Chapter 15: Failures at Trusting All Around

It is so hot, I can't breathe. Waves of heat pound on me with each hurricane of air that gusts against me. Even the grass in my clasped hands is warm from the fire. And it is too bright. Much too bright to be night.

No…

People are coming. From their houses they come in nightgowns and pajamas. They stand transfixed at the terrible beauty of the fire. They are faces I recognize from living here my whole life. They are faces I see every day, of kids I would play with, their parents and the other families here. Did they know what the fire burned?

NOOOOOOOO!

I lift myself off the ground and run to that powerful light. The air's ocean of heat continues to pound its waves against my skin. It lifts and pushes my hair in a chaotic dance. But I am stopped by a man much taller than me. A familiar face. He speaks words that are lies. A cruel reality. I don't listen. I don't want to know.

"I WANT MY MOMMY! I NEED TO GET MOMMY AND DADDY! NO!"

I struggle against the large hands that restrain me. My body is so crazy with movement; I no longer know which way I'm facing or what I'm fighting against.

This isn't happening…

"THEY'RE NOT GONE! LET ME GO! I WON'T LEAVE THEM!"

Teeth find flesh, and my mouth is filled with the metallic taste of blood. A distant shout. I am no longer restrained and I take off toward the dancing flames. There are more shouts behind me, but they mean nothing. I run like a jackal into the fire.

I enter my home to be in a lush, green forest of reeds. They grow unforgivingly clustered tightly, towering me so I can't see where I am. I force my way between the reeds, and they beat back at me for daring to make a path through them. The mud beneath my feet tries to hold me into its embrace. My feet kick hard off the ground just to keep moving.

They're not gone… DON'T LEAVE ME!

I can hear the singing of birds, but they are always far away, out of my reach. I search desperately for them, not knowing where I am going. Everything is a monotone of green reeds in every direction. They grow denser and denser the further I go. Before long I can even find a piece of land large enough to fit my feet into.

SOMEONE! PLEASE!

I break through into a narrow clearing. I see the back of a figure standing at its end. The god walks away from me about to escape into the maze of reeds.

"ANUBIS!"

The figure stops and whisks its head around. Chestnut brown eyes steady on me. The young boy turns. As he faces me, he offers his hand invitingly towards me. I break into the run. The mud is relentlessly holding me back. I pound my feet from it feeling it try to hold my feet down like vines trapping my feet. But I push on and nearly collide into the boy giving me his hand. I gladly take the hand, relieved to not be alone.

But this hand doesn't belong to the same boy. Instead of looking into chestnut eyes, my eyes gaze into ice blue. Amun smiles as his grasp tightens around my hand.

I woke up from my dream with a start. As my prize for waking up, I received many licks to the face until my face was liberally covered in drool. I was startled enough that it took me a moment to realize it was Paws that was greeting me with his tongue in his overly excited way.

"Paws, down," a boy's voice said near me.

Paws snuck in one more lick on my nose before retreating as the voice commanded. I barely noticed as the sound of his voice had me frozen. A lump was blocking my shuttered breath. Was I really so afraid of him? A moment before I had only the lethargic thoughts of a person pulling herself from sleep, yet now I was swarming with emotions, many of which I couldn't define.

I was still lying on the couch, and Anubis was crouched at my feet. He didn't look at me as I turned my head to him. He was focused on the bandage he was diligently wrapping around my foot. At first, I was slightly at awe at how swift and precise his hands moved. Then my stomach turned when I understood why. How many mummies has he wrapped before?

Even after he had finished, he turned his back on me as he put away his materials. In some odd way I was comforted. I hadn't been sure what to expect from him. At least now I knew he was upset with me.

Finally he stood and sat on the coffee table across from me where I could easily see him. He looked drawn down, like gravity was pulling down harder on him. I couldn't read his expression. He didn't speak at all but only stared at me impassively. I eventually couldn't stand it and pulled out the canopic jar that had been clutched to my chest the entire time I slept. I held it out for him to take. He glanced at it and for I moment I thought he would take it. Instead, he pushed it away from him. For a moment, I had déjà vu.

He was about to say something, but then sighed and looked away. The silence seemed to drag and slow down everything. After what felt like a few days wait, he sighed again and quietly said, "I don't know what to do with you."

His exasperation sank in deep, but in a disconnected way I replied, "That's simple. I'm your canopic jar tracker."

"I trusted you."

