Nigkala Tales Pt. 12: Continuing education

"I'm in the film business. I know the value of intellectual property."

"You are? What do you do?"

"Ever hear of the Nigkala Tales series of films?"

"Yeah. You a subject-matter-expert? Help with the language and such?"

"You've never seen them, have you?"

"No. I'm more a horror fan. Why?"

"I'm the actress, Helen Asher, who plays the lead."

"Huh?"

"I'm quite tall, have four breasts, and am a skilled fighter. It is an easy role for me. My lack of shame or embarrassment of nudity and sex means they can be quite, shall we say, explicit? While the X-Rated versions don't get as many in the theater, they sell like hotcakes in the video market. The R-Rated versions, however, dominate the theaters when released. Sex and violence sells. I'm sure you noticed my sex appeal."

"Yeah. I noticed."

"Have you seen 'Lilith Ascends'?"

"No. I'm waiting for it to come out on cable. Why?"

"Oh, you might be seeing someone you know in it." I smiled broadly.

"You?"

"Yep. I play Tina, and my husband plays Gabriel. We had fun making it. So, what's next?" I gestured to the stuff we brought up.

He opened his briefcase, and took out several items. They weren't jewelry, or other obvious implements used back then. But I did recognize one item. Pointing to it, I said, "This looks to be a variant of the holy symbol for An, the god of the sky. Enheduanna would have used it. Let me think on the others a moment."

In silence, I asked, "Queen Inanna, I have come across some unusual historical objects from Sumerian times. One is a holy symbol of the god of the sky. Would you like to see, and perhaps comment?"

Suddenly, I felt her presence, and my eyes gazed over them all. Then they gazed over the curator. "He's rather short. You had him?"

"Just a few minutes ago. Seems he had trouble focusing with a naked woman next to him."

"Ha ha. Nice one. Of those other items, the two on the left are used for divination spells. They still feel potent. The one near the top is a rare form of dildo, but designed for the asshole. The last one is also used for spells, but you will need to investigate to figure out what it does. I sense a strong divine touch, which hampers my own senses. That's pretty normal for significant holy items of a god or goddess. Be careful though. You are mine, so fooling around with another's' divine implement could be dangerous."

"Thank you, my queen. I will be careful."

"Daughter, let me know when you do try. I want to watch, and maybe keep you from something dire."

"I will."

Since Inanna gave me a full understanding even as she spoke, I was able to identify the first three items for him, but on the fourth, I said, "This item feels touched by the divine. It also feels potent. Be careful examining it. The gods might guard their property."

"Touched by the divine, that's nonsense."

"Let me show you something." I left, and returned with the large holy symbol of Inanna I wore on occasion. "Do you recognize this?"

"Yes. Inanna's holy symbol. Used by her priests. Why?"

"It is mine. It's too complicated and private as to how it happened, but I am one of her modern day priestesses. That is not public information, so don't tell anyone. This symbol has been blessed by Queen Inanna herself. She is a goddess of sex and war. You've seen my sexual side, but I am also quite skilled in the arts of war, at least as known back then. Much of those skills I trained, but some she trained. Here, examine the symbol."

He reverently picked it up. "This is a remarkable piece of art. It is in pristine condition. These look like the real thing. I would have to test, but..."

"Trust me, it is real. I helped make it."

"Huh?"

"I make all my own clothes, since my size and form make off-the-rack clothing unsuitable. I've been doing it since Junior High. In High School, I got involved in cosplay. My jewelry skills back then weren't very good, but I studied. At the debut of my first film, I was in my own outfit, but the jewelry I had made wasn't quite good enough. I went back and studied more. I even passed the test to be a licensed jewelry maker. I made this."

"Wow. Is there anything you can't do?"

"Part of the acting trade is learning enough about whatever profession you portray to be convincing. That often means you have to actually do work as that profession to get the authentic feel. Additionally, since I started early, I am a licensed fight trainer and choreographer, licensed costumer, and I even wrote 'Space Kitty II'."

"My girlfriend talked all about that. She said it was a wonderful romp. Talked my ear off."

"What's her name?"

"Sally, why?"

"You'll see. Now back to the holy symbol. Can you feel anything odd when you touch it?"

