3

While Osiris was busy attempting to recruit his elderly mentor to the cloistered ranks of the bonded, Setesh was still on the wing, soaring through the sky West of Waset as he scoured the land below for signs of death.

Unfortunately, due to the expanse of desert sand and the blistering heat of the sun bearing down from above, there were very few signs of life for the majority of the journey. Still, he did notice the occasional fresh, unmarked corpse of a small desert-dwelling animal or a scrap of wilted flora as he flew, affirming the brown robes' knowledge of High Disciple Din's direction. 

Setesh flew for some time before he began to grow restless. Din had a fair lead on him, to be sure, but the speed at which Setesh flew meant he should be closing the distance considerably quickly. Despite this, Setesh was quickly giving up hope of his mission being a short one; whichever means Din was using to travel, he had to be moving almost as quickly as Setesh, or even faster still. Otherwise, Setesh would surely be right at his heels by now, if not already confronting him. 

“Come on, come on… Come on, you b*****d,” Setesh muttered to himself as he flew, his anger growing as his frustration mounted.

Eyes darting left and right as he flew, occasionally focusing momentarily on another sign of Din’s recent presence as he went, Setesh began to call out, giving up on any element of surprise in favour of enticing Din to reveal himself instead.

“DIN! DIIIIIN!”

His roar didn’t carry very far ahead at all, but it mattered little. Din was already nearby, watching Setesh blindly search. The only problem was, when chasing somebody, one seldom tends to check if their quarry is actually behind them.

Having managed to successfully double back already, Din was now amusing himself by simply watching his hunter blindly searching in what had become the completely wrong direction. Smiling to himself, he sat atop his beloved horse, a beautiful white mare with the lustrous coat of a foal and the wise eyes only an experienced horse of war could bear. Despite his amusement at the futility of Setesh’s attempts, Din was quickly growing bored. He began to turn his steed and branch off in another direction, when he saw it.

Not far ahead of Setesh, in a roughly oval shape, the air appeared to be shimmering as though seen through waves of heat, but far more intensely and confined to the one small area.

Setesh never saw the shimmer until it was right in front of him, and by then, he was far too late to stop and investigate. Plunging headfirst into whatever was causing such a strange visual effect, Setesh had barely a moment to consider the potential consequences of flying into the unknown at such a speed.

Din continued to watch as Setesh flew right into the shimmering mass of air, his curiosity mounting. This curiosity was quickly replaced by bewildered confusion, however, when Setesh failed to reappear on the other side of the shimmer - which, Din noticed, had vanished as suddenly as it had been noticed. 

He sat there for a moment, stunned, trying to figure out just what had happened. He may have had some experience with the abnormal, a driving factor behind his decision to work for Osiris in the first place, but this was hardly the average weird.

After several moments passed, Din shrugged casually and turned his horse to the North. Brow furrowed with a frown on his face, Din continued to ponder what he had just witnessed as he began to ride at impossible speeds toward the Northwestern edge of Egypt, resuming his original course. 

Across the sea that lay in Din's eventual path, Mertrashida and Adil had finally arrived at their destination - the base of Mount Vesuvius, a towering mass to rival the pride of Rome.

After an unpleasant journey on the backs of a pair of unattended dromedaries, strange creatures that reminded Mertrashida somewhat of the mules back in Egypt, but with a bulging lump in the middle of their backs, Mertrashida and Adil had set up a makeshift camp to leave their mounts at while practicing their newfound abilities a little down the way so as not to frighten the animals.

After securing the dromedaries by the camp, Mertrashida glanced around quickly to reassure herself that there was nobody else around. Her concern sated, she kneeled on the warm soil and planted the small sack of urns inside a dip in the ground, filling in the gaps with nearby dirt until the sack was all but completely buried.

Rising back to her feet, she nodded at Adil, who had been watching her silently.

‘Just in case.’

Adil paused, looking around, then nodded back to her. 

‘Ready?’

‘You bet.’

Turning, Adil pointed at the far visible end of the mountain.

‘We should go around the mountain a ways, really get out of sight of the camp.’

Mertrashida said nothing, but hummed in agreement as she stepped past Adil, leading the way to the potential training ground.

Once there, Mertrashida watched curiously as Adil began; he reached both his hands out, palms forward, and closed his eyes. With a furrowed brow and gritted teeth, he focused on what he had learned in the time meeting with his Umbra.

Large, glowing yellow circles began to form in front of his outstretched palms, slowly rotating and forming more intricate patterns as Adil focused more and more. Finally, it seemed the circles were completed, as they glowed more brightly and stopped all movement save for the rotation. In that moment, Adil opened his eyes and with a look of determination set deeply into his face, let loose twin torrents of fire about half as powerful as Setesh had demonstrated back in Waset.

Mertrashida nodded at Adil, wide-eyed, as he cut the flames and released the circles. Turning to face the young woman, he shrugged. 

‘That's about as strong as it gets, right now… I can summon basic elements like fire, water and wind, but apparently I have some work to do before I can do any better than that.’

Mertrashida nodded, then cocked her head, curious.

‘Can you do a different one from each hand?’

Adil frowned for a second, considering the question.

‘Well, nobody said I can't, so… I suppose it's worth a shot.’

Turning away again, Adil raised his hands once more and regained his earlier determined expression.

