Please take a moment to view full size. Thank you! These are both Val's girls so I want to especially thank her for gifts that made not only this image but this series possible - but I want you to know this image is for all of you who have followed this series and those who have just joined. Your love and support is priceless. There be one more left. Welcome back Alora you wild child of Sumer! Oh, Enheduanna! I guess I have you to thank for getting me back from the darklands. Not just me, but Ishtar, Utu, Sin - in fact Alora you owe your new life to a whole pantheon of Gods, from both Akkad and Sumer. Um, I was pretty stupid wasn't I? So determined was I to have my vengeance on Sargon that I waged a war that I could not win. Alora, you've got to know that there are other ways than war to bring justice to a grievance. You have to listen to the council of your allies but most of all you have to make time to know your adversaries mind. There will always be a reason, a seemingly just cause, for why people do what they do. Find out what that reason is, address it and victory will always be yours. But why did your father destroy the temples of Sumer? Why wasn't war the answer to stopping him? Alora, you waged war and where did it get you? I wound up in the darklands, but I got your father too! Yes, mutually assured destruction! Neither side talking, neither side taking the time to find out the other's reasons. You call that a good plan? I call that insanity. But how else could I have stopped him? Did you have to take Sargon on by yourself? What council did your friends give you? No, I did not; we came to Lagash as a team. Ninshubar advised caution and Ishtar wanted to force Sargon into dialogue. She was determined to make him understand why his war on our gods, our beliefs was wrong. Did either of them advise killing my father? No. Then why did you? I wanted revenge! And revenge then blinded you. It became more important than peace and understanding? Yes. It seemed to be the only way to win. And I repeat, where did this desire to win get you? Where did it get you Alora, not my father, but you? It destroyed me. It took away my life. Ah, well then Alora, by your own admission going to war did not solve your problems, unless you count being dead as winning. Only through the grace of the love of Lady Inanna are you here now. Do you now see a way other than war? Do you now see the loving face of the Goddess? Yes, yes I do see what you are saying. You are the high priestess of Akkad and yet you name the Goddess Ishtar, or Inanna as you call her, as your Lady too. Is it possible that many people can see the same divine, each in their own ways? Can it be true that all are beliefs are but different paths to the same source? Oh my, if this is so, then all our religious wars - they are but the blind intolerance of closed minded men! The path to enlightenment can take many routes; there is no purpose in fighting. Ah Alora, there is hope for you yet! You are no longer so blinded by hate as you once were. You were born of both a Goddess and a human, there is wisdom in your bloodlines, wisdom that you need to more fully embrace. Are you prepared to do this now? I have been given another chance - I am awake and I have need to see. I need to see how the light shines through other eyes - your eyes. I would join with you dear Enheduanna, to share your path with you. I will not turn aside from this gift of the Goddess. I will seek to make peace with the Gods of Sumer and Akkad for indeed it is clear, we are all of one faith, one people, although I was once too blind to see. Then welcome dear sister. Our journey together will be long and our road rough, but this is a good start. You are a warrior and I am a priestess - together we embody the spirit of both Ishtar and Inanna. With faith in her we will work to bring light to the world of men. We are one.