Chapter One: Vallis Autem Reges
Monday, the 7th of October, 1889.
The Valley of the Kings, one of the most sacred places to ancient man, lay bare to the world on the west side of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor in eastern Egypt. Over the last century or so, explorers had returned here time after time to discover new tombs, catalogue the old ones, and claim the treasures they held. On this day, amongst the morass of sand surrounding the eastern side of the Valley, stood one of the foremost and youngest archaeologists in the Royal Society. Her name was Dr. Pyrrha Alizarine Nikos.
The safari outfit this woman wore indicated a fair degree of experience in her field, proving to the neutral observer that she wasn't one to bury herself in history books all day. Pyrrha's brown great coat was well worn, as were her sand-coloured pants, white shirtwaist and brown riding boots. Her pith helmet was firmly affixed on top of her auburn mane, which had been tied into a bun for safety.
The horn-rimmed glasses Pyrrha usually wore had been replaced with a pair containing polarised lenses, which darkened her vision but enabled the intense sunlight to become more manageable. A burlap sack with her remaining supplies and travel case was slung over her left shoulder.
At present, Pyrrha was looking at the sky, determined to figure out something vital to her work at this point.
"Hmm. Just before high noon, if I'm any judge. Better get to work now and leave before my departure at sunset."
Pyrrha's path led her east from the Valley, towards an unexplored site that she'd spotted about fifty-five yards northeast of Hatshepsut's tomb. Onwards she walked, until she beheld one of the few tombs which hadn't been approached, let alone examined or excavated. Upon arrival, Pyrrha produced her radiant, swapped her polarised glasses for her real ones, then entered the tomb.
Thankfully, the front room was clear. Most of the tombs in the valley needed serious excavation before the idea of exploration was considered viable, but Pyrrha's luck was with her today.
"Excellent!", she softly exclaimed as she flicked her radiant open. "With the front room already cleared, I can find out what this place is, collect whatever artifacts lie within, and get out of here a few hours ahead of schedule."
Examining the hieroglyphs, Pyrrha's eidetic memory for this subject served her well as she transcribed the writing on the wall. She hadn't gotten far before she discovered the identity of the royalty buried here.
"This … this is Tetesheri's tomb. She was the matriarch of the Royal Family between the late 17th and early 18th dynasties! This is an amazing find!"
After writing down the rest of the visible hieroglyphs, Pyrrha whipped out her kodak-maker to augment the documentation side of things. Running off of a small verdant Dust battery, this technological marvel enabled her to capture a scene and produce a rendering of reasonable quality, provided one shook the instantly-produced image for a minute. After about six minutes of taking kodaks, the archaeologist placed her camera and notebook inside the sack, and walked down the lone passageway. She'd only gotten ten yards before she faced a wall of giant stones.
However, Pyrrha wasn't to be deterred by mere loosened earth. She produced a shaped charge designed specifically for excavation, placing it in a gap close to the centre. It contained sienna Dust around the exterior, and crimson Dust in the middle, separated by strong fabrics. Pyrrha activated the charge and ran back into the first room, ducking to the left of the entrance just before the rock pile got vapourised.
As any learned Dust user knew, sienna Dust aided in the manipulation of any kind of stone, mineral or natural surface such as sand or earth – excluding Dust itself, of course. When used alone, sienna Dust reacted with the air and particles around it to cause instantaneous mudslides – hence why it wasn't usually used alone in combat situations. However, sienna Dust was unique amongst naturally-occuring Dust types, in that it had differing effects when combined with other Dust types, making it a useful tool.
For instance, if one were to employ a mixture of sienna and the attraction-based violet Dust against metal, it would render the metal malleable; with a precision tool or weapon, the metal could even be controlled by the user. Likewise, mixing sienna with the repulsion-causing cobalt Dust could cause localised earthquakes. However, the sienna-crimson mixture that Pyrrha used caused stonework to implode into tiny specks, leaving nothing but a small pile of ash in it's wake.
