19 Thuthi, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (August 8th, 1275 BCE)
We're waiting here for Xeres to give birth. I'm not seeing much of anyone--doing two identify spells a day doesn't leave much time for anything else! But we now have a tidy pile of identified potions, and tomorrow I'm going to work on some of those gems.
Mayet is in her element, with the baby coming and all. I can tell, because she's singing.
20 Thuthi, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (August 10th, 1275 BCE)
Five gems identified, total. There is a disturbing trend among them to be things that give the undead life, or the semblance of it. One of them, the small blue stone, opens a portal to the Osirean realm, and will swap a soul for one of equal power. Another, a red stone, holds a soul still, so it can be transferred.
Both of these things together mean that, should Xeres' child have Zoser's soul, we can fix that and send Zoser on to the afterlife. I'm sure Pepy is relieved.
Mayet has somehow acquired a cat. It's a pretty little thing, the color of the desert, and it seems to be quite attached to Mayet.
My granddaughter seems to be quite relieved by this, for some reason.
Xeres went into labor last night and gave birth this afternoon, to a healthy daughter. Mayet reported that the child's soul was intrinsically evil, so as quickly as we could we sent that soul to the afterworld and called in the soul of the child that was supposed to be born to Xeres and Pepy, so long ago.
They've named the child Rosetta. How strange! It must be a family name.
Pepy has not said yet what he's going to do about Xeres; it seems that for the moment, she'll be traveling with us. In my opinion, he has a responsibility towards the girl, to either marry her or find a husband for her. This world is not kind to women who have children without the benefit of husbands. She needs protection, that's for certain.
I asked Raam about his amulet, after noticing that it's Imhotep's work. (Imhotep was a great man who lived some centuries ago, the greatest of mages. His artifacts are rare and generally worth a small city at the very least. Imhotep is one of the few humans to ever become a god; he, Thoth, and Isis are usually the chosen gods of mages.)
I asked him what it did, and he refused to tell me. In fact, he suggested rather bluntly that unless I stopped asking questions about it, I'd find out what the sharp end of that huge sword of his feels like. I took the hint and shut up.
Stupid half-giants. Now I'm really curious. I wonder if he'd kill me if I borrowed Amunet's identify ring and used it on that amulet...
21 Thuthi, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (August 11th, 1275 BCE)
We've decided to go after Khafre. He has a good head start on us, so we'll be traveling by boat (and sleeping) during the day, and using our chariots at night.
I occasionally suspect I'm too old for this. But I'm having an excellent time, even though day is now night for me.
25 Thuthi, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (August 14th, 1275 BCE)
Strangely enough, sleeping through most of the day and being awake at night seems to suit me. I'd never have guessed, really!
Today, we were nearly to Sakkara when something very strange happened. There was a green glow surrounding us, and as it came closer, we saw that in it were strange beings, flying along, glowing green. Terik noted that they were wights, and tended to try to freeze their enemies solid.
Not particularly comforting, really.
Mayet turned three of the six of them, which improved the odds greatly. As a battle went, it was challenging but nobody was too badly wounded. Afterwards, curious, we looked around to see where the wights had come from. Wights, according to Terik, are the souls of very evil people who cannot leave their gravesites and spend eternity guarding them. They can be commanded by a sorcerer of much skill, but usually they don't go out looking for people.
One of our enemies knew we were here, and thought that they might be able to eliminate us. How charming.
We located an area that seemed to be a place where wealthy people had their tombs, where we supposed the wights must have come from. Terik picked up some tracks near it, of a human who had come close to our battle and then left halfway through. They might have come with the wights; even if they hadn't, they might have good information.
We followed in the chariots; the man was moving at speed but we soon overtook him. He was wearing some sort of dark green cloak (against the chill of the evening? But it was warm!) and his hair was a steel grey. He ignored us and kept running, until Terik, who was in the lead chariot with Pepy, decided to hit him with that longsword.
The man turned and stabbed both of the horses that were drawing that chariot in the heart. They collapsed and threw Terik and Pepy from the chariot. Suddenly suspicious, I cast my undead detection spell.
The man was indeed undead. An undead more powerful than any I have seen in the past two week. I shouted, "He's undead! Big undead!"
Terik either didn't hear me or didn't think what I meant was stay the hell away from him! He came up and around and attempted to hit the...man? Vampire? Whatever he was.
At that point, the man pretty much literally took Terik apart. On two blows, Terik was laid out, bleeding badly but still breathing. Amunet had thrown a spell at him that he'd shrugged off, not even feeling it.
Raam strode forward, sword still in its sheath. He picked up Terik's unconscious form and said, "Another day?"
The undead fixed us all with a dark gaze. I could almost feel the power radiating off of him. "Another day. But if you want me to go without killing all of you first, I'll need that blue crystal--the smaller of the set."
We all looked at each other. He knew we had the crystals, and he could probably kill all of us without much trouble. Finally, Amunet pulled out the smaller of the blue crystals and handed it over.
(And the next question is: who does he want to bring out from the realm of Osiris, and why? That question is going to keep us all awake at night.)
After he accepted the crystal, he said, "Lord Raam, a word of advice. That amulet. Imhotep's work?"
Raam's voice was wary. "It is."
"It has two functions. And with that, I will go."
