Is Love a War?
"Love is a war, you say?"
Inanna echoed Enede's words back at her, half in disbelief.
"Yes. I suspect the person the godde— ahem, the person Your Ladyship is interested in treats romance and marriage as one and the same."
Even among these people of the deep past, whose values differed so sharply from those of the twenty-first century, there was still a basic understanding that dating and marriage were not the same thing.
"I don't really follow what you mean."
"The truth is, most men would jump at the chance the moment you made a move on them, Lady Inanna. But he wouldn't. So why is that?"
"…I don't know?"
"This is only my own guess, but… if he places romance and marriage on the same level, it starts to make sense."
"Explain it properly. Stop saying the same thing over and over."
"With romance, you can give yourself over to the feelings of the moment. You make love when you want to, and if it stops feeling right later, you can leave whenever you like."
"Right?"
"But marriage isn't like that. The whole conversation changes. For the most part, you're committing to spend a lifetime together, so you have no choice but to be careful about who you choose. Of course, some people confuse the two. Those types usually aren't careful at all — but the man you've taken an interest in, Lady Inanna, is clearly not one of them."
"Hmm. That makes sense."
"And the real problem is that, when it comes to marriage, love means a contest — a battle for possession."
At some point Enede had grown thoroughly absorbed, launching into a full sermon on her own philosophy of marriage.
"I don't know how similar the married lives of gods and humans really are, but human women show off their beauty to catch a good man's eye, and the men boast of their strength."
"In a little village like this, monogamy might be the natural order of things… but in a city like Eridu, a strong warrior or a king marries more than one person, doesn't he?"
"A human's time is limited, and they only have one body. If you give your attention to one person, someone else gets that much less. Even if they're all called wives, that doesn't mean they all receive the same love, does it?"
"That… is true."
Inanna nodded.
In truth, she hadn't asked because she didn't know.
Come to think of it, for all the abuse Enki took as a womanizer, no one in the divine realm could deny that Ninhursag was the one he loved most. The image of Enki fretting and weeping right alongside Ninhursag when she shed tears was something Inanna still couldn't forget.
And that made the situation even more dangerous.
Didn't Sunya already have a fiancée?
Whatever the precise reason, his heart was complicated enough that he was staying here for now — but there was no telling when his feelings might shift and he would decide to return home to meet his betrothed.
I won't have that.
Just imagining Sunya tumbling around with another woman was enough to make her feel sick.
She had to stop that from happening, no matter what.
She would claim Sunya entirely for herself. She would make certain of it.
Inanna steeled her resolve once more and returned to the present.
"So what's the point of all this?"
"Forgive me for going on so long. What I'm trying to say is that you need to make the person you care for feel that spending a lifetime with you would be perfectly fine. You need him to recognize that you, Lady Inanna, are a finer marriage partner than any other woman."
"…Be specific."
"For example…"
"Is there anything you need?"
The next day, Inanna sought Sunya out and asked him.
"Not particularly."
"Or anything you want, then."
"Hmm… I wonder?"
Sunya showed not the slightest interest.
"Come on, there has to be something you wish for. Something delicious to eat, or maybe becoming the king or general of a city. A mountain of gold, that sort of thing. Wealth, fame, power — everyone likes those, don't they?"
"…I wouldn't say I have no interest at all, but even if someone offered me those things, I think I'd decline."
"Why? Is there a special reason?"
"Because wealth, fame, and power always come hand in hand with responsibility and duty. And that is exhausting in no small measure. For a lazy man like myself, it's hardly an appealing prospect."
"…"
Failure.
The "offer of benefits premised on marriage" that Enede had described had failed before it even began.
But it was still all right.
There was a second plan.
"Sunya, what do you like?"
"What do I like?"
Sunya looked bewildered, unable to grasp the point of the question.
Inanna kindly broke it down for him.
"I mean, what do you do when you have free time? You don't like drinking, and you're not the type to sleep around with women either. …Right?"
"Of course. My sense of chastity is such that I refrain from casual relations. Haha…"
As Inanna's eyes began to sharpen, Sunya hastily nodded.
Just as she'd thought.
Inanna slapped her knee.
Enede had been right after all.
She'd been inclined to dismiss the woman as a mere villager, but she had turned out to be surprisingly sharp.
I underestimated you, Enede.
"So. What do you usually do with your free time?"
"This and that. Lately I've been sculpting statues, meditating… though I suppose what I do most is converse with you like this, Lady Inanna."
"…And before? Was there anything you did in particular?"
"I used to spar with my old retainers and disciples in basic matches. I did it often when I was younger, but at some point the gap in skill grew so wide that I stopped."
"Sparring? Is that fun?"
"For me, yes."
The moment she heard those words, Inanna knew.
This is it!
Enede's advice rose in her mind.
The first option has a lower chance of working, but the second is when your interests match.
When our interests match?
I heard a story once — a man who loved ball games met a woman who loved them just as much, and he decided to marry her simply because they could play ball together for the rest of their lives.
That's ridiculous! Who was that?
My father.
…
And now Sunya had said he used to enjoy sparring.
Fortunately, Inanna herself loved the clash of spear and blade.
Fame and power were fine things, but the act of fighting someone was pure pleasure in its own right.
"Then how about sparring with me?"
"Pardon?"
Sunya tilted his head, yet a flicker of interest crossed his face.
And so, almost before either of them quite knew how it had happened, a sparring match began between them.
Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I last sparred.
Ever since she had one-sidedly thrashed Ninurta — who had once been something of a mentor to her — she hadn't sparred with anyone. The most recent person to catch her spear had been none other than Sunya himself.
"Come. I'll yield the first move."
"Then I'm going first!"
Inanna dropped into a low stance — the crouch of a lioness coiled to spring upon her prey.
She drove power into her legs, and in a single breath the distance between her and Sunya vanished.
She opened with a light thrust.
Sunya slipped sideways, trying to close the gap, but Inanna recovered her spear faster still. A low horizontal cut came scything toward his calf; he nullified it by stepping on the shaft.
But then Inanna made the spear vanish, and the foot that had been planted on the shaft found only empty air. For an instant his balance wavered.
No — that was an illusion.
Sunya did not so much as sway. He had lifted his foot before she could even withdraw the spear.
Knowing this, Inanna still drove a fist at him.
Sunya did not dodge. He took the blow.
A sickening sound cracked out as his head snapped to the side — yet the actual damage was almost nothing. Just as she had experienced before, he was extraordinarily solid.
But Inanna did not give up.
She mixed fists and kicks in a relentless barrage. An ordinary human — no, even a middling god — would have had their limbs literally blown apart.
"Whoops."
Inanna's rising kick grazed Sunya's chin. Her flexibility was such that her fully extended leg formed a perfect straight line.
Sunya caught her ankle near his jaw and hurled her into the air.
He threw her so hard she shot skyward like an arrow from a bow.
Inanna twisted her body mid-flight and found her center with natural ease.
And somehow, Sunya was already standing right in front of her.
"It felt a bit cramped down below."
Inanna took a spear in each hand.
"You can take this, can't you?"
"Of course."
Inanna charged at Sunya once more.
Caught up in the thrill of it, she began to dance.
It was a dance beautiful yet savage, violent yet elegant. A torrent of crimson explosions swept over Sunya and tried to swallow him whole.
But Sunya did not fall.
He parried, pushed, and pulled, receiving every step of Inanna's dance.
Somewhere along the way, Inanna forgot her original purpose entirely. A dangerous smile of pure delight on her face, she whirled fire and spears through the air.
And so the two of them — man and woman — matched each other for a long, long time, until night had passed and the sun rose once more.