Chapter Eleven


Katriel's Limbo.

A floating world of waiting, blowing curtains and centuries passed with ease before her eyes. Though she did not have eyes anymore. Simply she knew and she saw with that. No one spoke, but always in the distance like beautiful chimes was a song and the song changed and floated and she yearned to be in the song but it was not yet meant to be. She could not enter beyond the cloud that kept her and the light that illuminated the distant horizon was close but out of reach. A beautiful, kind man visited her often, but they did not speak. After wandering in this waiting world for hours -that she knew was actually thousands of years- she felt a pull.

A downward call reached up to her and it was then time to go, like water being let out through the drain she was drawn downwards towards the earth. She watched without eyes as the whole earth became a desert, the desert became a jungle and the jungle became a body lying in its own blood under the dark canopy. Through the gaping wound in the body's chest Katriel entered. All was dark, and then her heart started to beat. Gasping in air through lungs that expanded at her will Katriel opened her eyes within the body, looking around at the slowly lighting, encompassing jungle.

Kat blinked, mouth open. She reached up and touched her chest, the wound and the pain were gone.

She slowly lowered her hand. Memories that were hers and yet conflicted with memories she already had mingled in her head. She recalled two different sets of her past: being raised in Egyptian palace corridors by bald servants and being raised by English parents across the European country-side.

"I…am Katriel." Kat blinked. "I remember. I was waiting to save master Imhotep…"

She staggered up onto her feet, feeling slightly awkward. She had never left her body, yet part of her had left and that part struggled with controlling a body when it had been without one for so long. Did that…make sense? Kat shook her head, what mattered now was that she get to the center of Ahm Shere and find Imhotep. And find Alex.

She felt something hit against her from inside her pocket. She reached her fingers in and pulled out a small glass container. The one with the aloe inside that Imhotep had given her.

Imhotep….

She stared at the glass, her eyes longingly searching it, willing it to reflect the image of her master and his face when he had given it to her: she could nearly see his smile as the folds of his skin pulled up higher as he stared at her with his black, perfect eyes.

Her heart skipped. How far from him was she now? The glass glinted in the light.

Kat suddenly froze, looking up. The canopy leaves where tinged with soft light filtering through them. How much time had passed? Was it dawn now? The bracelet! It would kill Alex at dawn if he wasn't inside the pyramid!

Kat bolted through the jungle, racing against the growing light of day. Tree limbs whipped at her face and arms but she didn't care. She jumped over logs and crunched over the undergrowth, heart pounding and face flushing.

As she ran memories flashed before her eyes as clear as the jungle around her: Her face in a water basin, her colorful hairband (the only treasure she owned), the palace lit by torches as guards made rounds under the moon, fetching water from the well as the other slaves gossiped. She rushed through an undergrowth patch and suddenly came out into a grassy clearing-grass as high as her shoulders. She paused, looking around in the growing light. The grass was all twisted and bent around, like a great group had not only passed through but scattered throughout the area. Glinting in the light of morning, the top of the legendary pyramid of Ahm Shere could be seen just above the waving canopy leaves. She had to cross the grass to get to it. Kat took a few steps in, her foot stepping on a soft log.

A soft log?

She looked down, "Ah!" She hopped back quickly, realizing she had stepped on a body as it lay on the ground. One of the red guards. A dead guard.

A few other red flashes of bodies on the ground could be seen when the breeze shifted the grasses. What exactly had she missed?

Kat walked around the body and continued wading through the grass until she stumbled over another body-another dead red guard. Kat's nose scrunched and she brushed the grass aside, looking at the ground before she stepped through the field. She scooped a tuft of grass aside and saw a pair of familiar glazed over eyes staring up at her from the ground.

Gasp.

Kat's mouth opened, looking down at the silently staring face of Lock-nah. Blood covered his throat in a clean line-someone had slit his neck with a blade. Kat's heart raced, if Lock-nah was dead…what were the chances that Alex and Imhotep were injured…or worse?

