Thanks to a similar connection between their own magic and Khamûl from when they had also undergone the "wedding ritual" to become a Consort, the other Consorts were also sensing that something was off.
"Master?" Tuya wondered in confusion as she looked around, without seeing the Ringwraith anywhere close to the Temple.
"What is happening to him?"
Each of them reached out with their own magic, trying to locate where the amount of magic-users could be found near their Master in the far distance. They knew stories, passed down in the records of the Temple, about how their Master and his fellow Ringwraiths would often be challenged by someone who tried to defeat them, but this gave off a different feeling. Like it posed an actual challenge for their Master and he could not be sure of victory for some reason.
"Visa?"
Visenya had appeared from her chamber, but there was something different in the way she now carried herself. As if she almost were a new person, compared to this very morning.
"I need everyone's help to ensure a special prayer for Master. The more who prays, the stronger it will be."
It was not Visenya who spoke now, but rather princess Neith, and the Consorts did notice this strange voice coming from the youngest holder of their rank.
"You are not Visa," Ineni, the currently oldest Consort, said with a suspicious look, "Who are you?"
"Someone who wants to free MY FATHER from the chains binding his soul to the Dark Lord, and if this is the only chance that may come, when all of us reborn children of the Farao is gathered, then I will grab it with both hands, " Neith responded, not caring if they did not show the expected respect as a royal princess in ancient times. That was not important here and now, she had a father to try freeing and reborn siblings to protect.
The one who was left behind, all alone
My family gone, our realm gone in flames and ashes
Not the last one to see the Farao as a mortal man, but one of those who knew him
Beyond what he is now, all thanks to you, Giver of Gifts
But now things are going out of your control, Dark Lord
You managed to have Tar-Minyatur kill most of his family
Driving him into your web by promising revenge and power
Yet you failed to catch all our souls, to use as hostages for Khamûl
My escaped siblings got reborn in that other world, among them Mara
And I have been waiting for their return during all this time
Laughable easily to vanish into the mists of history like I did
Because I held no magic in that life, and was married off
Before that horrible day which ruined my homeland Kemet
But now this unplanned family union is happening
And I wonder, which power will be the strongest one now?
Your power over our Father, Dark Lord, or us, his children?
Picking up the gold mask which Khamûl often would use when he was in the Temple, the appearance of Visenya temporarily changed into that of Neith as her unlocked amount of magic began to fill up the whole Temple of Shadows.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
As it was, neither Rhaenys or her new allies were too surprised over how much magic Khamûl still was able to throw at them despite being returned to his mortal body and old wounds reopening. Even Brienne, who was the oldest by being six months Rhaenys' senior and showing why she was on the path to become a pride for House Tarth as a extreme rare female knight in Westeros, had trouble to avoid getting hit once Khamûl ignored his dropped longsword on the ground after that Lyonel managed to disarm the former Farao, to instead draw his khopesh and tried to trap her dominant arm with it. In fact, Brienne had to summon the holy magic she had once used as prince Meryatum to block the Black Breath due to how close she was to the Ringwraith.
"Good try to give Meryatum a chance to fight with his holy magic, Meryre, but not enough!" Khamûl said while showing a small cut on his arm as Brienne was pushed backwards to make more distance between them again, causing the oldest Baratheon prince to twitch in unease at being addressed by his past-life name as the second son of Khamûl, not because the former ruler was mocking said attempt, but because it proved how powerful Khamûl still was even when returned to his old human body by Rhaenys.
"Jt…" Argella said in the hesitant voice of princess Bintanath, a hand already laid on the elbow on Brienne to show support for her attempts so far. They all had to fight against the terrible presence coming from Khamûl, and his cries as a Nazgûl were causing seeds of fear inside their hearts.
"Of course this would not slow you down too much, Jt, you were born with magic but raised to not be fully dependent on said magic for success in life! You learned early to fight with weapons and use his mind like a normal man, to try and never become easily defeated by your enemies! It was why you were so feared among other nations, not just as a powerful Farao, but as a sorcerer too!" the voice of Crown prince Ramses came from Aemon, who was half-hidden behind Elinor, Eric and Mya alongside Shireen and Rhea due to them being the youngest children in this place and not that likely to be able to defend themselves too well due to said age.
