A/N: Okay, you may have noticed that Ra speaks far more clearly in my story than he does in canon. Well, I have an explanation for that. When Ra is speaking to Alex, it's his ba speaking, while his body is still quite old. Part of Isis' magic bound him to Khufu (the Pharaoh, not the monkey,) and as such, he seems far older to others than he really is. When he gets a new host, then he'll be completely restored. Hope that clears it up. Besides, if you think about it, gods don't age unless their job arena starts to fall, so do you really think that Ra would really act like he's that old, especially as he rules the sun?

The Alexander Chronicles

Part II: Egypt

Book I: Egyptian New Year

Chapter II: An Exploding Stone and Talks at Home

I spent Christmas morning using my saved up money to do a little shopping for myself, Percy and Nico. I got Nico a pair of celestial steel knives, while buying Percy a new fountain for Iris messages in his cabin, as well as an IPod and a real pen for him to use. (The pen was for him to use after we discovered that Riptide, his lethal ballpoint pen, could not be used to write with.) Then I noticed the time, and realized that I needed to get to London now! So I grabbed my bag (which held a dozen gold denarii, five hundred dollars, my IPod and violin, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and all of my arrows, as well as a few changes of clothes,) and Lightning Traveled to London.

I arrived in front of an obelisk, one that I immediately recognized from my first dream about Egypt, back during the quest for the Golden Fleece before I even knew about my connection to Egypt. It was here that Dr. Julius Kane and his wife, the late Ruby Faust, started their mission to bring back the gods from something Ra called "the Duat," whatever that was. Unfortunately, that mission is what cost Ruby her life, and no one knew what they gained, except for Dr. Kane himself. Anyway, I got there at night, which meant that very few people were out and about. Unfortunately, there were five people in two groups gathered around Cleopatra's Needle. The first group was made up of a couple, a tall pale man with a forked beard wearing cream robes, and a copper-skinned girl in indigo robes and a headscarf. They are Desjardins and Zia Rashid of the House of Life, the main group of Egyptian magicians. Be careful of them; if they sense that you are a demigod, they will try to exorcise all traces of a god from you with the Ribbons of Hathor. It will not be a pleasant process.

The other three were a group that I could believe were a father and his two children. The father and his son both had dark skin and wore button down shirts and slacks. The father was bald, with a goatee, while the son had black hair in an afro style. The girl obviously took after her mother, with light, though tanned skin, straight, caramel hair with red streaks, and wearing fairly normal clothes, except for the combat boots. They are the Kanes. Julius, Carter and Sadie. Stick with them until Set has been stopped. Then Dr. Kane must have noticed that he had visitors and got his kids into a cab. I immediately took off after them, eventually catching them exactly where Ra said to meet them, at the British Museum. I was afraid that if he got in there, I might lose him, so I called out "Dr. Kane! Wait up, I need to talk to you."

He turned to face me and froze. "Who are you? Did Iskander send you?"

"Never heard of him. My name is Alexander Julius, and I was sent by someone a bit more powerful than either of us." I pulled out my Eye of Ra pendant and showed it to him, hoping he would get the connection.

"Um, Dad, why does he have a pendant like mine?" I turned and saw that Carter also had an Eye pendant. Okay, that was an interesting coincidence.

"Alright, now that I know you're not from the House, could you tell me why you are here? And please hurry, I've got a very important appointment inside with the curator." I looked to see how the other Kanes felt about being dragged around by Dad for work. Carter looked like it was just another day in his life, while Sadie looked like she was bored and upset that her dad had dragged her to a museum.

"Well, let's just say that my friend is concerned about what you're doing. But he doesn't want me to stop you. On the contrary, he wants me to take care of your kids, just in case you succeed. Now, how about we get to that meeting of yours, Doc."

The curator was quite pleased to meet Dr. Kane, and mentioned a paper he had done on Imhotep. At least that was a name I recognized, the guy who designed the first pyramid, and according to Ra, a founding member of the House of Life. When he was introduced to us, there was a moment of confusion when he heard that Sadie was Carter's brother. I don't know why, there was enough of a family resemblance to mark them as related, it's just that she obviously took after her mother.