Drawing her kerchief, Kat bent down in the grasses-watching Lock-nah's dead stare carefully. He did not move, he did not blink or breathe. He just stared at her unseeingly with cloudy eyes.

He too had been Imhotep's faithful servant, and he had not been cruel to her either.

"You deserve a decent burial, for all you've done…but all I can manage for now, is this." She wrapped the handkerchief around Lock-nah's eye's, closing them for him forever.

"Goodbye, Lock-nah."

Getting up she looked at the glinting pyramid top over the trees and continued wading through the grass, stepping over dead bodies as quickly as she could.

Finally stumbling out of the jungle into the clearing, Kat looked up at the pyramid, its stones already white in the illuminating sun. She looked around, there was no one here.

Perhaps they were inside already? She hoped Alex had made it. She hoped Imhotep had made it as well.

Her eyes popped as she saw blood spotting the sand and several footprints leading in to the pyramid from the area.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Kat staggered. The pyramid was vibrating, shaking the ground beneath her feet like an earthquake. Grasping a nearby statue paving the way to the pyramid she held on until the shaking subsided. Noticing as the quake stopped the groaning trees around the pyramid continued to sway violently. Wind began to whip her hair into her face, carrying with it small leaves and jungle debris.

Something was upsetting Ahm Shere.

Kat looked up at the monumental pyramid and ran inside. The walls were lit with torches as she entered into the underbelly of the pyramid's tunnels. She ran, hair flying, heart racing, feet pumping. Another quake erupted under her and above her, parts of wall crumbling down as the floor cracked. Gripping the walls she fought her way through the earthquake and down the hall. A large intersection impeded her direct path and flinching against the tremors of the pyramid she studied the hieroglyphs on the walls. She closed her eyes, concentrating. An old memory resurfaced.

Ancient Flashback

Katriel knelt on the hard floor, vigorously scrubbing the furniture bases with her oiled rag, sealing the wood against pests and rot with polish. Imhotep was sitting in his chair, silently reviewing scrolls with a bent head. The curtains breezed in the wind from off the balcony and the warmed mid-day aromas rising from a lower courtyard wafted up into the room, filling it with scents of exotic plants.

Katriel stopped scrubbing, wiping a strand of wet hair from her forehead, surveying her work. Everything in the room was spotless from the swept floors to the dusted walls. And now that all the woodwork was sitting in a film of protective, shiny coating, there was nothing left for her to do but return to the slave's quarters.

Perhaps the new girl, Adina, would want to play with her? Did other Hebrew girls still play? Katriel wasn't certain…she hadn't ever really been around many people her age in the palace.

She wrapped her rag around the small glass bottle of oily polish and stood, rubbing the stiff muscles in her neck with her free hand.

As she stood she glanced at the parchment in front of Imhotep at his desk and stood with her neck craned to see the pictures and scribbles he so diligently studied.

Katriel wasn't even taught the Egyptian language until she came here, she had no school and had never learned to read outside of what Hebrew the older slaves taught her after chores.

Katriel studied the colorful pictures from a distance, they seemed to swirl with interesting messages-though how anyone could decipher those messages was beyond her. Sometimes pictures weren't even used and parchment and scrolls would just be a jumble of squiggles that (impossibly) made sense to the literate.

Imhotep's head lifted slightly. The noise from her cleaning had stopped and he noticed. He turned in his chair slightly and caught her staring at the scroll he was working on.

Imhotep raised an eyebrow, "…You're finally done then?"

Katriel looked over, noticing his eyes on her. She quickly bent to the ground in a low bow, "I apologize for disturbing you. I am finished."

Imhotep looked at the scroll, then back to her, he had caught her looking at it. His brow lowered slightly as he thought, suddenly an eyebrow flickered up as if a sudden, unusual decision had been reached, "…You can't read, can you?"

"No, master."

"Hmph. Most Egyptians cannot either, even with Hieroglyphs being the simplest to understand…" Imhotep commented casually, looking back over to his scroll.

