Topic: The First Lover { Cyrce & Gardenia-mooN

[Cyrce]

Continuing from The First Lover


Imhotep was already making his way to the other side of the city. His first victim was easy enough to dispatch, an middle-aged man that lived alone. Imhotep didn't doubt that the man's screams caught some attention and he didn't stay to see if anyone came by to sate their curiosity. A body drained missing its vital fluids and organs would be a red flag if any of those curious investigators happened to be Medjai. Or A cult member perhaps, if there were still some survivors from the group that had once rallied to him. Either one would not be helpful in his attempt to stay unnoticed for as long as possible.

In the back of his mind Imhotep sensed that his reincarnated lover was resisting. He frowned and paused in his trek to the next of the four poor souls marked by the Hom-dai. Was his reincarnated lover attempting to ignore him. Imhotep chuckled darkly. Same as ever—arrogant, proud and enticingly beautiful. He sent another wave of power in his direction. “How will you make me chase you again, Pakhom?”


Alex glanced at Ardeth and nodded. “I hope you’re right. He made large displays of power before just because he could.” Just because he could do it. The wall of water the priest had sent at his parents when Alex had been a child still chilled him st the memory. He’d also been told about the ridiculous wall of sand the priest had sent at Ardeth and his father the first time the mummy had been brought to life. Something like that would easily lead them to Imhotep.

Alex sighed heavily. This wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t given his mother those books. He stared at the space between his mount’s ears, hoping that they would arrive at the city and get everything sorted as soon as possible.

[Gardenia-mooN]

Rick kept riding with the weight of his loneliness and loss dragging him down. He knew he had to be strong for his son but this time felt more final than all the others and he didn't know how to live without his wife. He tried to focus on the fight ahead, on the mission...but while his mind tried to focus something strange and terrible happened. It was as if he were suddenly drowning in a strange power like a warm bath filled with fizzing bubbles. It was a power that made his heart and his body ache, that reminded him of those dark enticing dreams that he couldn't seem to stop having for some inexplicable reason.

His fists tightened on the reigns and he tried not to get swept up in the bizarre sensations. Rick dug his heels into the sides of his mount and urged it on faster towards the city. If he got to the city he knew he would be able to confront whatever was making him feel this, if he got to the city then he could fight it properly and squash the wicked feelings that were hotly curling in his belly and trying to distract him from his grief.

---

Ardeth couldn't help but look grim. He had to be the positive one for a change and he was not good at it, not with a grieving friend and his grieving son who he had grown so close to over the years. "Maybe his lack of large displays now is because he is too weak to perform them? Maybe he has a new goal? Together we will fix this somehow..." He reached out as he spoke, they rode close enough that he could touch Alex and he did. Briefly his hand clasped the other male's shoulder and he squeezed it comfortingly.

As they rode he watched Rick wearily, the other seemed more dazed than he should have been and Ardeth wasn't sure if it was the loss of his wife or something more sinister working to put that lost look in the other man's eyes. He knew he had to do something to snap the other out of it but he had no idea what to do.

[Cyrce]

Imhotep moved quickly across the back alleys of the city. He needed to clean up those that had manhandled the chest tied to his curse and then he could be with his dear Pakhom. The sooner he could take care of this the better, even if he had to court his Medjai again. It was clear enough that at least courting would be needed. Although it would be easy, Imhotep did not wish to use his powers to ensorcell his Medjai’s mind and manipulate him. His magic had not served him well in Anck-Su-Namun’s case at all. The emotions hadn’t been manipulated but the memories had been forced out and the connection between them was not there as it had once been. Imhotep questioned if there had been anything deeper than his desire to pluck a pretty thing and toy with it for a short time.