He didn't say it with anger, but I understood his anger was misplaced, literally. The force of the meaning was still there. I met his eyes and the look of hurt and betrayal were clearly written in them. Yet it didn't affect me. I was only watching a movie of him, not really here. I could only think how strange it looked for him to wear that face.

"Is trust an emotion?" I asked.

"I don't care." I heard the first aid kit slide on the glass as he stood with it. "I hope you understand how lucky you are to be alive. You should never leave my side in the duat."

"You killed my friend," I choked. Without even meaning it, my eyes spilled over with tears. The room felt cold and I unconsciously started rubbing my hands together close to me. He towered over me, keeping his face away from my sight.

"It wasn't my decision," he whispered. He left my side, taking the canopic jar with him as he did. Paws came over and laid his head by mine. I sank my fingers into his fur as my chest began to heave compulsively.

"Thank you," I heard before the door clicked shut.

There are three days I have no memory of. We must have left that hotel in Australia. I can't say what kind of face Anubis wore when we left. I don't know if Bastet was still there, though I'm guessing she wasn't. I woke up one day in my bed on Anubis' boat. I felt entirely numb. It reminded me of my parent's funeral, and at the memory I wanted to turn around and return to sleep.

Instead I sat up and grabbed my tablet from the side table. I barely saw it, not because my room was dark, but another image was fixed in my mind. I believed it was a dream; a field of white flowers slowly dyed in brown and blown away like autumn leaves. They made me remember what I had forgotten, and I felt the urge to hold on to it.

I pulled up a notebook app and wrote everything I remembered hearing:

The petals will survive the drought.

I am Yesterday and Tomorrow.

Prophecy

The seed not the drought

A storm

The jackal will whither

I stopped at the last words I wrote. The scribbles carried no meaning to me, but the voice purred in my ears, "The jackal… will wither…"

My heart felt too heavy to carry the words. I ignored them and repeatedly circled the word "prophecy". It was what stuck to me the most, and I felt that if I knew what it was, it would explain why the world was filled with glowing jars I had to hunt down. It may even tell me about how everything will end and how Anubis will come to wither.

But I couldn't look at it anymore. Giant serpents were clawing at my mind and my hands were black with sand. I threw my blanket over my head and returned to oblivion.

It was the stomping on the stairs that woke me. Someone was going down them, pausing, going back up, pausing, and repeating. Eventually the stranger gave up and went back upstairs. I was left lying in bed, staring at the ceiling wondering how long I had been asleep.

In my stupor, I got up and sat on the edge of the bed rubbing the sleep from my eyes. On the bedside table next to my tablet sat a bowl that had been used and scrapped clean. When had I eaten? I could not recall what had been in the bowl at all. I stared at curiously, thinking of how out of place it was.

Negative thoughts started so swarm me. I hated the bowl was here. I hated how I was here. What had become of me? I smelled of body odor and I could feel my hair was a maze of knots. The skin around my eyes was irritated and itchy. In the past hours (days?) I've felt like I wanted to silently cry in a corner and scream at the top of my lungs at the same time.

But now I was just exhausted; tired of being in bed doing nothing when I was completely unaware if the world still existed. Yet every time I thought of getting up or moving around, the image of Ammit the Devourer being unleashed by Anubis, taking away the heart of the person that had driven me to leave home from the beginning would appear in my mind's eye.

How could I face him again? I've been fooling myself trying to understand the hollow puppet of the god I had given myself in service to. I didn't understand him, and the more pieces of his heart I returned, the more he will become a different person; a stranger. I hated it. Egyptian law and legends were always supposed to be stories that left me with the nostalgia my parents left behind. I had never thought of what the implications of the laws would be in reality.

As I thought of it, I started to wonder if this was my fault. Once again Andy Darnell had been walking away to a horrible fate and I didn't bother to stop him, warn him, or just talk to him. I was oblivious to reality, both when I was just a girl in high school and now that I was the Eye of Anubis. But now I had no excuses. I should have known better. Had I not encountered gods and see their lethal powers? Hadn't the stories I heard as a child proven to be true more than once? Did I not stop him because I foolishly believed there should always be a happy ending?

There were some steps on the stairs, slowly thumping one step at a time. The sound of the creaks and thuds seemed to clear my mind. Who am I to blame anyone when I carry so many faults in myself? I had always, always let Andy down. I could either dwell on it, or make sure Anubis wasn't next on the list of people I have failed, even if he was a stranger.