This time, as the circles appeared before his hands, Mertrashida noticed an immediate difference - the circle projected from his left hand was still the same as before, though admittedly a little smaller and less bright, but the circle on the right was completely different, in that the light it emitted was a pale blue, and the intricate pattern that formed the circle was a wholly different arrangement.

Adil grunted as he began to feel his energy being drained, and he opened his eyes with a gasp once the circles had finished forming - igniting a mediocre flame from the left circle, and dropping a small splash of water to the ground from the right. 

Disappointed, Adil released the circles and shook his head, then turned and sat on the ground before Mertrashida. 

‘I guess that is as good as I can do right now,’ he sighed. 

Mertrashida shook her head. 

‘You worry too much about this. You proved it can be done, you just need to work on it and get both hands up to full strength. Just think about what you could do with two different elements at once!’

Adil smiled wistfully.

‘I bet that would really make Setesh mad,’ he joked.

Mertrashida nodded solemnly at this.

‘Oh, I am sure this will enrage him something fierce… Hopefully that makes him lose his cool in the middle of battle, and hopefully you can keep your own.’

Adil shrugged. It wasn't his temper or any such aggravated emotional state that concerned the pair; Adil never attempted to hide the fact that he was never a particularly brave man; an issue that Mertrashida was glad had not been kept a secret. With the right motivation, she surmised, the big man could surely overcome his fear and become an immensely valuable warrior against Osiris's forces.

The irony that a man such as himself was among Necho's trusted entourage was not lost on either of them; nor the irony in the same man now being one of the most powerful people alive and one of humanity's only hopes at surviving the coming storm. A young woman with a haunted past and a big man full of fear they may be, but still, even the most unlikely of heroes are heroes nonetheless. 

It was that thought that kept both of them looking forward, full of hope for the future. If they were reckless, the same thought could unravel everything and leave the pair vulnerable… Only time would tell which outcome they would face.

‘So, anyway, Mertrashida, I noticed you haven't looked to be feeling your burns very much… I assume that would be because of the accelerated healing of your Umbra?’

Mertrashida started at the sudden break in the silence, then paused, glancing down at the scarred scorch marks down her left arm. Curiously, she had all but forgotten having received the burns in the first place, as the burns had long since stopped hurting.

‘I would assume so… It doesn’t hurt at all, but I think that it has healed about as much as it ever will… My Umbra, Kuyutha, told me that an Umbra can completely heal any regular injury, but those inflicted with some form of magic can only really be numbed. So I guess the only real threat to us right now are the Umbra under Osiris’ control,’ she mused.

Adil frowned.

‘I would advise against us falling into complacency due to such a thought… We never know what other horrors this mess may awaken.’

Mertrashida nodded.

‘You raise a good point,’ she agreed.

Looking up at the sky, dimly lit by the waning light of the setting sun, Adil sighed.

‘Are we done for today? I could use a rest,’ the big man admitted sheepishly.

Mertrashida thought for a moment, then nodded.

‘So could I… So be it. We have plenty of time to pick our training up tomorrow, anyway…’

Adil smiled, satisfied, as the pair walked back toward their camp. Mertrashida, for her part, found herself unable to take her mind off of thoughts of the near future, and the dangers of the unknown.

As Adil gathered some sticks into a pile and summoned a small flame to light them, Mertrashida kept scanning the surrounding area, not willing to risk being ambushed during the night by some unseen observer. She sighed to herself as Adil lay down, and walked over to lay on the other side of the fire. 

Whatever troubles the night may bring, they could face. Anything tomorrow would bring would have to wait.

Surprisingly, once she was on the ground, Mertrashida found her exhaustion catching up with her. Closing her eyes against the darkening sky, she fell peacefully into sleep, the warmth of the crackling fire her only source of comfort through the cold night.

Adil, on the other hand, lay awake on the ground, too restless to fall asleep. He stared at the stars above with one hand suspended, repeatedly switching through elemental glyphs and summoning the power of his Umbra in the forms of flame, electricity, ice and wind.

Exhaling through his nose and clenching his jaw as he lowered his hand, Adil felt disappointment roll over him as he considered how weak he still was. Glancing over at Mertrashidas sleeping form, he cleared his mind and began to focus on summoning a more powerful flame. Thinking back to the crypt in Waset, he remembered the way Setesh’s flames had engulfed his forearm before he ever attacked, and how much more powerful his flames had been.

Of course, Setesh didn’t seem to rely on projection through glyphs, but maybe… 

Adil raised his hand to the stars once more, but this time he included his forearm in his focusing. After a few moments, yellow, shimmering lines began to glow all over his hand and forearm, and he could feel the heat and power barely contained within. As a matter of fact, the lines began to emit more and more heat until his forearm began to burn beneath the markings, and he quickly thrust his hand further into the air and expelled a white-hot torrent of flame that clearly illuminated the surrounding area as the burning on his arm subsided.

Mertrashida stirred and groaned on her side of the fire, mirroring the responses of their nearby mounts, so Adil cut the flow of power and cursed quietly. Rolling himself toward the fire, he inspected his arm and noticed light scarring running in lines where the flame glyph had burned him. Cursing to himself again, he sat up and looked around into the darkness. 

