This is for my new friend Vintorex who relentlessly pushes me to get on with the series. If this series goes faster than my previous ones you have him to thank; although most of you know I go at my own unhurried pace and am subject to taking a number of sidetracks. You can see one of Vintorex's fine landscapes at "Autumn in Shangri-La" Having learned of Ishtar's clay tablet given to her by their Grandfather Enki, Ninshubar has an idea and asks to be heard. Of course dear Ninshubar, I will hear you. You are my vizier and you have always given wise council. My Lady it seems that we are both in need of some travel. I grow restless here in Uruk; you need to find out if there are more of these tablets. Let us go find them! Let's go to Grandfather Enki's city of Eridu! Oh my Ninshubar that sounds like a great adventure, but Eridu is many leagues journey by land from here. How would we get there? I don't want to leave Uruk unattended for such a long time while we walk or ride all that way. Ishtar do not forget that I am the Goddess of the Wind, you and I will set sail in my boat, Ventusi. I promise that there will be fair winds for us to journey to Eridu, we will be there in days, not weeks! Oh fantastic, then let us go to that great city and we will visit Grandfather! It will be great, I have not yet sent an envoy to thank him for sending Isimud to rescue me from Ereshkigal. Now I will get to pay him homage in person. Yes, this will be good my lady. We must make sure that we keep Grandfather on our side. There are many others competing for his attention and we must ensure that Eridu always stays aligned with Uruk. We are his favorite Grandchildren, this I know, but we should never take his benevolence for granted. He will be moved that we come so far to thank him in person. And who knows ... we might gain other goods from such a journey. Hmmm, Ninshubar are you suggesting we might be able to "liberate" some of Grandfather's library? Well the idea did cross my mind. It would be of great benefit to the people of Uruk to have such texts at hand. But first we must see if such a library exists and then we will worry about how we might get our hands on some of it. Oh yes, yes, yes, Ninshubar, I love this! What a glorious idea my most lovely cousin. We get to travel on an adventure, we get to thank Grandfather for his aide and then we get to see if we can bring back a bit of his treasure! Oh you are just such so smart my dear, I love you! Thank you my lady and I do love you too. But remember, we are going there to thank Grandfather, not to rob him! If we manage to take back any of his tablets we must do so with honour. We cannot steal them from him; we must find a way to earn them. Yes, yes, of course, I agree. We would not want to taint the gifts of civilization with conflict. It will be a fun to see if we can wheedle them from him by other means! Besides we do not want to arouse the wrath of Isimud, and his army of demons. They would pose a mighty challenge for even the two of us. Indeed, there is no use asking for trouble! So then it is agreed? You and I shall travel by Ventusi to Eridu? Yes, oh yes, prepare your ship and then let us sail. Previously in Ishtar series:

"The Gift - Ishtar 1"