Did you think the day was over? I did. I wished. But no. There was more coming.

We were packing the resources gathered from the third block we'd cleaned when I saw the runner coming in from the north. The dark clouds from previous encounters disappeared when I heard what I was expecting.

"Milady Rinaldi! Banunu and Rubati have arrived and are waiting for you to join them!" He shouted between pauses to catch his breath.

I clapped my hands. "Okay, everyone. We are done here. Wrap up, gather everything on the wagons to ferry away. Zar-Kiira, Utuaa, see that the meat is evenly distributed and take note of how much each person took. Stow the bones and entrails in the boxes, I need to seal them shut. Hurry up, we are ending earlier today!"

It was as if I'd kicked an anthill. People went around, piling up the pelts, gathering the scraped fur, entrails and bones to put in the silicon boxes already on the carts for composting and I went around closing them. The wagons were about to move when they came. Soldiers pouring in from every street. They were wearing Es-Kina's colors, so it could only mean Princess Snowflake cried on daddy's lap and he decided to take action. I still had no titanium sword.

"Minister Rinaldi. The general requests your presence," A captain shouted as he approached. He was decked out for war in his scale armor with an ornate breastplate covering the upper torso and two longswords on one side. I recognized his rank because he wore the same insignia as Brandon.

I stood still. Not because I was afraid but because I felt this heartburn and a wish to torch the rest of the city. It felt like everyone was out to get me. I was even thinking how I'd poke a hole in the captain's armor to stab him. All eyes were on me and the workers parted to allow the captain and his retinue to approach. I felt cornered. It seemed that whoever defeated me would become the next pirate king.

I moved next to my helpers. "Utuaa," I called. "Get everyone out of the square and send a runner to the Enshi's palace to report this. I can't fight if I have to protect you from the soldiers and I don't want you involved in a brawl."

"We are willing to fight for you, milady," He answered.

I glowered. "If you are willing to do something, then work twice as hard to repair the city. Bleeding on it would only ruin my work. Now, scram. Get the women, wagons, and men on their way." Then after some thought, I decided I had to speak the lingo angrily even though I didn't want to. "I cant unleash Tarhun's wrath if you are in the way."

He nodded as his face cleared in understanding. "Your will be done, milady," He nodded and turned around to shout at the people around. The guards seemed okay with letting them go. They were citizens anyway and I think it would leave a bitter taste to slaughter them.

"What is your answer, woman!" Captain rude barked as he noticed my attention was not his.

"No. Tell the general that I will meet with him tomorrow morning. Not now, I have somewhere else to be."

I felt like testing him. Were these orders to drag me down dead or alive? I wouldn't go without a fight. Not today. I had somewhere else to be, and I didn't want to raise any weird death flags. The captain seemed indecisive. As he wasn't going to speak, I seized the initiative.

"As you recognized yourself, I am a minister of the city. Only the Enshi has authority over me," I showed him the cleaned lot. "And I have a city to rebuild. Tomorrow morning. I'll meet the general in the garrison. You go and convey my message to him."

He frowned, that was not what he was expecting. If he wanted to just deliver a message, the general wouldn't send a captain and twenty-something soldiers with him. No, this guy wanted to capture me.

"You won't disobey the general's orders," He barked, enraged. There was something strange about how pissed off he was. "You will come with me, woman."

And there it was. The gender card. It irritated me even more.

"And what are you going to do, captain? Drag me? I outrank you. Go away!"

He threw a punch at me. I rolled with it, falling backward in a roll and standing up a meter away from him. Why? The man was very angry and it was unreasonable for him to be so just because I disobeyed an order. He looked at me with disgust as if I was a cheating wife.

"You, woman, are a plague set upon this city. Esteemed members of our society are dying left and right ever since you arrived. You attracted Marduk's wrath on us, he wouldn't bring his army here without you. You maimed my cousin and seized the smiths that make weapons for us. It is your fault that the Enshi was poisoned. Even now you destroy the city to fill your pockets. You drove Emes-Bintu to tears with your cursed mouth. The general's orders are absolute. Guards, seize her!"

