-Sadie Kane-
Walt and I had fallen asleep beside each other in the spare room the demigods offered for the magicians. And no, Felix and Jaz have the sole bed in the room, the rest of us have been either sleeping on the floor or up against the wall. And with Walt being the oldest of us, and me as leader, we weren't going to do anything other than exchange a few coy words and kiss.
Without our headpieces with us, we magicians are all sentenced to ba travels. Mine led me to a lovely mansion on the ocean coast. I wandered in to find it reminded me of Brooklyn House to a point. Intrigued, I wondered which Nome I was in until the library doors opened slowly. I watched Amos silently leave the library and left for the spiral stairs. Must be the Forty-sixth Nome in Seattle.
I followed him, but made sure to keep good distance between us seeing as he is Chief Lector. He went up two flights of the stairs and followed down the hall. I quietly stalked my uncle towards the end of the hall. "Kane," a wispy voice spoke, freezing both of us in response.
I quickly hid behind a miniature statue of Ra as Amos pulled his staff out and looked around to find himself alone. The door opened to the end of the hall to Kyra watching tiredly as her cousin tried to recover his nerves. "You okay?" She whispered.
"Never better," he assured, "what are you doing still being awake?"
"Worrying," she summed up. "You finally heading to bed?"
"No sure yet, at least going to check on Carter," Amos confirmed.
Kyra observed her cousin for two seconds, "What happened?"
"Just hallucinating, need to get some sleep," Amos lied.
Kyra's arms crossed stubbornly. "When are you going to stop lying to me?"
Amos frowned, "I'm pretty sure I've been hallucinating."
"You mean like the episode a year ago?" She worried.
Amos gave her a nervous smile, "You heard about that?"
Her expression hardened. "Everyone heard about you 'attacking' the First Nome. Vlad made sure of it."
"I bet he did," Amos grumbled.
"Think it could be a symptom?" Kyra offered.
Amos shrugged, "I've had other concerns since."
Silence for three seconds. "Okay, get some good sleep," Kyra waved goodnight as she entered her room again.
Amos faced me as soon as she closed the door, making me freeze. He rolled his eyes and gestured me to follow him to the room next door to Kyra's. I hesitated to and watched him quietly close the door and dispel a layer of magic on it. "If you're going to sneak up on me in ba form, at least try to hide it," he grumbled.
I watched as he shifted his bag from the couch to the floor quietly as to not wake Carter. "I heard it too," I started.
He sighed as he sat down, "I know you did. But don't worry about us, she won't try anything with so many witnesses."
"Why would she call you like that?' I asked.
"Cause paranoia, Apophis had done the same," Amos explained dryly. "Enough about our problems, how is your group faring with the demigods?"
"This Jason kid is far more annoying than Percy," I started, "but otherwise we are doing okay. Met the camp; they don't like us."
"It will take a mutual trust for them to," Amos continued. "Which will prove difficult, but you're the notorious Sadie Kane. You'll come across something that will help."
"Thanks for the leap of faith Uncle Amos," I muttered, "but I fear I will end up killing one of them if it keeps up."
He smiled for a second, "They come from a younger world; you must let their arrogance pass you like the wind. There is an Athenian child with them, I'm sure she will cooperate with you if the others won't."
"Annabeth is the only one that I actually like out of the lot of them," I admitted.
"Then you'll need to work on relations with the other seven," Amos continued. "She'll aid you; she knows what it means for the Per Ankh if you can achieve this."
"How sure are you on that?" I demanded.
"Very, don't let her appearance deceive you. She has her mother's wisdom, probably the only reason Percy is alive with his big mouth," Amos confirmed.
"That's for sure," I agreed quickly. "What were you and Kyra talking about?" I finally asked.
Amos froze to the thought before clearing his throat. "Heh, I suppose I never really told the full story on why I left Cairo as soon as I could," he started nervously. "I was recovering, and a long list of problems made themselves apparent. One morning, after encountering Menshikov, I thought I was dealing with Apophis in the hall. Irrationally, I went to defend myself and it appeared as if I was making a surprise attack on the First Nome." He summed up quickly.
"You sure you were hallucinating?" I wondered myself. "You know about what happened to the Evil Ice Cream Man, right?"
"Yes, I'm very aware. Michel and I discussed it on repeated occasions," Amos confirmed. "And you're probably right, but it's best to minimize panic by saying I am going crazy. Also, the name is Vladimir-"
"Might as well make the name a curse word," I suggested. "It's about as ugly as him too."
Amos rolled his eyes again, "You know, I don't know what I would do with myself without you and Carter making my day."
