The door of the shop shot open, with so much force Dan was surprised it didn't rip off the hinges or shatter the glass in the window of the wall it hit.  He was about to open his mouth to complain but with an inhuman speed whoever opened the door rushed him with such force he was knocked flat on his ass, driving the wind out of his longues.

He prepared himself for another blow but it never came, sitting on him straddling him was none other than Bastet.  Her eyes were red with desperation and the eyelids looked large and puffy like she had been crying.

“Where is she!?!”  she managed to croak out in a hoarse voice.  She looked like she was in a bad way.

“Who-?”  Dan started but she gripped the front of his shirt and shook him as he was speaking.

“Don't give me that! Where is she!?”

“Tell me who is missing first!”  he shouted back, she pulled back slightly, blinking twice at the force in his voice.  It seemed to bring her back from a  state of near madness and into a state that was just frantic.

“Sara, sara is gone.”  Bastet hung her head. “I went home to so I could make the oil but when I got there the house was ablaze and Sara was nowhere to be found, the place looked like it had been ransacked and there was a struggle, and there was the smell of magic, Amani’s magic to be specific.”  

“So the Gallu has made its first move.”  Dan said, Amani and Abyzou stepped out of the residential area to see what all the ruckus was about, only to find Bastet sitting on top of Dan in a pretty compromising position.  Abby started to hiss and was about to launch herself but Bastet pulled herself off of Dan.

“What is a Gallu?” She asked as she stood up.

“A fake Djinn,”  she said. “I was imprisoned with bracers that were created by the Akkadian empire that leached out had over ten thousand years of my magic and sealed in them, its how you seal a being made out of pure magic, you drain their magic so they have no power to do anything, as such that is what the bracers do to Djinns.”  she looked at Dan. “Those bracers have so much mana in them...”

“So this Gallu has all that magic under its control  and he has some sort of beef with you so he kidnapped Sara?  How does that make sense? Why Sara.”

“Not quite, you see they may have the power and mana of the Djinn, but they have no control over it, they are not made of magic how are they supposed to know what it truly is or how to use it?”  she sank her head into his chest. “They can only unleash the mana in destructive ways, They often go mad from the pain of having magic forcefully occupying their bodies, they were not made for it.” Amani explained.

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“Wait wait, Sara? As in Sara Lawrence?”  Dan asked, his eyes going wide.  Bastet snapped her head over towards him.

“You know her?” she asked there was a sharpness in her voice.

“She used to be my teacher, and she came to visit us yesterday.”

“What? Why did she visit?”

“She uh needed to talk with me.”  Dan said he rubbed the back of his head with his hand.

“About what?”  she asked her eyes narrowing.

“She confessed her love to Dan.”  Amani said.

“So it was you!” Bastet hissed, “You are the reason she was crying!” Bastet hissed and grabbed onto Dan’s shoulders. “Why did you say no to her? Was she to plain for you? Why did you make her cry?!?!”  he fingernails dug into his skin.

“He didn't reject her, when she found out he had multiple wives she slapped him and left in a hurry.” Abyzou hissed.

“Why would she do that?”  Bastet asked.

“It is not socially accepted in this time period, it is seen as a bad or evil thing to have more than one spouse.”  Amani answered. “That is besides the point, we need to focus, the Gallu has taken her and we don’t know where or why, and we don't have the khatam flame ready, in fact we are missing three main ingredients.”

“That is a problem, can we make it, and it will just be less effective without those ingredients?” Dan asked, less effective was better than completely in effective.

“That is not the issue here, it would be too effective, those ingredients don't increase the potency, they keep the power of the flame in check.”  she sighed. “If i was to make it now it would not be a soul sealing blade, it would be a soul devouring blade, if we were to kill a creature of magic with it its soul would never again be reborn, on top of that all the other multiverse versions would now be slightly less, they would lose their souls and die aswell, he and all his versions would be erased from everything.”

“Even if his other selves did nothing wrong...” Dan finished for her.

“Yes.”

Dan sighed as he ran his hand over his face, he would not be killing just one man. He would be killing millions, billions, perhaps more.  And who knows what effect that would have on others in those infinite worlds.

“Make it.”  Bastet said. Everyone looked over at her. “If you cannot bear the sin of killing that many then I will, I was not a goddess of war for nothing.”

“You can’t, you have Magic ties to your soul, it is what the sword targets.”  Amani said. “Dan is the only one here that can use the blade, the choice has to be his.”

“Make it, I will not allow someone to suffer because I was indecisive.”

“Dan...” Amani placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Do it Amani.”

“Understood, it should take me about thirty minutes to make it.”

“We don't have that long!”  Bastet hissed.

“Then we better stall.”  Abyzou said, her human form shifting into the familiar Lamia form Dan had come to know and love. Bastet looked at her, “I may not be a goddess of war like you, but I can hold my own in a fight.”

Dan grabbed the khopesh and attached it to his back. He looked over at Amani. “Will you be able to find us?”  he asked looking at her.  She showed him her hand, which was glowing with a bright gold seal, he picked up his hand and saw it was glowing as well.

“No matter where you go.”  she said softly, he leaned in and gave her a kiss.  “Be safe Dan.”  she whispered.

“Come quickly,”  he responded.