“Nia, meet Beso Gurieli, he’s the one who will initiate you into the Order.”

  Beso wipes his right hand on his sweater and holds it out to me.

  “Sorry, I was eating fries at the Library when Manuchar messaged me and I immediately ran. I’m Beso. Second rank, Lilac Larva, welcome to the Order.”

  Lilac what?!

  I cautiously shake his hand.

  Beso looks a little older than me, his light brown hair has a red glint in the sun. He’s of average height, with a slim nose and big brown eyes, his build can be described as chubby but also strangely muscular.

  “So, everything is ready, right?” Asks Manuchar.

  “Of course! Beso Gurieli always achieves what he wants.”

  Did he just talk about himself in third person?

  “Let’s move, we don’t have whole day.”

  He ushers us ahead, towards the looming gothic building of the Wooden Library.

  We enter the foyer. The lady at the desk catches Beso’s eyes, hastily nods and gets back to work.

  I walk up to the stone pillar where, according to the legend, poet Delirion’s blood and brains are splattered all over, but all I see are minuscule black stains at the base of the pillar. Well, to be fair, he was shot nearly a century ago, it’s a miracle some evidence still remains, however small.

  “Are you looking for Delirion’s blood?” Manuchar crouches beside me and together we examine the dry blood.

  We hear footsteps, someone is descending down a long staircase. It’s a girl in a formal, grey dress, her hair swept into a chignon, she rushes up to us with a loud tap-tap-tap of her high-heeled boots. Her face weirdly reminds me of a prettier version of Beso.

  “Oh, hey Salome,” I tell her.

  The girl looks taken aback.

  “How do you know my name? Oh, of course, Beso mentioned me, right?”

  “Manuchar said you might join us and now that I see you, I’m sure you’re Beso’s sister.”

  “You’re right,” She laughs and shakes my hand.

  “Salome, you old hag,” Beso lovingly ruffles her hair “You’re attending right?” Beso covers his mouth and whispers the last sentence to her. “We need at least two witnesses.”

  I think he’s being excessively paranoid because the only person in the library is sitting ten meters away from us.

  Salome throws her head back, letting out a loud groan.

  “I might attend the actual ceremony, but I can’t stay for the rest. My manager will skin me alive. Message me when the ritual starts and I will try my best to creep out of the meeting.”

  Beso looks like he’s going to protest but then he nods, disappointed.

  “It’s the first time they’ve trusted me with an initiation, I wanted you to be there…”

  “I know and I will do my best to be there.” Salome promises.

  My heart gives a painful pang. I always wished I had a sibling.

  I suddenly feel wind on my face.

  A tall, young man with white hair and blue eyes grabs my shoulder. We are standing on a hilltop looking over our kingdom. He laughs out loud after he teases me about my armor, I look down, the white armor does look a little ridiculous on me. I’m not a fighter, have never been… I’m Inanna and this is my brother Devi…

  Wait, what?

  I’m Nia and I DON’T have a brother!

  Manuchar slaps me hard across the face.

  “Sorry…” He says immediately when I open my eyes. His blurry face slowly comes into focus. “You collapsed!”

  My gaze shifts to Salome who is holding my legs up high.

  “Blood will flow to the head.” She says nodding to herself.

  “What happened?!” Beso’s pale face comes into view.

  I’m lying on the cold floor, Manuchar’s puffer jacket folded under my head.

  “No, I didn’t faint… I mean, maybe I did but I saw something, I saw a… a vision. I had a brother, we stood on a hilltop, we were preparing for a battle, he called me Inanna.”

  Manuchar and Beso look at each other, silently communicating with their eyes.

  “What?.. What is it?!” I glance between the two of them.

  “We can’t speak here. Can you get up?”

  “Yeah…”

  They help me up from the floor. I feel disoriented… Split between two worlds.

  “Come on.”

  They whisk me away to a dark, deserted corridor on our left.

  My face is wet… am I crying?