Nothing seemed to be amiss, and the dromedaries seemed undisturbed, signalling that the area was clear. Adil still felt the same desire to practice his newfound abilities, so he slowly rose to his feet, checked to make sure Mertrashida was still sleeping, and began to walk off into the night to continue his training without disturbing her, keeping the mountain by his side so as not to get lost. 

He trained until barely a few hours before dawn, and made his way back to the camp in time to get at least a few hours sleep, excited to show Mertrashida his progress in the morning.

Fortunately, since he was finally exhausted from training so late into the night, sleep came almost immediately after he collapsed by the fire.

Some time after he had fallen asleep, Adil began to move in his sleep, sitting upright almost too rigidly. His head turned and he faced Mertrashida, his dark brown eyes reflecting an almost crimson light. As he sat there in the still night air, staring at the sleeping form of his companion, he began to move once more, resting his open palm over the top of her head.

He maintained this strange pose for some time, all other motion ceased until he finally collapsed backwards, out cold.

It seemed as though Adil had barely closed his eyes before he was woken by the late morning sun on his face. Sitting up groggily, he looked around to see Mertrashida preparing some meat by the fire, the remains of a pair of rabbits laying discarded on the ground.

‘About time you woke up,’ she jested, once she noticed the big man sitting up. He rubbed at his eyes then looked around, yawning, while Mertrashida continued her greeting.

‘You were too far gone to wake earlier, so I figured I would grab us something to eat… It turned out to be quite the practice session, too, jumping around like I did…

I also took our rather smelly friends to the settlement just down the way,' she added, after Adil noticed their absence and paused, confused.

She trailed off as she skewered the rabbits and mounted them over the fire, but with the mention of practice, the big man perked up a little.

‘Speaking of which… I went for a walk last night for a little more training,’ he began, looking down at the light scarring on his arm. ‘I think my flames burn quite a bit hotter than those Setesh used back in Waset, if I concentrate it all on one arm.’

Mertrashida looked back up from the meat she was cooking and noticed Adil inspecting his arm. 

‘Come show me your arm.’

Adil paused for a moment, then picked himself up off the ground and made his way over to the girl, who grabbed him by the wrist and began turning his arm over, seemingly entranced by the lines.

‘Outside of training, keep your flames weaker than that unless you absolutely need to… There would be no sense in injuring yourself unnecessarily, and something tells me we should keep these scars hidden… Nice work, though,’ she added, noticing the downcast expression appearing on his face. ‘Keep up the training whenever you can, there is no such thing as being too skilled… We just need to look after ourselves as best we can.’

Adil smiled and nodded, looking around. 

‘You know, it surprised me that you did not wake last night… I only walked off to train because the white flame lit this whole area up, about as bright as day.’

Impressed, Mertrashida almost forgot to take the now fully cooked meat out of the fire. She grabbed the sticks the rabbits were skewered on as the outer meat began to burn a little, pulling them out with little time to spare.

‘That bright, huh? Be careful not to draw too much attention to yourself at night… Guard trouble is a hassle we could do without, in our situation.’

Adil nodded.

‘Will do,’ he said, accepting the rabbit Mertrashida held out to him and sitting on the ground nearby.

Silence fell on the pair for a little while as they ate, both ravenous from their journey and efforts the previous day. As he ate, Adil decided to ask the question that had been burning in the back of his mind for some time.

‘Are you sure we even have the time to be out here training? I keep thinking that Osiris and his group have already set whatever twisted plan they have in motion, and we are just wasting what little chance we have of stopping them…’

Mertrashida chewed the mouthful of rabbit she had just bitten off and finally gulped it down before meeting the big man’s gaze. 

‘I wonder the same thing, but we have little choice. We have to assume that they have already begun, but they are definitely more powerful than we are right now, and we know almost nothing about what is happening in Egypt… So, I have actually been thinking about something… I want to make trips to Egypt to spy on them while you train during the day.’

Adil nearly choked on his food at the suggestion.

‘You want to go back by yourself and see what they get up to? Surely not… Take me with you, so I can watch your back.’

Mertrashida shook her head.

‘I am sorry, but you are too big and loud. I need to be able to sneak around and hide easily, and that would just be too difficult with the both of us. You just keep training, and I promise that I will come back every time. That is the one thing I can do best, after all.’

Adil sighed and nodded. He knew she was right, though that did little to ease his discomfort.

‘Very well… When do you plan to start?’

‘As soon as we finish eating and you show me your progress since yesterday… The less time I waste, the better.’

Adil nodded grimly, and the pair resumed eating in silence.

It wasn’t long before they had both finished eating, tossed their sticks into the fire, and buried it with sand. A few moments later, they had moved away from the campsite and Adil began demonstrating the strength of his abilities, beginning with a very brief but painful burst of white flame, cycling through a torrential stream of water, a large rod of solid ice, and a thick, powerful bolt of electricity that launched wildly through the air and split a nearby tree in half. 

Each of the abilities took their toll on the skin of whichever arm he had summoned them from, save for the water, which merely drenched his arms. The flame burned him a little further, the ice froze his skin and turned it blue for a short while, and the electricity burned in its own way as it gathered and travelled through his skin.

Mertrashida stood back and watched, impressed at the difference in power over just one night. She congratulated Adil on his efforts when he was done, and the big man beamed with pride as Mertrashida began preparing herself for her mission.

