"Ryou, please." The tears that flowed from Amane's eye were already staining Ryou's clothes as she buried her face in his chest. "Don't leave me here. I can't work, I can't do anything; I don't want to be alone."
"Shh." Ryou gently stroked her hair. "I won't be gone forever, Amane; you'll be fine here. The people here will give you food and water, so you'll never be hungry again."
"But you heard what Seto said," she cried. "There's something going on at the temple construction site. What am I supposed to do if something happens to you?"
"Nothing will, little sister, I promise. Would I break a promise to you?"
Amane knew that he wouldn't. "You can't do this," she mewled pathetically.
"I promised our parents that I'd look after you, and it's a promise that I intend to keep."
Amane was silent for a moment. Ryou wrapped his arms around her, rocking the pale, sickly girl back and forth. "It will be okay. We'll figure this out, Amane. We always do."
"Just promise me something, Ryou." Amane looked up at him tearily. "You'll take care of yourself – not for me, for yourself."
"You don't need to worry about me." He kissed her forehead. "That's my job. You just focus on taking care of yourself – I think you'll be surprised at how strong you really are, Amane."
She burst into tears again. "I don't want you to go," she practically wailed.
Smiling reassuringly at her, Ryou gave her one last hug. "I just wish I had something I could leave with you as a memento of me."
"I don't need a memento of you." Amane straightened up, trying to look brave. "You're going to be absolutely fine. You promised."
He grinned. "That's right. You just stay strong, girl; I'm counting on you to look after my sister for me."
Wiping her eyes, Amane nodded bravely.
Giving her hand a squeeze, Ryou turned his attention to Seto. "Okay; I'm ready. Where do I need to go?"
"Follow this hallway out of the palace. You'll come to a group of people with some horses. Give the man in charge there this." He suddenly produced a scroll of papyrus from his robes and scratched a message onto it in hieroglyphs. Amane's eyes boggled. This man could write?
Ryou looked equally astonished; his hands grasped the paper tentatively as though he expected it to fall apart when he touched it. It didn't.
"Stay strong," he reminded Amane. "I'll see you again soon."
And then, he was gone.
Amane had never felt more alone.
"You volunteered? For free?"
Ryou nodded. "I had…various reasons to do it."
The man riding his horse alongside him looked as though Ryou were making some kind of joke. "You've made the biggest mistake of your life, friend; this temple is cursed."
"Cursed?"
He gave a long, drawn out sigh. "People who go there to work lose everything; I had a friend to was conscripted. He left a happy man with a life ahead of him. He came back a year later a beggar on the streets with his wife and children starved to death."
Ryou's eyes shadowed. "It sounds like my kind of place; the only thing I have left to lose is staying behind." Although that doesn't mean she's out of danger, he thought darkly, remembering Seto's promise to withdraw Amane's support should anything happen to him.
"The curse lies in the temple's location," the man went on, ignoring Ryou's remark. "It's out in the desert within a day's ride of an oasis."
"That doesn't sound all too threatening to me," Ryou said.
He laughed dryly. "You haven't travelled through the desert much, I see; it's thief country out there."
Ryou blinked. "Thief country?"
"Thieves have to inhabit the worst places of Egypt – well away from the Nile and the life it gives us – to evade capture. They congregate around oases; they're the easiest places to live without leaving the desert. Building a temple so close to one is a death wish for anybody working there; to a thief, there's no better prey than an isolated construction project. They're filled with tools, food, clothes, not to mention the salaries of the paid workers like you and I."
Ryou gasped. "And so the workers keep falling prey to these thieves and starving to death?" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Now he finally understood what Seto had meant. "Why hasn't the Pharaoh cancelled the temple's construction?"
The man laughed feverishly. "You really think the ruler of Egypt cares about a few slaves and conscripted workmen? What are some worthless lives in place of his precious temple? There's no way he'd even postpone the project."
Ryou's blood boiled. "My sister is living in the same palace as this man!"
Before Ryou's companion could respond, they were interrupted by a shout from further down the line of horses and workmen. "Stop talking and conserve your strength! The temple is still four days of riding away."
