Chapter 53

Bartimaeus

The minute I saw the tears on Kitty's face, I knew something had been discovered. She had a crumpled piece of paper in her hand, so obviously it was a letter or photograph.(1) She didn't bother wiping away the tears that were running down her cheek; she hardly seemed to notice them. The moment she laid eyes on me, she collapsed on me, pounding my chest. The tears began to flow again, and so she buried her face into my chest.(2)

Taken aback, all I could do was hold her in my arms. Soon, I became used to her crying on me and began to comfort her. "Kitty, what did you find?"

For a moment I received no reply, but then she opened her left hand and revealed a note.(3) I took the note and read it.

After a while of studying the handwriting, I looked back to Kitty. She was wiping the tears away now.(4) She didn't look at me for a long while. I didn't bother her. Instead, I patiently waited for her to back off me and say or do something. And eventually, she did. "Bartimaeus," she began, "what am I to think of this? I don't want to love him. But I fear I still do." She fell into my arms again. "God, it's so hard. Why does it have to be this way?" She didn't look up to me, but I knew the question wasn't rhetorical.

And so I answered, "I know what you're going through. Love and death. Like love, grief knows no bounds." I paused for effect. "But Kitty, that wasn't Nathaniel's handwriting."

Kitty looked up to me, grief molding into anger. "What do you mean?"

"I mean Natty boy didn't write that letter. And no djinn can forge human handwriting.(5) I've never served Farrar, but it must be her handwriting."

"So you're saying she wrote this to herself?" Kitty asked incredulously. "Why?"

I shrugged. "How should I know?" But then, a thought struck me. For a long moment, I looked off into the distance, thinking. What if the letter was under a Glamor or Illusion? I had never bothered checking the letter on the higher planes,(6) and so there was a possibility of my theory being accurate. There are certain type of magic that's difficult for a djinni like me to trace, see, or feel. It takes an extremely powerful magician and djinni to do it right, but somehow, Farrar had gotten it done. I checked the paper on the higher planes, carefully studying it, and sure enough, it was under a Text.(7) I removed the Text and read the real letter.

Ms. Kathleen Jones;

My name is Gohar Younas. I'm an Egyptian accomplice of Jane Farrar. The letter you saw before this was a fake. I placed a magical spell on it called a Text. It was created to change the words to whomever's reading, and so I have no idea whatsoever of what the Text told you. However, I can tell you that it was a complete fake.

Now, on to real business. Miss Jane Farrar has told me everything about your situation. She had used a demon to watch you since Mr. Button was killed. She assures you, however, that she has never had anything to do with the murder. She was concerned for your safety, Miss Jones. That is why she sent a demon out to follow you. However, she strictly tied the demon to follow you and not interfere with your movements, no matter what it happened to witness or think.

When Miss Farrar died, the demon had left to my sole service. We had joint summoned the creature, and so the demon relayed the information it discovered to me. It is currently June 30th, 2007. I ordered the demon to help me place a Text on the letter, then ordered it to place it on Miss Farrar's desk before you noticed. It cast a Glamor on your creature so it wouldn't interfere.(8) I truly hope this has not caused you any inconveniences.

I know your plan is to come to Egypt and I fully recommend it. If and when you arrive, look for me at the airport. I'll hold a sign with your false identity, Clara Bell, inscribed upon it. And fear not, I am not a member of any governmental office. I shall away your call.

There was nothing "double agent" about this at all. Nothing suspicious, nothing a witty djinni like me could make out of this as wrong. No underlying words. Nothing whatsoever. I wanted to find something wrong with this, but couldn't.

By this time, Ptolemy had made his way back to us. He handed his found money - two briefcases filled with hundred dollar pounds - to Kitty, who added her twenty pounds and two shillings to the cases. He had tried questioning Kitty, but she wouldn't answer, and soon he gave up.

I returned my attention to Kitty. "Kitty, this paper was put under a Text. It wasn't what you thought it was."

She studied me for a long moment, then said, "What does it say?"

I read the paper aloud.(9)

After a moment of thinking, she said, "It all makes sense now. Why she did what she did." I nodded in agreement.

"Now what?" Ptolemy put in.

"Now," Kitty answered, "we take our leave. Pack your bags, boys. We're going to Egypt!"

In ten minutes flat, we were ready to go. Why not? We had nothing to take with us but the money we had found. Ptolemy didn't know that those briefcases harbored so much money...It was quite funny to see his reaction when I translated how much it was (roughly) in Egyptian currency.

