Chapter 26: Source of Power

This is a longer chapter, because there's a lot of details. If you get confused just let me know and I'll try to explain it for you

I still wasn't sure if this was the right decision, but she wanted answers. She had to know what was wrong with her, why she was so different. She needed to know why she was having these nightmares that kept coming true. And frankly so did I. I couldn't stand another night of watching her writhe in her sleep in pain screaming and crying for it to stop. I couldn't help her, and Bastian claimed he could. I was willing to see what he would say.

We came into the temple and Samira sat in a chair in the middle of the floor with all their gods surrounding her. I stood in the doorway watching her carefully in case she needed me. Bastian wanted to talk to her alone but I refused to leave her side. She would randomly glance over to me to reassure me she was alright.

"Samira, tell me about the vision you had last night."

Her eyes moved from me to him a few times nervously. I could see that she was afraid to talk about it, as if talking about it made it more real, more likely to come to life. She shook her head refusing to answer him, so I nodded insistently.

"I saw…" She paused to take a deep breath to try and calm herself down. "I saw you." She said looking to me. "And two people we do not yet know."

"What was he doing?" Bastian asked calmly. He was the most serene person I'd ever met, nothing flustered him. I knew no matter what came out of her mouth next he wouldn't be surprised.

"Standing on a roof…at dawn."

Dawn? I was confused. I looked to her curiously wanting to understand.

"Why?" He continued.

She shook her head again, and he repeated himself sternly. She needed to answer him whether she liked the answer or not. She began to cry silently with her head down in shame.

"Was it an execution? Was he constrained? Perhaps these two strangers were members of the European Authority."

"No."

"You seem very certain."

She began to speak, but the answer was too much to bear. She looked to me with watery eyes and I knew what she saw was my death just as I had worried. I always wondered how I would die, now I knew. Yet I wished I didn't.

"Samira?" When she didn't answer he went on. "Samira, what are your visions like?"

"What -what do you mean?" She stammered. She was surprised by the question, she hadn't expected it. If he had them too how would he not know what they were like?

"Are they strange in any way? Do you see flashes or is it as real as this moment?"

"No, they are real."

"Can you hear what's being said?"

"Yes." She stated not seeing what was so strange about it. We both figured that was just the norm – or at least the norm for their kind.

He nodded. I was wrong. She obviously said something he wasn't prepared for. But I wasn't sure what. He changed the subject back to the problem. "What did you see?"

Her eyes stayed on me. "You… walked… towards the sun… with… open arms." She cried finally falling apart. Her body fell and she put her hands over her face to hide from the world.

"Samira, I – " I began to rebuttal, to say that I would never do such a thing, but Bastian took my arm and led me out of the room. He closed the door behind us to prevent her from overhearing, or at least diminish it. "What's wrong with her?" I demanded.

"She's having premonitions. It's a very rare gift."

"How rare?"

"I have met every gifted person in the known world, both human and immortal, and I have only known perhaps four oracles. A human woman whose sight was subjective, the future in her eyes could change. Then she married and lost her sight. Years later, I met a man who had only one premonition in his entire life and it wasn't until he was lying on his death bed. He foretold his own death."

"And the third?"

"Me." He stated. "And not even I have had the kind of sight Samira does. Her visions are clear and organized. Even my own visions are mute, I can only see."

Frankly, hearing that she was more powerful than even he was didn't make me feel any better. It made me feel worse. He was three thousand years old, he was supposed to be the most powerful person on the planet, a god on earth. If she wasn't even a fraction of his age yet and was more powerful already, what did that make her? My head hurt just thinking about it.

"What about the rest of her abilities? We know she's immune to sunlight, and her blood allows you to be as well. Is she immune to silver?"

"I do not know." I shrugged.

"She can read minds, we know that. She sees the future. Has she ever seen the past?"

"If she has, she has not told me."

"What happens when she goes into these attacks as you call them? And I do not mean physically, I know it's painful. What I need to know is what she does."

"She screams." I stated blatantly.

"I know it's difficult."

Very seriously I look him in the eyes to say, "I doubt that." He may know what it was like to go through in part what she was going through, but he had no way of understanding what it was like for me to watch the love of my life go through that kind of suffering.

"I went through everything she is now going through. It's painful and frightening beyond imagination."

