Chapter 7

Dear Mother Asherah. You have watched me. You have guided me. You alone are the truth and the light. My sins against You have been grievous indeed. Your will must be the way of goodness and hope. Tell me how to correct my ways. Show what it is that I can do to correct my wrongs. I failed you, I know. Please don’t do the same to me. I will do everything in my power to right my wrongs. I may never cease the love I feel for Inanna, but I will do what I can to take up my former duties and do what You and Father Elohim wish. Amen. 1293 P.D.

I remember seeing Aeneas escape. With him, his father and son followed as fast as they could. The rest of the boat out of Ilion consisted of Illyrian women and children. Many of them included the widows of the Illyrian royals; Alexandros’ widow Helen, Hector’s widow Andromache, and Priam’s widows Arisbe and Hecuba. Along with others, they took a boat and fled to the open sea. They travelled through harsh winds and raging waters. They stopped at Carthage for almost seven years. While there, Aeneas married Queen Dido and

had one son with her; other Illyrians remarried as well. Yet, it was when Dido was killed in a battle with the natives that Aeneas saw no reason to stay. The few who had married remained in Carthage, but many Illyrians followed him. They travelled to the shores of a northern land, inhabited by a people called the Latins. It was there that Aeneas married Princess Lavinia after the death of her fiancé and a legend was born. Those centuries ago seemed like no time had passed for me. I wouldn’t have even noticed if it wasn’t for the civilizations that grew and those that fell. Yet, it was several centuries after the fall of Ilion that I came across the new civilization that sprung up from its ashes. Alba Longa was a great city, though its true name has been lost to time. The young king who went by many names was a powerful and just king. He ruled for almost fifteen years in peace with the neighboring Latium cities and prosperity for his own city. And this kind king had one daughter, Rhea. His sons had died years before, due to illness and war. Afterwards, Rhea became his world. Unlike most kings, he refused to sell his daughter into marriage. He wanted her to stay at his side as long as possible. Yet, this was his worst mistake. His love for her would blind him to the point of failure to protect his coveted throne from those closest to him. Storming the halls, awaking the servants and the remaining Alba Longa royalty, Dominus Amulius threw open doors and shoved those who got in his way. Withdrawing his sword, he kicked down the door to his brother-in-law’s room. This made the king and queen awake with a start. Holding unto her husband, the queen watched her brother in fear. Amulius grabbed the king without a thought and held the sword to his throat. “I’ve waited ten years for this. Your husband isn’t fit to rule Alba Longa, and you’ve done nothing but indulge him, sister. I’m taking back the kingdom that should’ve been our family’s. After all, we’re both descendants of Aeneas, are we not? Why shouldn’t our family be as powerful as his?” The queen slowly made it to the window to find many of the plebeians outside, ready for battle. Some held torches, as if waiting for the sign to burn the city, and others held weapons. They had rebelled, thanks to the arrogant Amulius. She knew they had no choice at that point but to surrender. There was nothing else to do, if they didn’t want their city to be destroyed and their daughter to be murdered. So the queen turned back to her brother and held up her hands. Without a thought, the king and queen of Alba Longa surrendered to her brother.

Place under house arrest in their own rooms, the couple watched as the days went by. They were forbidden to see their daughter, and she was unable to see them. In the meantime, the people were beginning to suffer. After a month, the queen was found dead. The physician said she had consumed some kind of poison. Yet, he couldn’t figure out if she had poisoned herself or if she was murdered. The king believed she was murdered, but no one ever knew. As I watched them gather her body for the funeral, I knew. Amulius killed her to ensure that she wouldn’t have another heir. There was no one to tell anyone anymore without the risk of no one believing me. Those that would were loyal to her brother. There was no one left to tell her tale, and the king was all alone. Rhea sat at her mirror. She was not allowed to see her mother’s funeral or even to see the sun. She had spent weeks locked away in her room, but she knew she couldn’t escape the way her mother did. She was her father’s last hope. She knew this well as she prepared herself for her uncle’s arrival. On her table sat an opened letter. As I knelt to read it, I saw it was a love letter signed Marius. It seemed to have been sent weeks before, but she was apparently fond of the letter. I knew at that moment that this man was her secret lover, one her father never knew about. She hadn’t hit twenty by this point, so I knew that she was in the adolescent rebellious stage in her childhood. I had experienced with many of my own children. I knew it all too well. Her door unlocked behind her, so she put the letter in a box and pushed it away from her. Her uncle entered the room and smiled wickedly upon her sight. Knowing there would be dire consequences if she didn’t respond positively, she put on a brave face and nodded. Her uncle took her hand and kissed it. I knew at that moment that he believed she would legitimize his claim to the throne. He was going to use her. “My dearest Rhea. I have always loved you from a far.” Amulius stated, lying through his teeth; he never even noticed her until he wanted the throne, and even then, he barely noticed her existence. “Would you do me the honor of marrying me?” Looking up at the heavens, I noticed she began to pray. After a minute, she spoke, her eyes never moving. “The gods do not wish it. My answer is no.” When he laughed, she

