Would he do anything about it?

Apparently, not right away.

The next morning, Sofia rousted the siblings early. After packing their few belongings, their group opened a portal to Egypt, the First Nome, arriving just before noon.

At least, they thought they were going to the First Nome. When they cleared their eyes of the sand, though, they found themselves on a cold tile floor.

"Where are we?" Jesse asked, brushing the sand from his clothes.

An announcement echoed from speakers overhead, and Machaela spoke up. "Better question, why are we in the Cairo airport?" Jesse followed her gaze to a large "Welcome to Cairo!" sign as she continued. "I thought we were going to the First Nome?"

Sofia herded them along as she answered. "We are. The First Nome is in Heliopolis."

"Which is in an airport?!" Jesse asked, confused.

"Which is under the airport," Sofia corrected. "Come. We must hurry."

Behind them, Jesse saw a policeman staring hard at them, possibly wondering where they had come from. They hurried out of sight; the man did not follow.

Sofia led them to a maintenance door, which led to a broom closet. She muttered a command—"Sahad"—and the closet shimmered to reveal a stone staircase going down into darkness.

"Robbers pillaged the ancient city centuries ago," Sofia told them, "carrying away some of its monuments. Then most of the temples were broken down to make modern buildings. The rest disappeared beneath the suburbs of Cairo, the largest section of which is under the airport. But," Sofia continued as she carefully positioned them in the middle of the group, "not all Heliopolis is in ruins."

They descended into the gloom.

The tunnel was much smaller than the siblings had expected, and, while they were small enough to walk normally, the adults all had to crouch and crawl. There was also no light in the gently-sloping tunnel, and it would have been pitch-black if it were not for the torches a few adults around them carried. This was still not enough, however, as the long shadows from the people between them and the torchbearer made seeing near impossible, especially for the siblings. After only a few minutes, the duo had accumulated a twisted ankle and a few bruises from smacking into rocks.

"That's enough!" Machaela finally decided, aggravated at the lack of light after seeing Jesse smack his shin into yet another hidden rock. Sofia stopped and looked back at the noise, just in time to see Machaela make her own light.

"Sah-te!" A small flame lighted on Machaela's hand, and Sofia's jaw dropped.

"How did you do that?" Sofia hissed.

Machaela looked at her, a bit startled. Sofia had never spoken to them like that before, and Machaela was slightly afraid to respond. Sofia's eyes were wide, so she was scared, but she also looked angry. Machaela went the safe route and just shrugged. She refused to say it had come naturally. She wanted light, so she said light. The fact that she picked up the Ancient Egyptian language without being explicitly taught seemed inconsequential to her.

Sofia opened her mouth to inquire again, but then checked herself. She saw Machaela shrink back, wondering why she was in trouble for doing a spell, and Jesse, while rubbing his shin, was slowly coming closer, as if ready to jump between them. Sofia berated herself, Nice job, idiota. You scared them. She consciously made an effort to relax and change her tone, then tried again.

"How did you know that spell? I never taught it to you. Did Iskandar?" Machaela shook her head. "Then how did you know it?" Machaela shrugged again.

Sofia let it drop. The rest of the group was moving, and she had scared the girl enough. She would apologize later, but for now, she started trying to figure out how Machaela had done a spell without someone teaching it to her.

Machaela's light helped her and Jesse a lot, and they managed to reach the end of the tunnel without any more injuries. The tunnel opened up, and the entire group slowed. People seemed to be going through single file, and a moment later Machaela and Jesse understood why.

The tunnel opened into a large chasm. Only a wooden plank crossed the chasm, and the others in their group were crossing one after the other. Each, upon reaching the other side, entered a doorway between two statues, said something, and bowed to someone the siblings could not see.

They slowly moved forward, and started to cross when it became their turn, but Sofia pulled them aside and let the others go ahead.

Jesse looked up, about to ask why they had to wait, but Sofia beat him to it. "This is an entrance to the First Nome, the oldest branch of the House of Life, headquarters for all magicians. You will be challenged, and each magician must unbar the path for himself or herself. The challenge is different for everyone, and the two of you are both old enough; you must face whatever test you meet."

They waited for all others in the group to pass to the other side, then Sofia guided them to the edge.

"Think clearly. Stay confident. Eldest first," she told them, then took a step back.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Machaela summoned her staff and stepped forward.

Unsure what to expect, she moved steadily across the plank, her head on a swivel looking everywhere but down. She had been up high before, and she never liked it. She just hoped whatever this test was came from another direction, because she knew if she looked down, she would freeze in panic.