  “I have a family there! How could I forget?! I have a family and life there! They need my help, I need to go back!”

  “Nia, calm down, please…” Manuchar pleads with me.

  “I can’t calm down! They need me! There’s a battle coming!” I turn around, trying to run away, but he catches me by my arm.

  “Nia…”

  Beso hastily opens a well-polished light brown door with a long, twisted key that he somehow conjures out of his sleeve. The key has the Crux symbol X carved on it.

  We hurry inside.

  “This wing of the library belongs to our Order. No one else can enter here.” Manuchar explains to me, trying to shift my focus to the present moment. “The whole library was built two centuries ago by Father Robert Elia, the head of the Crux Brotherhood at that time. He left us this part of the building that only the Order members can access. Cool, right?”

  “Yes…” I mumble to myself.

  Beso shuts the door behind us and locks it.

  The smell of well-preserved old furniture hits my nose.

  “It’s safe to talk here, it’s warded from Demons,” Salome tells me.

  I look around the large, well-lit room with rows of massive bookshelves stretching along the walls.

  “Welcome to our second headquarters.”

  The room’s main attraction is definitely the massive, finely crafted brown table sitting on a rug.

  My people need me…

  I turn around and try to run again, but Salome blocks the exit and refuses to step away. I crash into her, trying to unlock the door.

  “Nia, enough!” Manuchar grabs me from behind, dragging me to the armchair, forcing me to sit down.

  “My family!.. They could all die, I need to get to them, I know how to help them! I have a special power!”

  “Nia, you’re dead!” Blurts out Beso.

  “What?..”

  “I mean the other you, the one you had a vision about, Inanna… She was an Atlantean princess and she died thousands of years ago. We learned about it in the Atlantean history class… I’m sorry.”

  My mouth goes dry.

  “And my family?.. My brother?”

  Beso sighs and presses his fingers to his brows.

  “I’m so sorry, Nia. That’s ancient history. It happened already.”

  “Do you know what this fucking means?” Salome steps forward. “She’s Inanna.”

  “Who’s Inanna?” I ask her, my voice weak.

  “How is this even possible?” Asks Manuchar.

  “I think it’s your past life, Nia.” Says Salome.

  “Hell, no. This can’t be…” Manuchar laughs nervously “I refuse to believe it. Nia is a human!”

  “She came back for revenge…” Whispers Salome.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I ask “Revenge for what?!”

  “Uh… You betrayed your kingdom and let them die. Your people took revenge on you and publicly executed you. Now you’ve come back, maybe to take revenge on people who took revenge on you… are you following my train of thoughts?” Explains Beso.

  Fuck me… this isn’t happening…

  I get up and start pacing around the room.

  The three of them look stunned.

  Manuchar is looking at me in a weird way, I don’t like it. As if I’m an alien, something contagious, something unwelcome.

  Tears pour out of my eyes again.

  “No, I’m Nia, I’m just Nia, I refuse to identify as the bitch who betrayed her kingdom!”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Oh NOW you’re Nia. You switched up pretty quick since you heard Inanna betrayed her people.” Manuchar’s lips quiver.

  “Don’t you dare joke right now!” I wag my index finger at him, suppressing my own nervous laughter.

  Beso rakes his hands through his hair several times. He’s thinking hard.

  A mad glint appears in his eyes when he looks up at us.

  “No one can know… No one… Do you know what this means for her?! If Atlanteans find out Nia is Inanna’s reincarnation, they’re gonna kill her! They HATE Inanna! Even her name is banned there, because they don’t want to give a traitor’s name to their children. Imagine their reaction if they hear she’s back!”

  “I think they even have this annual festival where they burn Inanna’s dummy and throw garbage at it… sorry.” Manuchar immediately shuts up when he sees my expression.

  “I’m not Inanna! It’s a mistake! I’m just Nia, I’m a human, that vision I saw definitely belongs to someone else, maybe I channeled Inanna’s old memory like a radio signal. Why not? If I can channel audio signals underwater, maybe I can channel visual signals from the past too?” I shout out, hoping it’s true.