‘Just remember,’ she said to the big man as she readied herself to leave, ‘keep a low profile and look after yourself. I will be back near the end of the day or if I find something big… Good luck.’

‘Good luck, yourself,’ Adil responded, and then she was gone.

The situation in Waset didn’t appear to have changed much. Mertrashida had expected the streets to be lined with corpses and half of the buildings brought down to the ground, or even just a widespread panic throughout the city. Instead, life seemed to be going on as normal, indicating that the citizens had no idea that they were already in the middle of something huge. 

Keeping to the shadows and side streets, Mertrashida made her way through the city, toward the richer quarters of the Egyptian Lords. As she neared her destination, she had to duck around a corner to narrowly avoid being seen by Osiris as he made his way past her, seemingly heading for the city outskirts.

As she waited for Osiris to disappear from view, it occurred to Mertrashida that he may just be the most profitable person to spy on, rather than skulking around the area while he was gone, looking for information she may never find.

Steadying herself with a deep breath, Mertrashida stepped back out from her hiding place and began to follow Osiris, still keeping a distance and being sure to keep hidden. Soon enough, her quarry stopped by the edge of the city and began to wait.

After a while, Osiris was joined by Isis and their servant, Ndidi, who carried a small chest in her hands. He greeted the pair briefly and then turned, leading them out into the desert, Mertrashida in tow.

Back at his chosen training spot near their camp by the base of Mount Vesuvius, Adil was hard at work on his training. Since he had already significantly increased the power of his singular summons, he had decided to spend the day working on improving his simultaneous use of both hands. Focusing mainly on water due to its lack of effect on his body, he spent hours practicing until he could project the water in different directions without losing much power as he diverted his attention between them. 

After that, he began to focus on summoning different elements from each hand, opting for water on one side and ice on the other. At first, he had little more success than when he had attempted this with Mertrashida soon after arriving, but after a few more hours, he could confidently project both elements with enough power to fight well at close range with both elements. He also discovered that he could freeze the water in mid-air, but was unsure quite how useful this would prove itself to be.

As the day neared its end, Adil was resting in the shade of the mountain, anxiously awaiting Mertrashida's return, when she finally reappeared by the campsite. Adil jumped to his feet to greet her, but was interrupted before he could speak.

'I have some news,' Mertrashida began. 

Soon after, Adil and Mertrashida sat in dazed silence as they considered the results of Mertrashida's spying.

They had learned that one of Osiris' own men had disrupted the Egyptian's plans even further, taking the Death Umbra before Osiris could bond with it, and was currently being hunted by Setesh...

They had learned that Isis had bonded with the Life Umbra, which came more as a disappointment as that would be a truly beneficial Umbra to have on their team...

Finally, they had learned that the newest host in Egypt had disappeared in a horrific display, the witnessing of which having clearly left an impression on the young woman. 

'I think perhaps it would be best if you stay tomorrow, and if you wish to continue spying, save it for the day after…' 

Adil's suggestion fell on deaf ears, apparently, as Mertrashida suddenly sat up straight and announced her plans for the next day.

'I am going back tomorrow,' she decided. 'This man that Setesh is chasing; I have no idea if we can trust him or not, but there is a chance he could be on our side.'

Adil froze for a second, stunned.

'Or, he could be in it for himself and nobody else. Think about this, Shida, the man took the Death Umbra… If it turns out that he is against us, I highly doubt either of us have any chance of stopping him.'

Mertrashida stood up, annoyed at Adil's words, but knowing he was right. Still...

'I have to try. More than likely, we will cross paths with him one day, and I would much rather get that over with and show our hand as his ally soon than be too late to do so later.'

Adil huffed, but he decided not to press the issue. 

'Just be careful, okay?' He said, concern evident in his voice.

Mertrashida nodded and smiled wistfully. 

'You got it, big guy,' she chuckled. 'Are you okay staying here again?'

Adil nodded, then began to describe his progression with his training, even demonstrating his newfound ability to conjure two different elements with a more respectable result.

'Nicely done, Adil. I have to say, I had no idea you would progress so quickly… Do you have plans for what to practice next?'

Adil nodded slowly.

'I think I shall try to find out what range of abilities I really have… I may have to attempt to meet with my Umbra and ask them myself, though, to save time and avoid missing any.'

This time it was Mertrashida who nodded.

'That would certainly be one big question answered,' she responded. ‘Oh, I almost forgot… Here.’

Adil looked over just as Mertrashida tossed him a couple of pieces of dried meat and some fruit. He caught the food and began to eat, his mind occupied by thoughts of tomorrow.

Little did Adil know, part of his training session earlier that day had drawn the attention of a small Roman boy, who had sat and watched from a distance, mesmerized by the display. At that moment, while Adil and Mertrashida discussed the coming day, the child was hurrying excitedly to meet his father, whose arrival from Rome he had been awaiting for some time..

Running through the little village in which he lived, the boy finally spotted his father, Aloysius Paterra, outside the front of the tavern, where he had likely stopped for a drink on the journey home from wherever his role as an Exploratore in the Praetorian Guard - the leader of a small squad of elite bodyguards - had taken him that day.

‘Father, father! Have you seen the magic man? By the mountain?’ The boy tugged at his father’s armor, his face glowing with excitement.

‘Huh? What was that, Allessandro? “Magic man”?’

