The Second Circlet: The Old Places - 10. Segment 10: The Great Ankh

As long as he would live, he would never tire of the sunset behind the Great Pyramids!

Even from the apartment that he and his family had lived for three generations, Mughamir could see the ancient wonders of the world from his rooftop! He never missed a sunset, no matter what was going on! Before the maġrib prayers, Mughamir would make it his daily ritual to watch as the sun set upon the pyramids.

Father did not always understand, but Grandfather did! Grandfather had been a porter at Giza as had his fathers before him. Grandfather would tell such stories!

He knew that Giza was a haunted place. Not only by ghosts, but by gods and powers Allah, who is great, had not driven fully away from that place! The stories once frightened Mughamir, but now, as he was older, they only…tantalised him!

Allah is great and His will be done, but what called to Mughamir from that ancient place? Father insisted it was only a place for the dead…a necropolis. Dead like the old pagan gods were dead. Dead as those who, long ago, once worshipped men as gods.

There was no God but Allah and He is One, but something stirred at Giza and even Grandfather could feel it! Mughamir often watched the sunset with his Grandfather upon the rooftop. Sometimes, Ahmed, Mughamir’s best friend in the world, would join them and they would speak of things haram to Islamists. Things hidden! Things strange! Things magical!

Grandfather seemed to know much about Giza from working with the many archaeologists and egyptologists that dug there. Grandfather was always amused by the foreign ones that would come thinking they knew everything there was of the Ancients and then finding something that threw them all into confusion…usually by something Grandfather would find for them.

One such story Grandfather would like to tell was about a magic that lived under Giza. According to him:

“There is a device of the gods buried deep within the planes of Giza, my Grandson. The archaeologists refuse to believe in it saying that it is merely a myth, though secretly they look for it in their hearts.” My Grandfather, Mahmood Al Uqsar Bin Mohammed, said to Mughamir.

“The Great Ankh?” Mughamir knew his Grandfather was growing old and that his memory about stories told was fading, but Mughamir never tired of this story!

“There is something I must tell you! Ours is a family that goes back to the Pharaohs, Mughamir! I tried to pass our knowledge and traditions down to your father, but he was too much caught up in modern ways. So, now I pass this knowledge to you.” Grandfather gently touched Mughamir’s arm to gather all his attention. He looked into his Grandfather’s fading eyes and therein saw nothing but the earnest truth.

“We have known where the Ankh lies! You will find it under the paw of the second Sphinx of Giza!” Grandfather told him and Mughamir was justifiably shocked to hear what he was hearing because this…was new to the story!

“Second Sphinx? But, Grandfather, there is only one Sphinx at Giza!” Mughamir said incredulously.

“Not so, my Grandson. In the eastern shadow of Khafra‘s Pyramid, as the sun sets in summer, are the remains of the Second Sphinx. Under her right paw she holds and guards the Ankh.” Grandfather said with finality.

“The Second Sphinx is actually the first Sphinx. It was partially obliterated and the new Great Sphinx built as a means of confusing thieves seeking the Great Ankh which is sacred. We were the sculptors of the Sphinx. It was our family who were part of the contingent that made this deception possible.” Grandfather rattled on. Mughamir had not ceased in his listening, but he was growing tired of the fantasy.

“But of course, Grandfather.” Mughamir said to placate him. Grandfather began looking very tired so Mughamir helped him from the roof.

~

Cairo was as wild and foreign a place as Sean had ever been! The traffic! The noise! The dust! The flies! The strange scents - both pleasant and not! It was a whirl of life completely alien to his senses. Worse…the infernal heat! Cairo was hot enough to cause a soul to lose his natural fear of Hell! Then there was the disturbing fact that there was very little that was green! Even the many palm trees about were yellowish. Everything was the colour of sand!

“God in heaven, what a place…!” Sean murmured distraughtly.

“Och, give it a chance, Seanie! This part away from the airport is always congested and close. Wait till you see the Pyramids! Then you’ll understand why Cairo is, perhaps, one of my most favourite of cities!” Moira tried to assure Sean, but Sean was not feeling it. This was going to be a dragging challenge for him, he was just sure of it.

Joraan should have felt completely out of his element being that this was a desert place, but he felt strangely at home! If anything, Joraan felt like he was at, what the men call, a ‘resort’ of sorts! This was due to the immense amount of magical energy flowing through this Egypt! Never had Joraan felt such power! He was certain that this area of the mysterious Pyramids was a ley nexus! As a matter of fact, the sense of magic coming from the Giza Plateau was such that it almost seemed ‘blinding’ to Joraan’s extra senses!

M’yn and Viviane seemed to be similarly affected since they both walked with the same measured steps as Joraan. A gait reminiscent of monks walking in the halls of the holy! It caught the non-magic human’s attention finally.

“By me Da’s soggy peat bog, you three are dragging yer feet worse than Old McMahon with a hangover! What ails the lot of ye?” Sean stopped and turned on the three magic users.

“Lest than you could feel it, Sean-boy - this place…it Shines! The power here is so hot!” Joraan said as he seemed to scan everything around him as if seeing daylight for the first time!

“I think he means that if you could, you’d feel the magic here. It is terrible strong, you see. It is almost too much!” Viviane tried to explain.

Moira looked at them all thoughtfully. There was much to analyse about her enchanted compatriots. Much she would love to study, not the least of which was their sense of ‘magic’ - this energy field they seemed to be able to tap into and of which they seemed to have a sixth sense. This should be something her physicist friends could conjecture upon for decades! She was sure it had to do with quantum theory somehow, but such was not her particular expertise.

Somehow, though, Joraan and company’s sense of things took a strange similarity to her own sense of wonder about Egypt. If anywhere could be a nexus of ‘magic’ it was sure to be this place…and Giza in particular!

That made finding this particularly important artefact they were looking for all the more intriguing! Anteros spoke of it with reverence and told them they would meet with someone who could take them to the device. He described the device as a conduit for intense power not dissimilar from Excalibur, but for much different uses. It was an artefact representing and encompassing ‘life’. Anteros did not say, exactly, what the artefact was, however.

But, Moira had her suspicions. There was one thing she knew of that seemed to perfectly match Anteros’ description. It was a symbol both representational and hieroglyphic that meant ‘life’ to the Egyptians. The Egyptian gods even ‘fed’ this device to each other and to their chosen ones as a symbol for passing eternal life to others.

This symbol was the Ankh! The Key of Life, as it was known to the Ancient Egyptians through almost every dynasty going back, at least, 4000 years!

Deeper myth had that the symbol was inspired by something more precious, more sacred, even than the Sun and the Sun was God to the Egyptians. It was the God of temporal life being that it radiated its life-giving light to all things, giving all things alive the strength to live!

But, this sacred thing more precious than the Sun was an object ensuring…Eternal Life! It was Life in Spirit, Life as the gods knew it, Life as the Pharaohs designed great pyramids to capture!

What they were looking for was an ankh of some kind. A physical object possibly in the shape of the Life Giving symbol. Egyptians made and still make today the object, so ingrained in their collective consciousness as it is. It is, despite the precepts of Islam, still a symbol of health and luck to many Egyptians and to others besides.

They had found and were still hunting for weapons and objects of power to fight Morgana and her Fae. Could this ankh be their next ‘magical’ object they needed to find? If so, what incredible power could it hold? It could be the most powerful of their assets so far given its importance in history and its lingering meaning for mankind! The Holy Cross itself is considered a type of ankh, actually!

“So what are we lookin’ for this time, hey?” Sean, ever seeming to be a spy into Moira’s thoughts, asked in his classically brusque manner.

“I’m not entirely certain, Seanie, but I’m supposin’ that we’re lookin’ for an ankh of some kind.” Similarly, Moira saw no point in beating around the bush about things either.

“…beg your pardon?” Joraan asked with a strangely adorable expression of bewilderment upon his face.

“Ankh. It is a symbol based on Egyptian philosophy. It is a shape like a key or a cross. It represented, to the Egyptians, life in all of its forms both mortal and divine.” Moira explained.

“Joraan, it looks like this…” and Viviane drew for him the familiar cross with a loop as its top.

“I guess that is what Anteros meant by ‘that which encompasses all Life’?” Hector chimed in.

