In Eridu Part 6a
Title: In Eridu
Full warnings, summary and notes at Part 1.
1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6a. | 6b. | 7a. | 7b.
.In Eridu.
6a.
Girsu was the smallest of the southern cities. It stood on the high ground, well above the plains and the river valleys, and Enki and Enlil found themselves crowded on the old, worn paths leading to the city gates alongside hundreds of refugees fleeing the floods and the demons. Still the rain fell and the road had been turned to such a mud bath by the multitudes of feet pounding up the dirt that they had to walk along the edges, now turned to banks as water washed down what had once been the pathway. It was a slow, painful slog, made worse by Enki's still aching shoulder. As they walked Enki could feel eyes staring at them, accusing. For such a great number of people, weary, drenched and dirty, the journey was oddly quiet. Maybe no one had the strength left to even speak anymore.
Most kept their distance from the hunters and even from Castiel, dressed as a priest for all that he wasn't. It might've been down to association with him and Enlil, but Enki thought it more likely they could tell there was something not right about him. Something not human. The rain, the mud, none of it concerned Castiel. He was too strong, too tireless and confident for a priest with thin legs and a youthfulness not matched by his eyes.
Castiel followed, never complaining, never offering any comment on what he saw around them. Somehow he'd been roped in to carrying the supplies, or what was left of them after three days hard walking, while Enlil acted as crutch to Enki. He didn't eat or drink or sleep as far as Enki could tell. It was hard to know for sure because when they stopped for the night, just falling to the side of the road, finding what little shelter they could and covering themselves with skins, Enki found that he fell straight into an exhausted sleep. Castiel hadn't killed them while they were passed out yet so Enki assumed they were more or less safe from that danger. Sometimes Castiel even helped them; keeping Enki steady when the ground was too wet and he slipped with every step. When Enlil was too tired to carry him anymore Castiel would take Enki's weight like it was nothing. Sometimes he helped others around them, pulling fallen old men to their feet, carrying children on his shoulders as they forded rivers that hadn't existed a few days before. None of it made sense.
That night, with maybe one more day to walk until they reached Girsu, Enki managed to stay awake long enough to ask, "Why bother? If you had your way they'd all be dead already, right?"
They were huddled beside the one surviving wall of an old abandoned farm house. It was the most shelter they'd had in days. Enlil was already asleep, leaning against Enki's good shoulder. There were at least three other families close by so Enki kept his voice low. This had once been lion country but Enki hadn't seen a single animal the entire journey, like they’d all had the sense to get the hell out of there before it all went to shit.
There was lightening to the east, intermittent bright flashes in the sky that allowed Enki to see the muddy nightmare around them and Castiel's impassive face. He'd rather not have seen either. The rolling thunder was the only thing that drowned out the soft, exhausted cries of the children among them. It was depressing as hell and Enki couldn't understand how Castiel could sit there and watch all this, knowing he had caused it.
"No," Castiel replied. "They wouldn't." It was almost an opinion.
"You act like a guardian spirit half the time," Enki pressed. "But you caused this."
"I have told you," and now Castiel actually sounded frustrated. Maybe he was getting as tired of this conversation as Enki was. "I cause nothing."
"Yeah, I know, you just follow orders. But, man, look at what you're doing. There's no way you can think this is right."
"What I think makes no difference." Castiel sighed and it was the most human sounding thing he'd ever done. "Enki, please. I can no more affect the outcome than you can."
Which was clearly not the truth or he wouldn't have been the one tied to Enki by this spell.
"But you wouldn't do this, if you hadn't been ordered to," Enki surmised.
"Of course not," Castiel snapped in reply. "I'm not-" He stopped, and Enki could feel the muscles of Castiel's borrowed body, tense and agitated beside him.
And to Enki that was pretty much an admission that Castiel didn't believe this was a good thing he was doing either.
On these long nights Enki inevitably lost feeling in his fingers and toes from sitting for so long in the pouring, cold rain. He tried moving them, trying to bring life back to them again. Sitting on the wet ground, Enki didn't think he could even remember what warm felt like. What dry felt like. He wondered if Castiel felt any of it.
They never talked about it but Castiel would always lay his hand on Enki's shoulder or on his arm and the cold would recede, the pain of the day would lessen, and the continuous ache in his shoulder would fall to nothing.
It was these strange, unlooked for gestures that told Enki it was still worth trying to convince Castiel to help them, no matter how many times he said he couldn't.
It was obvious that Castiel did care.
"You're not an evil murdering asshole," Enki said. "I get that, Cas. Except, you know, where you are."
Enki couldn't see it, but he could feel Castiel shift so that he was leaning back against the wall, his head tilted to the sky.
"Why do you always do that?" Enki asked. "You always look up, and then that's it; no more from Castiel the guardian who sucks at guarding anything for the rest of the night."
A long pause, and Enki gritted his teeth because every fucking conversation they had seemed to end this way. Except this time Castiel replied, "I pray."
"You pray?" Enki was surprised, because why the hell would any creature as powerful as Castiel need to pray? "What for?"
"You cut me off from Heaven. I pray for guidance."
Enki was sure there was more that Castiel wanted to say, but with sudden clarity Enki realised that Castiel was afraid.
"You think," Enki said slowly, "Just by helping us this much you're disobeying."
"Understand," Castiel tried to explain, his voice low and urgent as though he was admitting to some terrible secret, "I follow orders. Nothing more. I was not made to decide my own course of action."
It was a life Enki both could and couldn't understand. For so long he'd followed his dad's orders without hesitation or thought, never doubting them, but he'd learned that no one was infallible, that nothing and no one could be right all the time. Not even whatever it was that Castiel prayed to.
"But you can," Enki pushed. "And you can see that this is wrong. I mean, look around you-"
"I must have faith that there is a greater plan," Castiel insisted.
"But you can't see it, can you? This greater plan? How could anything come out of this freaking misery?" Enki knew he was taking a chance in challenging Castiel this much, but Enki hadn't missed the fact that Castiel no longer defended his actions, no longer offered peace in some unknown, unknowable afterlife like it was some kind of consolation. "These people want to live," Enki went on when Castiel said nothing. "They pray to the gods to keep them breathing, not for some awesome life after death."
There was a pause before Castiel shook his head, sounding irritated when he asked, "And what would you have me do?"
"Stop this." Enki held his hands out, palms upwards, feeling the cool rain against his skin.
"I can't stop what has been started. I can't go against Heaven. I am one angel. What could I possibly do?"
"Me and Enlil, we've fought against things bigger and uglier than ourselves all our lives and we've always won," Enki told him. "I took you for a lot of things, but I never took you for a coward."
Castiel hadn't shown even a hint of fear in the face of the demons back in Eridu. He hadn't needed to ask for help when they'd fought a band of Rabisu along the road just past Larsa, nor when a Lamashutu, the worst of all creatures, had attacked them late into the hours of darkness. They'd still been walking, looking for some kind of shelter where none was to be found, exhausted, and Enki was sure both he and his brother would be dead if Castiel hadn't pulled his shiny knife from wherever he kept it hidden and killed the creature. His movements, swift and efficient, spoke of practice and experience and Enki had to admit that Castiel was good in a fight.
"You call me a coward when you know nothing-" Castiel's voice was rising and Enki didn't have the patience to keep it down. Right then, Enki didn't care if the entire fucking world heard them. He knew he'd woken Enlil, his brother shifting beside him.
"I know nothing because that's about all you've ever told us," Enki shot back. "You won't say what's doing this. You tell us you can't stop it, but you don't explain why. Don't expect me to just-"
"Enki," Enlil interrupted, sounding wide-awake and tense. He laid a hand on Enki's shoulder. "Maybe you should get some rest."
Enki shook off his brother's hand. "Yeah, no, Enlil. I'm done with dancing around him. He knows what's going on. If he won't help us, the least he could do is tell us what we're up against."
