Aswan, Egypt, December 19, 2009, 11:30 am.
“Look what they sent me,” Camellia gave Rayan the papyruses and smirked. He checked each one intensely, then looked at Camellia, who eyed everyone around them. The Hotel Café was crowded, her eyes shifted from each person’s neck to track which one had the symbol.
“All possessed?”
“Yeah, how disgusting those bastards thought they could control me as well,” Camellia said. “Before I came back to my body, they sent me that papyruses telling this terrible story to convince me that Nadine is the bad guy and needed to be safe or whatever.”
“That’s creepy.” Camellia took all the papyruses from the box and spread it on the car’s hood. A sudden shiny light reflected from the box hit her eyes. She left the papyruses on the car and reached her hand inside the box.
She felt pain in the back of her head; her face went pale as if all the blood ran out of her body. She was barely breathing. She took one step backward; her sight went hazy. In a matter of seconds, the ground beneath her vibrated, and she crumpled, falling hard on the ground with her hand clinging to the necklace and eventually she lost consciousness.
“Wake up,” a voice said into her ear. She opened her eyes slowly to adjust to the place she was in. A foreign place with no end; an empty white void. Her body felt normal again. She stood up, looking for any clues to figure out where she was, yet nothing looked familiar or normal.
She walked, hoping she could find anything to stop this scary feeling from crawling into her soul. She stopped suddenly and screamed, nothing in return, just her echo hitting back at her. “Camellia,” a deep old male voice said behind her. She slowly turned and saw a man in his mid-fifties, with grayish hair, and a tall athletic body wearing black pants, and a dark green polo shirt with long sleeves.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Donggun… Liam’s father,” Donggun said and looked at the ground, hiding his face from Camellia’s gaze.
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“Liam’s father…!”
“Tell Liam I’m sorry,” Donggun said and looked into Camellia’s eyes. She felt the sadness coming through his teary eyes. “Liam and Nadine need your help… I shouldn’t have stayed there, I unveiled a secret… time is repeating itself and erasing everything… it is my fault, I shouldn’t have told Addaya what I saw.” Camellia was completely confused, Donggun looked at her and said, “follow me.”
Donggun walked to a unique-looking tree with green, violet, and blue leaves. Camellia looked at it and frowned. “Where did this tree come from?!”
“Touch the leaves and you will know everything,” Donggun said and left Camellia standing alone. Camellia didn’t notice that Donggun had left her; she reached to touch the leaves. Within seconds, Camellia gasped hard after her mind absorbed all the memories of Donggun.
“What the hell?!” Camellia said and felt a sudden dread as Donggun watched her from far both felt a powerful earthquake.
“Wait, Donggun is here? But Jalila said this reality is safe for Nadine. I thought it was just a matter of time for us to wipe them all and for Nadine to be ready,” Rayan said. “And if they could do all this, why didn’t they recognize you?”
“I don’t know. I have been here for eight years, Rayan. Even after I merged back into my mundane body, they didn’t. They are weaker, but everywhere. They possess souls and drain them from their powers. When I got the box, I was in a future vision. The bastard who sent me those drains the power of astral projection. He sends my mundane body into the Barzakh.”
Rayan shifted in his chair and said, “They got to the Barzakh! But how? This reality has no Heka.”
“Somehow, they could take over some of the strongest powers from Meritamun’s time before getting here.”
“Where is Liam now?”
“His time is close,” Camellia said and checked her watch.
Rayan looked around suddenly and said, “I don’t feel comfortable sitting here with them around.”
Camellia smirked, her tattoo glowed under her long sleeve shirt, and said, “Get us some tea to drink till I finish.”
“Stop bragging.”
“It’s the only fun I have since that shit began. I didn’t even get to enjoy my mundane life,” Camellia said while the bright blue strings from her tattoo slowly transformed into her sharp sword.
Rayan chuckled and walked to the nearest coffee machine inside the hotel. Camellia stood in the middle of the great hall, and with a quick sharp thrust, she stabbed the hotel floor with dominant force. A mighty and almost blinding light blast from the deadly sword spread over every inch of the hotel, along with their screams.
A few moments later.
Rayan walked back, avoiding the unconscious bodies lying on the floor. Camellia was still standing in the same spot, but out of breath. “That was a good one,” Rayan said and handed her the warm tea. She took the cup from his hand; she was still breathing hard. “Are you okay?”
“It’s time,” she said.
“You sense him?”
“Yeah, go to Liam now.”