Summery: mainly Egyptian mythology with Greek in later chapters. Setia is the daughter of historian Dr. Hector Ivans and his wife Indah. Setia was raised on the myths and legends of old but the ones she loves most are the stories of the ancient world who's ruins she's grown up in. Setia is with her father on an excavation when an accident sends her into the past where, contrary to modern belief, the gods did exist in the flesh. With mistaken identities, ancient love struck heros, Death, gods playing pranks and pranks on gods, Setia's real problem isn't how she's going to get home but if she going to want to go home.
PLEASE REVIEW!!! Let me know what you think. I don't care if you totally trash it! Critique and criticisms are welcome. It helps me know what to fix and how well I've gotten the plot/story across if at all.
Chapter One
The Egyptian coast had begun to come into focus and though she'd seen it many times before, Setia kept her face pressed against the plane's small window.
"When will we go out to the dig site?" she asked without turning away from the window. When her father didn't answer she turned to ask him again, but sighed when she saw that he was once again engrossed in one of the many reports and documents Ammar had sent him on the progress of the tomb excavation while they had been in America.
"Dad!"
"Wha..." he muttered without looking in Setia's direction.
"Let your father be, sweetheart. You know how he gets when looking in on his true love." Indah said as leaned around her husband, pushing the documents in his hands to within inches of his nose, to look at their daughter. Setia began to laugh as her father remained oblivious to the movement and his wife's remark.
"Do you know when we're going out to the site Mother?"
"No, I'm afraid that I don't. Now give your father a smack for us both or we'll end up leaving him on the plane again after we land. I don't want him going on to Turkey like he did last time."
"I didn't make it all the way to Turkey," Dr. Ivans growled out as he looked up into the smiling face of his wife.
"Ahee! He lives!" Indah said with a wink to her daughter sending Setia into another fit of laughter.
"Finally! Dad, when are we going out to the dig site?"
"You act as if I've been neglecting you," Dr. Ivans grumbled looking up at his wife and daughter causing them both to laugh. Dr. Ivans sighed as he started to turn his attention back to his papers, but Indah snatched them from her husband before he could become fully absorbed into them again.
"You have dear. Now will you please answer your daughter's question! I'm tired of her pestering." Indah said with a laugh as she held the reports out of her husband's grasp. Dr. Ivans let out a huff and mumbled under his breath about wives undermining authority but turned to his daughter all the same.
"We don't need to go out to the excavation site for a few days, Setia. Give your mother and I couple days to settle in––"
"Dad, we live here. Its not like we're going to unpack anything but a couple of suit cases, we were only in the States to see Grandpa for the holidays. Please, please, please can we––"
"You're sixteen years old don't beg," Dr. Ivans cut her off, "Setia we can't––"
"You'll go out with him tomorrow morning," Indah said as she smiled softly while ignoring her husband's glare, "Hector, I can see to the 'settling' of things without the aid of either of you. You and I both know that you were going to sneak off without her and go out tomorrow. And by those gods you study so much, I swear to you Hector, if you leave her and make me sit at home with her mopping around the house, I will make you regret it." Indah stated the last as leaned into her husband's face until the tips of their noses nearly touched while her husband tried to shrink back into his chair. Setia looked on in amazement as this exchange was all done in the little space her family had in their row on the plane.
"Yes, ma'am," Dr. Ivans replied back weakly. Indah nodded with a last look at her husband before turning a smiling face to their daughter.
"People are staring at you, Mother." Setia murmured with a smile to her mother and a nod to a man across the aisle.
"What? Why?" Indah asked as she looked around finally remembering that her family was seated on public plane. Indah blushed as smiled and nodded to the man before turning back to her family.
"Get your things together love. We should be landing soon." Indah said as she leaned down herself to gather her things, the blush still visible on her cheeks. Dr. Ivans pulled his reports and other documents together and had begun to file them in his briefcase.
"Dad, you do know that it would be ten times easier if you got a laptop to store all of those," Setia said as she watched her father put a report an inch thick into his briefcase. Dr. Ivans gave his daughter no reply and continued to put the rest of his file away before zipping up the case.
"Leave your father alone dear. Its not his fault he's old fashioned," Indah admonished her daughter though in such a manner as to indicate that she believed otherwise also. Dr. Ivans ignored them both and sat back in his seat as he waited for the plane to pull into the terminal. Setia laughed silently to herself shaking her head at her parents behavior. She'd long given up hope that they would grow out of it. There are somethings you just have to live with and parents are one of them. Setia finished gathering her things and followed her parents off. They walked through the airport and out to the loading zone were Ammar and his wife were waiting with their car.