Joraan spied an obvious Western tourist wearing a beautiful version of the symbol Viviane had just drawn for him. She wore it about her neck on a gold chain. The ankh itself was beautiful being made of gold set with various jewels. Surely, it was, at least, something visitors to this place knew of and treasured. Joraan assumed, then, that this Ankh they were looking for had to be a similar device.

“So, we go to the bazaar and look for a likely candidate then?” Sean sassed.

“Possibly. It isn’t unusual for their to be sellers in antiquities that actually do have interesting and authentic items. But, as with what happened with Fail-Not, I’m suspecting that we need to wait for a guide, I suppose.” Moira said and not in a way that could even convince herself much less everyone else.

“I believe that is wise. Anteros would not have sent us here if he did not suppose that we’d find help!” Hector added with his ever hopeful eagerness.

“One can only hope, I’d be guessin’,” M’yn added sardonically.

“Well, dallying about in this dust and heat’s not gettin’ us anywhere. I suggest, if we’re to be waitin’ for someone, that we get to our hotel at the very least.” Sean, the ever sensible, advised.

“Quite right, Seanie. Our hotel’s shuttle should be arriving soon. When we get there we can wash up, catch a bite, and then discuss any strategies there might be for our finding this ‘guide’,” Moira declared.

~

She came to him across the waters of the Nile through a forest of reeds. About her egrets flew as did herons and pipers. Her gown was the colour of the sky, her skin bronze, her raven black hair was plaited about her face in braided loops that were caught up in her golden head-dress! About her eyes she had eye makeup that seemed alive like a butterfly, but her eyes themselves were her greatest feature. They glowed with an unearthly blue that shimmered with their own light! About her throat she wore the Great Eye of Horus and her arms were twined in bracelets of king cobras. In her right hand was a crooked staff and in her left she held an ankh so beautiful it beggared description!

“Behold, mortal son of many sons of my people - behold the Great Ankh of Ra! Your’s was the family into which its secret was entrusted. The time has come, after 4000 years, for the Living Power to be raised again. You must go from your home, now, young Munsuset. Your destiny is nigh! Isis of the Holy Nile implores!” The beautiful woman said to Mughamir.

Stupefied, he could only say in way of correcting some grave mistake in identity, “But, my name is Mughamir!”

“Your Arabic name is meaningless to me. Yours is the Family Munsuset as you were known of old. That you will remain to me, precious and beloved as you are. The Great One knows what is needed and so sent me as His messenger to you.” The woman said.

“You, a messenger of God? But, the imams tell us that you were pagan deities of infidels! You serve He who is Great?” Mughamir’s dream self dared to question.

“We all serve The Great One, child, in one way or another. You will serve Him well if you hear and obey what I tell you.” Isis assured.

Before Mughamir a vision of a foreign woman with red hair came before him. It was like a living mirage, shimmering before him!

“This woman of the North is on a mission of dire necessity, but she needs every power she can call upon to fulfil her sacred task! She is tasked with nothing less than the salvation of mankind from a terrible adversary! Egypt must, as she has always done, answer in strength in this time of dire need. She must find this…” and Isis held out the glittering Ankh of Ra before her and it seemed to catch with a mystical blue fire as she held it.

“…and you must help her do it.” Isis said with certitude.

“But, why so must it be me, Great Messenger? Why am I, young and foolish, the one who should take up this quest? I am possessed of no strength, power, or knowledge that could help this foreign woman!” Mughamir dared to protest as he was afraid of what was being asked of him.

“But, you do have knowledge! You have the precious knowledge now handed down to you by your very Grandfather, who’s father’s father’s father unto millennia has kept this secret for Egypt! You know exactly where to find the Ankh! You are the key, young Munsuset! Fulfil your family’s destiny! Find this woman where I shall lead you! Do it tomorrow for time is short! Lead her to the place your Grandfather has said and there help her to retrieve the Great Ankh!” Isis was near to pleading with Mughamir.

“When you venture out tomorrow, you will see me. Follow me and I shall lead you to Moira, the Sword Bearer!” Isis said with finality and then faded from Mughamir’s vision.

With that, Mughamir awoke bathed in a cold sweat! His brother next to him moaned in protest in his sleep as Mughamir had been jolted from his rest.

The dream would not fade from his memory! It was unlike any dream he had ever had! It was almost…hyper-real! Still, before his waking eyes, Mughamir could see the beauty of Isis standing with him, smiling, encouraging, cajoling him to do her bidding.

It was only a dream, was it not? It could not mean anything! But, the words still rang in his ears as if he had heard them screamed into them - ‘When you venture out tomorrow, you will see me. Follow me and I shall lead you to Moira, the Sword Bearer!‘

Mughamir found no more sleep that night. He found companions in his sleeplessness only in the bright stars above him and his own worries and insecurities standing with him.

What was he going to do?

~

“…when you meet the boy, Munsuset, he will take you to the place of which he has been told. He has been given the knowledge of his forefathers that tells the location of the Great Ankh of Ra. Keep the boy with you. Keep him safe for his family. You will know him for I will bring him to you.” The being called Isis said into Moira’s dream. Even in her sleeping state she knew this was more than a dream! It was a real communication from beyond!

She awoke with a start, jolting poor Sean who had been sleeping so soundly next to her in their shared bed.

“Saints preserve us, Moira! What flea bit ya now?” he asked with a yawn.

“I just had the strangest dream! I believe that Isis just told me of a way of finding the Ankh!” Moira was all astonishment and Sean was all confusion.

“What the blazes are you talking about, woman? What’s an ‘isis’?” Sean asked in a grouse.

“She is an Egyptian goddess, Sean! Have you never heard of her? She’s a rather famous deity after all.” Moira asked incredulously.

“I’m a good God fearin’ Catholic, Moira-lass. Why would I be knowin’ anything about any Egyptian goddesses or what have you?” Sean grumped. He really was not a good sport about being awakened from his own lovely dreams.

“I suppose you wouldn’t, necessarily, only she’s quite a famous deity…but not one I would normally dream about. I wonder…” Moira sat on the edge of the bed suddenly lost in her thoughts.

“…wonder what?” Sean couldn’t help himself now that Moira had piqued his curiosity. They sat in silence for a few long moments until Sean sighed heavily and went to turn back over to finish his sleep. He hoped his nice dream would come back so he could finish that too!

“I wonder if that was a dream or not.” Moira finally, exasperatingly, answered.

“What else could it be, hey?” Sean mumbled tiredly with his back still turned to Moira.

“I…just don’t know, Sean. I guess we’ll find out.” Moira said absently as she wandered out into the commons of their guest suite.

~

Arif Al-Qhahira bin Zahi awoke from his slumber sweating and panting. His wife was not disturbed and he did not wish to further risk her disturbance, so he carefully left his bed. He poured for himself some tea and went to the window of his large apartment. About him he afforded himself a selection of antiquities that he kept and preserved for the Museum. None were great treasures to the economies of the world. Nothing was gold and nothing was of the priceless enamelling of the Ancients. Most things were roughened pots and cartouches the colour of the sand. But, to Arif, they were priceless mementos of a time when Egypt had been the greatest civilisation on earth. He preserved all these precious relics in gas filled containers that were placed on earthquake proofed shelving systems. Being the Minister of Antiquities, he found such things necessities if his home was to be an annex to the great Museum.

Arif found it entirely possible that his near fanatical devotion to his ancient past had finally caught up with him. That dream…seemed so real!

The Woman In Blue had stood before him in this very room just on the other side of his desk. She spoke to him of things. Things only a madman would acknowledge as truth and yet…she was so convincing. Arif had wanted to believe her. He had wanted to with all of his heart!

Why was this dream still clinging to his consciousness? Why did the woman’s words still echo in his mind? Who will be this other woman from Ireland (how strangely specific) who will seek him wanting passage to the dig sites on Giza? Specific dig sites. Places tourists would not care to see since not much exists there that isn’t still buried under millennia of sand and stone.

Why does the vision of a Great Ankh seem to burn in his mind and what is its connection with either the Woman in Blue or the Red Woman from Ireland?

Arif sat behind his desk and decided to jot these thoughts down before they escaped him though, he figured, he would not be forgetting this dream easily.

It had to mean something!

