The pharaoh glared at him. “How dare you. How dare you claim that this presumptuous foreigner is my sister,” Seti steamed.

“She told me-,” Takmet began.

He didn’t get to finish because Seti stormed out of the room.

“Seti! Please don’t do anything rash!” Takmet pursued the flustered pharaoh.

Seti barged into Takmet’s room where he knew Sasaki would be. He walked to Sasaki and as she turned around to face him he raised his arm and struck her, sending her to the floor. She hit the floor joltingly, stopping herself with her hands. Sasaki held her cheek and looked up at the pharaoh, astonished. Her friends were even more surprised by the pharaoh’s move. They knelt around Sasaki, Mandi removing her hand to reveal the red welt on her cheek.

“You’ll be fine,” Mandi said. Then she glared at the pharaoh.

“What the hell was that for?!” Chloe demanded.

Seti didn’t hear them. His eyes remained on Sasaki. “Who are you to claim you are my sister? It’s blasphemy. She is gone.”

Sasaki pushed herself off the floor defiantly, standing up straight and looking into his eyes. “I am you sister.” She rubbed her cheek to cover the stinging. Her heart was aching because Seti didn’t believe her.

“I’ll teach you to speak lies in this palace!” His hand rose to strike her again and he swung it only to find it halted in mid-air. He could move it no farther.

“Still your hand,” Sasaki commanded, determination to make him see the truth on her face. “I am not one of your harem to be struck down at your will. Nor will I stand for it.” The regal woman Takmet had seen before made a brief appearance before melting away to the future girl again. Her speech surprised the pharaoh for a moment.

Takmet entered the room, absorbing the scene. Seti’s hand was held still in the air and Sasaki stood in front of him, her cheek red. Takmet, seeing that Seti’s hand was not going anywhere, walked further into the room. “Are you all right?” he asked Sasaki.

Sasaki’s glare softened when she saw Takmet. “I’m fine,” she answered. “But my brother here just hit me. I guess you told him.”

Takmet looked ashamed. “I had to. He stopped me in the hall and…”

Sasaki shook her head. “Not your fault. You did warn me, after all. I understand.”

Seti could listen no more to these falsities. “Blasphemy! You can’t be my sister. She disappeared almost fifteen years ago. If she were here she’d be seventeen.”

Sasaki looked back at the young pharaoh. “And exactly how old do you think I am?”

“But you said you were from the future,” the pharaoh argued.

“I wasn’t lying. That’s where I grew up, but I was born here.”

“And who in Ra’s name told you that?” Seti sneered.

“Why can’t you just believe her?” Chloe asked defensively. “She’s telling the truth!”

Sasaki held her hand out, signaling Chloe to be quiet. “The mage told me. What more do you need?” Sasaki asked confidently.

Seti was speechless. He had great respect for the old man, and would even believe this from him. It’s not possible…he kept on thinking. He looked at her friends who all nodded.

“You believe her now?” Mandi asked.

Seti turned back to Sasaki, shocked to see the frustration in her eyes gone and a fondness that he had never seen directed towards him.

“I’ll let you go if you promise not to hit me,” Sasaki said.

He nodded silently, but Takmet stood behind him in case his hand flew once more. Mandi also took a position where she could stop him if he decided to try again.

“If you hit her again you’ll have more than Takmet to deal with,” Mandi said menacingly.

Sasaki looked at her, surprised. Mandi was not one to make threats. But in this situation, having been beaten herself, Sasaki figured this struck too close to home for Mandi.

Seti’s hand went down to his side slowly, his mind still trying to process what he had just learned.

Suddenly Rei and Hotep entered the room. “Do you know how long it took us to find out where you went?” Rei asked her brother.

“And do you know how distressed your sister had to sound to get me to came along?” Hotep added. He stared as not a soul made a move to look at the door. Hotep looked back at Rei and shrugged. “I guess we interrupted something very profound,” he said quietly.

Only Takmet seemed to notice the new arrivals. He shook his head. What a pair. He did not worry about Seti any further because he saw the pharaoh was coming to terms with the truth.

The pharaoh looked at Sasaki, at a loss for words. “Kheris?” he asked haltingly. He knew now why he had felt uncomfortable around Sasaki before. His memories of his sister made him uneasy and she had reminded him of her several times. Now he knew why … He couldn’t contain the joy that was welling up in him. His restraints broke down and he hugged Sasaki, tears almost overflowing.

“Kheris?” Hotep said. “That sounds so familiar….. Hey! Wasn’t that the name of the princess?”

Rei smiled as she watched the scene. She could feel everything going back to the way it was supposed to be. Takmet walked toward her and Hotep, leading them out of the room and closing the doors to explain what just happened to his friend and sister. He made sure to stay within the range of the trinket hanging on the wall.

* * *

“Princess?!! I’ll be damned!” Hotep exclaimed.

“Isn’t it funny?” Rei asked, leaning against the wall. “My brother falling for a princess when he thought she was just a foreigner.”

“I never thought she was “just” anything,” Takmet protested.

“Oho!” Hotep smiled. “I never thought you would recover from-,” he shut his mouth, remembering Takmet’s past reactions when he had mentioned Kehsat.

“Kehsat?” Takmet finished. Hotep looked shocked. “I am finally letting her go. I’ll never forget her, but she would want me to move on. So I find myself unable to negate Rei’s teasing any longer.” Takmet smiled.

