~ Did you really believe I would kill him? ~
" I am Heterity, firstborn child of pharaoh Khons-Meri, the first of this name, great-great-granddaughter of pharaoh Seti. When I was born my father was already relatively old. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to have a son to give him the crown and he certainly didn't want his brother to have it. So he decided that the throne would stay to his line, his blood, son or daughter. He secretly called Hasan, a med-jai he trusted more than anyone else and ordered him to train me in mind and body like he would do with a boy, if there was one. When this discussion was made, I wasn't even able to sit upwards properly. Two years later a son was born, my brother Matma. But the boy was sickly and my father was not sure at all that he would survive. By this time, Hasan was every day with me, so that I could get used to him. Another year passed and my mother delivered a third child, another daughter, Lenerity. My father never cared much for her. When my brother was five years old, he passed a near-fatal disease. We were sure we would lose him, but he survived. And not only that, but since then he became a normal healthy child and was never ill again. Unfortunately for my father, it was too late to separate me from Hasan. I loved him dearly, and he treated me like his child. He later told me that before I was born, he had a little son who was murdered at the age of seven and I kept him from going insane of grief.
"When I was seventeen, my life took a drastic and happy switch. At least for a little while. I met you. At twenty four, seven years older than me, you were the most handsome man, if not in Egypt at least in Thebes. You were also loyal, strong, brave and able to command. I was brought up to command, so that was what I admired on other people. And you also were a med-jai. In all my life, nothing I have admired or loved more than your people. Their devotion to their duty and a deep nobility they hid were fascinating. After all, my beloved Hasan was one too. Finally you were the only one able to defeat me, so I respected you. I didn't need anything more to love you, with a love like the flood of the Nile, one of those who rarely appear. And you loved me too. This love was a hidden fire, burning both of us in an eternal inferno. Ignoring every rule and reason, we became lovers. We were happy for a while, we thought that this could stay hidden. But it didn't of course. Soon my father discovered everything. You can imagine his fury. However he didn't kill you. Maybe because you have saved his life many times with the danger of your one, maybe because you were really popular or maybe because he didn't want the case to become the well-known. Instead he sent you to Syria- he set you up to get killed of course."
" In two years time, the people I loved and trusted more, the med-jai, betrayed me and my siblings. From the twelve tribes, the nine betrayed. The loyal ones either got killed or died. You came back from Syria alive, but it was too late for something to be done, even by you. I, my father, and Lenerity got killed. My father's body was burned, but Hasan placed us two in my tomb. This was a place prepared since I was fourteen years old, unique in Egypt. It was made not only as a burial place, but as a hiding place too. Very strong spells were used so that time in there would be stopped. The bodies did not need preserving, and if some food was placed, it would still be fresh. It opened only with my command, or if someone who was loyal to me asked for it."
" You were trying to find the tomb, lost in grief for my death and for the downfall of those med-jai. Probably this was the reason you were killed while in other conditions you would have realized it earlier. My brother who was still alive and hiding took your body and placed it near mine, in my tomb. Then, he found that he could do nothing to help his homeland. Matma was a great magician, despite his young age. He cast a very powerful spell. So powerful that it needed the sacrifice of a human life. He gave his own to ensure that we would live again, in another age, when we would be needed and when all the med-jai would be faithful. So I waited, half-dead for so many years until you grew up and faced twice the creature. When the lioness appeared, I knew I should help you. Through the dreams I managed to talk to you. The night is a strange thing, strong and mysterious, full of powers people don't understand. In the day everything is fine, but when the darkness falls the spirits of people who died wander here with mortal people, looking for justice or taking care of their beloveds. The desert is another world, more ancient than any of us and uncontrollable. Especially in sleep, the world of the dead merges with the world of the living. So I talked to you. My brother guided the old woman's hand to write the prophecy down. and I waited until you came. The moving pictures in my tomb were illusions, existing only in your mind, giving me the time to rise away from other eyes."