The Pharaoh

by the7joker7

A young Atemu seems to struggle understanding his future role in the world as Pharaoh of a mighty Egyptian empire. What happens when other powerful men view see this weakness as an opportunity? Noncanon, 'The Godfather'-ish.

10. Family Business

Chapter 10: Family Business

"Anything you need, it's yours." Atemu said, leaning back on one of the chairs in his bedroom, in the corner opposite his bed. "If you need a billion debens of gold, I can get it. Ten thousand gorgeous virgins? It's yours. The entire kingdom is yours to milk, but I absolutely need this to work."

"Yes, thank you, Pharaoh Atemu." Seto said, nodding. "But it has to be said that these devices are very precise and delicate things, no layman can construct one."

"If the prototype works, then there's no excuse. I'll get every single man, woman and child in this city to participate if I need to, just say the word."

"I'm sure the results will be satisfactory." Seto assured the new Pharaoh. "And I have seen the prototype...it functions, quite well."

"Good." Atemu nodded, looking off to his left. "Your father is keeping everything inside the palace. Only a select few know about...well." He trailed off.

"Are you alright?" Seto asked, as Atemu stood up.

"It's...easier now." He responded, looking down at the floor. "He got to say goodbye, got to go out on his terms...at least somewhat. I'm not waiting for him now. At least now I know it's me, and only me."

"Would it be alright if...I was to attend the funeral later today?" Seto dared to ask.

Atemu shrugged. "Me, my mother, your father, two guards at the door, five doctors to come in and handle the mummification process afterwards. Pretty small group." He nodded. "Don't tell anyone else though. You're the high priest's son, it makes sense. The others, well, I'd rather not crowd it any more than that."

"Understood." Seto said shortly.

""""

"Under normal circumstances, I do not know if he would have wanted it this way." Aknadin spoke to the tiny grouping of people around the body of Aknamkanon, fallen Pharaoh, on a stone table on the dais in the small room. "His father's funeral was a week long ceremony that was attended by millions of people. I like to think it's fitting."

Atemu, Amaunet, and Seto were standing to the left, behind, and right of the stone table respectively, Aknadin in front of it.

"His death will be kept secret for weeks, the general public will think he's walled himself up in his room until we can no longer withhold it. All in the service of this nation. Even in death, he gave up honor for the benefit of this country, so that we might find a way to survive. As I said, it's fitting a Pharaoh such as him. The glory of a true Pharaoh's funeral will never be known to him, he's given it up for the sake of all of us." Aknadin continued to monologue. "Let us hope that this sacrifice not be in vain."

Suddenly, a sharp knock came at the door opposite the small grouping. The two guards stationed on either side jumped, glanced at the door, then back to the Pharaoh for instructions.

"No one knows we're here." Aknadin said suddenly. "I made sure of it, there's no reason for anyone to come down here, someone must've-"

Atemu pointed at the door. "Open it." He commanded. The guard to the right of the door complied immediately.

The door opened outward, clearing the way for Isis to step in, eyes glaring hard at the scene before her.

"Priest Isis?" Atemu blurted out. "What're-"

Quite suddenly, she reached for the belt of the guard to her left, pulled the short short from the sheath, and before anyone could react, swung it across her body into the neck of the guard to her right.

There was no time for any sort of reaction. The guard fell, his head partially severed from his body and blood pouring from the wound. His hands had reached up to grab at the new incision, now futilely gripping at his head trying to put it back where it belonged.

Isis dropped the sword, still glaring hard at the four people in front of her, the loud clang of the blade bringing their attentions back to her.

After a split second, the remaining guard reached out to grab Isis, who slid to her right and looked at the guard disdainfully. The soldier caught himself, his hand frozen out, reaching for her, and he desparately looked at the four figures of power by the stone table.

"Isis. Explain." Atemu said suddenly.

She nodded grimly. "I apologize for my intrusion and beg the forgiveness of you, Pharaoh Atemu, for disturbing this procession, and I did only what I felt I must." She stepped forward, away from the pool of blood that was just inches away from her brown slippers. "This guard was here to assassinate you. I saw it, in a vision. I'm sure of it."

Everyone just stared at one another for a few seconds. Aknadin broke the silence. "We could have used him alive in that case." He said hoarsely.

"I apologize, I simply feared anything less than an immediate kill would jeopardize the Pharaoh." Isis responded. "I wouldn't kill a soldier of Egypt without a very good reason. I hope you know that."

Atemu nodded forcefully. "Yes." He looked over at Aknadin. "I think we're done here." He pointed at the remaining guard and snapped his fingers. "Have this matter investigated, let no one know the particulars." He pointed at the bleeding corpse. The guard bowed quickly and ran off as fast as he could, eager to escape the room. He looked over at Aknadin. "Uncle, let the doctors have him." His mother fell under his gaze next. "We're not safe right now, find a secure chamber and have it locked down for at least a few hours." He began walking towards the door. "Isis, Seto, my room."

""""

"I don't believe it." Seto said, seated on a chair next to Atemu's bed, looking at Atemu sitting up on the foot of it. "They'd actually attack you while they thought your father was still alive? With an assassin? It's...it's-"

"They wouldn't." Atemu said through gritted teeth. "It makes no sense, my father submitted to their demands. They'd only attack me if they knew he was already dead."

"How?" Seto exclaimed. "There are less than twenty people in the whole world who know he's dead, all of whom are completely trusted! Even if there was a mole, how could an assassination attempt being coordinated so quickly? It's-"

"Pharaoh Atemu." Isis interjected suddenly, sitting cross-legged on a chair of her own, opposite Seto with respect to Atemu. "I know what you're thinking. I'm not upset in the slightest I wasn't invited to your father's funeral, and completely respect and understand your decisions. Now please, don't feel as if you need to exclude me from this conversation out of some un-needed feeling of shame."

Atemu blinked twice. "Yes. Right, I'm glad you understand." He shook his head a few times. "And...thank you." He said, looking into her eyes. "You saved my life. And proven to possess immense power as a priestess and incredible initiative, you'll make a grand member of my inner circle."

"I live to serve." Isis responded.

Atemu looked back at the ground in front of him. "So they know. We have to assume they're assembling their armies to launch attacks again as we speak."

"Hold and defend again?" Seto asked. "How much longer can we last?"

"We have a traitor in our midst, I'm sure we'll all be assassinated long before our armies deplete." Atemu replied grimly. He then took a deep, calming breath. "I wasn't counting on this."

"What do we do now?" Isis asked, putting her feet back on the floor.

Atemu stood up. "Seto, no matter how outlandish or stupid sounding, I want you to demand to be provided with anything you think you could possibly need. That's an order. Preparing that is your priority. I want it kept secret as possible, but if you need more men, bring them in."

Seto stood up, bowed deeply, and left the room. Isis looked after him, then back to the Pharaoh.

"Need to know, Isis." Atemu said quickly, cutting her off even as she opened her mouth. "I want to know everything about my almost-assassin, and I need someone who already knows about it to handle it. If you learn anything, I want to hear about it, understood?"

She stood up, bowed deeply as well, and turned to leave.

""""

"So...if you somehow can create enough of your mysterious prototype to beat back the invaders." Teana recapped as she and Atemu walked through the garden in the palace backyard. "If you can somehow kill the remaining Israeli businessmen who caused this whole thing. And if you can somehow find and plug the leak inside the palace. Your reign as Pharaoh might just last longer than a month. That's what I'm hearing."

"I'm just trying to be up front with you. You deserve to know everything before making your decision." Atemu said, looking distantly ahead of him. "There isn't a single person in the palace who wouldn't chew me out for telling you all this. Most of them would heavily suspect you're the insider."

"Really?" Teana asked, her smile fading.

"Well, you're one of a very small group of people who knew my father died last night." Atemu shrugged. "I haven't told them that I told you, by the way. And I'd highly recommend you don't tell anyone about it either. But really, when you think about it, it's pretty open and shut. Only the most trusted people in the palace know about it, I decide to tell you, the Israelis find out...it's almost too easy."

Teana froze midstep, trying to smile weakly, looking over at Atemu slowly. "You...don't-"

"Obviously not." Atemu deadpanned. "If my uncle heard so much as a rumor that I told you about my dad, he'd send you down to the dungeons for sure. Have you ever heard about about the execution process we reserve specifically for those who betray the Pharaoh?"

Teana shook her head slowly.

"It'd be best if you kept it that way." Atemu nodded. "Now, maybe I'm just a young, stupid Pharaoh taken in by your looks and charm. Maybe I don't think your actions in the last several months are incompatible with someone who's spying on me for the benefit of murderous businessmen. Or maybe I don't believe that those Israelis could bribe you with something worth more than a life in the palace. So no, I don't think you're the insider. I'm saying this because you need to be careful, like I said, if my Uncle heard about this he'd kill you out of principle and I wouldn't be able to stop him."

She nodded. "I'll be careful." She said softly.