began to lose her courage. He told her that she shouldn’t make the decision so hastily, only based on what she heard from the gods, but on what it would mean for her kingdom and her father. Still, she glared at him: “Never.” That day, she was banished from the city. Amulius sent her to the Vestal Virgins, believing that once she made her vows, she would be unable to produce an heir that would threaten his rule. From there, he began a brutal rule. Uprising were quite common and once he declared war on the neighboring Etruscans, everyone believed the end times had come. I couldn’t help but agree with them. It seemed like the end of Alba Longa, forever. A year later, Rhea went missing. Though her uncle never noticed, Marius did as well. By abandoning her sacred duty, she was to be buried alive if ever found. The other priestesses knew she had gotten pregnant and was forced to flee with her lover. They made it all the way to the Tiber River, where they were forced to stop when she gave birth. And it was there that Rhea gave birth to twin boys: Romulus and Remus. Together, Rhea and Marius blessed the gods for the healthy birth and waited at the shore for her slow recovery. So they waited. They waited for the sign. And soon, that sign came to them as I told them they had to run. The men were coming.

... Inanna ran to the fields full of excitement. She couldn’t contain her excitement as she ran into my arms laughing. I was in a state of shock by that display. She could barely get it out and only wanted to laugh. What was it, I kept wondering. What made her this way for seemingly no reason? Her sudden brightness and laughter only made me love her more as she seemed to dance across my vision. Once she had calmed down a little, she told me her news: she was pregnant. At first I simply laughed. How could we have children? I wasn’t even human. Yet, she was confident that it was true. Her response was only one of joy; it wasn’t long before I shared in her joy. And for nine months, we shared in that joy. For a brutal fifteen hours, I waited. Her relatives seemed to worry more than usual so I was frantic. It was true that they had no idea that I was a Principality, but I remember hearing them say that Inanna wasn’t doing very well. Her mother was even worried that she wouldn’t make it; she believed precious Inanna was dying. I dearly hoped that wasn’t the case. Yet, when she gave birth, she was weak. Her mother let me hold twins, who I named Bau and Kingu, a girl and a boy.

After several hours of rest, Inanna called for me. She was weak, as she would be for the remainder of her life. Though we had other children, each pregnancy was even more difficult than the last one. After her sixth pregnancy, I ensured that she would never get pregnant again. I made sure of it for her sake. My beloved wouldn’t die because of me; I did what I could to ensure that.

... They were coming. The followers of Amulius were hunting them down. Through Rhea, Amulius’ claim to the throne had been destroyed. Her sons were now the heirs to Alba Longa. Without a thought, they placed the babies in a cradle and placed them in the river, just as Thutmoses’ birth mother did. As they floated down the river, Rhea and Marius hid in the brushes. They awaited the men, but during the night, I whispered in the men’s ears that the former Vestal had fled south of Alba Longa and was trying to catch a boat to the sea; somehow they believed it. So they carried on to the south without stopping to look any further, just as I hoped. The twins were rescued by a shepherd and his wife, and Rhea and Marius didn’t raise them until they were adolescents. For most of their childhood, they were oblivious to their heritage. But as they grew older, their birth parents took them home and prepared them to take back was rightfully theirs. And while the couple, who later were able to marry, had at least two other children, the twins were their focus in order to take back the city. And though it took many years, Amulius was dethroned and their grandfather re-instated. Together, they were the founders of the city of Rome, and together, they were the architects of an empire.