Hello again guys it's me again. My house is kinda insane right now. (Ducks under shoe, then table.) At any rate Enjoy!

Aria

The training excursion kind of failed, miserably. It started with my half sister scorching Zia's face.

I had been explaining to Carter how words of power worked. When...

Boom!

I whirled around and saw Zia standing there a look of complete shock written upon her face. Despite the fact that she had just been scorched she seemed fine. I had to bite my lower lip to keep from laughing at her expression.

Sadie gasped. "Oh God. Sorry, Sorry. Do I die now?"

Zia blinked and for three terrifying heartbeats her face was expressionless.

"Now," she announced. "I think you are ready to duel."

We used another magic gateway, which Zia summoned right on the library wall. We stepped into a circle of swirling sand and popped out the other side, covered in dust and grit, in the front of some ruins. The harsh sunlight almost blinded me.

"I hate portals," Carter muttered, brushing the sand out of his hair.

Then he looked around and his eyes widened. "This is Luxor! That's, like, hundreds of miles south of Cairo."

I giggled at his frantic exploring like a kid.

Sadie sighed exasperated. "And that amazes you after teleporting from New York?"

He was too busy checking out our surroundings to answer.

"Carter-" I was interrupted by a strange shuddering in the earth. "What, was, that?" I asked.

The three stared at me.

"What was what?" Sadie asked.

"Nothing." I said quickly. 'I'll explain later."

Carter shrugged and went back to looking around, Sadie face-palmed herself and Zia started explaining something.

"Luxor is a modern name," Zia said. "This was once the city of Thebes. This temple was one of the most important in Egypt. It is the best place for us to practice."

"Because it's already destroyed?" Sadie asked.

Zia gave my half sister one of her famous scowls. "No, Sadie—because it is still full of magic. And it was sacred to your family."

"Our family?" Carter asked.

I sighed, my family.

Zia didn't explain, as usual. She just gestured for us to follow.

"I don't like those ugly sphinxes," Sadie mumbled as we walked down the path.

"Those ugly sphinxes are creatures of law and order," Zia said, "protectors of Egypt. They are on our side."

"If you say so."

Carter nudged me as we passed the obelisk. "You know the missing one is in Paris."

Sadie rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Mr. Wikipedia. I thought they were in New York and London." For once I was actually glad we were related.

"That's a different pair," Carter said, like she was supposed to care. "The other Luxor obelisk is in Paris."

"Wish I was in Paris," she said. "Lot better than this place."

I glared at her. "This Place was once a great city. So it is a natural place of magic." Then I winced. "Geez! I sound like Annabeth."

We walked into a dusty courtyard surrounded by crumbling pillars and statues with various missing body parts. Still, I could tell the place had once been quite impressive.

"Where are the people?" Sadie asked ignoring my comment. "Middle of the day, winter holidays. Shouldn't there be loads of tourists?"

Zia made a distasteful expression. "Usually, yes. I have encouraged them to stay away for a few hours."

"How?"

"Common minds are easy to manipulate." She looked pointedly at me, and I remembered how she'd forced me to tell her who I was when we first met. Oh, yes, she was just begging for more scorched eyebrows.

"Now, to the duel." She summoned her staff and drew two circles in the sand about ten meters apart. She directed me to stand in one of them and she stood in the other.

"Let me guess, we're an example."

She gave me a 'Well Duh!' look and pulled out her staff.

I had a sudden flashback of the girl with the Hydra.

I shook my head and set my bag on the ground withdrawing my staff.

I faced her and inhaled deeply. Then I tossed my staff on the ground and it transformed into a large panther. Zia stared at me, and mouthed, A panther!

I shrugged smiling nervously. I opened my palm and the giant cat morphed back into my staff and flew back into my hand. I ducked under her staff and cursed. My hands went to my knives. I shook my head and turned around just in time to be knocked out of the circle by Zia's snake.

I groaned sat up and rubbed my head, glaring at her.

She directed Sadie to stand in one of them and Carter in the other.

"I've got to duel him?" She asked asked.

Perhaps Carter was thinking the same thing, because he'd started to sweat. "What if we do something wrong?" he asked.

"I will oversee the duel," Zia promised. "We will start slowly. The first magician to knock the other out of his or her circle wins."

"But we haven't been trained!" Sadie protested.

