Which are the mountains not clothed with your beams?
Which are the regions not warmed by the brightness of your light?
Brightener of gloom, illuminator of darkness,
Dispeller of darkness, illuminator of the broad earth.
-Hymn to Shamash, translated by W. G. Lambert
Adrianna
After Adam spoke the word, there was an explosion of something…dust? smoke? Adrianna's ears popped and she closed her eyes reflexively. When she looked back, heart in her mouth, the man on her battered office sofa was very different - though, thankfully, alive. She had seen Adam in his human form before, but then he had already been unconscious, bound and muzzled - so diminished from his divine form that he hadn't even seemed real. In his divine form, Adam was like a cross between a man and a mountain, imposing as a thunderhead. This Adam was lean and spare, compact, with the build of someone who had worked hard on too little food for a long time. He sat still and straight, wearing a draped linen kilt, a clay amulet on a thong around his neck, and…dear god…sandals hand-braided out of straw. 5,000 year old straw! He could have been one of any number of men, sitting out drinking coffee on their front stoops. Except for the eyes. Those were the same, dark as polished jet, deep and intense.
"Incredible," she breathed. Adam's eyebrows crimped together in confusion.
Right. He can't speak English in this form.
Well, then. Isn't it lucky that someone's been studying ancient Khandaqi for her entire adult life?
"How do you feel?" She asked him. "Are you well?"
He looked down at his side - unmarked - and pulled the hem of his kilt up a few inches. No wound.
"Yes," he said. Even he sounded surprised.
It came to Adrianna that she'd have to hide him somehow - in his human form, he was as vulnerable as anyone. She pulled her phone from her pocket and called Karim.
"Hey, sis!" He answered. "Did I forget something in your office, or do you just miss me?"
"I need some things."
She explained the situation and turned Karim loose to get clothes for Adam and drop Amon off at the apartment, then turned back to Adam, who was sitting patiently, watching her. She switched to Khandaqi.
"We need to hide you for a time. Karim is…"
Her phone rang again.
"Karim, what is the problem?" She answered impatiently.
"Um…The problem is that I'm not Karim?" It was the soft voice of Abdel, her former colleague at the University and the current leader of the Aistieada. "I was hoping to have a word with you, in person if that's alright. I know you've had a…busy few days."
Adrianna cursed silently.
"Yes, yes," she said. "That's fine. I can meet you in an hour."
Adrianna felt a little guilty for dropping the newly human Adam on Amon without much explanation, but this was perhaps the most sensitive moment the Aistieada - and the country - had ever faced. If Abdel wanted to speak to her, she had to go.
Abdel lived above a small shop, whose owner, a round and gray-haired woman, waved to Adrianna as she passed. Abdel welcomed her graciously, waving her to the sofa and handing her a little cup of strong, sweet coffee that she drank with immense gratitude. Abdel's tiny home was as full of books and journals as Adrianna's office, and she had always found it soothing. Today, however, the man who had weathered imprisonment and beatings without losing his own serenity seemed uniquely ill at ease.
"How are you, Adrianna?" He said, after he had set aside his cane and eased himself into the chair across from her.
"Like you said," she replied guardedly. "It's been a busy few days."
He nodded, smoothed his curly hair back from his forehead. Abdel had a distinguished face that had been very handsome in his youth, with a square jaw and soulful, movie-star eyes - eyes that would now not quite meet hers.
"How is Amon?" Abdel asked.
"Fine…" she said. "I didn't think you called me for small talk. We need to plan for elections…"
"True, true," he cut her off, uncharacteristically. Abdel had always been more likely to listen than to interrupt. "I have to ask you. The Champion. Do you know where he is?"
Adrianna had a sudden surge of panic and took a sip of her coffee to give herself time. He didn't know what had happened to Adam. Nobody knew. And since when had she distrusted Abdel? He had bled for Khandaq in a very real sense. During his incarceration his leg had ben permanently crippled, and still he had never stopped his work.
"I don't," she lied. "Should I?"
Abdel smiled, smoothed his hair again, took up his carved wooden cane and turned it in his hands.
"You two seem…close," he said. "He's been seen with you, talking to you. They say he carried you to the…incident…at the Palace."
Abdel met her eyes. Adrianna took another sip and hoped she didn't look shifty.
"We thought you might know something we didn't." He concluded.
Adrianna almost laughed. She knew a lot of things about the Champion that the Aistieada didn't. We. Now that was interesting. They'd been meeting about her, without her. She had been part of the we, and now she was suddenly on the outside of it.
"He doesn't have a cell phone," Adrianna said with forced jocularity. "And I don't exactly have a Bat-signal, so…"
He cut her off again.
"I know it's strange," Abdel said, "but we have to acknowledge it. What has happened is unprecedented and the Aistieada - the country - is not prepared. The Champion has changed everything. Without his intervention…"
Abdel trailed off, but Adrianna knew what he would say. Without Adam they would have worked thanklessly for years and probably ended up imprisoned or dead. Abdel continued.
