Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ The First Woman In The World ❯ 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Two and a half thousand years ago

“They say that the Persians are coming, you know,” the young man muttered worriedly. “They will kill us all...”

“I'm sure it's just rumours,” Eta insisted, smiling sweetly. She and Ushi had taken to splitting up to search for information whenever they reached towns now. They grew so big these days, making their long-gone town of a thousand people seem a pitifully tiny village by comparison. It made Eta awestruck at how much the world had changed- and she got to see it.

Another reason for splitting up, aside from covering the huge towns faster, was one that she wouldn't share with Ushi; the fact that she'd found that young men were very happy to tell her things without any form of payment, so long as Ushi wasn't next to her, glaring at them. Not that any of them had a chance with her- she was Ushi's, forever and ever- but they tended to be so much more talkative if they didn't know that.

“So why're you suddenly coming into town?” the man insisted. “I tell you, people are fleeing from the farms!”

“I am not fleeing,” Eta promised, laying a hand on his arm. She was quickly growing very adept at using her beauty for her own purposes. “My name is Anesidora. I am looking for something.” She and Ushi had also taken to using different names wherever they went; too many questions and too much distrust were given to foreigners. She had just made up the name, as it sounded reasonably like the names in the local tongue. She was surprised by the malicious cackle behind her when she gave the name.

“Looking for what you unleashed on the world, eh?” an old woman said. Eta stared at her in surprise.

“What?” she said, suddenly flustered. “What I unleashed?”

“Don't know what your own name means?” the old woman cackled. “It's the other name of lady Pandora.”

“Really?” the young man said in surprise. “I never knew that...”

“You young ones, don't even know your own history,” the old woman grumbled.

“Pandora?” Eta said guardedly. She hadn't wanted to sound too foreign, but she had no idea who “Lady Pandora” was, and was worried by the fact that the man had easily recognised the name. She probably wasn't going to get out of this conversation without sounding foreign. “I... lost my parents young. They told me few stories...”

“Why, Lady Pandora was the first woman in the world!” the old woman cackled. “And she was guardian of an urn containing all of the evils of the world... but the nosy fool opened it, and the evils were unleashed! She tried to close the urn, but all she trapped back inside was Hope! And so it is her fault that there is sin and evil in the world... but perhaps, someday, you shall let us have hope too, eh?”

Eta thought of the star that she had found, what she had “unleashed” upon the world; the bodies found with their throats slit by bandits and the cowering children and the dance of blood...

“After what I unleashed,” she murmured, walking away, “I think hope is the least that I owe the world.”

“We'll destroy it, momma!”

Two thousand years ago

“What on earth happened here?” Eta said in surprise, looking over the remains of a temple. Broken wood and torn cloth was strewn everywhere, stallholders desperately trying to gather up the remains of their own wares while stealing as much of the others' as possible.

“Some kind of fight?” Ushi said. “The rest of the town's undamaged...”

“Not so much a fight as some kind of philosopher going mental,” one of the stallholders muttered angrily. “Haven't seen one that crazy since the Romans killed off the Greek blokes... bloody Jews... so temperamental.”

“Are there any gem stalls here?” Eta asked, glancing over the destruction. “Were there any gem stalls here?”

“I think there were a couple up the top end,” the man said, stamping on a hand that was reaching for one of his pots. “They might have legged it already though...”

“Well, we'll find out,” Ushi said, striding through the wreckage until he reached a man who was hastily cramming shining stones into a canvas bag. “Are you a gem trader?”

“What of it?” the man said sharply.

“We're looking for a particular jewel,” Ushi said, flipping a gold aureus over to the man. He caught the coin, suddenly looking far friendlier. “And we'll happily lighten our pockets of many of these to make room for it...”

“I see, I see,” said the gem trader expansively. “Well, can you describe the jewel?”

“It is quite large,” Ushi said, indicating the size of the gem. “And clear, like a diamond. But if viewed at night, it glows red.”

“I'm afraid I have not seen such a jewel, though I would love to,” the man said with a downcast sigh. “Jero might have had some such jewel, but he left already. He said he was heading to Rome, where uppity Jews get fed to the lions!” He cackled unpleasantly. “However, I have many other fine jewels...”

“All are mere rocks compared to our treasure,” Ushi snorted. “Come, Eta. I suppose we are going to Rome.”

“Shouldn't be hard,” Eta said with a smile. “They do say that all roads lead to Rome, after all...”

The sun was hot and bright in this desert land, so it was no wonder, Eta mused, that it boiled the brains of men until they saw strange things and took strange action. It was giving her strange dreams, as well.

Sometimes, ever since drinking the crystal drink, she'd had another dream, not about her children, mostly formless but still important. That night, as she and Ushi curled together against the freezing night, she dreamed it again. Once, she and Ushi had had no need to sleep at all, but now they needed to do it at least once a week or else they'd collapse. So she had time to dream.

It was only flashes, mostly formless, perhaps awaiting images as yet uncreated. But there were central points.

The red sun.

The crystal cage.

The falling coin, heads on both sides, a familiar head.

The coin that turned into an arrowhead.

The arrowhead that smashed soundlessly through the crystal cage.

The all-encompassing darkness.

The light.

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This was released alongside chapter 58:Poison.

The next chapter will be released alongside chapter 63:The Grim Shadow.

New TFWITW trailer AMV! Check it out: http:// www . youtube.com/ watch?v=wzitWnODnWA (remove the spaces)

Could be, Pretztailfan95, could be... Well, you are right either way...

Correct, KagoNoNeko! I Wikied the time and it mentioned pottery and a population explosion, so I figured... they're in two different places here. The idea is that it'll take ten thousand years... the immortality must be renewed at every comet's pass.

Sneaky hints, topaz-tantei... ^_- CHOCOLATE!!!!! *grabs chocolate and scurries away into a corner to eat, giving paranoid glances over shoulder every so often* my precious...

Yep, she's embodying the whole “immortality-as-a-curse” side of things, Mel72000...