CHAPTER 2 ALTERED INSCRIPTIONS
"Pharaoh Atemu? Priest Shadah? Priestess Isis? Anybody here?" Bernarda's voice echoes nervously off the walls of the royal palace as she runs through the empty halls.
"Scribe! Thank goodness I found you," somebody says as he chases after Bernarda down a hallway.
Bernarda turns around upon hearing somebody refer to her by her position and sees a male a couple of years older than her and realizes that it was Joseph, one of the guards. "Yes, what's all the hurry about?" she inquires.
"Quick! Your presence is required down at the pyramids!" Joseph exclaims, hoping to get the girl to her senses as soon as possible.
"Why?" Bernarda counters, looking rather confused. "And where is everybody else?"
"Down at the pyramids," Joseph urges, grabbing Bernarda by her hand and rushing her down the hallway. "Nobody told me why except that the presence of a scribe is required! I'm guessing that they found something on the walls and nobody can figure out what it means!"
"I thought that the priests knew basic hieroglyphics!" Bernarda sighs, seeing that she might end up doing the priests' work again just because of them claiming to not know what they actually did.
"Yeah, you're right," Joey admits. "That is why they all ran down to that pyramid, Pharaoh Atemu himself included. But they are still unable to decipher it, even with their Millennium Items."
Bernarda stares at her Millennium Book quietly with her hazel eyes, now starting to figure why she was the one who they were asking to come. "All right, all right, I'm going! Yet I have the feeling that there's more to the story than you say," she replies with an exasperated sigh, closing one of the many side doors of the palace as she follows Joseph.
"I never told you the whole story!" Joseph says with a wink, though Bernarda decided it was best to ignore that. "Pharaoh Atemu requires your presence down in the pyramids so you'd better hurry!"
"Whole story? You've already told me that," Bernarda says in a dry voice that showed that he'd done his fair share of irritation for the day. She fiddles with the saddle of her horse and climbs onto it. "Whatever you say, just guard the palace well in the Pharaoh's absence. Without anybody here, it gives the enemy a chance of invading."
"I am a guard," he replies, holding up his spear. "It is my duty to protect this place."
"Very well, I shall go to the pyramids and see why I'm required..." Rolling her eyes, Bernarda gives her horse a kick and leaves off.
At the Pyramids
"Scribe! What's taken you so long?" Pharaoh Atemu demands, seeing Bernarda pull her horse into a halt.
"Forgive me," the scribe replies, jumping off her horse and typing up the reins so the animal would not run away loose. "I was talking to the High Priest about the vision I had with the Millennium Tauk. He wants further insight on it, yet the Tauk shall destroy me if I wear it again," she then continues despite the quizzical look on Priestess Isis' face the moment the Tauk was brought up. "And speaking about the High Priest, where in the name of Ra is he? Joseph told me that all of the Millennium Item holders came here yet he is nowhere in sight!"
"I have not seen him since that banquet held in honor of Anubis last night. Yet I do not wish him to see what is down in the pyramid, it might disturb him," Akunadin says, having a secret within him as usual.
"And it won't disturb the others?" Priestess Isis inquires in a skeptical tone.
"It might, yet Seth would overreact too much knowing his mature and I have no interest in seeing such a thing," Atemu adds.
"It wouldn't surpass me," Bernarda says with a sigh. "I already witnessed it this morning and am ready for anything, Let's hurry up before Ra makes his journey to the West banks of the Nile, it's dreary enough down there when Ra still shines." A shiver running up her spine, she looks at the priests nervously.
"I would not be doubting the powers of the way to the afterlife if I were you," Isis warns her, going on into a little speech about mummification, scarabs, rituals and lots of other matters that Bernarda was not too interested in.
"So who gives if my soul was put against Maat's mythical feather of truth?" Bernarda interrupts, having enough of the priestess.
"I would," Karim whispers, flashing his scales infront of Bernarda, causing the young scripe to gulp and stay quiet for a while.
"Enough of this pointless bickering and denial! Follow me down into the pyramid so that you can assist me in solving this mystery," the Pharaoh orders his priests, priestess and scribe.
"Be careful, it is said that powerful spirits control these paths and those who disturb them shall never see light again," Isis says behind Bernarda's right ear.