"Yes…"
As the head of state, the Farao was responsible for leading Kemet in times of war, he commanded its army and led them into battle. So Khamûl remaining a fearsome fighter even as a Nazgûl serving Sauron, made sense, especially as the second most powerful one and now the current leader with the Witch-King of Angmar dead. Despite how much it was an emotional storm inside them to fight him here and now, with memories glimpses of their past lives and how he had been as a father to them, it still did not change the bitter fact that they had to defeat him in some way.
He did not show it, but Khamûl was hearing the ancient whispers from his Ring of Power in his ears. Whispers that those children and youngsters were not his treasured children of old, but enemies to the Dark Lord. And secretly, he was struggling to ignore the orders from Sauron to kill them, remove them as a threat and possible problems in the future.
Kill them, Farao. They are not your children anymore. They are strangers to you. Or do you want them to be my servants, just like yourself?
The sound of a faint crack, as the central lapis lazuli stone of the Ring began to really be split in two pieces. But Rhaenys noticed how Khamûl twitched his finger with said ring, as if there was something wrong.
"Who are you gonna choose this time, Jt? Us, who are offering you a chance to leave this mockery of an afterlife according to our old lives…or the Dark Lord, who saw Tar-Minyatur as an ideal pawn to get his hands on you?"
And suddenly, a black mist spit out from the Ring, wrapping itself around their throats to try and strangle them.
"Be silent," an cold voice ordered around them, "As if any of you would even manage to free your past-life father now."
Realizing in horror what Sauron intended, Khamûl also found himself bound by the dark mist, trapping him to the nearest wall ruin with chains as he would be forced to see his reborn children die in front of him again.
But over in the Temple of Shadows, this scene was seen by Visenya and the Consorts though a miniature portal they had managed to open together.
"No…." the furious voice of Neith left the mouth of Visenya, "THAT WAY OF MAKING JT LOSE HIS BELOVED FAMILY WILL NOT HAPPEN A SECOND TIME!"
A massive amount of magical power shot through the portal, and gave Khamûl the needed strength to break free.
"NO!"
His eyes glowing a golden amber in his anger, Khamûl ignored how his non-dominant hand began to bleed violently as he tried to block the mist from the Ring of Power by holding his other hand over it.
"I have been serving you so graciously all those years, with your promise of revenge for my lost family, and yet you keep hurting them whatever they are found! But no more! Those are the children whose souls you failed to capture and use against me so I would not leave you, Dark Lord, but that time comes to an end here and now!"
With the dark mist no longer around her throat, Rhaenys coughed for air, and noticed something behind some of the ruins further away. A group of girls and women of different ages and Eastern-looking appearances, all with a magical aura coming from them.
"That must be his current Consorts who are lending their magic to Khamûl…if Sauron tries something with them to make him lose focus…!"
Since Neith was still masking her current reincarnation as to how she had been looking so long ago, Rhaenys did not notice that the youngest Consort was actually having an unmistakable Targaryen look yet.
"As the current reincarnation of your oldest daughter, I claim that temple and its residents as my spiritual inheritance!"
Grabbing her spear, she threw it past Khamûl and hit the golden mask which Visenya held in her hands. And honestly, Visenya was not quite prepared on this act from Rhaenys either.
"Wha-?!"
Not that she got much time to be surprised. The focus of Sauron inside the Ring of Power was broken with the massive amount of raw magical power spreading itself across the former lands of Kemet, forcing the two separate groups to hide in different parts of the ruins. Struggling to keep herself upright among the loose powers which had been unlocked by her action, Rhaenys summoned the spear back to herself.
"Oh, do not be so surprised, Dark Lord, surely you MUST have seen the race of Men prove to be worthy opponents of your power in the past?" Khamûl laughed in pride over what his reborn daughter had done, ignoring how his reopened ancient wounds had now bled so much that he was visibly struggling with remaining standing. In a sense, he was not too shocked; Mara had tried to save as many as possible of Kemet' subjects on that horrible day even as the portal between the two worlds was closed, because it was though its people that ensured the survival of the traditions, customs and other parts of a culture which otherwise would be lost in time, forgotten when there no longer was anyone who remembered key aspects.
So for Rhaenys to try and ensure the safety of his current mortal Consorts, despite never meeting them before, strangers who could very well actually be her enemies…Well, a part of the duties for a ruler was to ensure the safety of their subjects, as Mara had learned from a young age, so perhaps she viewed his Consorts as members of what once had been his royal court, so long ago, just in a different way.
You really have not changed in that, my treasured lotus flower…and I am pleased to see it even in your current life.
