Chapter 11: Encounter

Disclaimer: I do not own True Blood, or Godric… Please Review! They are my fuel. And as a reminder, the Egyptian is only me guessing by using an online translator, and later on the quotes were just too long to translate so I didn't even try.

Back inside the building we found one of the rooms to hide in while we waited out the remainder of the funeral. We had to wait for her brother to be buried and that too was another ritual since Egyptians liked to be entombed with gifts and things that they would need in the afterlife. It was all very strange to me but I didn't judge. She believed in it whole heartedly like I did my own faith, and to stomp on her beliefs was cruel as if she were to stomp on mine. It was one of those things I wished everyone practiced, especially Romans.

As we sat there next to the fire after eating our supper, I soon realized there was something wrong. She hadn't spoken a word since the funeral. I didn't blame her, but it was eerie. She always had something to say. I was usually the quiet one.

"Samira." I said getting her attention. She looked over her shoulder. "What is it?" However, she didn't answer. She merely shook her head lying to me that she was fine and turned away. "Tali?" I guessed, and was surprised when she shook her head. "Then what?"

"I am just sorry that you had to find out more secrets like this." She muttered. The fact that she was mumbling told me it was only half true. There was more that was bothering her. Besides, that wasn't even really important.

"So tell me more." I suggested. It was the only answer to the problem I could think of. However, she disagreed. "You want to tell me, I can feel it." I told her.

She didn't even bother to look up at me. I could see that whatever it was was painfully and slowly eating away at her like a scarab beetle. I have so much in my past that – so much bad and wrong that has scarred me down to my soul." She told me with struggle. "You do not want to hear."

That may have been true, I thought, not knowing exactly what it was. However, if it was bothering her, the not knowing was annoying me because I couldn't do anything about it. "Let me be the judge of that." I said.

So she looked at me again, this time turning her whole body to face me. "Tali's father?" She asked wondering if I would listen to that story.

Honestly, if it was about another man, no I didn't really want to hear about it, but she felt guilty for never telling me about her past when I had told her everything. So I would listen. "Tell me." I urged knowing it was weighing heavy on her mind.

She hesitated studying my face for any waver whatsoever. If I showed any sign that I didn't want to hear she wouldn't tell me. So I kept out the negative thoughts pretending to be curious and finally she sighed giving in. "We had just finished spending time in Abydos where we picked up a stranger." She began looking back to the fire. "He was a traveler from Nubia. Nubia is south of Upper Egypt, and he was going north, so papa said he could ride with us." She explained knowing my lack of knowledge of Egyptian Geography. "His name was Kamenwati. He was 21 years old." I was getting angry at the thought. She had only been sixteen and a man five years older than her, old enough to know better, took advantage of her! "No, Godric." She quickly corrected with a stern voice. "I let him get close to me. I am the one who has shamed myself, not him."

"Samira, it is not as if he was a child like you. He knew better."

"I let him…I thought I loved him." She explained as she picked at her dress absentmindedly. I could see she was lost in her story, like she was reliving it all over again. "I can still see his face. He was beautiful." She whispered to herself. I tried not to feel offended or jealous. She wouldn't try to hurt my feelings by making such a comment, she was merely lost in thought. Or so I kept telling myself. "He taught me how to shoot a bow, how to throw knives, how to defend myself…how to love." Now she was making me sick. To think she was giving him credit for teaching her how to please a man in bed. I didn't want to believe that. I didn't want to believe that everything she did with me was something another man taught her to do. "Anyway." She said getting back to the story. "It took nearly a month of travelling before we made it to Memphis where we dropped him off. I never saw him again after that, and three months later I realized I was in trouble. I named her Tali – Tali III. And she is probably haunted by the fact that her mother left her as a baby and became a monster."

"You really think your family would tell her such a thing?" I asked.

"It is the truth." She stated wiping her tears away from her eyes. Even if it were the truth, I doubt any family would put that kind of a burden on a child. They probably lied to her saying Samira died giving birth to her or something, or died in some horrible accident. It was cruel to say she abandoned her to be a murderous monster. "I want so much to tell her." She whined.

"Tell her what?" I asked leaning closer to her face so I could watch her reaction as if I was interrogating her. I was just curious. "That you love her? That you feel sorry? Love, she already knows that."

"How do you know?" She barked at me forcing me to jump in surprise. It was a rare occasion that she actually yelled like that. I forgave her for it, though. She was upset and angry. And it was true, I couldn't relate, I had no children. The only women I had ever been with were vampires so it was impossible. "She has no memory of me, Godric. None! She believes whatever they told her, which could be anything!"

"Do you really believe your parents would destroy your memory like that, Samira?"

"I tried to kill them, Godric." She reminded me, not that I needed it. The night we met was forever etched in my memory. It wasn't an experience you just forgot. Even if we weren't still together I'd probably remember it. I scooted over to her seeing that she was about to have a breakdown and held her close as she cried into my chest. "I tried to kill them." She muttered again sadly.

"Sh…"

"I am so sorry."

I was too busy consoling her that I hadn't noticed someone coming. I was stunned to the core when I saw who it was that had found us. "Nt sy wi? (Net see wee, Who are you?)" Oh no, was my first thought. This will not end well.