Castiel narrowed his eyes. "The least I can do? I owe you nothing. You imprison me and expect me to be sympathetic?"
Pretty much every conversation they had ended up in some kind of argument, but it had never been this personal before. Enki had never been this pissed at Castiel and he knew it was because he was kind of starting to like the asshole. He just couldn't reconcile the Castiel who helped old ladies carry their belongings with the cold-hearted monster responsible for trying to destroy them all.
"I expect you to not be a murdering asshole. Is that too much to ask? You want me to ask nicely?"
"I'm not," Castiel denied, and tightened his hold on Enki as though he was trying to make a point. "I can't."
"Then tell us how," Enki yelled.
Silence then, and a sudden flash of lightening showed the faces of the other refugees turned towards them, watching in shock and hatred and confusion. "Fuck," Enki swore under his breath.
"We need to get out of here," Enlil urged, already pulling Enki to his feet. They'd done this before too; been forced to leave some temple, or some house, or some shelter by people too scared of them to let them stay. This, though, was a whole new level of messed up. Enki could see murder in their eyes. Close by- too close- Enki could see one man hefting his axe.
"Yeah," Enki agreed. "And fast."
They moved quickly away, out into the night and the full strength of the rain, driven into them by a strong wind. Enki didn't dare try to find another place to stop. He didn't know how much those people had heard and he couldn't be sure they wouldn't follow. On their long march to Girsu Enki had seen temples ransacked and burned, people turning on each other, putting blame wherever they could. Fear and panic had driven people crazy and to give them an excuse, a real excuse, would be suicide.
Enki didn't speak to Castiel throughout the long night, and for once he was glad for Castiel's silence.
***
The gates of Girsu were huge, ancient things decorated with strips of polished copper which gleamed in the sun like gold. Now though there was no sunlight, and the gates, like everything else, had turned grey-yellow, thick with mud and dulled by rain.
The gates were closed, and no amount of pounding on the heavy wood, no amount of pleading, nor bribes offered to the gate keepers would open them. A makeshift town had grown around the city walls in the few days since Enki and Enlil had last been at the city, and Enki was surprised by the sheer numbers of people who had come to this place for sanctuary. Shelters made of animal skins and rocks and whatever else could be found stretched far beyond the boundary markers. Enki and Enlil, with Castiel in tow, walked the churned up path to the city bordered on both sides by makeshift homes and saw families who were hungry, cold and afraid.
There was a huge, angry crowd at the gates and no obvious way of getting into the city without being trampled or torn to shreds or both.
"You think they'll let us in if we say we're just here to use the library?" Enki asked dryly. Enlil snorted and drew the skins he was wearing more closely around his shoulders. Enki hadn't actually thought it possible, but up here in the higher lands it was colder than ever. There was just no fucking end to this misery.
Enki almost jumped in surprise when Castiel said, "I can take us inside."
"Feeling helpful when it's got something to do with releasing you from the spell, huh?" Enki didn't try to hide the disgust in his voice.
They stood in awkward silence, the rain falling around them, filling the deep footprints in the mud with water.
"Yeah," Enki said. "That's what I thought."
They weren't helping anyone standing out here though, and there was always the slim chance that there might be something in the temple libraries that would help them stop this. Not that they hadn't already looked through the tablets a hundred times already. Maybe the priests would be able to point them in the right direction now that they knew a guardian spirit had started it. Now that they knew Heaven meant to drown the world.
He looked to Enlil, and Enlil nodded, probably thinking along the same lines because even if they had nothing like the information they needed, they had a place to start. Castiel could work out the counter-spell his own damn self.
Meeting Castiel's eyes, a challenge, Enki said, "Do it."
Over the past few days Enki had become almost used to this staring. So many times he'd almost asked Cas why he always looked at him like that, and pretty much only him, but Enki wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Enki didn't look away as Castiel reached his arms out, gripping both his and Enlil's shoulders tightly. For less than the blink of an eye the world disappeared but in that time Enki thought he heard the sound of wings beating, the world yanked out from under his feet, the feel of wind through his entire body like he'd been turned inside out. His stomach turned and turned and then the world and the rain were there again. Enki felt himself stumble, his insides knotted like he'd been out for a night of cheap date wine. A hand steadied him and Enki shook his head, trying to regain his balance. The hand was Castiel's and he would've liked to have shrugged it off, but he wasn't convinced he'd keep upright if he did. Beside him, Enlil looked about as ill as Enki felt.
"You could've warned us," Enlil said.
Castiel tilted his head. "I have never transported humans before. I didn't know it would affect you this way."
"Whatever." Enki really wished he could sit down. If they hadn't had a world to save Enki might just have sat straight down into the mud.
"Come on." Enlil was looking around them nervously and Enki saw why. Inside the city the streets were pretty much deserted. Enki could hear the cries from outside the walls, but here, standing on the other side they sounded muffled, dampened. The quiet was eerie and disconcerting and the complete opposite of how Eridu had been. All they could hear was the sound of the rain and the wind breaking against the buildings around them.
Enlil said, "They must have seen that." And then Enki felt it; eyes watching them from the windows and doors of the houses around them. Enki would've bitched at Castiel for landing them right in the middle of a residential area but they had to move. He didn't want to find out how the locals would react to Castiel's magic.
"This way." Enki grabbed hold of Castiel's wrist, pulling him towards the central avenue. From there it would be easy to follow the main thoroughfare to the temple gates. They knew their way to the libraries well, standing in the shadow of the great temple, and that was something you couldn't miss; the stone, step-pyramid shape of it rising above the roofs of all the other buildings in the city.
In a way he hadn't back at the temple in Eridu when he'd had first appeared, now Castiel let Enki drag him along. They moved quickly, away from the city walls and into the narrow maze of homes and streets that made up this district of the city. These streets were usually teeming with people but now they stood deserted and silent. With every step Enki could feel eyes watching them.
"Let us do the talking," he told Castiel under his breath. "The priests at the library know us." And now was not the time to be getting thrown out.
"Enki," Castiel said in a low voice. It was the same tone he'd used the night before when he'd said of course he wouldn't choose to start the end of the world. That he was sorry. It reminded Enki how pissed he was, and made him angry at himself for expecting anything more than crap from a supernatural being.
"What?" he snapped.
"I wish there was something more I could do-" Castiel began.
"Wishing isn't going to help us, Cas," Enki cut in. He didn't want to hear his platitudes. He really didn't.
They turned up onto the main street, the avenue widening out, and still they saw no one. Not even any guards or soldiers. No one called to them or questioned them. Enki couldn't blame people for staying inside in this weather, out of the rain and the storm.
Out of nowhere, Enlil frowned at Enki and said, "Cas?"
"What-"
"You called Castiel 'Cas'." Enlil turned to Castiel. "Didn't he?"
"Yes," Castiel confirmed and Enki thought, what the hell?. Since when did he give the things he and Enlil spent their life fighting against nicknames? He hadn't even realised he was doing it, and now Enlil was giving him weird looks.
"His name is too long," Enki said, and decided it was true.
Enlil didn't look convinced, said, "Right," in a long drawl, and Enki was about to tell his brother he could fuck right off with his sarcasm when he smelled something burning. On any other day that wouldn't be so weird but in this rain, the air and ground saturated, Enki was sure there wasn't anything left dry enough to burn anymore. It didn't smell like some hearth-fire either, but something thicker and heavier. Larger. But Enki couldn't see any smoke.
"You smell that?" Enki asked.
Enlil sniffed the air. "Fire. In the direction of the libraries."
Exactly what Enki had been thinking.