My mind following this new direction, I crossed the room and swung open the door, the action not bringing back horrible flashbacks as they had before. There was a thud in the hallway right by my door that startled me. I looked out in the hall, and standing by my door was Anubis, his hand holding his head, obscuring his face.

"Are you okay?" I asked the slumped figure.

He peaked at me through his fingers before running his hand through his hair. I couldn't tell his mood, but he seemed tense. 'That should be my question' I heard him mumble as he avoided me eyes. I was about to respond to his remark, but he quickly added in a normal tone, "Do you want to see the Great Wall or not? I don't want to hover over that place any longer if you're not up to going."

He was a bit cross, but not outright angry. It took me a moment to think of how I should respond to him. "Yeah… yeah, I can go."

"Alright." His nose twitched a little before he quickly put his back to me. As he went back up the stairs, he said, "Get ready and come on deck." When he was gone, I sniffed at my shoulder and scowled. Yeah, a dog nosed boy like him would definitely smell that.

I banged the side of my head on the door. Of course Anubis is acting differently. I was pretty sure his trust was returned to him and I spent the first 24 hours after giving him that emotion completely betraying his trust. He was changing into a new person with every jar I collected. I had no idea what that new jar from the train did for him either.

I gave my head another good old, useless bang on the wooden siding before going off to wash off several days of mourning.

I could happily report that the world did indeed still exist. It had been a while since I had had any fresh air or moved around. We were, as usual during these trips, surrounded by tourist from all parts of the world. It was odd to be around people but welcomed. Although I felt as though I had come from an alien planet from them, I was tired of being isolated.

Paws was also rejoicing the freedom, running down the long stretch of the walls, teasing excited children, and scaring off any birds that dared to be in his path. But even through his rambunctious banter, he would not let me leave his sight. He kept me under his vision like a hawk which broke my heart. There was a time that Anubis had checked out on us so I recognized his behavior for what it was.

For all of Paws' enthusiasm, Anubis was quite the opposite. It was normal for him to follow along without much interest. However, this time he stuck to leaning against the wall, is head hanging down like he was sea-sick. I hadn't realized he wasn't following us and had another scare like at Iguazu falls. I ran against the current of tourists with my eyes on the ground to see if he had collapsed on the ground. But I finally spotted his black and auburn hair at the edge of the wall.

I shook his shoulder and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yes… No, I feel horrible. I wish I didn't have to come here."

I cocked an eyebrow. "What's wrong with this place? You're going to have a hard time convincing me you're afraid of heights."

He shook his head. "It's the rotting souls."

"What rotting souls?"

"In the walls."

I looked below me, like I was supposed to see dead bodies in the stone walls or something. Behind me, Anubis said, "The men that died while building this wall had their bodies thrown inside it. They continued to build the wall over the corpses like they weren't there. Their souls have been trapped in the crushed skin and bones of their old body since then. All I can hear is hundreds of screaming voices, but I can't do anything for them."

"Why didn't you save their souls back then?"

"Different laws then." He didn't explain any further and merely slumped his head over the ledge once again.

"Why don't you just head back to the boat then?"

He barely lifted his head to look at me through the parts of his hair. It was a bit unsettling for him to look at me that way. He studied me for a moment and heaved a sigh, "No, I don't need you running away again."

"Oh come on. Don't start acting like a responsible babysitter because I slipped up one time." He straightened up looking offended by my word choice, but I ignored him. "Look, it'll be fine. I just want to reach that tower up there and we can leave. Besides, there really aren't that many places for me to run away to unless I want to brave jumping off the wall."

Anubis glared at me, clearly not liking the idea. Finally, he said, "Keep Paws with you, alright?"

"I wouldn't know what to do without him."

"Alright." He gave one last glance at the hills, and then took his leave. Our boat was an odd sight hovering to the side of the wall down the path. In actuality, I would have to brave the jump off the wall to get into the boat. But first I would reach the higher tower to look at the view.

I made my hike up the wall, with Paws eventually trailing behind me as I did. The scenery really was beautiful. The hills weren't as impressive as the ones at Machu Pichu, but they had their own magnificence. Mist was clinging in the air swallowing the most distant hills from sight. There were birds singing and flitting in and out of the trees below us. On the wall you felt above it all; an outsider to the scene yet seeing everything.

