#devisor gaines

It had been a rough few days’ travel. The small group hadn’t truly stopped at any point since their ride across the desert had begun, leading to an uncomfortable experience. Though the mood hadn’t fully dampened, it was perhaps a little subdued from the tiredness that came with unceasing travel. Still, even with comfort waning and facing the potential of another day of non-stop progress through the beating sun, Capsize found herself more in anticipation than ever before.

They were getting close now. That had been confirmed to her now thrice over.

The first was merely a feeling in her bones. It was hard for her to properly define, as if the city itself was tugging her towards it, its hold getting stronger as she got ever closer. Of course, she knew this in reality to be little more than her own excitement getting the better of her logical thoughts. Her other confirmations, though, were more based in reality.

One was her study of the map. It had been brief, not nearly enough to formulate a route to the city by herself, especially with the damage it had sustained in the museum. However, she had been able to figure out an estimate of how long their journey should take prior to its destruction. Undoubtedly, it was a rough estimate as she wasn’t precisely familiar enough with this sort of travel to properly calculate beyond a guess. That and the unexpected shift in their travel plans had ruined the only bit of certainty that original guess had had. However, if she took into account that they had travelled through the nights as well as through the days, they were coming up on even her longest of travel estimates.

The final, and the most reassuring of her confirmations, were the confident words of Miss Foxx that they would be arriving today. That really ought to be the only confirmation she needed. Though a mere few days ago, she would’ve been hard-pressed to trust the woman’s words alone, she now saw no reason to doubt her. It had become quite undeniable that Foxx was dependable in a way that she just wasn’t quite used to.

Truthfully, Capsize wasn’t used to anyone taking her seriously. The great majority of people saw her as… well, not worth listening to. They’d nod along for the first few sentences before either speaking over her or making clear in some other way that they really had no care for her opinion. Foxx, however, hadn’t done that.

They had argued a few brief times. However, in none of those bickering sessions did Capsize feel as though the soldier was dismissing her. Yes, she was a touch condescending at times for Capsize’s taste, but she did appear to actually listen to what she said.

At the trading post, she seemed to listen. When she’d questioned her about the tools they’d lost, she had apparently listened to every word of her explanation. Even when it had turned to a ramble, Foxx hadn’t cut through her and told her to get to the point. Admittedly, that was a ridiculously low bar, but it was one that shockingly few of the people she’d met cleared.

In general, there was a certain side to Foxx that Capsize hadn’t expected there to be but found herself curiously wishing to know everything about. An unexpected genuineness that was wholly unfitting of the prisoner they had first encountered. One that, despite everything, made Capsize feel safe with her life being protected by the woman.

They had chatted a number of times throughout the multi-day ride. At first, Capsize had been hesitant to. Distracting their guide seemed rather a silly idea to alleviate boredom so she had held off, really only talking with Red or relying on her own thoughts to distract herself during the stretching days. However, on their second day through the desert, Foxx had been the one to begin talking with her.

Their conversations had been pleasant. Foxx seemed to hold a great deal of curiosity despite her showing what Capsize had read as dismissal back on the ship. She asked Capsize of history and archaeology, allowing her to ramble on, only interrupting when she had further questions on the topic. She had seemed to listen to every word as Capsize spoke, her heart beating in her chest.

In turn, Capsize had asked after Foxx’s knowledge. On how she could traverse through the desert so confidently; on her guns. The latter had gotten a raised eyebrow, as if it was the last thing she thought the scholar would be interested in. Truthfully though, she did hold some fascination with the weapons. Despite her initial questioning, Foxx had given her a basic run down on her personal arsenal, promising a more in-depth explanation once they had arrived and could take a real look at them.

They had only very briefly discussed themselves. Though Capsize did admittedly hold a great deal of questions about their guide, Foxx seemed reluctant to talk about herself which in turn made her reluctant to ask about her companion. Still, that hesitance hadn’t stopped her completely. She had worked up the nerve to ask a few questions that she had received answers to.

Foxx was an American – or rather a Canadian, though Capsize didn’t quite understand the distinction. She had spent her early childhood in her birthplace before her life had been packed up and moved to Egypt. Precisely why she hadn’t said and there were so many reasons that she could’ve that Capsize didn’t think it practical to try and assume.

Between her teenage years and adulthood, she had apparently visited quite a number of countries before ending up back in Egypt for her trip to Hamunaptra. She was frightfully short on details but Capsize didn’t push. There was satisfaction enough in learning these little pieces.

Sonja too found herself curious about the woman she was guiding. She couldn’t precisely bring herself to ask all the questions she wished to. It wouldn’t feel fair to when she was being so evasive when talking about herself. Still, she found herself completely intrigued by this woman who had so suddenly come into her life.

A woman born in Egypt, proud of being so. She had apparently left for her education, which she seemed rather annoyed about. Sonja thought that odd as the woman clearly wished to travel more, asking after details of all the places Sonja had experienced. Her curiosity seemed all consuming which in turn created such a number of questions in her own head.

Frankly, she didn’t understand Capsize. A girl like her should be living the high life, relaxing in some fancy house without a care in the world. Yet instead, here she was trekking towards a city only sought out by desperate fools. It didn’t make a lick of sense to Sonja, but it did absolutely intrigue her.

The girl was absolutely her best company at present. Though, considering her competition, that was some damn faint praise. At best, she could call the two men present annoying. The worst? Well, that depended on the precise moment she was asked. Right now, as the two had been bickering since the moment they had woken, she rather wished she could be rid of the both of them.

“And you snore!” Redbeard added with the petulance of a child. He had rather made a hobby of picking at the warden over the past few days as a way of both entertaining himself and somewhat venting his many frustrations towards the man.

It wasn’t that Sonja was unsympathetic to his reasoning. She also wished to grant Alister every possible annoyance as the man was about as pleasant as a stone in her shoe. However, she was also stuck listening to their childish arguments which left her wishing to throttle the ginger man just as much as the one he was arguing with.

“I do not snore!”

“All night you snore! Loud enough to wake the dead!”

For hours they’d been at it, Sonja’s annoyance only compounded from the days they’d been at it before. Never did she think that the worst part of returning to Hamunaptra would be the journey to the city, but damn if the world wasn’t testing her.

Next to her, Capsize was simply rolling her eyes at her brother’s nonsense. She, Sonja supposed, was very much used to his behaviour and therefore also used to tuning it out. Sonja very much wished she had that skill. Hopefully, whatever dig they were doing would allow her some distance from the men. With so few hands that felt like a pipe dream, but one that would keep her sane for the moment, so she allowed herself to have it.

The familiarity of the ridges around them began to be undeniable, setting a dread in her bones. A dread she made herself ignore as she looked to the woman riding beside her with a ghost of a smile.

“We’re nearly there,” She said, her voice jostling Capsize from the thoughts she had been lost in. Pretty brown eyes looked towards her, blinking a few too many times as she brought herself back into reality.

Despite everything, she couldn’t quite believe those words.

“Really? You’re sure?” She asked.

Those words could’ve offended Sonja had she thought the woman to be doubtful, but her tone betrayed that that was not the sort of question this was. This was anticipation, plain and simple. Excitement that one struggled to ever fully believe, though from the smirk already pulling at the corners of her lips, she clearly did regardless. How could Sonja be in any way mad at this sight?

So instead, she kept her smile.

“Yeah, I’m—”

“Morning, Sonja!” A loud voice cut through the air. From around a far dune, an absolute crowd of people were riding into view. The yell had come from the one leading them, a voice that Sonja recognised but had hoped she’d have at least a few more days before having to hear again.

There came Tucker, leading the foreign crew of adventurers. He rode ahead on a camel, the only one of the group to be riding the desert mount with those following him on the horses rescued from the boat. She wondered if the man remembered the pains of this journey last time and refused to ride a horse even if those he was guiding refused to listen to his advice. Or maybe, given how he had shown off about his possession of all the animals, he had simply been the last of his group to be able to pick a mount and been stuck with what was left.

The four treasure hunters rode behind him. They, in turn, were followed by around fifteen others. Mostly locals from Sonja’s once over, though the real linking factor seemed to be that all were down on their luck.

They all had that look to them, an exhaustion held by labourers who had little choice but to accept work when the offer was presented to them. In this case, they’d clearly been quickly employed so their employers wouldn’t need to get their own hands dirty. Or maybe they were simply exhausted from the multi-day long ride they had to have surely taken to arrive at the same time as her own little group.

Sonja kicked herself for not thinking that Tucker would’ve taken the same approach as herself. She thought his fear of the place might’ve slowed him down a bit, but it seemed the promise of riches was stronger than his cowardice. Or maybe his fear of those he was leading overweighed his fear of the city. Though, given the looks of them, she sincerely doubted that idea.

Still, she couldn’t exactly disappear the lot. They were stuck with around the same arrival time, but at least that lot hadn’t arrived first. That was the thought she allowed herself to hold, using it to stop any real frustrations from growing as they came to a stop next to each other.

The only greeting she gave Tucker was a curt nod that gave the man none of the annoyance he wished to see in the woman. He likely would’ve needled her more, as he would’ve back when they were travelling together in their garrison, except one of his own entourage interrupted the moment.

“Why are we stopping?” Sparklez asked with a confusion that Tucker responded to with a roll of his eyes unseen by the man questioning him.

“Have some patience, would you?” He said with an exasperation that entertained Sonja. It seemed she wasn’t the only one dealing with annoyances on this journey. Somethings never changed, she supposed. At least, one of her companions had been pleasant. She doubted he could say the same.

Knowing he needed to be absolutely sure of their whereabouts, Tucker looked down at the sand below them. As his eyes touched the sands, he swallowed. If the presence of the other group wasn’t enough, the sight he was met with confirmed this was the correct location. “We’re just about there…”

He muttered that with a pale face. Why? Why was he back here?

His hesitation was read as such by those following him. They, however, did not all read it as from the same source.

“How on earth can you be—” Waglington, who had continued to quite doubt Jericho’s legitimacy began. However, the scholar’s doubts were interrupted.

“Oh, good God!” Redbeard, in some bored curiosity, had followed the squirrely man’s gaze down to the sand. The sight he was met with, the one Jericho had taken in with little more than a hesitant nervousness, sent a rather nasty shock through him.

His exclamation caught the attention of everyone else, all but Foxx and Jericho also looking down at the sands. There were waves of shock, some gasps of disgust, at the sight they were met with.

Capsize brought a hand up to her mouth. Sticking out the sand, exposed from the shifting winds that danced across the top of the endless dunes, were pearly white bones. There were dozens of skeletons, stripped bare over years by rough sand.

She didn’t have quite as shocked a reaction as some of those around her. She was quite used to remains. The museum held mummies and bones on display which she had occasionally been asked to assist with moving when her co-workers’ need for extra hands outweighed their fear of her clumsiness.

That was to say, it was not merely the sight of bones that she found disconcerting. Rather it was the sheer number. The way that they appeared to be clawing out of the dunes as the horses and camels stepped over them, accidently crushing them to dust beneath their feet. It was all rather… Well, it left her a certain tightness in her chest.

“The other seekers of Hamunaptra,” Foxx said in that unreadable tone she had used a few times now, only ever when talking about her past. It gave Capsize some pause. Foxx had mentioned her entire garrison dying on their last journey here. Were any of these skeletons one of them? How were any of them to tell if one of them was?

None of the others felt the same melancholy that Capsize did about this. A few felt a chill at the thought of what could be their potential fate. One, however, felt nothing of the sort.

“Yeah, yeah, poor sods,” Tom said, rather flippantly. Really, who cared about all the folks who had died? They’d have no treasure to find if any of them had succeeded. So, while it obviously wasn’t good that they had died, it really was an advantage for them. Besides, it wasn’t as though any of them were going to end up dead so why dwell on those who had? “Don’t lose focus, Foxx! Our bet’s still on! First one to the city gets five hundred pounds cash!”

Capsize looked up, rather shocked at those words, towards Foxx for any sort of reaction. Had she led them on through the night simply to win a bet? She didn’t want to believe that of the woman – not after making precisely that assumption back on the boat and making a fool of herself in response.

No, she shouldn’t make that mistake again. This was simply the same sort of nonsense that only Mr Syndicate cared about. Though, if he was serious about it, Capsize did hold a slight worry. Did Foxx have five hundred pounds to give should he demand it? Well, Capsize couldn’t precisely imagine Foxx being intimidated into doing anything she didn’t wish to, but with all the guns about, she did fear things getting messy should any arguments break out.

Foxx, however, had not at all reacted to the words said to her. Her gaze, alongside that of her rival guide, was fixed firmly on the horizon. The sun was rising, breaking the flatness of the land stretching out before them.

Sonja sensed those eyes on her, curious as ever. She couldn’t take her eyes off their fixed point in the distance, not with Tucker next to her most certainly waiting for any distraction. But she could still speak while keeping her concentration.

“Get ready,” She said, sure that the woman would listen to her, that this wouldn’t be a time that the woman began arguing with her.

Indeed, Capsize recognised that something was happening. That feeling, that calling in her bones from Hamunaptra itself wishing for her, returned at full force.

“What for?” She asked, excitement brimming in her tone. Despite not looking at her, Sonja could tell that Capsize was leaning forward, attempting to see what she was looking for. The thought put a smile on her face.

“We’re about to be shown the way.”

