The young woman appeared out of the thick, dense air into an
underground chamber. She had been at
work exploring and mapping the temple at Per-Bast all day, and this chamber was
to be her last. Suddenly, as she was turning
to leave, the light from her torch glinted off one of the walls. Curious, she went towards the wall, hoping
to find another artifact to her growing collection. What she found, though, was a tablet on the wall, its
inscriptions written in gold. Another
section appeared to be weaker than the others, and when she touched it, the
thin layer of limestone crumbled into dust, revealing a sarcophagus. As she did a quick translation of some of
the hieroglyphs on the wall, she realized that whoever or whatever was in there
was very important. Taking a rubbing of
the hieroglyphs on the wall, she quickly left and went to her hut, hoping that
the markings would reveal who that was and answer some of her questions.
The small three-room hut was her own personal paradise. Here she had stored her discoveries made in
the temple, some of the artifacts that she had found. She sat down at the wooden table in the central room, and, with
her candles lit and her tablet ready, began what would be a long night of
translation.
The next day she read what she had translated the night
before. It read:
To look at what you are to seek
You mind be
strong and your heart not weak
What you find
behind this wall
Is a man who
lost it all
He betrayed a
royal family
And finished
his life in poverty
A poor man he
was when he was found dead
But died he
did with a boon of hatred
An ancient
promise, upon his breath
Was a promise
to come back, bringing death
Death to the
family of the fated one
The one who
had made him come undone
Beware you who
gaze upon this wall
For you are
the fated one who will fall
Not knowing what to do, she went to the village elder, a
woman as old as time herself. She asked
were she might seek help and explained what she had found and what had
happened. The elder, in her wisdom,
spoke to her:
"There is a woman in a large city to the south. Evelyn O'Connell is her name. I see that she is at the Museum of
Antiquities in Cairo. She will be able
to help you with this discovery. Watch,
though, for a man. A desert warrior in
dark robes. Though Dr. O'Connell will
help you with the markings, this man will help you much more."
Curious as to what the elder meant, but nonetheless trusting
of her word, Seera boarded the train for a day long journey down to Cairo.
As the train rumbled down the tracks, she thought about what
the elder had said. 'Watch, though,
for a man. A desert warrior in dark
robes…this man will help you much more.'
What had she meant by that? And
how was she going to see a desert warrior in dark robes in the middle of
downtown Cairo? Many more questions
were on her mind when she got into Cairo station. As she got off the train, she grabbed her little bit of luggage
and hailed a taxi. On her way to the
Museum, she noticed the town's attention not only to staying modern, but also
staying fixed on the past. There were
statues and temples of old next to modern houses and businesses. Some streets were still marked with
hieroglyphs, but Seera figured that this was more for the enjoyment of the
travelers and tourists that anything.
When she arrived at the museum, she paused to admire the
work that went into the building. From
the columns to the statues of Anubis standing guard outside, everything spoke
of the later dynasties in Egypt when Greek influence had come to them. As she walked inside, she noticed a small
display on the Med-jai in the corner.
As she examined some of the artifacts there, she had an overwhelming
feeling that she had been here before.
Shaking off this feeling, she was backing up to try to take in a wall
decorated with hieroglyphs and pictures of gods and goddesses, paying no
attention to everything around her. Had
she been paying attention, she would have noticed that there was a darkly robed
man walking her way. Not paying any
attention at all, she ran right into him.