It didn't take long for me to reach the tower. The inside was empty save for one boy leaning out of one of the ledges to look at the scenery. Usually, I would pay strangers no mind and find my own space. But I knew it would be impossible with him. I joined him, leaning my arms on the ledge and looking out at the misty horizon.

"Why do you always have to come to ruin my vacations?" I asked the boy.

Amun chuckled and responded, "It's hard to get you alone. We wouldn't want Anubis to see us and think you're talking to invisible entities."

"Or you could just stop following me."

"That's rude. I just happen to be in the area at the same time as you. I'm being friendly by visiting."

"What would you need to do in–? You know what? I don't care. There's no point with you."

He smirked, and started to lean closer to me. I completely jumped away from him, not forgetting what sort of power this creepy, kissing god had. Undeterred, he cornered me and reached a hand out to my face. He pulled it back away while saying, "You had a beetle in your hair." As proof, he held out his hand with the beetle scurrying across his palm.

I couldn't even give a retort I was so shaken. I was embarrassed and ashamed of how easily he could rile my emotions. And it was like a game to him it seemed. I ignored him and leaned back on the edge. I didn't want to look at him, but I couldn't leave just yet either. He rejoined me with a chuckle. "Don't worry. I'm not here for that."

"You knew the whole time."

"Hmm?" I could tell from his voice I had surprised him, but I still didn't want to look at him. "I know everything, but you'll have to be a bit more specific.

"That I'm the eye of Anubis."

I could see in the corner of my eye a smile from the memory of our first meeting. "Well, you have to admit, you do have pretty large eyes."

"All the better to see you with." He laughed, like we were kicking back and talking about the good old days. I finally looked him in the eye and said, "That's it then? I can see you because I'm the eye of a god?"

He tilted his head with an abashed grin. "That's part of it, I suppose."

"Uggh…" I groaned and hung my head. "Direct answers aren't your forte," I grumbled.

"No, they aren't" he happily agreed. "I'm the god of hidden truths. They wouldn't be hidden if I blabbered them out to everyone I meet."

I quietly ignored him, now very irritated. All I wanted was for him to leave so I could get back onto the boat. But he lingered by me. "Hey, how about to make up for your obvious dislike of me, I'll give you some direct advice. What do you say?"

"What kind of advice could you possibly give?"

"Don't give the next jar you find immediately to Anubis. You'll want to hold on to it for a while."

I glanced at him perplexed. "Why?"

He smiled and replied, "Trust me."

It only took ten seconds to come to the conclusion that being on top of Mount Everest wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.

Anubis was shocked that I wanted to go there (and, trust me, it was clearly written on his face), but nonetheless obliged to my request. I thought it was pretty clever to think of using a flying boat to stand on the tallest peak in the world, although Anubis was quick to point out there are some god exclusive places that are higher up than Mount Everest. I ignored him.

However, even with the coats, gloves, hat, and protective eye gear I picked up in a small town in Nepal, it was completely miserable at the mountain's peak. The wind blew the snow so that any exposed skin felt like it was being blasted raw by a sand blower. I didn't feel like I was breathing air but rather breathing in ice. The extreme low temperature zapped all of my energy. It took a lot of my will power to move my shaking limbs the couple of feet back to the boat.

"That didn't take long," Anubis remarked as I started shedding myself of my winter gear.

"Well, I can at least say I've been on top of Mount Everest, and that's all that matters."

"Right." I picked up my pile of discarded clothes and headed to the kitchen where I could make some warm cocoa.

It had been about a month since I had left my room and visited the great wall. In that time, we have been zigzagging over mainly Russia and China with the occasional other countries like Mongolia, Thailand, and Vietnam. I had managed over these weeks to keep my mind off of my previous adventures and enjoy seeing the various sights these countries offered. It was only when I slept my nightmares reminded me of the trauma I had endured not so long ago.

Perhaps my favorite visit was in Laos where we went to a town along the Lao river. What was so cool about the place was the river that shot out burning fireballs. I thought they were some sort of silent fireworks or something until I heard a tour guide passing by explaining it was a natural phenomenon that science had no explanation for.

"It sounds like there may be some built up gas under the river. But then again, I don't know how it would catch on fire," I pondered.

"There's a giant serpent in the river that's shooting them out," replied Anubis.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked jokingly. I laughed but then caught my breath at the stern expression Anubis wore. I stopped in my tracks, but, saying nothing at all, Anubis continued down the river's path. "No, you're not joking…" I had glanced at the river and quickly caught up with Anubis.

