Chapter Five: Explanations

***8 months earlier***

Anck-su-namun was a strong woman. She did not fall, or stumble, or gasp aloud. She blinked and stared at him, shocked.

“Three thousand years has passed since I was alive?”

Imhotep nodded slowly. This was not easy news to take. In three thousand years empires rose and fell, populations moved and migrated, plants and animals and forests became extinct as the world changed and humans pressed forward, trampling nature in their drive to expand.

“And Egypt...the Upper and Lower kingdoms...” she whispered. She looked up at him, her eyes wet with unshed tears and failing hope. “They are still...” She trailed off, looking at his troubled face, waiting for an explanation.

“The Egypt that you and I knew, is...” he stopped.

She turned to him, anger and frustration showing on her face. “Are you telling me that everything we ever knew and everyone we ever loved is gone forever?”

“The Ancient Dynasties of Egypt are long over, yes,” he said. He did not know what to do but give her time to adjust.

She stared at him, disbelieving. Her entire world was gone.

“And this new world?” she asked helplessly.

“It is a very different world. They...” Imhotep hesitated. “They no longer believe in the old Gods.”

She turned and walked, pacing the room, the information trying to make sense in her mind.

“And the Pharaohs, the Med Jai, none of it remains?” She asked, pleading with him.

“The system of Pharaohs has been gone for centuries. The Med Jai, however, still exist.”

“The Med Jai remain,” she said, scowling, her ancient memories resurfacing, stronger than her relief at the information that something familiar still existed. She paused, struck with a thought, turning towards him. “If there are no Pharaohs, then who do the Med Jai serve?”

Imhotep was silent. “It is complicated,” he said finally, avoiding her question.

She turned and began pacing again, trying to decipher this new information, struggling to understand a concept no human can fully comprehend: the passage of time, the vast shifts and patterns of peoples.

Imhotep watched her walk, her body tense and rigid. He had been expecting this reaction rationally, but somehow he thought that seeing him and remembering their love would be enough to overcome her fear. But she looked desperate, like a trapped animal.

They stood apart, distant, each involved in their own thoughts. Imhotep waited for her to say how she still loved him, how thankful she was that he brought her to life. But there was nothing, only shock and anger. His love for her had survived millenia. Could she possibly be rejecting him, after all that he had sacrificed for her? He shook with inner terror and despair.

“How can this be?” she asked him, looking up suddenly. She held her hands out helplessly, as though she had just watched three thousand years pass by before her eyes in a heartbeat, while she stood still, rooted to the ground.

“Times change, my love,” Imhotep said bitterly, not understanding her.

And for a moment, they looked at each other almost like enemies.

But the moment passed, and suddenly Anck-su-namun threw herself into his arms. “Oh God, Imhotep,” she sobbed, taking comfort in his embrace. “I have never stopped loving you, I will live anywhere in the world at any time to be with you...” she whispered it into his chest as tears dampened her soft skin.

The dam of Imhotep’s feelings broke, and the anger and fear seeped from him, until all he knew was her soft body pressed against his and the joy of holding her again. Could it not always be like this, soft and lovely and the two of them? God, he loved her. She could destroy him with a look.

“And I have loved you too, more than anything,” Imhotep whispered into her hair.

They held each other, all the terror melting away. In each others arms, they could be happy anywhere.

After a long time, they parted, Anck-su-namun wiping her eyes, and they went to sit together on the stone bench. Holding her small hands in his, Imhotep gazed into her eyes.

“There is something I must know,” she began. She hesitated, even at his nod of encouragement. “You used your powers as Priest of the Dead to bring me to life?” she asked, turning to him.

He nodded.

“But how is it that you are still alive, three thousand years after your birth?”

This was the moment Imhotep had been dreading. “Because I am not mortal any longer. I am...something else.” He could not utter the words.

She stared at him, confused and uncertain, an idea taking form in her mind. She grasped his hands tightly in her own, looking into his eyes.