A... what could I say? The devil was in the detail and in the context. The truth was as subjective as one would like it. I mean, the magistrate was very happy pinning the blame for the arson on... Maybe it was the councilman that burned the archives anyway. But was I that much of a villain in their eyes? And while I was frozen in contemplation, two guards grabbed me by the arms.

I snapped back to reality and realized one thing.

"You like her!" I shouted with amusement. "You were already frustrated that she had the hots for Brandon and now that you've seen her crying, you just... You poor romantic! You are doing everything wrong! It is not by bashing me that you are going to win her heart."

I couldn't react yet. The people that worked for me were still in sight. I had to put up with this 'Freaking beta', as Theresa would put it.

As I delivered my next words, his face showed surprise, quickly shifting to anger and then doubt. "Look, I want her out of my hair. You want to marry Emes-Bintu," I said the name I thought was the general daughter's. His slight embarrassment confirmed it. "I can help you. C'mon, tell your men to let go of me and come. I'll show you how to win her heart."

I grinned. He punched my stomach. I was glad to wear armor. The mail and the padded doublet underneath distributed the impact enough that my half-damage boon made it feel like a harsh push. It was still a shitty move from him.

"Son of a..."

Angered, he slapped my face. I went with the blow and looked over my shoulder, the guards behind me were watching the last wagon disappear down the corner. Another punch came for my face but I now acted. I drew iron from the soldier's armor and moved it as fast as I could over my shoulders and up my face. The fist connected and the iron went dead stiff. I felt the metal hit me but it was like a mask, the force of the punch perfectly distributed around the area.

The metal escaped my control around where he punched as he made contact. It never happened before but right after he removed his hand, I regained it and it resumed its fluid state. I kept drawing more iron from around me, ruining my dagger, one of the swords and the two guard's armor. I kept the metal flowing around my neck and lower face.

"What!" One of the guards let go of me. I reached with my now free hand and slapped the other side of the guard, drawing more iron to me. He too let go out of fear.

"Now, gentlemen. It seems it's payback time."

The captain drew his sword. I rushed him. Keeping my concentration on the metal under my control was hard but I could do that. He brought the sword down and I moved iron to block. Once more it stiffened when the sword struck but then it was as if the weapon started to melt into my own personal space. I moved closer and punched his breastplate while he watched his weapon dissolve.

I pulled with my power and his armor obeyed. I had no trouble controlling the metal near his body, it seemed only a sudden impact would disturb my control. He released the weapon's hilt, only the wood-and-leather handle clattered to the ground.

Stolen story; please report.

"You demon!" He gasped.

He didn't waste much time as he reared his leg and kicked my shin. I felt my leg move from underneath me and I fell on a knee. I had too much iron around me, weighing me down. I could keep it somewhat afloat around me but I couldn't get rid of the weight. But I still had a trick up my sleeve. One I wasn't loathing to use for the first time.

"Captain. Catch," I tossed him a small latex ball.

He instinctively caught it. Then the condom dissolved, exposing the phosphorus to the air. He screamed as the sparks flew at his face and burned his glove and hand underneath. With a jolt, the burning material flew away in a random direction. I used the time to dump the iron down around me in a rough puddle-like ring. I was burning inside.

None of us were thinking straight, our anger blocking any kind of peaceful resolution.

"You wretched--"

I was down already so I planted my hands down and rotated my legs behind me in a corta-capim sweep, bringing them around and taking his legs down from under him. I flipped back and regained my footing on a backward roll.

"C'mon, asshole!" I shouted back at him. "Come and die to a woman! How will your precious snowflake think after you lose here, eh?" In hindsight, I regret that taunt. It crossed too many lines.

He charged, drawing the other sword. A brown and white blur came down from the sky and struck the captain. Dime had made his entrance. The Sky-lord drew a spray of blood as his talons dug deep gashes down both sides of the captain's face from the brow to the cheek, ruining his eyes. He then beat his wings and took to the skies.

