Thank you all who have favorited/added me and my story(ies)! There is no bigger honor than to know that my work is appreciated. That being said, REVIEW PLEASE! I'm somewhat of a review fanatic and thus far, I have been sorely disappointed with the lack of criticism (favorable or otherwise) that I have received! Trust me, I don't even care if it's an anonymous review! I needs them .
I do not own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji or it's characters. I'm merely taking them for a stroll and will return them once the ransom is paid... I mean, once I'm finished.
It was a leisurely walk from Elizabeth's home to the British Museum, in a nearly straight line, and it loomed before them now, a huge ornate edifice with marble columns and a steady trickle of humans in and out of the front door. Sebastian and Ciel made their way up the walk and through the doors, into the open front foyer of the museum's main hall.
Ciel didn't wait for Sebastian but immediately began to sidle through the spectators, making his way directly to the Egyptian exhibit; through one giant marble arch and down a hallway filled with humans, into a huge alcove near the back, full with glass display cases, many of them upright with sarcophagi inside, some with only artifacts on layered glass shelves. Sebastian felt a sudden sense of nostalgia in this room; many of these things he may have touched, or seen, when he was in Egypt all those millenia ago. Ciel was going methodically from case to case-examining a display of Canopic jars in one, a pair of busts draped with the roughly-milled jewelery of Ancient Egypt, large smooth stones set in gold with panels of lesser gemstones set around them. One collar of crushed turquoise and carnelian seemed to have captured his attention, and Sebastian stopped behind him and leaned in. The collar actually looked familiar to him, though he was sure there had been similar ones among all the nobles of Egypt. On one of the busts, a black wig rested atop its head, banded with gold and braided in thousands of tiny braids, the ends clasped each with a crushed bead of gold. That looked decidedly familiar, he thought, and a sort of grunt of amusement escaped his lips before he'd realized.
"What is it, Sebastian?"
"Oh, I'm certain it's nothing, my young master..."
"You've seen something. What is it you recognize? The necklace?"
"That does indeed strike a chord of memory within me, but it is actually the wig that I know. The collar style was quite popular at the time, crushing gemstones and polishing more precious gems and setting them in wide gold panels. But that wig..."
"The wig?"
"Yes, Master. It was common for the Ancient Egyptians to shave their heads and wear wigs. But I happened to know a priestess who wore one identical to the one on that bust. The braids were time consuming and the beads that held them together were particularly hard to come by. She had it commissioned by an artisan in her temple and it took him several months to complete it."
"How... mundane."
"You asked, my young lord." With that, Sebastian broke away, walking over to one long case low to the floor where the mummy of man lay. The plaque read "A Priest of Ra" and he ran his fingers along the top of the glass, wondering at the size of this mummy. He was large, and considering he had most certainly shrank after over a millennium in the sands of Egypt, he was still easily six-and-a-half feet tall, broad at the shoulder, with huge hands grasping some sort of shimmering obsidian tablet. Sebastian's forehead furrowed and he searched his memory for the name of this man... As a priest of Ra, if that was what he had indeed been, it was possible his tomb held no record of his name. But he was certain he had known him... Too many memories, he thought, and pressed the matter from his mind. He and Ciel were practically alone in the exhibit; there was a couple on the opposite end of the alcove, staring mutely at a female mummy in an upright case, a long staff clasped in her hands.
A long staff? Sebastian shuffled toward the display, and made polite eye contact with the couple. The man nodded gruffly and the young woman blushed and averted her eyes, and the man grasped her elbow and hurried her off toward the main hall. Sebastian watched their backs for a moment as they retreated, the woman throwing a few short glances over her shoulder back at him, and he smiled his most provocative smile and even waved as her significant other practically dragged her away.
Sebastian turned his gaze on the poor creature in the glass case before him, taking in the familiar sight of the gold-plated bow staff clutched against her chest. Her linens were ragged and he could see the faint outline of an ankh through the layers at her waist. He examined her more closely, or rather what he could see of her through her wrappings, noticing here and there jewelry that she had been entombed with. The ankh was the centerpiece of a wide jeweled belt, there were curious bumps on either side of her head as if she were wearing earrings, and there was distinctly a necklace draped around her slender neck. It was on a thin gold chain, a small obelisk-shaped pendant of stone... so old he could no longer tell the color of the stone. But he knew that necklace. He knew it as he knew the pentagram on the back of his hand. And that meant he knew her. "Menefer...?"
"Did you say something, Sebastian?" Ciel asked, appearing suddenly behind him, hands clasped listlessly onto his cane. He was settled now; happier than he had been moments before, as if this exhibit had the power to calm his soul.