"It's a longshot. And anything less than perfection won't cut it. If we don't find a way to mass produce the mystery prototype." He stopped, sitting down on one of the benches in the garden along the pathway. "Those armies are going to run us into the dirt eventually." He looked down at the ground. "If we don't nail those last two Israelis...then the monetary motivation for everyone will be great enough for them to continue attacking us for years to come. Plus their deep pockets make the fight that much more difficult. And if we can't figure this leak out, people will be looking over their shoulders and whispering for years, can't rule a kingdom when nobody trusts anyone else. It's all or nothing."

Teana sat down next to him. "I can see that."

"But, if everything works out-and I feel like I'm due some good luck-Egypt would be the most powerful and feared nation in the world. You'd be the most powerful woman in the world as my Queen." He leaned in slightly closer towards her. "You only get one chance like this in your life."

"Are you trying to sell me a house, or trying to propose to me?" Teana asked coyly.

"I know all of this must seem horrible to you right now. So here's my promise to you. I promise that, if you marry me, in less than one month, the great nation of Egypt will be at peace. There will be no more attacks, no more dirty politics, no more fear. We'll be free for the next fifty years to do whatever we want, together. I promise that, if you were to be my wife, you'd never have to fear for your, my, or our children's lives through war or covert assassination." Atemu said.

Teana bit her bottom lip. "I thought about it a lot last night and today. I've seen all of these sides, Pharaoh. But I don't think I ever seriously considered turning it down."

"Is that a yes?" Atemu asked, eyes widening.

"Yes. I'd be happy to be your bride." She leaned in and kissed him. Atemu returned the kiss.

After some seconds, they pulled apart. "One month. It'll be the grandest wedding in the history of weddings!"

""""

"Oh come on." Isis said under her breath to Seto, seated next to her. He gave her a sideways glance.

"What're you talking about?" Seto whispered back, eyes back to the center of the circle of young priests.

"You've been icy ever since I saved the Pharaoh's life." She smirked. "I can tell. You're jealous. Now when are you gonna get over it?"

Seto snorted. "How about you kiss my-"

"Hey!" Aknadin called from the middle of the circle. "Quiet over there!"

They glanced at each other for a few more seconds. Seto finally thought Aknadin's attentions were elsewhere and leaned slightly closer to Isis. "Let's not forget who he trusted the secret of his mystery prototype to. Even you don't know what it is, do you?"

"Yeah, good for you. See? I'm not envious, I have nothing but good things to say about your accomplishment. You, on the other hand-"

"Your little vision is nothing for anyone to be jealous of, nothing more than a lucky break that could have happened to anyone." Seto said through gritted teeth, his eyes still on Aknadin at the center of the circle.

"See? This is what I'm talking about. The green monster of-"

"Please!" Aknadin shouted towards the pair again. "Need I remind you how much this great nation needs our services right now? We must all work, wade through the false and trivial visions of the future, at all hours of the day if we are to find something of value!"

"Of course, my apologies, Grand Priest!" Isis said back.

"Thank you." He said. "Egypt doesn't stand a chance without our help! We've got mere days before the attacks start again! Let's try and focus, please."

Suddenly, a series of loud gongs sounded off, ringing through the air. A total of six before the abrasive sounds ceased, a hum lingering a moment before passing.

"My apologies, but I have to be going now." Seto said, standing up from his sitting position on the ground.

Isis stood up as well. "Me too, I have business to take care of."

"Yes, of course. Good luck." Aknadin said dismissively, waving them away.

""""

Outside of the group meditation room, Isis and Seto stared at each other for a second before smiling simultaneously.

"You're real funny." Seto said, as the pair began strolling down the halls of the temple.

"Thank you." Isis responded.

"Okay, maybe I am sort of wondering when I'm gonna get my breakthrough." Seto admitted. "There's a lot of pressure on me, and I can't help but think to myself that this would be a great time to see something."

"Oh, I'm sure it'll happen soon." Isis replied. "Speaking which, how's it going on your end?"

"Well...do you know what the prototype is?" Seto asked.

"Haven't heard a thing." Isis responded.

"Then it's going quite well. We've got thousands working in the palace basements, and calling in more all the time. So clearly we still have top notch security around here." Seto noted.

"That's not really what I meant, Seto."

"Oh, they're magnificent." Seto exclaimed. "You'll see. The only problem is...they're so precise. The slightest imperfection makes them useless. But we need so many, it's...well it's frustrating. But I think we'll get it. Somehow. You?"

"Ptah's the name of the almost assassin." Isis said. "He had a wife. She wasn't there when we raided her house. We found half a million debens in a sack buried under the carpet in the living room that isn't accounted for. We're looking everywhere, but something tells me she doesn't know anything."

"The Pharaoh wants everything in order in twenty five days or less." Seto said grimly. "I...I don't know. It's a lot of pressure for a bunch of kids, isn't it?"

The pair came to the entrance to the temple, looking out into the bustling city, so oblivious to the deep and dark horrors taking place behind the palace walls.

"Be seeing you." Isis said, taking off to the right as Seto parted to the left.

""""

"So, let me get this straight." Isis said menacingly, seated in the center of a small, stone and dark room on a stool, one hand at her side and the other holding a pair of clampers that was dipped into a boiling pot. "Your husband came home one day with half a million golden debens, told you to hide it in the house opposed to taking it to a bank, and offered no explanation."

Right next to her was a plain stone slab. A fairly young girl, perhaps twenty, had been laid down and chained to it, hands over her head, wearing nothing but a peasant gown. Small, with light skin and brown hair, she was sweating profusely, eyes on the clamper and pot, shaking in fear.

"Yes...yes, I swear, that's what happened, please-" She said quietly.

"Not suspicious to you at all? I mean, you do know we're in the middle of some fairly turbulent times, right? And you are aware that your husband works within the palace, and makes only the equivalent of thirty thousand golden debens a year?" Isis continued to question, slowly pulling a glowing hot coal from the boiling pot.

The woman's eyes shot open at seeing the coal. "Yes, I-"

Isis dropped it back into the pot suddenly, a dull clank as it joined other similar hunks of mineral. "How curious. You're not a very smart one, are you? I think a good citizen of Egypt, a team player, would report this to the local authorities."

She kept staring at the clampers, eyes wide with fear.

"It's time to be a team player, Miss...Hathor was it? Your husband was in communications with a mole inside the palace and took a bribe to assassinate the Pharaoh. My job is to find out who this insider is, and you're the only lead." She took another smoking coal from the pot, drawing whimpers from Hathor. "Surely they didn't communicate with each other and transfer such large funds within the palace walls. You keep track of where your husband goes outside of work, don't you?" She placed the clamper's thongs, coal within it's grasp, on the slab right next to Hathor's stomach. "Any theories?"

Hathor tried to squirm away from the hot coal, but could only shift over a couple inches. She started panting. "No. No, I had no idea what my husband was doing, I don't know anything."

"Oh...I think you must know something." Isis insisted, shifting the thongs closer to her side. "I'll let you in on a little something. I'm not an interrogator. I've never done this before in my life. I'm not enjoying myself right now, and I highly doubt I'm any good at it. I'm only here because our little spy problem is best kept secret from as many people as possible, including our professional interrogators."

"Look, I've already been down here two days, I've been miserable, I swear I would have told you anything I knew by now-"

"Miserable?" Isis interrupted. "By now? I'm afraid we haven't even begun the interrogation yet. The last two days have just been...holding you here."

"Oh it's been horrible!" She shrieked. "The food, the screams, the sleeping conditions...please, I would have told anyone anything after two hours down here. I swear I don't-"

The coal suddenly touched, burning right through her plain gown and searing into the flesh of her side. She hissed, flinching towards her right, breaking the contact but not before a black burn mark had formed on her skin. She started to moan pitifully.

"And I swear, to you, that I didn't enjoy that one bit." Isis said in her low voice. She dropped the coal back into the pot. "So I'm going to ask you one more time, before I turn you over to our professionals, who is the mole?"

"I don't know!" She wailed. "I...wait, what do you mean professionals?"

"Our interrogators, of course." Isis replied sweetly.

"But I don't know anything!" She insisted, tugging on the chains on her wrists and ankles. "I didn't do anything wrong, you can't-"

"You were presented with enough evidence to indicate your husband was doing something suspicious. Evidence that would have led to him being detained and questioned. You decided to do nothing since you stood to benefit from his actions, that's enough to make me consider you an accomplice here." She jabbed the red hot clamper thongs into the spot that had just been burned by the coal, leading to more pitiful screams and wails from Hathor. This time, Isis held it there. "That makes you an accomplice to the attempted assassination of the Pharaoh. Leaving the business of your punishment."

She pulled the thongs back and dropped them back into the pot, leaving Hathor to start sobbing in pain.

"Since you don't have any leverage, I can tell you right now you're going to be sentenced to the yellow room for six months." Isis continued over Hathor's crying. "You sleep in a tiny, lightless stone chamber that's randomly heated to scalding temperatures. They chain your palms and soles to heated metal plates and leave you there until you pass out from the pain. Course, it's hard to pass out when you're so stimulated, so you're stuck there for quite some time I hear. Oh it's horrible, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone." She started to sob even louder now. "But that's exactly where you're going, and you'll be so disfigured in six months not even your own mother will recognize you."