As if it had been waiting for those words to make its reveal, the horizon began to shift. At first, it appeared to Capsize to be just an odd shadow on the horizon caused by the sun shining. However, that didn’t quite make sense. It seemed far too solid an image to merely be shifting light. It became more and more into focus and though she didn’t understand even a little how this could’ve possibly been hidden, rippling into being through the hazy ripples of heat were ridges and cliffs. But far, far more importantly, the smallest hints between them of a great set of ruins.

Immediately, Capsize found her voice stuck in her throat. This was it. It had to be. Right before her, appearing as if by magic, was Hamunaptra. Her heart was absolutely pounding. She almost rode forward immediately as a childish excitement was racing through her. She was, however, stopped by the fact that Foxx didn’t appear to have any reaction. She – and the other guide for that matter – just kept staring into the distance. So, despite the energy threatening to burst out of her, Capsize remained still, waiting for any signal.

There were two, however, who didn’t hold such patience. Jordan and Tom especially had been antsy even back on the boat. With the mythical city now in their sight, they were not waiting another second. They whipped their horses’ reins and took off towards the city in a gallop.

“See you there, Foxx!” Jordan yelled as the two sped off into the distance.

The soldier gave them no mind, not so much as flickering her eyes over to the man hollering into the distance. Oddly enough, Tucker also gave no attention to the two he was meant to be leading, focusing on the attention just as Foxx was, entirely in the distance.

The further the two got, the more anxiety began to press at Capsize. It didn’t precisely matter who was first, it wouldn’t make much difference really. Still, a part of her did wish to win whatever silly contest was at play. However, she attempted to swallow it down, to ignore that childish little desire and just trust Foxx.

She, however, was not the only one confused.

“Ah, not to take charge or anything,” Redbeard began, riding a bit closer to the two women. Only Capsize looked towards him, though she already knew his words hadn’t been for her. His hesitant words were for the soldier who frankly seemed to be ignoring him. “But shouldn’t we be going?”

He certainly didn’t want to imply that he knew better than her. He was sure that they had some reason to be waiting around. However, he did feel quite antsy about just watching the two racing ahead.

“Yes, what the bloody hell was the point of riding us day and night if we were just going to let that lot win?” Alister was far less understanding, his gruff voice clearly irritated. He’d spent multiple nights sleeping on this damn camel and for what? To be the second lot there? Absolutely not.

As with all the other attempts to gain it, Foxx’s attention was not swayed. Her stare was entirely locked upon the city she wasn’t moving towards. It seemed as though she was locked in a trance, though she also seemed far too focused to be in any way mesmerised.

Capsize wondered if she should say something. Foxx did always appear to listen to her more than she did to Red or the warden, a fact she assigned entirely to how she hadn’t harmed the woman in any way as those two had. If she said something, then she had the feeling that their guide would break her stare and give them some answer. Yet, if her concentration was so intense, Capsize thought it might not be wise to break it.

So, she remained quiet, waiting. And indeed, there had been a good reason for her concentration.

The city, which had been so solid and looked so real, shifted – moved across the horizon as if tugged. Capsize blinked a few times, trying to process the impossible sight. It was far too complex a vision to be a mirage. Nor could it be an illusion brought on by heat as all of them had witnessed it. But it wasn’t as though the city itself could actually move.

She knew of ancient cities that were designed to react to the sun at certain positions, architecture that even current scholars couldn’t figure out how they had been built in the first place. Hamunaptra might be another example of that. A city built to react in a strange way to the rise of the sun. Perhaps that was how it had remained hidden for so long. It didn’t seem the most logical explanation as she couldn’t so much as fathom the sort of construction to make the location dance across the horizon like this, but surely it must be.

It was an incredible effect though, truly looking as though the city itself was moving. Apparently, it was just as much a trickery close up as it was from this distance as the two men who had been dashing towards the city suddenly faltered as it became clear they were headed in the incorrect direction. They pulled up their reigns, attempting to turn their horses on a dime in a way animals really couldn’t. Their horses flailed. Sparklez’s bucked, throwing him to the sand. In turn, Tom jumped from his mount to assist his friend.

Tucker, for a moment, allowed his gaze to drift over to them. He scrunched his nose up.

“Damn idiots,” He muttered, wishing he had a friend with a modicum of patience. He only allowed himself to look for a moment, before forcing his gaze back to the shifting image of the city. He couldn’t allow himself to get distracted by them. Not with Sonja right next to him.

He looked up just in time to see the city shift once more, to the opposite side of the horizon it had been on originally.

Capsize couldn’t see any difference between this version of the image and the one that had originally appeared. There must’ve been one though as both Foxx and Jericho tensed. They saw something in this version of the city.

There was a single moment where the two old friends shared a look, as if they were back in their army days, raring to compete in some stupid contest. Then they were swatting their camels and dashing towards the city they had no real desire to return to.

Everyone else was only seconds behind, hauling ass to ensure they didn’t lose their guides. At least, that’s what Capsize told herself, but as she sped up, felt her hair whipping back in the wind, she also didn’t mind the idea of getting ahead of the two.

Sonja and Tucker clearly held the advantage. They had ridden this path before. They had a headstart. It made sense that they were neck and neck as they raced towards their destination.

Tucker wasn’t happy with this. He didn’t want the potential of coming second. Either he beat Sonja or this was all for nothing. He needed to get her out of the race. The riding crop in his hand gave him the perfect idea of how to do that.

He leant over and swatted at her, hoping to knock her off balance, send her off her camel and into the dunes. If she had a brain, she’d slow down and let him win. If she didn’t, well, it wasn’t as if she’d die. She’d just have to walk the rest of the distance. However, he maybe should’ve considered his own position just a tad more.

It was on his third whip towards her. He was leaning dangerously far off his camel, dangerously close to Sonja to ensure his attacks landed. He had expected her to dodge away, to put herself in a similar position as he was in, but instead, she gripped a hold of his arm. After two times already, she could read him well enough to know where his attack was going.

She could’ve just wrenched the whip from his grip, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew exactly what he had been trying to do. Like hell was she letting him off easily.

With him still in her grip, she gave him a dark grin. She drank in his look of absolute terror for a few moments before jerking him from the camel and tossing him to the ground. Tucker tumbled into the sand, bracing his head to stop any real damage. The others began to speed past him, barely managing to dodge from their path.

Serves him right. Capsize thought as she quickly sped past him.

She had quickly managed to get ahead of those she had set off at the same time as and was gaining on Foxx. She felt utterly alive. This was what she had been missing; being out in the field. It was fuelling her. The more speed she gained, the faster her heart raced, the more joyous laughter escaped her.

She was neck and neck with Foxx, the soldier meeting her with a smile. Once more, Sonja found herself baffled by the strangeness of this girl. The wonderous, exciting yet utterly confusing woman. Well, she didn’t exactly mind strange, but that didn’t mean she was going to let her win.

Sonja focused on keeping speed. She had ridden before. Not in a racing context, but still, she should’ve held the advantage. Yet it seemed Capsize was a natural talent, still gaining speed somehow and not looking the least bit out of control. It was almost inevitable that the soldier fell behind. Despite how that meant losing, Sonja couldn’t help the growing smile on her face at witnessing the sheer joy of her companion.

“Go on, Capsize! Go!” Redbeard’s yell travelled from the distance back he was, along with his cheers and hoots. How long had it been since he’d seen Capsize laughing like this? Not since they were kids really. So far, far too long. Something about seeing her expressing such happiness was elating.

She deserved to win. After so many goddamn losses, all those rejections she’d been met with. No one deserved a win more than her.

With those cheers fuelling her, Capsize felt her adrenaline coursing through her veins. She was positively giddy; so, so alive in this moment as she raced into the ruins.

It was when she passed into them that she tugged the reins, slowing the animal down as quickly as she could. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was far enough in to win, nor did she at all care. Her mind was taken over by the majesty of it all.

She had slipped off her camel by the time Foxx came thundering in, wandering in almost a trance towards a column. The soldier slowed her own mount, hopping off and strolling over.

“Don’t go wandering off before we’re all here. We still need to set up camp,” She said with a smile. She wasn’t sure if she expected to actually pull the woman from the examination of the column. She looked so careful as she traced over the hieroglyphics carved into the stone. Sonja could’ve watched her locked in such concentration for hours.

Her words did, however, pull the woman’s attention. Capsize turned to her with a wide smile, doing great work to put on a professional image when she felt this excitable.

“We’re here,” She said, near breathless. She truly couldn’t believe it. It seemed beyond reality to stand in a city of legend, to have such history and discoveries at her fingertips and beneath her feet.

Despite everything, Sonja found herself happy to once more be standing in the city of the dead.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

Setting up their camp only took around an hour. It was far more time than Capsize’s would’ve liked as she was itching to get underground, to explore everything and hopefully find the book she had been dreaming of finding since she was a child. Still, she understood the reasoning of needing everything set up first and thus assisted in hoisting up their couple of tents and unloading their supplies.

The foreign crew had overtaken the main expanse of the ruins. Their various diggers were setting up the tents and tables, and those that had finished with their original tasks were now assigned to clearing away rocks from what appeared to be the main entrance to the city below. That perhaps should’ve bothered her. That guide of the other crew had laughed after Foxx as if they had lost something. Clearly none of them had actually researched this place.

Capsize had been quite happy to make this camp a little higher up. Though there weren’t exactly detailed maps of Hamunaptra, she understood from the accounts that the city sprawled throughout the underground. They should just be able to dig into one of the chambers. Though the actual breaking of ground would need to wait until their guide returned.

“Where the hell is Foxx?” Alister exclaimed. Frankly, Capsize didn’t understand his problem. He had already been a disgusting bastard back in the prison. Now, away from his position of power, he had become irritable to say the least. After five days with him she had the desperate desire to punch him.

Had he been at all helpful, she might’ve been able to put up with the frustration, but the only time he aided them at all was when they’d all already made it halfway through a task, his ego bruised from Foxx glaring at him. She frankly wished to be completely rid of him, but she knew that to be impossible. Instead, she just bit her cheek and attempted to release her frustration through a huffed exhale.

Unfortunately, the burn annoyance did indeed remain. The source of it, after all, still existed, still set there with a scowl. There was only so much a positive attitude could do.

“Oh, what do you care?” Red asked him. Though his tone sounded neutral, he was quite obviously attempting to bicker, as he was every time the two interacted. “You’d still just be sitting around if she was here.”

His words really ought to have gotten him punched. Indeed, often Capsize had seen this attitude of his gain him a black eye as the one currently fading from his face. The warden, however, didn’t move from his spot. Perhaps, after days of facing arguments from his brother, he seemed rather used to these arguments.

“You hardly help! You stand about letting your sister do all the work!” Alister shot back, certainly sounding angrier than Red. He always did seem to be on a hair trigger, which unfortunately meant he constantly bit the bait offered to him by her brother. It had been mildly entertaining the first time, but after days of having them bicker in the background? It was quickly becoming just one more reason she wanted rid of the man.

“I was supervising. Very important,” She saw rage simmering within the warden at those nonchalant words.

Quickly, she realised this too was going to turn into an argument that would continue on until broken up by an outside observer. She wasn’t going to be that person this time. Not when she could actually escape the noise.

She pushed herself up from the bedroll she had been sitting on and began wandering away from the quickly developing argument. Though they must’ve noticed her leave, neither went to stop her.

She didn’t really have an objective in mind; she just wanted to move. After so many days of being stuck riding, it was pleasant to just walk around. As to where, well, frankly she was overwhelmed by the options. Even just the ruins above the surface could take up days of her life analysing them all, the idea of the spiralling ruins beneath her feet were making her heart race. Truly, it was a shame that time was so pressed with the other expedition surely looking for the Book of Amun-Ra just as she was, even if they only had interest due to the gold that it was allegedly made of.

Best she do something to get them moving as soon as Foxx returns. Why waste time? There would be far more exciting discoveries below. Hopefully, she could find some damage in the ground already, something they could open up to get below. Or better, she could find some sign of the Statue of Anubis above the surface which would tell them where they needed to get down to.

That was precisely what she intended to do. Though it took a bit of wandering almost aimlessly, she did indeed find a promising crack in the sandstone ground that she believed meant it was a ceiling for somewhere below. Though she ought to trace it, see if there was anywhere it opened up so they could avoid having to use their pickaxes and potentially damaging more than intended. However, as her eyes wandered, she found them drawn to another pillar with hieroglyphics. Then that part of her mind that desperately wished to take everything in that could be learnt about history took over.

Suddenly, there she was, tracing her fingers across the ancient writings. She wished she’d grabbed the journal they had picked up at the trading post. Surely, she should be making notes on this, yet she found herself so consumed by the writing. Blessings, she believed, meant to protect these sacred grounds.

This activity consumed her so much that she was quite deafened to her surroundings, enough so that she didn’t hear the person coming up behind her until:

“Miss Capsize?”

“Ah!” She jumped, whipping around in an instant with her stopped heart flailing her thoughts into a flashback to her attacker on the boat. Only she then found herself incredibly embarrassed when she saw who had actually appeared. “Oh, Mr Syndicate. I’d really prefer if you didn’t—”

She began speaking only to stop halfway through her point. The man already looked rather skittish.

