Addaya was awakened by the coolness of the air and the aroma of freshly made red wine. Meritamun was sitting on a chair, drinking wine with her eyes closed, resting her head on the wall, and taking deep breaths when he looked to the left. “Love,” Addaya said, putting his weight on his elbows. “Are you okay?” he asked, roused by her sad expression.

“Just tired,” Meritamun said, smiling weakly.

Addaya stood up and approached her. “Love, what troubles you?” he asked, squatting in front of her.

Meritamun bent over and kissed him long and passionately. Addaya smiled as she moved her gaze away from his lips. “Hori wants you to meet him at his house.”

“In his house?” Addaya questioned, surprised.

“Did you get into a fight with him or something?”

“No, why?” he exclaimed, still surprised.

“The servant he sent said he was outraged and wanted you to come to his house as soon as you wake up,” she said as she walked out of the room, leaving Addaya standing there trying to organize his thoughts. He had the uneasy feeling he was about to walk right into a disaster.

Later.

As Addaya walked towards Hori’s house, he felt nervous and uncertain with each step he took. He was only a few steps away when he came across one of Hori’s servants who looked terrified. Followed by Hori’s angry loud shouting, which caused both Addaya and the servant to jump a little.

“Master Addaya! He is enraged and wants you inside right now!” Addaya nodded nervously before entering the house.

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“ADDAYA!” Hori yelled angrily, which caught him off guard; with the last servant running outside, Hori and Addaya were alone in the massive house. “You fool! how dare you?”

“What happened?” Addaya inquired, unsure of what Hori was on about.

“You destroyed everything!” Hori said while throwing a cup of wine at Addaya. “You were taught not to mess up with time! how could you let the time traveler stay this long!”

“I...I was teaching him about our magic; the world needs to know how powerful we are,” Addaya explained as he wiped the wine from his face.

“It is not up to you to decide!” Hori yelled once more.

“I did what I thought was right for our nation!”

“Was that your true motivation?”

“Yes, master.”

“If you’re telling the truth, what is this then?” Hori said as he walked to a table in the far corner of the room, holding something golden in his fingers.

“This…” With his eyes wide open, Addaya pointed at it.

“This is Kiya’s pectoral,” Hori said, standing in front of Addaya’s stunned expression. “Do you know what it holds? You recall how your lethal curiosity led to it with the help of your time traveler friend.”

“Master… I can explain,” Addaya said hesitantly.

“You allowed a time traveler from the future to stay, taught him everything we knew about magic and power, you even used forbidden spells on him and revealed the book of the dead to him!”

Hori stopped Addaya from speaking by raising his hand. “You unlocked the pectoral, revealing its identity, and then used a dark spell to alter the energy of the time traveler to dig into a past that is not yours,” Hori said, his voice deep and angry. “You not only jeopardized your friend’s power; you also sabotaged the future.”

“Sabotaged the future...?!” Addaya stated startlingly.

“The future changed because of your idiotic curiosity; When I cast the spell in the past, I was protecting our pharaoh and the kingdom. Nebuaui agreed because it was the only way to protect Kiya and Meritamun, and now everything will be destroyed because of you.”

“I just knew what happened! How is that affecting the future? I’m not going to tell Meritamun anything neither does Donggun!”

“She already knows!!” Hori yelled, and the echo of his voice throughout the house made it sound even louder.

“How! I didn’t tell her anything and I’m sure Donggun didn’t either.”

“Her mother told her,” Hori stated as he slapped Addaya’s right hand with the pectoral.

“But… she’s dead,” Addaya said, looking at the pectoral that seemed different.

“The Bennu is now free, and it has merged with Meritamun,” Hori said.