The second victim of his curse was easily dispatched as the first had been. These humans had little in the way of defence when they didn’t have their hands on the books. Imhotep closes his eyes for a moment and thought back to his return to the living world. The O’Connells has been there, attempting to fight off that beast. He paused. The Beast was free now. Imhotep had forgotten in the rush of being free and focusing on restoring himself so as to go after his Medjai, but the Beast would be an obstacle to that. His Medjai was still human and could become one of the Beast’s victims. The obvious thing to do would be to ally with those he had left behind. Imhotep inhaled sharply in irritation before calling sand together to form a humanoid shape. The sand took on the properties of flesh and soon what looked like a human stood before him. It was little more than a homonculus, a puppet to serve him. Far more useful and loyal that the human he’d picked up the first time.

“Awaken and find the O’Connells. Bring them to this place so I may speak with them.” With these instructions Imhotep sat in one of the room’s plush chairs and picked up the abandoned tea cup, sipping on it. An alliance with the O’Connells would be dangerous but was needed with the Beast free. After that nothing would keep Imhotep save for his Medjai.


Alex bit his lip. Too weak? The Mummy had managed to make the thing that had been summoned by the rogue Medjai flee at the sight of him. No, the monster had a new goal in mind and the mere thought of the evil he could wreck terrified Alex and reminded him of that time he’d been abducted. He nodded when Ardeth touched his shoulder. “Yes, we have to fix everything that has happened today.” The Mummy, the monster and his mother. They had to fix all of these things.

Alex glanced at his dad, who was now riding ahead of them. His parents had always managed somehow to solve the Egyptian curses that had come their way in the past but without his mother’s knowledge, how would all of this play out? If only the summoning spell she’d cast hadn’t gone wrong.

[Gardenia-mooN]

By the time they made it to the city Rick have calmed himself a little bit, he had stubbornly shoved the strange feelings that had been overwhelming him away and was refocused and determined. He would find that damn mummy and make sure that he got his beloved Evie back. That was really all that mattered. If he could just focus on that then he would be able to ignored the feelings of grief and the creeping feelings of pleasure that were eating away at his core. Find the bad guy, kill the bad guy, get his girl back. It was simple, easy, he focused on it like a mantra and did his best to ignore everything else. He couldn't even talk to Ardeth or Alex, he was afraid of how he would react or what he would do if he spoke too much to anyone. He needed to stay strong, stay whole, and he couldn't do that very well at the moment.

Of course while he was building up his determination that was when the creepily blank looking man approached them. The other bowed to them and asked them to follow it so that they could speak to its master. Rick knew they were on the right path and turned to look at his son and at Ardeth. "We're following it and we're gonna meet up with that bastard and make him give her back to me." His words were raw and there was a hurt in his eyes that he could not hide. He would follow the creature even if his son and his friend would not, he was determined. The strangely pleasurable pulling in his stomach grew stronger as he followed the thing into the city. Eventually they made it to a building and were led inside and Rick made sure to gather Evie's body in his arms and carry her up and into the lion's den. She sacrificed herself without asking him or Alex, that bastard had a heart he would have to understand and give her back to Rick. Rick couldn't handle it any other way.

The pulsing inside of him was growing stronger with every single step, it felt like moving closer to where the mummy was was building something up inside of him. The strange creature opened the door and it felt like someone was squeezing on his heart. He took all of those feelings and pushed them into a box of grief, he was only feeling this way because Evie was gone. "Bring her back." Were his first words, he hadn't even set eyes on Imhotep yet.

---

Ardeth gave Alex a grim yet supportive smile when the other spoke and he nodded. "We will, I give you my word that I shall stay by your side until this is fixed." He just wanted to make sure the vulnerable young man was alright. He told himself his feelings were of friendship or even that they were fatherly. Yet as they entered the city and encountered the odd man his feelings seemed to twist, becoming more protective. "If...if something happens I wish for you to run Alex. I don't want your life to be taken as well."

He spoke grimly, following Rick but feeling increasingly concerned for the other male as they ended up at a strange building. Ardeth didn't want to put Alex through anymore heartbreak but he could not abandon Rick either and force Alex to run away. He felt trapped in this situation and felt like there was no way to bring it to a peaceful end.

