Sword of the Gods: The Chosen One (53 page)

“I have a matter of
great importance to discuss with you,” Mikhail said at last, his expression
serious.

“Yes?” 

“When we first met,
you made me give you a promise.”

“Yes, I did.”  A deep
smile line appeared on Immanu's cheek.

“I was wondering … um
… hoping … I was wondering if you might … reconsider?”  Mikhail felt like a
small boy asking permission to do something that might cause him to be
thrashed.

“Perhaps.  What do you
have in mind?”

“I seek permission to
ask Ninsianna to be my mate.” He glanced at Immanu, fearful he might be angry.

“That's up to
Ninsianna,” Immanu said with a grunt.  “I learned my lesson the
last
time
I tried to force her affections.  What does
she
say?”

“I haven't asked her
yet.  I've been trying to keep my distance.”

“Then first you must
obtain
her
permission,” Immanu said.  “If Ninsianna agrees to marry you,
then you shall have my blessing.” 

“Hey!!!”

In his glee at being
told it was
okay
to pursue the desire burning in his heart, Mikhail had
neglected to pay attention where he was walking.  He stared down at the poor
girl he'd knocked to the ground with his wings, her basket of freshly-washed
laundry spilled onto the dirt.  Immanu laughed and greeted the black-eyed girl
by name, the one he'd once mistaken for Ninsianna.  Bending to help refill her
basket, Mikhail gave her a rare smile.

“Sorry,” he said. 

The girl trembled as
he handed her back her basket of clothes, too timid to even speak.  He
instantly forgot her as he turned back to complete the conversation with the
man he
hoped
would soon be his father-in-law. 

“I'm not sure what
your customs are in such matters,” Mikhail said.  “I don't even remember what
my
customs are.  I want to do this right.”

“When I met
Ninsianna’s mother,” a tender expression blossomed on Immanu's face, “she was
the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.  She is from Gasur, a tiny village
located in those distant hills.  She was apprenticed to their healer, so her
entire village was opposed to her seeing anyone who might take her away from
them.  I had to woo her without anybody knowing.”

“How did you win her
heart?”

“I used every excuse I
could find to make the journey to Gasur,” Immanu gestured towards the horizon. 
“It was a lengthy trek.  I had to sneak in under the guise of trade, so I would
bring her things.  Game I had hunted, food I had gathered, and small animals
carved from wood.”

“Were you successful?”

“At first she was
merely amused,” Immanu said.  “But I finally convinced her to come for a picnic
by the river.  I was in training by then to become a shaman, so I taught her
how to close her eyes and go into the dreamtime with me.”

“I thought it was
forbidden for women to do that?”

“It is," Immanu
said.  "But she was fascinated by it.  Healers use the dreamtime to heal
their patients all the time, they just don't realize that's what they are
doing.  Silly prohibition, if you ask me…”

“Why haven’t you
trained Ninsianna to be a shaman, then?” Mikhail asked.  “She is naturally good
at it.”

“I have,” Immanu gave
him a conspiratorial wink.  “Just not directly.  I have never sent her from the
house unless I was doing something dangerous.  If I know it, chances are that
Ninsianna knows it as well.  But I realize now that not training her directly
was a mistake.”

“How did you finally
convince Needa to become your mate?”

“She-who-is showed her
that she was meant to be my wife,” Immanu said with a cryptic smirk.  “After
that … it was easy.”

“I don't think
She-who-is will intervene on
my
behalf,” Mikhail frowned.

“I think
SHE
already has,” Immanu said.  “Or you wouldn't be alive.”

~ * ~ * ~
* ~ * ~

June – 3,390 BC

Earth:  Village of Assur

Ninsianna

A thrill went through
Ninsianna's body as her parents discussed the Chief’s request.  That thread she
could always feel connecting her to She-who-is hummed like a wooden flute.  She
could
feel
the goddess' plan coming together.  Mikhail had definite
ideas about how to institute a training program and avidly picked her father's
brains.  It was the most animated she'd seen him in all the time she'd known
him.  With her goddess-enhanced eyes, she could
see
the light which had
always trailed off of him to someplace else begin to anchor firmly into their
village.

She pushed her charred
fish onto the edge of her plate.  Mama and Papa did the same, picking edible
portions away from parts too black and crispy to digest.  Here she'd criticized
her mother and now
she'd
gone and done a worse job than anything Mama
had ever botched!  She hoped Mikhail wouldn't think the worse of her for it.

Picking up the fish
with two hands, Mikhail bit into it.  The fish crunched.  Black pieces of ash
spilled onto his lentils and vegetables.  Ninsianna watched as he consumed the
entire burnt, charred, blackened piece of fish.

“That was very good,
Mama.”  Immanu turned to his wife with his habitual post-dinner gratitude.

“I was not the one who
prepared it!”  Mama had a ‘
don't blame me’
expression on her face.

Ninsianna looked down
onto her plate.  As she glanced up, she was rewarded by one of Mikhail’s rare,
beautiful smiles.