"Uncle! Auntie!" Setia called out as she rushed into Fayruz's open arms. Fayruz laughed as she cradled Setia against her chest, Setia's head resting on her shoulder. Indah smiled at them as she helped Dr. Ivans and Ammar put their luggage in the car.
"How have you been Indah? I would greet you also however I believe your daughter has become glued," Fayruz said as she half dragged the still clinging Setia to the car.
"I noticed," Indah laughed out, "We are well. How are you and Ammar? How have things been while we were gone?"
"All is well, both with family and home," Fayruz answered as she pushed Setia into the car and climbed in behind her with Indah. Fayruz relayed various forms of gossip to Indah while Ammar discussed the progress of the excavation with Dr. Ivans. Setia zoned them out and watched as the city of her childhood passed by. Her family had moved to Cairo when she was seven to cut down on her father's travel costs. Dr. Ivans worked as a historian for several different clients around the world however his primary work was done in Egypt. Two of his clients were excavating a temple complex that had been found a few hours outside of Cairo. A recent sandstorm had just uncovered the lost complex.
Setia smiled to herself as she thought of heading out to the dig site. She loved the ancient world just as much, if not more so then her father did. Dr. Ivans had no real preference for which of the ancient cultures he preferred but Setia loved Egypt and its mysteries, with Greece in close second. Indah greatly blamed her husband for this. Dr. Ivans had, like any father, told his daughter bedtime stories. However, unlike most other fathers, he had told her tales of the Earth of old, of real princes, kings and princesses, of gods more numerous than the stars that walked among men and ancient fairy tale myths that linked heroic ancestors to the modern people.
Setia laughed quietly as she got out of the car, remembering back to one Christmas in the States when she'd given her cousin a black eye for saying it was impossible for Cinderella to have grown up in Egypt. How was a six year old Setia to have know that there was another Cinderella that had grown up in Europe. Dr. Ivans tried to saved her from a furious aunt when he argued that the Egyptians' version of Cinderella had been recorded roughly somewhere between 685-525 B.C. during the twenty-sixth dynasty and was most likely the first Cinderella story ever written, so clearly Setia was correct. Dr. Ivans had successfully diverted his sister-in-law's rage away from Setia but had also in turn, placed that anger upon himself.
"Setia stop daydreaming and get in here," Indah called out. Setia looked up to see that she was the only one in the driveway, everyone else had moved on into the house. Setia nodded as she walked up the steps and into the house. She headed up the stairs to her room. After spending half an hour putting her things away Setia went down to the kitchen to find her mother and Fayruz doubled over in silent laughter.
"What's going on?" she asked. The only reply her mother and Fayruz could give her was to point to the dinning room door that was slightly ajar. Setia walked over to the door and picked through the crack to find her father and Ammar arguing over something that had been found preserved at the excavation site and on whither or not it should be reported. Setia leaned in closer and tried to ignore the hysterical women behind her.
"Where not going to report it Ammar! Its obviously some sort of prank!" Dr. Ivans yelled as he glared at what was before him on the table. Setia craned her neck to see what her father was looking at but failed to see it.
"Its not a prank Hector! Its been dated four times for heavens sake!" Ammar yelled back. Ammar smiled slightly from where he stood beside her father's chair when he noticed Setia behind the door and motioned with a nod of his head for her to come in. She walked over to them and looked over her father's shoulder to see that they were going over pictures and documents of artifacts from the excavation. The picture in her father's hand however was the one that caught her attention.
"That looks like a laptop," Setia said as she leaned in closer to get a better look.
"It is a laptop. Yet it was found in a temple that hasn't been opened in hundreds of years! And dating on the stupid thing has it being place in the temple somewhere near the end of fourth dynasty! The tests had to have read it wrong Ammar!" her father growled out as he threw the picture in Ammar's direction. Setia began to laugh as he father's face started turning an even darker shade of red then it already was.
"What did you date it with? I mean how could you date it?" Setia asked.
"Every way we could though mostly with OSL.... optically stimulated luminescence," Ammar explained with another grin.
"Ah, yeah that whatsit electron dating, right? No don't try to explain it again Ammar. My sixteen year old mind can only wrap around the various ways of dating objects once or twice a year.... Does the dating say its real, I mean really real?" Setia asked.