The undead took his leave. We did not follow. Mayet spent some time healing Terik as she could; the swords had both cut wicked paths through his chest. The horses turned out to have been downed but not killed; the man was gauging his blows very nicely. We returned to the road and found a place to set up the doorknob; the battle had taken much out of us, and we needed to rest. Pepy said that the person that we'd met was named Peribsen; he knew little enough about him, as he was asleep in the desert at the time.
Terik asked bribed an owl to follow Peribsen. When the owl returned, it reported that the undead had traveled to the river, taken a long look at a boat floating in it, then turned north and disappeared.
That he was there during the battle with the wights is suspicious, but by no means conclusive. Had he wanted to kill us all, he could have--and without the wights' help. So, then, why come close and then retreat?
No matter. We retreated into the palatial inside of the doorknob, and slept and licked our wounds. I clarified my terms with Terik, telling him that if I said it was a big undead, it was probably more than we could handle.
Amunet went out into Sakkara; when he came back, he was holding a note, which he gave to Raam. It was coded for Raam's hands, and the half-giant decided to take it outside to open it. We all went out too, wondering if it would explode.
It did not, which was somewhat disappointing. It was, instead, an invitation to dinner.
With Khafre.
Much consternation ensued. We hemmed and hawed a bit and decided to go. After all, Mayet can detect poisons, and even though it screamed "trap", we thought we might be able to handle it.
And so, about sunset, washed and dressed, we went to Khafre's barge.
We were allowed to keep our weapons, and informed that Khafre (being undead and therefore not needing to eat) would not be joining us for dinner, but for brandy afterwards. Mayet told us that nothing that was being brought out was poisonous, so we fell to with good appetite.
I was seated across from Tetikare, and I will never forget her face when she picked up a bite of halva, sniffed it, and then experimentally nibbled it. A look of sheer ecstasy crossed her face, as if the candy were some sort of divine revelation. She asked, in wonderment, "what is this stuff?"
Evidently, she's never had much in the way of sweet things. I made a mental note to pick up some honeycomb next time I see some for her.
When we finished, I whispered an undead detection spell as the brandy was brought in. Following the servants with the libation was a man of somewhat average appearance who seated himself at the head of the table. My spell indicated to me that he was undead, but a relatively weak one, much unlike Peribsen who we had met a few hours before.
He addressed Raam, and told us that he had brought us here to give us some information. He said that Peribsen and he were at odds, and the enemy of his enemy (which would be us) could possibly help him with his quest to rid the world of him. To make a very long story short, I will sum up what he said.
Imhotep knew that Zoser was not planning to be buried in his pyramid. Imhotep, at this point a mere mortal even though still the most powerful mage in the world, constructed a secret workshop inside the pyramid, and used it to store all manner of thing. He also captured a group of Unas--before they became enslaved--and placed them in a place apart from time and the world, accessible only through a portal within the pyramid.
Khafre had sent many people in after the soul jar. They all came back in pieces.
That jar is Peribsen's only weakness. If we want to kill him (but do we?), that's how.
We talked of a few other things, and I asked Khafre if he knows who's been killing hyenas.
He responded with, "Who really cares?"
Not helpful. I replied, "Then you don't have any idea." I found myself inexplicably angered by that remark, and had to remind myself that, yes, most of the world hates hyenas.
Tetikare asked for the recipe for the halva, and then talk turned to Menes, as it so often does. Khafre said that Menes wants to bring specific people back from the afterworld, but he didn't know who. He also said something very disturbing about what Menes' eventual goal may be. He thinks that Menes might be wanting to open the gates of the underworld, to let all the dead become living again.
We all finished our brandy and were seen off, and we walked a ways and set up the shack again, to rest and to plan. Before we left, Khafre asked for a word with Raam in private, and it was a very quick word indeed, whispered into his ear. Whatever the news was made Ramm quite grumpy.
It appears that we all have our reasons for going into the pyramid. Me, I'm itching to see what sort of things the greatest mage in the world left behind. The rest? Who knows. We still seem to be a very secretive group.
Quite possibly, I am discovering, for good reason.
I find myself dwelling on my children more and more, now. Wondering if there was anyone left to bury them, to say prayers over them. I cannot; I have never been able to pray.
I almost envy Mayet and her ability to keep the knowledge from herself. And there is another thing, too: few people ever left the village in which I was born. What if my leaving was the trigger for this to happen?
I still wear Senit's scarab necklace, and it is only now that it occurs to me that I miss them, the family I left behind, my children and grandchildren, my one living sister, her children. And here I am, nearly to the age where I'll be of no use to anyone, involved in some sort of invisible war, finding out that I am not the person I thought that I was.
I thought my heart made of flint and steel. Now, I find it is breaking...
Quotes:
"If you hit almost anything hard enough, it'll break."
"Hey. That's my line."
--Sitrefnut, Raam
"They attack the front line fighters..."
"I didn't do anything!"
"You're eight feet tall."
"Oh."
--Storm, Raam
"Ooh, critical!"
"Critical stinky wine?"
--Graham, Storm
"Maybe we can turn one of your ears inside out and hope he thinks you're cute."
--Amunet
"So...are we going?"
"I hope the food is at good, at least."
--Amunet, Raam
