I don't own the Mummy, the Scorpion King or any of the characters besides Rissa and her people.
Trinkets and Curses
Recap of last time:
"There is always a price, Ardeth. There is always a price to be paid for every battle won, always a consequence unseen. I don't know what it is, but it frightens me, Ardeth. I wonder if we win will it be worth the price we pay?"
Chapter 10
Morning broke with Mathias stealing a horse and heading out to look for Cassandra, but the warrior he had fought earlier stopped him. Making the Akkadian agree to a night assault on the palace of Memnon, "Mathias," Rissa whispered softly as she tugged gently on her ancestor's arm.
"What is it Rissa?" Mathias asked.
"Alex, Ardeth, and I have to go to the city too… but Memnon is not our target. We're going after my insane half-brother. Just be extra careful, okay? I don't know if he's teamed up with Memnon or not and if he has… Memnon will be unpredictable and even more formidable than anyone could have imagined," Rissa looked deeply into her ancestor's eyes with a great sadness and burden weighing her down.
"So, you will not be after Memnon, but you need to get into the city?" Mathias asked seriously.
"Look, if Ardeth and I can't bring him down then the curse of the sundial Alex carries will come into effect…" Rissa brought both hands to her mouth and began to shake slightly. "I wasn't to have said that… I wasn't to have said that!"
"Rissa, what curse?" Mathias asked edgily.
"It won't affect you or any of your comrades, Mathias… Please, just leave it at that," Rissa pleaded.
"Who will be affected?" Mathias crossed his arms with danger written all over his features.
"Just Alex, his parents, Ardeth, and me…" Rissa really felt that she could hardly deny her ancestor what he wished to know of her, even though giving him the information hurt her.
"We will get you into the city," Mathias gaze hardened. "But if you can not defeat your foe you will come to me for assistance and I will make sure that the problem is eliminated."
"Yes, Grandpa," Rissa mumbled tiredly, causing the male Akkadian to blink in surprise. "Shit! I wasn't supposed to have said that either!" Rissa mumbled before quickly running to Ardeth and praying that she would not make any more slip-ups in the future.
"Rissa, what bothers you?" Ardeth frowned.
"I kinda realized that we've a curse that could be sprung on us and that I have an overly large mouth that likes to betray me when speaking to family members," Rissa sighed, exasperated with herself.
"What curse? What did you tell the Akkadian warrior?" Ardeth frowned.
"Well, you know that annoying watch that brought us here?" Rissa waited for his nod of acknowledgement, "You see the watch is cursed to give your loved ones a disease that will be incurable unless a task is completed. Then if the people don't complete that task they are stuck in the past because it is a time traveling curse."
"So, unless we can figure out what our task is… Rick and Evelyn will perish and you, Alex, and I will be forever trapped in the past?" Ardeth asked dangerously.
"That's the gist of it… but the thing is I figured out what exactly the task was…" Rissa slumped to the ground. "We have to kill my half-brother, Loxias."
"Is that all?" Ardeth asked.
"Yeah, I think so… but then I just had to go and tell Mathias about the curse, but I didn't go into detail, and then I called him grandpa! Why does my mouth feel the need to betray me!"
Ardeth gave her a shocked stare, "You may have doomed us to die in the past!"
Alex who had been listening to the entire thing decided to bring their discussion to a halt, "You…" Alex pointed to Rissa, "Big trouble." Then he turned to Ardeth, "You. Lighten up!"
Rissa suddenly had a vision of the future and began to snicker, "Alex, you're turning into your father."
"That has nothing to do with the price of camels in Egypt!" Alex threw up his hands in exasperation.
"And there was your uncle," Ardeth pointed out stoically.
"Ah, yes, and here I thought I was going to get you two to stop being utterly ridiculous!" Alex growled in annoyance.
"Mother," Ardeth and Rissa stated together, causing Alex too completely lose it and storm off towards the camels.
"Well, that was fun," Rissa smiled, her eyes twinkling merrily.
"Agreed, though it was a bit childish," Ardeth responded.
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