In which Percy is frustrated because she should know more but she can't quite grasp it.
Replies:
Candice: Sally certainly won't be impressed lol.
Guest: True, but I mean, there's so little communication, it does make me wonder. And you'll have to wait and see.
Thickneck: They'd be surprised, but again you'll have to wait and see for reactions.
rage2091: Carter and Sadie would probably say that every time she's too eager to fight.
Jubby1905: Percy definitely likes Shelby and Shelby does already look up to her lol.
Guest: Hey, at that age stinky is a powerful insult lol.

Percy wasn't the type to pretend she was the worlds biggest reader- oh she wasn't against reading- it was hard for her but she did try- and there were spells which could help her- spells which could change the language of whatever book she wanted to read, but she had always liked the library even if she wasn't the worlds biggest reader.

She smiled as they reached the heavy oaken doors, which opened to a staircase that descended into a huge cylindrical room like a well. Painted on the domed ceiling was Nut, the sky goddess, with silver constellations glittering on her dark blue body. The floor was a mosaic of her husband, Geb, the earth god, his body covered with rivers, hills, and deserts.

Even though it was late, their self-appointed librarian, Cleo, still had her four shabti statues at work. The clay men rushed around, dusting shelves, rearranging scrolls, and sorting books in the honeycombed compartments along the walls. Cleo herself sat at the worktable, jotting notes on a papyrus scroll while she talked to Khufu, who squatted on the table in front of her, patting our new antique cabinet and grunting in Baboon, like: Hey, Cleo, wanna buy a gold box?

Percy grinned at the sight of Cleo- she liked the older girl- who was incredibly smart. She might not be a warrior but she definitely had her own skills.

When she saw them coming down the stairs, she jumped to her feet. "You're alive- and, is that Percy?"

"Don't sound so surprised," Sadie muttered.

"And yep." Percy said the words in a cheerful voice, "It's me."

Cleo chewed her lip. "Sorry, I just…I'm glad. Khufu came in alone, so I was worried. He was trying to tell me something about this gold box, but it's empty. Did you find the Book of Overcoming Apophis?"

"The scroll burned." Carter's voice was heavy, "We couldn't save it."

Cleo looked like she might scream. "But that was the last copy! How could Apophis destroy something so valuable?"
Which- was a bit of an odd priority in Percy's opinion but hey- sometimes it was easier to focus on the small things. Less painful anyway.

One of the shabti jumped onto the table. He tried to stick a scanner label on the golden cabinet, but Cleo shooed the clay man away.

"All of you, back to your places!" She clapped her hands, and the four shabti returned to their pedestals. They reverted to solid clay, though one was still wearing rubber gloves and holding a feather duster, which looked a little odd. Cleo leaned in and studied the gold box. "There's nothing inside. Why did you bring it?"

"That's what Sadie, Percy, Bast, and I need to discuss," Carter told her "If you don't mind, Cleo."

"I don't mind." Cleo kept examining the cabinet. Then she realized they were all staring at her. "Oh…you mean privately. Of course."

She looked a little upset about getting kicked out, but she took Khufu's hand. "Come on, babuinozinho. We'll get you a snack."

"Agh!" Khufu said happily.

Once Cleo and Khufu were gone the three Kanes and Bast gathered around the golden cabinet. Percy poked it with her finger, pouting when Carter slapped her hand down lightly.

It was shaped like a miniature school locker. The exterior was gold, but it must've been a thin layer of foil covering wood, because the whole thing wasn't very heavy. The sides and top were engraved with hieroglyphs and pictures of the pharaoh and his wife. The front was fitted with latched double doors, which opened to reveal…well, not much of anything. There was a tiny pedestal marked by gold footprints, as if an Ancient Egyptian Barbie doll had once stood there.

Sadie studied the hieroglyphs along the sides of the box. "It's all about Tut and his queen, wishing them a happy afterlife, blah, blah. There's a picture of him hunting ducks. Honestly? That was his idea of paradise?"

"I like ducks," Bast said.

"Everyone likes ducks." Percy declared as she watched carter moved the little doors back and forth on their hinges. "'Specially baby ducks. But you probably just eat 'em."

"Can you stop with the duck talk." Carter's lips were twitching, "Somehow I don't think the ducks are important. Whatever was inside here, it's gone now. Maybe grave robbers took it, or—"

Bast chuckled. "Grave robbers took it. Sure."

Carter frowned at her. "What's so funny?"

She grinned at them, before realising that they had no clue what she found so funny. Oh…I see. You actually don't know what this is. I suppose that makes sense. Not many have survived."

"Not many what?" Carter asked.

"Shadow boxes."

Sadie wrinkled her nose. "Isn't that a sort of school project? Did one for English once. Deadly boring."

"I wouldn't know about school projects," Bast said haughtily. "That sounds suspiciously like work. But this is an actual shadow box—a box to hold a shadow."

And Percy felt like she'd been punched in the gut, knowledge that she shouldn't have being in her head was always going to freak her out but this knowledge- and Bast was still talking- clearly the others hadn't noticed the way she'd frozen up.

"It's in there right now," she insisted. "Can't you see it? A little shadowy bit of Tut. Hello, shadow Tut!" She wriggled her fingers at the empty box. "That's why I laughed when you said grave robbers might have stolen it. Ha! That would be a trick."

"But…I've heard Dad lecture on, like, every possible Egyptian artifact. I never once heard him mention a shadow box."

"As I told you," Bast said, "not many have survived. Usually the shadow box was buried far away from the rest of the soul. Tut was quite silly to have it placed in his tomb. Perhaps one of the priests put it there against his orders, out of spite."

And Sadie was nodding enthusiastically.

