Chapter Seven: Bad Company
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Teana limped into the basement, enjoying the cool feeling of underground air crashing into her. She groaned, ambling towards a flat cushion set up across the room, making her way through a thicket of children sitting around on the floor and talking.
"Teana!" One of the girls got up from around a small table and ran towards her, grabbing her legs and hugging her.
"Hey Amaunet," Teana replied, patting her on the back of the head. "Good day?"
"Mmm-hmm," she replied.
"Hey, Amaunet, you don't leave the table in the middle of a hand," one of the boys at the small table said, waving her back over. "It holds up the game and looks suspicious."
Amaunet stuck her tongue out at the table, but nevertheless ran back, taking a kneeling position at the table.
"Alright, what do we have here?" Teana asked, walking up to the table and looking down. The kids, all nine years old or younger, all had piles of parchment scraps in front of them, and one of the kids was holding a deck of cards. "A game? Alright, high rollers! What are the stakes?"
"First person to lose has to do chores for whoever wins. Second person to lose has to do half the chores of whoever comes in second," one of the boys said. The dealer started to deal the first three community cards out to the center of the table.
"You have to burn the top one!" Teana said, patting Amaunet on the top of the head, then turning and flopping down heavily onto the cushion behind her. "Not literally, just put it to the side!"
"You sure it's a good idea to be so close to a card game right now?"
Teana looked up and saw Akiiki approaching her, a smile on his face and hands out.
"I don't know. They're throwing around some serious wagers right now, I don't think I have what it takes to sit at this table." Teana grinned. "How's it going?"
"Good day," Akiiki said, coming around the cushion and sitting down next to her feet. "Y'know, now that I'm actually just playing for myself, I really realize...so many of the players are just trash. I can get whatever I want against these guys and I'm not even that good."
"You're good, Akiiki. Very good," Teana insisted, laying back on the cushion.
It's been half a moon cycle since the twenty two and a half thousand deben disaster. Fifteen days. I have a new appreciation for the peasants of Egypt now. How they do it, I have no idea.
"I have to walk half an iteru just to get to a decent fishing spot," Teana moaned, kicking her sandals off onto the floor. "And then another quarter iteru to get to the buyer, and then the whole thing back. That's an iteru and a half, every single day. I talk to people who have to do two. It's nuts."
"Then don't fish. Try something else." Akiiki laid back on the makeshift seat.
"I feel committed to it now that I have the equipment." Teana shrugged. "My feet are killing me."
Akiiki rolled his eyes. "Subtle." Nevertheless, he grabbed her right foot and pulled it down into his lap and started to massage it.
Teana smiled, then looked over at the table. "Amaunet bets ten," Teana called out, pointing at the table with her right hand. Amaunet spun around, looking at Teana with a raised eyebrow, but Teana just nodded. "She bets ten."
Akiiki gave an excited grin, glancing at Teana, then back to the table as Amaunet placed the bet in the center. "Did you catch anything at least?"
"Yeah, of course. You know, nothing special, but...it's got to be the most boring thing in the world. I sat there for half the day, and ninety-five percent of the time that's all it is. You sit there and watch your stupid rod, waiting for it to jiggle." Teana shook her head, sinking back into the cushion. "And then the walking. I used to make ten times as much working a tenth as hard."
"Well, hey, you could always come on back to the dark side," Akiiki suggested, grabbing her other foot and squeezing it.
"I can't," Teana said sadly. "As terrible as fishing is, at least it's safe. One more bad beat at cards and I'd be dead."
Akiiki shook his head. "You know, you always have backup from me and Kafele and Ramses if something bad happened."
"I'm not throwing away my gold and then asking you guys for more," Teana said quickly. "That's...I'm not gonna do that."
"Yeah." Akiiki squeezed her toes. "Say, uh, you wanna do dinner tomorrow? We could go to the nice part of town."
"Sure, that sounds...wait," Teana paused, holding her hand up in the air. "Wait, did you just ask me out?"
Akiiki went slightly red and bowed his head down. "Well, we eat dinner all the time."
"Yeah, but, are you asking me out?" Teana repeated, blinking awkwardly.
"Look," Akiiki said, turning his head to look at her. "I was thinking about your situation. Why not? I mean, we've known each other for a long time, we're good friends, and I know this is getting way ahead of ourselves, but...you know I'd never treat you like dirt if we got married. So why not give it a shot?"
Teana started laughing, leaning her head back. "Akiiki, that would be way too weird. Come on, I've known you as a friend for how long, and now you're gonna try to...court me? Come on, no way."