They both broke into a run and Enki trusted that Castiel would be forced to follow. It was difficult to move fast, to keep their footing on the slippery, thick mud, but they didn't have far to go. Within the temple boundaries there was not a priest or a guard to be seen. The dedication fires lining the road to the temple had become pools of dirty water, the bricks lining the pits covered in mud and dirt where usually they were kept pristine. Offerings and prayer tablets lay broken, abandoned and half-buried in the ground. With every step the smell grew stronger and then, turning the corner at the hostelry the libraries came into sight ahead of them, ablaze. As soon as Enki saw it he knew there was nothing natural about this fire. There was no smoke, and the colours of the flames burned greens and blues. There was no panic, no priests running around nor soldiers trying to create some semblance of order, trying to save the buildings and their irreplaceable contents. There was no one at all.
Enki came to a stop.
"Where the hell is everyone?" He looked around, not believing that the townspeople, the scholars who had spent their lives building this place up, would just let it burn away to nothing. Not even in this weather under these circumstances. If anything, surely the priests must have known that the ancient scriptures housed within the libraries might be the only thing that could save them. "What the fuck?"
"They can't see it." Castiel stood beside Enki, his eyes following the strange flames, seeing more than Enki could, he was sure.
Enki didn't miss the way the flames never crossed the boundary of the doorway, never touched the wooden doors. It could have been the rain but Enki didn't think so.
"Do you know why not?" Enlil asked.
They both watched as Castiel looked behind them, then back to the burning buildings, the doors hanging off their hinges as though they'd been thrown wide open by some inhuman strength.
"There are demons here," he said finally, and Enki should've guessed.
"Is this even real?" Enki couldn't see a way for only the three of them, or only him and Enlil at least, to battle a fire like that. He was about to call for help, to cry fire and see if anybody actually dared answer their alarm, but the added threat of demons made him pause.
"Yes. But specific to this building," Castiel said. "It is a cursed fire."
"The people inside-" Enlil began.
Castiel dismissed, "Are all dead or possessed."
"Possessed." Enki scoffed, "Like that priest you're wearing."
"You pulled me into this body. It was not my choice." Meeting Castiel's eyes was a familiar thing now. Castiel was angry and Enki wasn't ashamed to admit he liked being able to draw emotion out of the spirit, so much of the time aloof and untouchable. Enki liked that he could get behind that facade, to find a real, living creature beneath who felt.
"Arguing isn't helping, guys." Enlil, always the voice of reason.
They both knew there were always a ton of people inside the libraries. Maybe more, sheltering from the rain and the storms and the evil and believing the gods would protect them. And now there was no one. Enki wasn't going to accept that.
"There has to be some alive. We can exorcise them-" Enki argued.
"You can't," Castiel said.
It was like Castiel knew exactly how to get to him every damn time. "Man, no. We have to at least try, or else what the fuck is the point?"
Since meeting Castiel there had been so many times when Enki would've loved to punch Castiel in the face. Maybe if he'd thought it would do any good he would have.
Shaking his head, dismissing Castiel, Enki started forward, meaning to get closer to the open doorway to see if there was anyone inside or any way in. Castiel caught his shoulder and held him back, his grip effortlessly strong.
"You shouldn't go in there," he said. Enki looked back, meeting Castiel's eyes and holding them, challenging Castiel to stop him. To help him. To do something.
It shouldn't have been a surprise when Cas just stood there, staring back, his face blank. Enki shrugged his hand away and turned to his brother.
"Enlil," he said, and his brother nodded.
Together they hurried towards the burning library. This close Enki should have been able to feel the heat from the flames but there was nothing, just the same steady, cold rain.
Enki called out, "Is there anyone inside?"
Beyond the doors he could make out the stacks, the wooden shelves ablaze. The roof was charred black. Inching closer, holding their wet skins up in front of them for protection, they moved through the entrance and instantly on crossing the threshold a wave of heat and thick smoke, choking and burning, hit Enki so hard he staggered back.
"Shit," he swore. The heat made the skin on his bare arms feel like it was peeling away and he could smell singed hair.
"We can't go in any further," Enlil called. He had his skin pulled up to his face, coughing.
It was frustrating. They'd hardly gotten anywhere at all, and to give up now when there might be people inside who needed their help was almost unbearable. Somewhere inside a stack collapsed, its heavy piles of tablets smashing to the ground. The information they needed might have been in there for all they knew. And how the hell were just the two of them supposed to take on a fire of this size anyway?
Then, Enki could've sworn he heard a cry for help. He looked at Enlil who had his head tilted up, listening, so Enki knew it wasn't just the smoke getting to him.
A few minutes ago he'd have given anything to be warm, but not like this, and now he longed to be back out in the cooling rain.
"We have to," Enki said, because they couldn't ignore whoever was trapped inside. It wasn't what they did. They didn't have much to lose anyway.
"Yeah," Enlil agreed, and they pushed forward, around the burning shelves, trying to stick close to the walls and the windows. Even beneath the vents high in the ceilings Enki didn't feel any air coming in or going out, like the entire building was closed off from the outside world somehow. He wondered at how they'd been able to smell the fire at all.
The flames licked at their feet, burning at their bare soles and Enki moved faster.
They passed the body of what had once been a priest lying slumped against a wall, his fingers outstretched like he'd been trying to claw his way out of the building. It was hard to tell if he'd been someone they knew or not because one side of his body was blackened and charred and unrecognisable. The smell of burnt flesh was strong and Enki was sure there were other corpses nearby.
They kept moving, hearing the cry again. Two cries. The beams above them creaked ominously. Enki knew better than to waste his time bothering to pray that the ceiling wouldn't fall in on them. Beside him he could see Enlil's eyes scanning the shelves, grimacing in the face of all the knowledge that was being lost. Enki knew as well as Enlil that they'd never make it back to Nippur before it was subsumed with water at the rate the rivers had been flooding in the lower lands. Maybe the city was already gone, taking with it any chance of breaking the spell on Cas.
Then, there was a loud cracking sound as part of the roof gave way and Enki pushed Enlil hard up against the wall, automatically shielding his brother with his own body. The debris fell close to them, burning timbers hitting Enki's back, singeing and tearing and he cried out. This, Enki thought, had been a stupid idea. It had been a desperate, foolish thing to do and now they were going to die here. They hadn't saved anyone.
He crouched closer to Enlil as more roof fell in, sending up thick, fine, choking dust. Flames that burned blue and unnatural sparked around them, more ferocious, hotter and hotter and closer. Enki pulled the skins more tightly around them ignoring the heat at his back and the smoke and smell in his nose.
He was sure this was it, their last moments, and couldn't think of anything to do but to try and stay alive just a little longer. Enki hung on to his brother and hoped against hope that something would come to him like it always did when it came down to it. Not this time though. There was a deafening snapping directly above them and Enki knew that was it.
The blow- the end- never came.
Suddenly the heat wasn't so pressing, the smoke in his throat not so thick and choking. He looked up to see Castiel standing over them. The roof was so completely caved in that Enki could feel the rain against his face. There were red lines that couldn't be anything other than burns streaking across Castiel's arms. Enki saw that Cas's hands were patched with red and black cracked skin as he turned, bending down to pick up the burning timbers closest to them, throwing them away. Parts of the priest's robes he wore were peppered with holes, the edges stained with soot, and Enki watched him move, tossing rubble and wreckage aside like it weighed nothing, lifting his arms and whispering unfamiliar words under his breath so that the flames backed away, abated.
"Cas," he said in shock and awe. Enki would never have guessed that Castiel would be the one to save them.
"You forget," Castiel said, but there was amusement in his eyes, "I can't not follow you."
Enki looked back to the door, and yeah, he guessed it was true that it was way beyond the distance the bond would let them be apart. But Castiel was keeping the fire back, and he was clearing a path towards the inner part of the library, not back towards the outside.
"You are insufferably stubborn," he said, and held out a blackened hand to Enki. He took it gladly, pulling Enlil up to stand beside him. His brother was hacking and coughing, his eyes streaming red from the dust and soot in the air but he was grinning and watching Castiel too.
"We're saving those people," Enki said, just to be sure this was real, and Cas nodded.
"Yes."
He held on to Cas's hand as he was pulled along, looked down at the blisters on it. "That's gotta hurt."
