Dan sat up looking around and found himself once again in the dusty shop interior of his store, the surrounding artifacts of the store would have made any historian squirm with delight as they found themselves among its shelves. There were things from every era in the Middle Eastern timeline, some recognizable, others built by different hands which would make it hard for any looking to do so to place them in any sort of order.

That is to say there were things man made and otherwise, not by Mother Nature, or maybe somewhere, seeing as Mother Nature was a person, and she even had a name, had quite a few if what he had just learned was true, and he really doubted it was not.

Sitting up he found himself being looked upon by everyone in his party, it was odd and also a little reassuring, seeing as even Nix, a former goddess put under his care was also looking towards him and regarding him as a leader, and he could not see the hatred he once saw in those large red eyes. Nix looked at him and walked forward, falling to her knees in front of him and hanging her head. Two words leaked out of her mouth, each etched with such weight Dan was almost surprised they didn’t fall to the ground with a thud.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered, but in the noiseless interior of the shop she might as well had shouted it at the top of her lungs.

“There is nothing to be sorry for,” he said with a smile, “I know how bad it looked, I am not sure I would have done any better myself, I really didn’t want to do what I did, but it was the only way I had to save Sara, and I was not going to let anything happen to her.” Nix looked up, her face searching his own, and nodded, her eyes glowing slightly as she did so.

Dan tore his gaze away from those eyes, and looked up at his first wife, Amani, she always stood there by his side through thick and thin, like she was a part of him. “Amani, is it possible for us to get to wherever we need to go like you just did?” He asked, referring to the teleporting that they just did to get out of the Lamia capital city and to get back here. To get there it had been Abyzou that had opened the portal, but her emotions were in too much turmoil for her to be able to open a stable portal so they had instead used Amani to teleport them back.

“I can only go to where I have seen, there is no way for me to go somewhere I have never been.” She answered, almost like she knew where he wanted to go.

“We need to get to talk to Asherah,” he said with a stiff smile, it would seem that once again this goddess was at the center of everything, the center of his entire life, and perhaps the center of his soul. She was quite literally the glue that was holding him and everything together. “What if I have been there is it possible for me to describe it and you send me there?” he asked looking almost pleadingly up at her.

“I can only send us to where I have seen, ” she said and Dan was almost about to sigh in frustration when she walked over and placed her hands on either side of his head, “So if you truly want to go there then you will have to allow me to see.” She said her eyes dilating, the green spreading to cover the white, and the black following until she had only midnight black in those almond shaped eyes. Her bronze forehead rested against his own, even as he had to bring his head down slightly to accommodate her, seeing as she was slightly smaller than he was.

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A cold feeling rushed through him and he felt his attention being drawn into those eyes, he didn’t know where, but he could feel her, hear her speaking as she stared deep into his eyes, drawing him there.

‘let me see, let me see anything, let me see everything.’

Her voice echoed in his head, he blinked once, looking away from those deep dark eyes, before completely surrendering everything to her, absolutely everything, every thought emotion and memory he released his grip on. He could feel her, her delight at this total acceptance and then her mood darkened as the memories of his contact with Asherah shared between the two of them.

She pulled back, the darkness in her eyes fading and shrinking leaving her eyes the same emerald green as they had been before, but now they were staring at him with an upset looking. “You almost died when Abyzou’s poison set in?” she said, and Abyzou behind her stiffened when she said this.

“Not really,” he said with an apologetic shrug, “It really wasn’t that bad.”

“It was bad enough that the veil of life and death was thin enough for a goddess to pull you out of your mortal husk and pull you to the land beyond land and to ask if you have had any regrets at your own death!” She shouted practically shaking him with her hands almost in time with the words. “That is pretty damn bad!”

“I came through though didn’t I?” he asked as he allowed the small Djinn to shake him back and forth with a worried expression in her eyes.

“That doesn’t matter!” She yelled.

“Me coming through doesn’t matter?” He asked her a small smile on the corner of his lips.

“No! I mean Yes! ” she paused, stopping shaking him and looked at him dangerously; “Don’t you dare twist my words.” She growled at him, and he couldn’t help himself he smiled, and for which he received a sharp slap against his chest. “I can get us there,” she paused and looked back at the group, her eyes focusing on Sara.

“She will come as well.” Dan said, his words resolved, as though there was no room for discussion of the matter.

“Everyone else has some sort of divinity, even myself, seeing as I am a creation of nature and nature is part of the divine as well, but Sara is human, and no human has ever set foot in-” Amani paused, she looked over at Sara again. “That place.”

“I did, before I became a demigod.” Dan answered.

“That is different, you were never actually human, but you thought yourself human, and had yet to awaken, meaning that you still seemed human, even though you are in all actuality a shard of a god if what you told me is correct.”

“I am me, not Ea.” Dan said, and to his relief he saw Amani nodding in agreement.

“It is as I told-” Abyzou paused, obviously upset with where her thoughts had taken her, “That woman, it is because you are Dan.”

“Abyzou,” Dan started but she held up a hand.

“Not right now Dan, please,” she said in a small voice. He looked at her and simply nodded.

“Where Dan and you all go I go.” Sara said, her face set, “I may not be a goddess, but I will help in any way I can.”

“You will be the first human to set foot in the divine realm.” Amani said looking at her, she then turned to look at Dan. “They will resent you for this, seeing it as a defiance, seeing as Ea made man and you, a shard of Ea are now as they would undoubtedly see it defiling there holy place.”

Dan smiled grimly, “Well, that means it is another thing to add to my book of sins, damn, before the week is over they may run out of pages to write on.” His smile turned predatory, “Ereshkigal said Asherah didn’t have much time, we need to go, time to make an assault on the heavens.” He hefted his khopesh and steeled himself, a single word echoing in his head and steeling his resolve to see this done.

Damgulanna.

Faithful wife.