Love Is War?
Sunya did not leave Kienkingir.
Whether some shift had taken place in his heart or not, he remained shut away on Mount Ebih and did not stir so much as a step. Yet things had not simply returned to the way they were before.
After that day, the people of the village below the mountain found themselves somehow uneasy around him. The sight of him, expressionless, drenched in blood as he slaughtered the raiders, had left a deep and thoroughly unpleasant impression. It simply would not reconcile with the kindly, ever-smiling sage they had known. That dissonance, that sense of something fundamentally other, made Sunya all the more frightening to them.
So even after enough time had passed for the village to repair most of the damage, and even after the residents had returned to their livelihoods of farming, hunting, and foraging, not a single villager ever came looking for him.
"I'm here."
Inanna, of course, was the exception. She was not from the village below the mountain to begin with, and she was hardly the sort to be constrained by atmosphere. If anything, she seemed to seek him out even more diligently than before.
"…You've come?"
"What are you doing right now?"
"Just… filling a little time."
Sunya was carving small stone statues by hand, shaving rock with his bare fingers. Sculpture of that era tended toward crude, simplified forms, but Sunya's pieces, though small, were uncommonly delicate and refined — closer, one might say, to the Gandhara style of a distant future, or even the Hellenistic. Most astonishing of all was the fact that he shaped them with nothing but his bare hands.
"They're beautiful. Why are you making these?"
"My memory has been a little unreliable of late. If I leave them like this, I thought I might be able to revisit the recollections later."
"Hmm…"
One of the statues was the very image of Kubatum, right down to the clothes she usually wore. No — looking closer, it was even more beautiful than the real woman. There were statues of the other villagers from below the mountain as well, and of people from other settlements. It seemed he was recreating every person he had ever met.
"What about those over there?"
Inanna pointed to a cluster of statues set in a corner of the house. Their attire was distinctly unusual. No one in the village below the mountain — nor even in the great cities of Kienkingir — dressed like that. Even Inanna, who took a more than casual interest in clothing, had never seen anything of the kind.
"Ah. Those are the people of my homeland."
"Ah…"
Nodding, Inanna felt the truth of it more keenly than ever — that Sunya had come from another world entirely.
"Can I touch them?"
"Of course. I've put a little of my divinity into them, so they won't break easily. Don't worry."
Inanna examined the statues modeled after the people of Sunya's homeland.
"I thought you were only good with words. Your hands are remarkably skilled too."
She was admiring them when one statue in particular caught her eye — a woman in splendid, unfamiliar garments.
"This one…"
Call it a woman's intuition. Inanna stared at the statue without blinking. She turned it this way and that, studying every detail. Craftsmanship, delicacy, and beauty were not the issue. From the woman's statue radiated a quiet affection, a lingering tenderness. With sharp instinct she had caught the residual trace of emotion sealed inside it.
"Hey…"
Inanna drew the word out. She was neither shouting nor raging, and yet a bone-deep chill ran through Sunya and gooseflesh rose along his arms. Winter in Kienkingir was never particularly cold, but it felt as though frost were settling and a blizzard were about to break.
"This statue."
"Yes?"
"Who is she?"
"Haha, well, about that…"
Sunya swallowed dryly. Had cold sweat poured from him, it would have filled a lake — he was that thoroughly rattled. Uncharacteristically, he even averted his eyes.
"That is… well…"
"Go on."
"Who was she again? That, uh…"
"Stop stammering and just say it. It's not like you're about to confess some unspeakable crime."
"Haha… I-I suppose not?"
"Exaaactly. You don't think I'd actually get angry, do you?"
"The truth is… I don't even remember her name very well myself. Hahahahaha…"
Bang!
Inanna drove her fist into the floor.
"Then let me ask you a•gain. This woman… what is she to you?"
Her tone was soft. That was precisely what made it terrifying. Under the crushing weight of the air, Sunya wanted nothing more than to flee the room that instant.
"Th-that is…"
"It's fine, so just tell me already."
"…She was my fiancée."
Then silence. It did not last long, but to Sunya it stretched like eternity.
"…So you had a fiancéeeee."
Inanna's voice remained gentle. But like a blade hidden in fog, it seemed ready to sever his throat at any moment.
"Well. That can happen."
"…"
"I just remembered something I need to do. I'll be back in a bit."
Inanna left the house with perfect composure. And a short while later, a massive earthquake erupted without warning in the vicinity. From time to time something like a woman's enraged howl could be heard, but few knew the truth of it.
"W-what business do you have with this humble one, O Goddess…"
Enede emerged behind the village at Inanna's summons, her whole body trembling. The thought of standing so close to a deity made it nearly impossible to keep her composure.
"Good. You told no one that I called for you, I trust?"
Inanna sat perched atop a large boulder, looking down on Enede with lofty dignity.
"I have not, Goddess."
"If you speak of what happens here to anyone afterward, you'll learn exactly what a goddess's wrath feels like."
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
"Good. I called you here because I have one question."
"Th-this lowly and foolish one may not be able to give the answer you desire, but I shall strive with all my might to satisfy the Goddess—"
"…Ugh, this is driving me crazy. I hate long-winded stuff, so keep it short."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Inanna could no longer hold it in and dropped back into her natural way of speaking. She had tried to imitate Utu's formal manner, but it made her skin crawl and she simply could not endure it. She cleared her throat, composed herself, and opened her mouth.
"Do you know how to make a man fall for you?"
"Pardon?"
"I asked if you know how to make a man fall for me."
"…"
Enede was thrown. She did not need to be told that the man Inanna meant was Sunya — she already knew. But something else puzzled her.
"G-Goddess? If I may be so bold as to ask one thing…"
"I said keep it short."
"…Why bother asking for such methods? Could you not simply take him by force, regardless of his will?"
"If I could do that, I wouldn't have called you out here separately."
"What?"
Sunya was the first being Inanna had ever encountered whom she could not simply bend to her will. From the beginning she had believed the world and everything in it belonged to her. Among the gods she had been born to the noblest blood, the mightiest power, and the most beautiful face. Mortals all submitted to her, and even among the Seven Great Gods, those who could match her in raw force could be counted on one hand.
In the original myths she would have seduced An, her grandfather in rank, to seize dominion over Uruk, or plied Enki with drink and stolen a great store of the divine Me. But the Inanna of now was still young. And if this had not been her first love, she would never have fretted over it so — she would have merely sulked a little and moved on.
Of course, even had Inanna been far more experienced, Sunya would still have been a difficult conquest. He shunned drink, coveted no material things, and kept his distance from women, making him hard to tempt on every front.
"Never mind. What's your answer to my question?"
"Ah, yes. But why me of all people…?"
"I heard from the other villagers that you're an old hand at reeling men in."
That was true enough. In Sunya's case things had somehow muddled past without consequence, but there was scarcely a man in the village below the mountain who had not slept with her. Still, hearing it from someone else's mouth did not feel particularly pleasant.
"I shouldn't be the one to say this, but is it really necessary? From what I saw, that man already seemed to have feelings for you…"
Enede recalled the day she had found Sunya and Inanna locked in an embrace.
"I thought so too. But it turns out there's another competitor."
"A competitor?"
Well, it was not hard to understand. Sunya was, without question, an extraordinarily handsome man.
But among them, few would be a match for the Goddess…
She turned it over in her mind and then gave up. Instead, Enede decided to do what she did best.
"Very well. Then I'll teach you everything I know."
"Go on."
"Before that, there's one thing you must keep firmly in mind."
"What?"
As if underscoring the point, Enede paused a beat, then continued.
"That love is war."