Chapter 101
End-June - 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
Colonel Mikhail Mannuki’ili
MIKHAIL
Rakshan was the finest flint-knapper, not just in Assur, but in most of Ubaid territory. Not only did he knap a mean spear-point, but he also happened to be a member of the Tribunal. He and Behnam, a carpenter and also a member of the Tribunal, sat surrounded by razor-sharp shards of stone, slivers of wood, and half-chewed pieces of sinew.
"It snapped," Mikhail held up his broken bow, "the moment I drew it back."
"How did the arrowhead hold up?" Rakshan asked.
"The arrowhead did fine," Mikhail said, "but the bow keeps snapping, and the arrows keep splintering the moment they hit the target."
The two old men bent over their shattered experiments, haggling about the failure points and how the