“Did you need something? I thought you would still be rather busy with setting up your camp,” She instead tried to be polite as she would normally. After all, it wasn’t as though he had done anything wrong. At least, not since his little bet on the boat. As long as he didn’t try kissing her now, she could maintain professionalism with him.

“Oh, I am… Well, none of them will actually let me help, something about how if I try to help I’ll surely collapse everything already finished,” He said, seeming to think as he spoke rather than before. Capsize found herself with a bit of sympathy for the man she had mostly written off as an annoying show-off as she recalled being given similar reasons as to why she couldn’t help with certain tasks back at the museum. “So I was just sitting about, twiddling my thumbs, but I saw you up here and thought, well, might as well do this now.”

For a moment, Capsize was worried that he might try to kiss her. However, just as that thought crossed her mind, the man had reached inside his jacket and pulled from within it a wodge of cash.

“You were first through so here: five hundred pounds,” He said with a great smile, holding out the money for her to take.

Capsize blinked a few times. He… He had been serious about that bet with Foxx?

“No, I couldn’t possibly. I wasn’t even in on your bet,” She tried to insist. Really, she couldn’t justify taking it. Even if she had been in on this bet of his, she didn’t wish to take so much money from him. It wasn’t as if she needed it. Despite her protestations, she quickly found the money being pressed into her hands.

“Please, I insist. No doubt that Foxx will only force me later if she finds out you weren’t paid,” He said with a laugh.

Capsize laughed too. She could indeed picture the woman doing precisely that. If Foxx had found out he’d avoided paying, she’d likely drag him over by the scuff of his collar and force him to.

The man smiled easily.

“Well, that’s all I wanted,” He said, seeming a little lost on how to interact with her now his intended task was done. “Erm…”

There were a few beats of quiet between them.

“Good luck on your dig. I didn’t try to talk the others into just combining our expedition, but they…” His smile faltered as he felt rather uncomfortable at how his friends had been acting towards the other expedition. “Good luck.”

He said once more before dashing off.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

Tom once more found himself sitting around with little to do. He wasn’t the only one. Jordan and Tucker were also sitting around. However, unlike him, who was staring into the sky, they were at least conversing.

“What’s with all the camels?” Jordan asked Tucker. He’d been asking a few questions about the ruins to their guide, as if the man who had only been here once was an expert on the place.

This question referred to the near herd of the animals that were on the edge of the city. They certainly weren’t wild as the majority still wore saddles and had bags hanging off them. He’d been eyeing them suspiciously a few times, attempting to figure out their whole deal.

“They belong to the dead,” Tucker said without much tone in his voice. Everything around here was just another reminder of death. “They’ll wait around for years for their owners to return. They’ve probably been here for years before us, and they’ll stay here for years afterwards.”

Tom was only paying attention because everything else was less interesting.

Wag was currently by the still blocked-off entrance, directing the diggers on what rocks to work on removing to ensure they didn’t inadvertently cause more damage. Busy work rather, but he wished he had thought of it. Hell, he’d help to shift rock if they let him, anything to rid himself of this boredom.

He didn’t really understand why they had hired all the diggers anyway. They could’ve done all this themselves. It would’ve taken a while longer, but the other group were certainly doing fine by themselves. All bringing extra people had done was lose them money.

He wished he’d stayed longer with Capsize, had an actual conversation rather than such a brief meeting. After all, she seemed pleasant. After days of interacting with the same few people, it was nice to have a fresh face and the fact it was a pretty one didn’t hurt.

It was too late to go back to her now. Those four were up by the pillar she’d been by when he’d talked to her, doing something with rope and mirrors. He stared at them, trying to properly make out their activity despite the distance.

“Do they know something we don’t?” He interrupted his friends nodding over to their apparent rivals.

Tucker craned his neck around to look. He was already sure the answer would be yes, there was never a moment that Sonja didn’t know something that she held over him like a weight.

Jordan, meanwhile, rolled his eyes.

“What could they know? They’re led by a girl,” He asked with a dismissive laugh. It had become pretty clear from just their brief time together on the boat that the bronzed skin woman was the one directing the expedition. Like good for her, but it was a joke. There was a reason that women weren’t typically put in charge of these things.

The others laughed. Tom somewhat felt bad for doing so. Miss Capsize did seem perfectly pleasant, but there was something funny about her being the one in charge rather than her brother. That simply wasn’t the done thing. Even if she technically was the one doing all the planning, they ought to be presenting Redbeard as the one making the decisions.

It was strangely Tucker who objected. He had laughed, because it was ridiculous how swayed his old friend was by a pretty face. Then the gears in his head continued turning and he realised that this doubt might extend to Sonja which had its own level of hilarity, but it might land them all in some hot water.

“Probably shouldn’t assume that,” The two turned to him, as if the suggestion was entirely ruining their fun. Quickly, he added more. “I thought that about Sonja when I first met her and she’s…”

Terrifying was the word he wanted to say. However, he bottled it out of fear of the other two’s reaction. He didn’t need to admit to them that he still felt quite scared of Sonja. Her being here, showing him up at every turn. When he wasn’t scared, he instead was filled with a rising anger. He didn’t want any words disparaging her or the girl getting back to her ears.

Still, he had to say something, the other two were staring and Tom knew him too well. If he said nothing his friend would fill in the gap. He might not intentionally tell her, but Tucker knew that big mouth. Whatever he said here would make its way to Sonja.

“Well, she’s more competent than most men I fought with,” He settled on. The worst reaction that’d get out of her was a raise of her eyebrow.

Jordan snorted.

“Well, I guess they might just be a group of oddities. Still, if that was the best place to dig, Wag would have us up there. They’re just settling because we got the best part,” He spoke with such confidence. He trusted his little crew he had made. They’d get all the treasure from this place, he was sure.

Perhaps Tom or Tucker still had doubts, still wished to at least take a look over at what their competition were doing. Before they could say anymore, though, another voice came to interrupt the moment.

“Have any of you lads seen my tool kit?” Gaines asked, gaining all three men’s attention.

“You lost them again?!”

“Good God, man. You’d lose your eyes if they weren’t stuck in your head.”

Quickly, the other group were completely forgotten as their focus instead turned to making fun of their friend.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

Sonja didn’t have to whip the rope towards the warden as she did a series of complex knots to ensure that it wouldn’t slip from the pillar and leave them stranded in the ruins below. She did, however, get thorough enjoyment out of it so continued to do so despite how it was probably making the job take longer. The annoyed look on his face was worth it.

The soldier was more than a little surprised at how quickly they had gotten started. She must’ve only been gone for ten minutes tops, but when she had come back Capsize had immediately dragged her over to a crevice rambling on about how it might be a good way down into the ruins.

It seemed she had a good eye for these things. It had taken a little work to properly open it up enough that they’d all be able to climb down, but it did certainly seem to open up into the city below. At least it opened up into a deep, black pit that surely led to the city eventually.

The woman in question was currently polishing a large mirror. Its twin she had already given the same treatment, and it was currently being haphazardly propped up by her brother. She gave him half a look as she continued on with her task.

“You’re meant to be catching the sun with that, Red,” She told him, quickly getting him to fumble the mirror into the exact opposite position than the one he had been putting it in.

“What are those mirrors for?” Sonja asked. The pair had been something Redbeard had picked up at the trading post. He had seemed delighted to see the unwieldy things and haggled for them. Capsize too had seemed beyond pleased about them despite the great amount of effort it took to get them packed up onto the camels.

The woman had run off to get the mirrors once they’d gotten the crevice open. She’d looked down there, squinting into the pit, focusing to try and spot something in the darkness. And whatever she had seen down there had triggered her to retrieve the mirrors, roping her brother into setting the things up.

“Oh, it’s an ancient trick, you’ll see,” She said with a smile. She looked down at the mirror in her hands, seeming now satisfied with its condition. She stared over to the one Red was placing and began to place her own in relation to it.

It was a funny little dance. Clearly Capsize knew precisely what she wished to do, but had to wait until her brother had completed his own task. Clearly this frustrated her, her nose scrunching more and more as he continuously readjusted. It was funny, though thankfully it wasn’t long until he was done fiddling with his mirror to allow his sister to properly place her own.

Sonja still couldn’t tell exactly what the purpose of it was, but it was clear enough at least that they were finished. That probably meant she shouldn’t waste any more time. She tugged on the rope a few times to ensure that the knots were strong as she thought they were. Satisfied enough, she kicked the remaining coil down into the hole. The thick hempen cord unfurled as it descended, becoming their gateway down into the ruins.

“Are we finally ready?” Alister demanded, shooting to his feet after spending the entire time sat around not helping.

“Yes, yes, we’re about ready,” Redbeard replied dismissively.

It was technically true. There was nothing preventing them from descending into the depths and going after the treasures below. Though, she still had something she wanted to do.

“Give us a minute, will you,” She said, shooting a glare towards the warden. He gave an exasperated sigh, looking tempted to storm off if only that wouldn’t completely drag him away from the potential treasures below.

She didn’t give a rat’s ass about what he thought, though. Her focus, obviously, was on Capsize.

The woman had quickly gathered that she was the other part of the ‘us’ that Foxx had been referring to. Obviously, she was itching to get down below. The book was surely down there, resting somewhere beneath their feet. She needed to find the statue before the other crew. However, at this moment, Miss Foxx looked quite unlike herself.

The soldier was shifting nervously, seeming quite unsure of herself in a way that she hadn’t before. Capsize wondered briefly if this was a reaction to being back at this city where she had previously faced such horrors. The thought left a sticky guilt in her throat for her own excitement.

However, as quickly as she considered that idea, it was nudged away from her mind as Foxx took a leather wrap that had been hanging from her shoulder. Capsize had thought it to be some part of the woman’s gun bag as that was what she was used to hanging from that position. Except, now that she was being handed it, she realised that the shape didn’t match at all. This was far too thin and didn’t quite look like any of the supplies she knew to be in their possession. So where had she--?

“I, uh, borrowed this for you from our friendly neighbours,” Foxx began, not quite devoid of her usual confidence, but showing nerves that she never had before. Capsize, of course, understood the true meaning of the word borrowed. She’d heard Red use the word to describe something enough times to.

However, while she normally might have some moral objections to that, she instead found herself smiling. As she opened up the wrap, she found within a set of tools like the ones she had been lamenting the loss of back at the trading post.

Foxx truly had listened to her. The idea made her heart rapid in a way she thought foolish yet still left her smiling like an idiot. She’d never had anyone do anything like this for her before. “I thought you might like it for when you’re, you know…”

Sonja found herself dodging those pretty eyes as she fumbled through her words. Why was this of all things embarrassing her? It wasn’t as if she lacked experience with flirting, so why--?

“Thank you, Miss Foxx,” Capsize’s voice pulled her from her attempts to be evasive. She looked up, being met with a soft smile that left her warm in an entirely different way than the beating sun. That happiness confirmed that her sneaking about in the other camp had been worth it.

God, she was down bad for this girl…

“Let’s get down there, shall we?” And that made that smile even brighter. There were horrors below their feet, she was sure of that fact, but as long as she stayed close by, surely there wouldn’t be any risk to Capsize. Maybe watching her work could even be fun...

Sonja shimmied her way down the rope, remaining cautious as she slipped further into the darkness of the ruins.

She wasn’t descending completely blind. The mirrors that Capsize had arranged above ground were casting a spotlight of reflected sun into the ruins. She could see the silhouetted shadows of the cavern below her. Though she couldn’t fully relax, it was comforting to see the ground she was descending towards.

She was confident that the rope would hold her weight without the knot failing or the whole thing snapping, but not confident enough to let anyone else descend first. If she had misjudged and the rope wasn’t up to par, she’d be the one screwed over rather than anyone else. Same went for if there was anything waiting down below. Better for her to be the one to face it than anyone else in their little group. Though she sincerely hoped that that concept was just her nerves getting the better of her.

Finally, her feet found solid ground. At least, she hoped the sandstone she touched down onto was solid. You never could tell with caves and ruins and her own experience with the shifting sands of Hamunaptra made her weary about just believing that idea. Just to test, to feel safer in calling the others down to join her, she stomped down, hard. She kept a hand on the rope as she did, just in case of the worst, though the precaution proved unnecessary. The ground stayed stable.

“Alright, you can come down!” She called up. She trusted that they had the good sense to know she meant one at a time.

In this brief time that she had to be alone, she allowed her eyes to flicker around the darkness. She couldn’t exactly ascertain much. Very little was being illuminated by the spotlight coming from above. Everything outside of the small circle she was within was still submerged in darkness. The only thing she could be completely sure was in the room with her was barely a few steps away, a dusty mirror on some sort of stand.

She hated not being able to see past the end of her nose. She was just itching to light a torch to cast away the doubts from her mind about her surroundings. However, she was pretty sure she knew who would be the first to follow her down and didn’t want to stray away or have her hands in any way busy in case anything went wrong.

One of her hands kept a hold of the rope, allowing her to feel as the weight shifted and someone else began their descent. Her eyes flickered upwards for a brief moment, though she quickly forced them back to the silhouettes in the darkness before her rather than the woman climbing down the rope. She wasn’t about to be accused of looking up her skirt.

It didn’t take much focus to keep the rope steady, allowing her adjusting eyes to start taking in the rope. Though she still struggled to make anything out as everything shape could as easy be naturally formed stone as intentionally made structures. Hence, she was still unhappily aware of her surroundings when she was finally joined.