"....Stupid prankers....Idiotic....Tricksters!" Dr. Ivans growled and mumbled out under his breath as glared in to space. Setia let out a laugh of her own at her father behavior.
"Dad, calm down! It has to be a prank so stop the drama. Can I see the picture Ammar?" Setia asked, while Ammar, grinning like a mad man behind her father's back, passed her the picture.
"Is it still at the excavation site or has it been moved to the museum?" she asked, raising the picture up to her nose as she studied it.
"All tests were done on site that could be," Ammar answered, the grin still on his face, "had we moved it off it would have been confiscated."
"We were given the funding to have that kind of tech on site? That's some expansive equipment," Setia set the picture down on the table and looked over to her father to see that he now had his head in his hands.
"Its not all that bad, you're over reacting," Setia sighed as she put a hand on her father's shoulder and shook him slightly.
"It is too," he growled back, "Sweetheart, you've no idea what this could mean. If this is real, it could rewrite our entire history."
Setia shook her head, smiling at how distraught her father was as she looked back to Ammar. The insane grin was still on his face, his laughter barely contained. Ammar nodded to the kitchen door and Setia got the hint. She gave her father's shoulder one last squeeze before she turned and walked back into the kitchen. Her mother and Fayruz were still there with ludicrous grins that rivaled Ammar's on their faces. Setia grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the counter before she leaned against the counter itself. She bit into it as she watched Fayruz and her mother laugh themselves into another round of hysterics.
"So is Ammar pulling one over on Dad?"
"I...I... believe so," her mother gasped out. Fayruz didn't say anything but her grin became more prominent as she smiled knowingly at Setia. Before Setia could ask Fayruz anything Ammar walked in. He tried to keep the emotion from his face but soon lost the battle and his own laughter joined his wife's and Indah's.
"I can hear you! You idiots!" Dr. Ivans yelled from the dinning room where he was still seated at the table. Setia's laughter joined the others at his outburst.
"So is it a joke?" Setia asked as she looked to Ammar.
"I'll tell you tomorrow at the dig site," Ammar answered when he could finally breathe again. Setia sighed as she moved away from the counter to throw her apple core away.
"I'm gonna go to bed," Setia said as she left the kitchen.
"Don't you want dinner, Love?" her mother managed to called back between gasps. Fayruz and Ammar had also tried to calm down and were attempting to console Dr. Ivans.
"Nah, I'm good. I'll see you in the morning," Setia yelled back as she walked up the stairs to her room. She walked into her room and locked the door behind herself. She pulled on an oversized tee-shirt and her favorite sweatpants before setting her alarm for four a.m. She flopped down on her bed and was soon fast asleep, dreaming of ancient kings, lost lands and forgotten gods.
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Setia was sitting at the kitchen table ready to go when her father came downstairs at five-fifteen the next morning.
"Breakfast is on the stove," she said as she smiled at Dr. Ivans. Her father merely opened and closed his mouth, his eyes bugging out. Ammar walked passed him to the stove and picked up a plate of eggs, bacon and toast.
"I told you it wouldn't work. It never does," Ammar smiled at Setia as he sat down across from her, "Hector, for the sake of heaven man, grab a plate and a seat. You look like a fish. Andyou knew that it wouldn't work, stop acting so surprised."
"That's not the problem Ammar! Sweetheart your mother is going to kill you when she sees! And how can you act as if you don't see that Ammar," Dr. Ivans bit out, gesturing wildly in Setia's direction. Setia smiled warmly at her father, acting as if all was well in the world with nothing out of the ordinary.
"You promised you mother you'd not dye your hair again after it washed out the first time," Dr. Ivans scolded.
"It washed out the first time cause it was dye that was meant to be washed out. I wanted to see if I liked it before I made it permanent," Setia explained.
"That's permanent?!"
"Yes. I obviously like it didn't I," she said with a smile as she lightly ran a hand through her long, dark chestnut hair that was now accented with vibrant, cherry red streaks.
"The only reason mother was angry was because Aunt Lily said I looked like a hooker," Setia explained, grinning from ear to ear when Ammar choked on his coffee, "the irony in that statement being the fact that her own daughter thinks a swimsuit counts as approved public clothing that she can wear twenty-four seven. Christmas in Virginia Beach and my dear cousin ran around the house in a bikini like it was a shirt."
"Chastity may have a few problems but doesn't give you right to be mean, Sweetheart. And thats beside the poin–"
"Mother said that I could when we got home away from Lily. Mother likes it too."