Arif made a decision that, upon the morrow, he would venture to the stepped tomb of Queen Khentkawes southeast of the Pyramid of Khafre. It was a clear location in his dream and one Arif was not surprised to see in a mysterious dream about a strange Blue Woman and a stranger Red Haired Woman. That whole area had not been excavated for some time due to ‘priority’ sites, particularly the ‘builder towns’ around the plateau. An air of mystery and controversy had ever shrouded the ruins about the Khentkawes ‘pyramid’. The most potent mystery being the structure that lies just north of the tomb…namely the possibility that this structure could be the remains of a second Sphinx at Giza!

Then, like a lightning strike out of the clear blue, a reality dawned upon Arif! In his dream, the Red Woman’s face! He recognised it! Could that be…

“…Moira O’Brien?” Arif spoke to his realisation.

He picked up a phone to call the Ministry of State. It was late, but he knew someone there who was a night owl.

“Omar, would you be kind enough to search for the name ‘Dr. Moira O’Brien’ on any of the travel manifests of foreign visitors in the past week?” Arif requested. Omar asked some pertinent questions.

“No. No, I would not suspect her of trouble in any way. I have news that she should be coming in for a conference and I would like to meet with her. That is all.” Arif assured.

“You are all kindness, Omar! We need to take coffee together soon. There are many things with which we should get caught up! Yes…that sounds brilliant! Goodbye.” Arif concluded his call.

By the morning, Arif should know where Moira was staying. He dearly needed to compare notes with her…to see if they shared the same dream!

~

After his morning prayers, Mughamir decided to ‘go to the market’ for it was a day off from school. He often went to the market on his days off to meet with friends so that they could play football. So, it was not a strange request for him to make of his papa to go.

But, Mughamir was not going to the market just to play with friends. He knew he had to test this dream of his. The beautiful face of the Woman In Blue would not leave his mind, nor was her promise to meet him on this day. Unfortunately, she did not say where she was to meet him only that she would ‘appear’ when he was out today.

Then, behold, as he neared the bazaar near his home…he saw her! What is more, she saw him too! She was real! In her reality, she beckoned to him. Mughamir hesitated for this was so strange to his eyes that he suddenly knew a strange fear. Never had any of his dreams actually come true! His father told Mughamir, when he was very young, that dreams were merely the mind’s way of cleaning itself. Nothing real could come of them…particularly nightmares, which was the kind of dream Mughamir worried might be real.

The appearance of the Woman In Blue as a real and true person gave Mughamir pause. Perhaps, some of his nightmares might come true now that the veil between the Dreamworld and reality seemed to have broken! Then another impossibility happened! Mughamir heard a voice in his head!

It said, “Fear not Munsuset! It is truly I! Follow me. The Expected One I have also connected with. She will need your help today. Please valiant one…come!”

It was the voice of the Woman In Blue inside of his head. The expression upon the matchless beauty of her face told of her urgency.

‘Valiant One!’ This is what she had called him! If valiant he was, then Mughamir would not want to disappoint the woman of his dreams. She was…so beautiful!

Mughamir came forth to join her, but when he reached where she had been, she was no longer there! But, he spotted her again a short way down the street and he did give chase.

Through the throng in the old bazaar, Mughamir just kept pace with the woman who, inexplicably, always seemed to remain just ahead of him. This, frustratingly, went on for several blocks until he completely lost sight of her before one of the big hotels. Had he been taken for a fool? Had the woman been a mirage born of his young, fantasy driven mind?

“The one you are to help, there, behold, she comes even now.” Said the tinkling voice right beside him! Mughamir turned in astonishment and the apparition of Isis lingered just long enough to touch his cheek with a glorious smile. Then she transformed into light and was gone!

“Oi? Are you the tyke who we are to be findin’?” Mughamir turned and was confronted with a HUGE white man with flowing blond hair, grizzled jaw, and fierce blue eyes! Mughamir almost made to run, but then saw the other woman from his dream come up behind the man - the one called Moy-Rah!

“Sean, you’ll scare the boy away and then where will we be?” the woman admonished the tall man. For his part, his stern look softened and he stood away. Obviously, this woman was in command of this man, for some reason. This Moy-Rah, the Sword Bearer, must be a queen to command such a man!

Though Mughamir could understand both Europeans well enough, thanks to his years of English training, he found their accent strange. Never had he heard its like! It made understanding something of a challenge.

However, in rather perfect Arabic, Moy-Rah spoke directly to him, “We saw that blue dressed woman with you just now! Are you the one we were told to find - Munsuset?” The pale red haired queen asked. Mughamir was astonished she should know the Prophet’s Tongue so well! He was doubly astonished to hear the name the Blue Woman called him by come from the lips of the Red Haired Woman from his dream!

In way of exchange, Mughamir responded in his best English. Perhaps it was not perfect, but, apparently he was well understood, “I am he, Miss Moy-Rah! Mughamir is my name. I had the dream. The dream of the Blue Woman! She, it was, who brought me here to find you! She, it was, who calls me Munsuset.”

“Yes, that’s the name she mentioned to me too. Very good, Mughamir - that is what you rather be called, correct?” Moy-Rah replied in her strange lilting English. She seemed a bit taken aback that Mughamir already knew her name.

Mughamir felt a big smile appear on his face and he nodded vigorously. She was the one the Blue Lady told of! Finally, someone who would take him seriously and, more importantly, someone who would believe the words of his Grandfather! Someone who could make Mughamir finally believe in his Grandfather’s old tales!

Moira continued in English to clarify her identity that the boy seemed, miraculously, to already know, “Indeed, my name is Dr. Moira O’Brien. This is my companion Sean. There are some others at the hotel if you’d care to meet them,” Moy-Rah shook Mughamir’s hand as did the giant Shah-han. Shah-han’s grip was as light as he could make it, but still Mughamir felt like the great man was made of steel with a grip like a vice!

“Indeed, it seems that our mutual ‘Dream Lady’ vanished quickly after our meeting. I suppose her deed was done. You’ll find, Mughamir, that such things are not unusual for our group these days.” Dr. Moy-rah O Bry-yan said, mysteriously, as she led the way back to their hotel.

Mughamir should have felt anxious by such a statement, but instead he felt an intense sense of excitement! What other wonders awaited him this day? What adventure had the Blue Woman led him into? The day would tell.

~

The boy who entered their suite did so without hesitancy. The smile upon his bronzed face was broad with excitement and expectation. He seemed very trusting of his situation. He was young, but still in his early to mid teens. He was not entirely a child anymore, but he still retained much of the child in his aspect.

Joraan grimaced inwardly! It was enough that the young man Hector should be a combatant among them, but now they would have another child to watch after! Hector had been tested in combat and found sufficient for their task. Confronted with the blood and gore left by the Manticore, he did not break. But, still, Joraan wondered what Hector would do when confronted by the wholesale slaughter the Fae would surely reek when their attack would finally come.

Now…this boy!

Joraan could feel powers at work in this Egypt that were reaching around him to directly affect Moira. Her ‘dream’ of this Blue Lady was no dream, of course. Of this, Joraan was certain. By some prompting, she and Sean had been called out of this hotel building to find a guide to where they were to go to find this Ankh item. This boy must be that guide. . .

Naturally, the boy immediately took to Viviane and Hector…particularly to Hector. If there was an age difference between the two boys, it was hardly perceptible to Joraan. But, then, human accounting for age and time was outside of his experience. When you had lived for ages, the lives of men were as quickly done as the rising and setting of the sun each day. As Joraan grew closer to his human companions so did his melancholy grow. He could actually see them age a little bit more with each passing day.

Joraan made his terse response to the child’s eager greeting as did M’yn. Joraan figured M’yn had similar feelings on the matter of this boy since both Sídhe exchanged wary looks. Joraan noticed the boy’s enthusiasm falter a bit upon getting a better look of M’yn’s face under his hood. Indeed, M’yn’s features were even more sharply inhuman than Joraan’s.

Pleasantries were barely finished when there came a knock on their hotel room door. Sean worried it might be a copper figuring an Irish couple had just kidnapped an Egyptian child for some nefarious purpose. Sean accounted his imagination fanciful when all that stood at the door was one of the hotel’s footmen. In his hand he bore, in an old fashioned way, a silver platter with one envelope atop it.