“What exactly happened that night, after I died?”

Imhotep sighed. He loved her and could not keep this from her. And a part of him was desperate to share his story of terror and horror, to feel her love and compassion.

And so he explained what happened, the ancient tale taking new life as the memories flooded back to him. He told her how his Priests had pushed him from the room just before Seti’s bodyguards rushed in, and that the Med Jai guards blamed her for Seti’s murder. He told how Nefertiri was hysterical, ranting and screaming and claiming that she had seen Imhotep help murder her father.

Imhotep still remembered her haunting, desperate cry, “I saw him, the High Priest, in Anck-su-namun’s rooms! The man my father loved, the man my father trusted above all, and the woman he loved and would make his wife cut him down, hacked at his body, reveled in his blood! They murdered my father, treasonous killers...” And how the Med Jai had to hold her down, thought her gone mad with grief. She almost gave them away. Every second Imhotep was afraid the Med Jai would come running in, ready to murder him as he prepared both Anck’s and Seti’s bodies for burial, and her dead body for rebirth.

Thankfully, his standing was so high, and the proper preparing of bodies such a sacred task, that the Med Jai let him complete his work. Late that night, he stole her body from the crypt and, along with his Priests, raced to Hamanuptra.

“We had almost resurrected you,” he said mournfully. “But Seti’s bodyguards raced in, finally believing the screaming Princess. I saw you, for one blessed moment you came back, your face opened, you smiled, but then you were gone, your soul returning to the West, your body limp and cold.”

And pressing herself against him, Anck-su-namun moaned in pain, living and feeling every horrifying moment with him.

“But that was not all. My Priests were punished for following me–mummified alive.” Imhotep clutched her hand tightly. “I cannot describe the agony it is to see your faithful servants, your companions in life and death, suffer such horrors.”

Anck-su-namun wept, understanding the torture of mummification and understanding his pain at their deaths.

“But,” Imhotep began, shuddering, “my punishment had just begun.”

Wiping away bitter tears, she looked at him, her eyes widening as she understood the implications of that statement. “What did they do to you?” she whispered.

“For murdering my king, the Med Jai inflicted upon me the worst curse, the most ancient and horrible torture that was known to exist.”

She stared at him, breathless.

He turned sorrowful eyes on her, the anguish he suffered coming back to him, the memories pouring down his back like iced water. He whispered it. “The Hom Dai.”

“No,” she murmured, shaking her head. “No, they couldn’t have, it exists only in legend, it has never been done before–” she stopped, staring at him. “No,” she said again, looking at him. “No!” she screamed, jumping up, swinging her arms in fury into the air.

He stood, moving to her, wrapping her in his arms as she cried out and writhed in her own personal agony. “Oh, Gods!” she wailed, clutching at him. “You did it for me, you risked everything for me, and look what has happened, what has become of you–” she couldn’t speak any more, mumbling incoherent words of suffering to herself.

His eyes welled with tears and repressed memories as he held her close.

Suddenly she broke away from him, her chest heaving, wiping her hand gropingly across her face. “Is it true, what they say will happen? The scarabs, and the pain and torture and fire?”

Imhotep could only nod, images, memories returning of scuttling scarabs clicking ominously against the white linen wrappings, searching for an opening into his warm flesh...

She gulped, her chest rising and falling heavily, her face tear-stained and wretched. They stood apart for a few moments, staring at each other, emotionally exhausted. Finally, after endless moments of silence, Anck-su-namun spoke.

“And is it true what they say, that you emerge a living Creature, a plague upon the earth with power over the waters and the sands, who will exist for millenia...?”

Imhotep stood straight and looked her in the eye. “I am the Creature. And I have risen you from the dead, as I promised to do three thousand years ago. We are completing the cycle and fulfilling our destiny. We will rule the world.”

***

Anck-su-namun was beyond shock. So much had happened. Things that, in her first life, she would have deemed impossible. And they had all been thrown at her in less than an hour.