"Well, why not? Are you having any luck out at the bars?" Akiiki shrugged. "I find it hard to believe that you're going to find anyone...well, more qualified than me."
"More qualified?" Teana raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess you might be the best I can do."
"I'm a fair card player, fair enough to support us financially, and you know I'm a good guy," Akiiki continued, still going red. "So why not?"
"Okay, okay, enough with the sales pitch," Teana said, waving at him and grinning. "I'll think about it, okay? Think about it." She leaned back, smirking. "It'd be really weird though. Where are the other guys?"
"They're working in town," Akiiki replied. "Ramses has been doing nothing but working lately. Constantly. I think he's trying to get together a boatload of gold. He's got plans."
"He doesn't talk to me anymore," Teana said sadly. "Not since...well, you know."
"He'll come around," Akiiki comforted.
"The really unbelievable thing to me, is that nobody here has gotten...angry at me except him," Teana mentioned. "All these people, I've really sort of screwed them over with this. They'll all probably doomed because of this, it's my fault, and they're not mad. They all talk about how much they love me and how they respect my decision."
"After everything you've done for all of us over the last years, Teana, nobody has the right to be mad at you." Akiiki patted the top of her foot.
"Amaunet bets twenty," Teana called out loudly. Again, Amaunet spun around to look at the older girl, wide eyed as she considered her stack of parchment shreds.
"Don't listen to her, she walked in in the middle of the hand," one of the boys said. "Come on, she'll cost you all your shreds."
"Hey, if she wants to do something stupid, let her," another boy said. "She'll be the one stuck with extra chores."
"Nothing stupid about it," Teana said, propping her head up on her hand and smirking. "She raises twenty. We know what she has, and we know what you guys have, and it's that simple."
"Oh, yeah, Teana, sure, you know what we have," the dealer said dryly. "Get out of here. You weren't even here for the first round of betting."
Teana pointed at the boy to the left of Amaunet. "Well, let's see. You're on a busted draw for a run-of-five, hoping a farmer would show up on fourth street." She pointed to the next boy going around. "You have a low pocket pair that you know isn't good anymore unless you pull a trio on fifth street." She went to the dealer. "You've got two sets of two, but they're not gonna help you." Finally, she came to the last boy, to the right of Amaunet. "And you're hunting for a type-match on fifth street that suddenly looks a lot less likely."
"Okay, that's just not fair," one of the boys moaned, throwing his cards back to the dealer. The rest of the boys threw their cards to the dealer as well, crapping out of the hand, letting Amaunet take the pot.
"What'd you have?" the dealer asked Amaunet, leaning in towards her.
"Nothing," Amaunet said shortly, flipping her cards over. The boys immediately groaned as one, one of them pounding his fist onto the table.
"Teana!" one of them whined. "We're playing for keeps here."
Teana shrugged, then turned back to Akiiki.
"Doesn't that constitute participating in a card game?" Akiiki asked slyly.
"I just can't help myself," Teana said sheepishly.
Akiiki rain his nails over her soles, gripping her ankle. Teana squealed and jerked her foot away, kicking his shoulder.
"I'll think about it," Teana repeated, standing up.
"It's a real shame," Akiiki said wistfully. "All that talent at reading people and bluffing, being wasted fishing, don't you think?"
Teana said nothing, slowly walking away from her friend.
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"Your rack is seriously awesome."
Teana faked a smile, steepling her fingers on the table in front of her, watching the man opposite her at the table attack the giant hunk of beef in front of him with both hands.
"Thank you," she said stiffly.
"No, I mean, our kids will never go hungry with those things."
Teana winced. Akiiki would be a lot better than this guy, she had to admit, even with the weirdness.
"So, I'm looking for a woman who knows how to really prepare a good meat dish," the man continued, talking with his mouth full. "How are you with meat?"
"Well, I can learn," Teana said quietly. "I can learn a lot of things."
"How are you in the sack?" he asked, following the question up by glugging down most of his beer mug.
"I need to step out for a moment," Teana said, standing up and making for the door.
"W-wait, what? What's wrong?" the guy asked, holding his hands out. "Come on!"
Teana hurried her pace, shoving her way past a crowd and out into the street.
"Ra!" she hissed, storming down the street towards the south.
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"I think he said...a grand total of six or seven lines before I walked out," Teana muttered. She was holding her fishing rod in both hands, seated on the wooden dock out in the middle of the wide river, propping the rod up inbetween her knees. Her line was out in the water, a little piece of wood floating where it entered the water. "Absolutely disgusting."
The dock had a total of half a dozen fishermen, each taking a spot somewhere on the wooden platform, line out and waiting for the prize that only came along a few times a day. Each had a pail next to them holding the catches of the day. The dock extended nearly all the way across the river.