Aloysius slurred as he spoke, already quite intoxicated. He swayed on his feet, squinting at his son’s face for a moment. Despite Allessandro’s young age, he had never been prone to flights of fancy, but had instead always shown a level of maturity significantly beyond his years. As such, his mention of magic did not go ignored, and instead his father slowly began to realise through his drunkenness that there was something big happening.

Allessandro nodded, beaming. 

‘Right! He made fire with his hands, and water, too!’

Aloysius paused, frowning.

‘Did this “magic man” seem scary?’

Alessandro shook his head emphatically. 

‘Not even a bit! Well… He did look strong... And he does have magic… But I think he was just learning how to do it!’

He spoke quickly, clearly not losing any of his earlier excitement as time went by.

‘Alright, kiddo, calm yourself,’ Aloysius chuckled. ‘How about you take me to this… “Magic man”? Err… Perhaps tomorrow,’ he joked, after stumbling and nearly falling over sideways. ‘I think I had a little too much to walk that far… In any case, the sun will be down soon, so I need to get you home or your mother will kill me,’ he finished, chuckling down at Alessandro.

It took a little convincing, but Alessandro eventually agreed. On the walk home, he began excitedly recounting the story of watching Adil train by the mountain, throwing fire and water from his bare hands. 

'So this man… He was pretty strong, huh?'

'Yeah! But not strong like you,' the boy beamed.

Chuckling, his father ruffled his hand through the boy's hair and then urged him forward with a hand on his upper back. As Alessandro ran slightly ahead, the man began to frown at the thought of the day ahead. As mighty as the Praetorian Guard were known to be, facing off against someone skilled in using some form of magic was still, obviously, far from favourable.

Sleep did not come easily for Aloysius Paterra that night; he tossed and turned, waking every few hours to find himself drenched in sweat, despite the cool air circulating throughout the room from a large hole in the wall, courtesy of one of his previous protection assignments.

Why am I so afraid? He wondered to himself, not for the first time that night. Sighing, he rose to his feet and made his way outside, standing in place by the door and staring in the direction of Mount Vesuvius.

He stayed out there, staring out across the darkened landscape and to the stars above, until the warm glow of morning chased him back inside for what little rest he could get. 

When the morning sun finally began to rise over the open fields around the mountain, it found Adil on his own, sitting on the ground by his camp, seemingly lost in meditation. His breathing was barely perceivable, his motions nonexistent. In fact, by any definition save for physical, he was somewhere else entirely. 

So he had been for several hours, after seeing Mertrashida off on her latest spying endeavour. So he would continue to stay for several more, while his consciousness reunited with the Umbra held within.

Mertrashida, for her part, was glad she had made the journey back to Waset. Having found Osiris quickly enough thanks to an abundance of noises across the Nile on the Eastern end of the city, she had quickly settled herself ino position among a mess of broken and discarded empty crates.  Just as the day before, Osiris and his people were making themselves busy, it seemed.

This time, Osiris appeared to be planning to travel much further away than he had the previous day. At that moment, he was preparing for a long journey, one it seemed he would not return from for some time. He had summoned a large number of servants, loading food and supplies into a number of small papyrus reed boats as Mertrashida watched. Had it not been for the Egyptian Lord’s more ornate boat sitting in the shade away from the others, she might have thought that he was sending the slaves somewhere instead.

As she watched, keeping an eye on Osiris and his group, she couldn’t help but notice that Ndidi was once again holding the small chest from the previous day, deciding that Osiris had likely instructed her to keep an absolute watch over the chest and its contents. From what she had seen, the chest held the remainder of their urns, and it stood to reason that Ndidi would keep them fairly well guarded.

Frowning to herself, Mertrashida began to think. 

With Isis bonded to Life and the rogue disciple in possession of Death, the Egyptians had been left with three. Then Osiris had gifted one to the elder woman South of Waset before she vanished. If the chest Ndidi carried was still being used for the same purpose, they still had at least one urn inside, two at the most.

An idea began to form in Mertrashida’s mind as she considered the latter point. To the best of her knowledge, Isis was the only member of the party bonded to an Umbra, and her dominion was Life; hardly a power one could fight with. If she made a move now…

Mertrashida sprung into action, vanishing from her hiding spot without a single sign of movement. She reappeared right behind Ndidi, crouched partially behind one the boats waiting to be placed in the water. 

Waiting, waiting…. There!

Osiris and Isis turned and faced the opposite direction, giving Mertrashida the blind spot she needed. Standing, she tapped into Kuyutha’s power again and reappeared immediately beside Ndidi, already grabbing for the chest before her presence could be acknowledged.

Just before her fingers could close around the edges of the chest, Ndidi turned to the left with her whole body, pulling the chest away from Mertrashida’s reach and causing her to stumble.

Ndidi yelped in shock as she suddenly felt Mertrashida fall into her right side, knocking her off balance. She turned, bewildered, to see the young former servant looking up at her with a stunned expression glued to her paling face.

Osiris and Isis, both having heard the commotion, turned around a second later in time to see Mertrashida making a second attempt to grab the chest. Ndidi turned away and lifted the chest to keep it away from the girl’s hands, incidentally smashing her elbow into the side of Mertrashida’s head as she did so. 