[Cyrce]

Alex’s eyes widened when the disturbing man approached and led them to a normal seeming home. Why was his father at ease following after someone so clearly sent by the Mummy? There was no guarantee he would resurrect his mother, or that they wouldn’t be killed as well. It made more sense to bring his mother...his mother’s body back to the Medjai and searching for a solution there, with allies at their back. But given how his mother had died, hunting the Mummy was going to be the answer. It only made a difference in how much firepower they had.

Alex took a deep breath and took out his pistol, checking to be sure it was fully loaded. He shook his head and looked to Ardeth. “We’re all in this together. I’m not going to run away after you agreed to stay with me to fix everything.” Blue eyes were both determined and vulnerable as he looked to the older man. He wouldn’t let his fear drive him away from helping his father.

The disturbing man led them to a room where the first thing Alex zeroed in on was a husk of a body and immediately tensed. It was nothing like he’d ever seen before. What had the Mummy done to him? His eyes swept the room and immediately pointed his pistol at the man that was sitting calmly by the window.


Imhotep sipped his tea while he waited for the O’Connells. He had nothing to fear from the older man now. The woman had been the brains of the operation and she was no longer here to strip him of his immortality again. The Medjai was another that relied on brute force. It was an admirable quality but one that group ought to branch out from. Then there was the young man that had been there. If he was correct, the youngest was the boy he’d kidnapped years ago. And a potential threat if the young one tried anything like his mother. He would consider countermeasures for that one later if it proved that a truce was not possible.

His sand servant arrived with the three men in tow and Imhotep’s eyes narrowed at the elder O’Connell’s demand. Bring her back? Did none of them understand what had been done in the first place to restore him to his body. Imhotep set down the tea cup and gazed at the three with a bored expression. “Do you have a sacrifice in mind to use to revive her with? That will be the only way to possibly restore her to life. You will need to kill a woman that is similar enough to her in order to resurrect her.” Imhotep shrugged and gazed at the body in Rick’s arms. “And would she accept that fate? Would she be willing to return through the gates and return to life this way?” It was all sound logic for the priest. Nefertiri has never been fond of the spells that required human sacrifice and the more powerful magic in the Book of the Dead needed just that. Unfortunately, Imhotep has chosen to explain himself in the only language he was comfortable speaking in; ancient Egyptian. Though he had been brought back three times now, he had yet to abandon using the long dead language.

[Gardenia-mooN]

Ardeth wanted to send Alex away and keep him close all at the same time. He knew what they were doing was a fool's errand but he couldn't deny Rick his vengeance and he certainly couldn't deny Alex the chance to save his mother. He felt trapped as they followed the strange person who was so obviously a tool sent by the enemy. There was nothing he could do or say to change the minds of the men he was with. He just had to make sure to see this all through to the end no matter what else happened. He swallowed hard as he followed them and stuck close to Alex's side.

When Alex spoke Ardeth sighed and nodded grimly. "Okay, okay, my friend. I understand but I wish you would run if it seems as though I shall not survive this." The thought of dying and being the cause of Alex's death was almost too much for him to bear. He was no stranger to the powers of the mummy and so he was able to ignore the horrific sight of the human husk in favor of focusing on the mummy.

The ancient Egyptian the other used was even a bit too old for Ardeth to completely understand although he did recognize a couple of words and none of them were good. What shocked him was when Rick spoke as though it was his mother's tongue, he gaped and looked down at Alex with a confused frown. "Has your father been studying lately?"


The sight of Imhotep sent a strange chill down Rick's spine a chill that was an odd mixture of cold and heat. He glared at the other and clutched Evie's body tight to his chest. The other seemed so damn calm, almost bored of all of this and Rick hated him for it. He knew that Evie had summoned him, that he was their only hope of defeating the beast but he hated the other and all he wanted to do was tear into him, to rip him apart with his hands and teeth until there was absolutely nothing left. His passion and rage towards the other male had never been quite this intense before.