We decided it was best to use London's airport instead of going straight to Egypt, because we didn't know how they tolerated magic. And so, I took the guise of a flea and hopped into Ptolemy's hair. Kitty was to use the false identity of Clara Bell, and I was to protect Ptolemy with a Glamor whenever he needed it. I was to cast an Illusion of the briefcases so that they looked like normal suitcases with normal belongings inside. This was all simple enough, but something unnerved me about the whole thing. Maybe it was just going to Egypt in itself, maybe it was for a more worrisome reason. Whatever the cause, I was jittery.

Ptolemy must've noticed it, or felt me jumping around on his head, because he asked, "Rekhyt, what's wrong?"

I jumped down into his ear. "Nothing. Just jittery, I suppose. You?"

"Same. Egypt ringing a bell?"

"Something like that. I don't like that note, though."

"It's a completely legitimate note."

"That's what worries me."

Ptolemy and Kitty (technically, I wasn't there) took a taxi to the airport. I didn't like it - too much humanly concepts - but I didn't say anything. The ride was quite quiet between Kitty and Ptolemy, and the air around them carried the strained factor. The rider wasn't very talkative, either. All was quiet within the cab.

But, eventually, the cab made its way to the airport. I mentally groaned. Planes were a little better than cars, but not by much. Planes were a flying thing - my preferable way of transportation - but they still consisted and smelled of human creation. Although planes were a bit easier on my essence than cars, they still made me nauseous.

When Kitty paid the taximan, the two of them stepped outside and into the airport. I hopped off Ptolemy and took the shape of the Virgin Roman. I stopped them and waited for the sickness to take its toll.

And eventually, as I'd expected, it did. I ran to a nearby garbage can, which was only a few meters away. I ran to it, held it, threw up some sort of essence.(10) I quickly cast an Illusion on it to make it look like human vomit, then gagged the rest out. Kitty and Ptolemy had approached me, worried. "You okay, Bartimaeus?" Kitty asked in a hushed voice.

"Fine," I forced out as the rest of the chunks flew to freedom. "Just a little carsick. I'll get over it." I stood and wiped the rest of the 'essence' off my mouth with my arm and willed the sickness to pass. Eventually it did, and I was about to regain control of myself.

"You sure?" Kitty prompted.

"I'm fine. Really." I insisted. All this attention made me feel a bit odd.

"You think you can make the flight? It's going to take a few days."

"They've got bathrooms on board, right?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll survive. I'll use the flea guise to hop back and forth, if I need to."

"Just don't let anyone see you."

I nodded, looked over to the silent Ptolemy. He was studying me with a worried look on his face. "Ptolemy, I'm fine."

"Oh. I know." He looked away quickly. Thoughts were running through his mind - I knew him well enough - thoughts that concerned me too much. He was too worried about me for his own good. As I've said before, we've cared about each other as though we were brothers. I still loved him this way, and I knew he still felt the same; I just didn't want him to be so concerned over this. It was like I was going to die.

I voiced none of this, however. Instead, I said to the both of them, "Well, what are you waiting for? Kitty, did you reserve tickets?"

She shook her head. "Y - " Then she cut herself off, a look of pain etched onto her face. She wrapped her arm around her stomach, leaned over and supported herself against the nearest fence with her free hand. This attack lasted for about a minute before it ended; she was upright before Ptolemy finished his question. Kitty shook her head to ward off the pain and finished her sentence. "You can buy them on the spot here."

I studied her for a long while, gauging whether or not she was alright. She gave me a stern look, a look that told me to keep my mouth shut, so I did. "Very well, then." I gave them a final salute - to lessen the intensity of worry in the air - and hopped into Ptolemy's ear, burrowing myself deep inside.

Ptolemy tried asking if she was alright, but no answers came. He gave up, too.

Soon enough, the two of them were on the plane. When it took off, we decided it was safe enough for me to revert to the guise of the Roman Virgin. I took a look around, studied the surroundings. Most of the first class rows in which we were seated were empty, save for an old couple towards the middle. We were in the back, and we could see everything. There was a blonde woman to the left, right behind the captain's pit,(11) and also a young, dark-haired man that was somewhere in his thirties. He was sitting in the middle row, right in front of the television built into the wall. None of the passengers were any sort of magician or djinn. Everything was smooth here - there was nothing to worry about. That was what troubled me.

And the fact that Kitty's cramp from before seemed to have foreshadowed more pain. She was dizzy now, and having some trouble speaking correctly. She stumbled over her words, stuttering and forgetting what she was going to say as if afraid of something. But when prompted on her condition, she managed a couple of foul words and changed the subject. Suspicion arose within me.

But I didn't voice any of my suspicions - of Kitty or the other fliers alike - as usual. I listened as Ptolemy and Kitty spoke of things, sometimes trivial, sometimes substantial.

