I turned to the priestess and thanked her, who smiled and bowed herself out, saying that I would be let alone to rest. I stood by myself in the house for several minutes, just staring around at the familiar looking furnishings and after a moment I went slowly to touch things, running my fingers over the bed, the tables, the chairs, the wooden tub. There was a brightly colored woven rug on the floor under and around the bed that extended into the living area of the room. There was a second room, and that held actual amenities for me to cook and to store food and eat. I lifted the lid of a box to find fresh bread, and a small barrel held all sorts of produce in it as well as another small barrel that held fresh clean water in it.

I went through the entire room to find everything that had been provided for me. I found apples and pears and berries, plums, grapes and oranges and papaya. There was honey and beer and water. The bread was soft as if it had been baked that day. There was cheese, both soft and spreadable and hard to slice or just to bite into. There were eggs, cold cooked meats, which the sight of churned my stomach unpleasantly, and all sorts of vegetables, some of which I didn't know what they were.

Seeing and smelling the fruits and the bread made my long empty stomach growl angrily, so I found myself a plate of sorts, and I pulled out bread, cheese, a few fruits, and found myself a sort of mug and filled it with the water. I went to sit on the bed with my fare, not bothering to care whether someone were to come and see me eating as such, and put butter and honey on the bread, which was rich and soft. I took my time to enjoy the food as I hadn't done so in about a thousand years.

The fresh fruit and cheese, clean water and bread filled me up, and finally I set aside the plate on a nearby bedside table, and finished my water. The sun was beginning to rise, the dark sky lightening in the distance that I could see through the window of what felt as close to a home that I'd had in well over a thousand years now. And what made it unlike any home I'd ever had was that people actually seemed to like me for the first time.

I lay down, imagining what living in this place might be like. It was the first time I could remember actually having a little hope, and I was so disconnected from the emotion that I couldn't even identify it at the time. I just knew I felt strangely, and much lighter than I had in two thousand years for the most part. It was a feeling I could only associate with my mother. As the sun rose up over the Nile, I fell asleep, exhaustion taking me finally.

* * *

It was late morning when I woke suddenly to the presence of a person in my little house. I bolted upright in the bed I hadn't even meant to fall asleep in and got off the bed, padding in my healed bare feet toward the next room where the unknown person was located. When I got to the doorway, I could see a female in priestess' attire standing in the living area with her back to me. She was blonde, as now that Romans had found their way into Egypt it wasn't uncommon any longer for there to be people with hair color different from black.

I cleared my throat and the young human female turned around and smiled at me and bowed slightly. She said that I was needed in the temple main before stepping out of the little house without waiting for an answer. I didn't know what I could possibly be needed or wanted for. I quickly ran the provided brush through my hair and straightened my mother's pendant around my neck before I stepped out into the sunlight and headed toward the main temple. The grounds were busy now that it was daylight, and the sounds of people and carts and animals made everything feel like things had before I'd had to go on the run when I'd been young.

The temple doors were open wide now, and people were going in and out to pray or give offerings to the Mother. Painted carvings lined the pillars and walls, lit now by sunlight through the windows as well as the torches that lines the walls. I was admitted to the inner temple where only the priestesses were allowed, and I found that the high priestess waited for me with a warm smile and a slight bow as I approached her.

It had been a long time since I had heard my own native tongue that I actually had to hide choking up a little when she spoke and gave me her name; Ahnesh. She asked me if the house that had been provided was to my liking, and I told her that it indeed was, thanked her, and asked if that was the reason she had asked for me. She told me no it wasn't.

We walked side by side as people passed us, and she gave blessings to those who asked on behalf of the Mother. Once we were once more outside the temple main and walking the grounds of the island she spoke.

'You are a very unique being, as we have guessed from the dreams the Mother sent us of your coming. It would be a great asset to the temple if you would agree to become its High Priestess in my place. I'm not sure where you've come to us from, but your presence alone is compelling and commanding. I'm sure that the people would love you.'

I listened in a stunned silence. This female was asking me to take her own place in the temple, and I couldn't believe it. We walked together in silence for a few long moments.