When Imhotep spoke Rick understood him perfectly and he was thrown deeper into his own anger. "Damn you! I'll sacrifice you or that beast! I-I can't just sacrifice an innocent person...Evie would never forgive me. But if her death brought you here than your death will bring her back!" Rick not only understood what the other was saying perfectly but he was also speaking ancient Egyptian. The scariest part of all was that Rick didn't realize he was speaking another language. He was just heartbroken and desperate and felt as though there were a hot whirlpool in his belly. "You are a liar! We can bring her back I know we can. Don't you think you've had enough chances at life? Anck-Su-Namun is gone, there is no one left for you here but I'm here for her..." His voice almost took on a pleading note as he looked down at the cloth covered body of his wife. He was still speaking the other male's language perfectly. He had no clue the changes that were already happening inside of him, the soul that was being awoken once more.

[Cyrce]

Alex stiffened as Imhotep responded to his father’s demands. His mother used to speak in Ancient Egyptian at home from time to time so Alex had been the one to interpret for his father. He was piecing together the proper translation for his father and Ardeth when his father responded to the words with ease.

“I don’t think so... Mum or I translated for him.” If his father understood the Ancient Egyptian language, Alex was certain he would have heard his mother lecturing him about the language and what order was proper but that had never happened. Yet right at this moment his father was speaking the language without any issue. “Ardeth, do you think the Mummy cast something on my father when he was first summoned?” Had he lost both his parents and not even known it?


Imhotep has expected a proper response to his words from the youngest male, not the father desperately clutching at Nefertiri’s corpse. Rick O’Connell was making some general errors when arguing that the spellcraft could simply be reversed and Nefertiri could be revived with his own death. Imhotep studied the brash man. They had clashed many times but this was the first time they had spoken. The man must have learned the language from Nefertiri somehow, unless he was another reincarnated soul from that time. Given how unlikely one would have thought it to be for Nefertiri to reincarnate and go against him, Imhotep would not discount that Rick was another soul from the past. Albeit one that did not listen the first time. “Did I say that it was impossible? Only with a sacrifice can she be revived. My death would not bring her back. Nefertiri mixed spells from the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra. The beast’s...perhaps, but not likely. The ideal sacrifice would be human and fully mortal. You would need to go to Karnak as Hamunaptra was destroyed...” Imhotep tilted his head, considering what spells could have been mixed together from the two books. “Even then, Nefertiri may have used the incantations to revive me in such a way that her death can not be reversed. I would not be able to say one way or the other unless any of you know which ones were used?”

His attitude remained bored and rather clinical, as though they were discussing a hypothetical situation. Imhotep was not displaying the passion or obsession he had during his first two revivals, where his goals were Anck-Su-Namun and more power. The mention of her name only sparked mild irritation. She was a mistake, all that mattered was Pakhom.

[Gardenia-mooN]

Ardeth couldn’t quite believe what was going on. Rick seemed like a different person, like a man lost in a dream. The other was a holy artist like him, he was noble and strong but at the moment he seemed like he was detached from the world. It was frightening and when Alex spoke Ardeth’s worries only grew and grew.

“That is what I thought...your father can speak a few languages but I do not remember this being one of his tongues.” He spoke in a low tense voice and frowned. When Alex spoke it only made Ardeth more concerned because he truly didn’t know what was wrong with Rick. “Maybe something happened when she released him but your father doesn’t seem to be in his thrall like so many before him.” His brows furrowed as he tried to figure out just what exactly happened to make the other so changed.


Rick listened to the other male with a growing light of panic filling his eyes. He couldn’t believe any of this, he couldn’t believe this damned mummy. He wanted to run up to the other and punch him until he gave Evie back to him. It was all too much. He grimaced and moved over to the couch, layin Evie’s body down so that she would be safe and sound while he did what he had to do. Rick then turned back to Imhotep and stormed up to him so that they were practically nose to nose. He did t care about the strange twisted feelings in his stomach all he wanted to do was confront the other male. ”I don’t care what you say! I know you can fix this without sacrificing an innocent person! You came back over and over and so did that bitch of yours so you bring Evie back to me!”

