"So, Ishtar, isn't what you should do obvious?"
Enki reclined in his wicker chair, rocking gently as he looked at the beautiful goddess with a smile.
He regarded Ishtar as his own daughter. Unlike Nanna, he would not brush her off.
"...Wouldn't I just be rejected outright?"
Ishtar hung off to the side, cupping her cheeks with a troubled expression.
"What I want isn't to be rejected."
"Even if he is my king, I am even more his goddess." Her face was filled with considerable frustration. "If I lowered myself to court him and was still rejected, I'd go mad."
Enki glanced at Ishtar and realized that the girl was serious.
"You are a god, my child."
Enki rose to his feet, walked over, and gently stroked Ishtar's head twice.
"And one of the Seven Great Gods of Fate."
"Everything you do affects this land. I hope you can love this land a little more, child."
Enki's meaning was obvious.
He hoped Ishtar could be more rational—preferably, that she would stop pouring her energy into matters of love and affection and do what a god ought to do.
Ishtar understood, but her brows instead furrowed.
Why did both perfunctory words and words of concern sound so grating?
Enki saw Ishtar's displeasure and sighed.
This grown girl was still so willful at her age.
"How about this, Ishtar, child." Enki could only try to offer Ishtar a new approach. "You could first try interacting with him normally and make up for the conflicts that have happened between you over the years."
He knew all too well what Ishtar was thinking.
Though she kept saying that she liked Gilgamesh, that she wanted to confess to him and become husband and wife with him, from the very beginning, Ishtar had never considered herself