"Right; sorry!" Ryou called back, getting a few obscure glances from the other riders. Apparently, he wasn't supposed to reply. Nodding embarrassedly, he kept riding in silence, his thoughts returning to his future as a worker on this temple. If anything – anything – happened to him, it was Amane who was going to pay the price. If she was thrown out of the palace without him there…he shuddered at the thought. Under no circumstances could he allow that to happen. There was no thief in the world capable of making Ryou break a promise to his sister.
"Um…Mister Seto?" Amane gulped, unsure what to say. "Wh- what am I supposed to do now?"
Seto looked at her thoughtfully, as though he hadn't really considered this question until now. "Tell me; what are your skills? Can you cook? Sew?"
Hesitantly, Amane shook her head.
"Anything at all?"
"Um…eh…I, ah, I can…" How had she even survived until now? She had no skills at all. She had been completely and utterly dependent on her parents and later Ryou.
He looked particularly unimpressed by how tongue-tied she was. "I see how it is."
Amane shut her mouth, hating herself.
"Business is business. In that case, you'll just have to learn some new skills. I'll take you to the palace tailor; maybe you can learn a thing or two there."
Amane's eyes widened. "I- ah…th- thank-"
"Just stop talking." Seto brushed past her out the door. "Your stuttering is getting annoying."
"Yes, Mister Seto." She didn't move, remaining frozen in place.
"Are you coming or not?" he called after disappearing from view. Amane jumped.
She stuck close to him as he led her further into the palace, but couldn't keep her eyes from wandering over the different rooms they passed.
Seto's brisk pace was difficult to keep up with on Amane's weak, tired legs. It wasn't long before she was lagging well behind him. Eventually, she had to stop to catch her breath. She already wished Ryou were there.
Panting, she straightened up again, looking back down the hallway.
Seto was out of site.
Her mind instantly flew into a panic. Where had her guide gone? She bolted down the hallway, trying to see which way he had gone.
Her heart was pounding. She considered calling out, but couldn't bring herself to raise her voice. She cursed herself for being so weak.
Gulping, she peering into one of the rooms, wondering if she should ask for directions to the palace tailor.
What she saw inside made her pause though, suddenly captivated with interest at what she saw.
There was an elderly man of short stature sitting cross-legged on the floor. Across from his was a much younger man who looked to be in his late teens. It was this man who had caught Amane's attention.
He was wearing the finest clothing Amane had ever seen – it must have been worth more than all the money she had every laid eyes on. Had she seen them simply on the floor it would have been enough to make her stare. As it was, her attention diverted elsewhere; the man himself was impossible to look away from.
His hair was almost unnatural, otherworldly. It rose up off of his head like a giant spiky creature, a tricolour fan of black, purple and blonde. Even with his back to Amane it was obvious to her that he was somebody of position.
The elderly man must have noticed her staring, because the younger suddenly turned around, following his mentor's gaze, and Amane saw his face. She almost let out an involuntary gasp.
His eyes – while not unkind – were enough to send chills down her spine. She quickly lowered her head. They were the most peculiar shade of purple-red she had ever seen, least of all in somebody's eyes. Amane gulped, rooted to where she was standing.
"Do you have some business here?"
Amane jumped at the elderly man's voice, and turned her head to look at him properly for the first time. His hair was styled similarly to the younger man, although it had turned grey with age. Hesitantly, Amane shook her head.
"Then go; a peasant girl has no right to be looking in on a private lesson with the Pharaoh of Egypt."
Amane almost died right there.
This man was the Pharaoh of Egypt? Her head became dizzy. What on Earth was she doing here?
"Ah…I…"
"Get ou-"
"No, Shimon. Wait."
Amane blinked, surprised. It was the young Pharaoh who had spoken. Shimon looked shocked, but did not speak, only kept his purple eyes trained on Amane.
The Pharaoh smiled in a friendly manner. "Are you lost?"
It was all Amane could do to nod.
"Where are you going?" he prompted.
Amane's mouth gaped open and closed like a fish out of water.
"Answer the Pharaoh!" Shimon said with force but little harshness. Amane jumped.