With that said he walked back into the temple to confront her again. He stood before her tall and confident like any king. She stared back at him without fear. She was exhausted, though.

"I know how I am gifted." He said. "But how are you, I wonder?"

"I – I do not know."

"What do you know of your family history?"

"Why?" She asked quickly, obviously not wanting to talk about such things. She never even answered me that question in our time together. After a while I quit asking.

"I see, it must be an unpleasant subject." He said with a smirk then quickly grabbed her arm to read the tattoo of hieroglyphs on her bicep.

"Nai!" She cried trying to pull away. Seeing him grab her like that angered me and I quickly tried to take her but his hand flew up and magically I was lifted off the ground unable to move.

"Imhotep." He said with disbelief. I had never heard that name before. Whenever I asked her why her family was punished so severely she always said she didn't want to talk about it. Yet she had the nerve to scold me about not telling her about my family during that awful time Calix was in our lives.

"Irin wpi wi, Medjhai (Do not judge me, Medjhai)."

"I am not judging you, my dear girl." He said releasing her arm as well as releasing me. Gravity forced me back to the ground and I quickly took her hand pulling her to my body to protect her.

"Do not touch her." I ordered. Though he ignored the threat as if I were nothing more than an insect, I was of no consequence, I couldn't hurt him. He turned back to her.

"It is said that Imhotep was sentenced to be mummified alive, and that those in his family who were still alive – a sister, brother-in-law and niece – were banished from Thebes and marked as outcasts so no one could take them in. They were to be gypsies, banished from society."

"He betrayed us, so why did we have to pay the price?" She spat.

"Do not blame me, dear girl, I am not Seti."

"Awi, can you not see you are hurting the girl?" His wife asked coming to stand beside him. "She is the last of her family, do not bring her more pain by dishonoring the dead."

He nodded agreeing with her. "Forgive me, I mean no disrespect. Imhotep was the son of a priest and he took his father's place as a man. That power was passed down through your bloodline to this very day. You are a priestess, and I would be surprised if you did not know so. Surely your mother and father taught you."

"Of course they did. My father was a priest of Amun-Ra. He made a living preaching to the sick and dying, and preparing the dead that others ignored."

"And you? Which god have you devoted your life to?"

"My mother would not permit it. It was not for a woman, she said. My brother was to follow my father, and I was to make a living as an entertainer like my mother."

"A prostitute?" One of the men asked abruptly.

"How dare you – I would never."

"Please, Samira, calm yourself. I can see the tattoo on your belly, and I know that does not constitute you to be such a woman, I have seen many dancers bearing the same. You are a mother, are you not?"

She nodded. "Tali." She pointed to Tali who stood by the doorway behind us. "I was sixteen, young and in love for the first time. But he left before I even knew she existed. A year later I became what I am now leaving her behind to be raised by my brother. I'm sorry."

"I forgive you." Tali whispered. She had finally come to grips with the truth. It wasn't easy, but she was strong like her mother, and I imagine many other women in Samira's family who came before her. Somehow I imagined Samira's own mother was much like she was, and I could almost paint a picture of the woman in my mind.

"I know your family. Not merely because of Imhotep, but because I was a student of your ancestor long before your family fell from grace."

Surprise fell across her face and speechlessness, which was rare. She blinked a few times trying to focus and think, then stammered, "Who?"

"I do not know the name he was given at birth, but what we called him was Meri-Amen."

She nodded knowing the name. "I have heard of him. He was the first royal scribe in the family, and the rumor was that he was a prophet."

"He was a prophet. I saw his power with my own eyes, and it's a power we shared. He taught me how to control it. It's also a power he passed onto his descendents, including you apparently."

"How old are you?" She asked rather bluntly with no manners, but it was a curiosity we shared so I wasn't going to object. He didn't seem to mind either, he chuckled a little.

"From the time I was born to the time I was turned and even beyond that a few years, Sesostris I was Pharaoh."

She gasped putting her hands over her mouth. "Oh my gods."

I had no idea what that meant. I never heard of the king, I had no way of knowing how long ago he lived. He saw my confusion and turned to me to answer simply. "I am two-thousand years old…almost. I was close with your family for many years. I loved Meri-Amen like a father, and he was the man I ran to when I was turned. I was afraid and I needed help. Surprisingly, he did not turn me away. I continued to watch over his family even leading them to the throne for the sixteenth dynasty, it only lasted a century, but it was worth it. Then again for the eighteenth dynasty which lasted much longer…I lost touch after that due to the war. When I heard about Imhotep's betrayal I…I wish I could have stopped it."