"It's a fair question," Phut replied uneasily. "I mean, I'm trying to see things from the perspective of the guy, it's fair that he would want to know something like that."
"Phut, listen to me," Teana said, turning to her. "It's not a fair question, and don't you ever think it is. This society has brainwashed us into accepting things like that, but take it from me. It's not acceptable. Trust me on this. They try to trick you into thinking it's okay, but it's not. It's rude and disrespectful."
Phut shruggled. "My first husband asked me a similar set of questions when we met, is all."
"Well, it's not okay." Teana shook her head. "One day, men will treat us with respect. We may not live to see it, but we can sow the seeds by not standing for things like that."
"You say some interesting things, Teana," Phut said. "It was lucky that I got the seat next to you on the docks. The conversation makes the time go by faster."
"This has got to be the worst job in the world," Teana spat. "I can feel my brain rotting. How long have you been doing this crap?"
"Since my husband died in the war. Two and a half years." She pulled back on her rod slightly.
"This is day sixteen for me and I already wanna kill myself," Teana said bitterly. "You know, the married life can not possibly be worse than this."
"I've been married," Phut said. "I mean, I don't know, better, worse. You just make sure the house is clean and food is ready when your husband is home. And if anything needs to be done around the house, if you even try asking him for help, he just starts ranting about how hard he works at his job or whatever. Might not be your thing."
Teana sighed. "I guess Akiiki is the one. But it's going to be so weird."
"He sounds like a great guy. Wish I knew guys like that. Didn't even know they existed until I met you, really." Phut wiped some loose sweat off her face.
"Yeah, I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Teana pursed her lips. "Yeah, I'll give it a shot. I just can't imagine looking at him in...that way, you know?" She suddenly stood up, pulling her rod out of the water. "Eh, to hell with this. I'm taking what I've got to the buyer." She pulled her line in, then grabbed her wooden pail. A few fish corpses were laying at the bottom of the container.
"I'll come with you," Phut said quickly, standing up and pulling her line in. "It's getting kinda late anyway."
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"I'm seriously considering cutting my feet off," Teana whined, standing in line one spot ahead of Phut as other fishermen took their catches to the market to be sold to one of the distributors. The line moved quickly, surrounded on all sides by crowds of people moving through the busy street. "I think it would be less painful than what I feel right now."
"You should start walking it barefoot, like me," Phut suggested, drawing a rather nasty glare from Teana. "I'm serious, after a few moon cycles, your callouses will be so bad, you won't feel a thing."
"I'll commit suicide before then," Teana replied. "Forget it."
"It gets easier," Phut said comfortingly. "Everything gets easier."
"Not when you know something better," Teana grunted, eyes darting around the crowd. "I know what it means to live."
"Are you ever going to tell me your story? You keep talking about knowing what it means to live, but what does that even mean?" Phut asked, coughing into her fist.
Teana shook her head. "You wouldn't believe my story if I told you."
"I'd still like to hear it."
"Maybe one day. It's honestly a little embarrassing, me being here now. But I guess it's fair. With where I was born, this is where I belong, so says society." She shrugged.
Teana suddenly found herself at the front of the line, and quickly stepped forward to dump her catches on a brass set of scales. The man behind the small counter quickly used a series of weights in front of him, setting them on the opposite side until he had a good idea of the weight. He reached underneath the table with his right hand, then pulled it out and extended it towards her. She reached out and he poured twenty debens into her palm.
"I used to wipe my ass with twenty debens," she muttered to Phut out of the corner of her mouth as she turned away from the table. "I gotta go get food, see you tomorrow."
Phut nodded and Teana trudged off.
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"Is something wrong today?" Teana asked, brow furrowed as she looked around the marketplace. Usually the very definition of 'bustling', the market had practically no activity today and was very nearly deserted. She was going through an apple cart, trying to find good ones to pick out. A thin, bearded man was standing behind the cart, watching her carefully.
"No, things will get busy again in a bit, just slowed down for a bit," the man replied, holding his hands behind his back.
"Well, lucky me," Teana said.
"Everyone went to Akhekh's den, they're about to have a public execution. People love to watch that stuff, you know. I'd go myself, but I got to watch my wares." The man shrugged. "Always good to see some punk get what's coming to him. Akhekh always gives them a good lashing before ending them."
"Uh-huh," Teana said, not really paying attention.
"A lot of people were saying they're eager to see this one bite it. Apparently this kid is suspected of yanking decks in card games. Casinos, street games, he's gotten kicked out of a ton of places, made a lot of enemies."