Now more stunned and confused than ever, Mertrashida vanished from her place and reappeared on the other side of Ndidi as Osiris and Isis began to close in. She reached up high in one more attempt to grab the chest, but Ndidi pulled it back down as she spun around to her right, trying to figure out where the girl had disappeared to while unwittingly keeping herself in the way.

Mertrashida then finally noticed Osiris and Isis approaching and leapt backwards, keeping some distance as she surveyed the situation. Her efforts to steal the chest from Ndidi seemed to be nullified by some unseen force, and now the Egyptian Lords were aware of her presence. Osiris himself looked particularly vexed, obviously still more than a little upset at the theft of the other Umbra, and her now attempting to take the rest.

Keeping low to the ground, eyes darting back and forth between those of her adversaries, a memory flashed in her mind.

The urns under Osiris's control, as she had seen them in the crypt.

Change. Life. Death. Luck.

Luck.

It seemed no matter what Mertrashida tried here, Ndidi would almost certainly avoid all harm and failure with the simplest of movements, if any at all.

Cursing aloud, Mertrashida made her decision. She vanished just as quickly as she had appeared, leaving the Egyptians to their stunned victory.

Back by the base of Mount Vesuvius, Adil was still deeply locked in meditation, conversing with the Umbra he held within. Two dtsant figures - a man and a child - approached slowly from the direction of the nearest settlement, moving cautiously despite Adil’s relaxed state.

‘You there!’ The approaching man called, after speaking quietly to the child and sending him to wait nearby out of harm’s way.

Naturally, Adil didn’t respond immediately, though he had already been alerted to the approaching pair’s presence.

The Praetorian leader cleared his throat and drew his sword, then called out again.

‘You on the ground!’ He yelled, his golden armour clinking as he spread his arms.

Still finishing his conversation with the Umbra within, Adil began to grow restless. He wanted to return to full consciousness in time to avoid being attacked, but his Umbra insisted on finishing their message. 

That is, until…

‘You have to go! Now! Someone is here!’

‘Yeah, no kidding,’ he grumbled. ‘I thought we all knew that.’

‘No, someone else! Go, now! Away with you!’

With that, Adil was returned to his body, just in time for a pervasive feeling of sickening dread to fill his entire being. Opening his eyes and tensing his body, he prepared himself for the sight of a soldier swinging their weapon at him - but saw that the man who had come to confront him was still standing a short distance away, waiting for him to respond. As he stirred, however, the man standing before him seemed to sense the same presence that the Umbra and now Adil himself could - though it seemed to affect him in a far more serious manner. 

Within seconds, he had collapsed on their hands and knees, throwing up blood onto the ground below them. After a few moments, he looked up at Adil and reached out to his side with an open hand.

‘Please, stop this… My son… Over… There,’ the man pleaded, before falling lifelessly into the puddle of blood below him.

Horrified, Adil tore his eyes away from the dead guards before him and looked to where the leader had gestured, to where the child had been sent to wait.

As he turned, Adil saw the boy had already begun to run forward, moving with everything he had to the body of his father. He fell to his knees by his father’s side and huddled over it, his body racking with sobs even as his body convulsed, expelling blood in the same horrible fashion as his father moments prior. 

The boy looked up at Adil and began to cry out in pain.

‘Why are you doing this?!’

Adil opened his mouth, unsure of what he would even say, but he never had the chance to speak. A black mass appeared out of nowhere right before his eyes; a black mass with a face as pale as the hand that now clutched Adil’s breastplate.

Wait, what? 

Adil had time to process two words of a thought before he was suddenly and violently yanked away, dragged screaming high into the sky as suddenly as the figure had appeared, the figures of the dead guard and the sick child disappearing rapidly below.

Mertrashida was itching to get back to Rome after her failed attempt to capture the remaining Umbra, but before she could, she felt she had to see how the Egyptian Lords would take her sudden appearance. In order to do so, she had to risk further exposure and even attack by only repositioning herself a short distance away, back to her original vantage point. 

Once again hidden among the broken crates, Mertrashida watched as the three Egyptians looked around, searching for a sign of her presence. Recoiling further into the shadows as Isis looked in her direction, Mertrashida held her breath and waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to react. 

A sudden tightness formed in Mertrashida’s chest when Isis finally moved, turning to her husband. She placed a hand on his arm and guided him away toward their boat, Ndidi following closely behind. 

It seemed they had abandoned the search for the spy, and were preparing to leave for their journey. Still, it occurred to Mertrashida that it may well be a ruse, that Isis may have seen her and reported her location to Osiris. If that were the case, any or all of the three could sneak through the water from the other side of the boat and around to behind her.

Now that she had been spotted, though, Osiris’s plans would either change or accelerate, so leaving with no idea where Osiris was heading was not an option.

Shuffling forward to her vantage point, Mertrashida looked around hurriedly for a moment, then settled her eyes on one of the loaded boats that lay in the water, ready to go.. Acting quickly to avoid losing her cover, Mertrashida chose a spot somewhat well hidden among the supplies and teleported, arriving with a slight lurching motion, concealed from all directions but her side of the boat.

Settling in, Mertrashida breathed quietly to herself. She wasn’t in the clear, but she should be safe for the time being... She just hoped it wouldn’t be too long until the journey commenced.

Fortunately for Mertrashida, cramped into such a small space as she was, she had chosen her timing well. Scarcely a few minutes had passed since she had taken up her position, before the atmosphere around the area changed and the boats began their crawl up the Nile. 