"Said yet not written," Bernarda retorts with a slightly hot-headed edge. "Besides, I'm not really that interested in seeing the Soulless Realm again!"
"Neither am I," Mahado agrees, remembering all too well what happened last harvest season when Kas of bunch of slaves revolted.
"But we managed to solve it," Shadah points out, to which most of the other priests either nodded or simply stayed quiet. Pharaoh Atemu continued to lead the way while Bernarda takes out her Millennium Book and starts to write down something about a rebellious priestess falling into hidden pits infected by crocodiles, her eyes turning cloudy as she did so. Hopefully nobody would notice what she was trying to do and use his or her own items against her wish.
"Isis, stick close to me and keep quiet," Akunadin says, having enough of the priestess bothering the scribe to endless means. "Speaking falsely about members of the Pharaoh's court is not a wise idea."
/Thank you, Akunadin. I owe you,/ Bernarda thinks to herself as she continues writing, if Isis saw what she was doing she'd be in her fair share of troubles.
"Oh Pharaoh!" Isis calls to Atemu, her voice echoing loudly off the walls in the pyramid. "How long shall it be until we reach this 'magical mystical thing that you found'?"
"The more you complain the longer it shall take," Mahado says with a smirk. /And I thought that Mana was the impatient one! As a priestess Isis should have a bit more sense than to talk like that!/
"Keep walking, we'll get there soon enough!" Atemu says, wondering why it was always the females.
"But my feet hurt and my new sandals shall be ruined!" Isis whines, adjusting the golden straps and then going back to her complaining.
Bernarda rolls her eyes, deciding that adding Isis' sandals to the pit of crocodiles might not be such a bad idea after all. An evil smirk goes up her face, rather uncharacteristic of her usual nature and her eyes get even cloudier.
"Isis, I warned you to keep quiet," Akunadin tells her irritably
"Why do I have the feeling that someone shall betray me right on the spot?" Isis wonders, backing straight to the wall of the tunnel and trying not to be seen by anyone.
"It's your imagination," Karim exclaims, not wanting to worry her further by examining it with his scales. Sometimes she could be more than just a girl, especially when she wanted to.
/Imagination can be reality!/ Bernarda thinks to herself, closing her Millennium Book after putting the last hieroglyphic on the papyrus page.
"Does anybody have the feeling that we are being followed?" Shadah wonders as he looks behind his shoulder as he hears the sound of footsteps in the backround.
"Yes, hopefully it isn't another slave revolt. That's the last thing we need at this hour," Mahado adds, looking at his ring and seeing that it wasn't flashing so there was no darkness nearby that he knew of.
"We're almost there!" Atemu says, taking the tunnel to the right amongst the three that were in front of him.
"Thank Ra!" Isis exclaims. "My poor new sandals are almost ruined!"
"Maintain yourself just a while longer and I shall consider buying you new ones, fair enough?" Karim offers.
"There it is!" Bernarda suddenly blurts out, seeing a wall filled with inscriptions. She sprints up to it as quickly as she could, taking a careful look at the wall and then remembering something about it. "It looks familiar," she says, though mostly to herself.
"Yes, it is the wall that the High Priest Seth created two years ago. But Terras the guard claimed that he saw an explosion down here this very morning, which is why I though we should see what is going on," Atemu says, squinting his violet eyes to see the wall better in the half-darkness.
"Shouldn't the palace architect have some information on it?" Mahado wonders, making himself a mental note to go and ask the moment they returned to the palace. After all, he was the person who designed this pyramid in the first place.
"Seth wrote these hieroglyphics, did he not?" Isis wonders, running her hand above the symbols. "So why are they unreadable if we can all read the regular ones?
"These are not regular hieroglyphics, and I do not recall Seth knowing how to do them either," Akunadin explains. "which is why a scribe was sent down here; preferably the one with the eight Millennium Item so that we'd have some input on the matter through our own items."
"Is there any way in which you can make them out?" Karim asks Bernarda.
"No she can't! This is a disgrace!" Isis interrupts, showing her way between Bernarda and Karim to cut off their conversation. "This wall was created by one of the priests so it is not her place to be connected to it in any possible way."
"Priestess, are you trying to defy me?" Atemu wonders, looking at Isis with annoyance.
"No milord," Isis replies quietly, looking at her feet.