Teana froze mid-grab, slowly tilting her head up to look at the merchant. "Yanking?"
"Y-yeah, it's when you deal out in cards and use tricks to give yourself good cards-"
Teana dropped her empty basket on the ground, leaning forward and grabbing the front of the merchant's robe. "What's his name?" she demanded.
"R-Ramses," the merchant answered, pulling back slightly from her touch. "Are you alright?"
She didn't waste time responding, instead turning down the market street and sprinting off towards the south, empty wooden basket long forgotten.
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Teana skidded to a halt in front of the small staircase going down below ground level, taking the steps down three at a time before pounding her fist onto the door as hard as she could.
"Open up!" she yelled, slamming the surface next to the eye-slit over and over. Finally, the slit slid open and a pair of eyes peered out. Immediately, the slit closed back up. She waited a second, but the door didn't open, so she continued pounding.
"OPEN THIS DOOR!" she roared. "I'm not going to stop knocking until you open up!" She kept her barrage of knocks up, now doing it with both hands. She looked down and saw a stone the size of her fist, so she picked it up and started hammering it on the door, the added weight causing the door to shake slightly with each pound.
"THAT'S IT!"
The door creaked open, revealing the same doorman as had been there before, holding a small club out and grimacing.
"You asked for this you little bitch!" he snapped, taking one step towards her and raising the club up.
Teana simply hurled the stone right at him, hearing a sickening crunch at it contacted his nose and knocked him backwards onto the floor. He thudded down powerfully, the stone skipping off to lay next to his head. He blinked a few times, then simply closed his eyes and his head lolled to the side.
Teana stepped over him and took large strides down the hall, hearing commotion from the room at the end. Without hesitation, she stormed right into the room and was immediately confronted by three large men, each holding a small dagger.
"I'm here to see Akhekh!" she said loudly, putting her hands on her hips and staring right at the middle man. "Out of my way!"
"I should kill you," he replied, brandishing the knife. "No one gets in here without Akhekh's explicit permission."
"Well, I'm here, so that's clearly not true," Teana retorted hotly. "Out of my way!"
"What are you doing here?"
The three men turned around. Akhekh was sitting at the stone circular table, elbows propped on the table and head resting in his hands.
"I already took all your gold. Unless you have more," Akhekh continued, glaring at Teana. "If you do, I feel compelled to recommend you turn around while you still have it."
"Where's Ramses?" she demanded, stepping forward and roughly pushing past the large men, ignoring their attempts to block her. "I want to see him!"
"Ramses is mine now," Akhekh said simply. "Forget about him. Or go outside and enjoy the show, it's going to start quite soon."
"That wasn't a request!" she shouted, coming up to the table and slamming her right fist onto it. "I want to see him!"
Akhekh held up his right index finger and wagged it back and forth. "Bad idea, to associate yourself with him. Trust me, he deserves his fate. I'd walk away from this one, this one's not good for you."
Teana huffed, looking down at the table surface for a moment before regathering his thoughts. "What did he do?" she finally asked through gritted teeth.
"He owes me gold," Akhekh replies simply. "Has owed me gold for a long time. I am sick of waiting. So now, I make an example of him, make sure nobody ever fails to pay me back ever again."
Teana scoffed. "There must be some mistake, Ramses wouldn't have borrowed gold from you. I need to see him."
Akhekh licked his lips, then looked to his left in thought.
"Fine." He stood up, brushing his torso off. "But I get to supervise the entire conversation."
He walked over to a small side door in the right wall, Teana following on his heels. Akhekh grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, revealing a dark chamber, perhaps a third the size of her bedroom. Inside the stone walls was a small wooden chair, Ramses tied to it via rope around his wrists, ankles, torso, and forearms.
"Ramses!" Teana gasped, stepping into the chamber as Akhekh reached up and lit a torch up by the door.
"Hey, Teana! I just knew you'd be the one to get me out of this, somehow," Ramses grinned, shifting in his chair. "So, how's fishing?"
"Knock it off, what the hell is going on?" Teana hissed, walking up right in front of him.
"Uh, well...gosh, where do I start?" He looked up at the ceiling. "That's a tough question."
"We don't have time for games!" Teana snapped. "Hurry it up, tell me what happened."
Ramses sighed. "Well, as it turns out, when this guy tells you that you better pay him back when you take out a loan from him, he means it. And here we are." He shrugged.
"You borrowed from Akhekh?" Teana spat. She turned around to look at Akhekh, who was just standing there in the door threshold with his arms crossed over his chest. "Why?"