She'd already lodged an application for the patent, believing that it could be used in the mining industry. "SNC" was what she called it.
Stepping over the ash pile, Pyrrha strode on with radiant in hand down the passageway. Unusually, there weren't any hieroglyphs along either side in this tomb. Finally, the main burial chamber appeared before the doctor. Pyrrha looked around her in great reverence as Tetesheri's final resting place appeared before her in all it's grandeur.
The room's floor was easily twenty-five yards square in surface area, and the room boasted a seven yard-high ceiling.
"Good heavens! The ancient Egyptians must've exalted Tetesheri dearly for her to receive a tomb like this," observed an awestruck Pyrrha.
On the wall leading to the main entrance, the hieroglyphs were in immaculate condition, unlike any other tomb that Pyrrha had ever laid eyes on in her twenty-four years. The floor was itself solid sandstone, as was the dais in the middle of the burial chamber which bore the sarcophagus. It was a massive piece, about nine feet long and half as wide and high, and bedecked in gold and other precious materials.
Atop the sarcophagus, Pyrrha beheld the lone treasure to be found in the chamber: it was a circular bronze shield with a sharpened edge. Picking it up to examine the piece, she noticed the markings on the shield and instantly realised what they were.
"Hieroglyphs on a shield?! That … that's incredible! What do they say ..."
As her radiant illuminated the surface, the hieroglyphs etched onto the shield revealed its name.
"The Eye of Ra," Pyrrha read out carefully.
My word, Pyrrha reflected finally, this is astounding! If only Monsieurs Baillet and Bénédite could've remained with me to see this. In a moment of ignorance as she beheld the prize in her hands, Pyrrha stepped backwards onto a pressure plate, which promptly gave way under her weight. Losing her grip on the shield, she fell down suddenly into a five-foot deep chamber, which contained a nest of baby asps.
Of all the animals to run in to here, Pyrrha bemoaned as she rose to her feet, why in blue blazes did it have to be these sodding snakes? After seeing time and time again what they did to people she'd worked with, Pyrrha firmly believed that there was a special place in hell reserved for snakes.
The asps, startled awake by the noise, reared up and prepared to strike their target. However, their predatory pause proved to be a fatal mistake, as Pyrrha reached behind her right shoulder, brought Milό, her huntress rifle, to bear, and fired. Twenty-two asps got cooked inside their own skins in three shots, and Pyrrha was out of there before the flames started coming for her. Well, Pyrrha reflected as beads of sweat rolled down her forehead, I'm glad as always that Father insisted on training me as a marksman as I grew up.
Strictly speaking, Pyrrha was not a huntress by profession, and that meant her weapon wasn't built from scratch; instead, it was a Winchester 1887 which she and her local blacksmith had heavily modified. The rifle was now ram-rod straight, with a symmetrical bayonet added to the design and longer wood panels along the sides of the barrel. The lever-action reloading mechanism was removed, and a half-inch-thick steel hilt added in front of the trigger mechanism, which had been replaced by a twin-trigger design mounted on a pistol grip perpendicular to the main body.
The stock now housed the rifle's new firing mechanism. Instead of conventional munitions, the rifle was now capable of automatically firing thirty blasts of crimson Dust before reloading. This may have seemed a bit expensive to the neutral observer, but Pyrrha's line of work meant that she ran into Dust more often than one might have realised, and raw crystals themselves were used as the ammunition – as opposed to mere rounds laced with the powdered form of crimson Dust. This unique design feature enabled Pyrrha to defend herself against any kind of animal or bandit who dared assail her in the wild without suffering serious injury.
As she placed the shield in her sack and turned towards the exit, a sound of moving rubble drew her attention towards the hole. A pair of eight-foot long, adult asps rose from the depths and slithered in front of her. Their bodies were too thick to pierce with her Dust blasts, meaning that Pyrrha would have to get physical to escape. "Oh bugger this," swore Pyrrha nastily. "I'm leaving, and you two bastards are in my way."