Castiel glanced curiously at his own borrowed skin. "It will heal," he said. Then added, "But yes, it hurts."
"Me holding your hand is making it worse," Enki pointed out, and Castiel let go, nodding.
"I can't hear anyone," Enlil noted and he sounded cautious, like he didn't want to interrupt but he had to. Enki realised he'd been staring at Cas again and Cas had been doing the creepy staring back without blinking thing. How- why- they always ended up doing that Enki didn't know.
It was weirdly difficult to look away, but there was a fire blazing around them and the building collapsing in on itself.
Towards the next room the roof looked mostly intact but the fire more fierce and out of control. Enki couldn't hear the voices crying out for help anymore either.
"Can you get us further inside?" Enki asked, because Castiel was somehow holding back the flames, the heat, and the choking heavy air. Enki could see the flames and the smoke surrounding them but none of it touched them.
Castiel's jaw tightened as though he were debating with himself and for a moment Enki thought he was going to refuse but then he agreed, "Yes," and Enki couldn't help but grin.
Castiel ignored him and turned away again, commanding them, "Stay close."
They passed through the doorway, the doors themselves almost completely burned away. Ducking under the fallen door mantel they came out into the smaller back room. Here the most rare and the most sacred tablets were stored. Most of them lay broken or smashed to dust. Useless. It wasn't going to do any good to think of what they were going to do with the library gone. It was better to concentrate on the present. Castiel pushed a half-collapsed shelf aside, not seeming to care about the tablets he broke in the process. They'd be charred now anyway, and if they survived it would take work- work taking way more time than they had- to make any of them readable again.
Moving deeper into the room Cas pushed aside burning shelf after burning shelf and Enki kind of wanted to tell him to stop- to tell him that they could go around- because his hands looked more and more painfully burned. They searched all the way to the back wall where they finally came across a body caught under a mass of brick and beams where part of the wall had collapsed. It was a priest, a young novice by the looks of him. He wasn't moving.
"He's alive," Castiel said, moving aside debris before crouching down beside the young priest. Enki felt useless, because he couldn't touch anything without burning himself and he couldn't lift anything so heavy. Beside him Enlil was as restless, as impatient to do something as he was. Enlil leaned over and Enki got onto his knees, careful of the sharp edges and the hot embers around him, made to pull the priest guy out as soon as he was free, but then there was an inhuman screech and something was barrelling straight towards Castiel. Its eyes were black and it had blood on its lips.
Enki could see what was going to happen, and Enlil must've too because he made a grab for the priest's shoulders and starting pulling as hard as he could. They got him out and dragged into the far corner just before the demon rammed into Castiel's chest, knocking him over and sending him crashing to the floor.
For an instant there was unbelievable heat and smoke and it fucking hurt, but then it was gone and Enki realised for that short time Castiel's concentration must have gone, exposing them to the fire.
Enki watched as the demon waded through the fire as if it was nothing, made straight for where Castiel had landed and started pounding on him with its fists.
He heard it hiss, "Bright, pretty Heaven creature," and its cracked, bloody lips curved into a crazed, gleeful smile. It laughed as Castiel hit out and something had to be wrong because he couldn't get a hit in, his punches weak. When he'd fought the demons in Eridu they'd been nothing to Castiel, but this demons was tightening its hands around Castiel's neck, squeezing and squeezing and laughing. Enki heard Castiel actually gasp like he needed the air. It was something Enki had never heard from Castiel before and it freaked him out.
Whatever Castiel was doing to keep the heat away from them was fading too. Enki could feel his arms prickling, the air heavier. Cas was losing.
Enki had no holy water and he'd long since run out of salt. It was all gone, had all been used up days ago after fighting monster after monster after monster. He had his knife though, and Enki didn't even think before he was moving forward, drawing out the blade and feeling the comfortable, familiar weight of it in his hand. He ignored the flames and the building collapsing around him and before he could consider all the ways this could go wrong he was driving the knife into the demon's neck.
It reared back, lashing out at Enki and knocking him over hard. Enki fell onto his back among broken timbers and sharp edges and it hurt. But Cas was still down, so Enki fought his way back to standing in time to see Enlil attack the demon. His knife had lodged into its throat and Enlil pulled it out, stabbed the demon in the neck again, slit its throat, making it impossible to remain in the body anymore. This demon was stubborn and had to be powerful because it clung on to life, grasping at Enlil's leg to try and pull him down. It might've worked, and Enki was lunging forward to stop the fucker getting to his brother, but then Cas was there, his palm pressed to the demon's forehead. There was the same bright light, though this time slower to build and Enki could see that Cas was gritting his teeth, his eyes focused on the demon in concentration. The demon wailed and screamed and Enki could see the fury in its eyes, filling with that blinding whiteness. Enki could tell the moment it was gone, not just exorcised but put down for good. The body of what had maybe once been a scholar going limp, the light disappearing to nothing leaving only burnt out eye-sockets and a buzzing sound in Enki's ears.
Then the world returned and Enki remembered where they were and what they were doing and how screwed they were.
"Enlil," Enki called, "The priest." His brother was already on it, calling back, "Yeah, yeah. I know what I’m doing."
Enki ignored the comment.
Castiel had collapsed back into the debris and Enki went to him. The burns looked bad and there were bruises swelling across his cheek. Castiel's eyes were screwed tightly shut.
"Cas," Enki said, gathering into his arms the body of a priest whose name he didn't even now but now would only ever be Castiel. He was light, and a lot smaller than Enki had imagined. Castiel always seemed to fill the air around him as well as the body he inhabited and it was weird to see him like this; reduced, fighting for breath.
He thought about how many others had been killed in the library, how many they couldn't save. This time they were barely getting out of there with their own lives.
Enki didn't fail to notice that the heat, the flames and the smoke were still being driven away. By the wall Enlil was huddled around the priest they'd found alive. He was breathing fairly normally so Enki guessed whatever was keeping him from burning alive extended to his brother too. And that could only have been Cas's doing.
"Okay, okay," Enki conceded. "We're out of here. Just, Cas, open your eyes."
It was weird, but Enki wanted to see them to know for sure that Cas was good.
When slowly, painfully slowly, Cas's eyelids slid open Enki felt a relief he'd never imagined he'd ever feel for a supernatural being. He was supposed to hate them. All of them. But Cas had saved their lives, and somewhere along the line Enki had gotten used to his presence and his quiet annoyance at pretty much everything ever.
"Hey," Enki said, and Castiel sort of almost smiled.
"I don't like this fire," Cas replied testily. Enki wondered if maybe there was something in the fire sapping Castiel's strength.
"Me neither man," Enki grinned back. It took most of Enki's strength to pull Castiel to his feet and drag him over to where Enlil was holding a rag against the side of the young priest's head. It was already soaked through with blood.
Their options were limited. The building was obviously on the verge of collapse, creaking and groaning ominously. They were exhausted and all around them the flames grew taller, burned hotter, out of control. The way they'd come was blocked by a mass of debris and fire.
Castiel seemed to realise the corner they'd backed themselves into because he announced, "I will remove us from this place."
Enki was taking one hell of a lot of Cas's weight and he could see livid purple bruises imprinted around his neck. If it had been anyone else Enki wouldn't have believed them capable of doing anything in such a bad state. Even if Enki had wanted to stay to keep looking for more survivors he wasn't given the chance to protest because between one breath and the next he was outside. In front of him, Enlil was still curved protectively around the priest. It was still raining. Castiel collapsed against his side, dragging Enki down into the mud. It felt good beneath his knees. They were all still breathing so Enki let himself relax, just for a moment, leaning against Castiel as Castiel leaned against him in turn.
It wasn't a win. Out of maybe twenty or thirty priests Enki knew who worked in the library they'd saved only one. But they'd all gotten out of there alive and in one piece, just barely, so it wasn't exactly a failure either.
It was still raining. They'd gained nothing. But Enki couldn't bring himself to care.