Dr. Ivans inspected his daughter's face closely to see if she was lying before he shook his head in defeat and grabbed a plate. Setia sat back in her chair as she watched her father grumble to himself about rebellious sixteen year olds and accursed sister-in-laws.
"Is her name truly Chastity? I don't remember you having such a niece," Ammar said as he too watched Dr. Ivans.
"Sadly, we're not on good terms. Lily does not like that I married a woman from Java. She and her daughter do not speak kindly of us, we don't speak of them at all, though I do talk to my brother on occasion. He doesn't seem to mind as much and will often apologize on his wife's behalf. Anyway... Lily named her daughter in the hope that she would be just as her name claims. Chaste and pure... of heart maybe. Just as Indah and I named that one, in the hope that she'd be true or faithful or both," Dr. Ivans replied as he gestured in his daughter's direction with his coffee mug. Ammar laughed quietly at this. Setia looked his way and raise an eyebrow in question but Ammar simply shook his head.
"I'll tell you later my Seti," he said a slight smile on his face.
"Don't let her mother hear you call her that. Indah will kill you."
"She has heard me say it before."
"Yes but mother didn't know what it meant before this last Christmas. Which is rather remarkable considering the fact that we live in Egypt and father talks of the old gods all the time. Lily explained it to her... Though in a context that wasn't needed."
" 'How fitting that you would name your child, Lord of Chaos,' " Dr. Ivans mimicked his sister-in-law so perfectly, from her tone of voice to her facial expression that for a moment Setia believed her Aunt Lily was in the room before she burst out into a fit of laughter.
"Indah doesn't like the fact that the nickname you've given our daughter means Man of Set. I gave her the accurate meaning of the name later when I'd gotten her away from Lily. Indah had been ready to kill her. We can never have a peaceful Christmas at my father's when Lily joins in. Comes even when she's not invited, but then again how else will I see get to see Eric," Dr. Ivans replied, with a shrug of his shoulders. Ammar sat back in his chair grinning from ear to ear.
"It is the man part that angers her most, not Set, God of the Desert, Chaos and Destruction?" Ammar and Dr. Ivans smiled at one another before they both burst out laughing. Setia sighed and got up from the table to put her dishes in the sink.
"Can we go now?" she asked as she turned back to them.
"Yes, yes, we can go. Coming Ammar?" Dr. Ivans asked as he also got up from the table, gathered the remaining dishes and placed them in the sink.
"Always, my friend. Someone has to keep this brat out of trouble," Ammar answered as he set his hand on top of Setia's head and ruffled her streaked hair. Setia tried to duck away but Ammar kept hold of her head as he moved behind her and pushed her out the front door. Setia climbed into the backseat and set her backpack on the floor as her father sat down behind the wheel. Ammar put a the few last minute items in the back and closed the tailgate before getting in himself.
"Wake me up when we get there," Setia said as she curled up on the back bench. Her father began to grumble to himself again while Ammar turned back to smile at her.
"Will do, Seti."
Setia yawned and stretched a little before she found a comfortable position and was soon fast asleep.
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"Setia. Setia, Sweetheart, wake up."
Setia squinted up at her father and rubbed her eyes as he gave her shoulder another shake. He smiled down at her before he turned to get out of the jeep. Setia sat up and squinted out the windows at the rolling sand dunes that surrounded the temple complex. She got out of the car and stretched before following after her father. The excavation team had cleared the front courtyards as much as possible but most of the complex was still buried in the sand. Beyond the courtyards, the halls and inner sanctuaries were very much intact. Against all odds the walls and ceilings had remained whole and unbroken, keeping the sand away. The temple complex that her father and his team was excavating was by far the most preserved anyone had ever seen. It's ceilings looked as if the had just been set into place, not a single stone tile had sifted or fallen down and much of the paint also remained. The walls too, were in good condition, though the passage of time could still be seen, they looked as if they'd only stood for a few hundred years not the forty-five thousand that the carbon dating had said they were. Setia wondered through the massive, beautiful halls before she found the room that her father and Ammar were in.
"Can I see the laptop?" she asked as she walked up to them.
"Its being tested on again you'll have to wait," her father answered, "why don't you go up on the dunes and take some more pictures of the dig site for me. The sun will be up soon, if you take a few pictures then, they should be beautiful. You did bring you camera didn't you?" Dr. Ivans asked looking up from the paperwork in his hands.
