DISCLAIMER: MA is the trademark and property of the people
at DIC studios, or where ever they were thought up^_^ Characters are used
without permission and no copyright infringement is intended. The character
Lyris is property of my friend Mia (Who's let me use her for tons of stuff.
Thanx!)and if you want to use this character, you must ask permission from
her. Kalia is my property, and you cannot use her without permission.
*Author's Note* To fully get the atmosphere of my character,
it might be a good idea if you pictured Kal with a slight Budapesh/Hungarian
accent (Gilian from All my Children. Might help?). No reason, just 'cause
it sounds cool ~_^
***This story takes place shortly my story GOTD. Enjoy!!
1525 bc.
It was beguinning to get cold. Even the warm desert sand
that surrounded them couldn't contain it, the fair chill wafting around
the entire estate. Above the ground, above the houses of the townspeople,
through the twists and turns that the many pyramids made in the red lands,
a huge structure rose above all. Made of stone, and covered with pillars,
marbles and assorted jewels, it was truely the most beautiful building
of them all. But, although the outside seemed majestic and safe, the inside
was less than comforting.
Up in a large room, among one of them at the very top
of the building, a young woman lay stretched on her stomach on a huge bed,
covered with colored linen and expensive pillows. She had her arms crossed
out in front of her, and had her chin resting in the small hole that they
made. She was very pretty, with large, piercing eyes that seemed to pass
right through you, and waving light brown hair that just came up to her
shoulders. But the unhappy and dreaded expression that she had on her face
didn't compliment her features at all. It was almost as if she had just
been destroyed, on the inside...
Footsteps sounded through the large room, but never wavered
the young woman's expression. Through a tall door located on the far side
of the room, another young lady entered, bearing in her hands a small tray
with a steaming bowl on it. She didn't look as exotique as the first girl,
but she well made up for it in elegance. She was dark-skinned, with long
brown, almost black hair flowing down behind her to her waist. She was
wearing an elaborate gold collar, with an unusual pink lapus-lazuli stone
trimming all the way around it. And for clothes, she wore an expensive-looking
pink and purple outfit, with a long cover-up and kilt.
When she walked into the room, she never spoke. She mearly
continued walking over to the distressed other on the large bed, carrying
the tray in her outstretched hands. She strolled all the way over to the
side of the bed where the young ladies head was, and then gently sat down
beside her ont he very edge of the matress. The depressed girl didn't even
look up.
The newcomer set the tray down on the bed to her left,
and picked up the steaming bowl. It had a pleasant smell to it, kind of
like a mixture between a fresh roast and seasoning herbs. She picked it
up carefully, so that none of the contents would be spilled, and turned
to her right, and towards the other young lady.
" Here." She told her, handing the bowl to
her. " Ughabi made it just for you. She know's it's one of your favourites."
She waved it in front of the young ladies face, but her expression never
changed.
The second woman got a concerned look on her face. "
Come on Lyris, you've been like this for days now. You must eat something!"
The girl on the bed never moved, never looked up. If
it wasn't for the rising and the falling of her chest underneath her, you
could have sworn that she wasn't even alive. " I'm not hungry."
She sighed greatly. How could she possibly get her friend
out of a pit of depression when she wouldn't even talk to he about what
was troubling her. " Lyris," She began, setting the bowl back
on it's perch on the small tray. " You cannot spend the rest of your
life trapped in your room with the draped drawn." She stood up quickly,
making the bed shake slightly when she did. " They are gone. Nothing
you can do will be able to change that."
" I should have been there to help." The second
time that she had spoken since her friend had entered. Her voice was shallow,
nearly heartbreaking to listen to.
" But you couldn't have." She told her, kneeling
before her. " No better than the Pharaoh, or any of his soldiers could
have. Scarab commited the worst crime possible, but he payed for it. Let's
bury the dead, alright? And get on with our lives?"
The younger woman looked forewards with a dead icy stare.
The other looked back at her with the same one, but with a little more
compassion in it.
" You don't know what it's like." Lyris stated,
getting up quickly and sitting on her feet underneath her. " You have
no idea what it feels like to fail the people that you love the most! Who'd
you give your life for if you had the chance!"
" If you'd been there, you would have died, just
like the others!" Her friend stood up to her full hight, hightened
by the tall sandals that she wore. " And then where would you have
been Lyris? It wouldn't have saved the prince, and it wouldn't have saved
the princess." She knew that deep down inside, she was hurting her,
but it was the only way to bring her out of a shame-spiral. This she knew
of all too well.
" At least I would not have had to see the pain
and suffering that that snake cause everyone!" She yelled, getting
up off of her feet, and crawling off the bed. " At least then, I'd
be..."
" Dead?" She interrupted, walking around to
the foot of the bed, where Lyris was just beguinning to get off of it.
" I would not have to feel regret for my actions."
She finished, getting up off of the bed, and standing up. She turned away
from the other, trying to put a barrier over herself, so that all the torment
that she felt inside, could not be seen on the outside.