<<5. | 6b.>>
Full warnings, summary and notes at Part 1.
1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6a. | 6b. | 7a. | 7b.
.In Eridu.
6a.
Girsu was the smallest of the southern cities. It stood on the high ground, well above the plains and the river valleys, and Enki and Enlil found themselves crowded on the old, worn paths leading to the city gates alongside hundreds of refugees fleeing the floods and the demons. Still the rain fell and the road had been turned to such a mud bath by the multitudes of feet pounding up the dirt that they had to walk along the edges, now turned to banks as water washed down what had once been the pathway. It was a slow, painful slog, made worse by Enki's still aching shoulder. As they walked Enki could feel eyes staring at them, accusing. For such a great number of people, weary, drenched and dirty, the journey was oddly quiet. Maybe no one had the strength left to even speak anymore.
Most kept their distance from the hunters and even from Castiel, dressed as a priest for all that he wasn't. It might've been down to association with him and Enlil, but Enki thought it more likely they could tell there was something not right about him. Something not human. The rain, the mud, none of it concerned Castiel. He was too strong, too tireless and confident for a priest with thin legs and a youthfulness not matched by his eyes.
Castiel followed, never complaining, never offering any comment on what he saw around them. Somehow he'd been roped in to carrying the supplies, or what was left of them after three days hard walking, while Enlil acted as crutch to Enki. He didn't eat or drink or sleep as far as Enki could tell. It was hard to know for sure because when they stopped for the night, just falling to the side of the road, finding what little shelter they could and covering themselves with skins, Enki found that he fell straight into an exhausted sleep. Castiel hadn't killed them while they were passed out yet so Enki assumed they were more or less safe from that danger. Sometimes Castiel even helped them; keeping Enki steady when the ground was too wet and he slipped with every step. When Enlil was too tired to carry him anymore Castiel would take Enki's weight like it was nothing. Sometimes he helped others around them, pulling fallen old men to their feet, carrying children on his shoulders as they forded rivers that hadn't existed a few days before. None of it made sense.
That night, with maybe one more day to walk until they reached Girsu, Enki managed to stay awake long enough to ask, "Why bother? If you had your way they'd all be dead already, right?"
They were huddled beside the one surviving wall of an old abandoned farm house. It was the most shelter they'd had in days. Enlil was already asleep, leaning against Enki's good shoulder. There were at least three other families close by so Enki kept his voice low. This had once been lion country but Enki hadn't seen a single animal the entire journey, like they’d all had the sense to get the hell out of there before it all went to shit.
There was lightening to the east, intermittent bright flashes in the sky that allowed Enki to see the muddy nightmare around them and Castiel's impassive face. He'd rather not have seen either. The rolling thunder was the only thing that drowned out the soft, exhausted cries of the children among them. It was depressing as hell and Enki couldn't understand how Castiel could sit there and watch all this, knowing he had caused it.
"No," Castiel replied. "They wouldn't." It was almost an opinion.
"You act like a guardian spirit half the time," Enki pressed. "But you caused this."
"I have told you," and now Castiel actually sounded frustrated. Maybe he was getting as tired of this conversation as Enki was. "I cause nothing."
"Yeah, I know, you just follow orders. But, man, look at what you're doing. There's no way you can think this is right."
"What I think makes no difference." Castiel sighed and it was the most human sounding thing he'd ever done. "Enki, please. I can no more affect the outcome than you can."
Which was clearly not the truth or he wouldn't have been the one tied to Enki by this spell.
"But you wouldn't do this, if you hadn't been ordered to," Enki surmised.
"Of course not," Castiel snapped in reply. "I'm not-" He stopped, and Enki could feel the muscles of Castiel's borrowed body, tense and agitated beside him.
And to Enki that was pretty much an admission that Castiel didn't believe this was a good thing he was doing either.
On these long nights Enki inevitably lost feeling in his fingers and toes from sitting for so long in the pouring, cold rain. He tried moving them, trying to bring life back to them again. Sitting on the wet ground, Enki didn't think he could even remember what warm felt like. What dry felt like. He wondered if Castiel felt any of it.
They never talked about it but Castiel would always lay his hand on Enki's shoulder or on his arm and the cold would recede, the pain of the day would lessen, and the continuous ache in his shoulder would fall to nothing.
It was these strange, unlooked for gestures that told Enki it was still worth trying to convince Castiel to help them, no matter how many times he said he couldn't.
It was obvious that Castiel did care.
"You're not an evil murdering asshole," Enki said. "I get that, Cas. Except, you know, where you are."
Enki couldn't see it, but he could feel Castiel shift so that he was leaning back against the wall, his head tilted to the sky.
"Why do you always do that?" Enki asked. "You always look up, and then that's it; no more from Castiel the guardian who sucks at guarding anything for the rest of the night."
A long pause, and Enki gritted his teeth because every fucking conversation they had seemed to end this way. Except this time Castiel replied, "I pray."
"You pray?" Enki was surprised, because why the hell would any creature as powerful as Castiel need to pray? "What for?"
"You cut me off from Heaven. I pray for guidance."
Enki was sure there was more that Castiel wanted to say, but with sudden clarity Enki realised that Castiel was afraid.
"You think," Enki said slowly, "Just by helping us this much you're disobeying."
"Understand," Castiel tried to explain, his voice low and urgent as though he was admitting to some terrible secret, "I follow orders. Nothing more. I was not made to decide my own course of action."
It was a life Enki both could and couldn't understand. For so long he'd followed his dad's orders without hesitation or thought, never doubting them, but he'd learned that no one was infallible, that nothing and no one could be right all the time. Not even whatever it was that Castiel prayed to.
"But you can," Enki pushed. "And you can see that this is wrong. I mean, look around you-"
"I must have faith that there is a greater plan," Castiel insisted.
"But you can't see it, can you? This greater plan? How could anything come out of this freaking misery?" Enki knew he was taking a chance in challenging Castiel this much, but Enki hadn't missed the fact that Castiel no longer defended his actions, no longer offered peace in some unknown, unknowable afterlife like it was some kind of consolation. "These people want to live," Enki went on when Castiel said nothing. "They pray to the gods to keep them breathing, not for some awesome life after death."
There was a pause before Castiel shook his head, sounding irritated when he asked, "And what would you have me do?"
"Stop this." Enki held his hands out, palms upwards, feeling the cool rain against his skin.
"I can't stop what has been started. I can't go against Heaven. I am one angel. What could I possibly do?"
"Me and Enlil, we've fought against things bigger and uglier than ourselves all our lives and we've always won," Enki told him. "I took you for a lot of things, but I never took you for a coward."
Castiel hadn't shown even a hint of fear in the face of the demons back in Eridu. He hadn't needed to ask for help when they'd fought a band of Rabisu along the road just past Larsa, nor when a Lamashutu, the worst of all creatures, had attacked them late into the hours of darkness. They'd still been walking, looking for some kind of shelter where none was to be found, exhausted, and Enki was sure both he and his brother would be dead if Castiel hadn't pulled his shiny knife from wherever he kept it hidden and killed the creature. His movements, swift and efficient, spoke of practice and experience and Enki had to admit that Castiel was good in a fight.
"You call me a coward when you know nothing-" Castiel's voice was rising and Enki didn't have the patience to keep it down. Right then, Enki didn't care if the entire fucking world heard them. He knew he'd woken Enlil, his brother shifting beside him.
"I know nothing because that's about all you've ever told us," Enki shot back. "You won't say what's doing this. You tell us you can't stop it, but you don't explain why. Don't expect me to just-"
"Enki," Enlil interrupted, sounding wide-awake and tense. He laid a hand on Enki's shoulder. "Maybe you should get some rest."
Enki shook off his brother's hand. "Yeah, no, Enlil. I'm done with dancing around him. He knows what's going on. If he won't help us, the least he could do is tell us what we're up against."
Castiel narrowed his eyes. "The least I can do? I owe you nothing. You imprison me and expect me to be sympathetic?"