"That must've been what Anubis meant," she said. "Pay attention to what's not there. When I looked into the Duat, I saw darkness inside the box. And Uncle Vinnie said it was a clue to defeating Apophis."

"A Shadow Execration." Percy breathed out, "Setne came up with a way to not just banish a god to the Duat with an Execration but to completely destroy them using their shadow- that was what was in the book- that's why he wanted to destroy it-"

And Bast's eyes widened in shock as Carter's eyes almost bulged and he made a "Time out" T with his hands.

"Woah. Woah you two slow down a second- first- Sadie when did you see Anubis- and since when do we have an uncle named Vinnie?"

Sadie blushed but she told them of her encounter with a weird face in the wall- which had told her about the box- and she told them of visions of Ruby and Isis- and a talk with Anubis.

Carter took a deep breath when she was done. "The face in the wall could have been a trick."

"Possibly…but I don't think so. The face said we would need his help, and we had only two days until something happened to him. He told me this box would show us what we needed. Anubis hinted I was on the right track, saving this cabinet. And Mum…" Sadie faltered. "Mum said this was the only way we'd ever see her again. Something is happening to the spirits of the dead."

Percy bit her lip. "Mom'll be sad if it goes bad." she mumbled the words. She knew of course, her mom had told her that she was often visiting Julius and Ruby, that she cared for them both.

It was strange but she was happy, so Percy was okay with that.

"Right." Carter said slowly, "Okay- but- how do shadows tie into Apophis and spirits of the dead?" his gaze shifted to Percy, "What is a Shadow Execration."

"I-" Percy's shoulders slumped slightly, "I don't know exactly. I think- I think Setne invented it. I think-" she scrunched up her face, banging the palm of her hand against the side of her head, "I hate this. I hate knowing stuff but not knowing it it makes my head hurt." and it did. It felt like a vise was clamped down on it, pushing and pushing.

"Woah-" Carter grabbed her wrists, "Percy stop- don't- just breath Percy okay? Look at me." And Percy forced herself to focus on her big brothers voice, to meet his eyes, her breathing slowing as she calmed. "There you go." his voice was incredibly gentle, "That's better. Don't push it just tell us what you think you know. That's all you can do."

"I think there's a form of Execration that doesn't- that would destroy even a god or- or Apophis entirely. It involves shadows but I don't know how you'd do it-" and Bast was shifting uncomfortably, her fingernails digging into the table- she was using it like a scratching post- which she often did when she was tense.

"Bast?" Sadie asked gently.

"Apophis and shadows," Bast mused. "I'd never considered…" She shook her head. "These are really questions you should ask Thoth. He's much more knowledgeable than I."

Carter's brows furrowed, and he let go of Percy's wrists, raising one hand, fingers outstretched. "Five parts of the soul- what are they?"

Bast was silent- looking very uncomfortable at the direction of the conversation.

"Carter?" Sadie asked. "What does that have to do—?"

"Just humor me," Carter said. "The first part is the ba, right? Our personality."

"Chicken form," Sadie said.

"There's the ka." Percy piped up, "I remember Desjardins telling me how I was lucky that my ba and ka recovered so well from the Apophis thing."

"Right." Carter nodded, "The ka's the life force that leaves the body when it dies. Then there's the ib, the heart—"

"The record of good and bad deeds," Sadie agreed. "That's the bit they weigh on the scales of justice in the afterlife."

"And fourth…" Carter hesitated.

"The ren," Sadie supplied. "Your secret name."

And Percy knew that they were both thinking about Bes- she hadn't been allowed to visit him but she'd been told what had happened. That hadn't been a good day during her recovery.

"Right." Carter nodded, "But the fifth part-" he looked at Bast. "It's the shadow, isn't it?"

Sadie frowned. "The shadow? How can a shadow be part of your soul? It's just a silhouette, isn't it? A trick of the light."

Bast held her hand over the table. Her fingers cast a vague shadow over the wood. "You can never be free of your shadow—your sheut. All living beings have them."

"So do rocks, pencils, and shoes," Sadie said. "Does that mean they have souls?"

"You know better," Bast chided. "Living beings are different from rocks…well, most are, anyway. The sheut is not just a physical shadow. It's a magical projection—the silhouette of the soul."

"So this box…" Carter said. "When you say it holds King Tut's shadow—"

"I mean it holds one fifth of his soul," Bast confirmed. "It houses the pharaoh's sheut so it will not be lost in the afterlife."

"Lost shadows," Carter muttered. "This sounds like that Peter Pan story."

Bast's eyes glowed like paper lanterns. "What do you think inspired the story of Peter Pan's lost shadow? There have been folktales about shadows for centuries, Carter—all handed down since the days of Egypt."

"Okay." Carter closed his eyes, "So- a Shadow is part of a soul- and it- does that mean that gods have shadows-"
Bast gouged some hieroglyphs in the table with her fingernails. Percy was pretty sure the message read: DANGER.

"Honestly, children…this is a question for Thoth. Yes, gods have shadows. Of course we do. But—but it's not something we're supposed to talk about."

Because it could destroy them. Percy felt like she'd been zapped by lightning again. The gods were afraid because anyone who knew how to do a Shadow Execration- if they managed to find a gods shadow they could destroy them.

"Do you know how it'd work-"

"Percy-" Bast shook her head, "You're delving into very dangerous magics-"

"Bast if we can't figure out a better solution we'll have to go with Plan B."

Bast flinched, "You two-"

"What's Plan B?" because Sadie and Carter both looked terrified when Carter said that, and Percy felt a sick frightened twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Somehow she got the feeling that Plan B... Plan B would mean she didn't have her brother and sister any more.