We were doing well, we thought. Having handily solved a few of our problems and killed the inhabitants of the copper pyramid, we were congratulating ourselves on a job well done.
But what we thought we knew was about to come once again unraveled...
16 HetHert, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (October 2nd, 1275 BCE)
Tkarr
Mayet brought up some very interesting doubts to us just now. She said that the priestess of Hathor we had talked to wasn't anything like she expected a high priestess of Hathor to be. After all, a priestess of Hathor never asks "What's in it for me?" when her help is requested. And Hathor herself was very vague and unhelpful, nothing at all like what a god should be like.
(I do not know what gods should be like, so I trusted Mayet on this one.)
Mayet had cast an augury and asked if Hathor had spoken to her recently. Hathor's response was "No."
Oh, crap.
This brought up a few very worrying questions. Was that the true priestess we were speaking to, and if so, who had her under control? What, exactly, were we talking to when we were speaking to Hathor?
And perhaps most pressing, what had not-Hathor cast on Mayet?
I examined her closely, and discovered that she had a spell on her that was like a reverse protection spell that would make her more vulnerable to harm, and a very specific spell that was like a zone of truth but backwards, so that in a specific situation, everyone around her would lie.
I tried to dispel it but failed; the caster was so strong that it would take a great stroke of luck for my spell to affect it. I will continue to try.
Another worrying thought was that the undead we had killed yesterday seemed somehow too easy. He couldn't have killed all the Sekhmet priests in Egypt, not by himself.
Terik interviewed the head of the undead we had killed. It was not Mentuhotep at all, but instead someone named Kashmiri. According to the head, Mentuhotep waited for Pepy in the copper pyramid, and the high priestess Eldritch was indeed the person she was born--but probably under control.
Useful skill, that talking to dead people. Mayet sent a message to the high priestess of Hathor in Pi Rameses, warning her about Eldritch.
We were exhausted from the day and chose to rest for the afternoon and evening.
I took a closer look at Usi's collar. It was an excellent copy, even radiating the same schools of magic that the real one did. However, this one had a few extra schools. As close as I could tell, the collar connected this Usi to the original, a data stream of some sort, probably to help this Usi appear to be the original.
The magic was two-way; there was a definite possibility that the connection between the collars could be used to spy on us. And the last thing I found that there was a pacemaker in this Usi's chest that was somehow connected to the collar. As near as I can tell, removing the collar will kill this Usi.
I wanted to tell the others, but something stopped me. Some instict told me that it was not yet time, though the time swiftly approached.
17 HetHert, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (October 3rd, 1275 BCE)
Tkarr
Before dawn, I rose and went out of the doorknob without Usi, raising my voice in an imitation of a hyena call, as close as I can come with a human throat. Almost immediately, a pack of hyenas appeared around me. They are definitely following me, watching. Staying close by.
I could not help but think I should find it worrying, but in reality it seems a comfort.
Again, as with the other pack, First opened conversation with, Where is Rememberer? That was definitely a chiding tone in the set of her shoulders.
I dropped my head like a pup. "Away. I will find him, but I do not lead my pack, and for the moment there is something more important to the rest of them."
What could be more important than Rememberer?
I sighed. "To me, nothing. To my pack..." I gestured to the copper pyramid, miles distant. "Taking care of that."
Ah. Deliberately disapproving yet not openly chastising, that tone was--an older female scolding a younger. Then be careful of the blue-eyes and the copper-eyes.
"Who are they?"
The blue-eyes come to worship, they gather a short lope distant from it. We watch them. The copper-eyes come to destroy.
Copper-eyes. What has copper eyes? I searched my memory...wait. Dragons. There was no word in the hyena tongue for dragons that I knew. "The copper-eyes...they are large?"
Big snakes, who turn into tailless. First threw her head back and laughed, and the rest joined her. Hyena humor is still obscure to me, but I still laughed, joining in, finding it funny without being able to explain why. I asked, "Where are the copper-eyes?"
Around. First thumped her tail, turned and loped away, effectively ending the conversation.