Pretty much every conversation they had ended up in some kind of argument, but it had never been this personal before. Enki had never been this pissed at Castiel and he knew it was because he was kind of starting to like the asshole. He just couldn't reconcile the Castiel who helped old ladies carry their belongings with the cold-hearted monster responsible for trying to destroy them all.
"I expect you to not be a murdering asshole. Is that too much to ask? You want me to ask nicely?"
"I'm not," Castiel denied, and tightened his hold on Enki as though he was trying to make a point. "I can't."
"Then tell us how," Enki yelled.
Silence then, and a sudden flash of lightening showed the faces of the other refugees turned towards them, watching in shock and hatred and confusion. "Fuck," Enki swore under his breath.
"We need to get out of here," Enlil urged, already pulling Enki to his feet. They'd done this before too; been forced to leave some temple, or some house, or some shelter by people too scared of them to let them stay. This, though, was a whole new level of messed up. Enki could see murder in their eyes. Close by- too close- Enki could see one man hefting his axe.
"Yeah," Enki agreed. "And fast."
They moved quickly away, out into the night and the full strength of the rain, driven into them by a strong wind. Enki didn't dare try to find another place to stop. He didn't know how much those people had heard and he couldn't be sure they wouldn't follow. On their long march to Girsu Enki had seen temples ransacked and burned, people turning on each other, putting blame wherever they could. Fear and panic had driven people crazy and to give them an excuse, a real excuse, would be suicide.
Enki didn't speak to Castiel throughout the long night, and for once he was glad for Castiel's silence.
***
The gates of Girsu were huge, ancient things decorated with strips of polished copper which gleamed in the sun like gold. Now though there was no sunlight, and the gates, like everything else, had turned grey-yellow, thick with mud and dulled by rain.
The gates were closed, and no amount of pounding on the heavy wood, no amount of pleading, nor bribes offered to the gate keepers would open them. A makeshift town had grown around the city walls in the few days since Enki and Enlil had last been at the city, and Enki was surprised by the sheer numbers of people who had come to this place for sanctuary. Shelters made of animal skins and rocks and whatever else could be found stretched far beyond the boundary markers. Enki and Enlil, with Castiel in tow, walked the churned up path to the city bordered on both sides by makeshift homes and saw families who were hungry, cold and afraid.
There was a huge, angry crowd at the gates and no obvious way of getting into the city without being trampled or torn to shreds or both.
"You think they'll let us in if we say we're just here to use the library?" Enki asked dryly. Enlil snorted and drew the skins he was wearing more closely around his shoulders. Enki hadn't actually thought it possible, but up here in the higher lands it was colder than ever. There was just no fucking end to this misery.
Enki almost jumped in surprise when Castiel said, "I can take us inside."
"Feeling helpful when it's got something to do with releasing you from the spell, huh?" Enki didn't try to hide the disgust in his voice.
They stood in awkward silence, the rain falling around them, filling the deep footprints in the mud with water.
"Yeah," Enki said. "That's what I thought."
They weren't helping anyone standing out here though, and there was always the slim chance that there might be something in the temple libraries that would help them stop this. Not that they hadn't already looked through the tablets a hundred times already. Maybe the priests would be able to point them in the right direction now that they knew a guardian spirit had started it. Now that they knew Heaven meant to drown the world.
He looked to Enlil, and Enlil nodded, probably thinking along the same lines because even if they had nothing like the information they needed, they had a place to start. Castiel could work out the counter-spell his own damn self.
Meeting Castiel's eyes, a challenge, Enki said, "Do it."
Over the past few days Enki had become almost used to this staring. So many times he'd almost asked Cas why he always looked at him like that, and pretty much only him, but Enki wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Enki didn't look away as Castiel reached his arms out, gripping both his and Enlil's shoulders tightly. For less than the blink of an eye the world disappeared but in that time Enki thought he heard the sound of wings beating, the world yanked out from under his feet, the feel of wind through his entire body like he'd been turned inside out. His stomach turned and turned and then the world and the rain were there again. Enki felt himself stumble, his insides knotted like he'd been out for a night of cheap date wine. A hand steadied him and Enki shook his head, trying to regain his balance. The hand was Castiel's and he would've liked to have shrugged it off, but he wasn't convinced he'd keep upright if he did. Beside him, Enlil looked about as ill as Enki felt.
"You could've warned us," Enlil said.
Castiel tilted his head. "I have never transported humans before. I didn't know it would affect you this way."
"Whatever." Enki really wished he could sit down. If they hadn't had a world to save Enki might just have sat straight down into the mud.
"Come on." Enlil was looking around them nervously and Enki saw why. Inside the city the streets were pretty much deserted. Enki could hear the cries from outside the walls, but here, standing on the other side they sounded muffled, dampened. The quiet was eerie and disconcerting and the complete opposite of how Eridu had been. All they could hear was the sound of the rain and the wind breaking against the buildings around them.
Enlil said, "They must have seen that." And then Enki felt it; eyes watching them from the windows and doors of the houses around them. Enki would've bitched at Castiel for landing them right in the middle of a residential area but they had to move. He didn't want to find out how the locals would react to Castiel's magic.
"This way." Enki grabbed hold of Castiel's wrist, pulling him towards the central avenue. From there it would be easy to follow the main thoroughfare to the temple gates. They knew their way to the libraries well, standing in the shadow of the great temple, and that was something you couldn't miss; the stone, step-pyramid shape of it rising above the roofs of all the other buildings in the city.
In a way he hadn't back at the temple in Eridu when he'd had first appeared, now Castiel let Enki drag him along. They moved quickly, away from the city walls and into the narrow maze of homes and streets that made up this district of the city. These streets were usually teeming with people but now they stood deserted and silent. With every step Enki could feel eyes watching them.
"Let us do the talking," he told Castiel under his breath. "The priests at the library know us." And now was not the time to be getting thrown out.
"Enki," Castiel said in a low voice. It was the same tone he'd used the night before when he'd said of course he wouldn't choose to start the end of the world. That he was sorry. It reminded Enki how pissed he was, and made him angry at himself for expecting anything more than crap from a supernatural being.
"What?" he snapped.
"I wish there was something more I could do-" Castiel began.
"Wishing isn't going to help us, Cas," Enki cut in. He didn't want to hear his platitudes. He really didn't.
They turned up onto the main street, the avenue widening out, and still they saw no one. Not even any guards or soldiers. No one called to them or questioned them. Enki couldn't blame people for staying inside in this weather, out of the rain and the storm.
Out of nowhere, Enlil frowned at Enki and said, "Cas?"
"What-"
"You called Castiel 'Cas'." Enlil turned to Castiel. "Didn't he?"
"Yes," Castiel confirmed and Enki thought, what the hell?. Since when did he give the things he and Enlil spent their life fighting against nicknames? He hadn't even realised he was doing it, and now Enlil was giving him weird looks.
"His name is too long," Enki said, and decided it was true.
Enlil didn't look convinced, said, "Right," in a long drawl, and Enki was about to tell his brother he could fuck right off with his sarcasm when he smelled something burning. On any other day that wouldn't be so weird but in this rain, the air and ground saturated, Enki was sure there wasn't anything left dry enough to burn anymore. It didn't smell like some hearth-fire either, but something thicker and heavier. Larger. But Enki couldn't see any smoke.
"You smell that?" Enki asked.
Enlil sniffed the air. "Fire. In the direction of the libraries."
Exactly what Enki had been thinking.
They both broke into a run and Enki trusted that Castiel would be forced to follow. It was difficult to move fast, to keep their footing on the slippery, thick mud, but they didn't have far to go. Within the temple boundaries there was not a priest or a guard to be seen. The dedication fires lining the road to the temple had become pools of dirty water, the bricks lining the pits covered in mud and dirt where usually they were kept pristine. Offerings and prayer tablets lay broken, abandoned and half-buried in the ground. With every step the smell grew stronger and then, turning the corner at the hostelry the libraries came into sight ahead of them, ablaze. As soon as Enki saw it he knew there was nothing natural about this fire. There was no smoke, and the colours of the flames burned greens and blues. There was no panic, no priests running around nor soldiers trying to create some semblance of order, trying to save the buildings and their irreplaceable contents. There was no one at all.
