Tuesday, January 4, 2022 - TriBeCa, New York City, United States

“Get up!”

The kick to Ella’s ribs lifted her a bit off the ground and sent her sliding on the ice. She could feel the steel-toed boot and the cracking sensation as her ribs broke.

She didn’t make much noise. Whatever she had been drugged with left her feeling disconnected even if the pain was still excruciating.

“This little thing, this vermin will be our Empress?” Another voice. And then a bit of warm moisture on her face. From spit. It contrasted with the other cheek pressed against the slush and cold pavement of the alley.

She could hear the crunch of footsteps on snow but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t see. Her eyes were tearing from the pain.

“Ekerri chose this? A fucking monkey? Ekerri was a titan straddling the ages. He was Utu reborn, worthy of following. He slaughtered his way through the People. We followed him willingly, for we were the chosen ones. The Blooded. And together, we emptied the lands, fertilizing them with blood… and he picks a human as his heir?”

Another kick, to her face. She sees stars and maybe she blacked out for a moment. This time she can feel another crack and some teeth break. But she can’t even tell what has happened.

A third voice, “Now now. Ekerri was a butcher. But the Emperor ,” and even in her concussed state, she could hear the derision in this voice, a woman’s voice, “… the Emperor was a clever bastard also. And he betrayed us, his elite. Casting is into that hell.”

And now a new pain, almost exquisite in its sharpness. Ella managed to open her eyes, and she could see a woman’s stiletto heel. It had pierced her hand and pinned it to the ground. Blood welled out from around it.

Who wears heels in the ice? Ella dazedly thought to herself.

“We’ll kill this pawn. Then that bastard, traitor King will die. We shall hold true for the return of Inanna.”

And Ella saw the first one, the one that had jumped her from an alley on her way home from Charlie’s, blur. And his legs changed, tearing though the pants and multiplying. Soon they took on a strange rust color. Two large pincers emerged from where the creatures hips had been.

Great. A fucking lobster centaur is going to kill me, she thought.

Ella was barely holding on. Her hand was still pinned underneath the woman’s heel. Her ribs were definitely broken and every breath hurt like hell. Her face was partially numb. And she could feel blood on her face, on her hands.

It wasn’t even cold anymore. Despite her lying on her side on ice and dirty city slush. She felt a lassitude and warmth spreading through her.

So this is what death feels like. At least the pain is gone.

Another kick landed somewhere and it slid her a bit around where she was pinned down by her hand, and now she could see all three of them. No. There were five. Two had hung back by the entryway.

The one that had transformed was clicking his pincers and his hands mimicked the movement.

“She dies now. I am going to enjoy eating her flesh.” And now she saw this creature’s tail with venom dripping from it.

A scorpion?

And Ella finally managed to focus for a moment. Her eyes flared brightly and all of them recoiled in astonishment. The power cleared her system immediately of the venom, and, even though the pain became more intense from her wounds, she could think.

She could feel her mouth shift as her jaw moved back into its place. Her left hand clenched around the heel that pierced through it and she pulled and the woman fell backward.

And then she took another shot. One that was similar but different to the one she had tried using just two days ago.

The scorpion man lit up in a torrent of white light, just a silhouette. And then there was just the smell of burnt flesh and ash floating in the air.

Ella stood up. Her wounds still knitting together, but so incompletely. It was still agony when she moved. And she reached over and pulled the heel from the her hand. Blood dripped and she staggered and hissed from the pain.

She was drawing deeper than she ever had. But it was running low, and she was collecting her energy to fight further when she saw something astonishing.

The remaining four were kneeling and bowing in the snow.

“Inanna Reborn. We are Blessed in Her Name and Presence. Bringer of our Restoration. Protector of the world. We are Aqrabuamelu. Our service is eternal.”

It was a prayer and offering. The chant was a ritual but she could feel it carrying something to her.

The woman, having scrambled into the kneeling position added in a martial shout, “All hail, Empress of the People.”

The others echoed, “All hail!”

She limped over to the woman kneeling in the dirty snow in a trash strewn alley. The woman’s hair was the same rust red of the scorpion and Ella could tell, with her crown on her head, that this woman was also a scorpion creature as were the others. An Agrab-something.

She threw the bloody heel at the woman’s head and missed.

“I hurt like hell. Get up and tell me what the fuck is going on or I’ll kill you all.”