was one he really didn't want. He'd asked a thousand times or more why it couldn't be Enlil who had to do this; why it had to be him. Enki was a hunter, nothing more. All the crap he'd done and all the things he didn't believe in made the priests' purifications seem like a joke. There was no cleaning his soul. He knew that there would be no resurrection for him when his life came to an end. Enki was under no illusions that there would be any comfortable afterlife for him, no matter how many lives he saved.
Enki spoke, and found he didn't have to think to speak the words and this too was probably magic bullshit. There was no doubt whatever he was doing was working; there was a sensation like rope tightening around his neck, his wrists, his ankles, with every breath, until he had no more breath left, and the circle was complete and the words were all said.
There was silence then, no movement. Sound returned, the world of the temple and the cold stone and his aching knees coming back into focus as though Enki had been in some kind of trance. Enlil was hovering close by.
Enki blinked, looked down at his hands, palms spread wide against the edges of the pattern of blood. He couldn't remember doing that, pressing his hands to the symbols. He didn't remember being told to do that. The spell should have worked, he thought. It felt like it had worked but when Enki looked up there was the same haze of incense, nervous priests looking at each other, at the circle of blood, at him and nothing had changed. Nothing had appeared. With a certainty that Enki didn't understand he knew it had worked.
Beside him, Enlil was frowning down at Enki, looking uncertain like he didn't know if the ritual was over or if there was something he was supposed to do.
Then, from behind them the voice of one of the novice priests broke the silence. It was different though, voice deeper, rough as sand over stone, and he demanded, "Who has summoned me here?"
It was on instinct that Enki rose to his feet, ignoring the pull of strained muscles, and pulled his knife from its sheath, turning to face this unknown thing. No longer the priest, its eyes were too bright, too old, too cold to be anything other than a supernatural being. Enki could feel the power of it, and the pull of it.
Enlil moved to stand closer. He hadn't drawn his weapon and Enki would get on his back about that later, but his stance told Enki he was at least cautious, ready to fight back if he needed to.
They'd both seen possession before and it looked a whole lot like this, even if the head priests and the librarians at Nippur and Girsu had been certain that no demon could control the rains. But if this thing was a demon there would be no begging it for mercy, or whatever it was the priests meant to do. No demon Enki had ever met gave a fuck about humans.
There was something though, some familiarity or instinct that Enki had gained from all those times battling demons, something that told Enki this creature wasn't something he'd ever come across before. It was freaky, too, the way it stared right at him. It didn't even blink. Worse, Enki couldn't bring himself to look away and Enki wondered if the creature was using some spell on him. From the way the creature looked at him, into him, Enki had the impression it was reading his thoughts. Judging him.
Enki filled his mind with all the times he'd defeated monsters and demons, and thought, I'll do that to you, asshole.
The priest who wasn't the priest anymore titled its head to the side and narrowed its eyes and Enki knew the fucker had heard him. Enki's first instinct, what he itched to do, was to run the thing through with his knife, newly sharpened and a welcome weight in his hand, and worry about the rest later. They needed information, though. They needed to know how to stop this, and Enki didn't think it would be so easy as to kill the creature and the world would right itself. Nothing was ever that easy.
There was a tense silence like they were all waiting for the creature to attack, or speak, or do something. The way it stood, inhumanly still, unafraid and patient, Enki got the feeling the creature could outwait them all and then some.
"What are you?" he asked, because they'd never get anywhere if they all just continued to stand around staring at each other. Not even sure why he did it, Enki took a step forwards, his knife gripped tight and pointed towards the creature's stomach. The thing didn't move, nor look at all concerned, not taking its eyes from Enki's for even the shortest time. Enki didn't think it was breathing. The cloying smell of incense and blood made Enki wish he didn't have to either.
He was actually kind of surprised when the thing didn't laugh at him or growl or spit like most supernatural bastards he'd ever met- and killed- but instead replied evenly, "I am an angel of the Lord."