Enki came to a stop.
"Where the hell is everyone?" He looked around, not believing that the townspeople, the scholars who had spent their lives building this place up, would just let it burn away to nothing. Not even in this weather under these circumstances. If anything, surely the priests must have known that the ancient scriptures housed within the libraries might be the only thing that could save them. "What the fuck?"
"They can't see it." Castiel stood beside Enki, his eyes following the strange flames, seeing more than Enki could, he was sure.
Enki didn't miss the way the flames never crossed the boundary of the doorway, never touched the wooden doors. It could have been the rain but Enki didn't think so.
"Do you know why not?" Enlil asked.
They both watched as Castiel looked behind them, then back to the burning buildings, the doors hanging off their hinges as though they'd been thrown wide open by some inhuman strength.
"There are demons here," he said finally, and Enki should've guessed.
"Is this even real?" Enki couldn't see a way for only the three of them, or only him and Enlil at least, to battle a fire like that. He was about to call for help, to cry fire and see if anybody actually dared answer their alarm, but the added threat of demons made him pause.
"Yes. But specific to this building," Castiel said. "It is a cursed fire."
"The people inside-" Enlil began.
Castiel dismissed, "Are all dead or possessed."
"Possessed." Enki scoffed, "Like that priest you're wearing."
"You pulled me into this body. It was not my choice." Meeting Castiel's eyes was a familiar thing now. Castiel was angry and Enki wasn't ashamed to admit he liked being able to draw emotion out of the spirit, so much of the time aloof and untouchable. Enki liked that he could get behind that facade, to find a real, living creature beneath who felt.
"Arguing isn't helping, guys." Enlil, always the voice of reason.
They both knew there were always a ton of people inside the libraries. Maybe more, sheltering from the rain and the storms and the evil and believing the gods would protect them. And now there was no one. Enki wasn't going to accept that.
"There has to be some alive. We can exorcise them-" Enki argued.
"You can't," Castiel said.
It was like Castiel knew exactly how to get to him every damn time. "Man, no. We have to at least try, or else what the fuck is the point?"
Since meeting Castiel there had been so many times when Enki would've loved to punch Castiel in the face. Maybe if he'd thought it would do any good he would have.
Shaking his head, dismissing Castiel, Enki started forward, meaning to get closer to the open doorway to see if there was anyone inside or any way in. Castiel caught his shoulder and held him back, his grip effortlessly strong.
"You shouldn't go in there," he said. Enki looked back, meeting Castiel's eyes and holding them, challenging Castiel to stop him. To help him. To do something.
It shouldn't have been a surprise when Cas just stood there, staring back, his face blank. Enki shrugged his hand away and turned to his brother.
"Enlil," he said, and his brother nodded.
Together they hurried towards the burning library. This close Enki should have been able to feel the heat from the flames but there was nothing, just the same steady, cold rain.
Enki called out, "Is there anyone inside?"
Beyond the doors he could make out the stacks, the wooden shelves ablaze. The roof was charred black. Inching closer, holding their wet skins up in front of them for protection, they moved through the entrance and instantly on crossing the threshold a wave of heat and thick smoke, choking and burning, hit Enki so hard he staggered back.
"Shit," he swore. The heat made the skin on his bare arms feel like it was peeling away and he could smell singed hair.
"We can't go in any further," Enlil called. He had his skin pulled up to his face, coughing.
It was frustrating. They'd hardly gotten anywhere at all, and to give up now when there might be people inside who needed their help was almost unbearable. Somewhere inside a stack collapsed, its heavy piles of tablets smashing to the ground. The information they needed might have been in there for all they knew. And how the hell were just the two of them supposed to take on a fire of this size anyway?
Then, Enki could've sworn he heard a cry for help. He looked at Enlil who had his head tilted up, listening, so Enki knew it wasn't just the smoke getting to him.
A few minutes ago he'd have given anything to be warm, but not like this, and now he longed to be back out in the cooling rain.
"We have to," Enki said, because they couldn't ignore whoever was trapped inside. It wasn't what they did. They didn't have much to lose anyway.
"Yeah," Enlil agreed, and they pushed forward, around the burning shelves, trying to stick close to the walls and the windows. Even beneath the vents high in the ceilings Enki didn't feel any air coming in or going out, like the entire building was closed off from the outside world somehow. He wondered at how they'd been able to smell the fire at all.
The flames licked at their feet, burning at their bare soles and Enki moved faster.
They passed the body of what had once been a priest lying slumped against a wall, his fingers outstretched like he'd been trying to claw his way out of the building. It was hard to tell if he'd been someone they knew or not because one side of his body was blackened and charred and unrecognisable. The smell of burnt flesh was strong and Enki was sure there were other corpses nearby.
They kept moving, hearing the cry again. Two cries. The beams above them creaked ominously. Enki knew better than to waste his time bothering to pray that the ceiling wouldn't fall in on them. Beside him he could see Enlil's eyes scanning the shelves, grimacing in the face of all the knowledge that was being lost. Enki knew as well as Enlil that they'd never make it back to Nippur before it was subsumed with water at the rate the rivers had been flooding in the lower lands. Maybe the city was already gone, taking with it any chance of breaking the spell on Cas.
Then, there was a loud cracking sound as part of the roof gave way and Enki pushed Enlil hard up against the wall, automatically shielding his brother with his own body. The debris fell close to them, burning timbers hitting Enki's back, singeing and tearing and he cried out. This, Enki thought, had been a stupid idea. It had been a desperate, foolish thing to do and now they were going to die here. They hadn't saved anyone.
He crouched closer to Enlil as more roof fell in, sending up thick, fine, choking dust. Flames that burned blue and unnatural sparked around them, more ferocious, hotter and hotter and closer. Enki pulled the skins more tightly around them ignoring the heat at his back and the smoke and smell in his nose.
He was sure this was it, their last moments, and couldn't think of anything to do but to try and stay alive just a little longer. Enki hung on to his brother and hoped against hope that something would come to him like it always did when it came down to it. Not this time though. There was a deafening snapping directly above them and Enki knew that was it.
The blow- the end- never came.
Suddenly the heat wasn't so pressing, the smoke in his throat not so thick and choking. He looked up to see Castiel standing over them. The roof was so completely caved in that Enki could feel the rain against his face. There were red lines that couldn't be anything other than burns streaking across Castiel's arms. Enki saw that Cas's hands were patched with red and black cracked skin as he turned, bending down to pick up the burning timbers closest to them, throwing them away. Parts of the priest's robes he wore were peppered with holes, the edges stained with soot, and Enki watched him move, tossing rubble and wreckage aside like it weighed nothing, lifting his arms and whispering unfamiliar words under his breath so that the flames backed away, abated.
"Cas," he said in shock and awe. Enki would never have guessed that Castiel would be the one to save them.
"You forget," Castiel said, but there was amusement in his eyes, "I can't not follow you."
Enki looked back to the door, and yeah, he guessed it was true that it was way beyond the distance the bond would let them be apart. But Castiel was keeping the fire back, and he was clearing a path towards the inner part of the library, not back towards the outside.
"You are insufferably stubborn," he said, and held out a blackened hand to Enki. He took it gladly, pulling Enlil up to stand beside him. His brother was hacking and coughing, his eyes streaming red from the dust and soot in the air but he was grinning and watching Castiel too.
"We're saving those people," Enki said, just to be sure this was real, and Cas nodded.
"Yes."
He held on to Cas's hand as he was pulled along, looked down at the blisters on it. "That's gotta hurt."
