While I was passed out I floated in and out of reality and consciousness, and to be completely honest I wasn't sure which was which. Several times I saw the faces of Hemetre and Jade above me, but their words just sounded like static. Once I even saw the Chief Lector and Hemetre talking and could make out bits and pieces of their conversation. "He doesn't belong here and if he stays he won't be safe." "You know as well as I do that someday he will change the world as we know it." "Yes, but that day will not be in our time, use the spell only when the time is right." That's when they saw I was coming too and quickly hushed. Hemetre made me drink a brownish-black potion that frankly tasted like sand mixed with scorpion poison, and yes I spoke from experience.
"Sleep my boy, you'll need your strength. The road ahead of you stretches much further than any could imagine." Chief Lector Ammon said with a soothing voice. I could feel myself slipping away once again as darkness washed over me.
The next time I woke, I was watching myself sleep. Now I had heard stories from Hemetre about when a person's body sleeps that part of their soul, the ba, was free to roam without restrictions. That wasn't even close to preparing me to look down and see that my usual body had been replaced by some type of bird with feathers. Also, I was see through, like the sphinx early that day, or depending on how long I had slept earlier that week.
I saw Hemetre sitting in an arm chair next to my bed, and for the first time in a while I saw how tired he looked. I mean he looked completely drained, with bags under his blood shot kohl lined eyes, and his usual strong firm expression was replaced with one of fear and uncertainty. He was lips were moving, but he talked in a hushed whisper and I realized he was praying too the gods to save me. I leaned over to touch his shoulder, but my wing just passed through and it hit me that I wasn't truly there.
Before I could dwell on it any longer, a strong wind started to pull me out of the infirmary and down the hall back to the main entryway. Another gust blew me straight through the walls at the end of the room and into the Hall of Ages. It was a small room with two differently lighted sections gold and silver, the first depicting the Age of the Gods; Ra coming out of the Sea of Chaos, the daily battle against Apophis, Osiris being crowed the pharaoh of the gods, but Set's subsequent betrayal, and finally Horus avenging his father and taking the throne.
The silver section was shorter than the first by much, and seemed like it had just started only showing Narmer uniting the kingdoms and the current pharaoh Hor-Aha addressing the people. Behind Hor-Aha stood a woman with black flowing hair and golden eyes, seeing her caused a twinge in my gut and a feeling of nostalgia came over me. Before I could dwell on it long the gust blew me to the throne where Hor-Aha sat whenever he visited the House, and on the steps sat Chief Lector Ammon.
Hieroglyphs floated off of him and went in all different directions filling the room, until they faded into nothing. He sat deep in thought looking at a scrying bowl, and with a start I realized it was the one I had used judging by the singe marks on the side. His head snapped up and looked where I was staring right at me, causing me to take a couple paces back.
"Something the matter sir?" came a voice from behind the dark curtains that I identified as Abysa.
The Chief Lector stared into me for a few more moments before shaking his head and saying, "No Abysa, just an old man growing older." She came out and stood behind him asking, "Master, the boy what do you see in him that I cannot? I know you secretly study divination, and perhaps am the only one privy to that information. So why can you not trust me with even the smallest of glimpses into the child's future."
"Sometimes knowing the future is a bigger burden than one can bear without losing their mind. They struggle to alter it, to fix mistakes they haven't even made and in doing so they set in motion a chain of events even worse than what would have originally occurred. The boy has a long destiny in front of him, one that will expand even past our dynasty and he will change the world over and over." Ammon said with a sigh, "He will face tragedy like none of us have ever knew and be hurt to the point of breaking, such was his fate since he was born."
Abysa sat down next to the Chief Lector and they sat like that for a long time until I felt my ba whisked out of the room and back to the infirmary.
I sat up with a start and gasped for air. Hemetre ran to my side and put a hollow reed to my lips urging me to drink, and at first I recoiled at the taste. It didn't taste like a juice or any potion I've drank before, instead it tasted of the warm honeyed biscuits that Jade always brought me when I was down. I drank down the entire glass before even stopping to take a breathe, and the most surprising thing was the perfectly unmelted ice cubes at the bottom of the glass, even though the drink tasted, without a doubt, like it had just come out of the oven.
"What did it taste like?" Hemetre asked, sounding slightly wistful.
"I am so sorry, I should've saved some for.." I trailed off when he started to shake his head.
"No, no, no my boy. That would've done more harm to me then it would've helped. I would've burned up from the inside, but you drank it all without a problem.. you truly are special." Hemetre answered.
"What do you mean? What was that stuff? And how long was I out?"
"You were like this for 6 days now, just floating in and out of being awake. And its just some medicine I acquired from a mountain tribe up north, squeezed from the nectar of the blessed fruits on Mount Olympus."
"I've never heard of it before, is it important?"
"In time I feel it will be, but for now we should get you moving about." and Hemetre helped me too my feet. "How do you feel?"
"Surprisingly amazing, reinvigorated. Like I could go through ten training sessions and not even break a sweat." And I jumped up and down to test my how my body was holding up and apart from my foot being asleep everything was back to normal, actually better than normal. Like I had just taken a direct shot of energy into my blood stream.
"Amazing.. Well we must go see the Chief Lector, he was very concerned about you collapsing as you did. He had never seen anything like it in all his years, and that's saying something. "
It was then that I remembered my vision in ba-bird form. Now that I was awake I was sure that he was talking about me, and too be frankly honest it sorta scared me. I considered telling Hemetre about it, but then thought of the first thing I saw on my spiritual journey; Hemetre at his weakest. Looking at his face convinced me that I should just keep it too myself, no need in getting him worked up over nothing.
We walked out the door and followed the same path I had taken as a ba, dispelling the small lingering thought that I had simply made it all up. Except whenever we came to the wall, Hemetre closed his eyes and pushed his hand outward in the air and the wall started to fold in on itself until we were left with a doorway big enough for two too pass through. As we crossed the threshold the wall started to self-repair itself until it was flawless erasing any trace of a entry even being there.
The Chief Lector was sitting in the same spot I had seen him in before, but there was no sign of the bowl. He was dressed in the priestly robes of the Chief Lector, a rich purple adorned with golden lining and his amethyst capped ivory staff sat on the stairs next to him.
"How do you feel Perseus? Anything different, changed at all?" He questioned, while looking me up and down like I would grow a third arm or something.
"No sir, perfectly normal. However, I am feeling a little cooped up been in the infirmary for too long." I responded hoping to win myself some free time to explore out of pity.
The Chief Lector's eyes shined and he nodded saying, "That's perfect, you see I have a task that will get you up and about as well as testing the extent of your recovery. Tell me boy have you ever travelled to Nubia?"