Katriel bowed and took a step to leave.
"Even this symbol here is easy enough to understand. Tell me, what do you think this one means?" Imhotep said, halting Katriel's retreat.

Katriel looked over at him, he gestured lazily to a picture on the papyrus parchment. Katriel slowly walked over, stopping a few feet behind him. He pointed to a picture of a scarab beetle.

"A…beetle, sir?"

"The scarab, 'Kheperu', a symbol of reincarnation. In this context it means a manifestation of someone else, an incarnation or version of another person." Imhotep said, gesturing with boredom to another glyph, "Tell me what you see here."

"I see…a cross?"

"An 'Ankh', the symbol of life. Only those wishing for immortality carry the cross…so naturally no one does but the gods." Imhotep smirked.

Katriel leaned over more, glancing cautiously between the glyphs and Imhotep who was rubbing his own stiff neck muscles, "…And this one, sir?"

She pointed to a half circle with three lines over it. Imhotep glanced at this briefly, "'Neb', master. Do you recognize it?" He asked easily.

Katriel nodded, "…in the slave quarters, that word is on the walls often."

Imhotep paused and Katriel looked over at him, blinking as she realized how close she had leaned in to the desk to see the glyphs. He was right beside her, shimmering eyes only a few inches from hers. Kat quickly looked away and back off a few steps, face reddening. She was not supposed to get this familiar with a master, reservation and hard labor were the attributes of a dutiful slave.

"Hm. I've never been to the slave quarters. I wonder… what exactly is written down there. Remember the hieroglyphs and bring them back for me to read, I'm bored with these official texts." Imhotep looked down at the scroll, waving a hand for her to go.

Katriel blinked, that was an unusual request.

He looked up, "Well go on, you can't possibly have anything left to clean in this room."

Katriel flushed redder.

"If you're quick in retrieving the glyphs I'll teach you what they mean and you can know what it is the palace officials forgot you could not understand." He smirked, no doubt wondering who had been in charge of that little oversight. Illiterate slaves were not really a new concept.

Katriel's eyes widened, he was going to teach her to read?

"Y-yes sir, right away." She hurried out of the room.

Imhotep looked down his nose at the parchment in front of him as bugs buzzed outside the balcony in the heat of day. Anything was better than these historical accounts of past embalmings he had to review. Perhaps this would be entertaining at the least?

End Flashback

Kat opened her eyes and stared at the glyphs, understanding their meaning as she searched the pictures. The hall opened to the right and to the left, and for each were the directions for which way meant which.

"This way…Scorpion…King." Kat sounded out. She looked down the hall as another tremor rumbled the building to its very core.

If anyone was alive yet, they would be down this way. And if not…Kat shuddered as she recalled the tales of the Scorpion King whispered by the Egyptians at Thebes.

Kat raced down the hallway, heart beating frantically as the exercise and thought of her running inevitably to her certain doom seemed to toll louder with each resounding shake of the walls.

Suddenly she skidded to a stop outside an open door frame, peering in through the rumbling and crumbling room beyond.

"Jonathon? Alex!" Kat gasped, seeing the gangly figure of Jonathon standing beside Alex. They whipped around at hearing their names.

"Kat!" Alex shouted.

"My word! What happened to you?!" Jonathon stated, staring at Kat's shirt, the once white front covered in blood.

"No!" A familiar voice shouted, the voice of Evie.

Kat looked around the room, catching a glimpse of Evie in the doorframe next to Anck-su-Namun, who had just had their hands around each other's throats.

"Naaaaaaiiii!" Imhotep's voice cried out in despair from somewhere in the room. Kat looked immediately to the noise but a black cloud of ashen dust seemed to explode out, blocking everything from sight.

Before anything else could happen the room violently shook, careening Kat, Jonathon and Alex to the side. Blindly staggering back up, Kat thought she could hear Rick O'Connell's voice, but it was quickly drowned out by the pieces of ceiling cracking off and crashing into the floor.