And then the Ring of Power on his finger shattered as a reaction to that the One Ring sunk into the lava of Mount Doom, catching them all by surprise as it did cause a burning chasm of black fire to open up underneath them all.
"What?!"
Again Elinor proved how useful her control over plants proved to be, capturing them in a net of wires and roots, clinging to the edges of the chasm as Aemon and Lyonel teamed up with their ice and water magic to try and lessen the burning heat surrounding them. Argella was also joining in, trying to figure out how to lift them all up on safe ground without making the flames worse.
"You intend to drag our Jt along in your downfall, Sauron, just because he is too useful as a servant to let go of?!"
Not that Khamûl was too surprised over Sauron making one last attempt to keep him, from where Rhaenys was firmly holding his hand to prevent him from falling further down into the darkness, from where the mist-like chains were pulling on him.
"Let go of me, Mara! It is an order from me as your father, not as a ruler! Do you seriously think that I, well aware of what sort of judgment to come for me, wants to see you all die AGAIN as my last memory before facing the Judge of the Dead?!"
But Rhaenys refused, only holding more firmly to his hand.
"What do you think I am doing at this very moment? I am denying the Dark Lord the soul of the all-mighty Farao of Kemet, who he dared to treat as nothing else than a mere slave! If he now wants to drag a mortal royal with him into his downfall, he is more than welcome to take the soul of that inbred trashwho abandoned me and my current family to nearly be killed for our status as his wife and children, for believing that he could act as he pleased without suffering any consequences! Even now, at your worst, I would still choose to save my treasured stepfather, the current King of Rohan, AND you from Sauron over Rhaegar Targaryen! Because without you back in Kemet, I would not even exist in the first place!"
Too stunned by her response, Khamûl could only stare at her in disbelief. She seriously thought that he, even after everything he had done as a Ringwraith, was worth saving over the man who had the gall to abandon his family?
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Despite the distance between Rohan and where Kemet once had laid in the East, Elia still sensed the massive amount of raw magic.
"Elia?" Théodred asked in alarm, noticing that she seemed to stiff up, seeing on her body language that something had to be wrong. And then Aegon screamed in terror:
"MADRE! Rhaenys! She is in danger!"
So her maternal instinct to protect her firstborn was right, as proved by his gift and sometimes curse of foresight.
"Aegon, stay close to Aégnor and Andréth to help Théodred. It is time for me…to show what the love of a mothercan bring even in the darkest of times."
If Khamûl had been ensnared by Sauron because of losing nearly his whole family, then she, as one of his female descendants though Mara, would show the same desire to keep her family safe from danger.
"Théodred, I promise to be back."
As she vanished like that legendary bird of rebirth in a gentle, golden light that reminded of the sigil for House Martell, Elia intended to keep that promise.
She arrived at the burning chasm just in time to hear Rhaenys say those words about how little Rhaegar mattered compared to Théodred and Khamûl, if there was a choice in who to save from Sauron.
"You are right, my sweet girl. I can see a mirror of myself in Khamûl, how we two share the same goal in one way or another, despite being enemies: Our love for you as a daughter, be it as Mara or as Rhaenys!"
It was Khamûl who noticed the different light above them, and realized what it was.
Bennu? The deity linked with the Sun, creation, and rebirth in Kemet?
And like that, Elia swept them all up in her gentle warmth, rising above ground, flying towards the Temple of Shadow to escape the last few remains of the Dark Lord.
"I repeat what Rhaenys said, servant of Morgoth: If you want to drag the soul of a mortal royal with you, then you are all welcome to take this inbred trash with you!"
Aiming into the darkness as the chasm began to close around the same time as the portal to the Temple of Shadows began to close it as well, Visenya threw the captured soul of Rhaegar to replace Khamûl, not doubt for a moment that this would ensure that the Targaryen prince would never enter rebirth or the afterlife to cause trouble in any form for others, ever again.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Author's note: The khopesh is an Egyptian sickle-shaped sword that developed from battle axes. A typical khopesh is 50–60 cm (20–24 inches) in length, though smaller examples also exist. The inside curve of the weapon could be used to trap an opponent's arm, or to pull an opponent's shield out of the way. These weapons changed from bronze to iron in the New Kingdom period. The earliest known depiction of a khopesh is from the Stele of the Vultures, depicting King Eannatum of Lagash wielding the weapon; this would date the khopesh to at least 2500 BC.
Bennu is an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the Sun, creation, and rebirth. He may have been the original inspiration for the phoenix legends that developed in Greek mythology.