"Because I wanted to start rolling with the big boys, you know? I wanted to start playing in some real games, the big games in the casinos! You gotta have gold to make gold, so I figured, I'll get some gold together so I can get the ball rolling." Ramses bit his lip. "And in my defense, it worked really, really well."
"When was this?" Teana demanded, reaching forward and grabbing the front of Ramses's robe. Akhekh reached forward and pulled her back.
"Don't touch the prisoner, please," he insisted.
"About...eight moon cycles ago," Ramses said. "I took out five thousand debens, and I'd owe six after two moon cycles. It was great, I finally got out of those empty, meaningless games."
"Great, good for you, then what?" Teana spat.
"Well, the two months went by, and...he had his guys ask for it, but I told them to...you know, let it ride and let the interest rate keep running," Ramses replied frantically. "My thinking was, the more gold I had, the more gold I could make, and I could make gold a lot faster than the interest rate on my loan. I did calculations and everything, I realized it would be more profitable for me to just keep the loan out."
"Brilliant," Teana groaned, putting her palm up onto her face. "Alright, genius, what happened?"
"Well, my thought process was, I'd just let the loan keep running until Akhekh...you know, insisted on me paying it. I'd just keep it out as long as I could, and whenever he gave me an ultimatium, I'd pay it back then."
Teana lunged forward again, coming just short of touching him. "Newsflash, idiot! He's about to kill you! NOW IS THE TIME TO PAY HIM!"
Ramses glanced to the side. "Yeah, that's the thing...really awful timing, really, you couldn't make this stuff up."
"Ramses, he's about to torture and kill you in public! It's time to cough up, whatever he's asking." Teana tapped her foot on the ground. "I can't believe I have to tell you this stuff."
"I don't have it," Ramses said suddenly, giving a sheepish grin. "You know, everything was going great, and like I said...awful timing, the last half moon cycle or so has been brutal for me. I don't have it. Half a moon cycle ago I would have had it five or six times over."
Teana pursed his lips. "You don't have it."
"Yup. It's nuts, half a moon cycle ago I was around...sixty, seventy thousand debens up, and then the cards went cold-"
"Okay, okay, STOP!" Teana roared, causing even Akhekh to recoil slightly. "First of all, what the hell are you trying to buy that you need all that gold for? Second, how the hell did you lose it? And third, how the hell did you let things get to this point?"
"Hey, bad luck, bad timing," Ramses shrugged. "Look, I'm not okay with being a peasant. I wanted to go bigtime, alright? And in order to be bigtime, you need a ton of gold. I mean, millions of debens. And debens disappear really quick when you play casino no limit-"
"And you kept playing?" Teana shouted. "Ramses, you never chase losses in casinos, you know that. You step out and make it back on the street, what are you thinking?"
"Well, to get where I needed to get, you have to play no limit!" Ramses said. "I was taking a shot for the big time and the cards just happened to go cold, it happens!"
Teana sighed heavily. "You don't have it."
"Nope," Ramses said, shaking his head. "The interest drove it up to ten thousand."
"Okay, fine," Teana said, voice going even. "What do you have?"
"Nothing," Ramses replied. Teana shot a nasty glare at him. "Well, they took it all. I was down to two and a half thousand, they took all of it when they grabbed me, so I guess I'm still seven and a half in the hole."
"Seven and a half," Teana repeated, putting her hands up to her face and giving a few unbelieving chuckles. "Seven and a half thousand,"
"Yup, that's the hole," Ramses said. "So-"
"Well, Ramses, I can't help you," Teana said, putting her hands on her hips. "I don't have seven and a half thousand."
"Really?" Ramses said. "Are you sure? I was kinda hoping, I mean, you tend to be full of surprises, pulling out that fifteen thousand. You sure you don't have a couple grand shaking around in that chest of yours-"
Teana slammed her fists into the side wall of the cell, then let out an ear-piercing scream. Ramses and Akhekh both leaned away from her. She spun around to face Ramses.
"You're such an IDIOT!" she screamed. "It's unbelievable! You could have paid that loan of any time and you just let it...linger. You were a single trip into town from being done with it, but noooo, put it off until the last minute, who cares about being thousands of debens in debt with Akhekh! That's not dangerous at all! Oooh, look at me, I'm playing no limit in casinos, no risk involved in that, I'm gonna lose everything, but it's okay, it's not like I'm ten thousand debens in debt!"
"Hey, you know what?" Ramses spat. "Yeah, I messed up, okay, I did! But look who's talking! You lost fifteen thousand debens in a single night! You put twenty-two and a half grand on a single hand and lost! That wasn't a risk? That wasn't a big loss? That didn't happen?"