Moira retrieved and opened the letter. Upon reading it she gained a look of bewilderment.

“It’s from the Ministry of Antiquities and from the Minister himself!” Moira’s expression, as she read the letter, changed from one of perplexity to one of recognition.

“Dr. Arif Al-Qhahira bin Zahi! As I live and breathe! I’d not been keeping up with Egypt’s shuffling of ministers after the Arab Spring. I had no idea Arif had been the one to replace Dr. Zharif.” Moira mumbled to herself.

“…and this means what to us?” Sean poked.

“He wants to arrange a private meeting at the Sphinx. I find it odd that he should know we are here, where we are staying, and why we are here since I’ve just discovered this myself but last night!” Moira mused.

“Do you suspect some shenanigans?” Joraan asked with suspicion.

“I doubt it. I know Arif and I can’t figure any reason why he should want any mischief. He’s a crack egyptologist, but it is odd that he should want us to join him at Giza for some reason.” Moira answered thoughtfully.

She thought, could he have had the same experience with the Woman In Blue also? Was this how they’d gain access to the Ankh?

“I wonder…” though she did not dream of Arif in her ‘dream’ of the Blue Woman, perhaps their new companion had.

“Mughamir? When you dreamt of our ‘Blue Lady’ did you happen to dream also of a man? He’d be a fairly distinguished man perhaps of your father’s age.” Moira asked of the Egyptian boy.

“No, Miss Doctor O Bry-Yan! No man. Only Blue Woman and of you!” Mughamir answered.

‘Curious,’ Moira thought.

“But, of the Sphinx - there it is that I have knowledge! It is why the Blue Woman did come to my dream! Our family and the Sphinx are connected! So says my Grandfather!” Mughamir said emphatically and proudly.

“Er, connected?” Moira asked, befuddled.

“Yes! My Grandfather has said that our family goes back to the time of the ancients! That we, Allah be praised, were among those that tended to the Sphinx for generations! My Grandfather himself was a porter for the great doctors, like yourself, that did come to study our great history!” Mughamir rattled off in quick Arabic. Moira was just able to get the gist of what Mughamir was saying.

“What was that now…?” Sean asked in total confusion.

“Mughamir was just telling me that his family have been porters for egyptologists studying the Great Sphinx for generations. That his family…tended…to the monolith somehow. Now, perhaps, I see better why he was brought to help us.” Moira said as she thoughtfully looked at Mughamir.

There was no coincidence that this boy had come to them and now Arif wanted a meeting at the very Sphinx the boy’s Grandfather worked.

They were all being led to the same goal!

“Indeed, through shared dreams and the bringing together of those that can assist in our goal…it is clear we are being assisted by the powers of this land.” Viviane seemed to be speaking, again, with Merlin’s wisdom.

“I suppose that’d be meanin’ that we need to meet with this Arif gentleman…whatever happens.” Sean said warily.

“Yes! We are to meet at the Sphinx! It must be the Blue Woman’s will!” Mughamir blurted with excitement.

“Though I share Sean’s reticence, I agree we need to chance this meeting. Time is growing short. I can only figure Morgana is closer to her goal and breaches will start forming allowing the Fae to cross over. We need to gather all the power we can and quickly before that happens!” Joraan warned direly. His severity was sobering to all…even to a confused Mughamir who had no idea what was being talked about.

To him, the strange boys in their hoods were frightening anyway, for some reason. They were…alien somehow - like Mughamir might imagine Jinns to be! Also, though his English was not as good as it should be, Mughamir could understand quite a bit more of what he could hear than what he could actually say. What he was hearing from the one ‘Jinn’ scared him. Who or what was Morga-hana and her ‘fay’?

“Then it is decided, come what may, we’ll chance this meeting and hope that Arif does not involve any other ‘interested’ parties - namely the somewhat paranoid Government of the moment.” Moira was quite concerned with that. Foreign interest in Egyptology had been looked upon balefully under Hosni Mubarak’s regime and not without good reason. So much of Egypt’s ancestral wealth had been, virtually, pillaged by European interests at the dawn of Egyptology that when Egypt gained its independence, one of the first things it did was put a moratorium on foreign sponsored digs. Hence, a reason why the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities had become such an influential part of Mubarak’s administration. The patchwork governments established after his forced retirement had maintained that moratorium.

Moira could only figure they’d try to stop a dig sponsored by their little group, especially if there was a lead on a fabled artefact. There could be no more fabled an artefact in all of Egyptology than the Great Ankh of legend!

“I am sure we can handle anything that happens, friends! We have destiny on our side!” Hector exhorted. Hector’s cheerleading did seem to lift everyone’s spirits a little, despite his seeming naïveté.

Sean hoped against hope that Hector was right, but he was a cautious soul by nature. The last caper nearly had them all killed before any war could even begin!

Sean wondered, with a cold pit in his stomach, what would be guarding the Ankh…because something was always guarding these things they were collecting. More disturbing still, each guardian seemed to become more powerful than the last!

“We should get going. Our meeting with Dr. Al-Qhahira is to be at 1 PM. Hydrate well, it is the hottest part of the day out on Giza! It is odd that he should want to meet us there at that time…” Moira admonished.

With that, Sean’s uneasiness suddenly grew exponentially…

~

The Pyramids were distorted by waves of heat as the team made its way to the parking area designated for VIPs. Along with the letter, Dr. Al-Qhahira had provided a special Ministry pass so that they could be successful at parking. The parking area was also near the front of the new Giza visitor’s center where the doctor was to meet them.

Moira was loathe to leave the comfort of their van. Even with the air conditioning running, the sun coming through the windshield stung a bit, despite her high-SPF tanning butter. But, Moira was an old soldier when it came to hot country. She’d worked Giza as a student and was familiar with the vicissitudes of the place. She was concerned about her companions, though. She figured Hector and Mughamir would be used to conditions like this, but not her Hibernic companions and Viviane.

Upon her monitoring of them as they stepped out of the van, she was pleasantly surprised that all seemed more shocked by the site of the Pyramids in the distance than the oppressive heat. She’d forgotten…just how incredible the ancient Wonders Of The World really were!

Like children, Joraan and M’yn, actually, ran forward of the group and grappled a fence to get as close as they could to the Pyramids while still being outside of the complex proper! Their stuffy hooded outfits did not seem to hinder them in any way, heat-wise. Perhaps, it was due to their strange ‘fiery’ blood chemistry that they could withstand being bundled up so in such heat!

None of the humans could understand, though, the absolute magnetic pull the Pyramids exerted in Magic! They had been placed perfectly to take advantage of the ley nexus under the gigantic structures! Not only that, but the perfection of their shape, even half desiccated as they were, channelled power like a magical transformer! Both Joraan and M’yn felt bathed in energy, like they were standing in front of a raging fire just radiating heat and power!

These Pyramids were not simple tombs, Joraan thought. He knew about the current human accounting of these devices of power, that they had been built by megalomaniacal kings of the Ancients as their doorways into the afterlife. But, Joraan could sense the age of these structures and knew as sure as he was standing there…these things were older than this Egypt! Whatever built them had to have been as old as the Sídhe themselves! Perhaps, whoever they were, long ago left this world for a better one or…were made extinct just as Joraan’s people had been made.

That, or men of a higher order configured these miracles! A race of men only known to current humanity by a few genetic markers. Ancient ties left over from a Golden Era of mankind virtually unknown to the Children of Avalon. A people, perhaps, predating the Flooding of the Middle World!

Joraan remember tales of just such a race calling themselves the Annunaki!

If any archaeologists of a psychic nature had been in the area, they would have wanted to kidnap and interrogate Joraan for his thoughts. He was certain of it! They think they know what they are dealing with…but they haven’t a clue, really. Not a clue!

“Come along you two, time for the Visitor’s Centre.” Moira admonished her ‘young charges’ to keep up appearances. Inwardly, Moira was deeply fascinated by the Sídhe’s first reaction to the Pyramids. She hadn’t seen them this animated since leaving Wales! What was it they were seeing or sensing? For the first time in a long while, she heard the two conversing in whispered excitement to one another in that languid native language of theirs. Stranger and stranger!