As he growled out the words he reached out and grabbed the other male by the front of his stupid robe. For so,e reason just touching the other male made it feel like there was electricity running from his fingertips to his entire body. ”Whatever game you are playing just quit it!”

[Cyrce]

A smile ghosted across Imhotep’s face when he grabbed at. O’Connell’s arrogant belief that he could do something to revive Nefertiri was amusing. Did the man think that simply because Imhotep was blessed as the priest of Osiris and cursed by the Hom-Dai that he could reach into the Land of the Dead with no consequences? Sacrificed were required. Osiris was very serious about keeping life and death in balance.

“No. In those previous cases...in the first, Nefertiri would have been sacrificed but wasn’t and the resurrection failed. In the second, Meela Nais was sacrificed for Anck-Su-Namun to revive.” At this distance the other man would be able to see that there was no spark of longing or passion as the woman’s name passed Imhotep’s lips. “As for my own revival, it is tied to a curse. I could curse Nefertiri’s soul and she could revive that way. Do you wish her to be driven to kill when she reawakens? Regardless of what you would prefer to do, Karnak is your destination as it has a sacred pool to summon the souls of the dead.” Imhotep covered one of Rick’s hands with his own. As amusing as the man’s actions were, that did not give him the permission to manhandle him.


Alex lowered his pistol. “So...what do we do now? He’s not a thrall but he’s not like himself. His father was standing in front of the Mummy and shooting would only hurt him rather than the monster. The pistol rounds were useless on the Mummy anyway. This meeting was useless. The monster wasn’t attacking them but also wasn’t giving his mother back from the dead. There wasn’t another option other than that was there?

At the mention of Karnak, though, Alex made a connection that he cursed himself not to have realized before. He’s brought his mother back once before when they were at that pyramid. He could do it again. Wide eyes looked up at Ardeth and whispered urgently. “If he’s telling the truth I could use the book at Karnak to bring her back. I did it once before!”

[Gardenia-mooN]

Rick didn't get how Imhotep could be so calm, he used to be so full of passion going wild for the one he loved and burning with determination. Now at the mention of Anck-Su-Namun he seemed oddly calm and detached. Even when he said her name there was no spark, no nothing. A part of him deep down felt...happy? Satisfied? It was too weird to understand, he stubbornly ignored the strange feelings popping up inside of him.

You...you bastard! You think you're so smart. You don't understand anything, you certainly don't understand the heart. The words were a bit too eloquent for Rick, but they fit a mouth from long ago perfectly and the words were mirrors of words once spoken. Rick, like Alex only took that Karnak was his only hope for saving his beloved Evie. "Fine. Then we'll go to Karnak, if your useless then we'll just leave you. You can handle the great evil in the world for a change since you don't have some long lost love to revive. Rick spoke gruffly and his fingers curled tighter against the other male's robes. A hand covered his own and sent a strange shock through him, images from the dreams that haunted him flashed through his eyes and the heat that fizzed through him grew stronger. He looked like he had been shocked and he quickly let go of the other. Whatever you're trying to do won't work. He hissed angrily and turned from the other to focus on his son and Ardeth.


Ardeth was kind of shocked by all of this but especially by how Rick was acting, the other male, in his grief was so broken down and it hurt to watch. "I am not sure but I believe we should choose our main goal. Should we focus on the beast, the mummy, or your mother first? I shall follow you in any that you choose." Ardeth knew what Rick had chosen but Alex had a right to decide too and Ardeth trusted the boy more than his father at the moment.

When the other mentioned Karnak it brought back bittersweet memories in Ardeth and as Alex whispered urgently to him he listened and nodded seriously. "Then that is what we shall do. We shall go to Karnak to bring back your mother's soul." Ardeth had hope, he felt as though if anyone could succeed it would be Alex, the boy was shockingly talented.

