Doctor Fate: In the Dungeon of the Damned

Chapter 5 - The Return

"Inza! Thank Anu Ormazd the Annunaki hid you. I'm glad you didn't have to see... all that." Kent held Inza's shoulders firmly but lovingly as he stared into her deep green eyes.

"Oh, Kent, no! My crystal prison became exponentially more faceted and variegated – but not opaque. I saw everything. I saw you DIE!" Inza said, her voice rising and then ending in a choking sound, as if she was about to start sobbing.

"Well technically I wasn't dead, Inza; my soul was still with my bod-"

"The amulet fell from your chest! The amulet knew you were dead. And I did, too!" Now Inza was starting to cry in earnest.

Kent hugged her and lightly stroked her back. "Now, now, darling, it's okay, it's all right now. I – I had to do it. It was the only way."

Inza pulled her head back to face him. "The only way? You had to do it? You planned that?"

"Yes, dear. It was the only way."

"The only way was to DIE?"

"Yes. Shhh, let me explain," he said soothingly, again stroking her back, but again she pulled away. This time she said nothing, just stared at him, waiting for this so-called explanation.

"Getting past the gates was the first challenge. Luckily, I was well-acquainted with Ishtar's descent into Kur – both the legend and the fact of it. So I was prepared on that front. And the fact that it was Ishtar who made the famous descent reminded me of her meh, her adornments, and one in particular gave me an idea. Each bead of her necklace can contain any single thing, no matter how large. And like Ishtar, my meh – my personal objects of power – are seven in number, which is what was required to pass through the seven gates. So I inscribed each bead with a rune representing the item of power I was to place into it, and then put my amulet, helmet, cloak, and my clothing into these seven beads, bonded them to my tongue, and commanded them to fly into action as soon as I opened my mouth. The spell was cast in advance, so that while Nergal's nth metal manacles could prevent me from casting spells once they were placed on me, they couldn't stop the magic I had already performed. I didn't see those manacles coming – that part wasn't in any of the stories about Ishtar. So I was lucky I took the precaution to work the spell in advance."

"But my great fear was that I would be overpowered by Nergal – and this proved to be the case – and then he would possess my meh, especially the Amulet of Anutu. I couldn't let him possess the amulet – he would be capable of doing things with it that are far beyond me, far beyond almost anyone – and all of them bad. And if he outright destroyed me, as seemed likely, nothing could stop him from doing so."

"My only hope was to force him to kill me only by stealing my life-force, and to force his hand I bonded the amulet magically to my heart, so that he couldn't destroy my body in order to claim it – the amulet would prevent it, or he would destroy the amulet, if that's possible. But if he took my life-force directly, the symbiotic link to the amulet would be broken in a way the amulet wouldn't attempt to prevent, because it is unprecedented magic known to Nergal alone. I needed for my body to be intact and ready to attack when Nergal's own body rejected my life-force, as I hoped it would, and then he would be at his weakest!"

"You see, the reason Nabu was in suspended animation for two millennia – instead of just dead – was because Nergal had tried and failed to steal his vital force, his bāštu. When Nergal failed to do so, he thought it was because he simply wasn't strong enough at the time to take on the life-force from so powerful a being as Nabu, so he placed the life-force in a sealed chamber and propped up Nabu's comatose body near it, planning to return and steal the vital force when he deemed himself strong enough to attempt it again. But it was Nergal's own body that rejected the life-force – his own body successfully preventing the alien bāštu from 'poisoning' him. It was Nergal's own overwhelming power that prevented his ability to gain Nabu's, and the stronger he made himself, the stronger the resistance to Nabu's bāštu grew."