"Then stay put and keep quiet until I grant you permission to speak," Atemu adds. "Now Priest Karim, please continue."
"Is there any possible way in which the eighth Millennium Item can be of use to translating these hieroglyphics?" he asks Bernarda once more, causing the royal scribe to look at the walls again.
"And if this relates to any previous experience of yours, Bernarda, you must say so for your own good," Mahado says, taking a good look at the writings himself.
With a nervous hand and a clink from her golden bracelets, Bernarda runs it along the walls, trying to fell the carvings done on them. "These hieroglyphics appear to be crossed with some odd script which I have not seen before... I cannot decipher it now but..."
"I knew it! I knew she was useless!" Priestess Isis exclaims out loud.
"Silence!" Pharaoh Atemu exclaims, wanting the job to get done so that he could go back to the palace and bring an end to this scenario. "Nobody shall leave until the writing is deciphered. You may continue, my Royal Scribe."
"Well... if these writings are copied down in the Millennium Book, I suppose that their translations might appear," Bernarda says timidly, hoping that it shall work if she tried to.
"Then do so at my command, and the command of my priests," Atemu orders her.
"But milord, she shall destroy all the sacred rituals built into that writing! She is a threat!" Isis yelps, trying to do anything to stop Bernarda.
"And I thought it was the sandals you cared about!" Mahado says with a laugh. "No, there are much more important things apparently."
"I'd better get to work translating this – it might take a while," Bernarda says as she pulls her peacock feather quill from her rope-like belt and opens her book to a fresh sheet of papyrus, secretly activating the previous one with the description of Isis and the pit of crocodiles. With an innocent face and possessed eyes, she starts to copy down what was on the walls.
"Strange, this wall is not made of the mud and stone that we usually use," Isis observes, as she looks at the wall one more time. She brings her hand to the wall and touches it, only for a trapdoor to open beneath her feet. "ARGHHHHH!" she screams loudly and falls down into the shadows.
Shadah runs up to the edges of the trap hole, looking down into it but not being able to see anything at all. "Some hidden power is up to no good here."
"Isis did say something about curses and spells roaming these places," Akunadin adds with a very subtle nod to Bernarda, causing his Millennium Eye to glow for a brief moment.
"ISIS!" Pharaoh Atemu exclaims, placing his hands on his head. "Is there any possible way of bringing her back? Call the High Priest! Fetch him here at once! Shadah, go and bring him for me! Somebody do something!"
"Very well, milord," Shadah turns around and runs off to fetch the High Priest Seth, making his point of not being around the Pharaoh when he was in a rage like this.
Bernarda suddenly drops her book and blinks, not being able to figure out what is going on. Her eyes return to their usual sparkly hazel and she edges away from the pit nervously as she hears the jaws of snapping crocodiles.
"Bernarda, stay away from there!" Mahada cautions her as he grabs the scribe and pulls her further away from the pit.
"I do not desire to lose another of my court to the afterlife today, thank you, Mahado," Atemu says with gratitude to his priest.
Picking up her peacock quill again, Bernarda goes back to translating the wall.
"Can you make out any of it?" Priest Karim wonders.
"Uh... sort of," Bernarda mumbles. "My Pharaoh, do you remember when the Millennium Tauk was put on me?" she asks Atemu, hoping that Akunadin, Mahado and Karim shall not be too interested in this conversation.
"How could I forget your trance at that time?" Atemu wonders.
"And the prophecy which I mentioned then?" Bernarda adds, trying to make her point as she continues writing and happily notices that the symbols that she put down at first were beginning to magically turn into hieroglyphics which she could comprehend.
"The prophecy about two pharaohs in the distant future I suppose?" Atemu asks, urging Bernarda to continue on.
"Yes, it is mentioned here in the walls and I have no idea how it could have come here if I had the vision about a month ago while this was written two years in the past. However, I believe that you should be the one who reads the final translation, nothing in these writings have to do with scribe."
"And without the scribe, the prophecy would not have been told in the first place," Atemu points out. "It was you who wore the Tauk and went under that trance."
"Somehow I have the feeling that the Tauk incident was not Bernarda's only trance," Karim tells Mahado in a silent voice as he notices that the pit that Isis fell through was eerily quiet.