"One learns by doing," Zia said. "This is not school, Sadie. You cannot learn magic by sitting at a desk and taking notes. You can only learn magic by doing magic."

"But—"

"Summon whatever power you can," Zia said. "Use whatever you have available. Begin!"

She looked at Carter doubtfully.

Carter drew his sword, though I couldn't imagine what he'd do with it. Rather hard to hit me from ten meters away.

Sadie raised her staff.

A small flame sputtered to life on the end of the staff. The fire momentarily brightened, but then my eyesight went fuzzy.

"You okay?" Carter called.

"No," She complained.

"If she knocks herself out, do I win?" he asked.

"Shut up!" Sadie said.

"Sadie, you must be careful," Zia called. "You drew from your own reserves, not from the staff. You can quickly deplete your magic."

She got shakily to her feet. "Explain?"

"A magician begins a duel full of magic, the way you might be full after a good meal—"

"Which I never got," She reminded her.

"Each time you do magic," Zia continued, "you expend energy. You can draw energy from yourself, but you must know your limits. Otherwise you could exhaust yourself, or worse."

"How much worse?"

"You could literally burn up."

Sadie gulped."But I've done magic before. Sometimes it doesn't exhaust me. Why?"

From around her neck, Zia unclasped an amulet. She threw it into the air, and with a flash it turned into a giant vulture. The massive black bird soared over the ruins. As soon as it was out of sight, Zia extended her hand and the amulet appeared in her palm.

"Magic can be drawn from many sources," she said. "It can be stored in scrolls, wands, or staffs. Amulets are especially powerful. Magic can also be drawn straight from Ma'at, using the Divine Words, but this is difficult. Or"—she locked eyes with Sadie—"it can be summoned from the gods."

"Why are you looking at me?" She demanded. "I didn't summon any gods. They just seem to find me!"

She put on her necklace but said nothing.

"Hold on," Carter said. "You claimed this place was sacred to our family."

"It was," Zia agreed.

"But wasn't this..." Carter frowned. "Didn't the pharaohs have a yearly festival here or something?"

"Indeed," she said. "The pharaoh would walk down the processional path all the way from Karnak to Luxor. He would enter the temple and become one with the gods. Sometimes, this was purely ceremonial. Sometimes, with the great pharaohs like Ramesses, here—" Zia pointed to one of the huge crumbling statues.

"They actually hosted the gods,"Sadie interrupted.

Zia narrowed her eyes. "And yet you claim to know nothing of your family's past."

"Wait a second," Carter protested. "You're saying we're related to—"

"The gods choose their hosts carefully," Zia said. "They always prefer the blood of the pharaohs. When a magician has the blood of two royal families..."

"So is Aria related to us?" Carter asked.

I glanced at Zia who nodded encouragingly. "I don't know who my parents where at all but it seems that we might be related. Onto more important things..."

Sadie shrugged. "Our parents were from different royal lines, Dad...he must've been descended from Narmer, the first pharaoh. I told you he looked like that picture!"

"That's not possible," Carter said. "That was five thousand years ago." But I could see his mind was racing. "Then the Fausts..." He turned to Zia. "Ramesses the Great built this courtyard. You're telling me our mom's family is descended from him?"

Zia sighed. "Don't tell me your parents kept this from you. Why do you think you are so dangerous to us?"

"You think we're hosting gods," Sadie said, absolutely stunned. "That's what you're worried about—just because of something our great-times-a-thousand grandparents did? That's completely daft."

I could feel my temperature rising like this information was extremely dangerous to me.

"Then prove it!" Zia said. "Duel, and show me how weak your magic is!"

"Zia!" I yelled.

She ignored me and turned her back on us like we meant nothing to her. I felt like a shard of glass had just impaled itself into my chest. I'd known Zia longer than anyone, she was like an older sister to me. A sister who just turned on me. I completely tuned out the world in shock.

Until a tiger leaped over me and charged Carter. I shrieked and drew my knives on instinct. Carter's form flickered. He rose off the ground, surrounded by a golden holographic shell, a combat avatar, his giant image was a warrior with the head of a falcon. Carter swung his sword, and the falcon warrior did likewise, slicing the lion with a shimmering blade of energy. The cat dissolved in midair, and Sadie's staff clattered to the ground, cut neatly in half.