"Please, I...I-I'm sorry-" She babbled through her tears.

"If you weren't sorry, my description of the yellow room wouldn't have done it's job." Isis cut her off. "But I can't go up to the Pharaoh and tell him that a girl was indirectly responsible for his near assassination, but it's okay now because she's sorry."

She stood up, as Hathor looked at her in abject terror, tears still streaming from her eyes. "Of course...maybe we can cut a deal. I know you loved your husband, and he probably make you promise to keep his secret. But now he's dead, the gold has been confiscated, and I highly doubt you'll survive your sentence, so if you know anything..."

Hathor panted heavily, head laying back on the slab, still silently crying. Isis shrugged.

"It didn't have to be like this." She said, reaching down to the ground next to her by the boiling pot, picking a fist sized stone ball on a strap off the floor.

Hathor glanced up and this caught her eye. "What...what's that? What's-"

"This is a gag." Isis said, holding it up in front of her. "You see, I've told you quite a bit of classified information, I can't have you blabbing it up around the other prisoners and interrogators." She stretched the strap out. "It's a pretty effective device, whoever came up with it knew what he was doing."

Hathor looked at it, panting heavily still, eyes as wide as cracker plates.

"There have been explicit instructions to keep this on you at all times. Only I can remove it, in such a situation where we are both alone. So if you have anything you'd like to say, say it now, because once this thing is on the only thing passing your lips is going to be drool." Isis said as she began to lower it down towards her mouth.

Hathor whimpered again, turning her head to the right as far as she could, shaking with fear again.

"I'll be back to see if you've remembered something. Few days, maybe a week, we'll see how it looks on my schedule." Isis put the stone sphere on her lips, ready to snake the strap around her head to meet the other strap on the opposite side.

"Waitwait!" Hathor suddenly screamed. "Okayokay, I-"

"Yes?" Isis pressed, still casually moving to secure the gag.

"There was a girl!" She managed to spit out past the stone. Isis pulled the gag off her face and dropped it on the slab next to her head.

"I'm listening." She said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"A few nights ago, dead middle of the night, my husband met with someone in the living room for a few minutes." She confessed. "I got up for a minute, went down to see what was going on. He told me to go back to bed. The next morning, he had that sack. Told me to hide it. And that night he...well, he didn't come home." She sniffed loudly.

"Okay." Isis said dully. "A girl. That cuts our suspect list in half."

"She...she was most unusual." She continued. "Pale as a ghost, yellow golden hair...I've never seen anyone like her in Egypt before. It was as if she had never spent a minute under the sun here."

"Why were you protecting her?" Isis asked, tapping her foot on the ground.

"Well it...there's just no way! She was young, seemed so sweet and innocent! I mean, it's laughable to think she would be-"

"We'll decide that." Isis replied. "Now, was that so hard? You've been very helpful, and proven to be a team player. And we reward our team players." She picked up the stone gag again and moved to place it on Hathor's mouth again.

"WHAT'RE YOU-"

"Shhhh." Isis hissed, shoving the stone into her mouth and swiftly strapping it in as her protests turned to dull grunts and moans. "You'll be held here for a couple more hours, at most, just to confirm a few things. And I'm afraid the things we've discussed are still taboo around everyone else." Slowly, Hathor stopped moaning and turned her head to look at Isis. "So, while you're around other people, the gag is required. Now, I'm going to leave and have you escorted to a isolated holding cell. Once you're inside there, you can take the gag off. Understand?"

She nodded.

"It won't be for long. Another escort will come to collect you so you can confirm our suspect. You'll have to put the gag back in when he comes, please don't resist his commands." Isis explained as she continued to calm down. "Once we get confirmation from you, we can discuss the matter of your compensation." She lightly patted her forehead. "You've done the right thing, and you'll be rewarded for it, just like I promised. You'll get a nice house anywhere you'd like and enough gold to never have to work again. I'll even have your burn taken care of, as long as you continue to cooperate."

She nodded again.

Isis stood straight up and turned around, getting to the steel door that provided the only exit to the room. She knocked sharply on the steel, and immediately she could hear the gears in the door turning. It slid open and she stepped out.

Slowly, in a daze, she took a few steps out, a blank expression on her face. Then, she fell to her knees, hands on her face, starting to loudly sob herself as the door slammed back shut.

The warden approached her, having been standing by the door waiting for her to emerge, looking down at her mystified. "Ma'am, are you okay? Have you been hurt?"

"Oh...I-I was horrible." She moaned miserably. "Oh I felt...felt so bad for her." She let her hands drop. "I didn't know I had it in me to...to-...how do you guys do it every day? Oh, Ra, I'm exhausted." She sighed deeply. "I'm...I'm okay, but...oh-"

"Priestess, you did what you had to do. This woman committed a serious crime, and was withholding information." The warden insisted. "Your act in there, which I'm sure was very good, was necessary."

"I was so cruel though!" She said, taking another deep breath. "Oh...I'll have to make it up to her somehow. I feel horrible." She looked down at the ground.

"Please, what happened?" The warden asked, almost extending his hand to help her up but then deciding against it.

She cleared her throat and stood up. "Have her taken to an isolated holding cell, a nice one if possible. Keep her gagged at all times that she's within speaking range of anyone. I'll send someone down to get her shortly. She cooperated and cut a deal."

"Good, good." The warden pointed at two guards, then back at the steel door. They moved forward towards it. "I presume you still can't tell me what this is about?"

"Right." Isis confirmed. She started stepping forward herself, towards the door opposite them in the large, dark, stone room that made up the first main room of the dungeons. "I have some business to take care of."

""""

The door to Atemu's bedroom flew open, causing Atemu to jump from his seat. His eyes found Isis, Seto, and Aknadin at the door, quickly stepping in to reveal others behind them. Two guards flanked Knuit, hands chained behind her back and ankles chained together, head hanging down. They picked her up at the elbows, dragging her into the room, throwing her face-first to the ground in front of Atemu. The three priests looked down at her pathetic figure, trembling on the floor.

Next in was another woman flanked by two guards, this one unbound, but gagged by a stone ball. She stepped forward in stride with the pair of egyptian soldiers. Looking down at the figure on the floor, she suddenly picked her eyes up and saw Pharaoh Atemu. Quite suddenly, she threw herself down on her hands and knees, supplicating herself before the Pharaoh, shiverring in fear yet again as she bowed her head down until her nose touched the floor.

"Hathor, wife to Ptah?" Atemu asked. She nodded meekly, still staring at the floor right below her.

"Stand." He commanded. Slowly, she did so, going red as a sunburned peasant. Isis stepped forward next to her.

"Turn her over." Isis instructed the two guards further into the room. They did so, placing Knuit on her back, looking up at the ceiling, her sobbing now more visible.

"Hathor, in a moment, I will remove your gag so you may answer this question. Please answer briefly and say nothing but your answer, or I will have no choice but to take whatever measures I deem necessary to withhold classified information that you have knowledge of. Is this girl, on the floor in front of you, the same girl who met with your husband the night before his death?"

Hathor leaned in slightly closer, looking hard at the face of the girl, who had finally opened her eyes, taking a quick glance at Hathor before turning away in shame.

Isis reached up, loosened the strap, and pulled the stone from her mouth, letting it down like a necklace.

"Yes." Hathor said immediately.

"Are you sure?" Isis questioned further, looking down at Knuit.

"Positive." She insisted.

Isis put the gag back in her mouth and tightened the strap. "Please follow your escort outside and wait, I will be there in a few moments to discuss your release and reward." She did as asked, still deathly embarrassed she was in the presence of the Pharaoh drooling like an infant.

Atemu nodded at the two guards who had taken Knuit in. "Where was she when you found her?"

"Still in her quarters, sleeping, sir." The left one responded.

He looked at the door. The pair quickly slipped out of the room and shut the door behind them.

"You should have tried running weeks ago." Atemu said threateningly, stepping forward and bending down towards Knuit. "I supposed I should have suspected it immediately." He put his hand forward, toward her chin, but she snapped her head away. "I almost forgot you were even here. So I suppose you did your job as well as anyone could have hoped. Tell me, how long have you been spying for the Israelis?" He stood back up and started walking around her.

"M-mighty, Almighty Pharaoh. Please, I beg you, they got to my parents, they-"

Atemu brought his foot down hard on Knuit's shin at this, drawing a scream of pain from her.

"SHUT UP!" He demanded. Her screams finally waned down to scattered whimpers. "A true Egyptian would have sacrificed her whole family before selling out the Pharaoh." He hissed. "What did you do?"

"They...they heard you had a soft spot for Teana, so they went after her best friend. Me. They just wanted someone on the inside, a sleeper, in case things got ugly."

Atemu came back around to her head, and crouched down, looking her dead into the eyes. "Go on."