"Oh Ra, just shut up, you stupid, stupid child!" Teana said, pounding her forehead into the wall of the cell.
"What's the difference between you and me, huh?" Ramses continued. "We both lived life on the wire, and we both fell off! It happens! At least I didn't get scared and give up at the first sign of trouble!"
"Yeah, you ignored those signs, and now you're gonna die!" Teana spun around and walked out of the cell, stepping past Akhekh. "Nothing I can do about it!"
"Yeah, well, it was nice to see you too!" Ramses shouted at her back.
Teana turned around by the door back out into the hall to look at Akhekh. "Business concluded," she said sourly.
Akhekh nodded, then turned towards the open cell door. "There will be one lash for every deben you owe me. I hope you're ready."
Teana stepped out into the hall, but immediately felt a burning, twisting sensation in the pit of her stomach. She took a few steps forward, towards the still unconscious door man, but broke out into a fit of sweating. She drooped down onto her knees, eyes going wide, grabbing at the walls on either side of her.
She panted heavily a few times, looking around frantically.
I've known Ramses about as long as I can remember. We grew up together. We both came from very similar situations and dealt with it in the same way. I guess, no matter how big of an idiot he is, I know deep down, he'd do the same thing for me. Life isn't worth living unless you can live with yourself.
She stumbled back up to her feet and turned around, running back into the private card room and holding her hand out towards Akhekh. "WAIT!" she screamed.
Akhekh turned to look at her.
"Look, you'll get your gold, I promise, but you can't kill him!" she begged, sweat staining her robe and dripping down onto the floor. "Please, don't do this, he'll get you your gold."
"His debt was due six moon cycles ago," Akhekh said simply, walking towards her. "I asked him many, many times to pay up, and every time he refused. He's had as many chances as I'm willing to give."
"L-listen, Akhekh," Teana continued. "You're gonna get your gold, I swear, isn't that what you want?"
Akhekh shrugged. "Perhaps. But a public execution scares people into making sure they pay me in the future. I will take it."
"Look, I'll get your gold," Teana said, pressing her hands up to her chest. "I'll get it. You just have to give me some time. I'll get the gold."
Akhekh laughed. "I took all your gold! I saw it in your eyes when I turned those Gods over. It was the look of a person who just lost everything they had!"
"N-no, I have more, you just need to give me time," Teana insisted, holding her hands out towards Akhekh. "Please, I-"
"I am tired of promises and excuses," Akhekh said, turning around and waving her off. "Begone!"
She put her hands down, brushing by her robe pouch. Her hand hit something in there, and she reached in, realization dawning over her.
Life is a string of getting lucky, then unlucky, then lucky again over and over. I'm not sure which one this is, but this morning I needed to grab some gold so I could buy food on the way home. I got up late and in my rush to get out of the house and to the docks, I grabbed my entire gold sack. And it's still sitting here, right in my robes.
"I have five hundred gold debens right here!" she shouted, producing the sack just as two of the guards were about to close in on her from behind. "Look, I have more gold, there's five hundred in here!"
Akhekh slowly spun back around, looking at her, then looking at the sack. He approached her, pursing his lips.
"See, I can get you your gold," Teana repeated, holding the sack out towards Akhekh. He took it and opened it, looking inside.
"Where does a peasant girl keep getting so much gold from, I wonder," he asked rhetorically, fingers digging through the bag.
"You just give me some time, I'll get everything you're owed. You'll get what's coming to you, I just need time," Teana pleaded.
Akhekh looked at her again, then sighed. "Very well." He turned around, holding the sack up in his right hand. "Urshu, go outside and tell the crowd the execution has been delayed!"
One of the guards turned around and walked into the hallway behind him. Teana ran forward towards Akhekh. "Okay, give it here."
Akhekh pulled it away from her, raising an eyebrow at her. "What, the bag?"
"N-no, the gold!" Teana said, pointing up at it. "I need it, I'm going to need it if I'm going to get the rest of the gold for you."
Akhekh shook his head. "This five hundred debens is the only reason why I am not going to kill Ramses today. If you want your gold back, then Ramses dies now."
"Listen," Teana said slowly. "I understand your position, I do, but I need that gold to get the rest. So, you just need to trust me. Give it back, give me some time, and I'll have everything you're owed. All seven thousand five hundred."
Akhekh sneered. "You hope to win it playing cards? Please." He turned away from her. "If I give this gold back to you, you'll just lose it. No, that is not the deal. My deal is this five hundred will buy you some time. Not negotiable."
