“Drink.” 

I felt a light slap on my cheek, then a hand on my chin. Cold wood pressed down on my bottom lip and I opened my eyes. A cup filled with dark green liquid was at my mouth, and the face of a woman stared at me. Deep black eyeliner lined her eyes and eyebrows, and black bangs covered half her forehead in a perfect line.

“My name is Kiya.” She spoke while forcing me to drink whatever was in that cup. It tasted like overly sour grapes.

“Ok, Kiya.” I slurred my words as I finished drinking. “Why can’t I feel my… anything?”

“Paralytic dart.” She tossed the cup behind her. “To which I just fed you the antidote. I’m sorry about Sphinx, by the way. He’s a bit rough around the edges when he feels threatened.”

“About him.” I smacked my lips together. “What is he?”

“Servant of Seshat. We don’t really get along.”  She waved two fingers in front of me, both of which were accessorized by long, golden nails, and my eyes followed. “He specializes in finding the truth out via leopard interrogation. We, on the other hand‒”

“We?”

“The Daughters of Serqet.” She booped my nose. “Did you feel that?”

“No.”

“Our specialty is poison.” She stepped back, revealing her skin tight, dark yellow scale armor. It only covered her full torso and legs. Tattoos of scorpions adorned both of her bare arms. “I also wanted to ask you about your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“When I carried you here‒”

“Where is here?” 

“A cave.” She groaned. “We’re near the village you saw across the Erythraean sea. Welcome to Egypt’s mainland. Now can you stop interrupting me?”

I surveyed the area. Torches lined the walls, casting flickering shadows all over. Night still reigned outside, but the torchlight glinted off something by the cave’s entrance, catching my eye: my two spears.

“Sorry.”

“When I carried you here, your eyes glowed dark purplish for a little bit.”

“Weren’t my eyes closed?”

“Yea.” She sat down criss-crossed. “But I could see a faint glow coming through your eyelids. Anyways, I would like to know who you are, why an Immortal swung by a temple of Ra two days ago, and if the two are related in any way.”

“Where is Illias and Damien.” Feeling started to come back to me as my wrists and shoulders throbbed. I looked up to see bronze chains wrapped around my hands. The fetters extended up and were attached to the roof of the cave. 

“They’re in a different cave being questioned as we speak.”

“So are you their leader or something?” The bottoms of my feet tickled, and I looked down to see them bare, standing flat footed on the smooth, sandy ground. 

“I am.” She smiled. “At least of this particular group of Daughters. Now, we found out that you’re here in search of queen Artemisia, yes?”

“How did you‒”

“Your human friend was very forthcoming with information when we‒”

“If Illias is hurt I swear I’ll‒”

“Save the display of manly heroism.” She chided. “The sooner you answer my questions, the sooner I let you continue your quest to hunt down the Halicarnassian. All I care about is Egypt, not some witch hunt. Those who seek my country’s destruction are my enemies, and right now, your very presence here seems to be threatening her, making you my enemy. So tell me, Theophilus, do you want to destroy Egypt by bringing the wrath of Xerxes upon her, or do you want to help us avoid this confrontation altogether?”

“I, uh‒”

“That’s what I thought.” She burst to her feet. “Now, why was there an Immortal looking for you?”

“The natives of El-Arish spotted us in our hoplite armor and reported it.” I rotated my hands to shift the pain. 

“Well you’re not wearing that anymore and my scouts recently spotted them still poking around the Sinai.” She squinted as she looked me up and down. “You’re in a not-so-white Egyptian tunic now. So that can’t be it.”

I scanned the chains that bound my hands again, finding that a few of the links were bluish greenish.

“This doesn’t make sense, unless… Xerxes must know you somehow. Why else would he dispatch his elite unit for you? But that doesn’t explain how he knew it’d be you here and not some other random Greek hoplite.” Her eyes followed mine to the corroded chains. “Oh no you‒”

My two spears whizzed past her head and into the weaker links, breaking them. The weapons continued traveling, the points lodging themselves into the cave wall.

“This was a pleasant conversation.” My arms flopped down and I called my spears back to me, catching one in either hand. “But if you don’t mind, I’d like to be on my way.”

“Tell me who you are.” She drew a hooked sword from her back. “And I’ll be happy to let you walk.”

I javelined one spear and she evaded, but on its return, nicked her calf.

“How did you…” She growled. “No matter. I will get what I need from you one way or another.”

She charged. I hurled my spear again, and instead of evading, she reached up with her blade and brought it back down, catching the shaft with her weapon’s hook and knocking the spear to the ground. She then closed the distance between us before I could throw again and swung at me ceaselessly. All I could do was dodge and block, occasionally finding an opening to strike at her with my remaining spear.

After backpedaling into a wall, I finally managed to nick her other leg, and she fumbled. As she did, I got to her back and wrapped the spear’s pole around her neck.

“You kill me here.” She wheezed as she dropped her weapon to pull down on mine. “And my sisters will hunt you down after they slit the throats of your friends.”

My grip tightened. As it did, one of her hands reached up to claw at my face. She managed one swipe at my left ear, which continued down my cheek, before she resumed pulling at the spear’s shaft with both hands. The blood she drew was warm as it trickled down my neck.

“You won’t even be able to find their bodies.” She forced a laugh through her hacking. “Just tell me who you are! We must know if more Immortals are coming!”

I released the choke hold and she fell to her knees, grasping her neck and gagging. 

“I can’t risk telling you.” I stepped away from her. “But you can be sure more Immortals are probably coming.”

“How can you be so sure?” She shambled to her feet.

“Because I am.”

She turned around to look at me, but her gaze drifted down to the spear I held. My eyes widened as I followed hers to their destination. A dark purple aura of energy surrounded my weapon’s blade, pulsating every few seconds.

“Your weapon…” She gasped.

“N-no…”

  “It’s like the Immor‒”

I thrust my spear through her neck. Her eyes bulged as blood oozed from her mouth and nose. The magic from the blade spread onto her skin, then seeped into it, causing her veins to pop out and blacken. Dark purple liquid-smoke trailed off her skin and even off her armor.

“I’m so sorry.” I recoiled, yanking the weapon out in the process. Her veins returned to normal, but her skin was wrinkled. “No one can know.”

Her body teetered back and forth a couple times, then collapsed backwards. My hands trembled. My breathing grew ragged. I threw my spear to the side and sat down, staring at my palms.

“I’m so sorry.” I repeated out loud as tears dribbled down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”