The older woman standing before us was barely taller than Samira, about my height, with long dark hair pinned up by combs and decorated with flowers and beads. She wore a long flowing yellow dress. Samira looked up and froze. Now that I could see the girl's face clearly, I realized she didn't look as much like Samira as I had originally thought. She had Samira's nose, and the same shape of her face. The rest of her face was her father in her. Pity, I thought, Samira's eyes and lips were the best parts of her face in my opinion.

"Tali." Samira whispered painfully.

"Si3-k wi? (See-ahk waa, You know me?)"

Samira stood up. I tried to keep her down by holding her arm, but she forced my hand to let go, then walked closer to Tali. "Nefer. (Beautiful)" Samira whispered.

"Nt sy wi?" She repeated forcefully.

"Do not – " I began but she held up her hand telling me to be quiet. Do not tell her! my mind screamed. I doubted she would listen…and I was right.

"Samira." She said. "Mwt p3y-k. (Mewt pahyek, Your mother)."

I closed my eyes sighing, she actually said it. I didn't know Egyptian but I could see the girl's face. She was horrified. I just knew it.

"Nai." Tali whispered. "Nai." That word I knew, very well. Samira had said it numerous times. "My mother is dead." Tali stated sternly finding her voice again after being shocked by such a statement. "You think this is funny? To kick a woman down even further after losing the only parental figure she had left by slapping her in the face with the mother she never knew?" Tali's boldness reminded me of her mother. They both had a way of going on and on when provoked. "Well it is far from amusing." Tali finished spitting on the ground in disgrace before turning away.

I rested there with my face in my hands groaning in frustration that she was foolish enough to do this, and there was nothing I could do to stop her now it was too late. She went on anyway trying to prove her statement. "Your father's name was Kamenwati." Samira said loudly, her voice echoed down the corridor. I looked up to see Tali stop walking, however she didn't turn around. Samira went on. "A runaway medjai - a deserter. We found him in Abydos coming back from a mission in Nubia where his men were massacred leaving only him. He rode with us to Memphis and we never saw him again." As if Samira had said something familiar Tali finally turned around to face her wide-eyed. She seemed stunned with something that Samira said, as if it were a sacred secret, though I didn't know exactly what she was saying. "Then not even a year later I left you, I disappeared, leaving you to be raised by my parents, Amenthes and Kepi, and my brother Amense."

"Not possible." Tali whispered just before she fell to the floor and fainted.

There wasn't much I understood in what Samira had said, but I knew the word Medjai. It was one of the few she had told me, it was the word for soldier. So I easily put it together asking, "Kamenwati was a soldier." I said. "Medjai?"

She looked at me surprised that I had figured that out, but she wasn't going to lie to me. She nodded. "He and a handful of others were sent to Nubia to deliver a message regarding the coming of the Romans." She continued as she tried to make Tali comfortable by placing a soft blanket under head. "They wanted to move as many people south as they could into Nubian territory. The Nubians did not take in the Egyptians and fight broke out. He was the only survivor of his regiment. He walked the desert for months by the time we found him. He was half starved, dehydrated, we thought he was going to die anyway."

"But he lived." I said stating the obvious or else Tali wouldn't exist.

"But he lived." She agreed. "I nursed him back to health."

She stopped as we heard Tali wake up. She rolled onto her stomach and forced herself off the ground. When she saw that we were still there she quickly backed away in fear until she reached the wall.

"You are safe, dear one." Samira promised taking her a bowl of water to drink. However, Tali did not want it, she knocked it out of Samira's hand and it fell to the ground making a mud puddle.

Tali looked back and forth between us in complete horror as she stammered, "You-you are a ghost. My mother is dead… she died giving birth to me."

Samira looked over to me. "You were right. They lied to her." That was supposed to comfort her, which it did in some small way, but at the same time it still hurt. "I am no ghost. I swear to you, I am who I say."

"Nai." She said again shaking her head.

"How else would I know about your father? My disgrace was only known by my parents and myself, not even my brother knew the truth."

"Samira you are only frightening the poor girl." I told her. She had done enough. There were other ways to go about this and she had to choose the one that caused the most mental damage to the girl. "Let her go."

Samira sighed knowing that I was right. So she quickly wrapped it up by getting to the point. "All I want is to tell you…I love you. You were the most precious thing the gods ever gave me, and I am sorry that I left you so soon. I did not wish to."

Tali hesitated looking between the two of us in fear. Her body shook against the stone wall. "I forgave my mother a long time ago." Tali told her before getting to her feet and running away.

"Well that went well." I said sarcastically earning a rather un-amused look from my companion, but I didn't care. I liked stating the obvious sometimes, it made a point. "You could have handled that better."

Samira turned her body towards me wide-eyed with curiosity and crossed her arms over her chest. "How?"

"You could have told her you knew her mother, and had sought her out to deliver her mother's dying words." I said and her ill amusement only intensified. "Or something along those lines." I added.

She merely shook her head in disagreement and plopped back down on the ground to sit. "I panicked." She admitted. "I had to tell her, and the truth just came pouring out of my mouth before I could comprehend what I was saying."

"I know." I told her. I didn't agree with what she did, but I understood her excuse. And I left it at that.