" But you..."
" Have you ever felt empty Kalia?" She younger
woman turned around sharply to face her friend. " Have you ever felt
that life was just not worth living? Like you just wanted to crawl in a
hole and die?"
She grinded her teeth with unwanted anticipation. "
Well I... yes, but... not as serious as this."
Lyris gave her one last look, before she turned around
and headed out the doorway. It was a look unlike anything she'd seen before,
a mixing of power and weakness. She was trying to make it look like she
was alright, but on the inside, she was no more. The Lyris she knew was
gone.
" Then you couldn't possibly know how I feel."
Kalia watched absently as she left the room, making a
sharp turn right, towards the throne room and studys. She had never felt
as bad as she had then. It was one thing to tell someone the truth, but
it was another to do so and destroy them in the process, but it had to
be said. Now, only time could tell what would happen next.
She knew it, that she had sent her friend to an unwelcomed
fate. She would never see her alive again.
{***}
Over the top of the glass dome covering it's roof, a
solitary figure loomed overhead. Looking through the glass and into the
large clearing below him, he could see the faint blue-steel tiles which
lined the floors of this well-known museum.
A movement behind him brought him back to the present,
as he quickly glanced over at it. Not as an act of fear, but more of an
act of pure annoyance. When he did look over to his right, a dark, terroring
serpentine face peered back at him.
" I still think that this's a bad idea." Came
a gritty feminine voice from the snake.
" You worry too much you overactive paper weight."
He replied, a voice that was not only gruff, but also had a twinge of hell
which would make you want to cringe.
" You've done this before Scarab." The serpent
pulled herself a little higher in the man's grip. Not really a man anymore
actually. He was donned in an unusual armor, dark purple and fearful, in
the shape of the ancient desert beetle from which he aquired his name.
" Remember? Arakh and his son? And a new fifth mummy that you now
have to deal with."
" Shut up!" He exclaimed, giving her an evil
stare. " Or perhaps I will use you to break the glass!" He held
out his left arm menacingly, watching happily as a bright red glow began
to illuminate from it. With a blast faster than the speed of sound, the
glow exploded into the glass, only instead of shattering which you may
have thought it would have done, it more or less melted a large hole in
the large glass dome.
" Alright, but if you get yourself into more trouble
by bringing another mummy into this realm, don't come crawling to me."
She stated as the sorcerer gripped her body even tighter, and with the
help of a pair of small wings connected to his back, flew into the large
hole, with a certain purpose in mind.
The inside wasn't lit, more to the point, it was practically
pitch black. But from thousands of years of being in the dark himself,
the ancient visier knew where he was going, and why. The bug armored man
was headed right for the Egyptian wing of the museum.
" So, you've said that you are going to be bringing
back another one of your lackies." Heka finally announced after minues
of silence. " But you never said who. Would I know them?"
" Probably not." Scarab answered shortly. "
He wasn't Egyptian. He was an... old friend from Nubia. After my... ahem,
punishment was carried out by Amenhotep, he led a rebellion against the
king, and destroyed his dynasty." A large menacing grin spread across
his face. " What more could you want in an ally?"
The golden cobra cocked her head at her master. "
True, but what makes you think that he's here, in this exact museum in
this exact city?"
" Just like the last time there was a mummy exibit,
philanthropist Harris Stone has funded the entire exibit to be brought
over from the Royal History museum in England." He held out his left
hand again, the red glow pertruding from his taloned fingers once more,
directed exactly at a large wooden door in front of the pair. It exploded
again, sending chips and bolts flying every which way.
After the smoke cleared, he continued telling his co-hort
about what he had in mind. " He died in the battle, of course, but
afterwards, the new Pharaoh had all those who were killed in the war mummified
and buried in one single tomb in the Valley of the Kings."
" But how did they last all this time? Surely there
must have been grave robbers after all of those people." Heka exclaimed
matter-of-factly. " I thought that the only tomb that was never broken
into was Tut's..."
" There were grave robbers, but the new Pharaoh
was very smart. He buried them all under the floor of the tomb, only leaving
a few trinkets for the robbers to take away." The egyptian exibit
was now right infront of them, making the sorcerer's excitement rise considerably.
" Soon, I will have my old friend by my side, and together, we will
crush the mummies, and I shall recieve my immortality."
" Talk about setting your career goals high."
Heka exclaimed as the old man pulled her into the wing of the museum which
held various pottery, frescoes and mummiform coffins. He stopped right
at the foot of the huge glass case which contained three of these such
coffins. Two of them were tall, the center one was slightly shorter. The
gold coffin on the left was the largest one of all, with the colors of
dark red and black woven neatly into a coffin with the features of a bull
on it. The one beside it, the shorter one, was much more brighter and cheerful,
with the head of a gazelle on the top of it, and laid with dark pink and
purple stones. And to the right of them both, was just a plain mummiform
coffin, no animal head on it whatsoever, just the face of a human with
brown layering over different features.
