Conquest of the Underworld
Thud. Thud.
With every step she took, the scene Ereshkigal had just witnessed kept circling through her mind.
I've never seen one that big before.
Comparisons were probably unfair, but set against Sunya's, her late husband Gugalanna's had been — to put it crudely — a pathetic little prick. Thin. Short. And he hadn't even been skilled. That hadn't been the root of their problems, but their marital relations had never been what anyone would call smooth. They'd been lackluster, pure and simple. Nothing more than a dutiful act performed to produce children — no more, no less.
Ereshkigal had never been the sort of woman who sought pleasure for its own sake, so after bearing two children she had never once shared a bed with him again. It wasn't that she hated Gugalanna. She simply felt no need. Their marriage itself had been arranged on the recommendation of An, the previous King of the Gods — a political match, for all intents and purposes. A union that began without a shred of love remained exactly that for the rest of its days. She hadn't hated him, but she hadn't loved him either. So when he died, she felt a startling absence of anything at all. A vaguely competent administrator was gone — mildly regrettable, nothing more. It wasn't that the loss hadn't sunk in. It simply meant nothing.
And yet lately, with a little more free time on her hands, she found herself entertaining all sorts of useless thoughts.
"Take whatever you need from here."
Keeping her inner turmoil carefully hidden, Ereshkigal led Sunya to something resembling a clothing storehouse. Even as Queen of the Underworld, she preferred the practical, and the room held nothing particularly splendid. Now that she'd brought him here, it occurred to her that none of it would look much different from a leather skirt — and the thought left her faintly embarrassed.
"This will do nicely."
Sunya picked something up at once. No — it wasn't clothing. It was a rectangular scrap of shabby ochre cloth. Ereshkigal assumed he was finding a polite way to say there was nothing here worth calling clothes.
"…Are you mocking me right now?"
"Not at all. I genuinely chose this. I'm not sure why you'd think I was teasing you, but allow me to show you how it's worn."
With that, he started walking off somewhere.
"Where are you going?"
"Well, I can hardly change clothes right here, can I?"
"You're already wearing nothing but a leather skirt. You don't need to leave the room just to swap that out."
"Even so, baring myself completely in front of another woman feels rather improper. Your Majesty is not my wife, after all."
"…Fair enough."
When he put it like that, insisting he change right there would have been strange. Ereshkigal felt a nameless frustration and said nothing more.
"I never imagined cloth could be wrapped that way."
When Sunya reappeared a short while later, the result was surprisingly presentable.
"It's called a kasaya. You can simply call it a kasa, if you prefer."
"Not bad."
"I'm glad you approve."
"What about the thing in your hand — throwing it out?"
Ereshkigal pointed at the leather skirt he was still holding.
"That was the plan."
"Then give it to me. I'll dispose of it for you."
At that, Sunya's expression turned peculiar.
"This?"
"What?"
"…Nothing. I'd be grateful if you took care of it for me."
He handed over the leather skirt. After a few more idle exchanges, the two of them parted ways.
Ereshkigal returned to her palace and resumed her work.
"…"
Then, after confirming no one was nearby, she pulled out the leather skirt.
"Sssssss…"
She buried her face in it and drew a long, deep breath. Sunya's scent flooded her nostrils. A lewd fantasy flickered through her mind and vanished — a vision of being ruthlessly skewered by that massive, savage cock.
"…What am I doing right now?"
The moment the act was done, self-loathing crashed over her. She knew perfectly well how perverted she looked.
"That bitch Inanna was tasting that every single day until just recently, wasn't she?"
Honestly, she was jealous. Once the thought took root, desire kept surging up unbidden. Her mind was flooded with nothing but flesh.
"…Focus on the work. There's plenty that needs doing."
To scrub the blasphemous fantasies from her head, Ereshkigal threw herself into her clay tablets with redoubled intensity.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Dumuzi's breathing was ragged. Above his moaning sister, he rocked his hips like a dog in heat.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
Squelch. Squelch.