'I can't,' I said. 'I have been given a job that will take up much of my time. I am not able to assume the responsibilities that come with being High Priestess..'

The other female looked disappointed, her expression falling a little bit. But she accepted my answer, and asked if I would mind if they honored me as a chosen daughter of the Gods. This I had no idea how to respond, as no such thing had ever been said to me. My centuries as the head mage of the Pharaoh and adviser were long gone, and I really had no desire to return to them. Seeing my expression, Ahnesh went on to explain that I didn't have to do anything but one day in a month where I could let the people come to see just me, give offerings to the Gods, and join in with the temple's festival that day. I told her that I wanted to think about it. That I really wasn't sure that I would have the time where I was going to be occupied for lengthy periods of time in a place that had no concept of time.

Ahnesh seemed disappointed, but she accepted my answer with the grace befitting a high priestess, for which I was thankful. She knew that duty to the Gods came first for people like us, so she smiled and said that she would wait for my answer, and that I should use the next few days to rest and recuperate and learn my way around the temple and grounds before beginning the job that I had been given. She gave a small bow and smiled, leaving me to think and to explore on my own.

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I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering and exploring the entire island, greeting people as they passed, some of the priestesses of the temple bowing as I passed. I hadn't experienced this in centuries and no longer really knew how to handle it. I no longer had the horrible spite that my father had instilled in me that had made me hate everything. I was cold and more emotionless than I liked. The sky didn't even seem blue to me. I wondered a little if I were the same person who had cried over her mother in the small hours of the morning when I had arrived on the island. But then, I wore my mother's clothes and my mother's jewelry, and I felt that same lump form in my throat that had been the night before and remembered that I wasn't entirely icy on the inside.

Once or twice in my wanderings during the day I thought I caught sight of a familiar face, but it was gone before I could really look, but I felt as if I were being watched somehow. It didn't make sense to me, my brother wouldn't have bothered to follow me when I had left him in that nameless town. My brother also didn't have dark hair nor was he as tall as this implacable face. But every time I tried to get a better look it was as if he had been merely my imagination.

The day was spent much the same as that, and at dusk I found my way back to the little house that had been provided me. There was fresh bread once again, it was even still warm, and as I hadn't eaten since before dawn, I didn't think to waste any time. I had half of the loaf of bread, with cheese and fruit and honey, with water from the barrel to drink. It was such a simple thing, to have good food that I wanted to eat rather than eating to keep from being beaten. I felt better afterward, and I went to sit on the bench outside to watch the dusk become night, listening to the temple quieting and listening to the things around me. I once more felt as if I were being watched, but there wasn't a sound in the vicinity of my little house.

A servant to the temple came around lighting the torches, and the presence seemed to vanish. The girl saw me sitting and she bowed as if I were Queen, lit the torches around my little house and scurried off as though she were embarrassed or nervous. I didn't read too much into it since the girl was just a child yet, and I sat back once more to watch the sky get darker and the fires from the torches dancing against the dusk.

I don't know when I fell asleep, but I did. The air cooled, and at some point I was vaguely aware of someone near me, but I was still asleep, thinking I was dreaming, as I had begun to do so often, of things that seemed real, or were memories relived in the nights. It seemed as though that presence that had been watching me periodically during the day picked me up, and how I didn't wake I couldn't say, as I didn't sleep very deeply anymore. It felt like I was being carried somewhere the chill of the night air didn't reach, and I thought I could hear a fire crackling somewhere nearby. A moment later I thought I was set down on something soft, and I thought I heard a quiet male voice saying something in a language I had never heard before and didn't understand.

I opened my eyes a little, and as tired as I was I thought I saw that implacable familiar face once more as it turned away and left my little house. I woke up fully and sat up, hurrying to get off my bed, but when I got to the doorway to the outside there wasn't a soul about in the dark. I stood holding onto the edges of the doorway looking all over for the strange male who had apparently put me to bed not only without waking me but also without harming me. But with no one in sight and no way to prove it wasn't my imagination or just a dream, I went back into my little house and climbed into the bed once more to try and sleep.