"Always Dad," Setia replied before she gave her father a kiss on the cheek and turned back the way she'd come. Setia walked out of the temple complex and slowly began to climb the high dunes. She got to the top out of breath and set her hand on her knees, doubled over. She stood up and looked around her at the rolling dunes. She walked along the sandy ridge above the the excavation site as she tried to find a position that would give her the best shot as the sun rose. She looked through the sight on her camera and noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head to look only to see the tip of a tail disappear down the other side of the dune. Whatever it was it was headed towards where the back of the complex would be. After a split second of hesitation Setia walked down the dune's ridge after it. She couldn't see it any more but it had left clear footprints in the sand. She crested the top of another dune and looked down into the little valley there between the sandy mounds to find that the footprints ended in the center of the valley thought there was no animal or creature in sight.
Setia walked and slid down to the little valley floor, glancing around her to see where the animal could have gone. Setia stood there a moment in the center of the little valley trying to think of what she should do next. A crack rang out from beneath her feet and she froze. She waited a moment but when nothing else happened she turned back to follow her own footsteps back to the temple site. She's gone three steps when the ground gave out beneath her. She screamed as she suddenly found herself buried up to her waist. She looked around herself franticly try to think of what she should do when again she again caught movement out of the corner of her eye.
"Ammar! Help me!" Setia screamed out. She started to reach for him but stopped cold when she saw the grin spread across his face. He raised his hand and waved at her, the grin still on his face as the ground gave way a second time. Setia screamed, then choked on the sand that filled her mouth as she was swallowed up. Her screams continued on in her mind when it found it no longer had a mouth to do so. Another booming crack resonated through the sand and Setia soon found that she was falling again.
She couldn't see through the sand under her eyelids nor could her tears wash the sand away they were so choked with it. She new that she was screaming yet she couldn't not hear it. Either her mouth was still stopped with sand or her ears were, though it was most likely both. She hit something hard, landing on her stomach. She moved her arms and legs frantically, trying to grab onto something as she slid down the slop of what she'd landed on. With nothing to take hold of she continued to slid, still silently screaming. The thing she'd landed on suddenly dropped away and she fell backwards, flailing about. She landed harder then she first had, this time hitting her head. The darkness swallowing her from behind.
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Sounds and light faded in and out around Setia as she tried to hold onto consciousness. When her mind was present she would try to make sense of what the they were but there was a continuous drumbeat that drowned out both sound and thought. At times Setia thought she'd heard voices and laughter through the beat but before she could truly grasp at them her mind would faded back into the pressing darkness. She tried to move when the thought would cross her fogged, vacant mind but could only manage to twitch or shiver when and if she moved at all. After what seemed an eternity to her the things around Setia slowly began to focus.
She could sense that she was on either a table or a very hard bed which didn't aid her agony much. There was a dull throb at the back of her head that pulsed with a heartbeat all its own and she soon realize that it was also the drumbeat that she'd been hearing. She guessed that she'd had to have been out for a few days from what little of her internal battle she could remember. She could hear the sound of laughter from her right but as things got clearer she realized it was the sound of falling water. On her left must have been a doorway for she could see the light of it through her eyelids at times. After a while voices also came from that direction. Though the sound did not hurt her much. Opening her eyes was another matter, for what little light that did come through her eyelids brought her searing pain and the throb at the back of her head would pulse with a greater strength.
"There has been no change Father. She has yet to move though her body jerks at times," a small voice spoke from her left. It took a moment for Setia's sluggish mind to comprehend that someone had spoken at all. She tried to concentrate on what was being said but the pulsing ache at the back of her head made it near impossible.
"How is the wound?"
"It is healing slowly, I've never had one that my waters do not work on. It is frustrating Father," a deep, bass chuckle came before the man's reply.
"You'll soon learn that things often choose to happen in their own time."
"Has the rest of the Greater Pesedjet made Seth aware that we know of his creation?" Pesedjet triggered something in Setia's memory but her mind refused to fully recall it with the state of pain she was in.
"They do not wish to alarm him if she does not wake though it was through no fault of their own that she is in such a state."
"Would he truly believe that they would do such a thing as this?"
"Yes," the man's reply was so firm and convicting that Setia flinched at the tone. The quieter voice sighed and moved closer to Setia's side. Setia heard the sound of water splashing before a small, wet hand was placed on her forehead. Setia wasn't sure if it was a girl or a boy that stood beside her but by the size of the cool hand, that was now against her throat, it had to be a child. Setia tried to move, to acknowledge that she knew they were there but still found it too painful to move. She tried to speak or at least make some form of sound but before she could manage anything a loud crash and a roar ripped out from someways away.