I sighed and went inside. Part of me ached to take one of the camels and start east, heading for Gebelein. Another part of me, the larger part, knew that was a terrible idea and was likely to get me killed. I had to wait.
First's question echoed in my mind. Where is Rememberer? As I went to wake the others, I saw Usi lying by my bedroll, head up and looking at me. I flinched with guilt and regret.
I told the others about the conversation I'd had with the hyenas, and about the fact that I thought that the copper dragons might help us. Terik headed out to scout around, and discovered evidence of a gathering of people a few miles distant. They'd left behind bits of herbs and used spell components--the components for spells like those I cast.
I went out with Terik, Usi loping along beside us. We were looking for somewhere that a copper dragon might live, and finally found a large bowl with evidence of shed copper scales in it.
No dragons were evident. Terik busied himself leaving a "note" drawn in the sand for whoever lived there, and I frowned. Something was not quite right. I cast a few detection spells, and saw, vaguely, the outlines of people who looked like Tetikare, only fiery. Efreets, I believe they are called.
Terik, when I pointed them out, decided to wander out among them. I stayed behind, waiting to see if he would burst into flame. He failed to do so, and asked, "What do you want?"
Even I heard the whisper that rose from them. Reunification. Reunite us!
I joined him, and asked, "How do we do that?"
Kill the one who did this.
"And who was that?"
Ka who is under control of Menes, was the moan that replied. Tetikare knows how to reunite us, but she does not know she knows.
We returned to the camp after that, frowning. There was a large man there, almost as big as Raam, who introduced himself as Gabel. I saw his eyes, and they were solid copper. A dragon, then. Mayet was looking at him sidelong, as if deciding whether she wanted to flirt with him. She does like the big ones, doesn't she? I think she protested a little too much when I was encouraging her towards Raam, really.
I mumbled a hello and went into the doorknob. I found Tetikare and asked if I could speak to her. Ka was still dressing, so the two of us went out together. I quickly filled her in on what the efreets had said, and Tetikare frowned and said she'd keep an eye on Ka. "I wall be very upset if you kill him," she said, sternly. "If we have to, fine. But wait till we know."
Terik had filled in the rest on what we knew, and after a moment Ka came out to join us. Gabel was saying, "Wait three days, and there could be ten or so of us here. A week, and there could be a hundred."
I sighed, and said, "I don't think we have a week."
All eyes were suddenly on me. "And why not?" asked Raam.
I gave Usi an apologetic glance and said quietly, "Sorry about this, my friend." I took a breath and began. "Do you all remember in Pi Rameses, when Sesostris said that one of the boxes was a clone of Rememberer, being sent to Gebelein, to Ay? That was...not a clone. That was the original. This Usi is the clone. He is still Usi, he has many of his memories, and his collar connects him to the real one. But Ay may be able to listen in on anything we do through him. I have been having Pepy do auguries for me, and they say that everyone in Gebelein is somehow held helpless. I believe he waits for me to return."
Gabel was looking at me with a slightly amused eyes. "And just how much more does he have to sweeten the pot?"
"That's why I don't want to go back, in part. Ay wants me to do it. It can't be good for my continued health."
The predictable furor erupted. "How could you not know that this one isn't your familiar?" asked Mayet.
"Ay is a strong mage. There are things that can be done." I sighed. "The upshot is that I have to go back. And better sooner rather than later."
It was decided that we might be able to handle the copper pyramid ourselves, and we set off across the desert towards it. On the way, Gabel enlightened us as to why his people were so set on destroying the pyramid--it was covered with copper dragon scales, and Mentuhotep had been defeated once by a group of dragon Sekhmet clerics, conceiving in that defeat a burning desire to eliminate both copper dragons and Sekhmet clerics.
"Since when does the Order of Sekhmet allow dragons into it?" Tetikare wanted to know.
Gabel chuckled. "Since when do we allow humans into our Order?"
We arrived at the pyramid, and noted that the door was heavily trapped. Some reconnaissance revealed that there was a way in, a hole we needed to make ourselves. Once the stone was unmortared and slid out, we smelled the most putrid scent coming out of it. I coughed and tied a cloth over my nose and mouth.