Gods, she loved him, but as she looked into his dark bottomless eyes she felt slightly uneasy, an emotion she wished she did not have. The man she loved was not only not mortal, he was a living plague, a curse the Med Jai had sworn to control. But as the memories of their tender love came back to her, her uneasiness faded, ebbing away. She loved Imhotep passionately, completely, and she would do anything for him and go anywhere with him. She knew him, inside and out, and her faith in him allowed her to banish all other thoughts from her mind. He had suffered more than any man should suffer in a thousand lives, because of their love. She literally owed him her life. She swore to herself that, in this lifetime upon the earth, she would prevent his suffering and make him happy.

***

That long night, they sat together. They simply held each other, sharing memories, alternately weeping and laughing.

As the night advanced, Imhotep tried to explain what the new world was like. But there were no words in the ancient tongue for airplane or car or election or democracy, and the language become thick and heavy in his mouth. Imhotep was unable to explain the new world in a way that she could understand, feeling inexplicable frustration as Anck-su-namun shook her head in confusion and disbelief. Just as she could not comprehend the idea of a steel bird carrying people, flying through the sky, she could not comprehend the idea of a Constitution, of a free people voting and choosing their leaders. This suddenly dawned on Imhotep, as he realized just how completely the structure of the world had changed.

Even in the past, all she had known was Thebes. She had never been outside the city, although she knew more of Egypt existed. She knew of the Nile, and the Sea beyond, and the deserts stretching to the West and South. For all that she knew, the entire world was the size of a small African country.

Imhotep stopped explaining, instinctively understanding that she could never completely comprehend what three thousand years had done to the world she knew.

She looked at him helplessly. Her voice was cracked and strained. “Imhotep, I’m sorry...try again. It does not make sense. I–” she cut herself off, looking past him, struggling with her words. “I just do not understand how a cart can move without the animals to pull it, how this is not magic...and I do not understand about this ‘new country,’ that was recently discovered...how can this huge powerful country just be discovered?” She leaned forward and grasped his arms. “Imhotep, help me...” she pleaded.

It was nearing dawn, and the two looked at each other, the air between them crackling with frustration and confusion and helplessness.

“I don’t think, I mean, I don’t know–” she looked down, a single tear sliding gently down her cheek. “I don’t think that I can live in this new world.” The admission came painfully, her throat tight and burning with repressed emotion.

Imhotep tenderly brushed her tear away. He could not bear to see her upset and distressed, and that he was the cause of it was almost unbearable.

He pulled her towards him and reached a hand up to her face. It was time to tell her of the destiny that they would fulfill together. “You asked me if everything we knew was gone forever,” Imhotep said slowly. “Well, it was gone, but perhaps not forever. We can bring it back.”

She looked at him, uncertain.

“It is my time to rule. The time of the Pharaohs was over, but a new Egypt can be born. I have suffered enough, and it is time for us to fulfill our destiny.”

She shook her head, not understanding him. He lifted her chin up, probing her eyes with his own. “History repeats in cycles, does it not?”

She nodded, the basic lesson known to all in ancient times.

“The Gods have created and resurrected me to complete the cycle. I am here to bring Egypt to glory once again, to bring back the greatness of times past. We shall rule a new Egypt–a new world.”

Anck-su-namun did not know what to say, but she trusted him completely. He had risen her from the dead and sacrificed eternal fulfillment for her love. “Do you know that this is what the Gods desire?”

“They created me and allowed me to rise. They bestowed immense powers upon me. I have desired for so long the chance to be with you, once again, in life. Our prayed are granted, my love.”

She gazed at him earnestly, her despair slowly being replaced with en emotion that warmed his heart. Hope. “Amun-Ra is granting us life?” she asked.

“We have suffered. But the Gods are merciful,” he replied gently.

“And you can truly bring back Ancient times?” she asked, wonder and joy shining through her beautiful face.