Praying she wouldn’t be stuck in the boat too long, Mertrashida fought the urge to squeeze her eyes shut, opting instead to keep watch over her surroundings and ensure that no one was making their way up on her exposed side. Thankfully, however, the boats all kept formation rather well, though this did little to ease Mertrashida’s fear.

Keeping caution at the forefront of her mind, with nothing but the knowledge that she could leave within an instant if anything went awry, Mertrashida remained motionless among the supplies on the boat, fighting every urge to move or scratch so as not to move the boat in an unnatural way.

Hours passed like this, subjecting Mertrashida’s hip and supporting arm to all manner of discomfort and pain. The latter was washed away almost instantaneously every time, courtesy of her newfound regeneration, though this did little more than renew the feeling each time. Still, she gritted her teeth and let it happen, for the alternative was to be caught, or forced to flee and lose track of Osiris.

After those painstaking hours finally began to reach their end, the view from the side of Mertrashida’s boat changed rather drastically. The open expanse of the desert fell away, suddenly contrasted by the deep blue of the ocean. It seemed Osiris had chosen to circumvent Eskendereyya entirely, having taken the less populated fork of the Nile.

This seemed strange to Mertrashida until she saw the enormous wooden ship moored nearby, facing away to the East. It seemed Osiris had merely decided to make his departure from the closest possible point, and felt no need to visit the bustling city along the way.

Peering up from her hiding spot, Mertrashida focused on what was left in sight of the desert, quite impatient to leave her unpleasant hiding spot. Once she had chosen a suitable location, she jumped to it without hesitation, just as a servant on the shore walked alongside the boat to begin unloading supplies.

Laying some distance away among the desert sand, Mertrashida rolled herself over in time to see the figure standing by the boat. The miniscule hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end in response to how narrowly she had avoided exposure, and she found herself breathing a sigh of relief, not for the first time that day.

Now that the procession had stopped to transfer to the ship, Mertrashida surmised she likely had quite enough time to return to Adil and discuss her departure and his options before having to return to the ship. Still, she decided to hurry just in case, worried that she would return to find the ship already gone. For now, at least, it didn’t seem ready to go anywhere, but that could change before too long.

Noting her position and that of the ship, Mertrashida took one final glance around the area. Servants moved this way and that while Osiris watched on menacingly, growling the occasional order or reprimand. On either side of him stood Isis and Ndidi, each waiting patiently for the time to leave. Isis also scanned the area just as the young spy was, seeming to pause on Mertrashida’s location every time her eyes moved past, and Mertrashida found herself flattening further down into the sand each time.

Satisfied, Mertrashida turned her thoughts to the camp by the base of Mount Vesuvius, ready to rendezvous with Adil.

Isis watched curiously as what little she could see of the girl suddenly disappeared, accompanied by a swirling gust of desert sand. Once again, she considered turning to Osiris and informing him of the situation, but as before, decided it would be detrimental to their cause, and to Osiris’ mental state alone.

When Mertrashida arrived by the base of the mountain, she was convinced she had made a mistake. The area looked right enough, though she had spent a rather limited amount of time there, save for the large patch of dead grass and plants around the base of the mountain. Still, this wasn’t the forefront issue in Mertrashida’s mind as she surveyed the area.

All signs of her camp had been nearly completely erased, trampled through by frantic animals. The dromedaries, she realised, noticing their absence.

Walking around the camp, Mertrashida couldn’t help but notice the large pools of drying blood, nor its trails around the mountain. Following the trail, it wasn’t long before Mertrashida found the lifeless bodies of Adil’s and her’ mounts. Whatever had happened to them, it must have been awful, for their faces were still locked in panic and fear, and they - much like the dirt and grass beneath them - were covered in mostly-dried blood.

There was no more sign of Adil by the bodies than there was by the camp, so Mertrashida turned to make her way back the other way, toward Adil’s usual training grounds. As the camp came back into view, however, she froze.

A moment of clarity washed over her, immediately followed by a panic she was far from ready for, when it hit her.

She had left the small sack of chosen urns half-buried in the sand by the camp.

Frantically rushing forward, Mertrashida scrambled around in the dirt for what felt like an eternity. Finally, as it began to sink in that the Umbra may have been taken, she felt the dry softness of the makeshift sack, pulling it free from the dirt in a moment of triumph. She immediately tied the neck of the sack closed with some torn rope left by the dromedaries, then looped the rope several times around herself, from left shoulder to right side waist, tying the empty end back onto the rest where it ended.

After tugging on the rope a number of times, Mertrashida felt satisfied that it was fixed securely enough. Nodding to nobody in particular, she continued on her way back to Adil’s chosen training area.

A few minutes of walking led her far enough around the mountain to see several dark figures on the ground ahead, laying motionless on the ground.

Breath catching in her throat, Mertrashida approached slowly as she kept scanning the surrounding area, still not seeing any signs of life. Dead grass crunched underfoot as she moved, crouch-walking toward what she could now identify as a small group of bodies - all human, this time.

Mertrashida felt skin crawl as her heart jumped into her throat, afraid to find the corpse of her sole companion. It didn’t take long to realise none of the bodies were Adil, though, as she quickly recognised the Roman attire on the fallen men.

