The Goddess of Love
She had been rejected.
For the first time in her life she had loved someone, yet that love had ended before it could even properly begin.
The pain of heartbreak made Inanna even more volatile, and the goddess of love and war began indulging in far wilder antics than before, seeking any outlet for her sorrow and rage.
To Inanna herself it was nothing more than venting. But given the station she occupied in the divine realm and the power she wielded, those outbursts were nothing short of catastrophe for the other gods and for humankind.
"Enough already, you animal!!"
Utu, who could finally take no more, summoned Inanna on a chosen day and unleashed a torrent of scolding.
"Why did you go around thrashing the royalty of Eridu?"
"They kept pissing me off."
"Because they sang at a drinking party and it got under your skin?"
"They sang like absolute garbage."
"And what about putting those Igigi who were just passing by through military punishment? I hear you even ordered them to move an entire mountain."
"They were too ugly. They dared defile a goddess's eyes, so they deserved to die. Stopping where I did was me showing mercy, wasn't it?"
"You're not serious. If those lot count as ugly, there are only three gods in the entire world who could satisfy your standards of beauty."
"……"
"And what were you thinking, releasing lions into the city? People nearly got hurt!"
"They kept hunting recklessly up on the mountain and wrecking the natural order, so I just scared them. Nobody got hurt, did they?"
"And why did you set fire to Lord Enlil's palace?"
"Just because I felt like it."
"…You're not even bothering with excuses anymore?"
Utu pressed a hand to his face and let out a long, heavy sigh. Fatigue and worry ran deep through it.
The god of the sun and of justice lowered his voice as far as he could and pressed on.
"From now on, try to behave. You've awakened your divinity. You're a proper goddess now. If you keep carrying on like some half-grown thunderbolt of a child, what do you think people will say about you? How long do you plan to act like a little girl? You need to carry yourself with the dignity befitting a god."
"What does 'godlike' even mean?"
"To rule over humans justly. To protect the righteous. To set an example for those beneath you. That is the duty of those who receive worship. Not living however you please the way you do."
Canned words. Stiff and dull.
Set beside the stories Sunya used to tell, everything Utu said was less interesting than a lullaby. Listening to him didn't make her sleepy — it only made her head ache.
"Ugh, shut up! I've always thought this, but why do you talk so much?"
"What? This is all because I worry about you, and you don't even—"
"If you're doing it for my sake, then just be quiet. I'm sick to death of the constant 'you should do this, you should do that, a god this, a god's duty that'!!"
"I say these things because you've never once listened to a word I've said!"
"Enough. I'm bored."
Inanna stopped listening altogether and left.
"Hey, Inanna! You stop right there!!"
Utu shouted after her, but shouting was all he could do. He had no way to hold her back.
Whatever her brother said, Inanna let it go in one ear and out the other.
Descending from the heavens, she arrived at a stretch of pastureland — nowhere in particular, simply wherever her feet happened to carry her.
"Ugh. So annoying."
When she was irritated, nothing beat meat.
As luck would have it, a young shepherd was driving his flock nearby.
"You there, shepherd!"
"Y-yes!"
Startled by the sudden blaze of light and the vast divine presence that appeared before him, the shepherd scrambled into a bow.
"Raise your head. I grant you the chance to behold a noble goddess."
"Ah— O Goddess…"
At her leave, the shepherd lifted his face.
What he saw was a goddess more beautiful than anyone alive. Cherry-red lips. Provocative eyes. Skin white as snow. Slender, smooth hands. A body of sweeping, generous curves…
To lust after a god was blasphemy in itself — and still the shepherd went slack-jawed, half his mouth hanging open, drool slipping free.
"I wish to eat meat. Slaughter one of the sheep you tend and bring it before me."
"Y-yes!! At once!"
Without a heartbeat of hesitation the shepherd killed a sheep, dressed it, and laid the meat neatly before Inanna.
"Still warm from the slaughter. Fairly fresh."
Inanna had always preferred her meat barely seared. She liked the way the juices and blood spilled out like a waterfall when she bit down.
Quite apart from her titles as goddess of love and war, the way she ate was strikingly elegant. She conjured a spear a little longer than a finger, sliced the meat into neat pieces, speared them, and brought them to her lips. When a thread of blood threatened to run from the corner of her mouth, she caught it with a slow sweep of her tongue — and even that carried a strange, smoldering allure.