Hotep put his hand on Takmet’s forehead. “No fever… Are you sure you’re all right?”

Takmet laughed. “I am not sick.” He thought a moment. “But I am in love, which I suppose is almost just as bad, or good. Whichever way you take it.” Hotep looked at Rei who was smiling in pride at Takmet’s words.

“All right already, Hotep! Put it in the history books of my life. ‘He finally admitted he was in love’. Just close your mouth.”

He did. “I still don’t believe it,” he muttered.

* * *

Seti and Sasaki enjoyed some quiet time together, not paying attention to the other girls. They were quietly pretending to do something else. Seti amazingly expressed fifteen years of hidden feelings in one sitting. Sasaki listened and then they talked.

Seti realized something. “Oh, now I know why Takmet was acting so distressed. If I knew you were my sister, he would technically have to be disposed of if he was involved with you.” He paused. “Or I would have to take you for myself.”

“I personally think that is an incredibly disgusting custom,” Sasaki commented.

Seti cringed. “I really wish you had grown up here. These manners don’t suit you.”

Sasaki sighed. “I’m sorry I don’t act properly. I can try if you like.”

“No, that’s fine. Takmet likes you for who you are, not who you should have been.” He paused. “None of this has made it to the people except for word of foreigners. I would hope it stays that way until the appropriate time.”

“So you won’t hurt him?”

“No, of course not. Though I was ready to have you both executed for defaming the name of my sister. Damn my temper.” He rubbed the back of his head in embarassment. “Sorry about hitting you.”

Sasaki rubbed her cheek. The redness was fading slowly, but it still stung. “That’s okay. I bet you’ll never do it again now that you know I can beat you up.” She punched his shoulder playfully.

“Indeed,” Seti answered, getting up. “Well, I must be attending to my kingly duties. Make sure you get some sleep. And eat something in the morning. I noticed you weren’t very enthusiastic about your food.”

“I will,” Sasaki said as she watched him leave. Her friends had all laid down on the bed and looked at her expectantly. She found a spot in between them.

“We’re happy for you, Sasaki,” Ami smiled as Sasaki put her head down on the pillow next to her.

“It’s great that you know who your family is now, even though they are a little bizarre,” Chloe added, grinning.

“Yeah. But I’m confused. Where am I supposed to live? I have family here, but friends in the future. I still don’t know where I belong,” Sasaki said quietly.

“You’ll figure it out,” Mandi encouraged her.

“Thanks. I hope so.”

* * *

Sasaki slept fitfully. The dream about her mother and sister disturbed her peaceful rest.

Her dream took her back to her house where she waited for her mother and sister to return from their shopping trip. The phone rang. Her grandfather lifted her off his lap to answer it. She could hear her father’s shaky voice on the other end of the line. See her grandpa’s blanched features. The car ride to the hospital seemed like an eternity. She didn’t know what was wrong, but she knew it was something serious.

The hospital was quiet, lifeless. She sat hugging her father outside of the Emergency Room. A tall man stood outside the doors to the ER, leaning against the wall. He was grinning, like he had accomplished something. Sasaki studied him.

“Daddy? Who’s that man?” she asked.

The man she was referring to looked up, feeling her eyes on him. His face out of the shadows, she could now see his familiar features. Sekat.

Sasaki woke, startled and breathing heavily. She sat up in bed, going over her dream again. “Sekat,” she said darkly, grasping the sheets in her fist.

Mandi stirred and rolled over. She asked sleepily, “Is everything all right?”

Sasaki looked down at her. “Yeah, just a nightmare,” she whispered.

“What about?” Mandi asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sasaki answered.

“All right then. Good night.” Mandi rolled back over and fell asleep rather quickly.

Sasaki turned the dream over in her head. Sekat. He killed them, she thought angrily. She couldn’t do anything about it now, but tomorrow--tomorrow she planned to have a word with him.

She forced herself to lay back down and try to sleep, but found she could not. She had too much in her heart to even attempt sleep. So she lay there quietly, promising herself she would make him pay.

Sekat, however had been watching her in his room and had seen the realization on her face. Takmet’s trinket had fallen off the wall again and allowed him to watch Sasaki as she slept. He decided to get rid of her right away. He should have done it when he had seen her in the throne room. Sekat cast a relatively harmless spell that caused her to sleep again. One so powerful that she would have extreme difficulty waking from it at all. Sekat used his powers to lift her body off the bed, and he transported it to the pit outside the palace entrance. He did this all though the direction of a mirror that showed him the scene, his magic being strong enough to be effective at such a distance.

The pit next to the palace was hidden, but deep and filled with cobras for the unsuspecting foolish bandit. Death by cobra was generally more painful than death by beheading. Sasaki’s face contorted into an expression of confusion as if she knew what was happening, but couldn’t wake for the spell kept her under its sway.

Sekat was impressed at her resistance, but after this, she wouldn’t be a problem. Even Ra was held in the balance of life or death by the venom of a Cobra. Only when Isis cured him did he continue to live.

He moved Sasaki over the pit then let his magic grip on her fade. She fell to the ground, falling through the thatch and sand that covered the pit and into the mass of serpents at the bottom. They hissed violently at the great weight that had been dropped upon them. They struck.