Pyrrha pressed and held down the rear trigger for a single second, then her weapon changed forms. The grip pivoted and locked into its slot on the main body, making the trigger guard into a handguard. The barrel telescoped inwards and the rifle's bayonet slid down to cover the barrel holes. Hidden machinery detached the stock (which Pyrrha caught and stuffed in her left pocket), and caused four long, case-hardened steel blade edges to emerge on converging angles from within the wood panels – thereby giving Pyrrha a long sword to use in close-quarters combat.
Without hesitation, Pyrrha moved as though she was duelling an arrow with a mind of its own, isolating and making quick work of the smaller of the two snakes. With her back turned, the larger of the two darted around his intended victim to see its mate get torn asunder vertically with a well-timed thrust. It noticed that her left arm was unarmed, and therefore moved across Pyrrha's line of vision and prepared to bite it. Pyrrha, however, had other ideas.
She hooked the stock back on, causing her weapon to transform into its gun form, and strapped it onto it's holster on her back. The beast moved forward to strike, aiming for her left hand. Pyrrha's right hand clutched to the handle of a short whip behind her back, rolled to miss the asp's strike, and coiled the whip around the beast's neck. The beast raged against the contraption as Pyrrha strangled the beast with it, holding both ends of the whip in her right hand as she retrieved her father's service revolver from her left boot. The beast hissed angrily before Pyrrha daintily blew it's supine brain all over the walls.
The larger asp's remains flopped downwards, and Pyrrha felt pleased with herself. Although her swordsmanship was homespun, it was good enough for her line of work; combined with her years of marksmanship, training and studies, Pyrrha's status as a daring, treasure-hunting archaeologist was undisputed and renowned throughout the upper echelons of European society.
"Well, that's enough of that; I'll take a kodak or two of the sarcophagus and the room, then leave before any other animals decide to seek me out."
And five minutes later, Pyrrha had adorned her face with the polarised glasses and left the tomb with the shield in her sack.
After returning to the ship at Luxor's dock, Pyrrha unloaded her supplies and shield in her single room. Never one for luxury or fashion despite her upper-class background, she changed her outfit for something more salubrious – and by "salubrious", she meant an unscathed version of her adventuring outfit, but with a tawny skirt that ended below the knee and a matching jacket.
Putting her travel case on the mantlepiece, Pyrrha opened it up to check for any damage sustained during the excursion, and found none. Although her travel case did have cosmetic things within it's confines – namely, her brush, mirror, some lipstick and mascara – Pyrrha used its various containers to house her supplies of crimson and sienna dust, along with the fabrics and wires she used for making her SNC with.
Pyrrha's train ride from Cairo to Constantinople was uneventful, yet hot and drawn out. It would have been much easier to take a dirigible back to London, but English flights only extended as far south as Athens. Despite negotiations with various Arabic countries, their recalcitrance towards the new-fangled technology was ongoing, so Pyrrha was forced to take a longer course back home.
Upon arrival in Constantinople on the fifteenth of October, Pyrrha booked a train to Athens for the following day. While staying over, Pyrrha wrote a telegram to her employers in London's inner north, and had it sent at the train station upon her departure.
- To Exham Museum (stop) - Have left the Valley of the Kings (stop) - Found bronze shield called "Eye of Ra" (stop) - Haul from Imhotep's tomb sent to England on the 24th (stop) - Should return with all the cargo on the 20th (stop) - Signed, Dr. Nikos (stop) -
The train to Athens was a much more scenic and enjoyable ride. Despite the fact that it had taken three more days to get to the nearest dirigible, Pyrrha always enjoyed travelling through the country her father's family hailed from, thereby giving her the chance to experience the warmth of the Greek autumn. As she disembarked at the Pireas district, Pyrrha took an hour to savour some Thessalonian lunch before walking to Athens Aerodrome next to the docks. Upon arriving with the shield at the Aerodrome, Pyrrha decided to enquire with the elderly customs officer about her cargo.