Capsize looked around breathless. She could hardly believe she was within Hamunaptra. Honestly, she could be readily convinced that she was dreaming all this if not for the hold that Foxx had taken on her arm. Not a hard hold, a gentle one just to make sure she was steady after getting off the rope, but it did remind her that this was very much reality. She was going to be able to explore the city of the dead, see things lost for centuries.

Then there was Foxx, keeping her steady. It was likely necessary given that her thoughts were threatening to drown her with all the possibilities. A real physical presence that kept her in the current moment rather than locked in her thoughts that were moving ever more rapidly was undeniably a good thing. It instead meant the primary thought in her head was about the hold itself, that it felt… nice. It was a comfort. One that she’d usually struggle to allow herself, but she truly was glad for.

“Can you believe it? This room, we must be the first living souls to stand in this room in thousands of years,” She was in reverence of it. It was hard to catch her breath with how wondrous it felt to just be here. She took a few tentative steps into the darkness. All these discoveries right at her fingertips. She might’ve happily walked into the darkness just to more quickly have access to the knowledge awaiting her. She, however, just about managed to restrain herself from wandering out of the light.

Sonja was glad to see her staying within sight. If she wandered off, it’d be so easy for her to get lost. The last thing any of them should be doing down here was separating. However, she could be pretty sure that the woman’s curiosity would only be held back by logic for a little while longer.

The soldier pulled a torch from her pack, taking a match from her pocket to light it. At least this way they’d have light if she had to follow the woman to ensure she didn’t get herself lost within the ruins.

Sure, she could’ve kept a hold of the rope to keep it steady for the other two, but she frankly couldn’t make herself focus on anyone except Capsize. Whenever the woman was present, all her thoughts were on her. Not that her lack of care for the other two mattered. It sounded like they were doing fine without her assistance.

“I mean, the sort of discoveries that must be waiting, previously completely lost to history!”

“Oh, the things that get you excited,” Redbeard scoffed at his sister as he touched down. Truly she was an unbelievable sort of woman. The most boring room that they couldn’t even properly see into and she was speaking as though they’d climbed down right into the treasure horde. Really, she was quite ridiculous.

She shot a glare at him, something he had expected and was utterly unaffected by. Really, if she was already acting like this now, he could very much picture her bursting at the sight of any real discoveries. He couldn’t say he actually found it annoying. It was always a joy getting to see her in her element when so many damn people tried to stifle her. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to tease her.

“Some of us still have the ability to feel excitement,” Besides, it wasn’t as though she didn’t shoot right back. She still wore a smile on her face, so clearly, he wasn’t dampening her joy in any sort of way. Nor was she upsetting him.

If he was being frank; Red didn’t really fancy exploring cramped corridors several layers below the ground. He could think of a great many better ways to spend his day, hence why this career hadn’t worked out great for him in the first place. The concept that one wrong swing or merely an unlucky step could leave them trapped beneath the earth forever more knocked him rather sick. However, his sister’s clear excitement at getting the opportunity, alongside the concept of Hamunaptra’s treasure trove being somewhere within reach, was more than enough to stop his usual complaints.

Then the man who very much did want to moan about everything finally finished his descent.

“Who cares how old everything is? I don’t see any treasure,” Alister immediately complained. He barely even glanced around as no glint caught his eyes.

Perhaps that was a good thing. It meant he didn’t see the way that Capsize wrinkled her nose, already annoyed by his focus. Why did he even feel the need to come down here with them? Was it entirely to foul the mood?

“Cretin,” She muttered. She didn’t care if he heard her. The man deserved to be knocked down a peg or two. As no comment came in response, he certainly didn’t. Or perhaps he’d gained just a splash of sense and knew arguing with any member of the group was a pointless venture… No, no that was out of the question. He certainly hadn’t heard her.

“You’re welcome to take my share of the cobwebs,” Sonja did, however, speak loud enough to be heard. Immediately, the warden’s entire attention turned to her. His glare and deep-set scowl were met with her own annoyed eyes. Though his mouth moved as if he had a comment ready to throw at her, he swallowed down whatever those words were and instead whipped his attention back towards the darkness. So, it seemed he was capable of learning.

With him shut up at least for the moment, she struck the match against the ground, sparking a flame that she quickly used to light her torch. An orange glow joined the spotlight in casting away shadows from the room. Still, it wasn’t much, but it would be enough to let them go deeper.

The new light source seemed to spark some thought within Capsize. She twisted around, stepping in the same motion towards the dusty mirror Sonja had earlier acknowledged. She quickly hurried in cleaning the cobwebs from the surface. Once more the soldier’s initial assessment of the woman was challenged as she showed no signs of discomfort, rather only complete focus on her task.

Capsize certainly couldn’t get the mirror’s surface to the standard of the mirrors currently above ground. This had been down here for likely as long as the city had existed. There was going to be grime so stuck to it that it would take more time and effort to clean off than she currently had at hand. That fact scratched uncomfortably against her perfectionism, but she just had to accept the layer of dirt slightly dulling the surface.

It took a bit of effort to turn it, the metal stiff and locked into place after centuries of sitting in one position. It groaned as she attempted it, but finally with a swift shove, she got it moving. Adjusting the angle finely was a complete nuisance to be sure, but it was well worth it. When she finally managed to catch the sun. The result was well worth the effort put in.

Light bounced from one mirror to the next, revealing just how full of them the room had been as they illuminated their surroundings. Sonja looked around in surprise.

“That is a neat trick,” She said in approval. She hadn’t known precisely what to expect from the mirror set up. Obviously, she’d guessed it’d be something important because she wouldn’t have spent the time to set them up if it hadn’t been. Still, she could admit that this was impressive. Though brighter than the light had been brought into the room was the small smile that her words brought to Capsize’s face.

The scholar pulled her eyes away from Foxx, bringing her head up to look at the now lit room, and found herself in awe. She took a few steps further into the room.

It didn’t look like much to Sonja. It was definitely more impressive than a simple cavern or cave as the room they stood within had clearly been carved out by hand. However, it didn’t exactly look jaw-dropping. Just plain stone with alters – or maybe just tables – at the edges of the rooms. Maybe there was something she was missing about it because Capsize was awe struck.

“My god, it’s a preparation chamber,” The woman said, in complete wonder of it despite this not being their current goal. They’d immediately stumbled into a place so important, surely so full of history. It couldn’t be her focus, not with the other crew about. Yet still, her mind was racing at the sight. Surely, they had time for her to examine the place a little.

As she walked forward, Sonja stayed barely a step behind her.

“Preparation for what?” The soldier asked. She already felt out of her element. All this history stuff, other than the legends of treasure troves that had been spread among the foolhardy like campfire tales, was beyond her. She’d never held much curiosity towards it until now, until that pretty smile. Now she found herself having so many questions she wanted to ask. Anything just to hear the joyful explanation that would come afterwards.

Near lost in her thoughts, Capsize’s answer was made without any consideration for required context.

“For entering the afterlife,” She said in such a matter-of-fact way, as if it was the most normal thing to say in the world.

Sonja’s reaction was immediate, instinctual. Her free hand basically lunged for a pistol. Her thoughts went frantic, eyes flickering around for any sign of a trap. Before her weapon could be drawn, a hand was placed atop hers.

Redbeard gave her an easy smile, attempting to calm her panic.

“Mummies, old girl,” He said with his usual jovial tone. “This is where they made mummies.”

There was a moment of embarrassment, but then Sonja let her hand fall back to her side as she tried to swallow down her alertness. She just looked towards the absolute joy on that freckled face and any potential embarrassment melted away.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

It had taken quite some self-control for Capsize to stop herself from doing a full analysis of the first room they’d found themselves in. The idea of the history at her fingertips was beyond exciting and she had no want to move away from it, but she was unfortunately in a race. She needed to find the book before the other crew. That meant searching through the city for the Statue of Anubis.

She knew the vague location it was meant to be from the translations she had read, though that didn’t exactly mean she understood how to navigate through the winding tunnels. Right now, she was once more trusting Foxx to take the lead as they walked half-hunched through a particularly narrow corridor.

The soldier looked entirely focused on moving ahead, which gave Capsize some comfort. It was quite impossible to think they’d end up lost when she was leading so confidently. Really, she found herself quite unable to focus on anything but the way that Miss Foxx’s physique looked in the flickering torch light, embarrassing as that was to admit. It was… It was a comfort.

It was certainly a nicer thing to focus on than the various noises she swore were filling the air. Skittering chitters that seemed to be coming from every direction, threatening to send her thoughts into overdrive if she listened to any of them for too long. Focusing on the way Foxx moved was a good enough distraction. It wasn’t the only one, however.

Red was stumbling behind her. She had no idea if he was actually struggling or putting it on. Normally it would simply be that he was drunk. However, he’d run out of alcohol a good few days ago. As such, the usual explanation was out. Still, despite his current struggles, he was doing good work in distracting her from her own nerves. Frankly, he needed one just as much without booze to dull the thoughts of just how easily they could all get stuck down here.

“So, the book is under the Statue of Anubis?” He asked. He sounded quite unsure which made sense enough. He’d been so focused on the potential of treasure that he hadn’t cared at all for the details. Though that might typically annoy her, right now she enjoyed having something to explain.

“Yes, according to the Bainbridge translations anyway and we don’t really have anything else to go off,” She said, confident despite how this was someone else’s work. She had no reason to doubt the translations. After all, they were the forefront researchers in Egyptology, as much as it pained her to admit it given her own relationship to the group.

Red, however, scoffed.

“We’re using the translations of the people who keep rejecting you?” He laughed. He never quite understood Capsize’s respect for the group that continued to reject her applications to go on digs. He certainly didn’t trust their work if they thought they were too good for her. Yet here they were, trusting where they believed the book was.

“Oh they’re very trusted translations, Red, you know that,” She sighed. She didn’t know how many times she had to explain this. He brought back up the argument whenever he heard she was applying again, that she was ‘too good’ for them. As if that mattered when she couldn’t get a field job regardless of who she applied with. She wouldn’t be interested in joining them if they weren’t good at their jobs. “Besides, I didn’t exactly have the opportunity to get my own. Rupert would’ve realised what we were doing.”

Of course, she would’ve liked to get her own translations. The original slab the translations were taken from was in the museum, so she certainly had access to the text. However, she had already been pushing it with Rupert’s belief in her lies. How on earth would she have persuaded him they weren’t headed to Hamunaptra had he found her taking her own translation?

Sonja’s ears perked up. She felt slightly guilty about it. As much as there was no way to call this eavesdropping, she did feel like she was stealing information she wasn’t meant to have access to. She always found herself listening when details of the woman’s life were presented to her. She had never wanted to learn about someone more.

Each new piece of information was weaved into her mind, stored safely to not be forgotten. Each one created new questions that she wasn’t sure she’d ever find the guts to ask. Each one added to her sureness that Capsize was an absolute enigma…

God, she needed to know more about her. She should’ve gotten that. Even if it was just a little bit more information, the siblings should’ve kept talking, giving her more little hints about their lives. However, instead, the worst man she’d had the misfortune to encounter continued to exist in their vicinity and hence continued to be an absolute pain in Sonja’s backside.

“Will you two shut up?” Alister snapped from the rear of the group, effectively silencing whatever was to be said next.

Sonja’s mouth pressed into a frown. If she was in reach of him, she might’ve hit him. Did he have a requirement to be unpleasant through every minute of the day?

She could almost hear the eye roll that Capsize gave in response to his words.

The scholar continued to walk with a scowl as her thoughts turned to little more than an annoyed ramble. Why had he insisted on coming down here with them? That question buzzed nastily in her head. Quite obviously it was because he didn’t trust them which made her feel just more murderous.

It reminded her far too much of the museum donors she’d had the misfortune to meet. None of them had held any trust in her either. Though they had swallowed down any dislike of her hiring seeing that they were rather desperate for hands at the time, but they never had liked the idea of her having any larger role than a secretary. Somehow even they were more pleasant than the warden though.

Perhaps it was just that she had been stuck with him for such an extended period of time, though even her rather short first encounter with him had been enough unpleasantness for a year. Truly, she would quite like for him to shut up for the rest of time.

“Oh, very well. Let’s just listen to the bugs and rats crawling about the place. I’m sure that’ll be far nicer,” She quietly snipped. Not nearly quiet enough to avoid the man hearing, but she didn’t give a singular damn if he did.

She could already hear his sputtering response threatening to erupt. Frankly, she hoped it did. She hoped he acted the pathetic bastard he was. As much as she quite knew it didn’t matter, neither of her two companions had any respect for him, she still desperately wished for him to prove what an awful man he was before them both.

She was still so revolted by what he had tried to coerce out of her. While she never wished to experience it again, she also had a deep wish for the others to know that he’d done it. Was it possible Foxx did already? She had been there, technically speaking, but God knows she was pre-occupied at the time. Did Capsize really want the man to try anything even remotely similar again? No, of course not. Yet still a part of her thought that if the others did know, were presented with what he had done, there might be one less thing threatening to suffocate her.

The grace from the tightening in her chest was granted mere moments later, but from a different source of relief. They emerged from the cramped tunnel. Truly it was a great relief to finally be able to stand at her full height and stretch her limbs. It pushed away some of the building anger and the rest was forgotten, replaced by excitement as she saw what stood on the other end of the chamber.