"Oddly enough my friend," Mahada replies, "I have the very same feeling as well."
"It is not my place, great one," Bernarda bows before Atemu and hands over the Millennium Book to Atemu. "I suggest that you read it before the High Priest arrives. He shall not be pleased if he knows!"
/Just as I have predicted,/ Akunadin thinks smugly to himself while the other four Egyptians were busy in conversation in their own ways. /Seth would not have been able to manage this because he is directly involved, though Bernarda can be used in her own ways as well./
"But the High Priest is involved so it is his right to know," Atemu insists. "Much in the same way, you are to deliver this message to both of us back at court!" He returns the Millennium Book to Bernarda's trembling hands and strokes the silver streak in her brown hair affectionately. "I shall not hear of anything else related to this prophecy until you have completely translated it. You have until the next full moon. Use your time wisely for your own good and may Thoth aid you."
"Yet what of Isis in her journey to the afterlife?" Karim asks Atemu. "Her soul must be weighed against Maat's feather of truth before her journey is complete."
"And since you, your Highness have the puzzle, Karim here the scales, Akunadin the eye, myself the ring and so forth, what shall happen to the Tauk now that its chosen bearer has left us?" Mahado questions.
"It brings up the possibility of Isis being able to return from the afterlife once more, that's all and I hope it shall be so," Atemu replies.
"Return from the afterlife? That is not possible!" Bernarda exclaims.
"Well from what I've seen when the Tauk was put on you, the prophecy has something to do with the High Priest and myself, so perhaps Isis could be involved as well," Atemu reasons. "She could be back more than just in due time."
"More than just in due time!" Bernarda says in a horrified tone, darkness swirling around her as she passes out, being caught in the arms of Pharaoh Atemu.
Akunadin just smiles smugly, while Karim and Mahado stare in horror, figuring that there was something about the scribe's visions that needed to be solved...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: From what research I have done on the Millennium Items, I can only conclude that the strength of the item itself largely depends upon the strength of its bearer. If looked at carefully, it can be found out why Bernarda attempted to "kill off" Isis in her Chapter, though let me warn you that you should think on a bigger scale if you want to find out. (The next chapter blurts out a small part of the reason, but only at the end!)
"Pharaoh Atemu? Priest Shadah? Priestess Isis? Anybody here?" Bernarda's voice echoes nervously off the walls of the royal palace as she runs through the empty halls.
"Scribe! Thank goodness I found you," somebody says as he chases after Bernarda down a hallway.
Bernarda turns around upon hearing somebody refer to her by her position and sees a male a couple of years older than her and realizes that it was Joseph, one of the guards. "Yes, what's all the hurry about?" she inquires.
"Quick! Your presence is required down at the pyramids!" Joseph exclaims, hoping to get the girl to her senses as soon as possible.
"Why?" Bernarda counters, looking rather confused. "And where is everybody else?"
"Down at the pyramids," Joseph urges, grabbing Bernarda by her hand and rushing her down the hallway. "Nobody told me why except that the presence of a scribe is required! I'm guessing that they found something on the walls and nobody can figure out what it means!"
"I thought that the priests knew basic hieroglyphics!" Bernarda sighs, seeing that she might end up doing the priests' work again just because of them claiming to not know what they actually did.
"Yeah, you're right," Joey admits. "That is why they all ran down to that pyramid, Pharaoh Atemu himself included. But they are still unable to decipher it, even with their Millennium Items."
Bernarda stares at her Millennium Book quietly with her hazel eyes, now starting to figure why she was the one who they were asking to come. "All right, all right, I'm going! Yet I have the feeling that there's more to the story than you say," she replies with an exasperated sigh, closing one of the many side doors of the palace as she follows Joseph.
"I never told you the whole story!" Joseph says with a wink, though Bernarda decided it was best to ignore that. "Pharaoh Atemu requires your presence down in the pyramids so you'd better hurry!"
"Whole story? You've already told me that," Bernarda says in a dry voice that showed that he'd done his fair share of irritation for the day. She fiddles with the saddle of her horse and climbs onto it. "Whatever you say, just guard the palace well in the Pharaoh's absence. Without anybody here, it gives the enemy a chance of invading."
"I am a guard," he replies, holding up his spear. "It is my duty to protect this place."