To my surprise, the curator didn't demand either of our bags, not after Dr. Kane said that we'd keep them. Then I saw what Kane was here to see, the most important artifact in the history of Egyptian archaeology, the Rosetta Stone. Unimportant on it's own, but priceless for what it represented: the key to translating hieroglyphs. Naturally, having an archaeologist as an almost step-father, I had known about the Stone since before I knew I was a demigod. But while he was explaining it's history, Kane said something confusing. "When it was first carved, the Stone was no big deal. But over the centuries . . . over the centuries it has become a powerful symbol. Perhaps the most important connection between Ancient Egypt and the modern world. I was a fool not to realize its potential sooner." And before that, he had said something about "regular mortals" not being able to read hieroglyphics before the Stone, as if he weren't a regular mortal. He couldn't be a demigod . . . could he? Or did he simply mean that the House of Life didn't consider themselves mortals? The latter explanation seemed far more likely.

Things got even more confusing after Kane sent the curator after some papers. As soon as the curator was out of the room, he sent us after the curator to lock him in his office and not come back in the room, while I was to make sure that they listened to him and stayed out. After we locked the curator in, we turned back to face the room the Doc was in, and saw a strange bluish light coming from the gallery. Sadie asked if Carter knew what he was up to, and Carter said that he had no idea. I didn't know about them, but I was curious, so I went back to take a look and the Kanes followed after me.

When I got there, I found Kane in the middle of a glowing blue circle, pulling out a boomerang-like white stick (A magicians wand according to Ra) and he was beginning to write on the Rosetta Stone! To make things even weirder, he was writing hieroglyphics. And if things weren't weird enough, Sadie started translating it. "Open" was the first set of symbols she translated. Kane then chanted a phrase, and as he spoke, the words appeared on the stone. "Wo-seer, i-ei." "Osiris, come. NO! Dad, no!" That's when Kane realized that we had disobeyed him, and he turned to face us just as the Rosetta Stone exploded.

When I woke up, I felt something try to enter me, and fail, probably some Egyptian god, if what Ra had told me was true. As I looked around, I saw that the Stone was completely destroyed, and the explosion had come from inside the Stone, causing it's pieces to shoot away from the pedestal so forcefully that the pieces had imbedded themselves inside columns, the walls, and other exhibits. But when I looked at the space between us and Kane, I saw the ghostly figure of a man shrouded in fire that was talking to Kane. "Well done. Very well done, Julius." Kane objected, claiming that the fire guy hadn't been summoned. "I am never summoned, Julius. But when you open a door, you must be prepared for guests to walk through."

"Back to the Duat! I have the power of the Great King!" The power of the great king? Based on what little research I'd done on Egypt's mythology, I'm guessing that meant that Kane was playing host to Osiris, especially as Ra had told me he was stuck in the Underworld.

The knowledge of who Kane was hosting did not impress Mr. Fire (Set, possibly?) "Oh, scary" he said with sarcasm. "And even if you knew how to use that power, which you do not, he was never my match. I am the strongest. Now you will share his fate." Kane then pulled out a ruler-sized stick, that changed into a staff as he spoke to it, and it changed again when he threw it down at Fiery's feet, turning into an enormous Egyptian cobra. Again, he was not impressed. Old Flame-boy picked up the snake by it's neck and incinerated it, saying "An old trick, Julius."

"How many? How many did I release?" Kane asked.

"Why, all five. You should know we're a package deal, Julius. Soon I'll release even more, and they'll be very grateful. I shall be king again."

"The Demon Days. They'll stop you before it's too late."

Fire laughed at Kane. "You think the House can stop me? Those old fools can't even stop arguing among themselves. Now let the story be told anew. And this time you shall never rise!" Fiery waved his hand, making the blue circle around Kane go dark, and then he conjured up a see-through sarcophagus. As Kane struggled against his imprisonment, it became more solid, and as soon as it was 100% solid, it sunk into the ground. "Goodbye, Osiris."