~

It had been many years, but those years had been kind to Moira O’Brien, Arif thought. She still sported the same pale grace that the people of her sun-starved land were heir to. He loved his wife very much, but Arif was a man and what man could refrain from admiring the beauty of a beautiful woman? Moira was and had always been…quite the beauty!

However, as radiant as she was, Arif could not but be distracted by her strange entourage. At her side was a tall, strapping, handsome man of Moira’s own people looking just as fierce and strong as a Northern Raider of old - shoulder-length hair and all! There was a plain college aged girl similar in age to what Moira was when Arif first met her. Then came…children - four boys near to his own son’s age. Adolescents. The two hooded ones may have been Moira’s own kids, but it was hard to tell because they were so hidden by their hoods. This affectation Arif found rather strange given the heat of the day. Shouldn’t these two boys be broiling covered as they were? Then, perhaps it was wisdom of a kind. Covered so, they were less apt to get sunburned. How very…Irish!

The two hooded ones might be Moira’s own children, but not the other two. One was obviously an Egyptian. He was well tended to so he could not have been a ragamuffin from the street that had attached himself to Moira’s group. The other was either Greek or Turk in appearance. He was slightly older than the Egyptian boy and they seemed to be fast friends. The Egyptian lad was obviously proud as punch showing off the wonders of his people to so rapt an audience. The Egyptian boy reminded Arif greatly of himself at that age!

This was all very well, no doubt, but why bring such a motley crew to an important meeting such as this? Strange things were at work! Possibly, dangerous things! Why involve children?

Moira had recognised Arif straight off upon entering into the new Visitor’s Centre lounge and made a bee-line straight toward him. Moira was impressed by the new facility! It was a grand improvement from what had existed before.

“Dr. Arif! It has been far too long! Congratulations on your promotion to Minister of Antiquities! Is…this…your doing?” Moira referred to the new centre in way of possibly ingratiating herself to her one time partner during her Egyptology internship.

“Ah, Dr. O’Brien! Always a pleasure! Indeed, we finished this, but it was the brainchild of my storied predecessor, Dr. Abu Zharif.” Arif responded graciously. Moira remembered Zharif also. He had mentored her during that internship as he had mentored Arif. Zharif had been something of a prima-donna, but also a brilliant archaeologist.

Arif fitted himself with his best ‘presenter’s’ smile and addressed the unknown quantities in the room.

“Welcome, honoured guests! I should assume that these are all companions to my friend, Dr. Moira O’Brien?” Arif asked partly out of courtesy, but mostly out of a need for clarification.

“Oh, but of course! Introductions…” Moira interceded.

Moira gestured first to her tall, blond companion, “Introducing Sean Pierce! My dear friend and assistant.” Continuing, “This is Viviane, Jordan, Mick, Hector, and last, but not least, our new ‘guide’…Mughamir!”

Arif shook hands with Sean and Viviane while he nodded in greeting at the children, “Well met, all of you! I suppose…we’re all here for the same purpose. Perhaps we should adjourn outside to begin our…tour.” He nodded rather pointedly at a few darkly suited men wearing closed communication microphones and sunglasses. Obviously, they were government guards or agents of some kind. Visitors were keeping clear of them, whoever they were!

Outside, again in the blistering dry dusty heat, Dr. Arif, Moira and her retinue felt they could speak more freely.

“I suppose we are all here due to the same extraordinary circumstance - that being our dreams of late. I found the specificity of my dream most compelling. Hence, my desire to meet with you here, Moira. We have all been brought here for one reason and that reason, I believe, is to find the fabled Great Ankh of Ra! I am perplexed as to the reason why we should all have been given such a vision to find an object harder to find even than the very Ark of the Covenant itself!” Dr. Arif stated.

“For all of me, Dr. Arif, that may very well be the next object we will be tasked to find!” Moira made Arif’s eyes widen at this unexpected comment.

“You are…serious, aren’t you?” Arif begged for clarification at such an extraordinary utterance!

“…deadly.” Moira said with an almost sinister green glare out from under her wide floppy hat!

“Look, is there a more private spot that we can talk further? What I intend to tell you needs to be in confidence.” Moira hoped such a place could be found on Giza. She could not know how well…monitored…the plateau was. This was Egypt’s prime national treasure and a source of great income. The Egyptian Government, no matter who was running it, would want to guard its secrets jealously!

“Actually, the surrounds of the Great Sphinx are quite private and few tourists are around it at this time of day. This was a reason why I had us meet at this mad hour. You see, Egyptian officials still have a great superstition regarding the Sphinx. Except for the lighting for night tours, there is very little permanent technology that is allowed near the megalith.” Dr. Arif suggested.

After a somewhat torturous slog in the dust and heat, Dr. Arif and Moira’s contingent arrived at the Great Sphinx. To all, the vast ancient monolith was stunning and for a time all, even Dr. Arif who was a frequent visitor to the Sphinx, stood dumbfounded at the sight. There was nothing like it on Earth! Though there may be Mount Rushmore, the Reclining Buddha, and the Risen Christ of Rio De Janeiro, none of them had the aura of regal grandeur of the Great Sphinx!

For the Sídhe, the Sphinx represented more than mere grandeur, however. As they neared the howling nexus of ley energies, both Joraan and M’yn felt the need to stop and steady themselves. For them, the power radiating off of the Sphinx was like a hot gale off of the Sahara! Arif, fearing the two ‘boys’ were succumbing to the heat, quickly came to them with water. This is where Arif got his first shock of the day when a three-fingered hand reached out and batted the water away as if he were offering the ‘boy’ a dread poison. Arif, curiosity overcoming all sense, reached and pulled away the hood from the ‘boy’s’ head in hopes of convincing him to drink.

Joraan made no move to counter Arif. He could have done so easily, but there would have been no point to it. Arif would find out soon enough anyway. Joraan knew what Moira was about to show Arif and the fact of Joraan’s kind would be the least of the Minister’s worries.

“By Allah! What…are you?” Arif stood away from Joraan as if he was facing a king cobra sprung from the sand! M’yn, figuring all pretence was done, followed Joraan and removed his own hood as well.

“Both of you? Bismillah!” Arif, as a man and a Muslim, had a first reaction of fear at seeing Jinn for the first time! His second, however, was that of fascination! Arif was a scientist first and foremost and these two…were confirmation of anthropological and archaeological theories abounding! They were proof of a second race of sentient life on this blessed Earth! Neither were even remotely human in appearance and their features were too perfect to be considered deformities!

“May I reintroduce to you, Dr. Arif, Joraan and M’yn. They call themselves the Sídhe, a long forgotten and nearly extinct race predating mankind. It is from Joraan that I first learned of my mission…” Moira intoned as they stood in the heretofore unoccupied shadow of the Sphinx.

From behind, Arif heard a sound that was like the combination of an electrical current arcing and the sound of steel being unsheathed. Arif turned to see Moira holding a European style longsword that seemed to shimmer with an unnatural greenish light as she moved it slightly.

Next, before Arif’s unblinking eyes, the one called Sean seemed to take grip on something invisible in his right hand. He made a gesture as if he was about to strike the butt of a walking staff upon the ground. To Arif’s continued amazement, something did sound as Sean thumped his ‘imaginary’ staff! The sound was the ringing of heavy metal, almost like a bell, and in a burst of light Sean held a great golden spear of exquisite workmanship!

A glint of fire then caught Arif’s attention and about the girl Viviane’s neck sparkled a red gem that could have shamed any ruby! The jewel seemed to glow with its own reddish light. In her hand, she held a cold gnarled grey wooden staff that looked so out of place in the golden hot sandiness of Giza. Neither item had been on her person before their arrival at the Sphinx!

The boy, Hector, opened a beautifully carved box that he had not had with him when they trekked to the Sphinx! The younger boy, Mughamir, looked on with amazement as he observed Hector extracting something from his box that caused their faces to light from some brightly reflective object. Hector then strapped a beautiful silver bow to his back that looked, remarkably, like a crescent moon! It glittered, seeming to overreact to the ambient sunlight about them.

The Sídhe came around Arif to join their human companions. They carried their own glittering weapons unsheathed, both looking like flames of power suddenly ignited within their small, three-fingered hands!

Thus completed Arif’s second great surprise of the day! With his knowledge of myths from around the world, Arif was able to identify most of the sacred objects held by Moira’s bewitched little band!