"They...they set things up so I could bribe someone to kill you as soon as your old man-"

Atemu brutally kicked her in the side of the head, causing her to spin a few inches, more moans of pain coming from her mouth. "Pharaoh Aknamkanon." He hissed.

"If...if Pharaoh Aknamkanon died, they wanted me to do it as soon as I found out. They set it all up beforehand, they even found someone who could be bought." She continued, labored breathing punctuating everything. "That's all I did, I swear."

"All you did?" Atemu spat. "Do you have any idea what's waiting for you down in the dungeon? Do you know what we do to people who betray the Pharaoh?"

"Please, I-" Knuit babbled as Atemu grabbed her by the dress collar and picked her up.

"Did Teana have any idea? Any clue at all?" He demanded, shaking her violently.

"No...I swear I worked alone. I was only targetted because Teana moved into the palace." She said weakly. "Please don't hurt her, she-"

Atemu threw her down to the ground, back onto her back. "Oh, don't worry about her. In a few weeks, you and her are going to be in practically opposite positions, in fact, and that's a guarantee."

He crouched back down in front of her, looking right into her eyes. "We have a very special planned form of pain for those who plot against the Pharaoh, miss. A very specific and precise series of excruciatingly painful series of tortures. It's our little way of letting Anubis know just how naughty you've been. It's how we mark you to be placed in the deepest circle of suffering in the afterlife. So, over the next few weeks, as this procedure is applied, as you're begging for the release of death...understand that your suffering has not truly begun until you're passed to Anubis."

"No." She stammered. "Please, have mercy, surely-"

Atemu ignored her and stood back up. "Enter." He called, and after a few seconds the two guards who had just left emerged back through the door.

Atemu went over to his desk and pulled out another slip of paper. Quickly he wrote on it with his pen, filling out a few sentences, before grabbing a small stamp from the back of his desk and pushing it down on the parchment. He folded it up and presented it to the pair.

"This girl goes down to the dungeon. Give this slip to the warden." He instructed, handing them the parchment. "He'll know what to do."

"Yes, mighty Pharaoh." The left guard said, the two bowed before moving to flank Knuit. They picked her up and began roughly carrying her out of the room, even as she continued to stammer incoherently.

The door slammed behind the three again, and the four remaining in the room glanced around at each other.

"Isis, you've done very well. And I appreciate it." Atemu said. Isis replied with a short bow.

"We're only part way there." He continued. "The leak is plugged, let's keep working." He clapped his hands together.

"Pharaoh-" Aknadin started, but was immediately cut off.

"Say a single bad word about Teana and I'll have you committed to the crazy house. And I'm dead serious." Atemu immediately threatened.

Aknadin couldn't help but smile at this. Seto did his best to hold back his own laughter, not entirely succeeding.

"If you trust her." Aknadin settled on. "I understand."

"We've got two more weeks to wrap this up, all or nothing." Atemu changed the subject. "Make me proud."

""""

Seto sat cross legged on a large stone stool in the middle of the busy room, as if he was in the eye of a storm. All around him, people were moving, talking loudly, and at work on one of the many carpentry machines. No one voice could be made out clearly, and no one machine's whirs and roars could be singled out.

"Horus." Seto said, the man right next to him immediately turned to face the priest. "Keep everything moving smoothly. We've only got a week left, I'm going to burn the candle at both ends a little bit." He closed his eyes and began to filter the sounds around him out.

"Yes sir!" Horus replied, moving to inspect everything happening in the room.

No artificial perfumes, no supplementary chemicals, no mystical devices, Seto would try and meditate on this by himself. One thing he had not yet truly tried, for so many insisted it was a waste of time. Of course, as he had been taught many times, anything is capable of producing a vision at any given time, and probabilities were constantly shifting.

The leak had been plugged. They had two hundred thousand fully functioning crossbows, and expected to have three hundred thousand by the deadline. They had it. It was all there for the taking. There was just one issue remaining.

The businessmen hit at all hours of the day, whatever openings they may have provided for attack random and unpredictable. Any attempts on their life would be based on nothing but luck, the kind of luck reserved for winning the golden lottery. They needed a break...a big break.

He saw a huge light gray stone house, the sun hanging low in the sky. No movement, no signs of life. And then a figure emerged from the shadows at the back of the house, into the backyard. He was carrying something. It looked like a wooden bucket. A large brick wall circled the house, he moved all the way up to it and began dumping the contents out through a small gap in the solid red and white wall, leaving it to drip out a small ramp.

"Hey!" Now there was a man on the balcony on the second floor of the house. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm dumping out the grease from the-" The man near the wall called back.

"Haven't I told you to let the guards handle that? Get back inside the house!" The balcony man demanded.

"Those lazy pigs dump it in the garden! They think I don't know, but I see them!" He insisted. "And don't be absurd, we're still quite untouchable here."

"Just get back in!" The man on the balcony quickly ducked backed into the house, and inspite of his words the other made haste to return himself.

Seto opened his eyes again, quickly looking around the room at the process of engineering all around him. He shook his head violently. He jumped to his feet.

"Horus!" He yelled out. "Keep it moving, I have to go take care of something!" He distractedly shoved through the crowd on his way toward the door that led back up to the main floor.

""""

He wrote the contents of his vision down on a piece of parchment quickly, making sure all important details were committed to something solid before he continued on. It was something.

The men had been David and Michael. David emptied the grease, Michael berated him for putting himself out in the open. Both had put themselves in position to be attacked. It was possible, but it was only a piece of the puzzle. It was later in the day, the sun was setting, not quite dusk but close. It might only take one well-trained assassin. That much he knew.

As soon as it was all transcripted, he sat back again and faded out of reality, hoping his next would be as useful as the last. He spent hours wading through useless information, sifting for anything he could use.

Slowly, it came. The guard movement patterns, a small gap that might be enough to get a lone man to a collection of large bushes less than a hundred feet from where the grease was thrown. A small argument between two of the guards watching over the entrance to the city, distracting enough to allow a few to pass through without truly close inspection. A small explosion from inside a housing complex a few blocks from the house that hid the targets, drawing the attention of nearby guards.

He wrote it all down. It felt right. If only, someone, they could get a man to pass through the gates right after that argument. To make his move through the town right after that explosion. To get to the vantage point in the brief moment when the guards were patrolling on another road. To launch two perfectly aimed arrows from a miniature bow that could easily be hidden on a person within a few seconds of each other.

He mapped everything out, piece by piece. He saw the day, a week from now, on a slip of paper at the entrance. He measured out the exact time based on the actions of others around the scene. He even measured the wind at the moment David provided a target at the grease hole.

By the time he was done, it was already the following morning. But he felt complete confidence in one thing. Anyone who followed the instructions he had penned, to the very letter, would have the best possibly opportunity to assassinate the two.

And right now, that's all he could ask for.

""""

"I know you're eager to prove yourself, Seto." Atemu said, looking at the long scroll of parchment in front of him. He was seated on a large round table, the seat opposite the door leaving the private meeting room of the inner circle. He was surrounded on all sides by the ranking priests and priestesses. His old friends, now officially the highest authorities in Egypt, and Aknadin, a holdover from the previous administration. "This is an unheard of amount of information for one priest to glean in one day."

"It's completely reliable." Seto insisted, seated to the immediate right of the Pharaoh. "I wouldn't lie, not in a time such as this. I have seen the one opportunity we might ever get to truly end this war. I'm staking my entire credibility on it."

Atemu slowly nodded, then looked to his left and right slowly at everyone else. "Anything to the contrary anyone would like to say?"

No objections came. Atemu rolled the scroll back up. "Very well." He stuck it towards Seto. "Take this to the barracks. Get it to Bes. Tell him to memorize it and prepare to enact it in six days. Shada, make the preparations to get him to Israel in time."

The two stood up, bowed, and swiftly left the room.

Atemu stood up, an action followed by all remaining in the room. "It's all coming together. The rest of you, continue preparations for my wedding."

"Pharaoh." Karim began. "With all due respect, is now the best time to think about your wedding? Perhaps we could push the event back, just maybe a week? Let this war settle-"

"The war has already been decided, Karim." Atemu insisted. "There's nothing left for us to think about." He looked down at a small golden pail to the right of his chair, holding a series of large, rolled up pieces of paper. He pulled one out and pushed it across the table, revealing a map of Egypt and surrounding countries. Buhen and Mahad reached out to grab the opposite corners, holding it flat.

"The invaders are working as one in their assault on Egypt." Atemu explained, pointing at the map at the borders of Egypt. "Intelligence indicates enemy presence from all sides are around fifty to seventy miles out, closing in quickly. They're going to try and break us in one massive attack, from every angle, hoping we leave a weakpoint somewhere."

