The Seven Swords of Diya: An Indiana Jones Fan Fiction Part 1

Chapter 22: University of Penn Museum, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, USA, 1960

"Who's Doc Heiser?" Emily asked, sitting on the museum bench beside Indy.

Indy smiled at his daughter. "When I first met you grandfather, Abner Ravenwood, he was searching for the Ark of the Covenant. His speciality was Egyptology and the Ark is a Hebrew artifact, so Abner teamed up with a specialist in ancient languages of the Middle East. Doc Heiser was a religious scholar. It was perfect. Doc Heiser knew about the ancient texts and the ancient gods. He specialized in the divine council."

"What's that?" Shorty questioned from the other side of the bench.

"Well..." Indy paused for a moment. "Its... a mythology concept... or at least it was until today...." He stared at his trembling hands.

"You saw something - didn't you?" Shorty studied Indy.

"Yeah. It feels like a bad ghost story - but once you live it -"

Shorty stared at the floor. "Diya felt that way. Losing my entire crew..."

"I'm sorry I doubted that, Shorty." Indy rested his uninjured hand on Shorty's shoulder. "I just... couldn't believe in anything but the natural. Anyway... the divine council, is a mythology concept. Its like a pantheon, but also like a government."

"How?" Emily wondered.

Indy swallowed. "A pantheon has a collection of gods, each having their own goals and doing whatever they want. There's no leadership structure. Each one is trying to seize power from another. With a divine council, there's a set leader, and all other gods or goddesses work under that leader." He thought for a moment. "Its like a king, asking for advice from his wise men or a president asking the lawmakers to help him make laws to get things done. The way Doc Heiser and a lot of the legends, tell it - there was a divine council, which had a rebellion. The rebellious divine council went off on its own, while the rest stayed loyal. Or at least, that was the Jewish belief. They worshipped the 'true' God, a Creator and Commander of sorts - and all other nations worshipped these rebellious lower gods. According to the Book of Enoch, the rebellious divine council was imprisoned... and if what I heard today was true, and I wasn't imagining it... they want back out."

"And the swords of Diya will help them escape the prison?" Emily finished.

"Yes." Indy met Emily's gaze, debating to tell her the other threats made against her. "Are you certain you're all right?"

"Yes Dad! I'm fine! Why do you keep asking?"

Indy looked from Shorty to Emily. "They threatened you. Both of you. But mostly Em."

"What could they do to me?" Emily asked. "According to the ancient legends they're supposed to be in prison. They're not physically present to make a credible threat... unless they... possess someone...?"

"That doesn't make them less of a problem." Indy took a deep breath. "I wouldn't have said this before today... but the apkallu are like mafia dons. They have lackeys and flunkies in and out prison to do their bidding. Em - a long time ago - I nearly sacrificed a woman to these blood thirsty tyrants. Shorty was there."

Shorty nodded. "I told her."

Indy blinked away the bad memories from the Temple of Doom. He hadn't been in control. And it had happened again today. "What neither of you realize is that the legends surrounding the apkallu and the rebellious divine council also include women sold off into slave labor and things I do not want to happen to you, Em. Horrible things, like I saw during World War II."

Emily was silent for a moment. "I know those legends too, Dad. And you raised me in Israel among survivors of the Nazis. And I saw what happened today... it was like you were possessed."

"Maybe I was," Indy admitted. "As a man I'm certainly not capable of knocking over a several ton rock and cracking it in half." 

He stared at the broken stone with the image of the apkallu on it - waiting for it to again crawl out of the rock and threaten them...