Teana walked back up behind him. "Akhekh, please listen to reason-"
"Non. Negotiable." Akhekh said sternly. "Now, let's see, five hundred. I will give you...the rest of today, all of tomorrow, and the early morning of the day after." He nodded. "You have until the sun rises in two days to get my gold. All of it."
"Akhekh, please, I need more time than that." Teana jumped in front of him and looked him straight in the eyes. "That's barely a day and a half. If you just gave me...ten, twelve days, I could-"
"I have waited long enough to be paid back on this loan," Akhekh spat. "It is with great indecision that I give you a day and a half. So, with this five hundred, Ramses's debt is now precisely seven thousand gold debens. Seven thousand gold debens due to me in a day and a half, when the sun rises, that is the deal."
"Akhekh-" Teana said, but was quickly cut off.
"The only deal I will offer," Akhekh said harshly. "Oh, and lastly, if you fail to get my gold together in time, I will hold you responsible for the debt, same as Ramses. If I do not get my gold, you will be mine to do as I please with, just like Ramses."
Teana glanced down to the floor, skin crawling and her stomach doing flips.
"Not too late to back out," Akhekh offered, holding his empty left hand out towards Teana and his right hand, with the gold sack, in the other. "Your choice."
Teana bit her lower lip, then closed her eyes and stuck her hand out to shake Akhekh's. "Deal." she choked out.
"I knew it!" Ramses shouted from the small chamber he was tied up in. "See, I knew you'd come back, you always help your friends!"
"Shut up, RAMSES!" Teana roared, turning around and storming out of the room. "Shut up you stupid idiot," she muttered to herself, stomping down the hall and stepping over the doorman. "Course...I'm a bigger idiot than you..."
.
Teana knocked on the door a few times, letting her arm hang limply at her side as she waited. A second later, Kafele opened the door, slowly looking her body up and down. She was covered in sweat and panting, leaning over while gripping the wall next to the door, looking ready to collapse.
"Teana, Ra, what's up? You trying a career as a marathon runner?" Kafele asked, stepping aside as she limped in. "Take a seat."
"I don't have long," she panted, leaning over and putting her hands on her knees. "You got a minute?"
"For you? Always, what's up?" Kafele replied, putting his hands in the side pockets of his robes. "You sure you're alright?"
"I'm...well, no, I'm not fine." She stood back up straight, closing her eyes and expelling a breath. "Kafele, I'm in...I'm in a bad place. I need to get together some gold. And I'm not talking passively. I need gold and I need it quickly."
"You're already out?" Kafele asked quietly, walking up closer to her.
"Yeah, funny story behind that, I don't have time for it," Teana said. "I got nothing. Look, I searched every single bit of my hut three times, going into every single corner, every nook and cranny...I found twenty five debens. Twenty-five. And all evening, I went up and down section six, asking everyone for whatever they could spare. I mean, every single person here, I'm not proud of myself, but I had to try. I asked every single person here, whatever you can give, I need it now."
"And?" Kafele questioned.
"Combine it all, it was...about another twenty-five," Teana said in a low whisper. "I didn't take it, it's not going to do me any good. Twenty-five doesn't get me anywhere. I need help, Kafele, I need it bad."
"Of course," Kafele said. "What do you need? A hundred? Two hundred? Two fifty?"
Teana hesitated, looking over to her left at the blank wall. "I..." she looked back at Kafele. "I need seven thousand gold debens."
"Seven thousand," Kafele repeated, letting the obvious subtext hang in the air. "I need a blowjob from the Queen of Egypt."
Teana gave a small smile and gave a tiny nod. "Yeah," she said.
"Get out of here...seven grand?" Kafele scoffed. "Seven thousand? You're serious?"
"Yes. Come on Kafele, seriously, this is real. I've looked everywhere I can for help and there's not much to speak of, I need you for this. I mean, a hundred won't even get me started."
Kafele glanced around, then sighed. "Yeah...I mean, if a hundred won't help...five hundred's not much better. What the hell's going on?"
Teana swallowed down some bile. "It's Akhekh."
Kafele nodded. "Uh-huh. Losing everything to him wasn't enough, huh?"
"No," Teana said, shaking her head. "It's not that. Ramses went into debt with him, and I...I vouched for him, I guess. I said I'd pay his debt off, so now they're holding me responsible for it. I have less than a day and a half. If I don't get it by then, I'm his to do whatever he wants with."
Kafele sighed heavily, turning his back on Teana and pacing towards his food room. "You know, ever since you lost that hand to Akhekh, not a single person in section six has said a bad word about you. Outside of Ramses, nobody's said a negative thing."
"Yup," Teana replied, putting her hands on her hips.