“Absolutely remarkable! Archaeologists could study these objects for decades and still not divine all of their secrets!” Arif almost felt avaricious toward the treasured objects at hand.

“…and yet, alas, there is no time for such interest with these objects of might. They have been gathered for but one purpose…the destruction of Morgana - an enemy the likes of which mankind has not faced in ages of this world.” Arif heard one of the Sídhe speak for the first time. Joraan’s mid-timbered voice seemed musical in a way human speech could not be. That said, the charm of the voice was lost on the content of its words.

‘…an enemy the likes of which mankind has not faced in ages of this world?’ Arif muttered the Ta’awwudh in way of steadying himself and calling down God’s might to bear him up as Arif’s concept of the world came crashing down.

~

Mughamir proudly led the way as he finally got to execute his primary mission. That being to take these people to the place where Grandfather had said the Ankh lay buried!

Though the Great Minister-Doctor Arif, may he be blessed, did become a bit tiring at times with his constant stops to explain something to the group about what they were seeing. ‘This is not a tour! We have an important mission to accomplish!’ Mughamir thought.

Noting the Egyptian boy’s impatience, Joraan could not but sympathise. He was dear, this boy! He reminded Joraan of a dog on the hunt trying to lead his silly humans to where the game was, but they kept stopping for tea!

Indeed, the history and legends abounding about the ruins of this Giza were greatly interesting to him, but Joraan just couldn’t shake the feeling that time was growing preciously short! Joraan began to do something about their moving more quickly.

“Come, Mughamir. They can catch up when they are done with their chat, yes? I’m more interested in your find above all other things at the moment. This way?” Joraan asked as he made to take the lead.

Mughamir felt honoured that the Jinn shared his sense of urgency! It seemed that they were of a mind on their priorities. This made Mughamir feel doubly proud of his participation in all this!

“Yes, Master Jinn! It is toward the unfinished pyramid there! See?” Mughamir pointed to something that looked halfway between a crumbling building and a hill in the near distance.

“But…wait! Joraan…!” Flustered, Moira called after her irritable friend trying to keep him from getting too far ahead of everyone. However, she knew she was a fool to think she had any control where Joraan was concerned.

So, they picked up the pace and soon had managed the roughened paths near the ‘workers town’ until they came upon a strangely shaped hillock. The hillock looked like it had been weathered by more than just sand. It reminded Moira of the water hewn buttes and mesas of Zion National Park in the US. Just to the west of this weathered featureless hillock stood the half ruined ‘pyramid’ of Queen Khentkaus I.

In regards to the strange Zion-esque hillock, Moira, using quite a bit of imagination, could almost make out the beginnings of a neck under the shelf of rough limestone above it! Perhaps, this had been the head of a true ‘second sphinx’ at Giza? The ‘head’ of the thing faced due west too, which Moira found striking! The Great Sphinx faces east!

It was under this strangely carved hillock that Mughamir had stopped with Joraan. Joraan seemed to be swooning! Moira worried and wondered if a Leprechaun could actually get heat stroke!

M’yn soon joined Joraan and his behaviour became just as perplexing. M’yn knelt down and put his ear to the ground as if he were a fox listening for burrowing moles!

Mughamir, with a wide smile, beckoned the team over. They all came around the strangely acting Sídhe. Joraan was now on the ground with M’yn brushing away sand from the sandstone.

“Why are they doing that? That’s just solid sandstone there that was never cultivated. This structure is what remains of the on-site quarry where workers cut sandstone for the Queen Mother over there.” Arif said, trying to dissuade them from getting too excited about what the strange Jinn were doing. There was no Second Sphinx here! That had been long established! Though digs in this area had been ongoing, it had mostly brought more interesting facts about the pyramid workers at Giza than facts about the nobles buried there.

“Something swells with enormous power down there! It is like some vast reservoir of magic bubbling just beneath the surface…out of reach!” Joraan nearly moaned with frustration and feeling.

“Magic?” Arif almost scoffed. It was a reflexive response brought on by having to deal with too many conspiracy theorists and so-called New Age mystics. Clearly, Arif had already seen things today that could easily be considered ‘magic’.

Just so, Joraan used his unseen power to levitate a small pebble off of the ground and caused it to fly at Arif as if tossed by some invisible hand! It pelted off of his kaki utility vest he always wore when on expeditions.

“By, Allah! How did you do that?” Arif asked past a feeling of dumbfoundedness.

“Magic.” Joraan answered facetiously.

When Arif looked to Moira for some kind of rational explanation, she merely shrugged, “He’s right. Magic!”

“…and there is enough magic down there to light up this entire complex, I should think.” M’yn concurred.

“It is as my Grandfather said! Right under the right paw of the Second Sphinx!” Mughamir enthused, clapping and bouncing with boyish joy.

Indeed, when Sean reconnoitred their position in relation to the big ugly sandstone rock thing, they were just on it’s right side while facing it. Right where a giant ‘Sphinx Paw’ might be.

“I guess we should get digging then…” Viviane, ever the pragmatist, declared.

“Uh, tut tut! No! None may just start digging up Giza willy-nilly! Especially, if there is an artefact of consequence in question! We need to do this by the book! This area needs to be carefully excavated and catalogued! If what Joraan and M’yn are saying is true then this could blow, wide open, any previous theories about Ancient Egypt and its capabilities! This could start an entire new epoch in Egyptology and, in fact, our very definition of human existence in this world!” Dr. Arif admonished all.

“Begging your pardon, ‘Doctor,’ but what world would that be now? The one that may end soon if we don’t get ahold of this device and quickly?” Joraan countered rather hotly.

“It is true! If the Ankh is what Joraan and M’yn are sensing and it is, indeed, down in a chamber below this ‘second sphinx’ then we need to make all haste to extract it! We’ve done similarly with Pridwen, the amulet about Viviane’s throat. You, no doubt, heard of the catastrophe at Stonehenge?” Moira asked of the Minister.”

“Yes, indeed it was destroyed by some cataclysm or terrorist attack! The verdict is still out on that count,” Arif was inconsolable about the loss of that great archaeological monument! It had so many more secrets to impart about man’s ancient past! Then, overnight, it was collapsed and destroyed utterly! But, then a terrible realisation dawned on Arif…

“You? That was your doing? Allah, be merciful!” Arif’s sense of horror at his realisation suddenly deepened! It was possible he had just allowed into this sacred old place the means of its ultimate destruction! Winds, rains, floods, vandals, armies, all of these the monuments at Giza had survived! But, could they survive this ‘magic’? Would they survive these Europeans and their ever evolving ‘needs’?

“Pridwen destroyed Stonehenge because it was the heart of Stonehenge. The power of Pridwen was protected and distributed by the Great Dolmens there! We had no idea that by extracting Pridwen that we’d be caving in one of the oldest monuments created by man! But, in light of what we know is coming…we know it was necessary. Pridwen is an essential part of what we need for what is coming! The sacrifice of Stonehenge was a necessary one…to save mankind in its entirety!” Moira said.

“I cannot allow that here! Where your Pridwen was the heart of Europe’s oldest achievement, the Monuments of Giza are the very heart of Egypt! I know Egypt will cease to be if Giza is destroyed!” Arif retorted angrily.

“Ah, but the circumstances here are different than at Stonehenge. Pridwen was indeed the focus of that place, but that isn’t the case here! Each monument here emits its own energy! It is a unit unto itself, but built of many moving ‘parts’! Wheels upon wheels! But, I sense we must convince the powers here that they can part with the Ankh without disruption.” Viviane spoke with Merlin’s voice as if in a trance.

“How would you go about doing that, young lady? A seance perhaps?” Dr. Arif countered testily.

“Actually, yes!” Viviane/Merlin answered serenely.

“Madness! You are all mad! I am mad for letting you all in here! Dr. O’Brien you should be ashamed! What kind of scientist are you? By Allah! I should have the guards order you off the…” Arif’s tirade was cut short by one ringing note that seemed to echo everywhere! As soon as the note sounded, Arif stood frozen as if dumbstruck!

~Now, Dr. Arif Al-Qhahira bin Zahi! You will do everything in your power to assist us in obtaining the Great Ankh! You will allow us to do as Viviane suggests! You will do so willingly and with full cooperation. Is that understood~ Joraan spoke his commands into Arif’s mind directly. The others knew Joraan was focusing on Arif even though there was no sound except the tense silence and the gusts of the hot dry wind off the Sahara.