Just then, it glowed briefly. He almost dropped it. "Wh... wh... what just happened. It feels, I don't know, somehow different. I can't explain it."

"I think someone wanted you to see it was real." I took it back. "Excuse me a sec." I left, and when I came back, I handed him a signed photo of me as Kitty Galore.

He took it. I had written 'To my romp loving fan, Sally' and it had my signature as Helen Asher. "Oh, she's going to love this. But how am I going to explain this?"

"Just tell her you met Helen at the museum. I've been known to darken its doors a few times."

"Okay. Think she'll buy that?"

"It's the truth. Back to the artifacts. Do you believe me now?"

"I don't know what to believe, but now I know to be careful. I will also pass along that warning. Their belief is another matter."

"That translating I did for Dr. Kaplan? It was on a 'cursed' book. The official explanation may deny it, but there were several dead bodies. I managed to subdue the curse. It should be safe for centuries, but it may come back. I am sure you have heard other tales of curses. How real they are is open to debate, but the bodies do seem to collect on some things and places more than other things and places."

"I see. I have heard such tales."

"What else do you have?"

"A puzzle."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. The dig also recovered the remains of half a dozen, or so, tablets. I don't know why they were in my custody, but they cannot realistically be displayed, nor do I have the resources to try to reassemble them. I was hoping you might help." He pulled a memory stick. "Here is the inventory of the tablet pieces, along with scans to identify them."

"Have you used AI to virtually assemble them?"

"I didn't, but others tried. Apparently, there wasn't enough information to reassemble. But human insight can sometimes do where AI fails. Your translating the display tablet so quickly indicates you are very smart, so I thought you might want to try."

"Can you leave them with me?"

"Yes. That's why I brought the crates. The exhibit runs for another two months, and if you can show progress, I think I can get forgiveness for letting you hold onto them for a bit."

"I shall be glad to look into them."

With that, the Evan took his leave. He packed up his briefcase with the small, odd artifacts, and then I walked him to the door. I went back upstairs to my office, and opened up one of the smaller crates to see how they were packed. I only pulled out three of the pieces before putting everything back.

I sat down and thought about the task. These were real tablets, and given how much they weighed, there were more likely eight tablets worth. I decided to take over the largest spare bedroom. However, I had to wait for Matthew's friends to leave as they were using all the spares. While I could not do a clean room, I could make it a fairly clean work area. I looked up a local supplier, and called for a bulk order of gloves for next-day delivery. Another supplier provided some wood panels. I then uploaded the memory stick and started examining the images. I sorted and re-arranged them a number of times, when I suddenly spotted what amounted to several different styles of writing.

I started tagging the images by writing style, and see where that got me. Further study showed I tagged some incorrectly. I then thought about other characteristics that might have been missed. I pulled up the report on the AI effort, and learned they only used the shapes of the fragments, and the places where the cuneiform touched the edges. I thought I might be able to tag by material as well. So I sorted by color. I noticed there were several bands of color, so I tagged each band as part of a group, leaving the between band pieces untagged. Doing some more analysis, I managed to separate by band and writing style. Not counting the strays, I wound up with nine groups. Noticing the time, I sent the results to the printer.

When I went downstairs, I saw the remains of dinner strewn about the kitchen. I sent Matthew a text about cleaning up after himself. I then looked to see what was in the fridge. I found something, and used the microwave to heat it up. While I was eating, Matthew came in.

"Hi mom."

"This place is a mess. I know we have a maid, but still, I didn't raise you to be a slob, or to let your friends trash a place. I expect everything will be orderly for the maid to finish up when she comes in tomorrow."

"But mom, they sent me in for some beer."

"You can have some, but I expect you to clean up before you go to bed tonight. Oh, be sure you don't leave the house in a mess. I will check."

He gave a long-suffering, "Yes, mom." Then he got some beer from the fridge and left.

I noticed he took two six-packs out, but didn't replace it from the beer cabinet. So when I finished my meal and cleaned my place up, I pulled room temperature sis-packs from the cabinet and put it into the fridge. I took a cold single, and went to my room. There, I closed the door, turned on the stereo, turned down the lights, and settled into a quiet evening. The beer was soon gone, and when I got up to throw it away, I undressed and went back to bed to listen some more. Sometime later, I fell asleep. I woke to a loud crack. I realized a storm had come in. Looking at the time, it was just after midnight. As the lightning seemed to be receding, I went back to sleep.