Isis looked down at the paper, forehead furrowed. "That leaves us around-"

"Six days." Atemu finished. "They're not ready for my prototype. They're running right into a massacre that will singlehandedly destroy their confidence. Seto's visions tell us that our one chance, the one opening they provide for an assassination, is coming late in the afternoon in six days. Once dead, their deep pockets will flow to their family members and close friends, who have no interest in the drug trade and will not be funding surrounding nations to attack us. And lastly, she who tried to bring the great kingdom of Egypt down from the inside, who's soul is being prepared for the everlasting torment that awaits her, is scheduled to meet her demise in six days. And once it's done, this grand palace will again be secure, and nobody will ever think to cross me in such a way again."

"It's a busy day." Aknadin deadpanned. "Busy enough, if you ask me."

"A special day. An important day. We'll enter that day as a nation in strife, at war, doomed to death at the hands of everyone else in the world. We leave as the dominant superpower, all other nations terrified of our might." He tugged the map off the table, causes it to roll back up. He put it back in the pail. "Gentlemen, lady, we need to be at our sharpest. For people will remember this day, six days from now, as the most important day in Egyptian history."

""""

"I trust everything's proceding as planned." Atemu asked, looking around the particularly dull and dank room of the dungeon. The room was well hidden, as if being in the dungeon wasn't already enough. You had to go past all of the generic torture rooms. Beyond simple basic pain. No door would take you down here, you had to know where on the far wall of the hallway to push. You had to know which step down to pound on. You had to know exactly where you were going to find The Room of The Mark. Normally empty of any humans, today saw the Pharaoh just a few steps inside the room, the head interrogator before him, two assistants flanking her, their heads covered by featureless black masks, and one unfortunate victim, currently not visible.

"Of course, sir." Bast replied, bowing deeply. "Would you like to see the final procedure?"

"I am here for no other reason." Atemu nodded.

Bast snapped her fingers and pointed at a massive brass bull that was in a corner of the room right by the segment of the wall that slid over to reveal the way out. Immediately, one of the assistants took a few steps over to a stone stand in the middle of the room, several steel levers sticking out from the top. He pulled one of them towards him, and the brass bull's side suddenly popped open to reveal a hollow inside. Immediately, a hardly recognizable Knuit threw herself out of the device, completely naked and too exhausted to do anything but lay haphazardly on the ground where she landed.

"We call it the Brazen Bull." Bast explained. "And it's become very familiar with it over the past couple weeks. It's placed inside and the outside is heated to the temperature of our choosing. It screams like mad constantly, but this particular Bull has been completely soundproofed. If hot enough, and left in for long enough, it will melt like wax, leaving only the bones. It's been begging for us to just let it die in there nonstop when it's capable of speech."

The two assistants grabbed her arms and dragged her towards the center of the room. Atemu could see her arms and legs had been broken and left to dangle at strange angles. Her entire body was covered in burn marks. Some of the fingers and toes were missing entirely, others had been crushed.

"It's suffered far worse than what you see." Bast said, pointing at Knuit as she was dropped at Atemu's feet. "It's been starved half to death twice, hasn't slept more than two hours since it got here, is always kept in constant fear of more pain, been almost drowned countless times, and has been bitten by many a poisonous creature."

Atemu crouched down to look at her closer. Slowly, she moved her head so she could look up at him. "Too good for her." He hissed, even as he smiled cruelly at her. He stood back up.

She started trying to move her mangled right arm towards Atemu, capable of little more than thrusting the upper arm forward and having the rest of it flop aimlessly. She managed to get her hand on top of his slipper-clad foot. "Please-" She managed to get out.

Atemu kicked the hand away, sending it back to her side, drawing a sharp cry of pain. He then bent back down, grabbed her by the hair, and picked her up. This drew more painful screams as her broken bones shifted about randomly.

"I'll let you in on a little secret." Atemu said through gritted teeth. "It's almost over."

Still holding her hair, he quickly moved towards the Bull. She noticed this out of the corner of her eye, but was capable of little more than widening her eyes as Atemu roughly shoved her cheek against the heated bronze, drawing a piercing scream. Atemu could feel the heat of the device on his arm, but held her there for several seconds.

Finally, he let her hair go, allowing her to fall to the floor like a broken ragdoll.

One of the assistants came to her side and dropped a light white object right next to her head. She painfully twisted her head to see it. It was a loaf of bread. Through the grunts of pain, she twisted herself enough to start taking bites out of it, without the use of hands, simply putting her face up to it and biting madly.

"It's so agonizingly hungry that I could explain to it exactly what's in that bread and it would still gobble the entire thing up." Bast said, looking down at Knuit finishing the loaf off.

Atemu once again bent down next to her head, looking down into her eyes. "Thank you for being so cooperative." He said in barely a whisper. "That loaf was filled with thousands of tiny parasites. Hungry parasites. The priests create them from the ashes of men, by way of ritual with Anubis himself. This is how the traitors to the throne are marked. When Anubis sees you accompanied by his depraved creations, he'll know exactly what to do."

She whimpered pitifully, but Atemu paid it no heed.

"They're always hungry, but they eat very slowly. And right now, there's only one thing for them to eat. Over the next several hours, they'll consume you from the inside out. You might start feeling twinges soon, a couple of hours from now you'll be writhing in pain." She started to sob, incapable of vocalizing her duress more than a small sniffle here and there still. "The parasites feel your agony, they desire it as much as they do the food your body provides. Your vital organs remain for as long as possible, you'll feel everything."

At this, one of the assistants dragged her back to the center of the room. She looked down at the stone floor and realized, for the first time, it wasn't all stone. Right below her face was a dark black rectangle of metal, level with the rest of the stone tiled floor, not immediately obvious but there when actually searched for.

The other assistant lifted this sheet out of the hole in the ground it covered, pulling it back to reveal a small chamber, perhaps ten feet deep, ten feet long and five feet wide.

"This is where you'll spend your final hours." Atemu explained, peering down into the chamber. "Sort of like a tomb, although since the parasites consume your bones too, there won't be anything left of you when they're done."

Bast now came forward, holding a wool blanket haphazardly folded in her arms. On cue, the two assistants grabbed Knuit's wrists and held them a few inches apart in front of her. Bast dropped the contents inside the blanket, a small blue sphere, into her forced grip. She winced as the ball seered itself to her fingertips.

"You'll be needing that." Atemu said unhelpfully as she looked down at it, mystified. Suddenly, it started giving off a glowing aura of blue bright light. She looked away from the orb, squinting her eyes. Atemu then pushed her with his foot into the gap, leaving her to awkwardly fall the ten foot drop into the temporary grave, her hands still fused to the ball. She landed on her back, looking up at her executioners.

"The parasites don't like the blue light. It repels them." Atemu explained. Suddenly, tiny little holes in the wall slid open all around the bottom of the grave. She glanced around in all directions in a panic. Thanks to the glowing blue light, she could make out nondescript black masses pouring out of all the holes, closing in toward her.

"We figure it'd take them all day if they only work from the inside out, you see. So these guys will meet the ones in your stomach somewhere in the middle, working on you from the outside in."

She started to pant heavily as she continued to throw her head around as much as she could, but the black masses wouldn't come within a foot of her. They encircled her, scattered around the floor, went up the walls a few inches, and were giving off a low buzzing sound all at once that sent shivers down Knuit's spine.

"They'll work quickly, so we've given you protection for a few hours. That ball's energy runs out pretty shortly, right around the time the guys inside you are really starting to drive you nuts. And then, these guys get to join in on the fun." Atemu continued, enjoying himself immensely. "Well, I think that's about it. So you can spend the next few hours thinking about what you've done, and after that...well, I don't think you'll be thinking about anything except agonizing pain."

The metal sheet began to slide back over the rectangular hole. "No!" Knuit cried with surprising volume, reaching up awkwardly toward Atemu as the gap became more and more narrow. "Wait! No, you can't do this! Please, I'll-" and then, the cover fell heavily back into place, shutting off all sound from inside the tomb.

""""

"Phara-Atemu, please, this doesn't make any sense!" Teana exclaimed. She was currently seated on a reclined, cushioned chair, hands on the armrests. She was being attended to by five other women, one at each hand, foot, and another behind her head. They were in the preparation room for the bride, and Teana had already been put into a beautiful egyptian wedding dress, a long strapless one that fell down to just above her feet and had been woven with fibers that had painstakingly been encrusted with gold. Diamonds encircled both of her shoulders and the bottom of the dress, a sapphire flower over her right chest area. Both of her hands's fingernails were being painted red, and her feet were being carefully scrubbed for any callouses.

"I'm afraid she's simply gone." Atemu shrugged, watching the process from a few feet in front of his soon-to-be bride. "Something important must have come up."

"Knuit has been my friend for years, I can understand her needing to leave the palace, but she wouldn't miss my wedding day, especially not-hey!" She pulled her right foot back. "Knock that off!"

The woman behind her was trimming her hair with a tiny pair of scissors, looking for any slight imperfections in length on a single follicle.

"Anyway, Atemu, we have to find her, I don't want her to miss this!" She asked again, eyes wide in concern for her friend.

Atemu grimaced. "If she doesn't show up, I'm sure she has a good reason. But I can't delay the wedding because of one person, I'm sure she'd understand."