~Yes. I will comply.~ Arif conceded.

“Good! Well that’s that then…” Joraan said suddenly as he brushed off some errant sand that had gotten on him.

“What’s what then? Did you just pull the same whammy on him that you pulled with me?” Sean barked gruffly.

“No. Not precisely. You have come along willingly, remember? You resisted the Note of Vim so there was no way I could have made my ‘suggestions’ to you! Arif, on the other hand…” Joraan nodded in the Egyptologist’s direction, “…he took more convincing. I had to do the whole routine with him. He’ll comply now.” Joraan said simply.

“Well, under any other circumstances, I’d be askin’ you to reverse such a barbaric spell, Joraan! But, I recognise, unfortunately, that we’ve no time for civility. But, we’ll be havin’ to make this up to Arif somehow! He’s a good man only doing his job of protectin’ this place!” Moira declared angrily.

“The Source be willin’, my dear friend, we’ll be successful and Arif will be alive to receive his due, Moira.” Joraan said with the kind of dire resignation that all warriors seem to have before fighting a fight he might not survive.

~

That evening, the Minister had arranged for a special ceremony to be performed near the tomb of Khentkaus. He wrote, in his manifest to the rest of the Ministry of Antiquities, that it was to be a representation or reenactment of an ancient Egyptian rite. He was doing it for an important group of fellow Egyptologists who had gathered from other parts of the world to be witness to it. The significance was to codify a certain question of Egyptian duality between Horus and Set. The only way it could be understood was through ritual. A ritual prescribed in a newly found hieroglyphic tablet that was, heretofore, considered ‘untranslatable’ by any other means.

It was a convincing enough document. Arif added that National Geographic would also be on site and that any ad or subscription revenue generated by the documentary would be donated to the Ministry. Money was always a clincher in any negotiation with the Ministry, Arif found.

Arif, naturally, did not reveal the true nature of the ritual and who would be participating. He also made sure that they would not be disturbed by any guards or tourists since the ritual was to be performed at night when only guided tours were allowed for specific patrons.

He went about all this with incredible enthusiasm! He was looking forward to the night’s events! This feeling was unaccountable since what they were about to do was complete and utter madness!

Regardless, Arif took up the manuscript of the ritual he had found in the archive. It was a suitable invocation spell found in the Temple of Horus at Edfu. It had been transcribed from the Priest’s Wall there. The incantation was rather simple and well documented, but had not been performed since the Roman occupation.

Despite an underlying feeling of dread, Arif was happy to perform this ancient ritual to see if Viviane’s ‘seance’ might actually work!

Arif was about to become an infidel!

A tear rolled down his cheek as he made for his car.

~

Darkness surrounded their little circle of light made by the candles. This part of the Giza plateau was not well lit. Not like the Pyramid complexes and the Sphinx complex. About them a creepy darkness seemed to close in. Mughamir wasn’t sure he should be among these strangers doing this very strange thing! He had managed to get his father to allow him out, but not without committing the sin of a lie. He said what he was doing was for a school project and that other students and the teacher would be with them. His father never argued with school assignments and even though he was not happy about the event taking place at night, as Cairo at night could be unsafe, he allowed the field trip anyway.

Mughamir could not even tell his Grandfather about what his true activities were going to be. Mughamir wanted to desperately, just to show that he’d found that what Grandfather had said was true.

Oddly, it seemed, almost, like Grandfather already knew about all of it! He told Mughamir, “You shall be well protected, young one! Allah goes with you, and so does your destiny!”

But now, with Dr. Arif speaking in the ancient language of his ancestors, Mughamir was not so sure he would be safe! Giza at night was scary to begin with, but now with this ritual…!

As Dr. Arif’s strange recitation continued, it seemed to Mughamir that the air got heavier and heavier! He felt almost like some oppressive weight was pressing against him from all around!

Mughamir started when he heard a low groan come from next to him! He was sure it must be a mummy come to life to kill them all! But, it was only Joraan and M’yn - the two Jinn. Both were swaying and groaning as if in some kind of trance!

“Bloody Hell…” Sean had noticed this too and seemed to be equally as freaked out by this as Mughamir! That didn’t make him feel any better about the situation!

Then, there was the quietest silence Mughamir had ever heard! Dr. Arif had ceased his weird chanting and now there was no sound! Not even the wind! Not even the sounds of distant traffic from the city! Nothing! Mughamir might have worried that he had gone deaf except that he could hear his own frightened breathing and pounding heart!

Then there was the sound of a pebble tumbling in the darkness! Then…the scrape of a footstep followed by another slow footstep! Then a light came from the darkness, blinding them!

“(What is this then? What is it that you are doing here! Fires are not allowed on Al-Jīzah!)*” The voice from the darkness was completely human, young, and uptight!

*Translated from the Arabic.

“(By Allah! I told your supervisors that I was not to be disturbed! Away with you!)” Dr. Arif arose angrily, staring down the flashlight bearing security guard.

The guard instantly recognised the Minister and scurried off apologising profusely.

‘Poor man!’ Moira thought. She hoped Arif would keep from firing the guard. He was just doing his job as a result of terrible interdepartmental communications.

Silence returned and Moira wondered if this crazy ritual of Viviane’s was actually going to work! Nothing was happening…

Unfazed, Arif returned to his parchment and prepared to recite the whole ritual all over again. Moira feared this would be a very long night indeed.

“Why have you summoned me, mortals? Why have you made me a part of this?” A deeply resonant voice sounded behind them!

Everyone turned in shock and were further shocked by what stood there glaring at them!

Horus stood tall, taller than any mortal man, his sculpted body clad in golden armour reminiscent of the battle dress of pharaohs! He wore a beautifully sculpted headdress that flared about his head like the one on Tutankhamen’s golden sarcophagus. Over Horus’s brow was the hooked bill of a falcon with its jewel-eyed head as Horus’s skullcap. His handsome face was bronzed flesh and his eyes were a fierce glowing blue!

Instinctively, driven by some primal force inside of themselves, both Arif and Mughamir felt the need to prostrate before the old god of Upper Egypt! Both were good Muslims, but this sight called to something older inside them! Something deeper!

“Great Horus, Ancient Protector of Egypt, we have summoned thee in desperate purpose! We have need of thy aid! Great Egypt needs protection, again, from an enemy of the North!” Viviane/Merlin was the one to answer.

Horus crossed his muscular arms and widened his stance in a very pharaonic pose. It conveyed an attitude of reticence and one of displeasure.

“Why for should I care of Egypt now? Long ago did her people abandon me! Long had I watched over the lands and the Nile assuring abundance and greatness! Now, you worship another deity! One with which I cannot hope to compete such as I did with my contestable uncle, Set! We of Heliopolis are forgotten! Why for should I intercede now on your behalf?” Horus’s voice intoned resonantly, almost petulantly.

“Because, my son, only you can raise up what is needed for this Host to complete its task. I know of the danger of which they speak! Can you not feel it? Something presses against our reality even now! Something that means the destruction of us all!” The Blue Woman, Isis, appeared opposite her stubborn son.

“Mother!” Horus lowered his head in supplication to his goddess-mother.

“It was I that gathered these foreign and Egyptian mortals here. I knew of their coming. I had been warned of their need! If you had been present at our convocation then you too may have heard the direness of Artemis’ message! But…you were not there, as per usual.” Isis said sadly.

“What purpose have I in Heliopolis or anywhere! I am no longer needed! I am no longer desired! I have been actively hated these hundreds of years! I who loved my people! I who cherished the great kingdoms under my dominion! Now, I am derided as a demon! A false god! Why should I care now if I am not to be worshiped as I deserve!” Horus exclaimed haughtily!

“Because, my son…this cannot be about you! We are called to a duty and are being allowed this privilege to serve Egypt once again…just as we did in olden times.” Isis cajoled.

“Duty? Duty to whom?” Horus persisted as the mortals looked on helplessly back and forth between the two divine debaters. Moira found it oddly remarkable that they were doing all of this in English! Perhaps, it only sounded like English to her ears. Perhaps, the likes of Mughamir and Hector were hearing it in their respective languages too?