Kat looked around as the black cloud cleared, the room was breaking into pieces around them. A piece of ceiling worked loose and fell towards the center of the room, right into a large fissure running the length of the area. Hands suddenly appeared over the edge of the fissure, a shaved head rising from it.

Imhotep!

Another set of hands gripped the fissure edge, pulling himself up beside Imhotep.

"Dad!" Alex shouted as Rick grunted, holding onto the ledge, pulling himself up enough for his head to show. Imhotep was beside him, grunting and struggling to get back up. Something must have been pulling them down. Imhotep's head slipped back below the fissure as he grunted, fingers straining against the stone.

Kat's eyes widened. He was going to fall!

She sprinted forward, but a hunk of ceiling crashed right in front of her and she quickly sought shelter by the wall, edging her way to Imhotep carefully as the room started to disintegrate.

Rick's head disappeared for a moment, "Arrggh!" He pulled his head back up, "Evie, no!"

Kat looked over to see Evie looking intently up at the ceiling, poising herself into a running position. The intensity of her gaze told of what she was planning to do: exactly what Kat had.

Rick shouted, voice gravely, "Get out of here! Just get out of here! Noo!" Evie dove out into the room, nearly falling backwards to avoid a falling hunk of ceiling.

"Mom!" Alex shouted.

Kat edged closer to the fissure as well, keeping one eye on Rick and Imhotep, one eye on the falling ceiling and one eye on Evie as she dodged another large chunk of crumbling pyramid. Like Kat Evie quickly retreated to large pillar for a moment, gauged the debris raining down, then dove out in a burst of speed.

"Hang on Rick!" Jonathon shouted as Rick's grip weakened and he was pulled down for a moment before popping up again with a heavy grunt. Evie dove, avoiding several chunks of ceiling, and grabbed hold of Rick.

Kat hurried closer to Imhotep, hugging the wall, out of sight of nearly everyone. She ran to a pillar, avoiding a colossal crash with falling stone as it just skimmed by her shoulder. She was so close to him now.

Imhotep was holding on, but his face was contorted as he struggled to keep himself up on the ledge. Evie pulled Rick up, inching him out of the fissure.

"Anck-su-Namun!" Imhotep shouted, reaching one hand out, all fingers extended towards Anck-su-Namun. She was still grasping at the door frame from the other side of the room.

"Save me!" He shouted in Egyptian, face contorting as his muscles bulged, losing the fight. The strength he had once had to lift a Nile was very clearly gone now.

Anck-su-Namun looked up at the falling ceiling of the inner room, eyes wide.

"SAVE ME!" He shouted again, eyes fearful and tone heightened. His other hand holding on to the ledge as he stretched out his open one to Anck-su-Namun.

"…NAI!" She shouted and took off in the other direction, her long black shadow disappearing in seconds.

"ANCK-SU-NAMUN!" Imhotep shouted, eyes full of horrified betrayal and shock. Tensed and unmoving he stared after her. After a moment, as if something inside him had suddenly died his muscles relaxed, dark eyes once so full of light were now rimmed with water as he stared at the empty space she had retreated into, "Anck-su-Namun…"

Evie pulled Rick out of the chasm and holding one another they backed into a column, seeking a temporary shelter from the hail of ceiling.

Imhotep's wet eyes slowly turned to face them. He stared at them blankly for a moment before a small, ironic smirk twitched at the corner of his mouth. He looked back over at where Anck-su-Namun had been and shifted his position.

Kat's eyes widened and she dove out into the open.

Eyes rolling back, Imhotep lifted his hands from off the fissure ledge and fell backwards-Kat's hand grabbing his arm just as he fell.

"Arh!" The weight of Imhotep jerked Kat forward over the fissure. With wide eyes she could see now what had been making it so difficult to climb out. Hundreds of thousands of burnt bodies lined the edges of the fissure, clawing out and moaning. Several arms were tugging Imhotep's body downwards where a distant, magma-like glow emitted miles below at the bottom of the fissure.