But what may have been more amusing over the past month was watching how Anubis handled his newly awakened emotion. For instance, just now, as I pulled out some milk and chocolate mix, I carelessly closed a drawer so it snapped shut with a loud bang. Anubis came in just in time to be startled by the noise and recoiled several steps back, his face one of someone caught completely off guard.

It felt strange to me to think of being surprised as an emotion. I had always thought it was more of an instinctual reaction. That said, I couldn't deny that Anubis has shown such a drastic change from before, jumping like a scaredy-cat at everything that made noise. There were even times I've seen him jump at seemingly nothing. Though it was a funny sight to see a god be so jumpy, I could also tell it was taking a toll on him. The emotion was fresh so he was very sensitive to being surprised. If we had another jar, he wouldn't be so easily startled, but we had been traveling for weeks with no sign of a jar. And, of course, there was Amun's warning still lingering in my thoughts.

"I wonder if you can still have a heart attack without having a complete heart," I teased.

Anubis looked taken aback like he hadn't thought of that before. The one good thing that has come out from the jumpy Anubis is seeing him have more emotional reactions to my words. I had started to think he had little interest in what I had to say. My remarks would often times be met with a blank face and a long silence. Now I knew that the things I say usually surprises him. It could just be that Anubis has never spent so much time with an American teenager, but I was pleased that I didn't bore him after all.

He cocked his head in thought and soon responded, "I couldn't have a heart attack from being startled, but I have seen people die from fright. Even so, I'm skeptical a god could actually die from that. That's something Imhotep would know."

"It was a joke, Anubis," I said, handing him a mug and taking a sip from mine. "So, who's Imhotep?"

"The god of medicine. We passed over where he works about a week ago."

"Did we? Why didn't you stop by for a visit?"

Anubis smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "My showing up at a hospital is never a good thing." He stood from the table holding up his mug. "Thanks for the drink. If there aren't any more mountains you want to freeze yourself on then I'll get us sailing at full speed."

"Yeah… I mean, no, I don't want to be an icicle again."

"Good." He left the room without further ado, leaving me sitting alone with my steaming cocoa that didn't seem enough to warm me up anymore.

Feeling bored sitting in the silence, I dragged my tablet to myself and started fiddling with it. I ended up pulling up 'CanopicGPS' and watched the coordinates for the boat cursor update. I finally completed this app a few weeks before, working out all the bugs and quirks on my own without my uncle's encyclopedic knowledge of programming. After drilling Anubis and Paws of where we've traveled (of which Paws proved his genius by being more knowledgeable than Anubis), I had a clear map of where we have been showing the range of my Eye of Anubis powers so that no place went unsearched. The app had several other features that were probably frivolous, but the obsessive organizer in me demanded I include everything I could.

It was while staring at the screen that felt a tug in my stomach made my heart race. It slammed into me suddenly instead of creeping up on me as it usually did. I had to cover my mouth from the hot cocoa that threatened to come back out. I jumped out of my chair, already tugging my bandana from my neck to tie over my eyes.

I couldn't find where the glow of the jar was when I came out on deck. I looked ahead, to my left and right and even below and didn't see it at all. It wasn't until I did a complete 360 that I finally saw a green light among the mirage of greys. I went around the cabin to the back of the boat to see it better. It was directly north from us. It made no sense, because we had already flown over where the glow was coming from and my instincts told me it wasn't that far away from us either.

Anubis and Paws were in the bridge, and reacted immediately at the sight of me in my blindfold. "Where is it?" he asked.

"Directly north of here," I replied.

His brow furrowed, also aware how impossible it was that we would pass by a jar without noticing it. "Is it moving?"

"Not that I can tell. Maybe? I'll be able to tell when we get closer."

"Right. Paws, turn us around. Keep us on course, Nakia."

"Aye aye, captain," I said, and Paws barked which probably meant the same thing. His teeth sunk into the much gnawed into steering wheel and the boat began to swing back to where we came from.

The jar was in Tibet, the plateau in the western part of China. The land here had barely any vegetation, the landscape a continuous plane of dirt and stone. Yet, despite the barren soil, the sky was full of towering clouds, unforgivingly keeping their moisture high out of reach.