The slap of flesh on flesh, the wet sounds of coupling — all of it drove the two of them wild. Geshtinanna, in particular, found the sight of Dumuzi panting above her almost unbearably adorable.
They were in the middle of mating. The siblings had been sharing their bodies for a long time now, and each knew the other's form and erogenous zones intimately. Every time Dumuzi's cock slid in and out of her, the pleasure was exquisite. In every sense of the word, they bit and tore and savored each other, and before long — as if by mutual agreement — they both reached climax.
"Nuna! I'm coming!"
He finished outside. Milk-white semen splattered across Geshtinanna's face. She licked the come from the corner of her mouth and gave him a sultry look. They never came inside — pregnancy was out of the question. At least that line they still observed. Contraceptive magic was a given, of course.
"Hoo."
"Feeling better?"
Geshtinanna crawled over on her belly and asked the question of a visibly refreshed Dumuzi.
"What about you, Nuna? Did you feel good?"
"I always feel good when I'm with you. But that's not what I'm asking right now."
"Then what?"
"You've been moping ever since Lady Inanna dumped you."
The relationship between Geshtinanna and Dumuzi was a peculiar one. They loved each other as siblings, but they did not regard each other as lovers. They mixed flesh often enough, yet to them it was nothing more than play. And so they could cheer on each other's romances. Whether that counted as a healthy relationship was another matter entirely.
"How old is that story, Nuna?"
"Yesterday?"
"Oh, come on."
A sulking Dumuzi turned his back. Hiding his face whenever things went against him had been a habit since childhood. Geshtinanna found it so endearing she poked his cheek with a finger.
"Aww, is our little Dumuzi pouting?"
"Stop it. I'm not a kid."
"Oh my, is that so~?"
"Ugh, seriously!"
They kept bickering back and forth, and somewhere along the way the conversation drifted to Sunya.
"Come to think of it, Nuna — did you see that guy?"
"Who?"
"You know… Lady Inanna's secret husband. Is he handsome?"
"Yeah. Extremely."
"…More than me?"
"It's a different kind of handsome, but I think he suits Lady Inanna's tastes better."
"Nothing off about him? No personality problems or anything?"
"Not that I could tell. He's an excellent warrior, and he's got a way with words — he's already gathering followers left and right down here in the Underworld. Even Lady Ereshkigal is showing signs of romantic interest."
"Th-that bad?"
"Give up hope, little brother. From every angle, you're outmatched."
"But if Lady Ereshkigal likes him, doesn't that mean he won't be able to leave the Underworld?"
"Hmm. I don't think so. He didn't strike me as the type to stay bound down here."
"Come on, Nuna — whose side are you even on?"
"I'm saying all of this for your sake. Isn't it about time you let go, little brother? Excessive greed only invites disaster."
"…I already knew. Even without you spelling it out, I'd already decided to give up."
Dumuzi let out a long sigh. Feeling sorry for him, Geshtinanna pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Well, I've got to get to work, so I'll head out first."
"Yeah. Have a good day, Nuna."
Geshtinanna finished preparing and departed for the Underworld. Barely twenty days had passed, and already so much had changed.
Passing through the familiar gates and entering the city made the transformation even more tangible. Trends spread through the Underworld ten times faster than they did among the living. Once Sunya began walking around in that kasaya of his, the same style of dress became fashionable among the dead in no time. Most of the departed souls and spirits residing in the Underworld now pressed their palms together in greeting — a custom born of imitating Sunya. And throughout the Underworld, people could frequently be seen playing the "board games" he had taught them. Clay tablets recording the stories he had told them circulated from hand to hand as well.
Without being overly boisterous, a pleasant vitality filled Kur, the city of the dead. Even if Sunya were to leave the Underworld now, his mark would remain unmistakably behind.
Gazing at the transformed landscape, Geshtinanna found herself thinking.