She cast her eyes down slightly. "Well...alright, I'm sure she'll show up." She finally said. She glanced left and right quickly at her hands. "What are they doing?" She lifted her hands up, staring at her fingernails. "What is this? I kinda like it."

"Egyptian royalty has traditionally done it on special occasions, maybe it'll catch on one day."

"Yeah, it's a nice-hey!" She pulled her right foot back again, pointing at the woman working on that foot. "She is doing that on purpose!" She insisted, crossing her arms.

"Ease up." Atemu said to the girl as Teana put her foot back. "Alright, see you out there in a couple minutes?"

"No problem." Teana nodded. Atemu looked down at himself one last time, making sure his own suit, sown together of silver threads, was still impeccably put together. He then moved to his right and stepped through a thick blue curtain into the outside world, exiting the hut.

He squinted through the sun, looking down from the elevated platform. The massive patio before him was loaded with people, nobody wanted to miss this day. Any space not occupied by a person on this massive concrete plain was taken by a elongated marble table, loaded with the most wonderful and exotic treats in the world. Hands constantly went over these platforms, picking various food and drink from where they sat. As Atemu came to the edge of the raised platform, a man to his right blew a trumpet across the populated patio, drawing attention to his presence. Everyone in the crowd immediately bowed to their grand leader, as he casually waved.

On either side of the patio, massive banners had been hung at intervals, all a stark white with various figures woven into them, fluttering in the breeze. The borders of the patio had small white marble pillars, each supporting a golden figurine of some legendary figure in Egyptian past. It was indeed a beautiful day.

The trumpet sounded again. Atemu glanced over to the curtains to see Teana emerge, now wearing a headdress, white with gold trimmings, and diamond-laced sandals. She hurriedly stepped up to the edge of the raised platform to wave at the Egyptian subjects below her excitedly. Atemu smiled warmly at her, seeing the excitement in her eyes as she did so.

""""

Finally, activity in the distance. Through the swirling sandstorm, unmistakable figures were marching forward. As they moved closer, the soldiers along the top of the guard wall could make out their heads wrapped in cloth, shielding themselves from the cruel sandy winds.

The top of the wall had been filled with men today, just enough room to stand. Many held a simple bow, ready with an arrow to fire, with a large bucket full of arrows stationed every several feet for quick reloading. Several, however, held in their hands the crown jewel of Egypt. A bow affixed to a specially carved stick. A tube loaded with arrows hung at the bottom of the stick so that the arrow at the top of the tube was positioned inside the top groove of the device, where the bowstring could launch it. A small bit jutted out of the bottom of the device, right by the wooden grip near the back, that was pulled back to release the taut string.

They called it a crossbow. And in mere hours, having never known the things existed before (since they hadn't, after all), the armies of Egypt had more than enough capable volunteers to use them in a live battle. They were so unbelievably easy to use, and yet so deadly. It was unbelievable that such a device could even exist.

Each of the crossbow wielders had a barrel by their side, these filled with loaded tubes, ensuring a constant stream of arrows from their weapons. They couldn't possibly be ready for something like this.

"Can you believe this?" Rahap asked Mery, standing next to him in the rows to the right as they pointed their crossbows down towards the oncoming hordes. "What deal with the devil did the Pharaoh have to make to get these things you think?"

"I heard he promised the Goddess Sekhmet his first three children if she would give him the means to win this war." Mery whispered back.

Imph grunted, to the left of the pair. "I heard it was a thousand virgin girls. Course, Thoth thinks he promised her his new queen. Speaking of which, can you believe we're missing the wedding? We must be the only damn Egyptians in the whole nation to miss it-"

"Well, there are a lot of us here." Rahap pointed out, gesturing randomly around him. "Besides, we've been promised just compensation. And really, when you get down to it, what's so great about a wedding?"

"The food, man. I've been to Pharaoh's birthday parties, they get the good stuff." Imph countered. "I hate to miss out on that."

"Alright!" Came a cry from the left. "Crossbows fire on my mark. If you are carrying a bow, remember, your range is shorter than that of the crossbows, wait for them to come within your range before you start firing!"

They could hear more of the same being called out further down the line as the sentiment was echoed by further commanders.

"I bet I could teach my kid to use one of these." Rahap said as he angled the weapon up into the air.

"Your kid?" Mery said gruffly as he did the same.

But before any more back and forth could start, the commander from the left screamed "Fire!" and immediately all the crossbow wielders in the area began firing their payload.

Arrows were launched off within perhaps a second of the previous, each with precision accuracy as dictated by the holder. A cloud of arrows much thicker than anticipated built in the air above the unsuspecting marching army.

In just about ten seconds, the empty tubes simply fell from the crossbow, emptied of their ten arrow arsenal. As Rahap bent down to pick up another barrel to slam home, he looked down at the oncoming armies. He couldn't be quite sure, but as the thick arrow cluster came down on them in the sands, he thought he saw a slight hesitation in the step of the unwitting victims, just a short pause in their gait, as they looked up and saw a strangely thick arrow cloud.

As Rahap began to fire his new set of arrows, along with all the others lucky enough to hold such deadly devices, he saw the first to land, haphazardly scattering around into the soldiers opposite them, dropping them to the sands with precision and speed far beyond a simple bow. He saw the early panic in the troops, they had not been expecting such early arrow strikes or such immediate casualties.

He saw the future of warfare, right there, in his hands.

""""

Aknadin faced the massive crowd, all closely paying attention to the procedings, near the edge of the platform, as Atemu and Teana faced him from the very edge. As he spoke, a hush went over the crowd, complete silence in the hope of catching what he said.

"Today, we welcome a new member into the royal family. A bride for our young Pharaoh, the new Queen of these great lands." Aknadin began.

Atemu glanced to his left, where his mother stood, hands clasped in front of her, a smile on her face as she watched the procedings. He turned his attention back to his Uncle.

"The young, beautiful Teana takes the hand of the young wise Pharaoh Atemu in marriage, a wonderful woman to guide him through the perils of his reign, as many great Queens of the past have done. Now is a turbulent time in Egypt, as everyone knows. She has lived in the palace for many months now, already guiding the young Pharaoh through life as he makes these massive decisions. So already, she's proven herself, as Egypt still stands today. However, let us take this glorious day as the first of a new age in Egypt. One greater than any before it! The age of Pharaoh Atemu and Queen Teana has now begun, let's prepare for a grand time of peace!"

""""

All Knuit could do was scream. The orb in her hands had very nearly died completely. She had scrunched herself up the best she could as the parasites were getting closer and closer to her body as the light went away, buying a few extra minutes. As the pain wracked her body she occasionally unvoluntarily moved a few inches, and she could feel the tiny things attempt to cling onto her when she did so, so it was all she could do just to delay the extra torment.

The horrible things inside her had clearly worked their way to all parts of her body. There wasn't a single nerve inside her that wasn't burning with the most intense pain ever felt by a human. She howled like a madwoman, not a sane thought in her head beyond the survival instinct of trying to keep away from the other parasites.

She curled up tighter into the fetal position, faintly glowing sphere hugged tightly to her stomach, as she continued to scream in agony. Sweat covered her entire body as she managed to glance around for a brief second at the approaching swarms. The light continued to dim out of existence. As fear settled in, she had a brief moment of clarity, the pain blocked out for just a short time.

The light died entirely, and she drew breath heavily and laboredly as pure horror gripped her. And then, as soon as she felt the first curious sensation on her left foot, the pain came roaring back as the unearthly hordes covered her in a sudden wave, amidst her violent and pained yells.

""""

"And now." Aknadin began to wrap up, as a short fat man emerged from the curtained area holding a small purple pillow, on which lay a golden necklace consisting of many emeralds and rubies. "Queen Teana, they say the Pharaohs descend from the Gods themselves. While you may not, from this day forward, they will recognize you as one of their own." The man had stopped just short of Aknadin's left, and he took the necklace and slowly clasped it around the back of her neck, as she beamed proudly.

After it was attached, the pair turned around to again wave to the crowd, who had begun to cheer uproariously. It was official. The new Pharaoh had a Queen. A rare event, coming around only perhaps three times a century.

After a few seconds, Atemu tugged on Teana's hand, glancing over at the staircase to their left that led down to the masses. A platoon of guards waited down at the bottom of this set of stairs, blocking it off from the crowd. The newlyweds slowly descended the steps, looking out on the massive audience the entire time.

They arrived at the bottom and the group of guards began to escort them through, as everyone continued to applaud and cheer the marriage.

"They love being near us." Atemu said out of the side of his mouth to Teana.

"Are you sure it's safe?" She asked, still tightly gripping Atemu's hand.

"I like our chances." Atemu answered.

""""

Bes heard a dull clank from the area of the brick wall in front of him and aimed his arrow at the small gap. His heart was beating as hard and as fast as it ever had, for no matter how well he memorized his instructions, this whole thing terrified him. They might never get another chance. Here he was, the assassin who would singlehandedly decide this war.