Now, attack him! Attack Set before he can grow too powerful! Sure, Ra, now you tell me to attack him, after Kane is gone! But who was I to argue? I pulled out Ventus in sword form, and charged him, calling out "Well then, since you weren't impressed by Kane, why don't you face me?"

Set turned to face me, and he actually looked shocked. "And who do you think you are?"

"I am the son of Jupiter!" He froze at that (if fire can freeze.) "I battled Perfidia and survived being eaten by Charybdis herself. I have challenged the war god Mars and the goddesses Invidia and Juno. I killed the Titan Atlas and the ghost of Minos. You would be just another notch on the stick for me."

Oddly enough, that actually scared him enough for him to run away, but not before spotting Carter and telling him that they'd meet soon. That's when I noticed that the security guards were coming into the gallery, so I pulled on my invisibility helmet and walked out the front door.

I was planning on following the Kanes back to their home, but before I could, an enormous wolf came at me. "Okay, this is strange. What in Hades' are you?" Then I noticed it. Instead of seeing the normal, golden eyes of a wolf, I saw a ghostly image of a peacock feather in each eye. "Juno. Why am I not surprised?" My beloved step-mother had had it in for me for years, and just a few months before, I had declared war on her. I guess sending monsters after me was her way of fighting back. The wolf then charged me and I flew up to avoid it. When the wolf jumped at me, I went a few feet higher, high enough that I was sure that not even that wolf would be able to touch me. But wouldn't you know it, not only was this a giant wolf, it was also a major jumper, I had to slice it before it killed me. But to my surprise, instead of falling to the ground, it burst into snow. What kind of monster turns into snow?

As if my luck weren't already bad enough, the cops had already taken the Kanes and now I had no idea where they were. Don't worry about that, my son. They now host Horus and Isis, I'll be able to find them easily enough. Huh, so there were advantages to being able to talk to a god in your head. Ra lead me to an area on the banks of the Thames, where I saw the Kane kids and a pudgy dark-skinned man dressed like Zeus, with a fedora and black, braided hair with gold beads in it. He wrote something on a pane of glass, and an old Egyptian-style boat appeared. (Hey, I know . . . a little about Egypt. Just because I'm Roman by heritage doesn't make me ignorant about other cultures. Besides, I was also Jewish and I loved the DreamWorks movies about Yoseph and Moshe.) I figured that right now wasn't the best time to reveal myself again, (I was pretty sure I'd get yelled at by Sadie if I did,) and got on in the back, still wearing the helmet. When the boat started moving, fog appeared around us and weird sounds started around us, it kind of reminded me of Shadow Travel, a form of travel usually reserved for beings connected to the Underworld, such as my boyfriend. Any way, within 15 minutes we had exited the fog bank and I was looking up at . . . the Williamsburg Bridge on the East River? That shouldn't have been possible, and yet I clearly saw the Empire State Building to the northwest. To the left I could easily see Brooklyn Naval Yards, which we pull into, right in front of an old warehouse . . . with a mansion on top? The mansion was easily five stories tall, and shrouded in yellow Mist? I'd seen Mist before (it's what keeps the mythological hidden from the mortals,) and it had always been green before, so why was the Mist yellow here?

"And is this the east shore?" I heard Sadie ask the man. "You said something about that in London-my grandparents living on the east shore."

"Yes, very good Sadie. In ancient times, the east bank of the Nile was always the side of the living, the side where the sun rises. The dead were buried west of the river. It was considered bad luck, even dangerous, to live there. The tradition is still strong among . . . our people." When Sadie asked about Manhattan, I perked up. I was really curious to see what this guy had to say about my family. "Manhattan has other problems. Other gods. It's best we stay separate." Okay, I guess that works. "All ashore, and welcome to the Twenty-first Nome."

While they talked, I flew up to the top of the stairs and waited for them to come up. I was sure that one of them would have to be the ones to open the door, that is, until Ra told me how. The room directly inside the door was huge, I wouldn't have been surprised if I found out that the Big House could've fit in there, with room to spare! It was four stories tall with hieroglyph-covered pillars, three levels of balconies, a large number of Egyptian weapons, a fireplace that could fit a car inside, and a large black marble statue of an Egyptian god, Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom. I decided to climbed up onto his lap, and rest there.

