Eresh's Resolve

"It's over now, everyone. I think. Stay calm! I'm going out to check."

No matter what she had been in the past, she was a leader. A priestess. A queen, and a mother. The people of New Asshur, and even the desert beyond, looked to her for protection and guidance. And the foul magic from the North had put fear in her. The fear for her children. For her home.

So much chaos to come, Mother Derketo had laughed in her dreams, voice lovely and rasping. 'Death and rebirth, my lovely. Can you hear the death-rattles amongst the moans?'

She'd become more attuned to that foolishness in the interim months, between the last cataclysm and this one. She knew the signs - the fleeing of animals, the babbling of blind seers, the curdling milk and unease of her acolytes. She knew it was coming. And so she'd prepared.

The animals were set loose, including the beloved lion she'd called after her first husband, and her pearl-white mare Calima. She sent them away with kisses and promises to find them. The innards of the zikkurat were reinforced - triangles, she ordered, to withstand the earthquakes. They laid up food and drink that would not spoil. Medical supplies. Oils and implements for emergency prayers.

Her wisdom had paid off. When the next cataclysm came, the Asshuri had huddled in their man-made cavern beneath the zikkurat while the world around them was destroyed. And now, it was time to emerge.

The desert sunlight was blinding as Reshti stepped into it, after so long underground. She was the first to emerge, the herald and protector of her people, followed closely by the enormous Cimmerian called Chullain. He gripped a weapon and guarded her like a hound. All around them, rubble - but the triangles had only grown stronger under the pressure. Though Asshur was destroyed yet again, and Sepermeru lay half-buried in sand, they had survived. They would rebuild.

Reshti smiled, then grinned, and laughed with a savage glee. Chullain shifted and touched her back lightly.

"It's safe!" she cried again, and slowly, the Asshuri began to emerge from the rubble to lay eyes on their queen in all her savage glory.

Bruised, bleeding from her scrabble out of the ruins, her hair wild and her eyes glowing gold in the sun - she was Eresh-e-Banit, High Priestess of Derketo, Queen of Asshur, Governor of Sepermeru, Regent of the Western Desert...

And she would bring order to the chaos once again.