The words meant nothing to Enki. In all his years of hunting, an angel wasn't something he'd ever heard of but Enki could see Enlil out the corner of his eye looking taken aback, like he hadn't expected that answer. At least he recognised whatever it was they were dealing with.
"A guardian," Enlil said. "You're supposed to be guardians."
The creature spared a glance at Enlil, but kept right on staring at Enki when it said dismissively, "That is a human misconception."
"But you're not evil," Enlil persisted. "Why would you bring the rain? Why would you bring demons."
At that the thing turned its gaze fully on Enlil, frowning and somehow managing to look pissed without changing its facial expression at all. As freaky as having this unknown creature staring at him was, Enki liked it a whole lot better than seeing that creepy attention turned on his little brother.
"I did not bring demons." It pretty much spat in disgust. Weird, Enki thought, that it would deny this so vehemently. It had not, Enki noticed, denied bringing the rain.
"Whatever it is you're doing," Enlil shook his head, "there are more demons now then I've ever seen."
Enki kind of wished his brother would shut up because who the hell knew what this creature was capable of. He knew though that they needed to keep the creature talking. This was their chance and they had to find out what the fuck it had done. Enlil had called this thing a guardian, which made no sense at all.
"We're hunters," Enki added, "We should know."
Grey, inhuman eyes turned back to Enki and it was almost a relief.
"This I didn't intend."
Enki scoffed, incredulous. "Then what, exactly, did you intend?"
"To follow my orders," it replied simply, like that answered everything.
"What orders?" Enki demanded. He knew nothing about the hierarchy of supernatural beings and cared even less. Finally the creature, the angel, looked away, turning its head upwards towards the ceiling as though seeing beyond, listening to something they couldn't hear. Maybe it was.
When it lowered its head again, Enki remembered the young, unlined face of the priest and found nothing of him in the face looking at him now. Everything about it was so obviously something else, something other, that Enki wanted to demand to know what had happened to the kid being possessed. In all his time, Enki had never seen anyone come back from being possessed either alive or sane.
"That is no concern of yours," it said.
"I think it fucking is." Again, Enki didn't know why he did it, because no way was he even remotely going to intimidate this thing, but Enki took a step closer again, lowering his voice. "It's my concern when you're fucking with my world."
For a long time Enki didn't think the creature was going to answer him, its eyes reading him, searching him, looking for something, but it surprised Enki again by agreeing, "Perhaps it does. I will seek revelation." With a rush of sound like beaten cloth and a cool wind he was gone.
The door was still shut fast, the high windows in the walls too small for anyone to escape through, and impossible so quickly. Enki spun around to face the remaining priests, pressed cowering with their backs to the wall, on their knees. "You said it couldn't leave," he accused.
The priests' faces were pale with terror and confusion and Enki was about to lay into them because he had not just given up a shit ton of his blood and resisted every instinct to salt and burn that thing to come out of it all with nothing. But then there was that same weird sound that had signalled the angel's departure. The lamps flickered around them frantically and suddenly the missing priest was in front of Enki again exactly where it had been before it had disappeared.
This time though it fell to one knee with a pained sound and for a moment Enki thought maybe the priest had been returned. Then their eyes met and Enki knew it was still the creature, its distant, old eyes full of rage. Rage, and Enki saw pain there too.
"What have you done?" it demanded. It was breathing now, laboured breaths like it had just run a long distance. It had its arms wrapped around it stomach. "What have you done?" it demanded again, and this time its voice made Enki's ears ache, the sound sharp and piercing like fury turned to sound.
"The spell," Enki guessed. "It binds you to me-"
"Undo it," the creature cut in. The sight of something so powerful brought down to earth like this gave Enki a weird sense of satisfaction. Now maybe they could get somewhere.
"Hey, it wasn't my idea. I have no idea how to undo it. You kind of left us with no choice."