"Ahh…"
The shepherd felt full to bursting just from watching her. Lost in rapture, he even started bleeding from the nose. Inanna gave a small snort of laughter at the sight.
"You're surprisingly cute, aren't you?"
"C-cute?"
It was an honor. The shepherd bowed again.
"Lift your face."
Inanna tipped his chin up with one finger.
"Am I beautiful?"
"Yes — yes! More beautiful than anything in the world!"
"Is that so?"
Her long, slender fingers brushed across his left cheek.
"Then will you grant me a request?"
"A-anything."
"Well then…"
Inanna's face drew close. A single breath of wind would have brought their lips together.
Thump. Thump.
The shepherd's heart began to race out of control. He was a man, after all — at this distance, he couldn't help hoping for something far more intimate.
Inanna knew exactly what he desired.
"Turn into a wolf."
At her command, the shepherd became a wolf in an instant.
A flicker of confusion — then the wild instinct seized him, and he plunged into the flock and began tearing into his own livestock.
Grrrrr.
The hunting dogs bared their teeth against the wolf their master had become. A bloody fight erupted between hound and wolf.
"What? A wolf out here…?"
"Get out of here!"
Drawn by the barking, other shepherds from the surrounding pastures rushed in and joined the attack. Outnumbered, the wolf finally fled with a whimpering cry. The hunting dogs, blood up and with no idea they were chasing their own master, tore after him.
"Ahahahahaha!!"
Inanna clutched her stomach and laughed as if it were the finest entertainment in the world. Then, just as quickly, the laughter cut off and her face went flat with boredom.
"…Boring."
Light flared from her fingertips and restored the shepherd to human form. The hunting dogs stared in blank confusion as the wolf suddenly became their master again. The man himself, unable for a moment to tell whether he was wolf or human, scrambled on all fours and tumbled across the ground.
"Haa…"
Irritating. No matter how hard she tried to forget him, Sunya kept rising unbidden in her mind. The stories he had told her circled endlessly through her thoughts. His broad shoulders. The hard plane of his back. Those eyes like blue jewels — every piece of him tormented her.
"…You bastard."
Most humans would kill for a single conversation with her. And he had pushed her away even when she offered herself up to be devoured?
Her spirits sank. Inanna sat down on the ground, drew her legs together, and buried her face against her knees. Tears felt ready to spill at any moment.
"O Goddess."
"Please help us!!"
"Lady Inanna, please — save us!!"
Then the sound of prayer reached her. Not a sound heard by the ear, but a wish that pierced straight through the soul.
"What? Raiders attacked the village?!"
Her mood was already foul. Perfect. She would take out her frustration and tear them to pieces while she was at it.
"How dare these scum!!"
In a single breath she arrived at the village beneath the mountain. But the work was already nearly finished. A human's prayer always took time to reach a god.
Slash!!
What Inanna found when she arrived was Sunya, tearing the heart from the raider chieftain's chest.
Blood poured over him as he stood there bare, his face empty of all feeling. He looked less like a man than a beast — not a person who spoke and understood and shared emotion, but a creature that threatened and hated and forced, wearing the name of "human."
"……"
"……"
Not a soul among the villagers at the foot of the mountain could bring themselves to speak to him. Even Enede, who had hurried after him, stood frozen like stone and could do nothing. There was no gratitude for the rescue. Not even a bitter complaint that he had come too late. Instinct alone made them afraid.
The merciless slaughterer standing before them was the opposite of the sage who had treated everyone with kindness — and because that slaughterer resembled their own true nature too closely, they recoiled from him.
But Inanna saw something else.
Sunya was weeping. He shed no tears, yet he wept with his heart, with his soul. And watching him, Inanna grew sad as well.
"Don't cry…"
Splash.
She stepped through the pool of blood and went to him. Without a thought for the clothes she cherished, she wrapped her arms around him.
"Don't cry, Sunya…"
"……"
Slowly, Sunya drew her into his arms in return. As if he could not bear to show his face, he buried it in her hair.
They stayed like that for a long time, unmoving — until the sun had fully set, until the moon and stars that filled the night sky had withdrawn once more, until the sun rose again.
Like fools, they simply held each other.