* * *

There was fire everywhere, the smoke of burning flesh and burning buildings was choking. I stood at the gates of Rome with the general before me. I was bleeding heavily, I could smell it. And he stood laughing at me. I had no weapon, which was strange because I thought that I had had one. The Roman had a sword though, and I clutched at my side and belly that was sticky with my own blood. The Roman said something, but I couldn't hear it over the roaring in my ears and the explosive flames. He rushed me, the tip of his blade aimed for my body and...

* * *

I bolted upright in the soft bed, drenched in sweat and shaking like a leaf in high wind. The fire in the hearth had burned down to embers, but in the dark, with the dream, I didn't know where I was for several long moments. I felt my skin under the damp linen and found no gash as I had had when I had actually burned Rome to the ground. I'd been having repeats of the same two dreams for months, since my mind had become clear and I had gained my freedom. One was of the fire, the other I woke from screaming for my stolen son who was long dead now. I constantly relived memories from the last fifteen years in Rome, the time I had been kept drugged was a complete blank, and I only knew that a hundred fifty years had passed since my capture. I was coming up on a year of freedom in a few months, and it felt like nothing had changed.

I got up from my bed and with shaking hands got some water from the barrel in my little pantry store room. I don't know why I continued to dream that the Roman hadn't died that night. I knew full well that I had killed him and left him there on the ground amongst the fires at the gates of the city. I drank my water, and set down the ladle again. I knew I wouldn't sleep anymore that night, so I headed towards the temple main. Not a soul was near, but I once again felt like I was being watched. I wasn't sure how I felt about this feeling, especially when there had been someone who put me into bed just a couple of hours ago.

I headed into the inner temple, towards the door that was there against the wall and blended in with the carvings there, painted in bright colors with golden lettering. I went up to it, and whispered the phrase that Horus had taught me the night before, and the line that separated the door from the wall appeared and the stone swung open silently, and moonlight spilled onto the darkened floor before I stepped through the doorway.

The stone door shut behind me as quietly as it had opened. I walked along the flowering tree lined path towards the Cove. I could hear the waterfall as I walked along the moss path in my bare feet. The moonlight was bright, and the full mood rose over the waterfall almost perfectly centered. The odd thing was that the moonlight was so bright it was almost like daylight rather than night.

The little tiger cub came to meet me at the edge of the water while I looked up at the sight before me, alone this time, and able to take a real look at things. Across the water came the tiny crocodile hatchling, swimming as fast as his tiny legs would allow, and I reached down to scoop it up into my hands from the water. He chattered at me a little, and it made me smile slightly, a name coming to me in the sound; Zephyr. I said it out loud, and the tiny reptile blinked at me and seemed to be smiling at me. The tiger cub rubbed up against me, making her little crackling cub purr while she rubbed against my legs and I sat down with the hatchling in my hands still so that perhaps the cub's name would come to me as well. I stroked the tiger with one hand while the other held Zephyr before he jumped out of my hand and scurried off back into the water, and the cub climbed straight into my lap and put her head on my thigh and purred.

I leaned my head down onto her side and listened to the sound, waiting for a name to come to me. Living in several different countries and cultures had given me a wider range of vocabulary. I had liked traveling through Greece, and I made something up along those lines. I would call her Kyah. As soon as I thought of it her purrs became louder and I smiled against her fur. I heard a rustle of feathers and down came two different birds to perch in front of me. One was the falcon I saw the night before, the other was a female snowy owl, which I didn't know at the time, but I am much more informed in my old age.

I looked at them as they looked at me, and like Kyah and Zephyr, seemed to be silently sentient. It was as if they had come down for their names as well. The snowy owl I felt almost immediately and she became Hera. Once more I looked at the falcon, and it might have been unoriginal, but I decided on calling him Horus.

With everyone with names finally, I sat with them for a while in the quiet and now and then I would feel light raindrops, though the sky never clouded and it never got actually dark. Time didn't seem to pass at all in this place, the now normal full moon staying in the exact same place over the waterfall as it had been even the night before.

Eventually my curiosity overcame me and I got up to head into the cave behind the waterfall where all the tomes and scrolls were for me to read and learn from. I walked along the stone carved shelves and picked a random gold tome from the shelf to look at.