Teeth clenched as her arm threatened to pop out of its socket she looked over to Imhotep's face. Blank eyes stared at her for a brief second before his dark brow twitched. His eyes widened wet, bright and black.

"I won't let you die! You're too important to me!" Kat shouted in Hebrew as debris crashed to the floor around her, shoulder straining against the weight as she started to slip further out over the edge.

"She's slipping!" Evie shouted.

"Kat!" Rick shouted.

Two pairs of hands came down and were pulling at Kat's legs, keeping her from falling in.

Kat reached out with her other arm, fingers open, "I've waited so long for you, let me help you! Hold on to me!"

Imhotep stared at her for a moment, eyes focusing with a new clarity on her face.

"Argh!" Kat closed her eyes, her shoulder started to pop as her ribs dug further into the ledge.

And then Imhotep's large hand closed around Kat's arm, tightening. His other hand gripped Kat's open fingers, lacing his fingers with hers.

Rick and Evie tugged against Kat's legs, pulling her back from over the ledge.

The crashing around them intensified as bursts of hot air sped into the room, whipping bits of sediment from the crumbling ceiling into their eyes and lungs. Coughing and heaving Imhotep over the edge of the trench Kat finally managed, with Evie and Rick, to pull him to safety. Their hands still connected.

"Rick! Evelyn! This place is coming down! Get out of there!" Jon shouted over the thunderous noise.

"We need to move, now!" Rick shouted.

Kat knelt on the floor, facing Imhotep, who sat beside her, time slowing down. They held hands as she stared at him and him at her, flickering between both eyes his stare bored deeply into both of hers. This was a different stare, a stare that neither Kat nor Katriel had ever seen from him. Kat groggily heard the distant thunder of the pyramid collapsing around them, but all she could think of was the new expression in those eyes…on that face….

Kat blinked, the motion seeming unnaturally slow, as she realized the difference, He's looking at me like a person…not just his slave.

She felt her hands slip out of his as her body was moving away, a deep, slow voice speaking somewhere in the background, "Leeeeeeeeet's…Gooooooooo!"

She watched as she was taken backward, Imhotep still on the floor, his eyes never leaving hers. Then a piece of falling debris hit her cheek, snapping her back to normal time with the pain. The rumbling was immediately clear and distinct, time caught up in an instant and everything was moving too fast. Rick had her slung over one shoulder, as he and Evie raced across the room towards Jonathon and Alex. Rick hoisted Kat off his shoulder as they got to the doorway.

"This thing is coming down! We've got to go!" Rick shouted pointing through the doorway. The O'Connell's started to run out the door and Kat turned around, looking back into the room. Before she could see anything a large pillar came crashing down and a meter from her head and blocked everything from sight.

"Kat! Are you with us? Come on!" Rick shouted, Kat looked back slowly and noticed she was the last one. She stared blankly at Rick, his open palm extended through the doorframe. Her eyes flickered to a black tattoo on his arm, it reminded her of that black haired man she had seen a week earlier. Alex's face was in the door frame then, his brown eyes looking up at her.

She blinked. She was holding up the O'Connell's. Alex could get hurt if he stayed around here much longer. Kat looked back once into the room, no longer able to see anything. Then she hurried through the doorframe with Rick and Alex.

They ran through the halls, a strong wind whipped through and slowed their steps. As they came to what should have been the exit, they were met with a slew of plant matter spewing through the doorway like a rushing river.

"Whoa!" Rick shouted, a creepy little pygmy thing shrieking as it got whipped with the green tide, right by Rick's face. Kat didn't get a good look, but it appeared to resemble a mummified baby…only nightmarishly more twisted and scary.

Rick looked around, their only exit blocked. His eyes caught sight of a staircase, "Up! Go up!"

Evie, Jonathon, Rick, Alex and Kat ran up the steps, every window and opening of the pyramid had green matter spewing in, the wind carrying it stronger than any tornado could possibly be. Finally the stairway ended after climbing story upon story. Out of breath the O'Connells and Kat came out on top of the Pyramid.

