-Carter Kane-

The Fourteenth Nome was bustling with excitement, stress, and Chloe Sabat's fury. Zia rolled her eyes after the woman had huffed at my question about her morning. "Well, you tried. She's going to be like this all day though."

Yeah, no wonder my uncle immediately turned down his invitation. Because you know, priorities. To then turn around and tell me good luck attending. "Maybe it'll be good for you and the future wife to see someone else's wedding. Can anticipate everything that could happen."

Francis already warned me about his mother weeks in advance. Because some drama in the background explained what the wild hair was on Chloe that seemed to despise the Kane family. Except for me, because she's not stupid enough to make herself an enemy of the Pharaoh, like everyone else of course.

Chloe is a rehket, and one that was a nurse over the casualties France was facing during World War II. So was my grandmother, who was a distant relative from the United States who chose to sneak into France to assist with the wounded. They supposedly got along just fine, up until one of the wounded soldiers ended up falling in love with my grandmother.

I needed a moment when Francis told me that it was Michel Desjardins himself causing these issues. Seriously, the dude acted like he despised us up until he joined us to fend off Menshikov. So of course, I was in disbelief, and Sabat went to reference spots in the journals he was given for evidence.

Michel ends up admitting all of this to Dad, which was interesting. But chose to not do the same with my uncle. Sabat dug a bit to find why that was, because Uncle Amos was conceived very close to when my grandfather had found them in the Twenty-First. Which led to Desjardins being on the fence about if it was his son or not. Which just led to him treating him as if he was anyway, despite obviously not being the father.

Chloe remained jealous on the matter and had her moments of stopping Desjardins from acting on anything going on in the Twenty-First Nome. Angry that Nadia Teal was still the one Michel was solely in love with. So apparently, she has a problem with the Kane family as well. That explains why she was so ready to dismiss Uncle Amos from the Per Ankh after the whole Torsten Friedrich thing.

Of course, I turned around and told Zia about all of this. "That explains a lot. Desjardins was way softer around Kane than anyone else I've seen him interact with."

But that's not the reason for Chloe's anger today. Oh no, far from it. Francis explained that there was an arranged marriage that was set between the Laflamme and Sabat families when he was five. I guess it was an attempt to get both French Nomes on the same page with each other.

However, since Friedrich single-handedly destroyed the Laflamme Mansion, the Fourteenth Nome was told there were no survivors, and the arrangement was dismissed. All Francis knew was that a childhood friend of his was gone. Up until he saw her assisting Uncle Amos escape the Twenty-First.

Chloe only sees Sabrina Laflamme as the rogue magician she had lived as for most of her life. Francis wanted to give her a chance to come back to the Per Ankh and wants his friend back. As far as I can tell, Sabrina seems excited about everything, along with Francis. I'm just not certain if an arranged marriage is the way to go about it. At least Amos seemed to agree with me on that mindset.

The wedding was nice, Zia seemed to be entertaining herself with the decorations they had gone with. The reception was filled with more ideas that Zia is cherry-picking for our wedding. The space is filled with joy, Chloe keeping her rage in a corner of the room where she is being left alone to fume as she watches her son dance with his wife.

Soon after, Francis announces our upcoming marriage and demands we have a dance for ourselves as well. I feel immediately uncomfortable, but Zia is eager, and I get up for my fiancée. All eyes are on us in the middle of the room, but Zia rests her head against my chest, so I forget about everyone else.

I'm the luckiest guy to have such an amazing woman to soon call my wife. Despite everything else going on around us, she keeps me anchored in the mess. I understand why Dad seems to be a mess without Mom.

I didn't even realize the song ended until others were dancing around us. I quickly go to pull Zia off the floor so we can be secluded at our table again. One more dance, then we watch the newlyweds cut into their cake. Despite being arranged, they seemed like they enjoy each other's company. Sabrina smeared cake on Francis' face, earning a laugh and the same act being performed on her as well.

Zia and I are enjoying bites of cake when we were suddenly approached by Kyra in a robin's egg blue dress. She is swiftly removing her heeled shoes as she is rushing to us. Moving the plate away from us to grab our attention further, "We need to leave. Get you two to a safe place. Quietly, don't want to draw attention to this."

"What?" Why does she seem on edge all of a sudden? The atmosphere here has been rather joyful tonight.