"Those 'heroes' from the United States have already made a play. What happens when China decides to send their own? Or India? Without the Champion, how would we stop even the mundane forces of China or India from deciding to gulp us down in one, big bite? Our Eternium is too tempting to pass up."
He smiled ruefully. Adrianna didn't know what to say. It was all true.
"Adrianna…you know I've always loved fairy tales," he smiled fondly at the books all around him, "but I'm too old to believe them anymore. What can you tell me about the Champion?"
"He destroyed Akh-Ton's throne," she said. "He doesn't want to be a king. He said - before he…left, he said he would protect Khandaq from its enemies."
"Well," Abdel said. "He's made quite a start."
He turned his cane in his hands again. He looked as tired as Adrianna felt.
"It is absolutely imperative," Abdel said, softly, but forcefully, "that the Champion stay invested in Khandaq. He has to stay loyal, and he has to stay…pacified, for lack of a better word."
"And I'm the one to pacify him." Adiranna's coffee suddenly tasted bitter in her mouth. She put the cup down on the coffee table with a clink. "You're sending me to tame Enkidu with my womanly wiles, is that what this conversation is about?"
Again Abdel wouldn't meet her eyes. "I don't mean to offend you."
Adrianna stood up and took her bag. "I'm tired Abdel. I haven't slept in 46 hours. I promise, I will search each and every ancient tomb, and when I find the Champion, I will entice him with my woman's power to the best of my ability. You'll be proud."
She swept off before Abdel could object further, too directionlessly angry to return the shopkeeper's goodbye on the way out. Even as she stomped, seething, down the street, Adrianna knew her anger at Abdel was outsized. His concerns were, she frustratingly had to admit to herself, entirely rational. Maybe it was because Abdel was doing the same thing that "Justice Society" had done but from the other side - treating Adam like some kind of playing piece on the global chessboard. Or a weapon, something they could aim and fire. Adam was, without question, as dangerous as a nuclear bomb - maybe more so, because he could think for himself. But there was a man in there, a man who had suffered, and lost. They all seemed to forget that.
But him being trapped like he is puts your whole country in danger, said her inner voice of reason, infuriatingly.
"Damn it. Damn it!" Adrianna said to herself. A man working on boarding up his broken window started and she said a quick "Sorry!"
She thought as she walked, trying to interrogate herself like she used to push her students.
Why didn't Adam understand the characters inscribed on the knife?
Well, professor me, I'm not a magic expert…
That isn't an answer. Speculate.
Maybe they're alien, and his power only works on human writing.
Good guess. What else?
Maybe they're not really a 'language', just made-up magic symbols.
Hmm…we should have tested him with European alchemical codes and seen if they made any sense. Too late now. What else?
Maybe…Adrianna stopped walking, as the thought occurred to her.
Maybe they're old. Older than the Wizards who gave Adam his power. Older than the names of the gods they swore by.
Now that we can work with.
In the middle of the sidewalk, Adrianna pulled out her phone to send a quick message to a friend.
She arrived at her apartment door breathless, heart jumping from too much exertion, too little sleep and too much caffeine.
"Hi, mom!" Amon greeted her, almost offensively energetic as only the young could be. "Check it out! Great progress, huh?"
Adam had followed Amon to the door. He had taken off his borrowed shirt and dust was sticking to his lean chest.
"Great," she answered Amon. "I need Adam for a second."
She switched to Khandaqi. "Put your clothes on. We're going for a walk."
She said a hasty goodbye to Amon and hustled Adam down the stairs and into the street before realizing that she really didn't know where they were going. After Abdel's questions, she had a nervous urge to check on him - like how she imagined an inexpert thief would check on her stolen goods after the police came knocking, to make sure they were still there.
When they reached the street, Adam's eyes darted from side to side, taking in all the unfamiliar stimuli.
"Not like flying, is it?" she asked, and he rewarded her with that almost imperceptible smile.
As they crossed the street, she laced her arm through his without a thought, as if he really were her country uncle. His arm tensed, then relaxed.
She realized after a moment that she was taking them to the dig that surrounded the ziggurat, in the heart of town. The dig - and the accompanying restoration of the ziggurat - were a reflection of Khandaq's recent history in miniature. The British had begun the project, carting artifacts back to their own country for glory and prestige. The first presidents had kept it going to fan the flames of their country's nascent patriotism, though it had been terribly underfunded. Asim, at first, had vowed to complete the dig and return the ziggurat to its ancient glory, as he would do for Khandaq, but he had abandoned it when the mines proved to be much more lucrative. Then, of course, the so-called "Justice Society of America" had rampaged through it without a thought for anything beyond the ends of their own noses.
Now the ziggurat stood in the center of a half-excavated warren of ancient passages and rooms, tarps propped over it to keep out the infrequent rain. Adrianna jumped down into a passage and Adam followed. She led Adam around a corner and down a corridor to what they called the Main Entry - a wide walkway, its columns carved with gods and ancient prayers she had helped translate. Back before she became persona non grata, she had worked on the dig as both a student and a professor. She'd spent more time there than in most of the apartments she'd lived in - it soothed her, standing in that ancient corridor. But, it occurred to her, seeing Adam's eyes gleaming in the light that filtered through the tarps, that he may not feel so at ease.
