April – 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
Ninsianna
“Mother, hear my prayer."
Ninsianna lit some dried herbs and placed them in a small ceramic bowl on the alter she'd set up in her room. Like all Ubaid sleeping quarters, her bedroom was little more than a loft tucked beneath the flat roof, just big enough for her to stand up in and move from her bed to the door. A raised wooden platform made of lashed sticks served as her bed, with a thin woven pad filled with straw that had to be replenished each season for a mattress. Her parents had always regretted never giving her a brother or sister, but Ninsianna was glad to be an only child. The lack of privacy at the great sky canoe had deprived her of one of her favorite pastimes.
“I'm sorry I couldn't pray more formally to you at Mikhail’s sky canoe," Ninsianna prayed, "but I brought back many interesting things to share with you.”
She lay pebbles, twigs, and other items upon the tiny alter fastened to the eastern wall above her bed, telling the goddess funny little stories about each item as though she were a child relating how her day had gone. She constantly spoke to She-who-is, but she was also mindful to observe the more formal prayer rituals. The goddess had always been generous about granting her prayers, but she knew better than to take her favored status for granted. Tonight, she had a new prayer to ask.
“Thank you for sending me your winged champion instead of forcing me to marry Jamin," she said. "I healed him as you asked. But Mother, might I beg another indulgence?”
She reached into her satchel and fished out a huge, brown feather molted feather from Mikhail’s wings. Rubbing it against her lips, she lay it upon the altar right in front of the small, rounded clay figurine seated upon a throne of two lions.
“I have feelings for him,” Ninsianna said. “I think perhaps he has feelings for me as well? But he is so … controlled … that it's hard to tell."
She pictured how good it felt whenever she gave him a hug, and how close he'd come to kissing her tonight. She formed the image of what she wanted and pictured placing that wish upon her alter along with her other gifts. She sensed by the sturdy thread of energy which connected her to She-who-is that the goddess was listening tonight, and gave voice to her heart's desire.
"If we are meant to be together, could you please give us both a sign?”
She snuffed out the flickering tallow lamp, slipped out of her shawl, and slid beneath the covers. Her lumpy mattress didn't feel as good as the comfortable bunk she'd enjoyed mere feet from the man who had grown to occupy such an important place in her heart. As she drifted off to sleep, She-who-is sent her another vision.
Drifting out of her bed, her spirit flew up into a spinning vortex of stars spinning peacefully on its axis. She could hear the steady thrum of the stars vibrating and realized their combined voices united into the voice of the goddess singing the Song of the Sword.
The dream changed. Darkness spread across the stars. As it encroached upon the center, she saw once again the vision the goddess had shown the day she'd sent Mikhail. A sword of darkness smote his ship. The goddess steered it towards Ninsianna’s home, the blue stone circling the sun. She saw herself encrusted in yellow ochre by the stream and then go heal his wounds.
She saw Mikhail planting crops, fighting alongside the Ubaid warriors, and sitting around the campfire with her people, his expression unguarded and happy. She saw him embrace her and her belly grow heavy with child.
Out of the center a second ray of light shot out and headed towards her planet. As the darkness reached this ship, it didn't smite it, but embraced it. The ship turned blacker than the darkness which had created it. As it hit the fertile earth, it split open. Lizard-like monsters and other strange, misshapen creatures spewed forth. Sweeping across the desert from the west, the demons devoured her village and her people.
Ninsianna heard wings and turned to embrace her husband, but it was not him. A white-winged Angelic, ethereally beautiful and bright on the outside, but hideous inside from the darkness which consumed his soul, sought to lure her from this world. His countenance was beautiful, but he couldn't hide the malevolent darkness from her goddess-touched eyes.
Mikhail! She called his name again and again, but he didn't come.
The Evil One used his sword to cut her child from her womb. Ninsianna thrashed and screamed, but she couldn't get away.
“Ninsianna, dúisigh! Wake up!”
Mikhail? Why didn’t he come to save her?
“It's a vision from the goddess. She is stuck between this world and the dream time. It happened often when she was very young.”
Mama?
“This is why women are forbidden to learn magic! They travel too easily between worlds.”
Papa!
Why couldn't she wake up? She tried to fight her way back to their voices, but the darkness in the dream still had her in its grip. She could feel her father slip into her mind. Suddenly he was there, standing beside her.
“Papa … what is happening?”
“You're stuck in your vision. You need to focus your mind on something outside of the vision.”
“What do you focus on, Papa?”
“I focus on your Mama. She can pull me out of the worst vision.”
“Ninsianna!" She could feel Mikhail's hand upon her cheek in the same gesture she always used to comfort him. She could hear the emotion tremble in his voice. Mikhail was afraid.
“I understand, Papa,” she said. “I think I'll be okay now."
Focusing on the sound of Mikhail’s voice, the feel of his hand, she willed herself out of the vision and back into the waking realm.
“Mikhail,” she opened her eyes, “Chuala mé leat [I heard you].”
He hugged her to his chest so tightly she couldn't move. His heart raced beneath his tunic.
“When I heard you scream…" His voice broke with emotion.
“Ninsianna, you must tell us of this vision,” Papa said.
Mikhail released her.
“Nani ga warui kite iru [something bad is coming],” She stopped when they gave her a curious look. Mikhail answered in the strange, clicking language he'd used during his battle fury and amongst the shamans. She understood every word.
“Anata wa Cherubim no gengo o hanashite iru [you speak the language of the Cherubim],” he said.
“Your eyes…” Mama's face was filled with fear.
“How is this possible?” Mikhail asked in Ubaid.
“She has been touched by the hand of the goddess,” Papa said. “I can say with great certainty now, winged one, that Ninsianna is the Chosen One sung about in the ancient song. Whether or not you can remember your purpose here, the Evil One approaches.”
“Papa?”
“Look in the reflecting bowl, child." Mama poured water into a shallow bowl and held it steady until the water stilled.
It was not necessary for Mama to hold the tallow lantern closer for her to see what they were all looking at. Staring back from her reflection was not the tawny eyed girl she remembered, but someone whose eyes shone with an internal illumination of pure, unburnished gold.
Chapter 41
Sword of the Gods: The Chosen One Page 45