“We’ve found it!” She exclaimed. There, another victory of the day, was the Statue of Anubis. The imposing figure of the jackal-headed god was the most exciting thing she could possibly imagine.

She dashed forward, taking the torch from Foxx as she passed the soldier. The others chased, barely a few seconds behind her. She knew this was a reckless action. Tombs of this kind weren’t exactly known to be the safest places, and she doubted that one as well hidden as this would be any exception. However, she wasn’t about to waste a moment. Now with her goal in sight, she had all her thoughts finally focused onto one thing.

Quickly, she found herself kneeling by the base of the statue, her free hand running across the engravings. Somewhere behind this stone was the book she’d been wishing to find her entire life. If it was possible, she’d just tear through the stone right here and right now to finally have it in her hands.

“Do you always act so recklessly?” Foxx questioned, sounding more amused than annoyed. It was funny. She typically wasn’t so without thought when making decisions, though her clumsiness made it seem otherwise. It was only since this quest for Hamunaptra, since meeting Foxx, that she had been making quite so many impulsive decisions. The soldier was bringing something out in her. Only time would tell if it was good.

“Only recently,” She replied with a smirk.

Sonja felt her own lips quirk. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think the woman was flirting with her. Unfortunately, she did, know better that was. Her brain, idiot that it was, was just trying to replace reality with the one she wished for. Still, it was nice to let herself believe that there could be something.

Capsize continued examining the engravings, reading under her breath so quietly that it may as well have been in her head. She was hopeful that there would be clues within the writings. Both to where the compartment was and to how to disarm whatever was protecting it. She wasn’t so foolish to think that it wouldn’t be trapped. Attempting to force her way in would surely be deadly. Hence, she needed to figure out the intended way.

As her examination continued, no one saw fit to interrupt. Perhaps Alister wished to, but every time he dared move, Foxx’s eyes shot from the woman she was gazing at to him with a death stare. Red too maintained quiet despite his usual disposition, knowing it was best to let his sister work. It allowed the noises of the surrounding ruins to once more creep in. With Capsize’s concentration, the noises of the small pests didn’t bother her. The sound of something far larger, though, did cut through as much as she attempted to ignore it.

It wasn’t the scholar to first hear it, rather it was the soldier whose ears first pricked up. The alertness of years of battle never quite went away, always left her slightly on edge. The sound of something big headed towards them set her mind into action.

Immediately, she straightened up, taking one of her pistols from its holster. She nudged Redbeard with her shoulder, though was surprised to find the action unnecessary. The man was already alert, eyes flickering towards the tunnel the noise appeared to be coming from.

Of course he’d heard it, no way he could miss it. He wished he hadn’t. He’d hoped it was just his imagination conjuring more reasons to feel uncomfortable down here. However, the look on Foxx’s face told him damn well that he wasn’t hearing things.

He nudged his sister just as Foxx had done to him. Brown eyes turned to them, attempting to hide concern but not quite managing. The logical side of her brain was working quite desperately to think of what could be making the noise. There had to be a normal, reasonable explanation, else there wouldn’t be a noise at all. Except, there was the quietest little thought in the back of her mind recalling the myth of the city’s undead guard. A completely ridiculous thought that she wasn’t foolish enough to actually believe yet still couldn’t fully shake from her head.

With the two now paying attention, confident they at least weren’t oblivious to the situation, Sonja turned. She crept along the wall towards the tunnel she was now sure the noise was coming from. She wasn’t sure if she expected the two to follow her. It might’ve been better if they bunkered down as she went to handle whatever was coming towards her. That was certainly what the warden appeared to be doing as he silently stayed put.

The siblings did follow though. They weren’t right next to her, but they followed alongside the wall close enough to help in an instant if there was indeed danger. Neither looked at all confident, both their movements and facial expressions uneasy. It just made Sonja all the surer of herself, knowing she had to take this lead.

She gave a smile to the fearful freckled face illuminated by the flickering torch light, silently trying to reassure her that everything was going to be fine. Capsize smiled back, an uneasy smile threatening to waver into nothingness, but it was still enough for Sonja.

She took a single breath to steady herself. Whatever was approaching them, she’d protect her from it.

In one swift movement, she pulled her second revolver from its holster and spun off the wall. She pointed both guns down the tunnel, into what should’ve been darkness.

Instead, she was faced with more flickering torch light, and a host of guns pointed her way.

Facing her, looking near scared witless, were their rival crew. Each held a gun, a couple held two, each of which was pointed towards her. Behind the main lot were around ten of the hired diggers, holding a mix of torches, shovels, and pickaxes. They looked about as scared as the men leading them, though without guns, Sonja thought that a far more reasonable emotion on them.

For a moment, she stood staring at the group just as they stood staring at her. Neither moved to attack, even with their fear, she could tell they weren’t actually close to pulling the trigger. At least most of them weren’t. Tucker looked at her with a look that prevented her from feeling comfortable lowering her own weapons, lest he use the excuse of her movement to empty his pistol’s magazine into her chest.

They were at a standstill. While they weren’t exactly enemies as she’d faced on the battlefield in the past, she couldn’t exactly call the group her friends. With no evidence of their intentions, she wasn’t lowering her guard.

Perhaps predictably, it was one of them that began to lower their weapons first.

“Jesus, Foxx,” Jordan said as he began to lower his pistol. He found himself attempting to hide his embarrassment at thinking the noises ahead of them could’ve been anything but the other crew but didn’t quite manage.

He shouldn’t be embarrassed really. He hadn’t been the only one to react so skittishly but now stuck facing Foxx his spiralling thoughts about the wandering mummy seemed beyond ridiculous. “You scared the hell out of us.”

The rest of his crew followed suit in lowering their weapons. Though none were holstered, it was enough for Sonja to lower her own, even if she kept a glare on them.

“Likewise,” She admitted.

The two groups relaxed somewhat, a shared embarrassment held between them. The confirmation that the noise had merely been the foreign lot, as had always been the only reasonable conclusion, got the siblings to emerge from hiding, walking to stand by Foxx.

Capsize in particular was kicking herself. How ridiculous had she been that, for even a moment, she had thought the source of the noise to be anything else? No one else could possibly be down here with them. Good God, this expedition was making her act a complete fool.

So lost in her own embarrassment was she that she hardly acknowledged the other crew. Honestly, she probably could’ve ignored them for the next few minutes as she lectured herself within her own thoughts. She sincerely doubted any of them would have anything to say worth listening to anyway. Except, the moment she came properly into view, one of the men made a lunge towards her.

“Hey! That’s mine!” Gaines yelled as she took a hasty step back. The suddenness of the action caused her movement to be a clumsy stumble. It took an embarrassingly long moment for her to realise where his bespectacled eyes were locked: upon the toolkit hanging from her shoulder.

Of course, that was what Foxx had meant by borrowed. She had suspected as much. Yet, despite knowing that the man was most certainly the actual owner of it and she had no right to keep stolen goods, she found herself putting a protective hand on the strap.

Before the man could attempt to pry it from her, he was stopped in place. He was completely frozen to the spot as he found a revolver pressed to his throat.

Foxx glared at the man, completely unreactive to the multiple guns she once more had pointed at her, this time with real threatening intent.

“No, it isn’t,” She said with bared teeth. She held her glare on him, almost daring him to make another grab for the kit. She didn’t give a damn how much of an over-reaction this might seem. If they wanted to shoot her, they could try it. She wasn’t allowing threats towards those under her protection. If he had a problem with his stuff being nicked, he was taking it up with her alone.

The man she was threatening, however, retained some level of intelligence. He skittishly stepped back.

“It appears I was mistaken,” He said with a strained voice as he quickly retreated behind his friends.

Maybe Sonja should’ve been worried to lower her revolver more this time, after an actual threat rather than an accidental confrontation. Except, as he bowed back, Syndicate snorted. Though he clearly tried to hide the reaction, he wasn’t very successful in that regard. No, this lot weren’t going to shoot her for a threat. Not for this threat, anyway.

Guns were once more lowered. The tense atmosphere didn’t quite fade this time, but the awkwardness did creep back in to join it.

Redbeard shuffled on the spot. He could very well see this back and forth going on for hours. Raising and lowering guns, bickering over every little thing, until finally one group grew bored and left. Obviously, that had the potential to be an entertaining watch. If he had a drink, he might honestly consider just letting things play out for as long as possible. His flask, however, had been bone-dry for a few days now. As such, he’d much rather get this over and done with quickly.

“Well, lads, it’s been nice running into you,” He started with the sort of smile he knew was disarming. He very much knew how to act the right kind of oblivious twit, the kind that would get him what he wanted. He could just hear a distant voice saying that it didn’t count as acting if he actually was one. It sounded rather like his father, actually. However, the point stood that he knew how to get people to listen to him while still not thinking anything of him. “Hope you have a good day and all that, but we have a lot of work to be getting on with.”

He had hoped that would be enough to finish this conversation. So long as he sounded confident enough in whatever point he was asserting then usually people just assumed he knew what he was talking about. Or at the very least they thought it’d take too much time to persuade him otherwise and just let him do as he pleased.

He reached to steer Capsize back towards the statue. Might as well get back to it as he was sure she was just itching to. Except, his attempt at persuasion hadn’t gone as it normally would.

“Yes, you lot should be leaving,” The other crew’s expert – Waglington – said in a rather assuming tone. It was as though he had no doubt of the fact he was in charge. It was a tone that ticked off all the members of the group he was opposing, for as little care as he had about that. He wasn’t about to let these amateurs take his discovery from him. “This is our dig site.”

He spoke as though that was obvious. The smile on his face was downright condescending. It reminded Capsize of every doubting ass she’d been forced to deal with throughout her career and education. The fight that always rose within her when facing them entering her once more. As ever, she saw no reason to bite it down.

“No. We got here first! We aren’t about to let you—” She spoke with experienced combativeness; the fight she’d learnt was needed to deal with idiocy like this. She might well have continued this little tirade for a good while. None on her side felt any need to stop her. After all, this lot had no right to take over the site that they had rightfully gotten to first.

Except she did stop. Her words stopped right in her throat as the man’s gun was pointed quite suddenly towards her throat. For once in her life, she found herself utterly speechless.

The very same moment, Foxx’s pistols were raised, pointed towards the man who was damn lucky she didn’t fire immediately as her fingers were itching to. God, she wished to wipe that smug smile off his face.

Quickly, the guns of their rivals were all raised back towards her, not that she paid them any mind. If they fired it would be after her and the bastard with his gun on Capsize would be dead before he could pull his trigger.

She wasn’t the only gun on her side this time either.

Red hadn’t hesitated before pulling out his own. The derringer did little in the way of intimidation, but that didn’t at all matter. He’d be able to take one of them down which would be precisely what they deserved for pointing a gun at his sister.

The other gun came from the warden which was a surprise to Sonja not just because she would’ve never imagined the man doing anything to aid her, but also because she had frankly forgotten that he was about without his usual complaints every five seconds. She could, however, appreciate the extra gun on their side, however much of a prick was wielding it.

“Look, we’re all friends here,” Tom said, managing to sound confident in that fact despite the precarious position they all found themselves in. Maybe he just thought this was a perfectly normal way to handle disagreements among friends. “Just accept that this is our statue and we can all get along.”

“I don’t see your name on it,” Sonja said, having absolutely no plan to give into their demands. Like hell was she allowing these pricks to threaten them into moving.

Tucker, the man who should’ve been thankful to be demoted to the person in the room she wanted to shoot second, laughed. Though it wasn’t enough to allow him to regain his prior position of being shot in the neck first, it did only stoke the murderous desires burning in his old friend's mind. He, of course, was attempting to do no such thing.

“Come on, there’s only four of you and fifteen of us,” He laughed. While he wouldn’t put it past her to be recklessly stupid, he still couldn’t believe the amount of intelligence this girl had made her lose. Seriously, was a pretty face worth getting herself riddled with bullets? He could hardly think of anything worth risking death for, but some girl definitely wasn’t one of them. “Not great odds, Sonja.”

She looked at him with a cold stare.

“I’ve had worse.”

“Yeah, me too,” Redbeard said, breaking the soldier’s death glare as she gave him a sideways glance, attempting to figure out if he was being serious. He couldn’t be, yet he certainly sounded as though he was. Regardless of if he had just told a bold-faced lie, he seemed quite committed to standing his ground, just as she was.

Tucker’s grin grew. God, he wanted this to happen. He so desperately wanted to prove that Sonja wasn’t as bulletproof as everyone had always joked, she was.

Behind her group, Capsize found herself frowning. In part because it seemed utterly ridiculous how quickly this had all devolved. They were on the verge of a firefight and for what? Because these pricks were incapable of finding their own dig site rather than stealing theirs?

That indignation was joined by a rather sticky feeling of worthlessness. As opposed to seemingly everyone else, she stood unarmed. This was her find to fight for, yet she found herself with little choice but to stand back and allow Foxx and Red to do so for her. Perhaps she should’ve talked Foxx into giving her a pistol before they came down here, but that had hardly seemed a necessity.

In despondence, she kicked a foot across the ground. As she did, she found that the ground didn’t quite feel as she expected. She allowed herself a glance down, tracing her foot along as she did as if she was merely bored. Perhaps not the best disguise given the tense atmosphere, but everyone was rather distracted, it wasn’t as though she needed to be the peak of subtlety here.