"I... did," Sebastian started, and Ciel began to study the mummy in the case before them. "May I present to you Priestess Menefer, lady in waiting to the goddess Isis, warrior of the Temple of Isis, known to the nobility at the time as the Sacred Heart of Maat-the goddess of justice."
Ciel's head bowed for a moment, then he leveled his gaze at his butler, tapping his cane lightly on the tile and said, "You jest."
"I assure you, my lord, I do not. I know it is her. She wears a pendant that I recognize. That I gave her. It is her, as surely as I stand before you now."
There was a flicker of movement suddenly and Ciel turned toward the case again. Finding nothing amiss, he looked back to his butler whose own gaze had been drawn to the priestess, except his brow was furrowed as if he had seen something awry. "Are you quite alright?"
"Yes, my master. Only, I thought I'd seen-"
There it was again. Some breath of motion from within the case, as if the mummy's linens had whispered in an unseen breeze. Ciel's head whipped back around to the case, and Sebastian automatically pressed him back from the display a meter or so, just behind him. "What in the hell is going on, Sebastian?" Ciel demanded.
"I'm not entirely sure, Master. But I have an inkling and it's not a particularly good one..."
They stood there, in that defensive pose, for several moments, waiting on that curious movement to happen again. There was nothing. Another couple came into the exhibit and they were forced to dismiss their absurd stance, but stayed a meter away from the case and watched it as though it was the most interesting thing either of them had ever seen. The couple meandered through the exhibit and with polite nods to both as they exited, the two stepped closer to the case again, eyes straining for that breath of motion on the mummified priestess before them.
As Sebastian neared her, they saw it again, but much more distinctly-a skeletal finger on that golden bow staff actually twitched and Ciel had to bite back a startled gasp. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen some terrifying things in his life, but a mummy... Surely there was a logical explanation! Sebastian, growing bolder, placed his gloved hand directly on the glass and whispered to her, "Menefer... Can it be?" and Ciel looked at him, eye wide with trepidation.
"Are you mad?" he seethed, still a half step behind the larger demon.
"Menefer," he whispered again, ignoring the earl, "It is me, Marcus Brutus-"
"Stop encouraging her!"Ciel spat, then realized exactly how absurd it sounded. "I-Sebastian, what the hell are you doing?"
"Are you frightened, my young master?" he teased, hand still pressed against the glass but attention now averted to the smaller demon. Thankfully, the exhibit didn't prove to be very popular and they remained undisturbed. "Even if she was cognizant, even if she moved or came back by way of some magic or curse, she is a corpse now, Master, and very unlikely to possess the ability to harm you or anyone else..." he trailed off when he saw the little color Ciel had drain from his face completely. The child demon's gaze was locked on the display case and he looked as though he would bolt at any given moment. Slowly, the butler turned back to the case, not knowing what to expect, but to his delight-and it was slightly terrifying-he found she had moved quite a bit. Her hand was pressed to the inside of the case against his own. He smiled up at her, though her face was completely wrapped in linens. "There's my girl."
"What are you doing, Sebastian?" Ciel's strained whisper was so sharp, it echoed around them, bouncing off the glass display cases and marble walls.
"Careful, my young lord, lest we draw a crowd..."
Ciel spat something under his breath, then spun on his heel and walked toward the main entryway, cane in one hand like a club, hat in the other, clutched so tightly he'd ruined the brim; peering around the column there, he spied for any oncoming observers. "Just do it. Whatever you have planned. No one's coming right now."
"What ever do you mean, what I have planned?" Sebastian asked innocently, but Ciel heard the faintest sound of breaking glass behind him and he refused to turn and witness whatever atrocity his butler was committing at that moment. "I promise you, Master, I did not plan any of this. The trip to the museum and your recent obsession with all things Egyptian was your own doing. I assure you, I had no way of knowing I'd happen upon an old friend," he replied, his face alight with his usual suave grin.
Ciel hmphed and tapped his cane suddenly. "There's a woman coming, Sebastian. Hurry."
There was another muted sound of breaking glass, then the rustling of parchment linens and in the silence that followed, the strangest sound Ciel had ever heard-a screeching cry, a rattling dry sob that seemed to travel up his spine and race along every nerve ending in his body-and he knew it came from that creature. The woman had been distracted by another patron, and Ciel turned finally, rushing to his butler who was holding the creature's face between his palms and speaking softly in some language Ciel had never heard before-he assumed Ancient Egyptian-and the creature grasped Sebastian's hands suddenly, another hideous sob rattling the skeletal frame wrapped in linens. "We need to leave. Now, Sebastian-" he raced by them, toward another alcove and, finding it empty with a set of French doors leading out to a terraced garden, he waved to the butler, then stepped out into the brightness.