"Very well, I shall go to the pyramids and see why I'm required..." Rolling her eyes, Bernarda gives her horse a kick and leaves off.
At the Pyramids
"Scribe! What's taken you so long?" Pharaoh Atemu demands, seeing Bernarda pull her horse into a halt.
"Forgive me," the scribe replies, jumping off her horse and typing up the reins so the animal would not run away loose. "I was talking to the High Priest about the vision I had with the Millennium Tauk. He wants further insight on it, yet the Tauk shall destroy me if I wear it again," she then continues despite the quizzical look on Priestess Isis' face the moment the Tauk was brought up. "And speaking about the High Priest, where in the name of Ra is he? Joseph told me that all of the Millennium Item holders came here yet he is nowhere in sight!"
"I have not seen him since that banquet held in honor of Anubis last night. Yet I do not wish him to see what is down in the pyramid, it might disturb him," Akunadin says, having a secret within him as usual.
"And it won't disturb the others?" Priestess Isis inquires in a skeptical tone.
"It might, yet Seth would overreact too much knowing his mature and I have no interest in seeing such a thing," Atemu adds.
"It wouldn't surpass me," Bernarda says with a sigh. "I already witnessed it this morning and am ready for anything, Let's hurry up before Ra makes his journey to the West banks of the Nile, it's dreary enough down there when Ra still shines." A shiver running up her spine, she looks at the priests nervously.
"I would not be doubting the powers of the way to the afterlife if I were you," Isis warns her, going on into a little speech about mummification, scarabs, rituals and lots of other matters that Bernarda was not too interested in.
"So who gives if my soul was put against Maat's mythical feather of truth?" Bernarda interrupts, having enough of the priestess.
"I would," Karim whispers, flashing his scales infront of Bernarda, causing the young scripe to gulp and stay quiet for a while.
"Enough of this pointless bickering and denial! Follow me down into the pyramid so that you can assist me in solving this mystery," the Pharaoh orders his priests, priestess and scribe.
"Be careful, it is said that powerful spirits control these paths and those who disturb them shall never see light again," Isis says behind Bernarda's right ear.
"Said yet not written," Bernarda retorts with a slightly hot-headed edge. "Besides, I'm not really that interested in seeing the Soulless Realm again!"
"Neither am I," Mahado agrees, remembering all too well what happened last harvest season when Kas of bunch of slaves revolted.
"But we managed to solve it," Shadah points out, to which most of the other priests either nodded or simply stayed quiet. Pharaoh Atemu continued to lead the way while Bernarda takes out her Millennium Book and starts to write down something about a rebellious priestess falling into hidden pits infected by crocodiles, her eyes turning cloudy as she did so. Hopefully nobody would notice what she was trying to do and use his or her own items against her wish.
"Isis, stick close to me and keep quiet," Akunadin says, having enough of the priestess bothering the scribe to endless means. "Speaking falsely about members of the Pharaoh's court is not a wise idea."
/Thank you, Akunadin. I owe you,/ Bernarda thinks to herself as she continues writing, if Isis saw what she was doing she'd be in her fair share of troubles.
"Oh Pharaoh!" Isis calls to Atemu, her voice echoing loudly off the walls in the pyramid. "How long shall it be until we reach this 'magical mystical thing that you found'?"
"The more you complain the longer it shall take," Mahado says with a smirk. /And I thought that Mana was the impatient one! As a priestess Isis should have a bit more sense than to talk like that!/
"Keep walking, we'll get there soon enough!" Atemu says, wondering why it was always the females.
"But my feet hurt and my new sandals shall be ruined!" Isis whines, adjusting the golden straps and then going back to her complaining.
Bernarda rolls her eyes, deciding that adding Isis' sandals to the pit of crocodiles might not be such a bad idea after all. An evil smirk goes up her face, rather uncharacteristic of her usual nature and her eyes get even cloudier.
"Isis, I warned you to keep quiet," Akunadin tells her irritably
"Why do I have the feeling that someone shall betray me right on the spot?" Isis wonders, backing straight to the wall of the tunnel and trying not to be seen by anyone.
"It's your imagination," Karim exclaims, not wanting to worry her further by examining it with his scales. Sometimes she could be more than just a girl, especially when she wanted to.