In the sandstone by her feet, there appeared to be a hole. Not large enough for any person to fall into nor small enough to be described as a mere crack. It was maybe the length of her foot but only about half the width. She shifted some sand into it, enough that it would fill the thing should it be simply a shallow dip in the stone. All the coarse grains fell into the darkness, down somewhere below.

Though she had no real way to confirm her suspicions, not without giving the game away to those they had found themselves working against, she felt her heart take hold of this possibility. Perhaps they could all get what they wished here. She just needed to convince them that she wasn’t.

“Oh goodness now. Must we act like children who can’t play nice?” Her sudden speech got everyone’s attention, all eyes falling onto her. She just hoped that her act would be good enough to bypass suspicion. “If we’re going to be here together, we must learn to share.”

Still, everyone was looking at her. Her point could still go either way, and everyone assumed it would be going towards getting the foreign crew to shove off. That was exactly why she knew she needed to be careful about this. And she was oh so gentle as she put her hand atop of one of Foxx’s, carefully pushing it and the gun it was holding down.

Miss Foxx looked at her, beyond confused, only to be met with eyes begging to be trusted. Then, in a very careful voice, attempting to not give anything away, the woman spoke once more. “There are plenty of places to dig.”

Sonja almost wanted to argue, insisting that she could handle this lot. There wasn’t any need for Capsize to give up the relic she had come here for, she’d make sure of it. Except, she was looking at her like that, and more than anything else, the soldier wanted to trust this woman.

“Fine,” She said, as if she didn’t want to, as if this was a forced surrender. Despite that, it was anything but as she holstered her revolvers and allowed herself to be taken away by the scholar. Her hand was soft, so nice in its touch that her only real regret in this scenario was when it let go of her own.

What had started as a half-jog had quickly become a mad dash through the tunnels, Capsize taking the lead with a confidence that was perhaps unearned but one so natural that those following her saw no reason to question. Perhaps they ought to have done with how quickly she had changed her position in letting their dig site be taken, but when she clearly had a plan, it was hard to want to slow her down. They just hoped she had an idea of where she was going.

There hadn’t for a moment been so much of a lick of intent in Capsize to give up the Book of Amun-Ra. That was her relic to find. A relic she had been told the stories of by her aunt. She was not allowing it to be shipped off out of the country where she’d never get to see it.

However, she wasn’t so foolish as to let them start a firefight over it. While she admired Foxx and Red’s confidence for believing themselves capable of taking all of the other lot by themselves, she rather preferred them not riddled with bullets. As such, a less confrontational method for acquiring the book was necessary. Thankfully, she had an inkling that just such a method might be possible.

That inkling, which she had been increasingly scared was a ridiculous long shot, had proven to be correct.

The little group now found themselves deeper in the depths of the ruins within another chamber smaller than the previous ones they had been in. Perhaps another preparation chamber given the stone altar in the centre but not even Capsize cared about such things at this moment. The altar – if indeed it was one – currently only served the purpose of being a place for her companions to stand as they carved away at the ceiling. The only importance to the room was it hopefully being in the right location.

Capsize quickly scanned her eyes across the engravings on the walls, reading through the ancient writings as fast as she could. It was hard to focus on translating when her heart was beating in her ears, but she could force herself to. This was necessary and it wasn’t as though she was in any danger, so she just needed to manage and focus. She just needed confirmation that they were in the right place. If they weren’t, they still had plenty of time to move.

Finally, she found the symbols that confirmed her hunch right. It was as though a weight was lifted from her chest.

“Yes! I was right! These hieroglyphics say we’re right under the statue,” She exclaimed with a beaming smile. They were in the right place. Not all was lost. “You two should come up right through its legs.”

The two she was referring to were, of course, Foxx and Redbeard who were currently wielding pickaxes, working away at the ceiling to break down the stone between them and the statue in its chamber above. Thank God they were in the right place. She would’ve felt awful destroying any more of this place than absolutely required for this plan.

Sonja nearly laughed both at the phrasing and this whole ridiculous plan. Perhaps she should’ve realised the woman would be a sneak. Her brother was, after all. Why assume anything different of her? Except, she had seemed so prim and proper. Sure, she had caused a scene at the prison, knew how to be mouthy and stand her ground, but still the soldier had thought her above tricks. How wonderful it was to be proven wrong, even if it was getting her covered in stone dust.

Red too was impressed by his sister’s little plan. He could’ve done with less physical labour being a part of it. He wasn’t built for this sort of thing, his arms already felt like rubber and they’d barely made progress yet, but imagining the look on those prick’s faces made the exertion mostly worth it.

“Good. When those damn foreign asses go to sleep—” He paused, giving a halfway glance to Foxx. “—No offense.”

“None taken,” She replied with the smallest hint of amusement.

“We’ll be able to sneak our way up and take the book from right under their noses!” He finished. He was absolutely thrilled at this development. While it might’ve been a shock to have Capsize come up with such an idea, it was a completely welcome one. He couldn’t think of a better way for them to get the book than screwing over that lot at the same time. It was the least they deserved after having the nerve to point a gun at his sister. He only wished he'd be able to see the look on their faces when they realised what they were looking for was already gone.

Sonja gave a glance over to the woman who seemed to almost be vibrating with anticipation. If they had another pick, she had no doubt that she’d be helping bring down the ceiling alongside them. Hell, she might take a pick off one of them if they weren’t careful.

To try and keep her grounded, the soldier gave her a look.

“You’re sure you’ll be able to find this secret compartment?” She asked. She did her best not to sound doubting as that was in no way her intent. She just knew this was something they’d need to be quick about. She wanted to make sure they were prepared.

Her smile somehow became even brighter.

“I’m positive. Just as long as they don’t find it first,” She said with absolute certainty.

Her sureness was so clear, so obvious. That alone was enough to fuel the soldier. She didn’t really care what treasure she got out of this trip. Her greatest desire was to be away from this place. If she got some money too that’d be a nice bonus. But with how much this book seemed to matter to this woman, if they took any treasures away from this trip, it was going to be the Book of Amun-Ra.

The room became awash with noise. The destruction of a centuries old ceiling wasn’t precisely quiet work. Yet it still occurred to Redbeard that the room was strangely quiet. He paused in his action for a brief moment. He looked around to confirm his observations and, indeed, it was undeniable. Their little group had lost a number.

“Say, where’s our unwanted tagalong gotten to?”

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

Alister wandered the empty tunnels alone, torch in hand lighting his way. Most would suppose that anyone wandering such ruins separate from the group they’d entered with was hopelessly lost, but there was nothing unintentional about his current situation. He had a plan quite cemented in his head.

He couldn’t stand staying with those imbeciles any longer. They had already been trying his patience before, then that girl had proven to be a bigger idiot than he had thought possible. All the withering talk of the importance of finding that damn relic for what? To surrender it the moment she was asked to? Now because of her he was out twenty-five percent of the selling price of a solid gold book. Like hell was he going to keep following her lead after that. He’d been a fool to do that in the first place.

Now though, he’d formed his own plan. It hadn’t been hard to split away from the three morons he’d been forced to tag along with, too busy with their own walk of shame to keep an eye on him. Given how little they paid attention to him, he’d likely have an hour before they came looking for him. Even if they noticed he was gone in a timely manner, this place was large enough he’d have enough time to find himself something worthwhile. Let them fruitlessly dig around for ‘history’. He was in the greatest treasure trove in this country. He was going to find himself some damn riches.

He wasn’t going to be picky about this. It didn’t have to be anything extravagant. In fact, it was probably better if it wasn’t. If it was just some loose jewels or gold, it’d be small enough to shove into his bag. Anything he could hide away couldn’t be counted by the prissy thing as part of his measly twenty-five percent. What did it matter if he got himself a little bonus? The annoying girl was rich anyway. It wasn’t as though she needed the money.

All he needed to do in this little alone time he’d won for himself was find that prize before Foxx came looking for him. Then, when she did, he’d simply blame her for losing him in the tunnels in the first place. That’d wipe the smug look off her face too. That’d be as satisfying as any treasures he found down here. After all, where did that damn murderer get off acting as though she was better than him?

Despite being alone in these ruins that apparently swallowed all their seekers alive, he felt completely relaxed. Sure, he wasn’t a particular fan of the noise of his surroundings, the echoing chitters of pests in the walls. He wasn’t in any way fond of bugs. He dealt with enough pests in his day to day life, he could do without the literal ones. However, at this particular moment, he didn’t care. This was his first peace away from those idiots in days. Anything was a refreshing experience at this point.

What he wouldn’t do to be rid of all three of them. Dealing with them was worth the riches, of course, but all of them acted so incredibly out of turn treating him the way they did. It would be a great time to remind them of his rightful position over them.

He couldn’t wait until they were back in the city. With her purpose spent, he could throw Foxx back to the gallows where she belonged. That would remind the lot of them where they stood. He could just hear the girl begging as she had the first time, but now without the treasure trove to fall back on, she could do nothing but watch Foxx slowly lose her fight against gravity and die.

Though that was a wondrous fantasy, one that truly kept him going through all this humiliation, the joy he gained from it was quickly overshadowed by that caused by the sight before him.

He had managed to stumble upon a dead end. The arch where the tunnel was supposed to turn had collapsed completely into rubble that blocked any further progress. That could’ve been a disappointing annoyance after the effort he’d gone through thus far to get this far. Except, right there was precisely what he had been looking for.

On the wall he found himself facing was a mural. Some artistic depiction of a long dead king, not that Al gave any sort of a damn about that. The only part of the display he cared at all about were the spots glimmering in his torch light.

He strode over, a grin only growing on his face as he got closer and saw the things more clearly. Embedded into the wall decorating the image were dozens of blue gold ornaments shaped into scarabs. Each one was small enough to fit into his head but whether they were real precious metal or simply painted stones, he knew each one would be worth a small fortune.

As he pulled a knife from his bag to pry the things free, he couldn’t help laughing to himself. Yes, this little solo excursion was certainly going to be more than worth it.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

The foreign crew’s efforts were not making nearly as much progress as an onlooker might expect given the number of them. Most of them were not doing anything beyond standing around in wait, including the diggers who had been solely hired to do work. It seemed quite ridiculous how little work had been started and yet that didn’t change the reality of it.

Admittedly, it had taken longer than strictly necessary for them to get started at all. The lot of them had been celebrating their claiming of the site so they had gotten distracted from actually setting up the dig. Who could blame them for that? They’d managed to get the place without so much as a contest, that deserved a little time to congratulate themselves. It wasn’t as though they needed to rush when they had the place to themselves.

Still, their little party had to eventually end. While they certainly didn’t need to rush, they still needed to start eventually. Ever focused, Wag had been the one to actually get down to work, walking over to the base of the statue while his friends still talked among themselves. He hadn’t intended to stop them from their distractions but slowly, they had all fallen silent as he read along the hieroglyphics, watching and waiting.

There was a certain tension in the air now as the eyes rested on him. There was still some quiet chatter, but it was safe to say that nerves were beginning to fester. It wasn’t a lack of trust in Wag. If anyone in their group was capable of finding the compartment, it was going to be him. However, if he didn’t find it, if the translations they were following were wrong, then it would mean the effort put forth in getting this dig site had been wasted.

What if there had been a reason for the woman suddenly agreeing to leave? What if she knew something they didn’t? As much as that was a ridiculous notion, it was still one they found themselves pondering.

Waglington was acutely aware of the fact he was being stared at. Though they were attempting to hide it, to distract themselves with continued conversation, his friends were far quieter than they ever normally would be. He did his best to ignore them, to just focus on the work he was to do as if they weren’t actively anticipating his eureka. It was, however, quite the task to do so when with each passing second, they risked growing bored if he didn’t locate their treasure.

Thankfully for his friend’s waning patience, their decision to claim this spot finally proved fruitful. A grin grew upon his face as, between lines of text, he found a seam.

“It’s here,” He announced, running his finger across it to be sure. Sand was displaced, making the tiny gap between the base of the statue and the slab hiding the treasure just that bit more obvious. Satisfied with being able to relocate it should he move his eyes away; he straightened up and turned back to his friends.

Once more the excitement rippled through the crew. It was real. A book made of solid gold was waiting for them just behind that thin wall of stone. The riches of their dreams within spitting distance. Just the thought was enough to get them slobbering.

Unable to wait a moment longer, Tom rose to his feet, shovel in hand and a grin on his face. In just a few minutes he was going to be one of the richest men on the planet. Well, they’d need to sell the book for the money, but that was a technicality. Just owning the thing was enough to have wealth beyond kings. He was going to be the first person to hold it.

Now they knew where it was, it’d be so easy. All he had to do was jam a shovel in and pry open the compartment. Then he’d have the damn thing, he could tease Sparklez about what he was going to make him do for his share, and they could all celebrate. When the other lot came back up this evening, they’d be able to show off their findings, probably impress the girl enough to have a proper conversation.

His fantasies were rudely interrupted by Wag sticking an arm out to stop him in his tracks. His friend was glaring at him with a look as if he was being a complete idiot.

“Tom, Athar wasn’t a fool,” He said, as if the name was meant to mean something to him. To be fair, it was probably someone he’d mentioned several times before now, but all his history lectures went right over Tom’s head. What did he need to know about history besides the treasure? Who it used to belong to and who had hidden the best bits away hardly mattered.

