Piyesekhemarakhet brooded.
It has been... eleven days since a handful of jackal-heads threw a rock in the Nile. How did the ripples turn into a tidal wave?
There have been three undead pharoahs, and another is floating his way down to us. And now there's Xeres and little baby Zoser.
Xeres is silliness, but the gnome went ahead and even mentioned Menes, so there's an explanation there. Until this point, Menes was the imaginary bogeyman behind it all. And who knows? He just might be.
The others all seem to be small-fry. Ahmose: considerably successful guy, no royal blood, took it all, reunited Egypt after... who knows how long of foreign rule. It scared me he recognized my face. I've spent days on it. I think he might have been the one who stole Ruth away. I guess he had a thing for exotic slave girls. Still... mortal. Very mortal.
Huni, Zoser, Khafre: considerably older guys. I don't think I knew any of them. Huni especially is just an encyclopedia entry. But Zoser... he was responsible for bringing me back to Egypt. I can't help but believe there's something terribly important I've forgotten with him. But I saw them all. I remember their holidays. I remember their funerary days.
And Menes? To think I was once stupid enough to consider myself his better? But he was scary. He wasn't human. I don't think he ever was. And it's this supernatural dread I have that has stamped him as behind it all... even from that point days ago when I saw an undead pharoah masquerading as High-priest of Ra. Still, it was just a feeling. You see a vampire, and you look for older ones. He's the oldest vampire of the lot, metaphorically speaking. Knock on wood.
But monster or no. I got back to Egypt, and he was just a legend. The great god-king who created Egypt. The historians had greatly exaggerated his antiquity, and no one even remembered the location of his tomb. I had survived him, partly because of him. But I alone could remember him, and certainly I wasn't going to sing laments.
It wasn't Menes any more. I don't think it ever was. It was Anubis. Then... and now. After all, how could Menes make me immortal, when he wasn't?
But obviously I don't know all. Eleven days ago I could blame Anubis. Now it's not just Anubis, it's Menes and I.
It was I who sacked Ulath. It was I who killed Xeres. Funny that! Stongen and Xeres are alive now. Stongen at least does the service of not speaking to me. I'm too old for unconditional love. I've outlived love too many times. With luck Xeres will live to be a grandmother like Sitefnut, and then she'll be gone again.
Ooo. It's back. Menes wasn't in a jealous rage. He had a purpose for Xeres. There wasn't love there. Blind lust, sure, but there's always that with the most beautiful woman in the world. I interrupted something, and we may be interrupting it again. Or fascillitating it. She *is* alive again.
Ok, I've been playing with killing little Zoser. Perhaps poor Xeres has to die again. Ugh. Just an idea anyway, and it's not like you haven't thought that was your main mistake for 1700 years. Why not relive it? What are they going to do, make you immortal twice?? Heh.
Seriously, she's terribly important for something. The baby? Less likely, but regardless of whether he's the pharaoh I built a tomb for, or the son I'm building a cradle for, his slate is clean...
Tomb? Pyramid? His step-pyramid is in Giza, right? Who's buried in Zoser's tomb?