How would you feel if you got to visit your office in 5,000 years, lying in ruins in a future you never imagined? She mentally kicked herself.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
"My leg is well, thank you," he replied, face inscrutable.
"That's not…" she sighed. And then, because she couldn't resist, said, "What was it like?"
Adam reached out and touched a carved column, as gently as if it were alive.
"It was all painted," he said, softly. "With flecks of gold and crushed lapis lazuli. It shone in the sun. Before Akh-Ton, this was a temple and a gathering place. The priests live there," he pointed off to one side. "And on holy days, the people would come in singing, from the east."
At this Adam raised his hands and began to sing.
"This feeble man calls you from the hollow of his mouth,
The humble, the weak, the afflicted, the poor.
She whose son is captive unceasingly calls you.
He whose family is remote, whose city is distant,
The shepherd amid the terror of the steppe calls you,
The herdsman in warfare, the keeper of sheep among enemies.
The roving dead, the vagrant soul,
They call you, Shamash, and you hear all.
For my sake, Shamash, do not deny them!"
His voice was soft, rough, the voice of someone who didn't sing very often. It was the most beautiful thing Adrianna had ever heard. Adrianna loved archaeology because she loved people. When she unearthed a tablet or translated a carving, it was like reaching out into the past to grasp someone's hand. For the first time, someone had reached back.
I should be recording this, she thought.
Adam stopped, looked back at her with that half-smile. "I am not a singer."
In that moment, Adrianna wanted to wrap Adam up like a vase and put him somewhere no one could harm him. A rather absurd feeling given that, for much of the time she'd known him, he could blow the top off a mountain without too much effort.
She cleared her throat. "That was wonderful, Adam. Thank -"
Her phone rang and she cursed under her breath. Dr. Lee.
"I need to take this, sorry."
She walked away from Adam to answer.
"I've been looking over your runes. I think I have a match." She'd met Dr. Lee through correspondence and the occasional Zoom call, and the older woman had never sounded so excited. "From a ceremonial site. At Göbekli Tepe."
"Göbekli Tepe?" Adrianna couldn't contain her shock. "But…that's a neolithic site. There's no writing there."
"There are inscriptions," Dr. Lee answered. "Inscriptions whose meaning had remained a mystery to generations of researchers. You say the artifact in question is newly made?"
"Yes. As far as I can tell."
"You should come to the site," Dr. Lee continued. "I know the team, I can make some calls to get you access."
"I'll be there as soon as I can."
Adrianna hung up, stuffed her phone back in her pocket. It was a risk - but then again, even sending the pictures to Dr. Lee had been a risk. If the mystery magician wanted Adam, would they be waiting at the site? Maybe they were already watching her? Adrianna's skin crawled and she mentally shook herself. This was their only lead. Khandaq was balanced on a razor's edge. They needed the Champion. He couldn't afford to just be a man.
"My friend thinks she knows something about the knife…" Adrianna stopped short. Adam was standing in the walkway, fists clenched, face fixed in an expression of…terror.
"What's happened?" When Adrianna touched his arm, Adam jerked away.
"...Nothing," he said, after a moment. It was as if a door closed behind his eyes. Though they were reddened as if from tears, their expression was unreadable. He was so good at hiding, Adrianna thought. But then again, he'd had to be. "What were you saying?"
"A friend of mine thinks she might recognize the writing on the knife," Adrianna repeated. "We need to go to Turkey…another country to the West."
He nodded. "When do we leave?"
"Well, it's not that simple…" Adrianna began, before being interrupted by a loud growling. Her stomach, and, she realized, Adam's. Growling in concert. She began to laugh, and then, seeing Adam's flat expression, found she couldn't stop. She took a few deep breaths. She needed some sleep. And, obviously, some dinner.
"It looks like we both need to account for human frailty now," she said, once she could trust herself to speak again. "Let's go home. We can plan in the morning."
She took his arm again as they walked back through the city. It didn't seem strange at all.
I think Adrianna has a bit of a crush! Think about it people - for Adrianna, human!Adam is sexier than hero!Adam, because he can give her first-hand accounts of ancient life and correct her Khandaqi pronunciation.
I realize everyone in this story has a name starting with the letter "A", and I'm sorry - but Abdel Nasser was the second president of Egypt and I based the character on him a bit.
Adrianna's reference to Enkidu comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh - which section I could not use as a page quote because it was too...descriptive. In order to tame wild-man Enkidu, a "child of pleasure" from the temple of Ishtar boinks him for literally six days. I love ancient literature. The hymn Adam sings is also from the "Hymn to Shamash" where I got the chpater quote, slightly altered to fit more with my own writing style.
Next chapter up, we will find our what happened to Adam while Adrianna was on the phone...