Kat stared with disbelief as the oasis of Ahm Shere was being sucked back into the pyramid. Miles and miles of jungle looked suddenly like it was water being let out by the tub drain.

"Keep climbing!" Rick shouted. Together they climbed up the face of the pyramid, Evie and Kat taking turns to lift Alex up onto the high blocks as they ascended to the top. A few minutes of climbing and they ran out of pyramid to climb, facing only a giant metal scorpion at the top limestone block.

"Rick!" Evie cried out, holding Alex close as the whipping jungle rose slowly up the pyramid, threatening to suck them in, "We're trapped!"

Kat looked around desperately, there was nowhere left to go as the jungle swirled around them violently. Rick held Evie and Alex close to him as Jonathon stood near Kat. Kat looked at the huddled family so close to her now, her eyes widening suddenly. Jonathon looked very much like…Pharaoh's young son, the one who was born to his third favorite wife and was carted away for his disreputable behaviors. No one in the palace was allowed to speak of it. And Evie…Kat looked at the frightened face of Evie as she held her family close to her, "…Princess…Nefertiri?"

Evie's eyes flicked over to Kat, hearing her over the whipping of the wind and cracking of the trees as they turned to splinters against the rumbling pyramid's stone surface.

"Look!" Alex shouted, pointing upwards. Everyone turned, to the side of them a giant brown balloon hovered.

"Izzie!" Rick shouted.

Kat stared wide-eyed at the large balloon, coming down closer to them. Rick quickly lifted Alex as the boat the balloon carried floated within reach, netting hanging over the side. Alex grabbed hold of the netting. Rick quickly boosted Evie up next as Kat felt the first leaves whip against her boots.

"Come on!" Rick said, Kat hurried forward and Rick hoisted her up enough for her to grab the net and climb in. Kat's feet hit solid wood, the giant balloon above them radiating heat and looking like the oddest roof over the boat. Jonathon and Rick grabbed hold of the netting as Izzie, the sweaty, dark-skinned pilot wearing an aviators' hood began to lift them away from the pyramid.

"Jonathon!" Evie yelled.

"Ah! Pull me up! Pull me up! Wait…Lower me down! Lower me down!" Jonathon cried out.

"It's not worth your life you idiot!" Rick shouted.

Kat looked over the wooden railing, to see Jonathon hanging precariously by his legs in the net, stretching his arms out for the single largest jewel ever seen, being held up by the metal scorpion figure, "Yes it is! Yes it is! Argh!"

Jonathon's hands snatched the jewel up seconds before the scorpion disappeared, "Ha! Ah! Pull me up! Pull me up!"

They grabbed hold of Jonathon's trousers and hoisted him back over into the boat. In the next moment the pyramid was all but gone and a sudden shot of sand billowed high into the sky where it had once stood, the balloon taking them just inches from the blast. Kat stood still, looking over the ledge of the boat as the oasis of Ahm Shere disappeared into nothing but desert. Her eyes stared unseeingly, nothing could have survived that.

"Whew!" Izzie cried, "O'Connell, you almost got me killed!"

"At least you didn't get shot." Rick replied.

Evie hurried over to Izzie, kissing him repeatedly on the forehead, "Thank you! Thank you!"

"O'Connell, who've you been messing with this time?" Izzie asked, not exactly pulling off the annoyed look he wanted to from Evie's kisses.

"You know, the usual…pygmies, mummies…big bugs." Rick stated.

Evie went up to Rick and they began to talk, as Jonathon and Izzie began some argument over the jewel. Alex came over to Kat, looking up at her as she gripped the railing, "…Why did you do that?"

Kat looked down at Alex, snapping her view away from a black rider waving at them from the sand dune. From the distance it was hard to tell exactly, but it looked like Ardeth Bay. Rick waved from the front of the craft at him.

"Do what?"

Alex gestured off into the desert, "You know, save him? Why did you?"

Kat looked back off into the desert, watching Ardeth ride away on his horse, "…He's dead now, Alex. So it doesn't matter."