Scarab pointed over to the one on the far left. "
That one must be his." He exclaimed. If the serpent hadn't known better,
she would have sworn that her master was actually happy about something.
" So? You can't do anything now." She reminded
him, slithering through his clawed fingers. " You can't raise the
dead, you have to have Anubis and Set to do that."
" Dear dear Heka. Don't you ever learn?" He
asked sarcastically. Leaning over to his right, he looked into a small
pouch that he had brought along with him to the museum. Reaching inside,
he brought out a small device, but the cobra couldn't see it, because of
the sorcerer's large talons. But when he showed it to her, she got the
hint right away.
" A tape recorder? You still have the recording
of Set and Anubis's voices on the tape recorder!" She leaned over
to his face, looking at him with a fearful grin. " That was almost...
brilliant."
The bettle-clad man dropped the mouthy snake staff on
the floor with a loud "clump". He walked over to the glass case
surrounding the three gold coffins, and placed the tape recorder ever so
carefully on the floor in front of the bull sarcophagus. He then backed
away slowly.
" Come Heka, let us leave." he told her, picking
up the dazed snake from off of the cold tile floor.
She looked at him baffled. " What? But you haven't
woken up... whoever you were going to wake up yet!"
" I cannot stay here any longer." He told her,
walking back towards the busted wooden doors. " You know how it works,
I just about achieve my goals, and then those bothersome mummies come and
ruin them all." He got a large frown on his wrinking features. "
Well, not this time, this is far too important. So I've changed our plans.
When Kelhus awakes, the recording of the god's voices will stop, and my
voice will come on, telling him who has brought him back, and where to
go to find me."
" And you really think that this's going to work?"
She stated with an unsure look.
" Of course it will work." He told her. "
It's fool proof, all he has to do is follow my instructions. And he will,
after all, I was and still am his superior." The sorcerer led them
both out of the Egyptian wing, and towards the large circular hole still
in the glass dome in the lobby of the expensive building.
The tape recorder, still sitting on the cold floor, began
to switch on, a small red button shining through the darkness. The auto-play
button of the machine switched itself down, and the two voices of the gods
began to echoe through the Egyptian annex.
Slowly, a small glow began to pertrude from the glass
case, more like a fog than a light, but just as bright. It wafted around
all three coffins, but especially around the center one. Why it wasn't
happening to the one on the left, like the sorcerer had planned it to wasn't
clear, but that one still remained slightly dark and dead, unlike the one
beside it.
The middle one began to glow brighter, and brighter,
as a bright yellow light began to stream from the small cracks inlayed
into the golden sarcophagus. Brighter and brighter until...
*BANG!* An explosion that sounded like a firecracker
errupted from the coffin, sending the glass case front into a million pieces
over the floor. The sarcophagus door flew open, sending a dark figure out
into the new bright light, sprawling on the blue tile and glass-covered
floor. The light from within the coffin flickered slightly, and then died,
leaving the room as tranquil as it had been before the sorcerer had entered.
The human form, layed unhappily across the floor didn't
move for quite some time, maybe from shock, maybe from something else.
Finally, after minutes of dead silence (excuse the pun), the figure moved
slightly, a small groan escaping it. The form slowly began to rise to it's
feet, as glass shifted and cracked underneath them, and when they did finally
get up to full height, the figure seemed woozy, and off balanced.
They moved their head around from side to side cautiosly,
as if to see someone there watching. They began to walk around slowly,
mainly just trying to get it's bearings and footings right. They moved
over towards the tape recorder, which was still playing.
The two voices on the tape suddenly stopped, and the
recorder passed nothing but blank tape out to the room. Suddenly, a familiar
voice began to rant on the cassette. A voice that they hadn't heard in
years. It was an old, gruff voice, but there was something else there that
made their skin crawl.
" I welcome you to this new world Kelhus, and to
all the glory that will be ours once you come and join me..." The
figure loomed over the recorder, not knowing where the voice was coming
from. It almost sounded like there was someone trapped in the small box.
" It is me, your confidante and superior Lord Scarab..."
" Scarab." The figure echoed, a smooth feminine
voice escaping the dark form. The name brought back a series of emotions,
from utter annoyance to intense, painful breakdown. It had been him who
had destroyed her friend's lives. It was him who had destroyed her...
" Scarab!" She shouted, pulling a long, slender
leg up, and then sending it back down with lightening speed, her foot connecting
with the small tape recorder. The tape inside splintered, sending yards
of tape flying out of the machine. The voice had stopped, that was the
important thing.
She inhaled greatly, as if she was going to faint, then
sank to her knees weakly. She sat on her feet, the action bringing back
memories which she would have rather forgotten, and held her clenched hands
up to her two cold temples, trying to make the fury which was burning inside
of her stop. If it didn't seem so difficult, she would have probably began
to cry.
" You did this to me." She whispered, over
her quick wisps of air passing in through her mouth. " You did this
to them. I will make you pay if I have to search the world and tear out
your cold heart myself..."