Once Amos and the others were inside, Amos mentioned that Thoth was the only god usually allowed in the House of Life. Then Sadie asked a question that I'd been dying to know the Egyptian answer to, why did nearly all of the Egyptian gods have animal heads. According to Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, Julius Caesar believed it was because the animals were perfectly fused into human lives. "They don't look like that normally. Not in real life. The gods could appear in many forms, usually fully human or fully animal, but occasionally as a hybrid form like this. They are primal forces, you understand, a sort of bridge between humanity and nature. They are depicted with animal heads to show that they exist in two different worlds at once. Do you understand?" Huh, similar, yet also different. The kids tried to ask questions, but Amos insisted that answers wait until tomorrow. He did introduce Khufu, a baboon that happened to be a big basketball fan. Weird, a baboon named for one of my supposed ancestors. Hearing that, I decided to follow his advice and laid down on the statue's lap and went straight to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up after I heard Amos tell Sadie "We seem to have a visitor."

"How the bloody hell did he get up there?"

"Sadie, I'm not even sure how he got inside the mansion, let alone how he got up there."

"I came in through the door, naturally. As for how I got up here, I climbed. How else would I be here?" I looked down on them and saw they were getting ready to eat breakfast. "Now, do you mind if I join you? I haven't eaten in . . ." I looked down at my watch. "More than twenty hours, assuming I didn't forget any time missed because of traveling." I floated down to the floor, but I fell the last three feet after I spotted something . . . odd. Khufu the baboon was eating something . . . something with pink feathers. "Umm, Amos? What is Khufu eating?"

"A flamingo."

"WHAT?" He'd said it like it was something Khufu did all the time.

"Khufu has odd eating habits. He only eats things that end in o. Cheetos, Fritos, burritos, flamingos, so on. It's best not to ask questions about his diet." I decided to do the wise thing, and follow his advice. Fortunately his back was facing us, so the worst thing we saw was his multi-colored rear, and not something that might make us lose our appetite. "Now, I'd like some answers from you."

"Just as soon as Carter joins us, and you answer their questions, alright. Until then, I'll just introduce myself. My name is Alexander Julius, and I already know who you are, Mr. Kane." Amos agreed, then introduced us to the albino crocodile Phillip of Macedonia. When I followed my usual tradition of sacrificing some of my breakfast, both Sadie and Amos looked at me weird. I ignored them, they had their odd customs and I had mine. (Besides, when you do something like that at every meal for three years, it's pretty ingrained.) A few minutes later Carter joined us. He also asked about the meat, but we told him the same thing Amos had told us.

Once Carter started eating, he asked for explanations, and Sadie suggested starting with their dad. "Julius was attempting to summon a god. Unfortunately, it worked." It was obvious that Carter was having trouble believing as he asked if his dad was going for a particular god, or just a generic god. "There are many Egyptian gods, Carter. But your dad was after one in particular." That's when Carter remembered one of Sadie's translations, Osiris, come. And as was usual with someone finding out about the mythological world, he didn't believe that the gods existed, that they were merely legends. (Only Nico and I had believed quickly, at least in recent memory.) "I wish that were true, Carter. The ancient Egyptians were not fools. They built the pyramids, they created the first great nation-state. Their civilization lasted thousands of years. A legacy that powerful does not disappear. Next to the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans were babies."

"Hey! I resent that. Just because the Greeks and Romans started after the Egyptians does not make them babies. Besides, those babies conquered Egypt quite easily!" I argued. When Amos glared at me, I started to wish I hadn't spoken up. But I was not going to let these insults go.

"And why are you so supportive of them?"

"Just defending my family, Amos. Besides, the Greco-Roman civilizations are the foundation of Western Civilization. They created our form of government, philosophy, the basis of the modern army, and without them, Christianity might have died in the cradle."