  “That weirdly makes sense, you might be right…” Says Manuchar, scratching his chin.

  “Well, whether it’s your past life or not, Beso’s right, we need to swear that we’re going to keep this a secret from everyone except Father Seraphim. It could be extremely dangerous for you!” Says Salome.

  “A Pact of the Millenia.” Beso exclaims “We swear on our souls, forever binding ourselves to each other.”

  Manuchar and Salome immediately agree and rush up to him, holding Beso’s hand from either side.

  They seem oddly excited to perform this, so called, Pact of the Millenia.

  They motion for me to join them. I go and stand between Salome and Manuchar and take their hands.

  “I swear,” says Beso.

  “I swear,” Repeat Manuchar and Salome. After a beat I do too.

  “To take Nia’s secret to the grave and beyond.”

  We repeat after him.

  “We will say the secret once and never repeat it to anyone ever again - Nia might be Inanna’s reincarnation.”

  “Nia might be Inanna’s reincarnation…” We echo the secret.

  I feel an electrical current start up between us, running in circles through our outstretched hands. After several laps it comes to a halt in our chests, finding a home in our hearts.

  Our souls will forever be bound because of this secret between us.

  I feel emotional. I bow my head to them, thanking them with tears in my eyes.

  Things slowly go back to normal after that. It’s surprisingly easy to switch back to being Nia.

  Inanna already seems like a nightmare, slowly fading away.

  Salome leaves us, hurrying to a meeting.

  I sit and observe while the boys prepare for my initiation ritual.

  They start a fire in the fireplace and throw in some exotic looking leaves inside.

  The room fills up with an amazing aroma, reminding me of my summers spent in the village, when my great-grandma was still alive.

  I miss the fresh air, walking barefoot on soil, eating delicious food and playing in the woods...

  “I didn’t have time to clean… hence the dust…” Says Beso, sneezing for the third time in a row.

  “So you’ve been sneezing, and snacking and preparing for the ritual. King of multitasking.” Says Manuchar to Beso.

  “Yup!” Beso agrees, picking up a transparent box of dry apricots, popping one in his mouth. “You guys can help yourselves, I bought this stuff for you. We have some fries, nuts, dry fruits…”

  I grab a tiny bag of hazelnuts and finally get up from the armchair and walk around the room, reading all the book titles.

  “You said you’re Lilac Larva. Is that your rank?” I ask him.

  His face lights up.

  “Yup, right after Yellow Duckling comes Lilac Larva. I went to hell and back to achieve that rank, mind you.” He proudly taps his chest.

  “Who comes up with these crazy names? Yellow Duckling, Lilac Larva…”

  “Someone with an irritating sense of humor, looking down on us, beginners.” Sighs Beso.

  “Actually, I heard from one monk that these peculiar names were specifically chosen to keep us humble. If you’re called a name like “Yellow Duckling,” it will be easier to keep your ego in check after randomly getting magical powers at 17.” Manuchar finishes arranging seven pomegranates on the floor and looks up at us. “It kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?”

  Beso and I agree.

  “I’m sure you will advance fast, Nia. You have several serious powers and, well, you have a crazy past… Even the camp won’t be much of a problem for you.” Says Beso to me.

  Manuchar bites his lower lip, he seems worried about something. I shoot him a glance and bring my attention back to Beso again.

  “What camp?”

  “Oh, you didn’t tell her?” He asks Manuchar.

  “I didn’t want to scare her.”

  “What didn’t you tell me?” I say, worried.

  “Well we have to go to this intense training camp if we want to advance to the next rank. It’s in some remote Georgian village.”

  “You have to go too?” I ask Manuchar hopefully.

  “Yeah, I’m still a Yellow Duckling, remember? If I want to advance, I can’t avoid the camp, it’s the final step to the next rank.”