I had a strange dream that night. It came in fragments, yet it was clearly a tale of capture, and then ascent to power. There were also numerous times I felt as though there was static electricity in the air, without seeing any reason for it. The young woman had long hair that sometimes seemed to be in a soft breeze. When I woke, it felt like a storm had just left.

In the morning, I swam for an hour before getting breakfast. When I saw the maid, I said, "Cindy, Matthew spent the weekend here with friends. I told him to clean up after himself. Did he?"

"I saw the poolroom had two stray beer cans, but the rest wound up in the trash cans. There were a lot of dishes on the sink, but I haven't been upstairs yet."

"Tell you what. When you clean the poolroom, place the two beer cans on his bed."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I will be taking over one of the spare rooms for a project. Please stay out of it, as it is valuable archaeological material. I don't want it compromised with random touches. I intend to work with gloves, so I don't compromise it."

"I understand, and will stay out. Shall I make a sign for you?"

"Yes, please."

I returned to my breakfast. Afterwards, I went back to my room to decide what to wear. I figured I would be on my knees a lot, so I went for pants, but decided not to bother with a top. I looked over the several spare bedrooms, and wound up choosing the largest one. Matthew had already stripped the bed, so I moved it into the walk in closet, vertical. I also rolled up the carpet and put it with the bed. I was able to get one of the two chairs into the closet, but could not get the other one in. I carried it into a different spare room. In the open space, I spread out some fresh sheets to cover the floor for my workspace. While I was preparing the room, the maid brought the gloves that were just delivered.

I went to my office and collected the printout of pieces. Looking through it, I placed the group with the best correlation on the top. Leaving the stack in the spare room by the door, I went downstairs and collected some tools to open the crates and placed them in the spare room. Taking a crate from my room, I took it to the spare room. After I opened it, I pulled on a pair of gloves and started emptying it, checking each piece if it was in that first group. If it was, I placed it to the right, otherwise to the left. When the crate was empty, I loaded it back up with the pieces on the left. I closed it, and moved it to the far side of the room.

I repeated the process with each of the crates, until they were all stacked against the wall. I spread out the pieces in front of me in a large area, and oriented them right side up to me. I then went into 'puzzle' mode, and looked for edges to place to one side, and sorting the rest into ones that pulled in on the right side and ones that pushed out. With three groups, I started the edges.

It was slow-going, but after an hour, I had about a third of the edges in short sequences that fit. I took a break and did some stretching out in the hallway. I went back in and sat down on the floor to continue working the edges. Two more breaks and about two thirds were in strands. The final pieces didn't seem to fit anything I had. It was time to switch tactics. I started working in from the sides, starting on the right. This went far slower, and I was thinking of taking a break when the maid knocked on the door.

"Yes?"

"I have prepared lunch, and placed it by your bed."

"Thank you."

She left, and I got up to stretch. She had made an excellent choice. A nice hot meal, that would not make a mess. Yet also light, so I would not get drowsy after eating. I washed up and put on a new set of gloves when I finished. I continued for another couple of hours. I re-sorted the ins and outs, but this time focusing on the top. That let me work on the top edge easier. I took another break for dinner. By the time I broke for the night, I had probably an equal amount of inside pieces placed against the edge pieces. I closed the door and saw the sign the maid made. I went to the basement and worked out for an hour. I showered and then went to bed.

Again, I had strange dreams. I thought it was the same woman. The fragmentary nature made it difficult to tell, but I did see a little more of her. At times, I listened to her poetry, but could not remember it when I woke. I also saw one or more tablets being written. I could not remember those either. When I got out of bed, I zapped myself. That's when I realized it felt like a storm again, but a little more intense. As I walked past the mirror, I did a double take. My hair seemed to stick out as though I had a static charge. I touched a grounded switch, and felt a zap, indicating I had been charged. I went back to the mirror and saw my hair had settled back down.

Just then, my phone dinged. I picked it up and saw it was Filipe. We texted a few minutes, where I told him of my new project. He told me about a pair of twins on the set that were spending some quality time in his bunk. Apparently both deepthroated, and he was pleased to allow them to demonstrate. He returned the favor by demonstrating his skills at eating a woman out. We finished up, and I put the phone down, intending to go swimming. My eyes glanced at my reflection, and my hair was back up. That was decidedly odd. I discharged myself again, and hurried to the pool.