"Yes, well, that may be, but the very oldest root of Western Civilization is Egypt. Look at the pyramid on the dollar bill. Look at the Washington Monument, the world's largest Egyptian obelisk. Egypt is still very much alive, and so, unfortunately, are her gods." Unfortunately? What was up with this guy? Sure, some of us demigods didn't like our parents, one just had to look at Luke and his growing army for proof, but we were still glad they were around, so why not these Egyptians? Anyway, Carter still didn't believe that the Egyptian gods existed, so Amos went on. "Carter, the Egyptians would not have been stupid enough to worship imaginary gods. The beings they described in their myths are very, very real. In the old days, the priests of Egypt would call on these gods to channel their power and perform great feats. That is the origin of what we now call magic. Like many things, magic was first invented by the Egyptians. Each temple had a branch of magicians called the House of Life. Their magicians were famed throughout the ancient world." While Carter still had trouble believing, Amos put up a logical argument, and according to him, they had magical abilities from both of their parents. "The two of you, you combine the blood of two ancient families, both of which have long, complicated histories with the gods. You are the most powerful Kane children to be born in many centuries."

Even with their impressive bloodline, they can never be as powerful as you, my son. You have my blood running through your veins, as well as the blood of Jupiter and, of course, your Julian ancestry. Even with the Kanes hosting Horus and Isis, you are still more powerful now than them. I ignored Ra, he was always trying to get me by offering power. Fortunately I was the wrong child of the sky to try that on. "You're telling me our parents secretly worshiped animal headed gods?" I turned back to the mortal conversation at that.

"Not worshiped. By the end of the ancient times, Egyptians had learned that their gods were not to be worshiped. They are powerful beings, primeval forces, but they are not divine in the sense one might think of God. They are created entities, like mortals, only much more powerful. We can respect them, fear them, use their power, or even fight them to keep them under control-"

"Fight them?" I asked. Why would you want to fight gods? The Titans, the giants, and in Egypt, Apophis, those I could understand fighting, but gods?

"Constantly. But we do not worship them. Thoth taught us that." Carter then asked why their dad had broken the Rosetta stone. "Oh, I'm sure he didn't mean to break it. That would've horrified him. In fact, I imagine my brethren in London have repaired the damage by now. The curators will soon check their vaults and discover the Rosetta Stone miraculously survived the explosion." Carter immediately asked how that was possible, considering it had been blown into a million pieces. Amos picked up a plate and smashed it on the ground. "That was to destroy. I could've done it by magic, ha-di, but it's simpler to just smash it. And now, join, hi-nehm." A line of fiery red hieroglyphs appeared, and the plate was repaired. "At any rate, your father would never have intentionally damaged a relic. He simply didn't realize how much power resided in the Rosetta Stone. You see, as Egypt faded, it's magic collected and concentrated into it's remaining relics, most of which are still in Egypt. But you can find some in almost every major museum. A magician can use these artefacts as focal points to work more powerful spells. For the past six years, your father has been looking for a way to summon Osiris, and last night he thought he found the right artifact to do it."

"And he succeeded. Julius said that he had the power of the 'Great King.' That's got to be Osiris. But why would he want Osiris? It couldn't be to resurrect his wife could it?"

"And why not?" Amos asked.

"Because to bring someone back from the dead, you need to trade a soul for a soul, a life for a life, preferably one who has lived longer than the Fates decreed they should have." I knew about that particular requirement because Nico had tried that just a few months ago with Bianca and Daedalus. How could I possibly forget something so important to my beloved cousin?

"And how would you know that?"

"I know someone who was going to try that."

"Really? Why was he going to try it?"

"Because he someone he loved, why else? Now please, keep going and stop asking me questions."

For a second, I thought Amos was going to, but then he asked "How was he going to try it?"

"He has connections to the Lord of the Dead, now shush and continue the story."

Again I thought I'd shut him up, but he asked another question. "How does he have a connection to Osiris?"