"What…what happened to you in the jungle?" Alex asked. Kat glanced down to see he was looking at her blood-stained shirt.

"Anck-su-Namun stabbed me." Kat replied.

"Do you…need a doctor?" Alex asked, hesitantly, watching her carefully.

"No. I'm all better now." Kat said, smiling down at him.

Alex nodded, easily accepting that, "She got mom too, me and uncle Jon brought her back with the Book of the Dead. How…how did you…?"

"Come back?" Kat finished. She looked out at the horizon, "…A long time ago I gave myself away. When I died, that part had room to come back."

"I don't understand." Alex said puzzled.

Evie was suddenly beside them, "It feels like two lives living in one body, separate memories, but one person."

Kat spun around, seeing Evie up close, she felt her head duck quickly. How had she never noticed how similar to Nefertiri Evelyn had looked?

Alex looked between Kat and his mom, "Why are you bowing?"

Kat looked up cautiously, "Because Alex, your mother is…was…a future Ruler of Egypt last I saw her."

"Reincarnated Princess." Rick appeared, wrapping an arm around Evie's waist, "That wasn't exactly hard to guess was it?"

Evie smirked, turning to face him, "Because of my charm, wit and beauty?"

"Because you can be such a royal pain." Rick countered. "I thought I almost lost you there."

"For a moment there you did. Would you like to know what Heaven looks like?" Evie asked.

"Later." Rick said leaning in. Alex and Kat averted their eyes as the couple began to kiss. "Argh, get a room" Alex muttered, walking to a different part of the craft.

Kat smiled and looked back out into the desert, smile fading as she stared at the passing sand dunes. After all that time…she still hadn't been able to save him...to save Imhotep. Kat felt her grip loosen on the railing, her shoulders slumping. What good had she managed to do?

After a few moments Rick walked over to break up fight escalating between Izzie and Jonathon over the jewel, "Would you two cut it out!"

Evie set her hands on the railing beside Kat, "…I remember you, from Thebes." Kat glanced up at Evie, who was looking out at the horizon now.

Evie continued, "I'm sorry I can't remember more. But if it helps, when you died, news had reached the palace of the High Priest's strange behavior. There were even some guards sent to break up a small band of Hebrews trying to claim your body for burial, but he wouldn't give you up. He even tried to get permission to read the sacred books and my father refused him. We thought he…killed you, and was trying to bring you back to cover it up, as you were a palace slave there were small infractions he could have been charged with."

"Oh." Kat replied, feeling her heart sinking in her chest as Evie spoke. Imhotep had risked the disapproval of the palace…for a slave? Anck-su-Namun hadn't quite said as much as that.

"But seeing what you did down there for him…we were wrong weren't we? You two…cared about each other?" Evie looked down at Kat, an eyebrow slightly raised.

"…It went only one way." Kat said, looking up at Evie. "He didn't care about me like that. I was just…valuable property to him…probably just made interesting by my spirit departing. He was the high priest of death after all, he would find that intriguing."

"…Your feelings for him though…still exist?" Evie pressed quietly.

Kat looked up at her, a small smile on her lips that did not reach her eyes as she said, "It doesn't matter now."

She felt the glass jar in her pocket and reached her hand down to hold on to it tightly, in her mind she could see the last image she had caught of Imhotep. He was watching her on the floor as the pyramid tumbled down around them. His eyes on hers, recognizing in her something that he hadn't recognized before. Something he could now never recognize again.

Kat looked out at the horizon feeling like it was further away than any she had ever seen before, clutching the jar with white knuckles in her pocket, "He isn't coming back."


Writer's Note: Wow, thanks for all the reviews and feedback! I hope this chapter's length makes up for the slower update than my last few had been. School has started and has started with the throwing down of the gauntlet. To defend my honor-and my grades-I don't know how often I'll be able to update now but I've got a really neat idea for the rest of this story, so I'm excited to write more! See you in the next chapter. ~PineFlowerSap