  An intense training camp sounds scary. I immediately zone out, imagining a “Full Metal Jacket” situation with a sergeant shouting and spitting in my face. Maybe at night my peers will even throw a so-called “Blanket Party” for me where they will hold me down and beat the shit out of me with a soap bar wrapped in a sock.

  I shudder at the thought.

  Manuchar fuels the fire by adding that many newbies have been hospitalized during the camp training and one girl even died due to hypothermia twelve years ago.

  “It takes place every February.”

  “Oh, I guess I will have to wait one more year.” I say, relieved.

  “Nonsense! You have to go THIS February. You need to advance fast, it would be criminal if you get stuck in the lowest rank for a year.” Beso cries out.

  Manuchar seems even more depressed after hearing this. I wonder if he feels stuck as a Yellow Duckling. Well, I got accepted yesterday and he got accepted… I have no idea when.

  “But February is in one month! How can I be prepared in one month?!” I protest.

  “If anyone can do it in one month, it’s you, Nia!”

  Rigorous training in a mountainous village in one month. This makes me panic. It will definitely be hard as hell. I probably won’t even have a comfortable bed to sleep on.

  I’m a comfort-loving person and if I don’t have access to modern conveniences, I become restless.

  Well, at least I won’t be cold, I have the sun pendant for now… until the girl, K, rips it out of my chest while I’m sleeping...

  My fingers ghost over the metallic black sun stuck to my chest.

  ____

  They finally finish prepping for the initiation ritual. I only see some fruits, leaves, a giant book and some kind of a weapon, resembling a sword.

  “So this is it, finally we’re accepting a new kid into the Order. I thought it was going to be a boy at first. No offense…” Beso adds hastily when he sees my face grow sour.

  “Well, she’s a girl,” Manuchar says with a shrug.

  “You’re telling me there are no gifted women in this country?”

  “Oh, of course there are, but they don’t become members of our Order.”

  “Then why am I accepted?”

  “No idea. Father Seraphim has his own contacts upstairs,” Beso points at the ceiling.

  Manuchar and I look up as if God himself is gonna pop his head in like a ghost and tell us why he’s ordered my initiation into the Order.

  “Wow,” is all I manage to say.

  So I'm an exception to the Order’s all-male rule, because someone from above told Seraphim to accept me… crazy times…

  “I still don’t understand why women and men have to be separated.” I say.

  “Well, since we practice chastity, it’s better for everyone if men and women don’t mix. Less temptation… even though it’s quite an outdated rule.” Says Manuchar.

  My jaw drops.

  “Wait, we practice chastity? I didn’t know that.”

  “Uhh, of course we do. We try to abstain from earthly pleasures, otherwise we can’t advance through the ranks.”

  “Oh…”

  “Yup, we’re basically monks… and nuns.” Beso nods toward me.

  I don’t know what to think about this. What if I fall in love at some point in the future? Am I forever barred from pursuing love?

  I feel weak in my knees. I drop down on the nearest chair and close my eyes.

  “We had the same reaction at first but you’ll get used to it, don’t worry.” Says Manuchar with a sympathetic smile.

  “But I’ve never even been kissed…” I croak out and belatedly realize that I probably shouldn’t have said that.

  Awkward silence descends upon the room.

  Beso clears his throat and turns toward the bookshelf.

  Manuchar starts examining the ceiling.

  “Sorry for this unnecessary info-dumping…” I say with a nervous laugh.

  “Well, kissing isn’t prohibited per se… You can even have a romantic partner if you wish, it’s just frowned upon, because it slows down your progress, your mind becomes too scattered. It might take years to go from one rank to the other and no one wants to move like a snail,” Manuchar smiles encouragingly. “By the way, my first AND last kiss was with some girl in the first year of high school… I think she hated it,” He tries to cheer me up and it kind of works.

