Chapter 14

Cast of Characters

Bast - Goddess of cats, protection, joy, dance, music, family, and love
Sekhmet - Goddess of fire, war, and dance
Hathor - Goddess of the sky, dance, love, beauty, joy, motherhood, foreign lands, mining, music, and fertility.
Serket - Goddess of scorpions, medicine, magic, and healing venomous stings and bites
Maat - Goddess of Truth and Justice
Tefnut - Goddess of Rain, Air, Moisture, Weather, Dew, Fertility, and Water
Mut - Queen of the goddesses and lady of heaven

Isis - Goddess of health, marriage, and wisdom (wife of Ra)
Ra - God of the Sun, the major god of Egypt

Epaphus - Greek Mythology demi-god - Son of Zeus and Io, and a King of Egypt
Ephus - the man, husband of Bast and all her sisters at present

Brothers of Bast and Sekhmet

Thoth - God of knowledge
Sobek - God of the Nile, the Army, military, fertility and of crocodiles
Anhur - God of war and the sky bearer - Full brother of Bast and Sekhmet
Horus - Ancient God of the sky and kingship
Min - God of fertility
Khonshu - God of the Moon
Apophis - God of Chaos and darkness
Shu - God of the wind and air

Karen - neighbor of Ephus
Tina - Karen’s daughter.
Dr. Quinn Markov - Doctor of ancient Egyptology and Mythology

Quinn turned toward Ephus an almost panicked look on her face. “I can’t put off this meeting; I already have a few times. If they find you here I am sure there will be questions and,” here she indicated herself. “I’m not exactly looking quite like I was.”

Ephus nodded as he stared at Quinn for a moment. Then he seemed to be concentrating extremely hard.

There was a second knock on her front door, “I’ll be there in a moment, just getting dressed!” Quinn said shrugging her shoulders at Ephus. It had been the first thing that she could think of.

Ephus still hadn’t moved, though his right hand was slightly glowing as his forehead furrowed with an unknown effort. “There I think I did it.” Ephus whispered to her.

“Did what?” Quinn asked.

“Go invite your guests in. Everything will be fine, you’ll see. I may not have a handle on all of them or even know what they all are yet but I can control a couple of them.” Ephus told her as he moved off into her kitchen.

Shaking her head as she moved to the front door, a sudden thought came to her. An older man was about to knock again as she pulled the door open.

“Ah! Dr. Markov! We thought you might have absconded again, perhaps to find out more of what you wrote of?” The older man said.

Laughing a moment Quinn swallowed, she’d forgotten that she had revealed quite a few of her findings to the others. Damn it! She as of yet had no real corroborating evidence to actually make a case with! Just what she knew was the truth from what a few of the goddesses and gods had shown her.

“No sir,” She quickly answered the man. “I am still here studying what I have so far. I am afraid a lot of what I said was based on the first item I found.” Now she was sweating bullets when a much older Egyptian man walked out of her kitchen.

Quinn blinked once, and then again, as the older man winked at her. Ephus? How in the hell...? A smirk crossed her features; it wasn’t that hard for him now she guessed. Looking closer she thought, what in the hell did he have in his arms under the sheet?

“Huna hu tabib alhajar!” (Here is the stone doctor) The man said to her in Egyptian!

Though the strange thing was when she answered him in the same language! “Shukraan alhkym. Rja’a kunn hdhra!” (Thank you Hakim. Please be careful!)

Several of her older colleague’s eyes went wide; they knew she spoke some but not this much! “It appears you have been holding out on us,” said another of the older men in the room.

“I am sorry sirs,” she started as she uncovered the stone tablet. Her eyes went wide as she saw it was a detailed account of the long battle between Bast and Sekhmet! The damage it caused and many hints of a great number of people killed during it. “I kept quiet about it ‘til I actually had some of the evidence. I might have a lot of outlandish theories but I always try to back them up.”

Each of the five men and one woman that were her peers in the field nodded. “That has always been true, though this time I am afraid it might take a lot of convincing. It has long been established that the decline of the gods in ancient Egypt was a fact. As to the cause, we all have looked our entire careers for an answer. What you are saying is that you have found out why?” The older woman said with a hint of rude skepticism.

Quinn gave the woman a smirk, then a heated look, “I have more than found out.” Even as she was about to continue another thought hit Quinn as she smiled wider. “This,” Quinn said indicating the tablet in her arms, “is the first of several pieces that I have already confirmed are real.” Carefully she sat the tablet on her table as the other six gathered around.

As she expected at first there were a few scoffs ‘til the case the tablet was in was opened. “Extraordinary!” Several of them started to say. The tablet covered the entire one hundred years of the war from 1177 BC ‘til 1077 BC.

“You say that this has been authenticated? Plus you say that you have more!? My god Dr. Markov! This is a major find! It just might make all of us have to reassess everything we know about the ancient kingdom! We need to study this closer at the university! Under controlled conditions of course, with the permission of the obvious owner of the tablet and you Dr. Markov!” The first older man told her as he bowed to Ephus.

Quinn nodded though she wanted to shout for joy. “Hakim?” She shouted, a moment later causing Ephus as the older Egyptian man to step out again. “Yarghab zumalayiy lidirasat hdha fi aljamieati. Alty min shaniha ‘an takun ealaa ma yuram mae eayilatik? (My colleagues wish to study this at the university. Would that be alright with your family?)

Ephus hid a smile, they had taken the bait. He was glad he’d sent these thoughts to Quinn to prepare her. With a sigh he started, “Balnsbt lk alttabib aleaziz ‘ana la ‘amanie ela alrghm min ‘annani la ‘atamanna marratan ‘ukhraa.” (For you dear doctor I don’t mind though, I do wish it back.)

The older and obvious leader of the group bowed to Ephus then to Quinn. “shukraan alsyd alhakim sanattakhidh rieayatan jayidatan lilghayat min dhlk!” (Thank you Mr. Hakim we will take extremely good care of it!)

Ephus nodded then looked at Quinn with a sly smile as he bowed to her then the others as he made his exit. “I’ll have it there in the morning.” Quinn told all of them. Each shook her hand as they were leaving. Finally the woman was the last to leave.

“I don’t know what is going on though I intend to find out. There has been no record of you traveling to Egypt, I would know. I have quite a lot of friends there also! I do have to admit this does look real, though we will find out if it and YOU are as big a fake as I think you BOTH are! By the way nice Egyptian boyfriend, at least you got THAT right!” With a smug grin the older woman walked out.

It took everything that Quinn had to not slam the door as hard as she could. That self important bitch! She had been riding Quinn’s ass the whole time she’d been at the university. Quinn knew that this discovery was irking the hell out of the woman to no end!

Walking by the mirror near the front door she noticed with a shock that she looked almost her right age. Then again even as she watched her face and body were starting to revert back to the thirty five year old that she was before they had arrived. A smile crossed her face, like to see that bitch try to dismiss that!

A moment later Ephus appeared from the kitchen. “That woman is a true bitch isn’t she?” Ephus asked her. “I could discredit her if you like. She has quite a few skeletons in her closet. I think that might be why she is such an overbearing bitch to others.”