“My powers are much greater than those of the mightiest modern armies,” he told her. “These people have defiled the old Gods. They do not realize that the power of Amun-Ra is absolute. Their weak, modern Gods are powerless and meaningless. We must show the people the old ways, the path to the true Gods.” He paused. “I will create Egypt, making the new the old, merging past and present.”

Anck-su-namun squeezed his hands, unable to speak in her emotion. Her eyes were wet, her voice full of regret and hope and guilt. “You have done so much for me, my love.”

Imhotep gathered her in his arms and crushed her to his broad chest. “I promise you,” he whispered into her hair. “I would do anything for our love. For you I will recreate Egypt as it was three thousand years ago.”

She embraced him tightly, then drew back slightly to look into his eyes. “You shall be Pharaoh,” she said in disbelief, a smile flowering on her face. “And we will live as we should have lived, free and loving. And I shall rule by your side as your Queen.”

Imhotep laughed, joy suffusing his face. “It will be easy. I have such powers that no human can match me. We shall rule the new Egypt in the names of the true Gods.”

Anck-su-namun caressed his face. “May the world soon be only Egypt, our true home and rightful ruling place.”

He leaned forward, their lips meeting. The kiss soon deepened, became passionate, bruising, as their hungry lips sought the comfort the other offered. Welling inside each of them was hope for the future, the promise of a long life together. The lifetime together that they had been denied by the Gods.

Imhotep had been resurrected twice before and had both times been defeated by the O’Connells and the Med Jai, a fearsome combination. This time, he would not fail. He deserved happiness and fulfillment after three millenia in torture. He deserved the happiness that had been denied him, the happiness of life in Ancient times with Anck-su-namun by his side.

He knew, instinctively, that she would shrink and become helpless in the modern world. He vowed never to let that happen. He vowed never to let her see how much the world had indeed changed.

And Imhotep truly believed that this was his chance. The Gods were merciful, and were allowing him an opportunity to be with his love once again. He would be a fool not to take it. And, in the process of fulfilling his destiny, he would be a fool not to take his revenge.

Perhaps, he pondered, the Hom Dai had been part of the Gods plan. Without it, Imhotep would not have the amazing powers he did, would not have the power to conquer the world.

When he had woken up, he had been lying on a stone slab in Hamanuptra, with the Book of the Living by his side. He had no idea how he had been awoken. But how did the Gold Book end up by his side? The Gold Book had the power to take life away. If Imhotep had it, he could not be defeated, for no one could make him mortal. It seemed a divine sign, a message from Amun-Ra. Imhotep had desired redemption and grace for so long, and he was finally being granted his one wish.

The kiss finally broke, both consumed with their passion and need. They continued to hold each other, still overwhelmed by what had happened and what they would accomplish together. Imhotep could hardly believe that earthly happiness could finally be his.

Suddenly Imhotep smiled, pulling away slightly. “I have one last present for you, my Queen,” he said, his eyes slightly mocking. “I know where Nefertiri is.”

A slow, ironical smile spread across Anck-su-namun’s face. “You mean Nefertiri reborn?”

“Yes. In this life she is married to a reincarnated Med Jai.”

Anck-su-namun laughed. “How perfect.” Her smile faded to a bitter twist of her lips. “I died because Seti’s Med Jai stormed the room and there was nowhere to go. But I was dying long before that.”

Her eyes glistened with the pain of ancient memories. “Seti and Nefertiri took my freedom and watched me die slowly, shrinking under the weight of their power.” She shook with anger. “And now I learn that she was the one who gave you away to the Med Jai, who prevented my rebirth and forced the most evil of all ancient curses on your soul.” She stood, her small fists gripped tightly together, her face hard and cold. “In ruling the world, the Gods are giving us our chance for redemption. We were revenged on Seti when he died by our hands, but Nefertiri escaped. In this life, she will pay.”

***