"We probably shouldn't," Kafele continued. "We owe you a lot, Teana. Without you, we'll all probably be dead by now. None of us should say anything bad about you, regardless of how things broke. But this might be my last chance. So let me be the one person to tell you what you need to hear."
"Okay. Fine." Teana shrugged. "Go ahead."
"You had it all, Teana," Kafele said, walking back towards her. "Had everything you wanted. You got to live comfortably in a modest location, and you had enough to take care of your friends. All hundred plus of them. How many people in the world can say that? Not many. You had it good. You had a system that couldn't be beat. You were slow, you were patient, you were methodical, and you always made enough gold. It was a great system, Teana. Us three worked it like champs, made more gold than most peasants could even dream about. But one day, it wasn't enough for you. You had to chase a stupid longshot fantasy of living in the palace and having the Prince suck on your toes while servants fed you grapes. That's not the way things are for people like us. But you couldn't let it go."
"I know, Kafele," Teana said, a slight bit of annoyance in her voice. "I've thought about it every day since it happened."
"You were born a peasant. You lost both your parents. And yet, here you were. Things were good. You were getting the things you wanted. It was a dream situation for a peasant. Peasants hardly dare dream of making as much gold as you were. As we were. You should have settled for that. Accepted that was as good as you could do. But no. You had to risk all of it for some palace pipe dream."
"Kafele, you know what?" Teana said. "I don't need you to tell me I screwed up, okay? I know. I know I screwed up really bad. You're not helping me by telling me what I already know."
"I play cards now. On my own. Flying solo in town, finding random games and jumping in. It's a good living. I make good gold. And that's all it is. It's a living, Teana. I'll make enough gold to support myself, maybe sometimes save what's left over. I can get married, have kids, and I don't have to be afraid of some soldiers breaking down my door one morning and dragging us off into slavery. That's the dream for us. That's the peak of our existence. And that's what you had, but you couldn't see it."
"Look, I get that, but right now, it's not what I need. I need gold. Whatever gold you can give me, I need it," Teana said.
"Teana." Kafele sighed. "There's no gold. I don't have seven thousand gold debens. I don't have seven hundred. I don't have enough gold to help you out here. Not in the amount you need and the time you're talking about."
Teana gave a incredulous smirk. "Awesome. That's great."
"Don't try to lay guilt on me for this," Kafele said. "I'm not just saying this. If I had enough gold to help you, I'd give it to you. I wouldn't even have to think about it. I'd fork it right over. If I thought...five hundred would help you, I'd give it to you. But not here, no. I give you five hundred, I'm wasting it. You can't turn five hundred into seven thousand in a day. Not on your best day. I don't have five hundred debens to waste. If you were...two thousand in the hole, I'd give you the five hundred. Three thousand? Probably. But seven thousand? No. My five hundred wouldn't help."
"So. That's it then," Teana said, shrugging. "You're the last stone I needed to turn over."
"You did this to yourself, Teana," Kafele replied. "I'm sorry. I am. You should have stuck to the playbook. No risk, low reward. Had to put everything on the line, and now look at you. You should have left Ramses behind. It doesn't feel good, but we've always known that Ramses was either going to end up filthy rich or executed by a loan shark that he stiffed. I can't afford to get involved." He sighed again. "You'll probably wanna go on the run. Make a break for another country, try to get out of Egypt before Akhekh can catch you. If that's what you want to do, I'll do everything I can to help make that possible. I got contacts I can use, people who can help get you to the borders. But, the gold. I have to say no."
"Believe it or not, I understand," Teana said, nodding. "I understand. It's the smart play. I just haven't been making smart plays lately, I guess." She sat down heavily on one of the stools in the main room. "Well, that's it then. Maybe it's for the best then."
"You asked Akiiki yet?" Kafele asked.
Teana shook her head. "He's got a baby brother on the way. Or sister, whatever. I don't have the heart to ask for it. Besides, it's like you said. Maybe he could give me five hundred, but that won't help me, so what's the point?"
"Can't hurt to ask," Kafele commented. "Either way, there's one person you should talk to before you leave."
Teana shook her head. "I can't stand to face her right now. I'm embarrassed and ashamed."
"Teana. Either you're about to flee for another country, or you're about to become one of Akhekh's possessions. Either way, you'll probably never see us again. You gotta say goodbye."
Teana stood back up, puffing her cheeks out. "You're right. Of course. I'll...I'll see her, I guess."
Kafele came up close to her and hugged her. "I'm sorry. If I could help, I would. But I can't."
"I understand," Teana replied hoarsely, returning the hug. "I get it."