Within the pyramid, we saw that we were in the space between the outer wall and the inner. Impaled on the walls were Unas; they had long since rotted but the putrescence remained. We briefly discussed simply going in through the walls as we had through the outer wall, but decided to ho up instead, to see if we could remove the capstone and go directly down into the center through a ventilation shaft that Pepy insisted was likely there.
Having a pyramid builder in our pack has proved to be very useful indeed. He was correct--there was a narrow ventilation shaft, with a copper tube running all the way up to the capstone. According to Pepy, that was not a normal feature of these ventilation shafts. I sniffed it and smelled swampy earth.
We loaded ourselves into the doorknob and then Tetikare went down in her mist form, setting us down on a very long bench that had many potions on it. When we came out, we saw a large chamber with a damp earth floor that was...moving. Ew. It seemed like something beneath it was moving the ground around. Raam gingerly extended his sword, and cut the earth a bit. Blood welled up from the wound he made in the dirt.
Well, that answered the question of whether we should step onto the floor. I did a Detect Undead, and the floor was definitely undead.
There was one exit from the room, and it had that Imhotep whirlwind symbol on it. Tetikare went over to look at it, and I cast Fly and joined her. She set her hand to the door and it opened.
From it came the scent of fresh sweet air, somehow much cleaner than any air I've ever smelled. Tetikare blinked, and said, "I think....that's home."
I raised my eyebrow. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
She flowed through the door and disappeared. In a moment, I heard her shout, "Ka, to me!" The other djinn brushed by me and went though the door without a glance back.
It was at this point that Pepy hit the floor with his flying axe (damn impressive, that thing) and it reared up, extending tentacles towards us. It slapped me, and I watched as the others smacked at it. Finally, Gabel used his breath weapon on it, and it expired.
On its death, it uncovered a dial on the floor just under where the copper pipe ended, with five markings on it--Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Void. By this time, Tetikare and Ka had returned, and gave us a quick explanation of where they had been. Being on the Elemental Plane of Air had jogged both of their memories. They had been summoned by Menes and given the elemental version of a plague. Everywhere they went, they sundered elementals in two--their magical selves, trapped and helpless like the efreets we had seen, and their corporeal forms, who were the blue-eyes that worshiped at the pyramid.
Tetikare had been caught and bound to a tomb to stop her from moving, but Ka had been wandering the world for many years, causing havoc.
After that story, we examined the dial. I played with it, turning it--it seemed to affect the door--when it was turned to Earth what was on the other side of the door changed to the Elemental Plane of Earth. I did not touch the pulsing crystal on the top, fearing what it would do.
We turned the dial to Void and a the door became a corridor to a corridor that Pepy said would probably lead outside. And Pepy was also the one who noticed that the distance between the pipe and the crystal atop the dial was the exact length of the crystal that Tetikare wore.
We turned the dial back to Air, and Tetikare slotted in her crystal. Down the copper pipe rushed what seemed like a great wind, howling past us, caroling, Thank you! Thank you! The wind and the barely-visible forms within the wind rushed into the door and disappeared.
We stared, open-mouthed.
At that point, Mentuhotep came through the wall.
Making a quick judge of the distance, I threw a lightning bolt at him, which ricocheted off the back wall through the hole he had made, hitting him twice, and then hit us. Oops. Obviously, I need to learn how to judge distances better.
Mentuhotep was a large, ugly guy with two heads, an undead giant of some sort. It held two maces in each hand, and it used them to good effect. After a few minutes of battle, it suddenly concentrated on Mayet (who had attacked for the first time in, um, ever, and thus was not in Sanctuary) and somehow caused a gush of blood to come from her eyes, which was drawn directly into its mouth. Some of its cuts sealed closed as it gave two identically disgusting grins and strode forward again.
With a great blow, it killed Terik, staving his head in. However, within a few seconds, Terik's wounds healed and he sat up. I suppose we know what his artifact does now.
