It was a dark and stormy night. Okay, before I go on, let me just say that I realize how incredibly cliché that statement is. Regardless, I swear it was like Noah's flood out here. It was raining so much that I almost had to swim to the mansion. By the time I got to the door, I was absolutely soaked. I knocked on the door. I really didn't think that anyone would hear my knocking over the storm, and the fact that the door was very thick concrete. They did, though, and the concrete door just rose into the ceiling. A girl and a boy stood in the doorway. They didn't look very impressive in their cotton pants and shirts, but I whispered a silent spell: Sight. Immediately, the boy was enveloped in an aura resembling a man with a hawks head. The girl's aura was that of a woman with rainbow wings. I instantly knew who they were.
"Carter and Sadie Kane?" I asked. The two looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Then they looked at me.
"Who are you?" asked the girl, Sadie.
"And what do you want?" Asked the boy who must be Carter.
"What I want is to come inside and talk to you." I said. "As for whom I am, my name is Aamon." When I said my name, a massive lightning bolt lit up the sky. Carter and Satie had another silent conversation. Then Sadie walked off into the mansion.
"Come with me Aamon, and we'll have that talk" Carter said. Then he walked off as well. I followed him into a massive room with tones of balconies. There was a massive statue of a bird-headed man in robes. There was also a ton of people about. Children of all ages, from six to eighteen, were doing all sorts of things. Some were watching ESPN, others were eating various snacks and gossiping, and a few were paying basketball with a baboon. Anyway, Carter led me to a set of double doors with the eye of Horus on them. As we went through the doors, a familiar feeling of power washed over me. Carter led me to the center of the room, were Sadie and another man were waiting. This other guy had an overcoat and a fedora, with his hair in a braid. He looked like a jazz musician. Anyway, he and Sadie were in deep conversation when Carter and I rolled up. The talking immediately stopped.
"So, you're this Aamon person that Sadie has told me about." Said the jazz dude. "My name is Amos." He held out his hand. I shook it. "So, what do you need to talk about?" I motioned for everybody to sit down. Nobody did. I sighed.
"As you know, my name is Aamon. I was a magician of the house of life, stationed in the first Nome." Before I could continue, Sadie interrupted me.
"Wait, what do you mean was?" she asked. I sighed again.
"I was, what do you call it? Disowned? Discharged? Disavowed? Whatever it was-"
"Why?" asked Sadie, interrupting me again.
"I don't have to tell you that, girl." I said, losing my patience. "Now, may I get on with the reason I'm here? Or do you have more questions?" I stared at her, but she didn't seem to have anything to add, so I continued. "I was trained as a diviner." I saw Sadie open her mouth, so I glared at her and she shut it again. "I have seen some very troubling things about to happen here. I came to warn you."
"Can you tell us what kind of troubling things you saw?" Asked Amos.
"This entire place up in flames. Those children out there, well, I don't need to tell you that. You imagination will do that for me. I saw a ghostly looking man standing in the flames laughing." As I retold what I saw, Amos listened very carefully. When I described the part about the ghost, Carter and Sadie had another silent conversation moment.
"Do you know when these things you saw might happen?" Amos asked me. I could only shake my head.
"All I know is that it will happen soon. Very soon." I said. "But whenever it does happen, you can count on me to help you."
"Why?" Carter asked. He stood and looked me straight in the eyes. "Why would you go through all this trouble for us?" I thought about it for a moment before responding. When I finally did respond, I looked him straight back in the eyes.
"Do you know why I'm no longer a member of the per ankh?" I asked him. "It's because I defended your views about the gods. How we have to relearn the old ways. I defended you, Carter Kane, when they tried to kill you. They made me pay for it. But I followed the path of the gods anyway, and I became great friends with my patron. So I owe you Carter. You want to question my motives again?" After I explained my reasons, Carter sat back down.
"I think we're good here." Said Amos, breaking the uncomfortable silence following my statement. "And if we need your help, I'll be sure to let you know."
"Hey, if you don't mind me asking, what god did you choose?" Sadie asked. I smiled. Oh, if only you knew Sadie Kane, I thought.
"I guess you'll have to figure out. While you work on that, though, I need to know if you have some supplies for me. I need to see if I can tell when the things I warned you about will occur."
"Sure thing, I'll escort you to the medical bay. We keep a lot of our supplies there." Carter said to me. He stood up and walked out, followed by me.