  “So, as I understand, I’m allowed to pursue a romantic relationship, it’s just not recommended… I feel better about it now, thank you for explaining,” I smile back at him.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but I was extremely popular with the ladies before this Order business.” Beso slicks his hair back with his palm, flashing us a smug grin.

  “He’s lying.” Manuchar whispers to me.

  “I’M NOT LYING!” Beso yells and throws a leather-bound book at Manuchar, who, thankfully, catches it mid-air.

  “Are you crazy, these are antiques!.. Wait…” Manuchar turns the book over and reads the title.

  “The Winged Claw!” He waves the book in my face. “I know what will lift your spirits! The Winged Claw! The reason we are all doing this!”

  A huge smile spreads across Beso’s face.

  “Did you just say Winged Claw?” Asks Beso, excitement flooding his whole being. “Do you know what that is?” He turns to me.

  “No?”

  “It’s the most magical thing in existence! The highest rank we, mere mortals, can achieve in this lifetime! When you become a Winged Claw, you soar up and scratch the sky, forever leaving your mark on the heavens! And you stop being a mere mortal. You turn into an Ascended Master!”

  Both boys get the same dreamy look on their faces.

  “Wow, so that means you learn how to fly?” I ask enthusiastically.

  “Not only that. You become more than human. You transcend yourself.” Whispers Manuchar in a mysterious tone. “Winged Claw can travel between worlds, open portals, become invisible, become IMMORTAL!”

  “Have there been a lot of Winged Claws in history?!” I feel my excitement mounting. Heartbeat picks up, even my pendant comes alive and starts to buzz.

  “Only three people have achieved the status of the Winged Claw.”

  Manuchar opens the book to the middle, three people, two men and one woman, are staring at us from the drawings. They look gorgeous.

  I squint, trying to read the tiny writing under the drawing.

  Members of the Cosmic Brotherhood (left to right) Utu Morieli (the head of the Cosmic Brotherhood since: unknown) Dana Javshniani (reached Winged Claw in 1212, not much is known about her) and Khosro Khosromadze (reached Winged Claw in 1688, cousin of then-king Alexander IV).

  They are the only three people known to us to have reached the Winged Claw level, also known as enlightenment.

  “Enlightenment…” I repeat the word out loud. I’m bewitched by the story of the three heroes who transcended their mortal lives and joined the Cosmic Brotherhood in order to help humanity. “If they’re immortal, if they’re still living, where are they now?!”

  “They had to leave the solar system to fight a seemingly endless war in the Orion Belt. We haven’t heard from Utu since then. Everyone’s getting worried, Reptilians are getting bolder, attacks are getting frequent, more vicious…”

  “How long have they been gone?” I ask Manuchar.

  “Twenty years.”

  “THEY’VE BEEN GONE FOR TWENTY YEARS? Oh my god, I thought they just left.”

  “Well, for immortals, time flows differently. They can still be killed by the way, it will be hard but it’s possible. So we’re all worried. They’re humanity’s biggest heroes, our best representatives and protectors… We can’t lose them.”

  “What war are they participating in? Who’s the enemy they’re fighting in Orion’s Belt?”

  “We don’t know. There’s so much going on in the universe, but we’re still stuck in this Reptilian-Atlantean-human war. Whatever is happening at the Orion Belt must be really important, if Utu abandoned Earth and took Dana and Khosro with him. Bless their hearts…” Beso wipes a tear away and clears his throat.

  “We need to help them however we can. That’s why we’re here, to fight, to protect, to advance…” Says Manuchar. “Let’s begin your evaluation, Nia. We need you in the Order, we desperately need your help to save the world. Forget the stupid past, let’s move forward.”

  I smile at Manuchar.

  So, the most recent case of someone reaching the Winged Claw level is the Khosro guy who was born in the 17th century. For some reason, instead of getting discouraged, I feel hope and ironclad determination.

  I don’t care who I was before, I don’t care what I’ve done.

  Now I’m Nia Nelia, the future Winged Claw, and I swear on my life that I will save the world.