Today was a lot like yesterday, but the task seemed to go faster. I was having better luck matching up bits of the tablet. This night, the dreams came again. This time, she was there again, but looking out over an ancient city from a tall place. She also seemed to gaze into a night sky from time to time. The view seemed familiar, yet I could not place it. Waking was also a repeat. Getting zapped as I left the bed, seeing my hair frizzy in the mirror until I discharged myself, and the feel of a storm having been here.

After my third day, I had started to find bits that connected some of the groups. I could now see the approximate size and shape of the tablet. When I went to bed, I chose to speak with Inanna about the project and about the strange dreams.

"Queen Inanna, something odd has been happening the last few nights."

"Do tell, daughter."

"I have had odd dreams, that seem to be from the old times, but not a place I've seen. There is a woman who recites poetry. There were scenes of tablets being written. And when I wake, it is like a storm has just finished. My hair is full of static electricity, and when I discharge it, it starts to build up if I stay in my room."

"That is indeed odd. May I see the dreams?"

"I don't remember them well, but here they are." I then tried to remember all of the dreams I could. I felt her presence in my mind. Afterwards, the memories seemed clearer.

"The city you saw was Akkad. Of the woman, there was not enough of her to see who she is. I recognize some of the tablet stories, and I think you are putting such back together. But I leave that as a pleasant surprise for you. As to why you are having these dreams, I think an echo of a spirit is trying to communicate with you. I say echo, as it feels artificial, somehow, as though it is a magical recording. This echo may also be responsible for the static charge. I do not believe it to be menacing, but until you have a good rapport with it, it will likely stay with you and cause zaps."

"How may I come into alignment with this echo? Waking up charged is annoying, and my husband will be home in a few days."

"Meditate, as you do to listen for my advice, but focus instead on the woman. You may not have a good image of her, yet she should recognize your thoughts. Do not be surprised if she speaks to you. Such echos sometimes seem to have a life of their own."

"I will do as you say." I felt her attention leave.

I began to meditate as instructed, but I was too tired and fell asleep instead. The dreams this time seemed to mix my time in Kish and the city of Akkad. When I woke, the static charge seemed a little less than the day before.

When I began working on the tablet, it seemed to go faster. I also sensed a familiarity of sorts. Nothing I could put my finger on, but it seemed as though I knew this tablet. By lunch, I could find no more bits that seemed to be part of it. After lunch, I took a picture, and then ran it through the computer. It generated the outlines of each piece. I printed it twice, once at scale, and again in reverse at a five percent enlargement and thick borders. I took the larger print to the shop I used to make cosplay weapons. Going to my stock of wood, I pulled out a pair of plywood panels. One was going to be a backing, and the other would be cut with the larger pattern. I glued it on, then cut out all the inside parts of the pieces. With the excess included, the tablet pieces should fit snugly. When I finished, I then affixed the second piece as a backing. I brought it back to the main house, and stopped to get dinner.

That evening, I removed each piece, and transferred it to the corresponding hole in my form. I wrote the piece number affixed to it in the corresponding space of the smaller pattern. It took most of the evening to finish this. I then brought the work in progress to my office, and laid it down on a shelf, in a place I had prepared for it. There was still maybe ten percent missing, but I thought those pieces might turn up later after I had worked on more of the tablet pieces.

I decided to relax in a bath to soothe my strained muscles. Perhaps it is more properly a Jacuzzi, but I used it as a bath. After a simple washing, I turned on the heater, jet, and bubbles. Calling for near darkness, the main lighting turned off, and several tiny lights came on. There was just enough light to make out the obstacles in the room, without detracting from the peace of a quiet, dark place. A few minutes later, lying down with a jet aimed at my vagina, and my head resting just above the water, I began to meditate on the echo. The subtle currents as I floated were at first disturbing, but soon became relaxing. The jet, made me somewhat aroused, with my nipples at half-mast, yet did not distract me. I'm not sure if I fell asleep or not, as the dream seemed to be a waking one, yet it wasn't like I was daydreaming.