/Imagination can be reality!/ Bernarda thinks to herself, closing her Millennium Book after putting the last hieroglyphic on the papyrus page.
"Does anybody have the feeling that we are being followed?" Shadah wonders as he looks behind his shoulder as he hears the sound of footsteps in the backround.
"Yes, hopefully it isn't another slave revolt. That's the last thing we need at this hour," Mahado adds, looking at his ring and seeing that it wasn't flashing so there was no darkness nearby that he knew of.
"We're almost there!" Atemu says, taking the tunnel to the right amongst the three that were in front of him.
"Thank Ra!" Isis exclaims. "My poor new sandals are almost ruined!"
"Maintain yourself just a while longer and I shall consider buying you new ones, fair enough?" Karim offers.
"There it is!" Bernarda suddenly blurts out, seeing a wall filled with inscriptions. She sprints up to it as quickly as she could, taking a careful look at the wall and then remembering something about it. "It looks familiar," she says, though mostly to herself.
"Yes, it is the wall that the High Priest Seth created two years ago. But Terras the guard claimed that he saw an explosion down here this very morning, which is why I though we should see what is going on," Atemu says, squinting his violet eyes to see the wall better in the half-darkness.
"Shouldn't the palace architect have some information on it?" Mahado wonders, making himself a mental note to go and ask the moment they returned to the palace. After all, he was the person who designed this pyramid in the first place.
"Seth wrote these hieroglyphics, did he not?" Isis wonders, running her hand above the symbols. "So why are they unreadable if we can all read the regular ones?
"These are not regular hieroglyphics, and I do not recall Seth knowing how to do them either," Akunadin explains. "which is why a scribe was sent down here; preferably the one with the eight Millennium Item so that we'd have some input on the matter through our own items."
"Is there any way in which you can make them out?" Karim asks Bernarda.
"No she can't! This is a disgrace!" Isis interrupts, showing her way between Bernarda and Karim to cut off their conversation. "This wall was created by one of the priests so it is not her place to be connected to it in any possible way."
"Priestess, are you trying to defy me?" Atemu wonders, looking at Isis with annoyance.
"No milord," Isis replies quietly, looking at her feet.
"Then stay put and keep quiet until I grant you permission to speak," Atemu adds. "Now Priest Karim, please continue."
"Is there any possible way in which the eighth Millennium Item can be of use to translating these hieroglyphics?" he asks Bernarda once more, causing the royal scribe to look at the walls again.
"And if this relates to any previous experience of yours, Bernarda, you must say so for your own good," Mahado says, taking a good look at the writings himself.
With a nervous hand and a clink from her golden bracelets, Bernarda runs it along the walls, trying to fell the carvings done on them. "These hieroglyphics appear to be crossed with some odd script which I have not seen before... I cannot decipher it now but..."
"I knew it! I knew she was useless!" Priestess Isis exclaims out loud.
"Silence!" Pharaoh Atemu exclaims, wanting the job to get done so that he could go back to the palace and bring an end to this scenario. "Nobody shall leave until the writing is deciphered. You may continue, my Royal Scribe."
"Well... if these writings are copied down in the Millennium Book, I suppose that their translations might appear," Bernarda says timidly, hoping that it shall work if she tried to.
"Then do so at my command, and the command of my priests," Atemu orders her.
"But milord, she shall destroy all the sacred rituals built into that writing! She is a threat!" Isis yelps, trying to do anything to stop Bernarda.
"And I thought it was the sandals you cared about!" Mahado says with a laugh. "No, there are much more important things apparently."
"I'd better get to work translating this – it might take a while," Bernarda says as she pulls her peacock feather quill from her rope-like belt and opens her book to a fresh sheet of papyrus, secretly activating the previous one with the description of Isis and the pit of crocodiles. With an innocent face and possessed eyes, she starts to copy down what was on the walls.
"Strange, this wall is not made of the mud and stone that we usually use," Isis observes, as she looks at the wall one more time. She brings her hand to the wall and touches it, only for a trapdoor to open beneath her feet. "ARGHHHHH!" she screams loudly and falls down into the shadows.
Shadah runs up to the edges of the trap hole, looking down into it but not being able to see anything at all. "Some hidden power is up to no good here."
"Isis did say something about curses and spells roaming these places," Akunadin adds with a very subtle nod to Bernarda, causing his Millennium Eye to glow for a brief moment.