"...Back in Egypt, me and Rekhyt would sometimes go to the Nile and just sit, watching as the sun slowly set through the day." It was true - on the off-chance that there was nothing for Ptolemy to do, he'd bring me down to the Nile with him. Usually, we just sat by its coast and watched the sun go by. Sometimes, we'd even take out a boat and just sail down it, all day. We'd see how far down it we could get, how long it'd take us to get back to Alexandria. Yes, those were indeed good times...

I rested my head back on the chair, listened to them talk, and began the process of opening doors that had been locked for millennia.

"...aeus."

"...maeus!"

"Bartimaeus!" Kitty hissed, shaking me. I jumped up in surprise.

"Hmm? What happened now?"

"You fell asleep, and your guise is slipping."

I looked down at myself and found my form to be slipping. My legs looked as though fog surrounded it - you could only barely see their outlines. From the waist down, it looked like this. Slightly embarrassed, I quickly reshaped into the Roman Virgin.

"I thought djinn don't sleep," Kitty mocked.

"We don't need to, but we can if we want." I shifted in my seat, embarrassed at falling asleep in front of both of them. But those thoughts of the past were so soothing...I couldn't help it.(12) I looked around, desperate for something to change the subject. "So, how much longer?" Surprisingly enough, the plane hadn't disturbed my essence as much as I thought it would.

"A few hours. You were out for quite a while."

"How long, exactly?"

"At least twenty-four hours." I looked away. Twenty-four hours isn't long for a djinni to sleep - we're beings without time - but for humans it was as though I'd fallen into a small coma. It was a good sleep, though. I remembered memories I had locked away within myself and promised to forever forget. Most of these memories were dreadful, but some of them I put away because they were too happy, because they'd pull me down if I called them back. And they had done their part. I fully understood why I was so distant from Ptolemy now, and why he was still so close. I started to feel close to him again, back to the way I used to feel when I was still in his service.

Then, as if out of nowhere(13), the piolet said, "We'll be landing in Egypt momentarily. Please remain seated and prepare to depart." Kitty turned to Ptolemy, ran him through the standard procedure. I didn't listen however; thoughts and heartaches of Egypt were running through my mind. Nothing else was important to me then - all I cared about was the geological beauty of Egypt. In my opinion, there was no better place.(14) Locked memories flooded through the keyholes of the locked doors they were imprisoned behind, slapping me in the face.

Part of me found this pathetic, but I shoved the thought way. It wasn't pathetic, it was how a djinni's subconscious works. We're all created with this...locking system enabled in our "minds." If you live as long as we do and witness everything we have, you'd be begging to forget and never remember, too.

I looked over to Ptolemy and just studied him. Sitting there, he represented everything I ever was, everything I could ever be, everything I had ever seen, anything I had ever loved.

(1) Saying this specifically because you humans are so dense.

(2) I was in Ptolemy's form, as usual.

(3) I could see parts of the words.

(4) Another thing I like about Kitty - she was able to convert her emotions to her use.

(5) Except for a few of us sparkling gems who do possess the skill. I won't mention any names.

(6) C'mon. It was a piece of paper. You wouldn't have checked it, either.

(7) Texts are powerful spells that change the words around on a piece of paper. They're extremely hard to detect, and even harder to create. I'd only seen them used in action a handful of times.

(8) Very embarrassing, that was. If I had the right sort of pen, I would have scratched that out.

(9) Skipping the small part of my blunder, of course.

(10) Djinn actually have the disability of being able to keep their essence perfectly clean. We can breathe in the debris of toxic fumes (which usually causes pandemoniums) and we can accidentally swallow things without realizing it. That was precisely what came up.

(11) Or whatever you call it. This was my first plane ride, so shove off.

(12) Djinn don't need sleep, but when we're comfortable enough (which is a rarity indeed), our consciousness slips away. It's the equivilent of "blacking out" for you humans, only djinn can be woken whereas humans are stuck in their minds until their subconscious decides to set them free.

(13) I knew it came from speakers, though. Did you? Didn't think so.

(14) I don't care about your opinions, so don't bother.

A/n

OMG! AN UPDATE! I'm as happy as you are :) I reread the series, and now I have enough inspiration to finish this. I can't believe the updates are so far behind! The area of the notebook I'm typing out of is still full of my handwriting when it was huge...that was over three years ago! Obviously you'll notices differences in the writing styles, but I'm trying to make it as subtle as possible. I'm also considering editing the entire story, because - upon rereading this - I have realized the loopholes in the plot. Almost like Swiss cheese. XD. PLEASE bear with me as I finish up the story, and be sure to give your opinion! Also, I've finished writing it, so all I have to do it type it. Therefore it shouldn't take too long for this story to finally come to it's end. Thanks to all my fans out there who read and review this, after having waited for so long :)