"Kaló apógevma! Boreís na milíseis angliká?"
"Yes I can, miss," the officer replied.
"Oh good. I'm Dr. Pyrrha Nikos of the Exham Museum. I sent through a crate filled with artifacts from Saqqara in Egypt, which were meant to go to London as soon as possible. Have these come through yet?"
"One moment; I'll retrieve my excise records."
The man bent down beneath his desk, then returned to flick through the previous week's records.
"Let me see here … ah yes, the shipment of Egyptian relics. They came through yesterday morning, and made it to London as requested before nightfall that day."
Pyrrha exhaled a sigh of relief. "Thank you, sir. The Museum's set to open a new gallery devoted to Egypt with all of those relics within it, and my efforts over the last three months will finally pay off!"
The old officer smiled. "The best of success to you, Doctor Nikos! Have a pleasant flight!"
Pyrrha smiled back at him as she turned to board her flight home. "Thank you, kind sir. May your evening be enjoyable as well!" As Pyrrha sat down with her suitcase in hand, she took out her diary from a pocket in her jacket.
Dear diary, she wrote, I'm finally returning home with my greatest haul yet. Not only did I discover the tomb of Imhotep – quite a coup de grace for my profession – but I also found an immaculate shield called the Eye of Ra. I'm already imagining the shield taking pride of place in the main room of the exhibit when it gets set up. It feels as though it's a good luck charm for me, honestly. I'll write again once the exhibit's grand opening takes place. Much love, Pyrrha.
However, in her haste to leave the tomb in the first place, Pyrrha failed to properly examine the shield she had picked up. If she actually had taken a minute or two to do so, then her "good luck charm" might have never left the chamber with her.
Five days after Pyrrha left, a gaunt woman made her way to the very same temple. In true Western tradition, Pyrrha was not the first to find that part of the Valley of the Kings. A reclusive tribe of Egyptians had taken residence in a cave underneath the temple thousands of years ago, which was accessible only through a small inlet from the Nile.
At the stroke of midday, the lone figure ascended the ladder to the main burial chamber. The woman was an albino Egyptian of indeterminate age and average height, her blood-flecked eyes offsetting her voluminous white hair, bedecked with small ornaments.
As she opened a false wall and strode out, she noticed instantly that the Eye of Ra had been removed from its place, and that a small newspaper clipping with the words "London Egyptian Gallery Plan Approved" had been left on the floor. The woman, who had learned to read and speak English after helping rescue a lost traveller, seethed with a slow-burning anger, and she quickly assumed the perpetrator of the crime.
Returning to the cave, the rest of the tribe greeted her. "Did the Eye get blessed properly, Seer?", enquired the village elder.
The albino looked up to him. "The traitor has stolen the Eye of Ra and fled to some place called 'London'. I must go to this 'London' place and find it before she causes havoc with it."
The tribe were summarily stunned into silence for a full minute as this sunk in. Finally, the elder spoke up.
"You may go to find the Eye. Kill the wielder if you must. If you find it on someone of benign character or with ignorance of the true power of the Eye, then explain our story to them and convince them to return it."
The albino nodded. "I shall go, and I will use some of our old relics to barter for transportation in Luxor."
The elder grimaced as he handed her a handful of uncommon pieces of ancient jewellery. "I hope this will be enough, Seer."
The woman examined the items carefully, then replied as she left. "It should be sufficient."
A/N: As the perceptive of you have realised by now, this is a story set in the Belladonna Lilies AU. My thanks go to DezoPenguin for allowing the use of his AU for this piece of work.
For the record, this fic's title is supposed to mean "Bronze Idols", and the chapter's title is meant to read "Valley of the Kings". Feel free to correct me if I happen to be wrong about the Latin translations; I will correct them if the need arises.
Update: I've decided to create a kind of psuedo-soundtrack for this work. This chapter's song is "Eye In The Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project, a fitting song for the albino woman's mindset at this point.
Due to my authorship of Goodbellas, the length between updates of this fic may vary. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this :)
