“Come on!” Illias called out from the courtyard. “Can we get going already? I don’t want this very attractive evil queen to wake up on my watch!”

“Gimme a minute!” I called back. “There’s something I gotta do before we head back to Isadora!”

The torch lit corridors within the tomb complex were flooded with hieroglyphics, winged sun discs, and paintings of Osiris and Anubis. Each individual room had specific paintings that depicted various stories of the pharaohs who are buried here, with the coffins themselves lying at each chamber’s center. It honestly all looked the same to me, as I’m not all too familiar with Egyptian culture, but I continued wandering the halls in search of my objective.

One particular work of art caught my attention and I stopped moving to examine it. It was drawn in front of one of the larger tombs of a pharaoh whose name I couldn’t quite read, just above the sealed doorway. Said pharaoh stood ‒ at least I think it was the pharaoh, considering his snake-headed crown, broad-collar necklace, and extended false chin ‒ in between Ra and Anubis. Each deity held one hand of the pharaoh, almost like each one was trying to pull him in a different direction. 

“Ra…?” I said aloud. “What’s he doing in a tomb painting?”

“Well.” A female voice spoke from behind me. “According to Egyptians, the spirit of the deceased would meet up with Ra before searching for his or her own corpse to reunite with it.”

I turned around to see no one. I shook my head a bit then looked around again, but no other person was in sight.

“What you’re looking for is deeper in the complex.” The voice spoke up again, echoing all around me. “Keep walking until you reach the end.”

“The end?” I muttered.

“The end.” It repeated.

“I guess that’s sorta specific?” My eyebrows scrunched together as I continued strolling through the tomb complex. About a dozen turns later, I reached a dead end.

“Uh…” I scratched my head. “I think I made a wrong turn.”

“No.” The voice seemed to be louder than it was before. Almost like it was right behind this wall…

“What am I supposed to do now?” I slumped forward. “I don’t even know why I’m listening to you. You’re probably just in my head and I’ve really lost my mind.”

“Break the wall.”

“Come again?”

“Break the wall.”

“Yea I heard you…” I groaned. “But, like, how?”

No response.

“Oh, so now you decide to shut up.” I groaned again. “Gee thanks.”

I removed one of the torches from the wall to my right and used it to examine the wall in front of me that I’m apparently supposed to break. I looked for cracks, but there were none. I looked for loose stones, but there were none. I looked for hints in the paintings, but there were none.

Wait.

“Why are there no paintings on this wall?” I stepped back. “It’s completely bare. This doesn’t make any sense. Unless it’s not a wall…”

I looked at the decorated walls to my left and right, then up at the ceiling. There was only one painting on the latter: two jackals that were lying down, parallel to each other. Both their heads faced the bare wall, and their ears pointed at either of the side walls. Their mouths were closed, but something seemed to be drawn in between their two heads. I raised my torch to illuminate the painting to indeed reveal something in the suspected position: an ankh. The symbol’s hilt pointed away from the wall, and its loop pointed towards it, with the crossguard pointing at either jackal.

“Atemu…!” I raised my voice with each syllable of her name. I put the torch back in its slot and dashed away to get out of the tomb. “Atemu!”

I sprinted, retracing my steps from the pieces of string I left, Theseus style, and got back outside. I bolted down the ramp to the courtyard where Illias, Damien, and Atemu still sat, huddled around the unconscious body of Artemisia like a campfire.

“Theo!” The priestess rose to her feet. “I see the lanyard I gave you worked out?”

“Yea, yea.” I panted. “Can I, uh, borrow your ankh?”

“My‒” She tilted her head. “Why?”

“Long story.”

“Ok.” She peered at me. “Just don’t lose it or break it please. I’m not healing you again if something bad befalls my weapon!”

“Thanks!” I turned around and raced back up the ramp after taking the ankh from her. 

“I’m being serious!” She shouted. “That’s irreplaceable!”

“Uh-huh!” I shouted back. “Also thanks again for healing my broken wrist!”

I made my way back into the tomb complex and refollowed the string trail I left. Once I returned to the paintingless wall, I drew one of my spears and let it levitate vertically in the air, the blade pointing down and the base of the shaft directed upwards. I then carefully balanced the center of the ankh onto the spear’s wooden base, and raised the weapon all the way up until the ankh slotted perfectly into its corresponding groove in the ceiling. I let my spear fall and caught it, resheathing it on my back, and waited.

“Oh, c’mon!” I complained. “I thought for sure‒”

The ankh started to glow, and a soft rumble followed its brightening. The bare wall creaked and groaned as it slid down, revealing another dark corridor.

“Third room on the left.” The female voice resounded once more.

“Yea, yea.” I rolled my eyes as I took the torch again and entered the revealed hallway. It was dark and cold, though the warmth from the torch I held warmed me up slightly. No decorations adorned these walls either.

“Third room to the left you said?” I mumbled as I got to the third room on the left. There was definitely a doorway here, but it was sealed shut.

“Are you serious.” My free hand curled into a fist as I grunted. “Another door that won’t just open with a stupid doorhandle?” 

“Break it.” She said, her voice louder than ever before.

“Oh no you‒” I stopped myself upon realizing the door was just wood, not stone. “Oh. Well this should be easier.”

I took two steps back, then blitzed the door with a front-kick. The wood shattered and burst inwards to reveal a single coffin at the room’s center. It was set up just like all the other rooms, only difference being the fact that no hieroglyphics or paintings decorated the walls. The coffin, too, was different, as it wasn’t built to resemble a human being like the other sarcophagi. Contrarily, it was just a wooden box.

“Don’t you dare say break it.” I said as I approached the casket. I slowly reached for the lid, but before I could touch it, it burst open, sending me flying out of the chamber. My body remained airborne until my back thudded onto the wall on the other side of the hallway. 

“Oof.” I managed to land on my feet after the impact, then went back into the room. When the smoke cleared, a woman stood before me in the center of the chamber, the remnants of her wooden coffin scattered about her feet. She was completely dressed in skin tight black leather armor, with liquid-black smoke oozing off her entire figure. She had pointy ears, which stuck out from her short-cut, silver hair, and her eyes flashed the same color.

“Thank you for freeing me from this wretched place.” She brushed some dust off her shoulders. “Though something tells me that you didn’t do this of your own volition.”

“What gave you that idea?” I stepped back.

“The fact that you were so willing to follow my directions.” She grinned. “Did my mother-in-law send you down this path?”

“Mother-in-law?” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Isadora?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “How thoughtful of her.”

“I don’t understand.” My voice cracked.

“And you don’t have to.” She stepped closer to me. “But she can’t know I’m alive.”

“She asked me to find your body and bring it back to her.”

“Ah…” Her voice trailed off in thought. “So she’s having some regrets about locking my previously lifeless body up in this place I see…”

“I guess.” I stepped back again. “Was her decision justified?”

“No need for fear.” She frowned. “I’m not your enemy.”

I remained silent.

“Here.” She opened her hand and black smoke swirled around within her palm. It coalesced into a black-hilted dagger. “Give this to her and tell her that my body was missing.”

“Why would I do that?” I peered at her. “I just met you.”

“The conflict you have just found yourself in the middle of is a big one.” She extended her hand towards me, motioning for me to take the dagger. “You will certainly want someone like me to be in your debt.”

“Someone like you?” I tilted my head. “What does that even‒”

Her body dissipated into black smoke, and after a couple of seconds, the smoke evaporated too. The dagger she had summoned clattered to the floor.

“Do as I ask.” Her voice echoed all around me. “And when you need my aid, I’ll be there.”