[Cyrce]

Imhotep’s eyes narrowed as words too similar to those told him by Pakhom. O’Connell must be mixed up in his grief to say that. It would be too cruel of Osiris to place the soul of his Medjai into a man that would oppose him so stubbornly. “I am merely well versed in the incantations that you ask to use in reviving Nefertiri. My first life was spent studying and understanding them. Do you not think that I would have made use of the afterlife to learn more of those incantations?” Millennia of existing in the afterlife as something not quite human, of course he would push his boundaries, knowing that he would eventually return to life. Death was only the beginning.

Unfortunately he seemed to have convinced O’Connell that he was somehow incapable simply because reviving Nefertiri struck him as destined to fail. Imhotep didn’t care to correct the group’s foolish hope. Instead he stepped back, putting more distance between them. “If that is what you believe, then I will complete what I must.” The Hom-Dai curse required he end another life and then he would have full access to all his powers. Then he would follow this group to Karnak and see if they had sacrificed to revive Nefertiri or failed. After that perhaps he would go after the Beast he and Pakhom along with a handful of priests and Medjai had failed to kill.


“M-mum first. We need her to take on the other two.” Alex nodded to himself. This ought to work, it absolutely had to. He just needed to read from the Book of the Dead and revive his mother again. He’d done it once before. How could have been so stupid to have forgotten that. He looked to his father, who had finally turned away from the Mummy to focus on them. “Dad, how can we get to Karnak quickly?” Alex has travelled there by train and his father and Ardeth by dirigible but they needed to get to Karnak quickly to revive his mother. Was there a faster way to get there at all?

[Gardenia-mooN]

"You may be well versed in magic but you don't know Evie and you don't know me. I know we can bring her back and I know she wants to come back. I'm going to save her. I don't know why I thought you would help, you've always been selfish." Rick was absolutely determined and he refused to let what Imhotep said get to him. He should have ignored the other male's presence in the world entirely. It was foolish to think that he would feel some kind of debt to them. Rick just snorted and shook his head, an oddly familiar sense of frustration and disappointment swelled in his belly and he had to close his eyes to ignore it.

"Do whatever you want I don't care about you anymore." Rick's words were icy and he turned back to his child and to Ardeth, the two looked concerned over him but he couldn't seem to understand why. Rick gathered Evie up again and moved closer to the two. Ignoring the mummy completely, the other male wasn't his business anymore, not while his wife was dead. "We can commandeer a plane, I know a couple guys who would give us a lift." Rick always knew a guy or two. His personality always seemed to attract the rough and tumble sort but he didn't mind. All those friends helped him out in a thousand different situations.


Ardeth nodded when Alex spoke and gave the younger male a comforting smile. "It is as you wish, my friend, we shall go to Karnak and save her before we do anything else." He felt relieved when Rick turned around and spoke to them with a bit more normalcy in his tone of voice. "That sounds good, let us go now and get to the airfield." Ardeth liked planes and flight, he found it all to be quite fascinating and in other circumstances he would have been openly eager for another chance to fly. As it was he was grim and determined.

[Cyrce]

“You should not presume to know what the gods will allow.” Were these men all that foolish? Incantations were not to be trifled with. It was his own fault for bringing up Karnak, but if they tried to bring back Nefertiri from the dead there would be consequences. There were always consequences. He had to continually re-enact his curse when he awoke, assimilating the fluids and organs of those arrogant enough to open the chest. Nefertiri may resist revival if she had any sense in her, or perhaps she would return having lost that which made her the woman she had been before the return of her memories.

It was not his responsibility. He wasn’t interested in the O’Connell family, only Pakhom was the important thing in this world. But it was odd to be ignored by the people that had once chased after him so wildly. He glanced at the sand human that he had created. He ought to change him into something smaller and innocuous to follow the O’Connells. They were not his responsibility but he was still a priest of Osiris and if they planned on playing in his God’s realm Imhotep ought to be aware of the level of havoc their actions would cause. If he moulded the sand servant into something that did not seem like it came from him, perhaps these men would keep it close. But what...?

