Chapter 29
Sam opened his eyes and gasped in a deep breath as he fell off his chair to the floor. Amelia was still glowing but it was fading. She had her hands around the amulet. After another minute, the glow was gone and she opened her eyes. She laid the necklace down on the table. Amelia just sat there with a soft, satisfied smile on her face. Sam wondered what she and Apsu had said, or done, after he had left them.
"Uh, Amelia? What just happened?"
She looked down at him with slightly glazed eyes, like she had forgotten he was there. "Our essences joined Apsu in his dimension." She said in a slow, lazy voice. "I thought it would be better if we both knew how the incantation needed to be performed."
He got off the floor and picked up the amulet. "We were all crammed in here?" He asked as he glanced at his watch; he had only come out of the bathroom 10 minutes ago. It had felt like the three of them had been sitting and chatting on the shady porch for an hour. She nodded and shrugged her shoulders.
Sam wondered why she was now so relaxed, almost like she and her former consort had…. He may have an insatiable curiosity, but there was no way he was going to ask what she and Apsu had done after he left. At least that's what he hoped, that it was just curiosity he was feeling, he wasn't sure. If he didn't know better, he might think he was just a little jealous.
X
Amelia was back to the 'strictly business' attitude she had adopted, but the hard edge had disappeared. They reviewed the information Apsu had given them. She helped Sam write down the words of the ritual; he might be good at Latin, but ancient Sumerian, not so much. She wanted them both to be able to recite the incantation when the time came; this way they could both work on memorizing it verbatim.
Sam was surprised at the verbal leniency in reversing the curse. He guessed Ea and the creators of the talisman 'didn't bother having it checked by the legal department'. He chuckled at his own joke. When Amelia gave no reaction, he wondered if she was completely staying out of his mind, or didn't get the joke. He kind of missed having to explain things to her. Be careful what you wish for… came to mind.
The information they gathered turned out to be good for their plan, in almost every way. Yes, they could collect the fluids individually; as long they were kept pure and fresh. The seven didn't have to be present, but Apsu never quite understood how the fluids could be kept appropriate without them being there. Amelia/Tiamat, had stopped Sam from explaining the modern technology of the Thermos bottle. Well, seven Thermos bottles; they were to be kept separate until during the ritual.
The purification ritual was also pretty vague. An 'ablution in running water' was just that. Thousands of years ago, a bath in a running river was the only way to achieve that. Considering the water quality of most rivers these days, a shower was probably better that a quick dip in a stream or river.
The last two parts had been a little harder to nail down. Sam knew Apsu had to approve each person. And that he had already approved Jody, Cassie and himself. He had liked the stories about Mike and Lucas, and Haley; and Apsu assumed they would be acceptable when he met them. He couldn't, or wouldn't tell them who was going to be the seventh person; but he was sure he had not met them yet. Sam asked if he could sense the person from his list. He couldn't, but he had sensed them in Sam's memories. 'You use your great chariot to get us to there, and I'll know them!' He had said cheerfully.
That had lend Tiamat to ask if Apsu knew who was to donate which fluid. Since he had not met all of them yet, he wasn't sure of the others. He knew the first one he met; one named Jody would supply the tears. The second, the woman that stilled loved Dean, the one called Cassie; she would give her blood. Sam started to ask the god which fluid he was going to donate, but that was when Tiamat had interrupted, stating they had to hurry.
She had one more important question; 'did Apsu know if there was a particular date that they needed to use to perform the ritual?' He had told them, he didn't know what it meant, but 'the goddess of love will lend her brightest light on the day the doors are opened'. Sam had started to ask him what that meant, when Tiamat had stood, walked over to where he was sitting and shoved him so hard he had fallen off the porch and into the blazing sun. He had opened his eyes and gasped for air just as he landed on the floor of the motel room.
X
It was still only mid-morning when they had finishing the de-briefing of their intra-dimensional visit to Apsu. Amelia had been watching Sam closely during the review; both to make sure he had suffered no lasting effects from her projecting his essence into the talisman. She also wanted to make sure he wasn't suspicious about her distracting the conversation away from the fluid he would be donating. Amelia knew; Apsu had told her when he first explained the ritual to her. It's why he had given her a puzzled look when Sam had started asking the question. She would be forever grateful for whatever had distracted Sam and caused him to miss the look on her former consort's face.
"Do you have any idea what 'the goddess of love will lend her brightest light' means?" Sam asked. "I thought you were the goddess of love?"
"I have usually been thought of as a goddess of life and procreation, which is of course related to love." She paused before adding. "There have been many goddess of love, in many different cultures. But, I'm thinking only one has a planet named after her."
"Of course, Venus." Sam was already opening his laptop as he was speaking. It only took him a minute to find what they needed. "This must be what Apsu was talking about. Venus will be at its greatest brilliancy of the year on July 12th." He counted the days in his head. "That gives us 13 days."