"Stay here, I'll–" the man didn't finish as another crash resonated outside, this time much closer. Setia became anxious as screams and yelling began to ring out as well. She cried out when the throb in her head intensified as the next crash echoed through her head making spots dance in the light behind her eyelids. The child took Setia's left hand in her own and held it tightly as Setia whimpered when the yelling reached the hall outside the room.
"Father should be back soon. All will be well," the child sounded more like they was trying reassure their own fears then Setia's. The yelling was coming from right outside the door now, the sound causing Setia pain but also cutting through it.
"How dare you! Who gave you the right to keep such a matter from me! I should have been told immediately! You had no right!" Setia moaned as the voice ripped through her aching head.
"How dare I! I am the high on earth! I am your Lord! And you! How dare you take creation into your own hands! You had no right!" this screamed reply brought forth only low, guttural growls. The child beside Setia let out a whimper of their own at the sound.
"Give me what is mine! I know Seti is in there," the first speaker growled out. When Setia heard her nickname she cried out, praying against all hope that it would be her old friend. There was silence after her cry as those in the hall paused at the sound. Setia heard a number of people move into the room but while most stopped at the door, one continued on to stand beside Setia and the child.
"Seti, you should not have left the temple," the man whispered as he bent down and picked Setia up. She moaned as the movement jolted all of her senses.
"She is not complet–"
"You've done enough. I can manage the rest," the man said to the child as he walked out of the room with Setia cradled in his arms her head resting against his shoulder.
"SETH! Do not walk away from me!" Setia flinched at the sound smashed through her head. Seth ignored the other, walking on. He walked for sometime and at certain points Setia could feel the sun on her skin. He finally stopped and set Setia down on a soft bed. He sat down beside her and placed a hand on the back on her head, Setia gasped as her head seemed to catch fire both inside and out. Then all pain vanished completely as the darkness came rushing back.
"That should help you heal a little faster. See you when you wake up Setia," Seth kissed her forehead and tucked her into bed before he left.
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Setia woke sometime later and looked around her from were she lay on the bed. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up and yawned. The room she was in was square with highly decorated walls that were covered in life size painting of lotus flowers, reeds, palms, cranes, fish and all other wildlife that could be found along the Nile. Setia got up and stretched before she began to explore the room. She inspected the walls, admiring the artwork and noticed that there was little in the room save for the bed she'd been on that was in the corner on the right hand side of the back wall beneath a massive window that looked out at rolling dunes of the desert and a curtained doorway centered on the opposite wall. There were also four lamps suspended in each of the four corners of the room.
She walked out of the bedroom in to a vast pillared hall that had only three walls including the one she had just walked through. Only one of the other walls had doorway. There were beautiful hieroglyphs and paintings on each wall though these were depictions of the gods instead of the Nile wildlife like in the bedroom. Setia walked to were the fourth wall should have been to see that it was open to a walled courtyard with a pool filled with lilies and lotus in the center, the bright sun reflecting of the white plaster walls and glittering off the pool's surface. Setia turned back to the pillared hall to inspect the paintings on the walls.
The two doorways divided their walls into two panels making a total of four separate yet united effigies on the walls. Each depicted a god or goddess in a different setting, the first wall was of Nephthys, one on each panel save that one was standing in the desert and the other by the Nile. The second wall showed Anubis and his child Kebechet in one panel standing beside Ammit and a set of scales. The other panel was of Ra, Osiris and Horus standing in the stated order beneath the sun. The third wall was of a family though on closer inspection Setia realized that this wall was cut into four separate paintings that showed different times and stages in the life of the girl portrayed.
The first panel was on the left hand side of the wall and it showed woman and a red haired man sitting on what looked to be two thrones, a small girl with red stripped hair in the man's lap. The second panel, to the right of the first, portrayed the girl some years older playing in the Nile while her father and mother watched, in the third the girl was riding in a chariot beside her father and she looked to be in her preteens. The last panel was of the girl standing on her own. Her long, red stripped hair flowing down her back. The fourth was masterfully done, slightly larger then scale when compared to the others and it could easily be seen that the girl shown was on the verge of becoming a woman. There was a blend of childhood things behind the girl and those of an adult in front of her, like she was giving up her childish things in favor of those before her. Setia stared at the last panel totally inthralled.
"That's me...."
"Indeed, it is you," Setia spun at the sound, looking wildly around, her eyes stopping on a figure that was leaning against the depiction of Nephthys in the desert and screamed.