"The palace tailor," Amane squeaked. "I'm to become his apprentice."
"It's quite easy to get there," Shimon told her. "You just have to follow this hallway, turn left and keep walking until the hallway turns left again. He'll be straight ahead of you when that happens."
"Thank you," Amane whispered.
"There's no hurry," the Pharaoh went on, his smile unfaltering. "Come over here; I'll tell you what Shimon is teaching me over here."
Shimon let out an involuntary gasp. "Pharaoh Atem, I must point out that this girl must be in a hurry, and that what you are being taught it far too complex for a woman to comprehend, least of all a peas-"
Atem had already straightened up and strode authoritatively to where Amane was standing. He took one of her hands in his and flashed her his most charming smile. "Why don't you tell me your name?" he asked, deliberately ignoring Shimon's infuriated glance.
Amane didn't look up, but she could feel her cheeks reddening. "A- Amane."
"Well, Amane, I'd like to welcome you to the palace. Come on." Still holding her hand, he led her over to where he had been sitting. When she made no move to sit, he gently pushed down on her shoulder. Sparing one last thought for Seto, and whether or not he actually cared enough about her welfare to search for her when he realised she was gone, she sat, still unable to meet either his or Shimon's eye. Was this a dream? Was she still at home with Ryou?
He ignored Shimon's disapproving look, and picked up the piece of papyrus he had been looking at before Amane had arrived. "These are hieroglyphs, see? Pictures of words."
Despite herself, Amane couldn't help but perk her head up at this. Hesitantly, she took the paper he offered. "I can't read," she mumbled.
"Of course not; she's a peasant and a girl, Atem, not a scribe. Reading is a skill reserved for the elite." Shimon crossed his arms irritably. Atem continued to ignore him, obviously enjoying his annoyance.
"There are thousands of different symbols," Atem explained. "Some represent whole words, others singular sounds."
Amane tried and failed to hide her interest. "It's all very complicated," she observed, feeling like an idiot and not doubting that she sounded like one too.
"Atem-"
Atem cut Shimon off and continued talking to Amane. "There is usually a symbol at the end of each word, representing what the word means," Atem went on, literally basking in the frustrated aura radiating from Shimon. "The first symbols represent the sounds, so 'cat' would be k-a-t, or just k-t, followed by a little picture of a cat to avoid any confusion with a similarly sounding word." He pointed out a relevant word on the paper in Amane's hands.
Her eyes widened with wonder. "Wow…" she breathed. "That actually makes a lot of sense. So when reading the script you can just look at the picture rather than reading the whole word, and if you need further clarification you can look at the rest of the…" She trailed off, noticing for the first time Shimon's disapproving state. She looked down again and didn't continue, wanting to bite her tongue off.
"That's exactly right," Atem declared with satisfaction, casting Shimon a smug sideways glance. Amane began to wonder if Atem was doing this just to annoy him.
"Atem," Shimon began again.
"So in case you didn't guess, this letter here makes the 'k' sound, and this here makes the 't'. There you have it; you've just learnt two hieroglyphs!" He looked extremely proud of himself. Amane couldn't help but blush.
"Atem."
"Yes, Shimon?" Atem said with a slightly put-upon tone, finally acknowledging his teacher's presence.
Shimon sighed. "If you've had your fun, I think it's time we returned to our lesson and let Amare-"
"Amane," Atem interrupted.
"…And let Amane go back to the tailor."
Atem sighed. "Very well." He flashed another dazzling smile in Amane's direction, which caused her heart to leap into an even faster rate than its perpetual fluttering. "I'm terribly sorry I detained you, my dear young lady." Amane noticed him glance back at Shimon and smile again at the enraged look these last words instigated from him.
"Ah- no, don't- um…I mean, thank you. It was very informative."
She jumped gingerly to her feet, as though afraid that they wouldn't support her weight. They almost didn't. Bowing as deeply as she could without toppling over, she turned and made her escape.
Thanks for reading :D :D
Note: I know the hieroglyphs wouldn't be representing English letters or words xD it's a phonetic scrpt, so the 'k' and the 't' are just the sound, not an actual letter.
Thanks again :D
~IA