Nothing happened at first, and she walked steadily toward the opposite side. Then, as she got closer, the doorway began to glow. She raised her staff and kept walking.

A boomerang shot out at her. A boomerang? she thought. Why would…? Not about to let it touch her, no matter how harmless it seemed, she smacked it with her staff, sending it crashing into the side of the chasm. She caught a glimpse of metal, and realized the boomerang was actually an Egyptian throwing stick with a blade added.

The first apparently a test of its own, now several throwing sticks shot out at her. There would be no way for her to hit all of them with her staff.

Acting purely on instinct, she raised her staff in front of her and called out a command.

"Sont khok!" Her staff glowed, and the walls around her rumbled. Then, rocks and debris flew from the chasm below and the walls surrounding her, coalescing between her and the flying weapons, effectively blocking the blades from reaching her.

Her makeshift shield protecting her from the projectiles, she finished crossing the chasm. Once in reach, she slashed her staff through the doorway, which stopped glowing, and stepped through, leaving her now crumbling shield falling into the chasm behind her.

Waiting for her was a ba, a five-foot-tall bird with the head of a man. He looked at her for a moment, then smiled. "Pari," he told her, which she did not understand, but, since he had already turned his attention to her brother, she took to mean she passed.

Jesse, meanwhile, had been watching with his jaw dropped. Where did she learn that language? he wondered, and marveled at the magical shield she had created. He watched as she reached the end of the chasm, then step out of sight through the doorway. He knew she was waiting just inside, but the separation still made him nervous.

Sofia nudged him, and he took a deep breath, clearing his mind. Withdrawing his kopis, which he had claimed from an armory in one of the nomes they had visited, he stepped forward onto the plank.

His test arrived in the form of arrows. As he passed the halfway mark, the doorway glowed red again, but then dimmed. Another glow to his right caught his attention, and he turned just in time to avoid a stray arrow. A steady stream of arrows was firing across his path, but immediately he noticed a pattern.

He studied it closer. Yes, there was a definite pattern to the arrows. A path free of danger crossed the chasm, then started over and crossed the chasm again.

Instinctively, he calculated angles, cross sections, and trajectories, then, as the pattern started again for the third time, he ran in.

In the back of his mind, he registered Sofia behind him stifling a cry. He was, after all, running into the paths of arrows, but he stayed focused.

Staying in the steadily moving clear space, he worked his way across with nary a scratch. Only twice did he even need his knife to deflect a stray arrow.

Finally, he reached the dimly glowing doorway. Slashing at the glow, he walked through to find his sister staring at him, eyes wide. The ba gave him the same smile and command he had given Machaela, "Pari," and disappeared after Sofia crossed and bowed.

Sofia turned to them once the ba left, studying them in a new light, then wrapping Jesse in a hug. "You scared me half to death jumping into those arrows!" she admonished. "Why in the world did you do that?"

"I wasn't in any danger," Jesse told her. "There was a pattern to the arrows. A clear space crossed the chasm, then started over and crossed again. I just stayed in the clear spot."

"A pattern?" she repeated, surprised. Jesse nodded, and Sofia shook her head. "Only you would be able to find a pattern where no one else could." She wrapped Jesse in another hug before turned to Machaela.

"How did you know that command?" she asked.

The girl shrugged, but refused to answer, remembering the events in the tunnel.

Sofia stared at her a moment, then seemed to understand. She knelt down to Machaela's level.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you in the tunnel," Sofia told her. "You surprised me by knowing the language without being taught. I don't know of anyone else who has a way with languages like you do, and it surprised me then when you knew the spell for light, and now when you built that shield. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, though. Forgive me?" Machaela nodded hesitantly. "Thank you. Now, let me try this again: do you know how you knew the spell?"

The girl shook her head. "I just knew. I thought of what I wanted, and said it. Hearing, or even thinking, the words, I didn't understand them, but I knew they would do what I wanted."

"When you crossed, the ba should have said something to you. Did you understand him?"

Machaela shook her head again. "He said 'Pari', but I don't know what that means. Since he didn't say anything else, I just figured it meant I passed."

"You're right," Sofia responded. "It literally means Go forth." She glanced back toward the chasm to ensure they were still alone, then said. "Check your magic. Are you still good?" Machaela closed her eyes and concentrated, then nodded. Sofia handed her a lit torch. "Then let me watch you. Put the flame out. Use only one word."

Machaela focused on the flame, imagining it gone. "Taka." The flame went out with a hiss.