He could, however, understand the point that was being made. The chamber was almost certainly trapped and forcing it open would trigger it. Doing so would likely be dangerous and an altogether stupid idea for him to attempt. Despite all of this, he still found himself rolling his eyes.

“One of us has to open it,” He stated the obvious. He could obviously acknowledge the danger, but he didn’t see what difference it made. If they wanted the book – which they obviously all did – they had to get in there.

Wag looked almost charmed by his words, as if the man was being cute rather than serious. Tom found himself struggling to not be offended by the reaction. However, before he could spit any part of that offense out, his friend pointed behind him.

“That’s what they’re for.”

Tom followed the point of his friend’s finger, turning around to see it land upon the diggers. Somehow the hired men looked even more nervous than they already had. None went to move, not wishing to do the job clearly signalled as a danger to those who had hired them. However, they had little choice in the matter. Having gotten the message, Tucker grabbed one of them by the scuff of their collar and begun shoving them forward.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

Sonja was the only one left chipping away at the ceiling. Unlike most times she was left working alone, it was by her own choice as the work already done had left a sizable dent in the stone. As much as they all wanted this done fast, she’d prefer not to have her charges crushed if the whole thing caved in.

Redbeard hadn’t needed much persuasion to stop helping. He’d done the bare minimum of pretending to argue before quickly sauntering off to the other side of the room. Despite how he seemed like the sort to spend a great deal of time idle, he didn’t seem to know what to do with himself now that he was. He stood about, fiddling with his pick as if it was a toy to distract himself with rather than a mining tool.

He was grateful at least that he had something to listen to beyond just the continued breaking of the ceiling. Foxx had made the foolish decision to ask Capsize about history. That was the only opening she’d needed to start rambling. There she sat on the altar, talking away to her heart’s content. He’d heard it all so many times that he really couldn’t remember where she had started, but quickly the conversation had turned to mummies which was where it had very much stuck.

“So, let me get this straight,” Sonja began in a moment where Capsize had paused for breath. She had avoided interrupting with her questions for a short while now. Instead, she just focused on how nice it was to hear the passionate words as she continued in her own work. She found herself listening to every word. However, with the number of questions in her head ramping up, she had to ask some of them before the topic was done with. “They ripped out your guts and shoved them in a jar?”

At first, Capsize had been talking so passionately, so happily, that her tone had disguised the actual details. Then Sonja’s mind had caught onto the words actually being said, processed the gory details joyfully being recalled. The moment it did, she found herself in utter disbelief. She knew that history was full of barbaric practises, but the idea seemed completely out of left field, especially with how the woman speaking seemed to see nothing wrong with it.

“Yes! Not just the intestines, but the lungs, liver, and stomach,” Capsize confirmed with the same level of joy. Her shining passion seemed beyond strange when talking on such a topic, but when her excitement got the better of her, she became quite oblivious to tone. There was far too much fun in actually getting to share the knowledge she had on the topic.

In a sudden burst of excitement, she lent closer to Foxx. “Do you know how they’d take your brains out?”

“I don’t think she needs to know that,” Red half-warned, knowing damn well his words would do nothing to stop her. He had never once had the ability to stop his sister from doing something, and he certainly wasn’t going to start now. There was, however, amusement for him in giving the warning knowing it wouldn’t be heeded as he, unlike his sister, could see the soldier's face turning a slight tint of green. He almost laughed at the image, though thought better of actually doing so. Who would have thought that his sister could scare a rough and tumble type so easily?

“They’d take a hook, stick it up your nose, scramble things about, then rip it all out through your nostrils,” She explained. As she did, she gestured in the air with a chisel from her kit, almost demonstrating the required action. She had such a smile on her face as she did, excited despite the morbid nature of what she was discussing. She couldn’t hide it. There was just so much excitement within her for this topic.

Sonja cringed slightly as she held that image in her head. She wrinkled her nose, attempting to stop the phantom pains her imagination had conjured up.

“That’s gotta hurt…” She muttered.

Capsize jolted. Had she somehow forgotten to mention…?

“Oh, you’d be dead when they did this. It’s called mummification,” She attempted to assure as though there was any possibility of this actually being done to the soldier. She must’ve neglected to mention it in her excitement at being able to talk about all this at all.

Sonja tried to not look too embarrassed at having not made that obvious assumption, hoping to God that her cheeks didn’t flush as she thought they did. How many times was she going to make herself look like an idiot in front of this girl?

“Huh. Was there any part of your corpse that they let you keep?” She attempted to cover by sounding entertained, as if she had known all along.

“Oh yes. They left the heart,” Capsize replied, her smile turning almost wistful. “You see, they believed that it contained all of a person’s being and intelligence so that was left in its place for when a person made their way to the afterlife, which I think is rather romantic when you think about it.”

“Oh yes, very romantic,” Red muttered, swinging his pick like a golf club. Really, he loved her, but she was quite ridiculous sometimes. If that’s what she thought romance was, he dreaded to think of her idea of a date.

Sonja gave the smallest of huffed laughs at their antics. At times, she felt like she barely understood the two. Then there were moments like these where it all seemed so simple and she desperately craved to be a part of it. How long had she been alone for? Why did that question suddenly shake her?

Before she could properly consider that, her attention was taken by a far more pressing matter. Her eyes traced along the ceiling that was quite suddenly beginning to crack. Far too large and dramatic a reaction to just be more loose chips. Something large was coming down.

She barely had time to grab Capsize and throw the both of them out of the way before something heavy crashed down from above, filling the entire room with dust.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

A shallow thump could be heard within the statue chamber. It was so sudden and unexpected that a few of the foreign crew jumped before craning their necks to attempt to figure out the source. It was a rather pointless endeavour as it was immediately obvious that the source hadn’t been within the room they were in.

Despite them not seeming in immediate danger, the noise still very much set them on edge. The sound of something falling was never good, especially not when they were down in the depths of the earth and any blockage could trap them within the ruins.

“The hell was that?” Jordan questioned. It was a rhetorical one as he didn’t expect any of his friends to have an answer for him., but still one he thought necessary to voice.

“Something below us. So nothing for us to be concerned with,” Wag dismissed. Even if it was something blocking their path, they could deal with it later.

His words did reassure his fellows. If the smartest of them wasn’t concerned, why should they be? This was an old place. It was probably full of noises that sounded bad but in reality were little to worry about. If they kept jumping at every single one, they’d be trapped down here for the rest of eternity without being physically stuck.

Though some still held nerves, they turned their attention back to their treasure extraction rather than whatever might be happening below their feet. Their focus should be on their rightful riches, the receiving of which was being slowed by work still not proceeding.

Tucker had dragged three of the diggers over to the box of the statue. Though they all had the tools and position to be set with their task, none of them had actually started. Instead, they were looking towards their employers with desperate eyes.

They weren’t stupid. They fully understood that they were only being made to do this task because it was too dangerous for their employers to do so. Had it been outside of their job description, they would’ve refused, but this very much was the sort of job they had been paid for. Still, none of them were exactly keen to begin.

As the moments pressed on with them all just stood there, tension began to seep in. Annoyance was beginning to fester within the treasure hunters. They had paid these damn layabouts for one job. If they weren’t going to do it then what the hell was all that money given to them for? It certainly wasn’t to stand about looking scared.

“Can they get on with it?” Tom muttered, already beyond bored. He could’ve had this over and done with minutes ago if Wag wasn’t so damn cautious. Seriously, what the hell were they all so afraid of? Just shove a tool in there and get the thing open. It might not even be trapped for all they knew.

He shifted on the spot, itching to do anything even if it meant doing this damn job himself.

The movement only spurned on the frustrations of the others in the group, their impatience becoming increasingly obvious. In turn, the diggers grew ever more nervous, knowing their inaction couldn’t last much longer. What could they even do?

The moments dragged on, the tension getting thicker. Then finally, there were a couple of loud claps.

“Get on with it!” Waglington yelled, startling the hired men.

They still considered refusing. If they could just wait until they had to be physically forced, one of their employers might get frustrated enough to do the task themselves. That outcome seemed the safer one for their health. However, behind them, their employers’ hands rested upon guns. While none of the three wished to do this, it was better to risk an uncertain death than a certain one.

Shovels were forced into the thin seam of the stone, the hafts held close to the head for better leverage against the stone. The sounds of grunts and metal straining against stone began to infect the air. Though neither noise began as particularly loud, they might as well have been a cacophonous din as everyone fell silent, watching with bated breath from either anticipation or fear.

A crack sounded as the stone began to give. The treasure hunters who were all cautiously standing back began to lean forward. They could practically taste the riches now.

Finally, the stone shielding the compartment fell and what should’ve been a celebration turned to absolute horror. As the cracked stone fell, a horrid sound erupted throughout the chamber. From the opening, a liquid burst forth. The geyser-like noise of its escape wouldn’t have caused anything more than a brief flinch but mixed with the screams of the three souls unlucky enough to have triggered its exit made a horrifying harmony.

The others in the chamber stumbled back. The sight of the screaming men was one more horrific than any of them had witnessed before. What flesh hadn’t melted away completely was a horrid blistering mess. It seemed a mercy when they finally lost whatever strength had been keeping them clinging to life.

The three men dropped to the floor in a shaking pile. The onlookers remained in silence as the reality of what they had just witnessed sunk in.

Tom could only let out a shaky breath as he found himself eternally glad that he had listened to Wag and that that hadn’t been him.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

“Everyone alright?” Sonja asked as the dust began to clear and the ringing finally began to quiet and allow her to hear. That had been way too close for her liking. She didn’t know what the hell had fallen but she’d be frankly quite thankful if the worst they’d suffered was irritated lungs.

“Yes, I’m fine. No need to worry,” Redbeard answered between spluttering coughs that only slightly undermined his words. He hadn’t been in the line of danger at all, really. From where he’d been standing, he would’ve had to move into the path of disaster rather than out of it. Still, his confirmation was relieving for the soldier.

“What about you, Cap—” She began to ask the woman she was holding before the position they were in properly clicked. Her arms were wrapped tightly around the other woman, their bodies pressed close. It had been necessary in the moment, a split-second decision to make sure she could pull her out the way. Except now that the danger had passed, she suddenly became aware how improper this was.

Quickly, she untangled herself from the vice grip she had them locked in. She took a sheepish step back. As she straightened herself up and cleared her throat, she swore to God that she caught Redbeard rolling his eyes. She elected to believe she was making that reaction up as her focus once more fell upon Capsize. “Are you alright?”

“Yes. Thank you, Miss Foxx. Just a bit of a scare, that’s all,” She said as she dusted herself off, just about managing to sound convincing in her assurances. The entire time she was avoiding the soldier’s eyes as her cheeks were completely flushed. Despite how she was obviously embarrassed, she didn’t look hurt in any way. That just had to be good enough for the moment.

Capsize was just about catching her breath, feeling frightfully embarrassed despite there being no reason to be so. Why did she have to keep having such ridiculous thoughts? There was nothing even remotely to think upon regarding how close they had just been standing. It had been a decision made out of pure need and professionalism. Yet here her traitorous thoughts were again, stuck on how nice though strong arms had felt wrapped around her.

Good God, she needed to pull her thoughts from the gutter they were currently trudging through. She needed some distraction – any distraction – to stop herself from creating an actual reason to be embarrassed.

“Now what was it that tried to crush us?” She questioned aloud before turning back to where they had been standing. Suddenly she didn’t need to pretend to be distracted any more as every thought she had been holding dropped from her mind at the sight of it.

She took a few steps forward as if she was within a trance. Not a single part of her had expected for this to have been what fell from above. She could hardly believe the sight of it. She knew what it was, of course, she saw enough of them in the museum to know when she was looking at one. Still, that didn’t quell her disbelief.

“It’s a sarcophagus,” She breathed, carefully brushing a hand over the top, pushing away some of the sand. Though there was nothing unique about the feel, her fingers still tingled as her touch made it real. “A sarcophagus buried right under the feet of Anubis.”

She had never heard of such a thing nor anything similar. Not for any of the mummies currently housed at the museum nor within any of her readings on the topic. This was something new. Her heart beat faster at the thought.

Sonja walked up behind her, surprised at just how taken in by the coffin the woman was. Had it been buried in a ceiling that’d be one thing, but surely it couldn’t be all that unusual to be buried underneath a statue.

“Is that not common?”

“No, it certainly isn’t,” She was barely managing to speak as so many of her thoughts focused on just trying to process the discovery before her.

She traced her hand over the top of the sarcophagus. What kind of a person would be buried under the god of the dead? What soul would need to be hidden beneath the guide to the underworld with no worldly goods about them? “Whoever this was, they were either incredibly important… Or they did something horrifically bad.”

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

Alister dropped another blue gold scarab into his bag, unable to wipe the smile from his face. It was already growing heavy from the amount within, and a good dozen more still waited for him to pry them from their decorative prisons. He was going to be a very wealthy man when he returned to the city.

He had started to worry this whole journey would be a waste. He hadn’t had a choice but to come, of course. Had he left the stuck-up girl and her two idiot followers to their own devices he never would’ve actually gotten his share. He could just hear that haughty superior voice smiling the moment she had left the prison with Foxx.

‘Well, we got what we needed. No need to pay him what he’s owed.’ She probably said to the laughter and wholehearted agreement of the other two.