And then, his heard jumped through his throat as he saw the grease fly out of the gap and pour down a small funnel into a large dirt hole several feet down.

He could just barely make out hissing, it was so quiet tonight, from behind that brick wall.

"Hey! What do you think you're-"

Bes fired his first arrow, immediately reaching to grab a second from under his robes. The bow, and the arrow, were both shrunken down, which made effective use somewhat harder, but he had spent years perfecting the art of making these covert weapons deadly. The arrow flew through the hole, right on target, and he could hear a satisfying cry of surprise and pain as it hit it's target.

As he readied his second shot, he stood up. It was perfect. The raise in his vantage point allowed him view of the balcony in the back of the house, over the brick wall, and the second man could be seen, frozen in shock at what had just transpired. Bes fired without hesitation, watching the bolt arc over the wall.

He thought, just maybe, the man had seen the arrow's tip just before it hit him, raising his eyes just in time to catch a glimpse before it penetrated him. But it was hard to be sure, and made no difference as the weapon pierced through his neck all the same.

He ducked back down, knowing alarms would be raised any second. Perhaps in that brief moment of shock and confusion he could escape the city, but anything less than ideal use of the situation would result in his eventual capture, torture and death.

Of course, he had long since accepted that likely fate when he took up this profession, and moreso when he took up this particular task. As he reflected on seeing his arrow cut a neat hole through the neck of his target, and imagined where his first arrow might have hit, he knew that either way, he'd be remembered in Egypt as a grand hero.

""""

Teana and Atemu waltz through the entrance into the palace, passing by the massive marble pillars that held up the massive covering over it. The crowd had been stopped at the base of the stone steps that lead up to it, and were now simply cheering as the new couple took the last few steps back into the palace alone.

Teana and Atemu again turned back around for one final wave at the populace. Right then, Atemu felt a sharp prick in his lower back, and before he could react someone had roughly grabbed the back of his suit and pulled him a inch or so backwards. His smile disappeared and his hand fell to his side.

"Where is she?" A female voice hissed in his ear menacingly as he felt what appeared to be a blade continue to prod at his lower back.

Teana turned around. Atemu watched her face as she did so, as her smile too disappeared as an expression of complete shock overtook her. "Suhad?" She exclaimed, looking the Pharaoh's attacker over.

"How did you get into the pal-" Atemu started, but felt the knife press into his back.

"Shut up!" She roared as the crowd, and guards, began to realize what was happening. "Where is my daughter?"

"Do not come up here!" Atemu shouted, holding out his palms to the crowd as Suhad pulled him back into the palace. "She has a knife!"

"Miss, what the hell are you doing?" Teana asked, eyes wide in surprise and fear as she slowly followed the two into the palace. "Please, don't-"

"Do you know her?" Atemu asked, doing his best to stay calm despite the circumstance.

"Y-yes." Teana started to tear up a little bit. "S-she's Knuit's mother, I don't kno-"

"Where is she?" She repeated. "I don't care who you are, little Pharaoh, if you don't give me my daughter back, I'll slice you open right here and live with the consequences."

"You so much as draw my blood and you won't be living with anything." Atemu spat back, which drew another push with the knife.

"I know you have her." Slowly, Atemu turned his head around to look at this mystery woman. Suhad looked quite a lot like her daughter, same foreign strange pale skin and blonde hair. Her features, however, were currently twisted into a snarl and sweat poured down her face in droves. He turned his head back around to face the stairs, where several guards had moved into view but did not dare move any closer. "I've arranged this little meeting for the last two weeks and I'm not walking away until I get my daughter back."

"Listen." Atemu said slowly. "I don't know what you're talking about. But I'm concerned for Knuit, just like you. So why don't we talk about it?"

"Anything you can tell me you can tell me right now." She hissed. "I don't give a shit what she did, she is my baby, and if you don't give her back to me, I'm taking my pound of flesh. And if you've already killed her, all the same. Do you understand me?"

"I want. To help." Atemu continued, in a soothing voice he was surprised he was capable of at this moment. "But I can not talk to you while you're digging a knife into my back."

"Well, it's time for you to make some concessions then!" She spat into his ear, the guards slowly forming a perimeter around the trio but avoiding getting too close.

"Miss, please!" Teana asked, tears now pouring from her eyes as she attempted to keep her composure. "You...you can't, he wouldn't-"

"Miss Suhad." Atemu took a deep, calming breath. "You're in a lot a trouble. You're threatening my life, making demands of me, and not obeying my commands, on top of you breaking into the palace in the first place. You're looking at a sentence involving eternal pain and suffering in the deepest, darkest corner of my dungeons right now. I can understand how it feels to lose a child. I understand your pain. If you want any chance at clemency, I need you to let me go right now. If you kill me, you'll never see your daughter again, and will spent the rest of your very short life in agonizing pain. If you insist on continuing to threaten me, your reunion with your daughter will be very short. Put the knife down, right now. I don't know what you think I did to your daughter, but I think we need to talk about this."

The room held still for several seconds. "You swear you'll help me." She whispered. "You swear you'll bring her back to me."

"Let me go, and I'll use every resource at my command to find your daughter." Atemu said. Slowly, he felt the blade leave his back, and the grip on the back of his suit loosen. He turned around to face Suhad, looking her heaving figure up and down. Finally, she let the small dagger clatter to the floor.

"Thank you." Atemu said. In a flash, he reached his right hand down toward his belt and flipped out a small silver blade the size of his thumb. Before anyone had a split second to react, he flashed it across the throat of Suhad, slicing a clean cut through her neck. His arm came to a stop by his head, loosening his grip on the tiny cutting tool and letting it too fall to the floor a few inches from his feet.

She gasped for breath, trying to raise her hands toward her bleeding wound, but simply fell to her knees as the thick red liquid rushed from her body into a pool on the floor. Atemu took a few steps back, away from the rush of blood. She fell down face first into the pool of her own creation, heaving loudly and uselessly trying to claw at her neck.

Atemu simply snapped his fingers and pointed at the mess while looking at one of the guards. They all immediately stepped forward toward the bloody scene. Atemu stepped back over to Teana, taking her right hand in his left. "Are you alright?" He asked.

She took a deep breath and used her left hand to wipe the tears out of her eyes. "Oh...ohmigod...yes, I'm so, so sorry. I didn't know she...I had no idea, I swear I didn't, she always seemed so nice."

Atemu began to guide her around the carnage as the guards picked her body up and began to haul it away while others had gone off to collect cleaning tools for the pool of blood. "I'm sorry you had to see that." Atemu said in a monotone as he swept past them toward the dining room.

"Oh...I-I understand. You...well, you're you, she's a complete lunatic!" Teana exclaimed, looking back with a final glimpse as the gory scene as Atemu guided her down the hallway to the right. "Coming into the palace, threatening the Pharaoh...I understand, it's complete madness!"

She continued to babble as a silent Atemu guided her up a set of stairs. "What was she even saying? She didn't know where Knuit was...I mean, she was blaming you. I don't understand where she could have gotten such a wild idea from!" Atemu guided them down yet another hall, past a series of bronze doors in the light grey wall. "But...well, Knuit wasn't there at my wedding." Teana trailed off wistfully. "It is strange...we don't know where she is, her mother didn't...where else could she be?" Atemu opened a silver door near the end of the hall, still guiding her by holding her hand as he took her through a large room loaded with bookcases and desks. "We're going to find her, right?"

Another silver door awaited them on the left side of the room from the entrance. Atemu led her through it, revealing a massive, opulent bedroom, complete with a bed of silk sheets big enough for ten people, a door that led to a bathroom of golden sinks and bathtubs, a single bookshelf lined with some of the most well known manuscripts of all time, and many decorations that indicated great wealth. Teana went to go sit on this large bed, kicking her sandals off and laying back.

"Oh...what a day!" She exclaimed. "I need to get out of this dress!" Atemu had gone to the massive, spotless window that looked out upon the front court of the palace, at the slowly dispersing crowd. A small box was to the right of his feet. He bent down and removed a clean crystal glass and a small bottle of a yellow liquid. He poured half of it into the glass and began to drink from it. "Atemu, honey, where should we start looking?"

Atemu sighed deeply. "I didn't want to tell you before the wedding. Spoil your mood." He said quietly, turning around to face her as she sat up, eyes fixed on him. "Knuit...was not who she claimed. She was an insider for the Israelis, giving them information and trying to arrange for their victory. She leaked information about my father's death. I had forgotten, I had just ordered her to leave the room before I told you about my father. She must have heard."

"Oh..." Teana put her head in her cupped hands. "Oh my god...I...I'm so, so sorry. She was here because of me, I invited her-"

"I don't blame you in the slightest." Atemu comforted, still on the opposite side of the room. "She was targetted because of her relationship to you specifically after your relationship with me became apparent." He took another drink from the glass.