Finally, Mentuhotep fell. I actually managed to finish it off with a well-placed Burning Hands. Mayet and I borrowed Raam's sword, her holding one and I the other, and dropping the sword edge-first on the creature neatly severed both of its heads.
We repeated the process hat had returned the air elementals to their home plane with the rest of the elements. Then Tetikare looked at Ka. A silent conversation seemed to pass between them, and Tetikare nodded.
"This, I believe, is where we leave you." Her voice was quiet. "I am finished with what I needed to do, and it is time for me to go home."
I felt a heavy sorrow in my chest. Tetikare is one of my favorites of this strange pack of mine, and to lose her was sad...but knowing that she could go home was a joy. Sad for myself, happy for her, I watched as she went from one to the others of us, saying quiet goodbyes. She hugged Raam, shook Amunet's hand, kissed Mayet on the cheek. When she came to me, she gave me a fond hug, and handed me the dagger that she wore at your waist. "It's half of that teleporting dagger set," she said. "Careful using it, it'll take you right to Amunet, who might be who knows where." I chuckled and accepted.
Then she and Ka went through the door.
We closed it behind her.
We still had some cleaning up to do. We picked up all the potions that we could tell weren't poisons, and I even pocketed a couple of the poisons. Who knows when it'll come in handy?
Terik picked up one of Mentuhotep's heads and cast his Speak With Dead. We discussed the questions, and Terik finally asked, "Who has control of Eldritch?"
"I did," said the grotesque head.
The next question was, "Who or what was pretending to be Hathor a few days ago?"
The dead head laughed, grating. "Menes."
Oh, hells. My skin crawled as I thought about that.
Our third question was, "What do the undead pharaohs have in store for us?"
Again that grated, snorting laugh. "Ay seeks to free himself from the triad of Chosen and Rememberer. Nitiger seeks to destroy the Council of the Crocodile. Menkaure is assigned to track down and kill Peribsen, and destroy all the Unas. And Menes is going to divest Rameses of his pharoahhood." The dead's voice on that last was smugly confident.
Finally, we picked up our things, turned the door to Void, and walked out of the pyramid.
For the rest of the afternoon, that voice haunted me. Ay seeks to free himself from the triad of Chosen and Rememberer. Usi was silent beside me, his head low. Ay was Rememberer before Usi was. I had thought that when one was no longer Rememberer, one was then free.
It appears I was wrong.
In Gebelein, Ay waits for me to come. And I know now where this road ends. I had thought to delay it. I'm not ready for it, not yet.
Ready or not, my fate seems to approach swiftly, and I find myself at once afraid and eager. Am I done, I wonder? Am I finished with this life, this form? Have I done all I can do as I am?
And once decided on the thing, how do I accomplish it? I have seen much death, and while I am not afraid of pain, I have never genuinely considered how to kill myself, even in my darkest hours. But death is the only way to make the transition--and our enemies have yet to accomplish my death, though they grow more dangerous.
With these dark thoughts in my mind, I help the others pick up our camp. Gabel has declined to come with us, much to Mayet's disappointment. He did say that another of his peers might be interested in joining us, and if we waited a few days, we might find some.
I do not know if we have those days, but I must believe that we do...
Quotes:
"Are you a servant, or royalty?"
"I wish I knew."
--Gabel, Raam
"Why do I always get crushes on the big ones?"
--Mayet
(Sitefnut explains that there's something wrong with the people in her old village.)
"And when were you planning to tell me this?"
"Right now, apparently."
--Mayet, Raam
"He has a thing about the Temple of Sekhmet and I don't know why."
"It's not like you're really a likeable bunch."
--Pepy, Raam
"How can you miss the ground?"
--Raam
"We have two options. Either it will do this, or the whole universe will explode."
--Raam
"I am very, very dead."
"Did you have a living will?"
--Graham, Laura
"He intimidates you into bleeding out your eyes."
--Laura
"I can't explode, as much as I would like to."
--Storm
"I'm looking conspicuously healthy."
--Terik
"Dragons look really skinny without their scales."
"Like wet cats."
--Terik, Raam