She doesn't respond to my question, gesturing us to get up from the chairs. Zia, seeming to know to not question this does as asked promptly. I hesitate to follow suit. Kyra pushes our chairs into the table and gestures for us to follow behind her into one of the offices down the hall.

We enter, and Kyra goes to close the door to leave us there. I quickly stop her from doing so with my right hand against the door. "Kyra, what is going on?"

She finally stops, and it seems like the emotions are catching up immediately now that she is given the time to process things. "Your uncle is dead. Stay put, I'm arranging for the two of you to get back to New York as quickly as we can."

"What?" But she didn't respond, closing the door and promptly leaving.

My hand slips from the door, and I take a step back as I process what she had said. Zia gestures for me to sit in the closest chair as she goes to lock the door. "It's only been a day," I face my fiancée as she despondently nods. "I told him to be careful. Why didn't he do that?"

There's no way this is happening. Uncle Amos is a cautious person as it is, he would have known to get out of a potentially dangerous situation, right? I'm reminded of the consistent times he's put himself in danger if it meant a particular goal. Mostly keeping Sadie and me safe. My face ends up in my hands as I think about it further. "Fuck!"

"Take deep breaths, Carter," Zia's voice barely sounds.

"I should have gone with him!"

Zia takes a moment before asking, "Why's that?"

"Sadie knew something was going to happen. He knew a whole year before I did." And didn't take the warning at all.

"Sadie had a vision?" Zia goes to pull the other chair to be next to me. "What did she see?"

I explained what Sadie had told me. Someone in a purple toga with gold hieroglyphics swirling around him, demanding information from Uncle Amos that he wasn't able to supply. "He wanted information on an apprentice of Chief Lector Iskandar. Uncle Amos told us that he doubted such a person existed. Iskandar was busy as it was already."

Zia seemed to tense a bit to the information, but quickly relaxed her shoulders and clamped her left hand on top of my right to try and help me calm down. "I'm sure your uncle is okay. He might just be laying low for now. Allowing this rumor to happen."

I take a deep breath, absorbing her view on all of this. "You think he's still alive out there?"

She nods, giving me a reassuring smile. "I think you keep forgetting that he is the host of Set. Deception is very much a strong trait your uncle has close to his."


-Vika Menshikov-

I'm immediately annoyed being woken up in the middle of the night by the San Francisco Nome Leader scrying me. "What is it?"

He clears his throat before speaking, seeming on edge. "The General of Armies was killed an hour ago."

I take a moment to process this news, mostly due to just waking up. My eyes dart back into his gaze, wanting to verify this update, only to find the child is on the verge of tears. "Had the Romans attacked?"

"I don't know much of anything for the moment. I have a distraught Whittaker in my nome though, and that's all I could understand."

Which means nothing to me then. I sigh as I process what to do with this new information. Amos could be just laying low, or Whittaker could be mistaken, though the chances are slim on that. "Has Pharaoh been informed?"

"He's in Paris. I told Kyra first about this so she can secure their safety." Smart man. "She assured me that she was keeping this information close-chested for now, but looking to send Pharaoh and his fiancée back to New York swiftly."

"Good. I'll swing by tomorrow evening then." I dismiss the Nome Leader without another word.

I sigh and take in the room I'm in. I recall Mount Olympus like it had happened yesterday. Roman demigod stabbed the Pharaoh. Chief Lector Kane trying desperately to keep our factions from fighting amongst ourselves. Which meant having to fight me to keep from eliminating the demigod. Just to nearly kill himself trying to protect the girl who was communing with Geb to dismiss Gaea.

If the Romans attacked him, despite the huge forgiveness he had bestowed on them for endangering his nephew… Well, I'm sorry Kane but it's clear that peace was never an option to begin with, was it? Though I have the sneaking suspicion he will still try to brush whatever happened this time in an effort to strive for peace. I might have to remind him of the position he has then.

I get annoyed the more I think about all of this new information, deciding I should give up on the idea of sleep and brace myself for when the sun rises for the new day approaching. Shower, cigar or two, coffee maybe? I'll have to inform those working that I will not be around to oversee their work for a while in Cairo. This matter will need to require my full attention for the moment.


-Carter Kane-

The Twenty-First was on edge before Zia and I got home. Sadie quickly explained that the shabtis in the library are chanting the same two phrases non-stop. It spooked Cleo enough to run out in hysterics. "Honestly, it's putting me on edge," Sadie admits before opening the door to the library for us.