I deflected the now unguided sword with the sleeve of my mail and summoned my knife. I slashed at his neck but stopped almost too late.

Taking a step backward and covered by the sprayed blood, I screamed my lungs out, an ear-splitting unbridled sharp cry. Penny whinnied loudly, rearing up. Dime screeched up in the sky.

On his knees, the captain clawed at his face. He too was screaming.

----------------------------------------

I was sitting on a stone bench, watching the sunset through a rather large window in the sandstone walls of the palace. Across the room, I saw the scowling face of the general. The man was beyond pissed.

The soldiers withdrew with their maimed captain. Then I met the general and the envoy from the palace summoned us. Longs story short, we were waiting for an audience with Nephew. The mood in the waiting room was awful. I wanted to talk but I knew it would backfire on my face. So I ignored him and kept staring at the sunset. The dry environment allowed the rays of the sun to pierce deeply and dye the sky with beautiful shades of red and orange.

Just like all the blood I spread on the streets today.

"Did you--" The general started to talk but stopped.

By my side, Dime gave a low and long chirp-growl, dropping its neck down and staring at the general as a warning. I moved my and petted the green head of this marvelous mallard-colored eagle.

"Did he? Did he have to brutalize me?" I asked back, without turning to face him.

I felt as if I'd start another fight if I looked at him.

"No, he didn't," He replied with a stern tone. "He was at a fault and he paid dearly for that. You were very cruel in not killing him. Living as a blind man will be worse than death for him."

"He can go kill himself if he doesn't want to live," I felt my heart sink as the words left me. "I killed too much already. Don't wanna."

To my surprise, the general chuckled. "I've seen the devastation you wrought on Marduk's camp myself. Bones picked clean by scavengers, broken beyond recognition. Do you know how the soldiers we captured called you?"

"Don't care."

"The female Harbinger. Tarhun's wrath," He said with an amused growl. There was no disrespect in his voice, at least not toward the god that put me in this mess. "They even avoided coming near the city fearing you and for that, we have to thank you. They could very well assault the city and we would pay dearly to repel that many desperate soldiers. They spread to the south and some were even crossing the wastes heading east. Very few dared to return home."

Jerks, all of them. I kept my mouth shut, looking at the slowly fading light like I was visiting the Louvre.

I heard fire crackling. The servants were going around, lighting up torches. The Enshi's palace would function deep into the night today.

"I'm sorry I'm late," The magistrate's voice rang from the door leading outside of the waiting room. "Milady Rinaldi, it is good to see you healthy."

I sighed. "I'm pretty sure it is almost impossible for me to die, magistrate. Not for a lack of people trying to, though."

"I heard of your latest exploits already," He replied with a neutral tone, keeping his cards to his chest. "General."

"Magistrate."

Silence reigned. I missed Banunu and Rubati's arrival. I wasn't spending time with the children I was supposed to look after and it was grating me. I blinked and the tears rolled down.

Why the heck was I doing this? What was I supposed to do? Yes, volunteer to help. Great. Couldn't the Enshi's powers keep the jerks from trying to bite a piece off of me? Because mine obviously couldn't.

I punched the side of the windowsill and used Decompose to imprint my knuckles into the sandstone. The silicon crumbled down in flakes but the aluminum I moved under my hand and welded it to the titanium as a small bead next to the gold.

Not even the scribes, dammit.

"Please refrain from destroying the palace," The general's stern voice rang behind me.

"Maybe I should be as they call me," I replied in a bitter tone. "Destroying just a palace is beneath me. I should finish the job the other Harbinger started and destroy this world. How would you like it, general?"

I turned around, sat straight and stared. The rugged veteran didn't flinch from the eye contact, staring back. An eternal moment passed and nobody spoke. The magistrate watched our altercation with amusement.

"My friends prosper and live happily. My enemies, they seem to be too dumb to avoid ruin. Where do you stand, general?"

He blinked. "I'm not dumb."