“That was very good,
Ninsianna,” Mikhail's grin made her heart flutter.  “Thank you.”

~ * ~ * ~
* ~ * ~

Galactic Standard Date:  152,323.06

Neutral Zone:  Diplomatic Carrier ‘Prince of Tyre’

Prime Minister Lucifer

Lucifer

“Lucifer, wake
up!”
Zepar exclaimed.  “I have wonderful
news!”

“Mmmffffff … what?” 
Lucifer rubbed his forehead to alleviate the brain-splitting migraine.  He kept
his eyes closed as he knew opening them would only make things worse.  He felt
next to him and discovered the bed was empty.  “Where is she?”

“Who?” Zepar asked.

“My wife?” Lucifer
said.  “I distinctly remember getting married yesterday.  Only … I can’t
remember what happened afterwards.”

“That was four days
ago, Sire.”  Zepar shook with excitement.  “And it worked!!!  The root-stock of
your species is fertile.  Doctor Halpas just ran the tests.  Your seed took!!!”

“What do you mean it
took?” Lucifer said.  “I wanted to take my time and get to know this one.  I
don't even remember making love to her.”

He slid his eyes open
just a slit and started letting them adjust to the light.  Double.  He was
seeing double again.

“Ahm,” Zepar shifted
from one foot to the other.  “The root stock is not entirely sentient, Sire. 
Attractive, yes.  But not sentient.”

“She spoke to me,”
Lucifer said.  “I remember….”

“What do you remember,
Sire?” Zepar asked.  “You were upset when you got back to the shuttle and
realized she couldn't even obey a simple command.  You got another one of your
migraines.”

“But…”  Lucifer
recalled being enthralled with the attractive female, but also Zepar warning
him the reason the Emperor had tinkered with their DNA was because they weren't
very smart. 
Everything
Hashem tinkered with ended up having a much
higher IQ.

“Oh, no,” Zepar said. 
“You didn't have another one of your blackouts … did you?”

“No!” Lucifer said
quickly.  The last thing he wanted was to admit was he'd buggered an animal
and
thought she was sentient.  Zepar had set up some pretty strange sexual
encounters over the years, but Lucifer prided himself on remembering just who
he'd fucked and how satisfied they had been afterwards.  “Where is she?”

“I took the liberty of
setting up a room to house her until it's time to deliver the child,” Zepar
said.  “Would you like to check on her?  She may only be a pre-sentient
creature, but she is carrying your heir.”

“Yes,” Lucifer said
cautiously.  “I would like to … see … the female I … um…”  Lucifer couldn't
quite bring himself to say the word ‘married.’  He felt sick to his stomach,
although that could have been from the migraine.  Had he
really
buggered
a non-sentient animal?

No!  What Zepar said
didn't fit his fuzzy recollection of the female Ba'al Zebub had ‘gifted’ to
him.  He dimly recalled her touching his forehead in concern when the migraine
had started, then standing between him and Zepar and calling him ‘ibilisi.’ 
Ibilisi?  What was an ibilisi?

His head felt as
though it were about to split in half.  He dressed as quickly as he could and
followed Zepar through the ship to a room that had once been general living
quarters for 30 crewmen.  With so few hybrids left alive in the universe, his
diplomatic carrier, which had been built to house 600 crew along with luxurious
quarters for 20 diplomatic families, now had a crew of only 35.  They had many
empty rooms such as this.  Two crewmen guarded the door to the ships most
precious cargo.  The human female carrying the child he'd tried for 225 years
to sire.

Sitting on a bunk
along one wall, rocking and uttering guttural sounds that were most definitely
not
a language, was the beautiful, ebony-skinned female Ba'al Zebub had forced him
to marry.  Zepar had changed her into more comfortable attire than the gaudy
Sata’an bridal tunic, but it had torn where she kept grasping at the hem.  Her
eyes were vacant as she sat in a fetal position in the corner.  She became
agitated as they drew close.  The eyes of a caged animal. 

“Hey,” Lucifer held
out his hand.  “Do you remember me?  We got married yesterday … um … four days
ago.”

The female became
noisy as he approached, but she didn't make eye contact.  She uttered a string
of guttural sounds.  Lucifer listened for the hint of either language, or the
subconscious longings his ‘gift’ allowed him to sense beneath the speech
patterns of all sentient creatures, and found none.  It was just noise.

“I never even found
out your name,” Lucifer reached out to touch her cheek.  He projected soothing
images through his voice into her mind, something which usually worked even
with lesser sentient species.

The female let out a
blood-curdling screech and jumped off of the bed, scurrying to a different bunk
in the opposite corner of the room.  As soon as she got there, she sat back in
the fetal position, rocking and making the guttural sounds she'd made earlier. 

“This is what she's
been like the entire time,” Zepar said.  “We suspect Ba'al Zebub sedated her so
that she wouldn't scratch your eyes out when you mated with her.  Probably why
he was so insistent you do it right away.”