Standing by the closest corpse, something didn’t sit right in her mind. Gazing down at the blood-stained back of the dead guard, it suddenly hit her; with no wounds, there should be no blood on his back unless he had rolled in it - and there seemed to be another blood trail, leading away toward what was once a strong, healthy tree.

Moving cautiously, Mertrashida crept closer to the tree until she could hear sobbing from the other side.

Supporting herself with a hand on the trunk, she leaned around the tree, unsure what she planned to do once she found the source.

The source in question was unidentifiable at first, seeming to be just a blood-red mass. Still, as she looked on, the mass began to take shape in her mind even as a pair of eyes opened among the crimson.

Laying on the ground in a fetal position, absolutely covered in blood, was a young boy of maybe six, easily more dead than alive.

Moments after the boy opened his eyes, he seemed to recognise the person before him. As suddenly as his eyes had opened, his mouth followed suit, accompanied by an ear-piercing scream of pure terror as the boy tried desperately to shuffle away.

‘Woah, woah, hold on… Are you okay, kid? What happened here?’

Mertrashida tried to keep her voice as smooth and calming as possible and kept her hands open and within view, but she couldn’t mask her own emotions any more than the boy could his. Her voice cracked with sadness and fear, which perhaps resonated with the boy more than her words or open palms could.

A fraction of a second passed, then the boy’s eyes filled with tears and he began to sob uncontrollably once more, seemingly too deeply caught in his emotional turmoil to even care at all if Mertrashida was there or not, let alone if she was a threat.

Lowering herself into a sitting position where she stood, Mertrashida spun slowly and leaned the back of her head against the tree, scanning the area ahead for signs of Adil while she waited with the boy.

It was taking some time, and Mertrashida was beginning to fear missing Osiris’ journey, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave the boy or interrupt him, so she decided to just stay put and keep waiting. Eventually, the sobbing slowed and gradually stopped, though a quick glance at the boy showed his body still trembling almost constantly.

Still, it was not the time to try again, so Mertrashida continued to wait in silence.

A few minutes later, the boy finally broke the silence.

‘Why?’

Mertrashida looked at him, confused.

‘He was your friend, right? Why did he do this?’

At those words, Mertrashida felt her stomach twist into a knot as her blood ran cold. All this time she had been searching for Adil’s body, never dreaming that he could be responsible for this mess.

‘The man I came here with did this?’ She asked, shocked.

The boy nodded, his eyes watering again.

‘My dad and his friends just wanted to talk to him… Why? Why kill them?’

Mertrashida’s jaw clenched and locked, a sudden rage washing over her. 

‘I - I am sorry, I do not know… Can you tell me what happened?’

The boy sniffled and nodded. 

‘I saw your friend doing magic and my dad wanted to see, too. We came here and he ignored us for a while, but then he used his magic and made the others sick. I ran in to help dad but then he got me, too...’

Mertrashida listened to the brief tale in stunned silence. As the boy reached the end of his story, he asked one more question; a question that might well haunt Mertrashida until her final days.

‘When will I die, too?’

Hearing such a young boy ask such a question, so obviously defeated and done… Mertrashida’s heart didn’t just break, it shattered and fell apart just as she did, her face falling in an instant as her eyes welled up. 

‘Nooo… No, no, no. You will be okay, I swear it,’ she said softly, inching close enough to wrap her arms around the child and hold him tightly to her. He flinched at first contact, but settled into the embrace shortly after and began to sob once more into her chest, letting go of everything he held back earlier.

The pair remained in place for quite some time after, all thought of leaving now gone from Mertrashida’s mind. She held the boy for perhaps another hour before his sobbing slowed to a stop once more, no longer caring about keeping up with Osiris. Still, she did desperately want to find Adil, though now for a vastly different reason.

‘What is your name, kid?’

The boy didn’t move, but answered anyway, his voice muffled as he spoke into her embrace.

‘Alessandro…’

‘Well, Alessandro, I need to find the guy who did this. Can you tell me where he went?’

Alessandro paused before shaking his head.

‘Sorry,’ was all he could manage.

Mertrashida hummed, deep in thought. Evidently, true to his previously displayed cowardice, Adil had fled the scene immediately after murdering the guards and nearly Alessandro as well.

‘Please, wait here a moment, Alessandro.’

Alessandro sniffed and nodded, allowing Mertrashida to free herself from their shared hold. When she was free and clear, she rose to her feet and stepped around the tree, gazing up to the mountaintop above.

‘I will be right back, I promise.’

Without a moment’s pause, she closed the distance the best way she knew how, and was suddenly looking down on the area. Scanning the expanse of ground below, but finding nothing, she decided to try something else.

‘Tekin! Get back here, you coward! You get back here and you face what you have done!’

Though she had always referred to him by his first name, she couldn’t bring herself to grant him the respect of addressing him as such anymore. She screamed her lungs out on top of the mountain, moving back and forth as she tried to find or reach him.

Again and again she screamed, to no avail. There was no trace of Adil, no sign he was even anywhere nearby. 

Finally giving up, Mertrashida turned back toward the tree down on the ground below, preparing to teleport back. Pausing for a moment, she suddenly realised she had something else to do, and the perfect opportunity to do so.

It was truly unfortunate that she moved when she did; half a moment slower, and she would have noticed the falling crow.