There are four library shabtis, all made by hand by Uncle Amos. This made for an eerie atmosphere as they indeed chanted the same few lines over and over. Not helped that there were obvious signs that Cleo was reorganizing part of the library, and the clutter added to the effect of taking it in.

"He has her eyes."

"Beware the wrath of Hadad."

I swiftly close the door after a few rounds of those repeating. Sadie appears ready to bombard me with questions, but I stop her before they hit. "Kyra was just informed that Uncle Amos is dead. It's why Zia and I are here now."

Blue eyes went wide, processing the information as much as we needed to earlier. "No, he's not dead. Those shabtis are speaking still, right?" She's started to lose her footing so I got to brace her a bit. This leads to her sitting on the floor, head in her hands as she's crying in denial.

Zia had quietly dismissed herself as I was focused on comforting my sister. Difficult to do while trying to not tear up myself. Maybe an hour had passed before Walt approached us. "I'll take her to her room. Kyra wants to talk with you before you head to bed."

I nod and help Sadie get on her feet. She uses her boyfriend as a crutch since her balance is off still. I watch them walk towards her room as she continues to cry into his shoulder. "The vision didn't show he died. I know he isn't!"

I close my eyes and take a deep breath to control my emotions before heading down to the Great Room. Kyra had switched to walking shoes, but still in the dress she had been wearing at the Sabat wedding. She is keeping her expression emotionless still, but it's a struggle when her eyes land on me.

"I did my inspection on the Brooklyn Mansion's defensives. It seems that Amos' magic is still holding up, which is a good sign for now. I'll be waiting for further clarification on whatever happened today, but if…"

She trails off for a moment, a teardrop fell from her left eye as her eyes are steadily on me. "If what is being said appears to be true, I'll be looking to replace said defenses."

I nod in understanding, "I think we can handle the defenses if they need to be replaced."

She nods in respect to that. "Do you think it's true?" I ask after a moment of silence between us.

"I'm uncertain," Kyra admits. "I thought he died at the Red Pyramid; I was grateful to find out otherwise."

I nod in understanding that. "Zia and Sadie seem to think he is just laying low for the moment."

"All I know is Melissa Whittaker entered the Sixtieth Nome alone and in hysterics. We're hoping she can be calm enough tomorrow morning to explain what happened. But we wanted to make sure you were safe in case something else is to happen."

"That's fair, given the past few events," I bite my bottom lip as I recall them myself.

Kyra approaches and wraps her arms around me for a hug. Take a step back, her right arm still on my shoulder as she takes me in. "I'll update you once I hear from her myself."


-Kyra Teal-

He hesitated at the door. "Just, uh, brace yourself. She was a mess last night."

I nod in understanding. Melissa has always been the girl that would intentionally show up to the male combat magicians. Never let her nerves get to her, keeping herself coolly collected with a dash of sass mixed in. Sebastian and I both recognize that her hysterical nature last night was not a good sign.

I wave him away, which he quickly obliges. After all, he's going to want to clean the nome up a bit since the Chief Architect stated she planned to visit not far from now. I wait patiently for him to disappear down the hall before I knock on the door.

A minute before the door cracks open, hitting something harshly. It's not enough for me to see into the room until I see a dark green right eye taking me in for a moment. "Hold on!" She closes the door again before I hear something large being moved away from the door.

The door opens, this time without anything blocking it. I take Mel in as she slaps a smile on her expression. She didn't sleep last night, her face states as much. Her dark strands of hair are a mess, when normally she has them neatly sitting straight or up in a ponytail.

"It's been a bit, Sis!" Mel crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the door, trying to act casual.

"A year," I point out. Crossed paths while the Per Ankh expected answers on why Amos decided to bloody his hands. We didn't have the opportunity to speak to each other then. Mel had decided to leave shortly after Pharaoh agreed to his Chief Lector's suggestion to split said role. "I have questions for last night."

That smile disappeared fast, but she allowed me to enter the room. "I take it Kurtz informed a few people already?"

She sits on the edge of the mattress she probably hadn't used. I chose to lean against the wall. "Sebastian told the Chief Architect and myself. Pharaoh knows along with his nome I'm sure."