So, he’d had little choice but to come along. It was the only way to ensure he wasn’t cut out of his rightful share of Hamunaptra’s fortune. While the end goal was worth it – in theory, at least – the journey had been a mess from the beginning. Even beyond the attack that had driven them off the boat.

Not one of the three showed him the respect he was rightfully owed. He shouldn’t have expected anything less really. Even back in the prison, when she should’ve known she was little more than the dirt beneath his feet, Foxx had been a problem. She would sooner bite at him like a wild animal than speak to him like the superior to her he was. It would’ve been lunacy to expect her to act any better now she was armed and thought she’d gotten one over on him by escaping execution.

The girl too he had expected to be a problem. She had shown no regard for her own place at the prison. While she might have the appearance of a polite, up-standing young woman, she was beyond rude. He had hardly expected her to be any more polite outside of the view of polite society.

For some reason, he’d held some expectations that the man would have some sense. A foolish set of expectations in retrospect as he was as rude as the other two. The charm he’d shown in their initial meeting had completely disappeared, replaced with insolent snideness. He clearly held no interest in controlling his sister despite it being his job to do so. Rather he seemed quite happy to encourage her worst behaviours.

It had been truly hellish having to travel with the three of them. The man and Foxx appeared to have some kind of competition going regarding who could infuriate him more. They jumped upon him every time he so much as breathed, prodding him with unreasonable complaints about everything he did. Yet somehow, worse than the two of them was the girl.

She just loved acting so high and mighty, completely forgetting her place in the world and acting as though she ought to be in charge as if that idea wasn’t completely ridiculous. Of course, the other two encouraged her delusions, allowing her to stride around the place making decisions. While that might be expected from her brother, lazy men often did allow the women in their lives to take charge to not need to lift a finger themselves, there was no reasonable explanation for how she had Foxx eating out of her hand. Though, that relationship didn’t precisely seem one sided.

Oh yes, he had noticed the way the girl was throwing herself at the criminal. What a scandal waiting to happen that budding relationship was. He might’ve been tempted to expose it once they were back in the city, laugh at the resulting fall from grace it caused, but he had a far sweeter idea for his deserved revenge.

The moment they were back in society where the world made sense, he’d be enacting his plan. He still had some plotting to do to figure out the logistics of managing it all, but that could wait until later. At the very least, he was sure the profits from the scarabs would aid with it.

He pried another off the wall. He used a little too much force, sending the little thing flying off behind him. It mattered little. He could pick it up on his way out of here. It wouldn’t lose value from being on the floor a little while. Nor would he really lose value on his fortune from losing just one if it was now lost to the sand dusting the floors.

There was a certain providence to him finding this mural. Even if the girl’s clear incompetence led to the rest of them finding nothing of value, he would still walk out of here with a treasure horde. That meant just more power for him.

Wealth was precisely what he needed for his plan, to put himself on the same level as the siblings. Foxx he could easily ruin once they were back in the city. Those two, however, had money which meant the ability to worm their way out of his typical method of punishing people. It wasn’t hard to buy your way out of a criminal accusation which was the last thing he wanted when he attempted his revenge. It was just as easy, though, to buy a person’s guilt. Should he gain a fortune himself, all he’d need to do was outbid them.

He’d have fun when he finally got to put those—

There was what he swore was a crack behind him. He whipped around, eyes scouring the darkness for its source. Nothing greeted him but the passageway, empty as it should be. He could’ve sworn…

He shook his head. What was he doing acting as though he was a jumpy girl? No one knew he’d come down this way. When they did come looking for it, it would be loud and obvious, not a sneak attack. If for some unexplained reason someone was looking to attack him, he had a knife in hand and a gun on his belt. He would be able to swiftly defend himself and be well within his rights to do so. But there really was no one there and it was silly of him to act as though there might be.

Satisfied with his assessment, he turned back to his work, preparing his knife to pry another glimmering insect free.

Then he stopped. His knife was dropped to the ground, the handle bouncing on the stone. A sharp pain stabbed through his foot.

It was by far the worst pain he had ever felt. As though his flesh was being torn through and crawled into. A horrific, painful nightmare on its own, made worse as the source of pain began crawling up his leg.

Something was burrowing under his flesh. Higher and higher by the second. Further and further the pain travelled through his body.

In a fit of desperation, he tore open his shirt. It let him see it; the lump moving under his skin. Up from his stomach to his chest. He scratched at it, willing his nails to tear open his own skin. Anything to get this thing out of him.

Nothing he did stopped its ascent.

All there was left for the warden to do was scream as the lump crawled up his neck towards his head.

𓂀 𓂀 𓂀

Red drummed his fingers against his leg impatiently as Capsize read along the inscription of the sarcophagus. She was reading slower than normal, he was sure of that fact. He swore that she was going along the same section multiple times as if she was unsure of herself for the first time in her life. She almost certainly had good reasoning for that but even acknowledging that didn’t stop his growing impatience.

If Capsize was right, which she typically was, this was something new. It might not be gold or jewels, but discoveries of new parts of history had their worth if one knew who to go to about them. He and Capsize certainly did know people they could go to with this knowledge for it to be profitable. They just needed to be sure.

So, he tried to bite back his numerous questions to just allow his sister to work. Answers would only come slower if he interrupted. As such, he held his tongue, managing despite the struggle to stop himself from speaking until, finally, his sister raised her head up.

“Well, who is it?” He asked, restless. He didn’t quite know what he was hoping to hear. Some name he vaguely recognised followed by some ramble about their importance in history would be ideal, he supposed. The burial sites of kings and queens were always worth a pretty penny for the original discoverer. However, excitement wasn’t precisely the expression his sister was wearing.

“She who must be forgotten,” Capsize quoted, hardly able to understand it. The look of the sarcophagus and the location they had found it implied that this woman – whoever she was – was of some importance. Perhaps not a pharaoh, but not just anyone would be buried within the city of the dead.

Yet where a name should be upon their coffin, the bare minimum of information to denote who this soul was in life, instead engraved was a label insisting she be lost to history. It unsettled her. The logical conclusion was that this was the coffin of a criminal of some kind, but for her entire identity to have been stripped away from her, it left Capsize with a rather hollow feeling in her chest.

She swallowed, trying to steady her nerves. Whoever this soul was, her story was quite literally ancient history. Not only was getting upset over the potential reasons for the state of her burial rather pointless, it would also only prevent her from figuring out the actual facts of the matter. There would be answers to what happened to this woman, they just had to dig deeper. “By the size of it, I think there’s a second coffin within this one. That should have more engravings which will hopefully be less cryptic.”

That was really all she could think of to get further information. Normally, they’d be able to gather assumptions from things buried with the deceased, but well, that wasn’t really an option in this circumstance.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll be that simple,” Foxx spoke up. She hated to say so as her words gave Capsize a look of disappointment that caused a pang in her chest. However, she was fairly certain of her judgement. “Looks like the thing’s locked.”

Capsize looked in confusion towards the point Foxx was examining. She did hold an objection about it as she couldn’t fathom a reason for the soldier’s words being true. Yet, matching with the general oddities about this burial, the claim was indeed the truth.

Had she just been giving it a cursory glance, she would’ve assumed the odd star indent to be purely decorative. Even now, she wanted to believe that idea as it felt the far more logical conclusion, but she couldn’t deny Foxx’s conclusion. It was hard to see in the dim light, but she was just able to see the mechanisms within. The shape itself looked familiar to Capsize which was odd as she hadn’t seen nor so much as heard of a locked sarcophagus before.

“It doesn’t make sense…” She muttered, tracing a finger within it as she attempted to figure out any reason for this. There obviously had to be one, else there wouldn’t be all these peculiarities. However, she was left without any easy way to access the answers. It made her quiet. “It’s like they were trying to stop whoever’s in here from getting out.”

That seemed a preposterous idea, but perhaps it was meant to be a spiritual punishment. Perhaps the intention had been to stop the soul from moving on so they had locked up the body. She wasn’t sure that entirely made sense, but with no further information, she could only work on theories.

Red lent forward, resting his elbows atop the coffin.

“Can’t we just crack it open with the picks?” He questioned, immediately receiving a pained look from his sister. He had expected that. She was never going to like the idea of damaging something with historical value. He didn’t love the idea either but needs must. “Yes, yes Ize, I know. The history. But if the thing’s locked surely, it’s better to get in there than not.”

Capsize slumped, knowing that he was indeed right. As much as it absolutely pained her, her brother had a point.

“Something locked this tight won’t be that easy to force open. Probably lined with something we can’t just smash through,” Sonja spoke up. Even if she’d only felt the need to do so because of how dejected the woman looked, she was speaking from experience. Only idiots would put a heavy lock on something flimsy enough to completely ignore it. Given that the thing hadn’t shattered the moment it hit the ground, she doubted it was made by idiots. “Prefer not to break the tools if we can help it.”

“Well, what choice do we have? Unless we somehow find the key that lock will take months to crack,” Red found himself exasperated. It wasn’t as though they could spend a month here. They didn’t have the supplies for that. Nor could they lug the bloody thing back. They needed to get into it here and they needed to do so quickly.

“A key?” Capsize quietly questioned, thoughts beginning to turn. She kept staring at the star indent. She had definitely seen the shape before. It was so freshly familiar to her, but why? Where had she seen it? “A key!”

She perked up suddenly.

“That’s what that bastard on the boat was looking for!” She exclaimed. Everything clicked. The words that had been said with a knife pressed against her throat suddenly made sense. The object he had been willing to kill her over had been closer to hand than she had ever imagined.

The others looked at her rather baffled. However, she wasn’t about to stop for an explanation. She all but lunged towards her brother, rifling through his pockets to find what she needed.

“Oh, Jesus, you know you could just ask,” He complained, though it had no effect on her action. He barely had time to get through it before she had pulled the puzzle box from his jacket and was already hurrying back to the lock.

The grin on her face was wild, near manic, yet it was alluring. It was impossible to not be drawn in as she opened the box in a now well-practised manner. An excited laugh escaped her as she placed the unfurled box into the indent, its opened panels creating a star that fit perfectly within the lock. Somehow, her smile grew wider.

“Seems we have our way in.”

“Well, don’t leave us waiting. Let’s crack it open!” Red replied, his smile turning as wild as his sister’s. She could maybe learn a thing or two about verbalising her thoughts, but there was something both intoxicating and frightening about when her intelligence showed its potential.

Capsize took a breath. Whatever they found, it was going to be a discovery that would finally give her some credit within the academic world. That was as exciting as it was frankly terrifying. Her hands were shaking at the thought, but she didn’t want to put it off for even a moment.

She began to twist the key.

A scream filled the air

All three were stuck frozen by the sudden noise. It didn’t fade, instead growing just louder, clearer, closer. The longer it drew on, the longer they were forced to listen for, the more obvious it became who the source was.

“Shit!” Sonja drew her pistols and turned on a dime, sprinting into the tunnels towards the source. She might not like the warden, but the man was supposed to be under her protection. She couldn’t just leave him to die.

Capsize followed right after despite what an ill idea that might be. Had the soldier had a spare second, she certainly would’ve told the siblings to stay put. Not that Capsize would’ve done so regardless. She didn’t know what danger Alister had gotten himself into, but she knew the safest place to be in these ruins was by Foxx’s side.

Red only paused for a moment, remaining only a few seconds longer than his sister to grab the puzzle box back from the sarcophagus. He had no idea if any of their fellows would find this chamber, but on the off chance they did, he wasn’t risking losing the damn thing now he knew how important it was.

The corridors’ maze-like winding was far more stressful with a soundtrack of pained screams echoing through them. However horrid a man the warden was, not a soul deserved whatever torturous experience could be causing such a reaction. Though that fuelled their speed, it made the labyrinth no easier to navigate.

When they finally caught sight of him, it was as horrific a one as the noises escaping him implied. The man who throughout the entire journey had remained the buttoned-up image of a professional despite lacking the personality of one, was a ragged mess. His shirt was torn open, scratches and cuts littering his stomach, chest, and neck. Chunks of his hair had been torn out, his scalp too left bloody at certain points.

Yet worse, there was no sign of any attacker. It was just the man himself with a crazed look in his eyes as he flailed wildly with bloodied hands. Still, he howled in pain, hardly sounding human.

Sonja took a cautious step towards him. She had no idea why the hell he might be doing this to himself, but she needed to stop him before it got any worse. It shouldn’t be too hard to restrain him. God knows how she’d calm him down afterwards, but that was a task for once he was properly prevented from harming himself.

She took another, more decisive step towards him, confident in her ability to do something to stop him, when the man let out a guttural wail. There was something different about this one, something that triggered Sonja to sprint to try and stop what was to happen next.

But she was too late.

Alister, without any hesitation, turned to the closest wall and bashed his own head against it.

Capsize gasped at the sight of it. Red stepped forward and attempted to turn her away, but he couldn’t budge her. She was locked, frozen, staring at the nauseating sight.

Sonja made a grab for the man, but he somehow held enough strength to shove her off him. As she was pushed back, he once more thrust his head towards ancient stone.

There was a crack. A squelch.

The man fell silent. He slumped to the ground.

The horrid noise was replaced by ragged breath as all three stood staring at the bloodied mess on the ground. They didn’t need Foxx to check his pulse, the result of what they had just watched was obvious, but she did anyway. Her hand came back bloodied from the mess of a corpse they were left with.