"ISIS!" Pharaoh Atemu exclaims, placing his hands on his head. "Is there any possible way of bringing her back? Call the High Priest! Fetch him here at once! Shadah, go and bring him for me! Somebody do something!"
"Very well, milord," Shadah turns around and runs off to fetch the High Priest Seth, making his point of not being around the Pharaoh when he was in a rage like this.
Bernarda suddenly drops her book and blinks, not being able to figure out what is going on. Her eyes return to their usual sparkly hazel and she edges away from the pit nervously as she hears the jaws of snapping crocodiles.
"Bernarda, stay away from there!" Mahada cautions her as he grabs the scribe and pulls her further away from the pit.
"I do not desire to lose another of my court to the afterlife today, thank you, Mahado," Atemu says with gratitude to his priest.
Picking up her peacock quill again, Bernarda goes back to translating the wall.
"Can you make out any of it?" Priest Karim wonders.
"Uh... sort of," Bernarda mumbles. "My Pharaoh, do you remember when the Millennium Tauk was put on me?" she asks Atemu, hoping that Akunadin, Mahado and Karim shall not be too interested in this conversation.
"How could I forget your trance at that time?" Atemu wonders.
"And the prophecy which I mentioned then?" Bernarda adds, trying to make her point as she continues writing and happily notices that the symbols that she put down at first were beginning to magically turn into hieroglyphics which she could comprehend.
"The prophecy about two pharaohs in the distant future I suppose?" Atemu asks, urging Bernarda to continue on.
"Yes, it is mentioned here in the walls and I have no idea how it could have come here if I had the vision about a month ago while this was written two years in the past. However, I believe that you should be the one who reads the final translation, nothing in these writings have to do with scribe."
"And without the scribe, the prophecy would not have been told in the first place," Atemu points out. "It was you who wore the Tauk and went under that trance."
"Somehow I have the feeling that the Tauk incident was not Bernarda's only trance," Karim tells Mahado in a silent voice as he notices that the pit that Isis fell through was eerily quiet.
"Oddly enough my friend," Mahada replies, "I have the very same feeling as well."
"It is not my place, great one," Bernarda bows before Atemu and hands over the Millennium Book to Atemu. "I suggest that you read it before the High Priest arrives. He shall not be pleased if he knows!"
/Just as I have predicted,/ Akunadin thinks smugly to himself while the other four Egyptians were busy in conversation in their own ways. /Seth would not have been able to manage this because he is directly involved, though Bernarda can be used in her own ways as well./
"But the High Priest is involved so it is his right to know," Atemu insists. "Much in the same way, you are to deliver this message to both of us back at court!" He returns the Millennium Book to Bernarda's trembling hands and strokes the silver streak in her brown hair affectionately. "I shall not hear of anything else related to this prophecy until you have completely translated it. You have until the next full moon. Use your time wisely for your own good and may Thoth aid you."
"Yet what of Isis in her journey to the afterlife?" Karim asks Atemu. "Her soul must be weighed against Maat's feather of truth before her journey is complete."
"And since you, your Highness have the puzzle, Karim here the scales, Akunadin the eye, myself the ring and so forth, what shall happen to the Tauk now that its chosen bearer has left us?" Mahado questions.
"It brings up the possibility of Isis being able to return from the afterlife once more, that's all and I hope it shall be so," Atemu replies.
"Return from the afterlife? That is not possible!" Bernarda exclaims.
"Well from what I've seen when the Tauk was put on you, the prophecy has something to do with the High Priest and myself, so perhaps Isis could be involved as well," Atemu reasons. "She could be back more than just in due time."
"More than just in due time!" Bernarda says in a horrified tone, darkness swirling around her as she passes out, being caught in the arms of Pharaoh Atemu.
Akunadin just smiles smugly, while Karim and Mahado stare in horror, figuring that there was something about the scribe's visions that needed to be solved...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: From what research I have done on the Millennium Items, I can only conclude that the strength of the item itself largely depends upon the strength of its bearer. If looked at carefully, it can be found out why Bernarda attempted to "kill off" Isis in her Chapter, though let me warn you that you should think on a bigger scale if you want to find out. (The next chapter blurts out a small part of the reason, but only at the end!)