"And now you want the actual dirt to understand what happened," Mel clears her throat. "We were welcomed by a Roman named Theo, who never did give a last name now that I'm thinking about it. Already, dude made me uneasy, was made worse when your cousin kept giving the guy information on the Per Ankh when we just met."

"You do realize that was the point of him doing these negotiations? To warm up to each other and form alliances?" I shake my head before I derail further from my first question. "Why were you with our General of Armies?"

"Amos asked me to accompany him to the Greek camp a little over a month ago. He hadn't stated why, I just assumed it was protection detail. I wasn't going to question it, especially after that one mission we had done under Chief Lector Iskandar's orders."

"Why didn't you question him?" I give an annoyed rise of my right eyebrow.

"If your cousin felt he needed someone to accompany him, it must mean he felt they were required. That's how I see it anyway."

"What of this mission? I wasn't aware you had done any work with the Kane Squadron."

"I hadn't, it was just Amos and me," Mel sighs. "Desjardins had told me I was to go on protection duty for a 'highly valuable' statuary magician. I was annoyed about the idea that I would have to take orders from someone who more than likely had no concept of what we were doing. The next day, found out my protection duty was your cousin. He did what he was asked, and more apparently because I wasn't told that Michel told him to intentionally get captured to try and find the other three statuaries that had been sent in with the idea of weaponizing the slaves to the clay pit. We only found one, or more like he found Amos' drugged ass and I caught up. Weaponized the camp to destroy the whole operation, Michel turned up and pulled us out. I was told to not say a thing because Amos felt his name touching any of the details would just alter how people should see it."

I clear my throat, processing this must have been one of those 'trips' Amos took after his father was exiled and Julius walked away from the Per Ankh. He was still working under Desjardins and Iskandar's discretion as a sole operative where required. This meant most of the time, he wasn't telling Julius or me what he was up to, and no records were ever made during that in his file.

But one incident was enough to tip Julius over the edge. Amos had asked him to visit their mother while he was out. Julius was in for a surprise on his mother's condition, immediately having to rely on Ruby to take care of Aunt Nadia while he attempted contact with his brother. He hadn't been successful, and while wanting to be furious with his little brother for not telling him everything about their mother's health, he held back a bit once he saw how beat up he was when he got back home. That was the breaking point because Julius swiftly turned to threatening Desjardins in the middle of the Paris Nome if they did not pull Amos from the line of work.

Desjardins heard him out. They moved Amos towards recruiting potential statuary magicians. Suddenly they had time to continue his records. From what I could tell, he was having a hell of a time recruiting, only actually being successful with Emily Dasher, but Julius played a part in that yet again. For being the guy that walked out, he sure had a habit of annoying his younger brother by turning up and causing further problems.

I can't blame Mel at this point for not asking questions. She knew enough to understand that questioning any of the Kane Squadron was to be met with a brick wall of 'I don't know' and 'work things, you wouldn't understand'. But she respected Amos enough to just follow his instructions, something that was drilled severely into our brains as initiates studying in Cairo.

I grab a chair from the corner of the room and bring it to sit in front of the door. I plant myself there and face Mel for the hardest part of this morning. "Alright, round back to this Roman named Theo."

She nods and continues about the Roman that seemed rather interested in details around Chief Lector Iskandar. "Amos kept brushing me off about it, the fucking idiot. The man was demanding information on an apprentice."

"An apprentice?" I ask to stop her a moment to explain.

"Yeah, he wanted information on an apprentice of Iskandar's," Mel explains. "Amos told him sorry, can't help you. Theo insisted he must have this information anyway and launched on him. I-" Mel pauses to try and stop her voice from breaking, but it wasn't enough to halt it in any way. "I tried, I'm so, so sorry Kyra. He had him on the ground at one point and stabbed him with a knife. That's all that was required. I fended him off, and got us back in the car."

She turned away from me, and I soon realize its to try and hide the tears. "He wouldn't stop talking about his eyes. Wrath from someone, I don't know I was just trying to keep him talking to make sure he was still alive in the back seat. Whatever that knife was, it was burning him up. I've never seen anything like it."

"He had passed on in the car?" I dread asking. Sebastian showed me the car she had pulled up in. Explained that as far as he understood, Amos was laying on the back seats. There weren't any blood stains or any signs that Amos was in the car at all.

