Ekron

Crystal Statues - 1

As time passed, Llacme and her acolytes soon realized that Anubis did not have the heart of a tyrant; a symbiotic relationship grew between Ekron and Sibara, in which the fallen kingdom provided technology to the sour creatures of Qatra and they in return provided a never-ending supply of special organic material to advance bio-electronic development. Besides spacecrafts, Anubis provided enhancing prosthetic limbs to semi spiritual beings in Sibara. Llacme was given a set of raw mechatronic arms with three-fingered hands taking energy from her body to function, that allowed her to swing a sword and produce handcrafted objects; her castle was renewed, and a proper throne was installed for her. Djaall became a messenger, as he had developed the ability to travel between worlds with portals much simpler than those made of gems. Láthatlan was ordered by Anubis to carry the souls of intelligent creatures to Sibara instead of Dobruj, to avoid any information leak about the content of Agatha's cave. The cult to Cymra was reinstated and human souls began to be counted among his acolytes, some voluntarily, others by human sacrifice. The unconscious bodies of angels Vadállat and Szörnyet were cleansed and displayed behind a crystal in a temple specially built for them at Llacme's renewed castle. The goats went back to Sibara and thrived in the high mountains near the Humner. Whit the Osmógreh received in payment from Qatra, Anubis didn't need the corpse of Achish to produce electromagnetic fog in which his worms could float and move freely anymore, so he gave Achish to Maria, who repaired it and made him work as an artisan in Kish. Either way, Achish haven't been used for such purpose since Gog's dead. Anubis released his human prisoners and sent them to Kish, as promised, where a renewed human society started to bloom. A new age had begun in most places of this hybrid system. But universe is binary, good and evil coexists in ways that, at some levels, make them indistinguishable from one another. Human society in Kish was certainly the healthier, happier, and fairer that humanity had had in centuries, perhaps millennia, or ever. The governors, senate and judges were elected by universal vote and almost no crime, corruption or inequality had grown beyond a threshold, in nearly magical harmony. But there was no magic in it, just mystery. Maria Brähl, that haven't aged a day since she biologically turned twenty-one, demanded a price of human sacrifice to keep her cats happy, in a low, forbidden level of the city. There she had her laboratory, had replicated the portal gems, and taught the Macsk how to produce them, that and a lot of other processes. In a lapse of ten years, her "cats" had grown to reach four feet of height and developed their own taste in clothing. Their fur had begun to recede and blend with a pale blue skin under it, except in their heads, where it grew longer every month. Their horns became a mere pair of needles in their heads. Theresa's arms, their primary source of food for years, had long started to decompose, so Maria threw her away like an old doll. The Macsk needed fresh human blood to survive, and the process applied to Theresa was considered unnecessary while having an entire city of humans to prey on. Maria took the homeless at first, when they ran out, she started to ask governors for a monthly quote. Organized crime and drug dealing intended to thrive in the city many times, but their unaware representatives always ended up eaten alive by Macsks. Prostitution and witchcraft were considered necessary vices by Maria, so they were not special targets for her, after all, she had grown up in Nineveh.

There are different levels for evil, Maria never tried to hide her own, as she knew it was pointless, especially hide it from herself; but recent attitudes in Astarte had Maria concerned in an undefined way. For days she discovered Astarte staring at her in a strange mood, and it had begun to undermine her spirit.

She finally asked her closest ally, "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"I want to know what is in that drawer, the locked one. I can feel you don't want us to access it."

"Is dangerous."

"Show me anyway," said Astarte in a compelling way.

Maria took out a special key chain that she kept hidden and opened the drawer, then she took out a black tiara from it and gave it to Astarte. The Macsk's black starred eyes shone like never before.

"There is someone's soul trapped in this."

"Not just someone, a Crom."

Astarte left the tiara on a table very carefully, understanding that it was not a toy.

"I drank Crom blood once, back in Assuan, I felt high for a month, after that my senses became sharper and I understood concepts I haven't even imagined before. I think that is how I was able to blind Vadállat."

"That's what I was afraid of, now you want to give that Crom physical form again, to suck its blood. But is not just a Crom, is Queen Carmina of Nineveh."

"And what is the problem?"

"Several problems. First, she was the one who killed Gog, so Anubis will not tolerate her to live, in any form."

Maria took a giant vulture wing with a handle from the drawer.

"This is her weapon, The Black Vulture of Kish, if this is anywhere in this planet, she will call it and kill us with it before we can make any move."

"Then send it to Qatra."

"No, in the wrong hands this could be too dangerous."

"To the Moon then."

Maria hesitated for a moment.

"The Moon portal gems were destroyed by Vadállat, they are inoperative, we would have to travel there to install a new portal... but Venus may be an alternative, we have already placed a portal there for testing, the electromagnetic interference would make any other communication impossible," said Maria, suddenly losing her fear.

"Anubis never comes down here, how will he find out?"

There was another problem that Maria didn't wanted to discuss with Astarte; the effects of drinking Crom blood would be unpredictable in the Macsks, and they were already becoming something else. Besides, they haven't showed any signs of ageing, and none of the thirty-six in the original pack had died yet. Maria agreed to the experiment having no arguments to oppose it, keeping her growing fear for what the Macsks could become to herself. Astarte of course, sensed that fear but had no issues with it, and said nothing.