"Choice? Neither of us has a choice. You will release me, human." It rose to its feet, wincing and trying to hide it.
"I told you I can't," Enki said. He hadn't even considered that he would ever need to break this spell. He'd imagined the creature wouldn't need to be released from a binding spell when it was dead.
Beneath his feet Enki felt stone tremble, the lamps flickering wildly. The shadows sprawling across the carved walls shifted and warped until Enki could make out the image of wings; huge, craning wings and Enki had never seen anything like it in his life. It would have been a lie to say he wasn't kind of awed, because it wasn't just that Enki could see them stretching, blotting out the colours of the wall paintings of gods and trees and worshipping priests, but he could feel them too, filling the room. And now he understood exactly what this creature was. He'd seen their images often enough carved into city gates and walls, painted on the sides of homes, their shapes crafted into idols and protective amulets and Enlil was right, they were supposed to be guardians. They were supposed to protect people. Even if he hadn't ever believed they were real, not really, to find out now that these guardian spirits existed but were actually murdering assholes was just confirmation of everything he had ever believed. Or not believed. That there was nothing out there in the world, or beyond, looking out for any of them. That there was nothing good in the supernatural.
In a thunderous voice the guardian spirit ordered, "Release me."
Enki's ears ached and his eyes watered but he stood firm, found himself back in a staring match with eyes that didn't belong in such a young priest's body. "Bitching about it won't change the fact that I fucking don't know how."
The creature's eyes were filled with wrath and burned with anger and Enki thought, well at least the bastard could feel. He didn't seem so distant now.
Beside him, Enlil tried to sound conciliatory, saying, "Look, how about we all just calm down." He laid his hand on Enki's sword-arm. "Put the knife down, Enki." Enki took a moment out of his glaring to shoot Enlil an incredulous look.
"Seriously, Enlil?"
"Yes," Enlil hissed, "I have an idea, okay?"
It went against his instincts, but regardless of everything that had happened between them Enki did still trust his brother when it came down to it, and Enki sure as hell couldn't think of anything else that might get this creature to talk. To stop. Short of trying to cut its head off, and that seemed unlikely with the temple shaking beneath them and its voice alone capable of making their ears bleed. He could feel the warm wetness beneath his ears, could see red lines trailing down Enlil's neck. This, Enki thought, had better be a fucking awesome plan.
Not taking his eyes off the creature, Enki lowered his knife, and Enlil nodded and smiled tightly.
Turning to the creature, Enlil pleaded, "We'll make a deal with you."
Enki saw immediately that this was the wrong thing to say because the ground beneath them shook with new and more determined strength, the stone above them shaking loose dust, grinding together so loudly Enki was sure they were all going to be crushed to death.
"I am not a demon," it growled, and even if Enki believed nothing else he believed that much. "I don't make deals." It spat the last word like it was something distasteful and Enki really hoped Enlil knew what the hell he was doing. No one knew the limits of this binding spell; how much or how little this supernatural creature could do to the one he was bound to- in this case Enki, and fuck did he regret agreeing to this magic crap- or to anyone else around him. Behind him Enki could hear the other priests praying for forgiveness, for mercy. Enki was pretty sure this creature didn't have any.
"No," Enlil tried. "No, I didn't mean a deal like that." He held his hands out, palms up, as though he were praying. "We just want to know why you're doing this. We want to know what we can do to stop it, to save the people out there who are going to die because of what you're doing. You can't expect us to just sit back and let it happen."
The room fell into a tense silence and Enki watched as the creature seemed to consider Enlil's words. It was with immense relief that the ground beneath them calmed and the dark shadows of the room receded, the pain in his ears gone and Enki could breathe again.
Enlil, Enki thought in awe, had somehow got through to this thing. It looked thoughtful, frowning as though undecided.
"These are my orders," it said.
"Orders from who?" Enlil pressed.
"Heaven," came the answer, and Enki thought, if that was true then they really were all fucked.
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