Mel hesitates but nods. I take a moment to process everything she said, trying to puzzle it all out. "You think the Roman camp knows anything about this yet?"

"They should know something is wrong, we're not there to start negotiations like scheduled." Mel's eyes narrow before lifting her head to face me. "They attacked us, Kyra. Action needs to be made now."

I frown at that. "That's where things get a bit hazy. Pharaoh hasn't heard anything yet from Camp Jupiter. The only information we have is your story, Mel. I checked your car as well, there's no blood stains let alone evidence that my cousin was in that car with you at any point."

I adjust my posture to relax some. "For all I know, something happened that made you hallucinate to an extreme measure. Amos could still be alive wondering where you went while preparing to continue meeting with the Roman leaders. I need someone else to confirm he is no longer in Camp Jupiter." Or a certain cousin to start an uproar upon his little brother greeting him.

"I was not hallucinating, Kyra."

"You were hysterical from the way Sebastian described last night."

"I've never failed my objective, Teal. Let alone lose a friend right before my own eyes. I had every reason to be irrational."

"And I have every reason to question if my cousin is dead or not. I'm not going to believe word of mouth again, not this time."

She shakes her head at that. "I can't blame you for that. Just know that I am telling the truth."


-Jason Grace-

Theo shrugs at Reyna's question. "He refused to say why he was in a rush to leave. All I know is both Egyptians left the camp in a hurry."

Reyna dismissed the senator before turning to me with a smirk as if to say 'told you so'. "He couldn't even provide a reason for leaving before our negotiations start. I will no longer be trusting him."

"I'm sure he had a reason to leave as fast as he did. People don't just leave like that because they are not to be trusted, Reyna," I go to explain.

"If you can contact him and come back with a reason for his immediate departure, I'll consider rearranging the meeting myself. For now, though, we will consider the Egyptians unfriendly."

"That's extreme," I point out.

"Is it? We just showed them the whole camp, Grace. They got whatever information they wanted and dipped out." She stands up and peers down at me. "Please prove me wrong."

My right hand is a tight fist by the time she closed the door behind her. Damn it, this isn't what was supposed to happen. This was to go smoothly and show they are trustworthy. Why did they leave?

I finally leave after waiting a solid two minutes after Reyna. I don't want anyone to follow me because I'm about to break into the housing I had set aside for the General. That plan was destroyed quickly by Hazel running to match my pace.

"How did it go?" She inquires, seeming to know it was bad.

"The Egyptians left suddenly last night," I lower my voice to not draw further attention.

"Oh," she takes a moment to process that bit of information. "Wait, why are you upset then? They probably had an emergency."

"Reyna thinks they dipped out after getting whatever they needed from us," I sigh in annoyance at it all. "Really, she thinks the guy that chose to not act against me accidentally stabbing his nephew is out there with information that he thinks he can use against us."

"Well, that's just silly," Hazel reasons. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

I pause and nod to make sure this is the exact house. "I'm breaking in. What are the chances you think they left something behind?"

Hazel inspects the house, gets uncomfortable with the thought, but agrees to be my watch outside of the house. Inspecting the door, I decide a strong kick from my right foot should do the trick. The door didn't stand a chance, squeaking open. Hazel gasped as I stood frozen, taking it all in.

Words are written in brown paint against the walls. There's a deceased donkey in the middle of the room. I quickly pull Hazel inside and close the door behind me.

"They sacrificed a donkey? The poor thing didn't deserve that." Hazel kneels before the animal to take it in.

Tollo, I finally understood one of the many words splattered on the wall. "Hazel, I don't think the Egyptians did this."

"Wait, then who-" Hazel freezes thinking about it. "One of ours?"

I nod as I take in the donkey she is still kneeling next to. The neck was slit open, blood had pooled the floor under it. The same shade as the words on the wall. I'm getting sick, angry, frustrated. Why didn't he tell me about this? Maybe they felt they couldn't trust any of us after seeing it.

"We should update Reyna."

"No," I take a deep breath as I process what I'm going to ask of her now. "This stays between us. We didn't see anything; the door will be locked like it was."

"What?"

"Whoever did this needs to stay comfortable with their actions. We didn't find anything; they might slip up something so we can pinpoint who the aggressor is."

Hazel gives an annoyed look in response to that. "This house might reek way before someone steps forward. Someone is going to find it."

"Yeah, it's going to be a race to find them first though."