He heard the sound of dragging on the marble behind him and wondered if that thing was unable to walk. He suddenly wondered if she could even move her limbs-how long had she been immobile, her skin turned to leather, wrapped in treated bandages, entombed like a bug in a drop of amber. He glanced back, just as someone entered the exhibit and screamed, and Sebastian was already on him, the mummy more limber than he'd imagined-and somehow, fuller than he remembered just moments ago... Sebastian had her by the hand and the demon and the mummy exploded past the young earl, the demon grabbing the back of the boy's collar and pushing him straight out in front. "Now, Master."
It was an awkward run, the larger demon leading the way, each hand grasping the wrist of another party that just couldn't seem to keep up with him. They bounded through the gardens and mercifully, they were quick to reach the enclosing wall and Sebastian practically tossed Ciel over the low stone structure. The mummy was next, landing in a heap next to the earl, and Ciel himself nearly cried out when her bandaged face suddenly appeared before him and that weird screech escaped her throat again. On the other side of the wall, there was a cacophony of shrill whistles from the authorities and a chorus of "Stop!"s and "Halt!"s. Then the butler appeared on the wall, then he was on the ground in a blink and grasping the earl and the mummy by their elbows and hustling them to their feet and pushing them out from the wall. A few steps out, he seemed to falter, but he was merely trying to shrug out of his long black coat and once accomplished, he swung the fabric over the mummy and continued dragging his charges in their escape.
They dashed through the surrounding park with little effort, emerging at Gower Street and heading due west, and eventually were parallel with Oxford which would take them as close as four blocks from Elizabeth's on Upper Brook. Once they made Oxford, they slowed, trying to look as leisurely as possible. Sebastian's coat was long enough to hide much of the mummy, and to Ciel's utter amazement, she appeared to fill out more and more with each block. Sebastian either didn't notice, or, more likely, knew and didn't feel the need to explain the why of it to the earl. He kept her shielded under his arm, pulled tightly to his side and hoped that no one would notice the bandage-covered feet peeking out from beneath the hem. Every so often, she would make that eerie sound, and Ciel decided it might be her lungs trying to work again, so he resolved himself to not be frightened of her any longer. If Sebastian could cradle her like a child against him and have no inkling of fear, then surely he could as he walked on the other side of the larger demon.
"Where are we going, Sebastian?" he asked finally, and the butler angled his head down with a smile.
"Mistress Elizabeth's, for now..."
"Absolutely not!" the boy barked but immediately cowered behind Sebastian's arm when the mummy's bandaged head swung around and he could feel her glare beneath the linens. "Why?" he asked more calmly, resisting the urge to childishly poke his tongue out at the creature.
"She knows what we are, does she not? It shouldn't be terribly strange to meet a mummy, now, would it? She's a level-headed woman... now. It is close and private, and we can discuss our options once we're there."
"Options. Hmph. You didn't give me an option before you broke a display case at the museum and stole a mummy!"
"Actually, my young master, the lady broke the case, initially. I didn't have much of an option myself, rather than help her escape. She certainly couldn't remain there-not in her current... condition."
"And what precisely is her condition?" the boy asked sharply, glancing again at the thing tucked against his butler. Again, he thought, she was definitely fuller, her bandages even beginning to break and he could tell she had a mop of black hair on her head now.
"Of that, I am not certain myself. She appears to be regenerating as we speak. But I'm not sure why... It could be any number of things, my master. Another reason to rest at Mistress Elizabeth's and gather our bearings."
Ciel's gloved hand went to his face and he massaged his temples as they walked, knowing he had no choice but to go along with Sebastian's "plan".
It took nearly forty minutes, but soon they were standing before the townhouse again, and the lilting music from Elizabeth's piano playing was wafting out the open front window of her parlor. Ciel hesitated, but then climbed the steps to her door; Sebastian still cradled the mummy against his side, but her attention was obviously on the piano. Her linen-covered head-now with the curliest black hair flowing from the gaps in the bandages-was tilting to and fro, trying to hear the sound of the music better. She tilted her face to Sebastian's after several moments and he smiled at her. Ciel heard him mutter something in that ancient language again as he lifted the door knocker.
The piano chords fell flat-and the mummy made that freakish noise again-and there was the patter of Lizzie's stockinged feet again, and the door creaking open. "Ciel? Is something the matter?"
"You could say that..."