There was no town here. All that was here was a single tower sitting on top of a small hill. It was old, its brick walls painted white save for the yellow and red at its highest peaks. The roofs curved upward as many traditional Chinese buildings do. Drifting from the tower were streams of multicolored flags, like those you would see at a car dealer ship. There was a sizable crowd gathered for what looked like a celebration.

"I don't like this," Anubis said, and I nodded. We were sure something wasn't right about this jar. Having so many people here isolated without anyway to leave quickly made it even worse.

"I think it's past the temple, though, so the jar may not be very close to the temple."

Anubis nodded. We left Paws to the boat as the two of us wadded into the crowds. There were many monks and people native of this region dressed in colorful robes. It was like jumping back in time walking through this place. There were people dancing to music and a crowd surrounding them to watch. Anubis watched with interest as monks would spin a sort of cylinder as they prayed. Further down people were writing on colorful flags and tying them to ropes hanging off of the tower. There were bulls draped in colorful fabrics being pulled through the crowd.

I heard Anubis gasp. At first I didn't think much of it as Anubis has often been caught off guard in the past weeks. It was when he held his arm out to stop me that I realized something wasn't right. I looked at him to see his stare transfixed to something up ahead. I followed his gaze.

Through the crowd came another bull, but this one wasn't pulled by an owner nor was it dressed in any lavish garments. Three children walked beside it, two boys and a girl; all of them of different races, and all of them completely naked. They were covered in dirt, and the little blond girl's hair was matted together that it didn't even look like hair anymore.

The black bull was watching us while it walked by, as did the children that walked at its side. However, the children's eyes were blank, with no iris or pupil. I felt uneasy, and grabbed at Anubis' arm just to know he was close. The muscles in his arm was tense, and he jumped slightly when a touched him. But his gaze stayed locked with the bull as it slowly trudged past us.

The continued their way walking far past us, but the children didn't stop looking at us. It was when the young girl stopped and stood in the distance still gazing at us that something happened.

Anubis, the children, bull and temple all vanished. I was once again standing in a valley filled with white flowers, a place I have repeatedly visited in my nightmares. The petals began to discolor and shrivel until it was nothing more than dead stalks. A large gust of wind sweeps the dead petals away, and with the petals the valley disappears. I was kneeling on the ground of an arid field. I could hear a muffled sound and something was shaking my shoulders. I looked up and saw that Anubis was crouched beside me. He said something, it sounded distant but I could hear my name in it. It took a moment until his voice sounded clear again.

"Please tell me you can hear me, Nakia?"

"Yeah, yeah," I stuttered. "I'm okay."

"… Did Apis speak to you?"

I was silent for a moment not really sure what to say. "… okay, I'm pretty sure I completely misunderstood what you said. A what now?"

"The Apis bull. Did you speak to you?"

"Oh! The bull's name is Apis. Okay… umm. No, I just dreamt something for a second."

"What was it," he asked.

"It was just some dead flowers. It lasted only a couple of seconds."

"But you were out for several minutes."

I gazed into Anubis' eyes not quite taking in what he meant. I looked around and the black bull as well as the creepy children were nowhere in sight. The activities continued despite such a strange event taking place. "I need to stand up," I finally said and Anubis helped me to my feet.

"Are you sure your fine?" Anubis asked earnestly.

"Yeah. What was with that Apis bull anyway? It was creepy as hell."

"Don't talk about a god like that," he fiercely retorted.

"Sorry…" I softly uttered, taken by surprise.

"…no, you're fine. I'm still a bit unnerved. Anyway, Apis is one of the earliest gods and probably the… most bizarre. He has oracle powers and is the source of many prophecies. He doesn't have his own form, so he embodies the form of a bull."

"You thought I had heard a prophecy…"

His eyes took on a strong severity as he strongly stated, "No good can come from prophecies."

"But… can't they warn you about the future?"

"All prophecies do is torment the people who try to decipher them. Follow a prophecy and you become a toy to destiny." Anubis took one more look in the direction Apis had went and made his way toward the temple.

"What about the children?" I asked him.

"He speaks through them. Children are sensitive to a god's influence. Let's get the jar and leave. I don't like the feeling of this place."

"Okay…" I wasn't sure what to make of Anubis' words. He seemed so defiantly against anything to do with prophecies, yet I knew there was something about a prophecy the sphinxes in the duat told me about. If it has to do with me or Anubis, was it really wrong to want to know what it says?