"No one could have. He did it for the right reasons, but he was selfish and foolish. He abused the power and that comes with a price."

"How true that is."

"I have a question." I asked speaking up for the first time. "I understand all of this, but what I do not understand is where it came from? Imhotep was obviously a powerful priest, like everyone else in her family, but where did it come from?"

"I asked Meri-Amen the same question when I was a boy – when he was telling me about my own abilities. The first kings were the gods, starting with Ra. Then the second dynasty was of their children who were left behind on Earth to live like humans. Then a dynasty of other kings, and the last dynasty to rule before the early pharaohs, ten kings made up of Horus' disciples. These men were priests, devoted to him in every way. Their only duty was to rule the land, make it flourish in the gods' names, and in order to do that they were each granted power making them superior to the average human being so that the humans would bow down to them and give them no trouble. These kings were also given wives, each of them also disciples of the gods and powerful to keep their bloodline strong. I come from one of those kings, as does Samira."

"Do you know which?" She asked excitedly.

He shook his head and her face fell. "Here in the temple we have their names but it is hard to tell from which king and queen your bloodline began with. The only way to judge is by your abilities and your strength. Though they were disciples of Horus, each king and queen were blessed by a specific god and goddess, usually husband and wife themselves to represent them among the people…come." He took her hand and led her deeper into the temple. I didn't like him being so close to her, but I had little choice. As long as he was helping I couldn't complain. She seemed interested so I followed silently watching his hand on her arm.

He led us into the deepest part of the temple down a flight of stairs. To his right he reached over tilting a mirror so it would touch the sunlight that came in through the ceiling and the room lit up, light bouncing from mirror to mirror. Then I looked at the walls and noticed they were covered in writing. This room was a large story depicting the beginning, the gods, their ruling over Egypt, and their children after them, all the way to the last dynasty of disciples as Bastian had explained.

"These are they." He announced pointing to the wall closest to the door, which was apparently the end of the story. I could not read what I was seeing which were likenesses of ten kings, one atop the other in list form each sitting on a throne facing their wives who were on the other side in the same manner and in between was the story and their names. "Each disciple took a name of the god who blessed them, though they were not the gods, the people believed them to be. They took the names, but did not hide their faces under masks to appear as the gods. It was an attempt to make the gods look more human, more relatable."

"But did it work?"

"They were very successful rulers. Manetho, the historian, wrote that they ruled for 350 years, however it was actually longer. He got his dates wrong, the dynasty before them was much shorter than he gave it credit for, so the timeline of when this dynasty began is off. If I remember correctly it lasted roughly five hundred years and it ended. Mind you this was four thousand years ago so the exact dates are a little hazy. No one that old still survives with my own maker's death. He was from that era."

Samira nodded and turned to read the wall. She read the first name aloud, "The first king took on the name of Horus. Naturally." She sighed unsurprised, since Horus was the one he served.

I leaned against the wall listening, though none of it made sense to me. I wasn't Egyptian, I didn't really care for all of this, but I was nice about it. Meanwhile she continued to read them aloud so that I would understand it, not that I needed to understand, but she didn't want to confuse me. His wife that was given to him was named Hathor, of course since she was the wife of Horus. Then Khnum and wife Satis, Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Seth and Nephthys, Osiris and Isis, Ptah and Sekhmet, Ra and Mut, Anubis and Bastet (which she said was strange because those two gods were not lovers according to most people) and lastly Thoth and Maat. The curious thing, though, was some of the women were the high rulers as the more powerful between her and her husband. Bastet was one of them, and since the goddess has no known husband, the queen picked the name of a well known god to sit beside her. Also, apparently the only pair that was related was the twin brothers who named themselves Seth and Osiris.

"So do you know which of them you descend from?"

"Before I answer that, I should finish the story. Each priest, along with their powers, was given something else to keep their throne safe from anyone who would dare to try and prove them ungodly and unworthy…immortality. Ten of these priests and priestesses (Horus, Khnum, Shu, Geb, Seth, Osiris, Sekhmet, Ra, Bastet, and Maat) were the first of our kind."

