My head caused me a certain unreast. I looked into my cousin's face and knew instantly that there was more than he was putting forth. " Cousin, it is...." he cut me short with the raising of his hand. " Nymosyne, I truly praise the gods today for granting me the pleasure of recieving you back in the fold; its been far too long..." 'and the gods know how bad I require your presence here.' I nodded and began pacing around the opulently decorated room. I walked towards the balcony and stood in the breeze looking out over Babylon; such a jewel of a city, so gorgeous, the very cradle of life. But if the missives were correct, then Babylon was soon to be a cradle of desolation and destruction. Zig walked up beside me and sighed a great sigh that just seemed to rise from the base of his feet and in that moment I could truly see the obvious lines of concern and worry. "Zig, I have one question for you, and I want the truth from you." It felt good to speak to him as family, as a brother and not have to stand on ceremony and pomp. He looked at me with his haggard eyes and nodded. " Why have you called me back here after five years?" He stood looking at me for a minute then turned to face the greatness of his Babylon. " Nymosyne...I missed having you here and..." " By Marduk's hair Zig! Stop it!" I said furiously. " Zig you exiled me to Aleppo. Ive lived there for five years and all of a sudden you interrupt five years of silence to just have me come back because you missed me!" The anger I had kept threatned to spill over. He looked at me and hung his head. " Cousin, I know all about your situation, about the rumors of war that have turned out to be evidently true and the fact that Nabodias tells me you haven't had a good nights sleep in weeks since this happened. And their are other things that have happened that you have tried to keep locked away, but I see and I know." I wondered in that moment what would anyone of the thousands of people of Babylon or any of the courtiers or family would say if they could have seen the great Lion of Babylon standing their crying with the tears of a swollen Euphrates river. I embraced him and held his quaking form as all ot the past months sorrows flowed and flowed from his soul.