We made it through the crowd reaching a path that lead up the hill to the temple's entrance. From a stone plaque I read this place was called Changzhu Monastery. We climbed the path, fortunately ignored by the locals, until we came to the entrance of the tower. The detail inside was so extravagant, I slipped off my blindfold to get a better view.

Whoever designed the interior really liked their primary colors. The inside was small, but filled with different relicts and artwork. The room was mostly red with its fair share of yellows, blues and greens. The air smelled strongly of burning essence. On a wall was a large embroidery hanging from the wall made of precious stones depicting a woman with many arms. There was also a golden Buddha statue in an alcove at the front of the room.

"We need to find some stairs or something. The jar is down below us." Anubis nodded. We managed to find one level lower than the one we entered, but searching through the temple we couldn't find any way to move deeper below the temple. Instead, we went back to the main level to look for another way down. We probably looked for a good hour or so before we came to the conclusion that there weren't any levels that will take us lower.

"How can the jar be so deep underground? This is giving me a headache. We won't have to dig beneath this temple to get to it will we?"

"No, there has to be something we're missing…" He slumped against the wall in thought while I looked around at the décor. Had I not been wearing a blindfold and seeing everything in black and white, I was sure my eyes would be tired of all the color. But even in black and white the attention to detail was very beautiful. If only this place could have some stairs leading underground.

I glanced back at Anubis and saw him looking at something in the other room. I tilted my head to see what he was looking at. The room was pretty empty and a solid color from what I could tell. In it was a giant cylinder with a bar around it. It looked like the bar was for using your hands to turn it.

"It looks like a giant version of the cylinders they had outside."

"It's a prayer wheel," Anubis stated.

Curious, I made my way into the room to take a closer look at the prayer wheel. The wheel was like a tall column. On it were engravings of some story I couldn't understand. I took a grasp of the bar and began to walk with it, turning it clockwise as the monks had spun it outside. It was hard to move at first, but once I got some momentum it wasn't so hard.

"So they pray while walking like this, huh? I wouldn't be able to do it. I would probably get so dizzy I would start spouting nonsense."

"Nakia," Anubis called, "try spinning it counter-clockwise."

I came to a stop and a second so after me the wheel did the same. "But the monks outside were spinning it this way. I don't want to anger any gods doing it wrong."

"Gods don't care about that kind of stuff. Only humans do. Just try it."

I didn't feel so reassured, but I grabbed at the wheel anyway and gave it a pull in the other direction. It was obviously not made to go counter-clockwise. I had to put my whole body into. I could hear a grinding as I did so and was sure that I was breaking it. I was about to stop but Anubis appeared behind me taking hold of the wheel. "Keep going," he said.

With Anubis' help, pushing the wheel wasn't as much work. During the rotation I noticed that in the center of the room there was an opening in the floor. The wheel came to a top and wouldn't budge. We walked around the column to see passage with a steep path going underground.

"How did you know that would happen?" I asked in astonishment.

Anubis shrugged. "Little Horus was always good at making these sort of hidden passages in his palaces. I picked it up from him." Anubis ducked his head into the underground tunnel and, after a moment, straightened himself up again. "Alright, you stay here."

"You know, the canopic jar probably won't be sitting on a pedestal in plain sight. You'll probably need my help."

"And if I do, I'll come back and get you. I just feel like something will go wrong. You don't need to be in the middle of that."

"…just be careful, then."

"I'll be back soon." Anubis jumped down into the passage. He disappeared from sight quickly and soon the sound of his footsteps faded away as well. I sat by the hole in the floor listening to the festival barely audible from the tower waiting.

Sitting still didn't last long, and I was soon pacing the floor. I didn't like being left behind at all. I had that same feeling as Anubis did that this jar was different. Between it suddenly appearing in a place we've already covered ground, the creepy Apis bull showing up, and now secret passages that you would have to be a god to even dare to try in this culture it seemed like too many strange scenarios to trust. And there was also Amun's warning…

Would Anubis swallow the piece of his heart as soon as he found it? He has done it before, and it could be that there is some booby trap underground that could be triggered or something if he does. Or Amun was lying, but with how this day has been I was willing to entertain the thought that he was being truthful. I was bouncing on my heels in a moment of indecision.

In the end, I couldn't hold back the sick feeling I had in my gut. I lowered myself into the passage and let myself drop into the darkness.

Author's Notes in my profile.

A question to readers: Who is your favorite character(s) and why? I'm curious :D You can answer in a review or pm.