Teana looked up from her hands. "She wouldn't do something like this willingly. They must have blackmailed her, made her, she's a really sweet girl! I've known her a long time, they must have...done something horrible!" She jumped up and ran over to Atemu, hands clasped in front of her chest. "Please, when you find her, show some mercy. What she did was horrible, but I know she wouldn't have done it if she didn't have to. She's my friend, and she's a good person, please give me the chance to talk to her and let the whole truth come out."

Atemu stared deep into her blue eyes for several seconds, before turning away to look back out the window. "That won't be necessary." He said coldly.

"What do you mean?" Teana asked, hands falling to her side.

"She's long gone from here, I'm sure." Atemu answered shortly, drinking again. "We won't be seeing her again."

"What...you mean she ran away?" Teana blinked twice. "You have this whole place locked down and secured! She couldn't leave Egypt if she wanted! She couldn't even leave the palace without permission. She's still here, we just have to find her."

"She's not here." Atemu insisted, holding his hand up beside his head as he looked down at the mass of people. "We should forget about it."

"No, she has to be-" she took a deep breath, looking Atemu up and down slowly. "She said you had her." She said carefully. "Thought you might have killed her." Atemu turned his head to glance at her before turning back to the window. "Atemu. You know as well as I do she couldn't have left Egypt without us knowing."

"Don't ask me about Pharaoh business." Atemu replied shortly, not taking his eyes off the scene outside.

"I am your wife, and she was my friend. Was Suhad telling the truth?" She said stonily, staring at the back of Atemu's head. "Do you have her?"

"You've entered this palace through marriage, not blood." Atemu said. "The affairs of the Pharaoh do not concern you, they are not your burden to bear."

"Atemu. I am asking you to tell me if you have Knuit or not." Teana said again, still glaring at the back of his head.

"The burdens of my reign are not to be shared with mortals." Atemu replied, still looking out the window. "You are here because I have selected you to enjoy the benefits of a royal life, the decisions and choices are mine alone, I descend from the Gods so I can handle them. Do not try to take them on."

"Goddammit, Atemu!" Teana shouted, stamping her foot down. "Did you kill her? Is she dead? Talk to me!"

"ENOUGH!" Atemu roared, spinning around and slamming the mostly empty glass into the ground. It shattered, shards flying in all directions, remaining drink splattering into the carpet and soaking into it.

Teana looked at the broken glass, then back up to Atemu, fear in her eyes as she took half a step back. Atemu glared at her for a few seconds, then turned to look toward the door to the bathroom across from him.

"Alright." He finally said. "This one time. This one time, you can know. But from this day on, remember that the business of Egyptian royalty is difficult and dirty, to be handled by those chosen by the Gods, and the affairs of me are not your concern. This one time, you can ask about my affairs."

Teana took a steadying breath. "Atemu. Did you have Knuit killed?"

Atemu shook his head. "No." He said. "I didn't have Knuit killed."

"Oh." She took a big sigh of relief. "Well, we have to find her then, she has to be in Egypt-"

"When I discovered her subterfuge, I sent men to collect her." Atemu continued. "She had already left the palace by that time. She managed to get to the docks. They chased her there. She stole a small boat and tried to presumably cross the red sea. They caught up to her. She had tied the steel anchor to her foot. Right before they took her, she apologized and threw the anchor into the sea. She went down with it. She could not have survived, and we can't recover the body."

"Oh." Teana muttered, moving back towards the bed. "Oh...oh my-" She laid back heavily.

"The shame of her actions were too much. She chose suicide over facing me. No doubt she didn't want anyone to get ahold of her body as well, fearful of the curses we could place on it, so she sunk herself many thousand feet under the sea." He nodded. "I am sorry, I tried to bring her in. I know she would not have done what she did unless she was coerced."

She nodded, then put her hands back on her face. "I really can't believe it."

"The Israelis went after her after your relationship with me developed, as I said. It was not your fault at all, they would have gone after the friend of any woman I took a liking to." Atemu waved his hand dismissively.

"Well...she did a horrible thing, maybe it's better this way. I've heard drowning is painless, after all." Teana reasoned. "I'll be okay."

Atemu went up to her, holding the other half of the bottle. "Here. It's a traditional drink after weddings." He explained. She took it, looking at it closely. "You could probably use a drink."

Disregarding the glass, she popped the cork out of the top and began draining the contents into her mouth. Just then, a knock at the door, causing the new couple to look at the silver barrier. "Enter." Atemu called.

Seto and Isis entered, bowing deeply to the pairing. Atemu waved them in.

"Congratulations, Pharoah Atemu." Seto said.

"A most wonderful ceremony." Isis followed up.

"Thank you." Atemu held his hands out to the pair. "Well?"

Seto cleared his throat. "The reports are in from all stations." He held his hands behind his back respectfully and stood up straight. "Estimates are nine hundred thousand enemy deaths total. All stations reported a full on and scattered retreat before anyone even got to the wall. Casualties at zero."

Atemu smiled. "Wonderful."

Isis grunted. "There's no question. David and Michael have been successfully assassinated. One shot through the neck, the other in the chest, neither survived in time for medical treatment, we have multiple reliable reports. The status of our assassin is unknown."

Atemu nodded. "And?"

Seto glanced at Teana, sitting on the bed, still sucking down the contents of the small bottle. "Of course."

"Very good." Atemu looked over at Teana as she finished off the drink.

She winced hard. "It's something else!" She exclaimed. "Oh, man, what a day."

"Seto, have the soldiers reconvene at the barracks and prepare to move out." Atemu instructed, drawing a flinch from his two priests.

"Move out, sir?" Seto repeated. "If I may, Pharaoh, the battle is won. They won't attack us again, and if they do, it makes more sense to be ready for another defense that's a guaranteed success as just displayed."

"I know." Atemu said, looking straight at Seto. "We survived."

"Yes sir, we did." Seto confirmed. "So-"

"Now is the time to strike." Atemu interrupted. "We have the most advanced military technology in the world and have just landed a deathly strike against every surrounding nation's army. While they retreat wildly back, still not quite sure what incredible weaponry brought their easy demise, now is the time for...aggressive expansion."

"Your word is the final one, sir, but I feel it is my duty to point out that our own soldier crops have been depleted and the nation will still be unstable for some time as they recover from this extended-" Seto began but was again cut off.

"I don't need great numbers. My new weapon is all I need. Tell the soldiers to march forth beyond Egyptian borders. March to the cities of other nations, drive the citizens from their beds in the night, and take the territory under the flag of Egypt. Tell them to utilize their new technology to capture new land for this empire, that is all they need." Atemu continued, as Teana, Isis and Seto all came to stare at him.

"I must confess, that I don't totally understand." Seto finally said after a several second pause.

"This was about survival." Atemu said. "Defense. Living. Now, it's time for revenge." He said, stepping forward to stand right in front of Seto. "These men have attacked our borders for many months, sided against us in this war...and they are the reason my father is dead." He put his hands up on Seto's shoulders. "They sided with my father's murderers, they fought for them, they killed him as much as they did. This, I can not forgive. Not ever. So long as we hold a military advantage, we'll raid and ransack their lands until there's nothing left."

Seto nodded. "Very well sir." He swallowed hard, backed off a few steps, bowed, and left the room.

"Isis, remember the man on my birthday? The one who was arrested for looking on you with impure thoughts?" Atemu asked, leaving several seconds of silence as Isis struggled to remember.

"...yes! Yes, sir, I do." She said finally.

"Schedule his execution for tomorrow." Atemu finally said. "I...I understand now."

"You're quite sure?" Isis asked.

"Yes. It was, in a way, my father's final command given as Pharaoh." Atemu looked over at Teana, still sitting up on the bed, legs now folded in front of her. Isis took the opportunity to quickly bow and excuse herself from the room.

"Well, I'm exhausted." Teana started as Atemu started to move toward the door himself. "I'm gonna catch some sleep as soon as I get out of this dress, you should get some too. You've had a long hard day."

Atemu was at the door, looking back at her again. He extended his hand to open the door, twisting the knob in his hands. It silently opened back into the other wing of the bedroom, reserved for business. He continued to look at her, expression unreadable, as he slowly stepped through the threshhold.

"I mean...well, if you've got things to do, I...I..." she trailed off as Atemu slowly shut the door behind him, staring at her the whole way as the opening into the other room was slowly cut off.

She laid back slowly, uneasily.

It had happened.

Less than a year ago, he had talked, bragged even.

He'd be different. A new breed of Pharaoh, that only wanted to have peace and fun.

A Pharaoh that the people would love and adore for his kindness and personality.

It appealed to her, she liked to hear him talk about it.

It sounded like fun. She couldn't wait.

Maybe they all talked like that at one point, and it never came to pass.

Life happened, people grew up...was that it?

Either way, it had happened.

Over the past few months, at some point, Atemu had truly become The Pharaoh.

""""

That's my story! There is a sequel coming, I don't know if I will continue it on this story or start another one, but it's a direct sequel to this one. I don't know when it will happen but I'll probably at least start on it soon. Hope you enjoyed reading!