That I got a defensive statement from him was already a minor victory.

"I was too naive. I thought we could cooperate, work together for the greater good. But the hearts and minds of the people here are too dim, too small. Too petty. They only see personal gain at the expense of others. The magistrate there, for example, was too quick in seizing the dead councilman's assets underneath my nose before even his blood dried."

Yes, I was out to pick a fight. And I would take every single one of them. The general broke eye contact and stared at the magistrate.

"He torched the archives! We caught his slaves that confessed the whole thing," He said defensively.

"Yes. After I caught the scribes he and others bribed to change the deeds so they could own more land inside the city, he thought that destroying the other copies would force the doctored ones to surface."

"And now you own the only copy of the records," The magistrate added.

"Weren't there a third copy? Here in the palace?"

"Only of the most important documents," He replied bitterly. "And the land deeds are not one of them."

The doors to the audience chamber opened. An old scribe I'd seen before came out.

"The magnanimous Enshi Es-Kina will see you now. Please be polite in his holy presence. I could hear your bickering from behind these heavy doors."

The scribe gave us a cold glower. Even the general seemed contrite. The three of us moved and entered the audience chamber. It was just like I remembered. Without a roof, the torchlight glare made the top seem like an endless abyss. On his stone throne dominating the back of the room, Nephew sat.

He was a wretched sight. Whatever blessing Ishtar gave him to stave off his radioactive poisoning, it seemed to just slow it down, not halt or reverse entirely. He looked like Freddy Kruger, Palpatine and Eddie had a love child and that child then played with boiling acid.

The general and magistrate took a step forward and knelt. I stood at the back. Nephew's eyes met mine and he smirked. I could swear a flake of skin fell from his cheek.

"Gentlemen," He spoke. Even his voice was raspy. "Minister Rinaldi. I summoned you here to ask,"

He made a dramatic pause to catch his breath. I could see he was forcing himself not to cough.

"Why the hells are you giving my minister of development and agriculture trouble?" He roared. "She has done a splendid job cleaning up the debris left behind by the fires, which I think are not over yet," He glowered at the magistrate and the man curved down. "And yet your greed keeps causing her trouble. I can find a new magistrate and general easily. You tell me where will I find another blessed maiden with her powers."

The way he said that was creepy. I felt goosebumps rise in my arms and a chill down my spine. His threat to these two couldn't be clearer but that wasn't what bothered me. It was the reverence with which he said 'blessed maiden'. Nephew's message was clear, he wanted me up there in that altar with him. And my heart was like, 'Nope, nope, nope'.

"Milady, minister Rinaldi," Nephew addressed me. "What punishment should I give these two, for bothering you?"

And now the jerk was making me their executioner. But I had just the thing.

"They should report for duty tomorrow in front of the ministry headquarters. Each of them should bring forty able-bodied laborers and ten women. The general's daughter should be one of them. For the next three days, they will be stripped of their ranks and work under me, faithfully. Should I deem their work acceptable after three days, they will be reinstated in their positions without any further repercussions and the events of today shall be put behind us as just a bitter memory, none of the parties involved shall seek further compensation or vengeance."

In three days I hoped to turn their opinions around. Or I'd just quit this shit. Call me dumb for trying over and over again, but this was my world now. Should I walk away and become a hermit in the mountains? Pilgrimage to the Ruined City of Snow I saw on the pictures?

I could see Nephew didn't like my proposal but he clapped his hands, a sign of approval.

"They call the Enshi magnanimous but the Lady's mercy shames me," He joked. "So shall it be. You are stripped of your ranks and positions for three days. An audience shall be held at dusk of the third day when I will hear Lady Rinaldi's opinion of your work. I suggest you give your best to cooperate with her, gentlemen. You are dismissed."

The general and magistrate stood up and moved backward until they left the room, then turned around and made a beeline for the exit. I was about to go after them but the old scribe blocked my path.

"Milady Rinaldi, please join me for dinner," Nephew ordered.

Worst.

Day.

Ever.