“If not to those we swore to protect so very long ago, then to Ra Himself who wills this! Do not persist in your stubbornness before Him! He who is Most High and sacred beyond all things! The very One that gives even we the life we immortally live!” Isis hoped this final argument would be enough, but she could tell her once regal son was wounded in his heart by his dismissal by his followers so long ago. Horus had ever been soft as a lamb at heart yet stubborn as a wayward camel in his thinking!

As stubborn as Horus was, he was also pious - honouring his continued devotion to the greatest of the Egyptian gods. He had no reason to question his mother on this point either. If she said that Great Ra willed this, then so it must be!

“Very well! For He that shines and gives life to the lands of Egypt, both Upper and Lower…so shall I allow myself to be called back again into service.” Horus finally relented.

“Behold and beware, mortals! What I now bring forth unto you can be as deadly a power as it can be a blessed living one! Treat this with the greatest respect! It is the very Heart of Egypt herself!” Horus declared.

He rose a banded golden crooked staff over the centre of their circle and, almost immediately, the ground beneath all began to quake! Everyone backed away from the circle as cracks began to form in the ground under Horus’s staff.

But then that staff was thrown back by a burst of searing red lightning!

“Who dares?” Horus bellowed resoundingly!

“I-I dare, nephew! You will not assist these puny mortals anymore in taking what is rightfully mine!” The voice rasped and hissed as if a snake were talking! All turned to see a frightful being!

He stood as tall as Horus, but his skin was jet black and his eyes glowed red! His headdress was the hood of a great black cobra and his scaly pharaonic armour mirrored, darkly, Horus’s own armour.

“Set! What are you doing here? You were banished into the deserts where you belong, foul betrayer! That you should break that commandment now only opens you up to a more severe punishment! One I will give to you gladly, monster!” Horus spread great golden wings from his back in an awesome threat-display.

“You can but try, little nephew! But, be warned! I have been well fortified by dark powers beyond you meagre understanding! I have been promised Upper and Lower Egypt! I shall cast away this ‘Allah’ and my rightful place as the One True God of Egypt will be returned to me! this is my birthright - and you, my old enemy, will be destroyed at last!” Set ranted maniacally.

From outstretched hands a cascade of red lightning flashed from Set’s taloned gauntlets! Horus managed to block the charge by quickly folding his wings in front of him. Unfortunately, for the mere mortals caught between the two divine belligerents, those bolts ricocheted right into their midst! It was only Viviane’s quick thinking that saved them as she managed to erect Pridwen’s Shield before any of the bolts could hit anyone!

“STOP! ARE YOU TWO MAD? Destroy these mortals and we destroy our only chance at saving this world!” Isis beseeched the two ancient rivals.

“All the better! That which has empowered me seeks their destruction most of all and destroyed they shall be once I have dispensed with your fool of a son, Osiris’s Whore!” Set hissed despicably!

That earned Set a shot from Horus who fired beams of red fire from his falcon-helmet’s jewelled eyes! Set’s armour was proof against the attack, but it did manage to knock him off balance. That was all the opening Horus needed to fly straight into Set and knock him flat several yards away.

Sean couldn’t help but think he was watching the most spectacular rugby match in the history of the world!

Moira’s thoughts were more collected and pragmatic. She weighed her options. Should they flee this crazy god-duel and miss the chance at a very powerful weapon to use against Morgana or should they, somehow, intervene?

Clearly, this Set was somehow in league with their enemy, but how or why was a mystery Moira figured she’d never learn the answer to. This being was obviously powerful, perhaps the most powerful obstacle they have yet faced. Could they intervene with any hope of victory? This was a god after all! Could mortal weapons even scratch such a being?

But, then Moira remembered something…these were not mortal weapons! These were, quite literally, the very weapons of the gods…just not these particular gods!

“We’ve got to do something.” Joraan said as if reading her indecision. Moira forgot that Joraan could read her thoughts if he had a mind to.

“How? I doubt we have might enough to defeat a god, Joraan!” Moira spoke to her reticence for attack.

“He is that and then some. I sense another dark entity at play here! One strong enough to enhance even the power of a god! I fear if we don’t do something fairly quickly, Horus will be dead and we will be Ankhless!” Joraan counselled grimly.

Almost on cue, Set cut loose with a power that seemed to catch both Isis and Horus by surprise! Set breathed fire at Horus and it was hot enough for the mortals to feel even as protected as they were! If not for Pridwen, they would all have been reduced to ashes!

“By Ra! Set could never do that before! What…have you become, my husband’s brother?” Isis questioned as she ran to Horus’s side to check on him. The great golden god lay insensate and smouldering!

“I am Power, little Isis! I am Darkness personified! Now you shall both die by the Black Dragon’s power! This would not be the first time that I’ve killed gods!” Set arose in dread confidence as he made ready another killing breath!

That was when the monstrous god-killer inexplicably screamed in pain and fell to his knees as if he’d lost use of his armour clad feet! The black clad god tried to rise, but couldn’t!

“Black chaos take whoever put to me such a craven blow!” Set growled viciously.

But…how had this been possible?

It was then, silent M’yn suddenly rematerialised next to Joraan, black blood dripping from Carnwennan!

“If he can be maimed by our weapons then he can be killed by them too!” M’yn said with certainty.

Now perceiving a new enemy he had not even considered before, Set readied to release his Dragon Flame at the mortal host! Could they survive it even with Pridwen? It would be a question never answered since the belch of flame Set aimed at Moira’s crew was intercepted by a sudden jet of flooding water! The flames turned to instant steam!

Isis had made her power known at last! Her’s was the Nile and it was hers to command! The Nile waters had extinguished Set’s flames momentarily.

It was all the time the Host needed to snap into instant action! With miraculous coordination, every weapon went into use and were turned upon Set!

Sean used Gungnir’s energy lance to rake the evil god first, causing Set’s black armour to melt across the neck thus exposing his bare, ebon flesh! Then, Hector let loose two shafts from Artemis’ crescent bow right into Set’s two blazing red eyes!

In blind rage, Set released a torrent of his red lightning to smite his mortal foes, but those bolts were soon gathered up by a whirling golden-bright glaive in Joraan’s deftly twirling hands! With a tossing gesture, Joraan sent the lightning right back to its source, causing Set to bellow and convulse in shocking pain as his own powers were sent back against him!

Set was not to be outdone, though, as he readied another almighty breath of fire! But, he would never get a chance to cast that flame again because a deftly thrown Excalibur speared Set’s mouth shut!

Set writhed and clawed at his mouth and jaw to loose himself from the magical blade, but it was all for naught, because soon Set lay dead, headless, at the feet of his nephew! Horus’s golden wing was bloodied and was still in the same position it had been in when he used it to slice through Set’s unarmored neck!

“It is finished! Set is dead! I, like my uncle before me, am now a god-slayer.” Horus said with unexpected shame.

“He left no other choice, dear gentle Horus! He was no longer just a rival for the throne of Heliopolis, he had become the consort of Evil itself! Set lost himself the moment he made whatever pact he made with this Black Dragon.” Isis consoled.

“Regardless, he was once one of us and now he is…no more. An immortal dies so that mortals may live! So it has often been in the history of our sacrificial world.” Horus shook his head as the remains of Set, the first god-slayer, melted into sand.

“You have fought very well and have earned your right to Egypt’s most sacred treasure! Use it with reverence and use it well. Use it with the hand of a true Egyptian!” Horus made his commandment and used his crooked staff to complete his unearthing of the Great Ankh!

Gently splitting the sandstone above it, the Great Ankh finally surfaced and rose before them. It shimmered and twinkled in the relit candles. It then caught fire with its own blue eldritch flame! The Ankh hovered gently in the air for a moment, and then it passed itself into a pair of shaky and uncertain hands.

Mughamir cradled the greatest of all Egypt’s treasures in his young hands as tears welled in his eyes at seeing such a beautiful thing!

“Bear the Ankh of Ra well, Munsuset! Use it to heal, to exhort, to protect, and to champion Life! You bear with you the heart and soul of all of Egypt! You, Egypt’s son of sons of sons unto millennia past! Blessings and peace be upon you!” Isis said and then planted one blessed kiss upon Mughamir’s forehead.