Castiel glanced curiously at his own borrowed skin. "It will heal," he said. Then added, "But yes, it hurts."
"Me holding your hand is making it worse," Enki pointed out, and Castiel let go, nodding.
"I can't hear anyone," Enlil noted and he sounded cautious, like he didn't want to interrupt but he had to. Enki realised he'd been staring at Cas again and Cas had been doing the creepy staring back without blinking thing. How- why- they always ended up doing that Enki didn't know.
It was weirdly difficult to look away, but there was a fire blazing around them and the building collapsing in on itself.
Towards the next room the roof looked mostly intact but the fire more fierce and out of control. Enki couldn't hear the voices crying out for help anymore either.
"Can you get us further inside?" Enki asked, because Castiel was somehow holding back the flames, the heat, and the choking heavy air. Enki could see the flames and the smoke surrounding them but none of it touched them.
Castiel's jaw tightened as though he were debating with himself and for a moment Enki thought he was going to refuse but then he agreed, "Yes," and Enki couldn't help but grin.
Castiel ignored him and turned away again, commanding them, "Stay close."
They passed through the doorway, the doors themselves almost completely burned away. Ducking under the fallen door mantel they came out into the smaller back room. Here the most rare and the most sacred tablets were stored. Most of them lay broken or smashed to dust. Useless. It wasn't going to do any good to think of what they were going to do with the library gone. It was better to concentrate on the present. Castiel pushed a half-collapsed shelf aside, not seeming to care about the tablets he broke in the process. They'd be charred now anyway, and if they survived it would take work- work taking way more time than they had- to make any of them readable again.
Moving deeper into the room Cas pushed aside burning shelf after burning shelf and Enki kind of wanted to tell him to stop- to tell him that they could go around- because his hands looked more and more painfully burned. They searched all the way to the back wall where they finally came across a body caught under a mass of brick and beams where part of the wall had collapsed. It was a priest, a young novice by the looks of him. He wasn't moving.
"He's alive," Castiel said, moving aside debris before crouching down beside the young priest. Enki felt useless, because he couldn't touch anything without burning himself and he couldn't lift anything so heavy. Beside him Enlil was as restless, as impatient to do something as he was. Enlil leaned over and Enki got onto his knees, careful of the sharp edges and the hot embers around him, made to pull the priest guy out as soon as he was free, but then there was an inhuman screech and something was barrelling straight towards Castiel. Its eyes were black and it had blood on its lips.
Enki could see what was going to happen, and Enlil must've too because he made a grab for the priest's shoulders and starting pulling as hard as he could. They got him out and dragged into the far corner just before the demon rammed into Castiel's chest, knocking him over and sending him crashing to the floor.
For an instant there was unbelievable heat and smoke and it fucking hurt, but then it was gone and Enki realised for that short time Castiel's concentration must have gone, exposing them to the fire.
Enki watched as the demon waded through the fire as if it was nothing, made straight for where Castiel had landed and started pounding on him with its fists.
He heard it hiss, "Bright, pretty Heaven creature," and its cracked, bloody lips curved into a crazed, gleeful smile. It laughed as Castiel hit out and something had to be wrong because he couldn't get a hit in, his punches weak. When he'd fought the demons in Eridu they'd been nothing to Castiel, but this demons was tightening its hands around Castiel's neck, squeezing and squeezing and laughing. Enki heard Castiel actually gasp like he needed the air. It was something Enki had never heard from Castiel before and it freaked him out.
Whatever Castiel was doing to keep the heat away from them was fading too. Enki could feel his arms prickling, the air heavier. Cas was losing.
Enki had no holy water and he'd long since run out of salt. It was all gone, had all been used up days ago after fighting monster after monster after monster. He had his knife though, and Enki didn't even think before he was moving forward, drawing out the blade and feeling the comfortable, familiar weight of it in his hand. He ignored the flames and the building collapsing around him and before he could consider all the ways this could go wrong he was driving the knife into the demon's neck.
It reared back, lashing out at Enki and knocking him over hard. Enki fell onto his back among broken timbers and sharp edges and it hurt. But Cas was still down, so Enki fought his way back to standing in time to see Enlil attack the demon. His knife had lodged into its throat and Enlil pulled it out, stabbed the demon in the neck again, slit its throat, making it impossible to remain in the body anymore. This demon was stubborn and had to be powerful because it clung on to life, grasping at Enlil's leg to try and pull him down. It might've worked, and Enki was lunging forward to stop the fucker getting to his brother, but then Cas was there, his palm pressed to the demon's forehead. There was the same bright light, though this time slower to build and Enki could see that Cas was gritting his teeth, his eyes focused on the demon in concentration. The demon wailed and screamed and Enki could see the fury in its eyes, filling with that blinding whiteness. Enki could tell the moment it was gone, not just exorcised but put down for good. The body of what had maybe once been a scholar going limp, the light disappearing to nothing leaving only burnt out eye-sockets and a buzzing sound in Enki's ears.
Then the world returned and Enki remembered where they were and what they were doing and how screwed they were.
"Enlil," Enki called, "The priest." His brother was already on it, calling back, "Yeah, yeah. I know what I’m doing."
Enki ignored the comment.
Castiel had collapsed back into the debris and Enki went to him. The burns looked bad and there were bruises swelling across his cheek. Castiel's eyes were screwed tightly shut.
"Cas," Enki said, gathering into his arms the body of a priest whose name he didn't even now but now would only ever be Castiel. He was light, and a lot smaller than Enki had imagined. Castiel always seemed to fill the air around him as well as the body he inhabited and it was weird to see him like this; reduced, fighting for breath.
He thought about how many others had been killed in the library, how many they couldn't save. This time they were barely getting out of there with their own lives.
Enki didn't fail to notice that the heat, the flames and the smoke were still being driven away. By the wall Enlil was huddled around the priest they'd found alive. He was breathing fairly normally so Enki guessed whatever was keeping him from burning alive extended to his brother too. And that could only have been Cas's doing.
"Okay, okay," Enki conceded. "We're out of here. Just, Cas, open your eyes."
It was weird, but Enki wanted to see them to know for sure that Cas was good.
When slowly, painfully slowly, Cas's eyelids slid open Enki felt a relief he'd never imagined he'd ever feel for a supernatural being. He was supposed to hate them. All of them. But Cas had saved their lives, and somewhere along the line Enki had gotten used to his presence and his quiet annoyance at pretty much everything ever.
"Hey," Enki said, and Castiel sort of almost smiled.
"I don't like this fire," Cas replied testily. Enki wondered if maybe there was something in the fire sapping Castiel's strength.
"Me neither man," Enki grinned back. It took most of Enki's strength to pull Castiel to his feet and drag him over to where Enlil was holding a rag against the side of the young priest's head. It was already soaked through with blood.
Their options were limited. The building was obviously on the verge of collapse, creaking and groaning ominously. They were exhausted and all around them the flames grew taller, burned hotter, out of control. The way they'd come was blocked by a mass of debris and fire.
Castiel seemed to realise the corner they'd backed themselves into because he announced, "I will remove us from this place."
Enki was taking one hell of a lot of Cas's weight and he could see livid purple bruises imprinted around his neck. If it had been anyone else Enki wouldn't have believed them capable of doing anything in such a bad state. Even if Enki had wanted to stay to keep looking for more survivors he wasn't given the chance to protest because between one breath and the next he was outside. In front of him, Enlil was still curved protectively around the priest. It was still raining. Castiel collapsed against his side, dragging Enki down into the mud. It felt good beneath his knees. They were all still breathing so Enki let himself relax, just for a moment, leaning against Castiel as Castiel leaned against him in turn.
It wasn't a win. Out of maybe twenty or thirty priests Enki knew who worked in the library they'd saved only one. But they'd all gotten out of there alive and in one piece, just barely, so it wasn't exactly a failure either.
It was still raining. They'd gained nothing. But Enki couldn't bring himself to care.
<<5. | 6b.>>