Carter had just summoned the power of Horus.

Sadie turned defiantly to Zia. "Better?"

Zia was standing there in shock. "The Avatar... he just...he just summoned..."

Before she could finish, footsteps pounded on the stones. A young initiate raced into the courtyard, looking panicked. Tears streaked his dusty face. He said something to Zia in hurried Arabic. When Zia got his message, she sat down hard in the sand. She covered her face and began to tremble.

I ran to her. "Zia! What happened? What did he say?"

She looked at me her eyes shattered. "He- He-"

She broke down and started crying. I stumbled back and fell down on the ground. Why? I asked. Why does everything I cherish have to be taken away?!

"Zia?" Carter said. "What's wrong?"

She took a deep breath, trying to gather her composure. When she looked up, her eyes were red. She said something to the adept, who nodded and ran back the way he'd come.

"News from the First Nome," she said shakily. "Iskandar..." Her voice broke.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Sadie asked. "That's what he meant."

"What do you mean: 'That's what he meant'?"

"Nothing. How did it happen?"

"In his sleep," Zia said. "He—he had been ailing for years, of course. But still..."

"It's okay," Carter said. "I know he was important to you."

She wiped at her tears, then rose unsteadily. "You don't understand. Desjardins is next in line. As soon as he is named Chief Lector, he will order you executed."

"But we haven't done anything!" Sadie said.

Zia's eyes flashed with anger. "You still don't realize how dangerous you are? You are hosting gods."

I wasn't processing much of this, in fact I was still in a daze when Zia hauled me up and told me I needed to get my family to safety.

"What?" I asked.

"The obelisk at the entrance, fool! You have five minutes, perhaps less, before Desjardins sends orders for your execution. Flee, and destroy Set. The Demon Days begin at sundown. All portals will stop working. You need to get as close as possible to Set before that happens."

"Hold on," Sadie said. "I meant you should come with us and help us! We can't even use an obelisk, much less destroy Set!"

"I cannot betray the House," she said. "You have four minutes now. If you can't operate the obelisk, you'll die."

I had no intention of leaving, but when Sadie grabbed my hand and pulled me along I didn't resist.

"Hurry," Carter told Sadie. He grabbed the staff-rod from his bag and threw it to her. "Since I cut yours in half. I'll stick with the sword."

"But I don't know what I'm doing!" she protested, searching the obelisk's base as if she hoped to find a secret switch.

The magician regained his balance and spit the sand out of his mouth. Then he spotted us. "Stop!"

"Yeah," I muttered. "That's gonna happen."

"Paris." Sadie turned to Carter. "You said the other obelisk is in Paris, right?"

"Right. Um, not to rush you, but..."

The magician raised his staff and started chanting.

I cursed and drew my knives. "Sadie, concentrate I'm going to try to not let you get killed."

Then the sphinxes came to life.

"Soon!" Carter warned Sadie.

"Paris!" she called, and raised her staff and wand. "I want to go there now. Two tickets. First-class would be nice!"

I grumbled about not getting anything to eat for the past six months and stabbed a sphinx. It exploded and covered me with dust. I turned and ducked under another cat. I was rammed into by it's tail and flew back into the obelisk.

Instead of slamming into the rock I fell directly into it. When I tumbled out of the portal I landed with a splash in the puddle. Sadie shrieked and landed on top of me with a thud.

"Ugh!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry."

"S-okay." I muttered.

Then I heard a roar."Great." I muttered.

Sadie got off me and ran off followed quickly by a sphinx. I got up and threw my knife. I was knocked off my feet again and landed by Carter.

The sphinx opened its mouth and formed smoky fangs that had no business on an Ancient Egyptian king. It was about to chomp his face when a dark form loomed up behind it and shouted, "Mange des muffins!"

Slice!

The sphinx dissolved into smoke.

I tried to rise but couldn't. Sadie stumbled over. "Carter! Oh god, are you okay?"

I blinked at the other person—the one who had saved Carter: a tall, thin figure in a black, hooded raincoat. What had she yelled: Eat muffins? What kind of battle cry was that?

She threw off her coat, and a woman in a leopard-skin acrobatic suit grinned down at him, showing off her fangs and her lamplike yellow eyes.

"Miss me?" asked Bast.

Later!