I turned to the kids and said, "He really can't shut up, can he?" They chuckled as I turned back to Amos and said "Besides, who said I was talking about Osiris?" I'd actually been hinting at the fact that Nico is the demigod son of Hades/Pluto/Dis Pater, the Greco-Roman Lord of the Dead. "But what about the other four? The fiery guy said that Julius had released 'all five.' Assuming that Osiris is one of them, who are the other four?"

"The gods of Egypt are very dangerous. For the last two thousand years or so, we magicians have spent much of our time binding and banishing them whenever they appear. In fact, our most important law, issued by Chief Lector Iskander in Roman times, forbids unleashing the gods or using their powers. Your father broke that law once already," Amos stated, seemingly ignoring my question.

"At Cleopatra's Needle when their mother died. But what's that got to do with the other four gods?"

"How did you know about that?!" Sadie demanded.

"I dreamed about it two summers ago. So, Amos, how does it fit in?"

"It's a long story, Mr Julius, and this is background information that is important to understanding the full story. My brother and his wife took a terrible risk to do something they thought would do some good, and it cost Ruby her life. Julius took the blame and was banished. He was forced to move around constantly because the House monitored his activities. They feared that he would continue his research, as indeed he did. The House forbade me from seeing Julius and you two. It hurt me to do it, but I couldn't see you, until last night when I simply had no choice but to help. Julius has been obsessed with finding Osiris for years. He was consumed with grief because of what happened to Ruby. When I learned that Julius was about to break the law again to set things right, I had to stop him. A second offence would have meant death. Unfortunately, I failed. I should've known he was too stubborn."

Carter interrupted. "Last night at the museum, the girl with the knife and the man with the forked beard, they were magicians too? From the House of Life?"

"Yeah, they were. Their names are Desjardins and Zia Rashid. Now, I believe you had some questions for me?" I asked.

"Yeah we've got some bloody questions for you. Who are you and how did you find us?"

I expected those questions, so I was prepared. "Like I told you this morning and last night, my name is Alexander Julius and I was sent to find you. I knew exactly where to find you because of my benefactor and a dream. I am here because I was on your boat last night, and I have to say, it was a very intriguing method of travel, but I prefer Lightning Travelling."

"Who is this benefactor of yours, and why weren't you surprised about the fact that the gods of Egypt still live among us?" Amos asked.

"My benefactor is he who uses this mark," I said, pulling my Eye out again. "As for why I'm not surprised, well let's just say that Osiris and his bunch are not the first I've heard of."

"You bear the Eye of Horus?"

"Horus? This is the Eye of Ra." Amos froze in shock at that statement.

"But . . . but Ra hasn't reigned in Egypt in millennia! How could he have contacted you?" Amos probably would have gone on demanding questions of me for another hour or so (he really doesn't know how to shut up) but he was interrupted by the appearance of a long package. He picked it up and asked "What the hell is this and how did it get inside the mansion? Nothing can get in here without a hard fight, yet the defences haven't been touched!"

"Depends on how they got in. Now, hand me that letter, Amos." Once he handed it to me, I discovered that it was from my good friend Silena Beauregard. She told me that her mother, Aprodite/Venus had warned her that I would be in grave danger and that I would need every weapon at my disposal to win. So, following her mother's warning, she entered my cabin, found the Epirus Bow (which I had left behind,) and sent it off to me via H-mail, (that is, Hermes/Mercury mail.) I smiled at the kind gesture of the goddess of love and unwrapped my beloved bow.

Amos was so shocked that he forgot to interrogate me, leaving the Kane's to ask him what was going to happen to them. Amos, quickly regaining his senses told them that he would be training them so they could fight 'the Red Lord,' a guy that Carter claimed was in Phoenix and was planning to unleash 'the greatest storm ever known.' According to Amos, the last time he said that, he created the Sahara. That confused me because I was sure that the Sahara was created because a son of Sol Invictus let the sun chariot fly too close to the Earth. Eh, different mythologies, different origins. Who knew which was the real story, or maybe they both were? Anyway, once Carter told Amos that, Amos decided to go on a scouting trip and left us to our own devices. Amos did leave one rule: that none of us enter the library, so of course the first thing me and Sadie did was go to the library.