"Are you saying that they were the first vampires?" I asked thinking the notion sounded ridiculous. He was just spinning the story now to make himself look superior.

"Yes, though not the same as we are now. They were beautiful compared to what the race has become. Not all of them spread the condition, only two…Seth and Osiris. They became makers and those they turned became like you, ungifted and bloodthirsty…no offense intended. Seth was compelled by the evil god he was named for and he influenced his brother to go along. This was all after their reign was over, mind you, they were not granted this immortality until their deaths. It was then, when Seth was dying that he killed a man and realized that was his salvation from death. He told his brother of this secret and together they fled the country to hide from the gods. They went North into Europe and spread the disease there, which is why the Europeans believe that they have the right to the throne over all vampires. They believe vampirism is European in origin, but they are mistaken."

"Did the gods find them?"

"No, they sent the new king and queen after them. Together Sekhmet and her husband Ptah brought them back and sentenced them to death for their betrayal. The only thing that could kill them was fire, and the only thing strong enough to restrain them was silver. So they were bound and burned at the stake."

I had to admit after hearing the whole story, I no longer thought it sounded that ridiculous. Samira looked at me and I knew that look. He was telling the truth.

"Now to answer your question, there is no way of knowing for certain. Even though they were immortal they were not barren as we are. Their children were mortal, but still gifted just as you were before you were turned. However, my best guess is that my family descends from the final king and queen. And if I had to guess which you hail from I would not know, there are so many possibilities because you possess so many gifts."

Finally I spoke up with an idea, the only one I could think of. She was far too powerful to be from just one, as he said her abilities surpassed anything he'd ever seen before in his two thousand years. "Is it possible she descends from more than one? Perhaps, the children of the priests intermarried."

"No, it was forbidden. Each bloodline was to remain pure and not mix with each other for it would make a combination too powerful. It would breed a god among men."

"How else do you explain it?" I asked him seriously. Besides, just because something was forbidden did not mean it never happened. Moreso than not, what was forbidden was what they did simply because it was.

"He has a point, Awi." She said calling him by his birth name. "No single god possessed that kind of power, not even the creator (Ptah). It had to have happened at least once, the forbidden is too tempting."

He shook his head. "The gods would have known and they would have killed the child from such a union."

"They would not kill their own flesh and blood."

He gave her a curious look wondering why she referred to the priests as the gods' family. He had never said they were related. "How did you know that?"

"My father told me this story, a version of it, anyway. He left out the part about vampires, but he told me of the ten priests knowing we hailed from that line of kings, and the other pharaohs you mentioned earlier. That was how you were able to secure them on the throne, you knew they descended from royal blood…god blood. My father told me that those priests were actually the descendents of the second dynasty kings and queens who were children of the gods left here in Egypt to rule in their stead while they remained in the afterlife. Then when they died their own children were to succeed them, but they lost it. It wasn't for another millennium and a half that the rightful descendents were put back on the throne with some divine help. The gods grew tired of their bloodline being pushed aside and the humans that ruled were growing unworthy, the people were unhappy, so the gods stepped in."

"But your father never told you which god you descend from?"

"No. He said to speak of such things could get us killed for blasphemy, so he never spoke of it again. We asked, but he never gave us a name."

"Is there a record of it?"

"If there is it would be in the family crypt in Hamunaptra where Imhotep was buried along with the rest of my family in disgrace. Seti claimed anyone born of our line was too dangerous, even in death, to be buried anywhere else. Then after time it just became tradition."

"Could you get it?"

"Why is that important?" I asked. "It may not even exist."

"It may be the only chance she has at understanding what she is. If you do not know which king you hailed from you cannot pray to them and ask for their help."

I sighed. All of this Egyptian tradition and religion was making my head spin. It was all very confusing, very strange. The elements were simpler, easy to understand. Not to mention they were something we knew existed, you could see, smell, taste, every sense was there to prove they existed. These gods of theirs…where were they? But it didn't matter. If it would help her, I had no choice. We were going back to Hamunaptra.

So if you're still confused, basically Samira is part god. She's not a fey like Sookie, she's just very in tune with the gods powers. And having been turned immortal and turned into a vampire like the other priests before her has only heightened the fact, and now she's nearly pretty much a walking goddess, as is Awi (Bastian).