Imhotep’s face darkened when he realized what he could send and made a motion to dissolve the sand. The particles blew out of the window and the door. There was one creature he could think of and he was not fond of them.


Alex relaxed a little and nodded eagerly. His father wasn’t speaking fluently in Ancient Egyptian and he was starting to sound more like his normal brash self. This was his father, with strange friends that were criminals in one way or another. And it sounded like they were about to meet another one of them. “Are we going to see Izzy?” Alex had only really met the pirate with the hot air balloon ship once before, when he’s been rescued from Ahm Shere. From what he’s been told, Izzy had been the one to fly his parents to all of his clues and would already know the way to Karnak. He paused and glanced at the Mummy, tightening his grip on his pistol. “Are we really going to leave him sitting here?” They couldn’t really kill the Mummy before dealing with the beast—the monster was summoned because he knew something about it after all.

[Gardenia-mooN]

"That is a laugh coming from you Imhotep." Rick shot out one last insult, his eyes darkening knowingly. The other male defied the gods time and time again but now he was judging him? He felt like it couldn't get more absurd than that. He took his wife into his arms and turned from Imhotep completely. There was no point in chasing after him if he could do nothing for Evie, there was no point in chasing after the beast too. Rick without Evie, without love in his life, was about as self destructive as one could get. Though he loved his son too the grief of losing his wife was far too strong it overwhelmed his senses completely.

Rick turned to his son and his friend and a fire was in his eyes. He would get Evie back if it was the last thing he had ever done. She was what was real and important in his life, unlike that mysterious figure from his dreams. "Yeah Izzy is out best best, hopefully he's gotten something a bit faster than that balloon ship, we need to get her there as quickly as possible." He spoke with a determined set to his jaw and squeezed her body close as they left the mummy alone. When Alex asked about that Rick just shook his head. "He can't help us and honestly I'd rather not waste my time until we can get your mother back. We can defeat him when she is alive again." Rick believed completely in his wife, he had complete and utter faith in her abilities.


Ardeth observed everything with a serious set to his features, he could see exactly what place Rick was in and knew that the other didn't care about the fate of the world. The other only cared about the fate of his love. It was strange...in many ways the other was so similar to Imhotep, they were both men consumed by love, both willing to destroy for it though Rick was willing to be destroyed and Imhotep was willing to destroy everything. Ardeth worried for Alex as he watched his father grow even more determined. "It will be alright Alex, it does not seem as though Imhotep is searching to destroy the world again so I believe we have time when it comes to him." As he spoke he moved with the other two out of the building and back onto the busy streets.

[Cyrce]

Alex nodded slowly but he didn’t quite trust that Imhotep wasn’t trying to trick them all into thinking he was docile. The Imhotep in his memories had always smiled in a strange indulgent way, hiding his true vileness underneath. He couldn’t kill the Mummy though. He didn’t have the power to defeat him yet though. After Karnak and during the trip there he was going to read through both the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra until he understood and could use the magic that the monster could command so easily.

As they hurried through the streets he glanced back at the home they left. “I think we should have at least brought him with us. To keep an eye on. He could decide to destroy the world now and we won’t be able to stop him.”


What was wrong in imparting warning to those that were attempting to dabble in what he had immersed himself into? Imhotep waited calmly for the three men to take the corpse and leave the room before summoning the sand servant he’d dissolved back into another shape. A shape he actively hated at the moment. He towered over the servant. “Follow after them and be my eyes. Go.” He growled until the small sand shape left, flicking its tail as it left and sat in the chair. Even though that servant was his, that form he’s given to it...he was sure that those men would not think it came from him.

He’d sent a cat after the O’Connells.


The servant hurried through the streets, hurrying after the three men. As it did, reddish-brown fur formed on its sand body. The form it had been given was similar to a caracal, come up a little higher than a grown adult’s knees. The natives of the city started giving it a wide berth, recognizing the form as a carnivorous predator. It didn’t take too long before it butted up against the three men, squeezing between two of them and glancing back at the three.