Sofia took a deep breath, and released it with a sigh. "Okay, here's the deal," she told Machaela. "You are a natural with Divine Words, one of the paths of magic. However, this path was restricted long ago, and most magicians work years to master just a few words. We will find your secondary specialty and work on that. Until the rule changes, tell no one about this, except Iskandar, and try to stick with other spells besides Divine Words whenever possible, okay?" Machaela nodded. "This type of magic is not specifically banned, but if you are seen using too many of these words too soon, you may be accused of being a godling, which is banned and is very, very serious. Understand?" Machaela nodded again. "Okay." Sofia stood, mussing Machaela's hair as she did. "We've lingered here long enough. Come on."

She led them through the tunnel, which opened into an infinite series of halls and chambers. Machaela and Jesse had trouble keeping up, as they kept slowing to look at their surroundings. Ceilings soared upwards of thirty feet, and every wall and corner was decorated with stone Pharaohs, columns brightly painted to resemble palm trees, and copper braziers burning various types of incense. The rooms smelled wonderful, like a spice market. Cinnamon, clove, nutmeg: every room smelled different.

They saw people, too, though fewer than expected. One area had a young lady commanding a bucket, mop, and broom in cleaning up the floors. They passed a man walking a panther on a leash, a middle-aged woman chanting a spell, and an elderly couple sitting on a bench. Another couple, a dark skinned man and a blonde haired, fair-skinned woman, were discussing something intently on a bench near a fountain.

They passed through a hall with jackal-headed statues—maybe a shrine to Anubis? Jesse had trouble understanding what that hall was for, but they went through too fast for him to explore. The jackal hall gave way to a series of other halls seemingly themed after various gods and goddesses. One was covered top to bottom in frogs, while another had thousands of cats lining the walls. Both Jesse and Machaela found it rather creepy.

Soon enough, though, they left those behind for an open-air market. Or as open-air as it could get, being underground. Scores of stalls lined what appeared to be the main road, selling everything from staffs and wands to amulets and spell ingredients. Jesse made the mistake of lingering at one, and Sofia had a hard time dragging him away. Apparently, the vendor had not learned the word no, and kept trying to sell them something even as they left earshot.

They followed this main road toward a river and a collection of buildings on the far side. Crossing the river, both Machaela and Jesse took note of the schools of tiger fish in the water. They would find a different place for a swimming hole.

Sofia led them toward the largest building, but on the way, they passed a scrying room, and the siblings peeked in. Around thirty kids sat on cushions, hunched over scrying bowls and muttering under their breath while taking notes on scrolls. The room looked under-filled, though, as it was built to hold maybe twice that.

"You will spend some time in there," Sofia told them as she hurried them away, "but mostly because we don't have enough scryers. Your training has surpassed the typical range for scryers, but you are still young enough to find it easy. We must move, though. Iskandar is waiting for you."

That hurried them along, and they walked a bit faster and stopped less. The large building seemed always just around the corner, but each time they thought they were almost there, they came around another building to find their goal further away.

Finally, they reached a set of massive bronze doors. Fires blazed on each side, and the door was sealed with a per-ankh, the symbol for the House of Life. Sofia placed her hand on the seal, which glowed, and the doors opened.

"You are entering the Hall of Ages," she told them. "Do you remember the rules for this room?"

The siblings nodded. "Don't look at the pictures and no pranks," they said in unison.

Sofia nodded. "Good. Come along."

The duo did well, and never looked straight at the displays on either side, but neither could resist peeking. Looking past the many hieroglyphs floating in the air—a sure sign Iskandar was near—they watched the sun rise above an ocean, land emerge from water, pyramids being built, and wars for countries, all from the corner of their eyes.

The walked on and on, giving Machaela and Jesse a better understanding of Egypt's age. Though they had heard about it for the last two years, it had never really hit home until they walked a mile or more past display after display and age after age of Egypt's history.

Hatshepsut, Nectanebo II, Ramses, Thutmose III, all displayed on the walls, showing bits and pieces of history. The one that caught their attention, though, was a man in ragged clothes whose staff turned into a snake and consumed a dozen other snakes.

"Moses," Machaela breathed. That had been the first Bible story their Mom had told them, and it had always been their favorite. Sofia glanced over, then purposely stood between the siblings and that picture, knowing the two would have difficulty not looking.

Passing the New Kingdom, they walked through Ptolemaic times, which seemed sadly short in comparison to the other ages, and finally reached the end of the hall.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to review!