As Zeni plummeted through the air, she reached out to her invocations, grasping for any shred of power that might save her from the impending impact. Her thoughts turned to Breath of Shu, and in a flash, she considered that the increased Ka in the area might also strengthen her own powers. Desperate, she focused her energy on the airy invocation, willing it to aid her.

The moment Zeni called upon the Ka around her, she suddenly felt like she was falling in slow motion. Surprised and bewildered by the sensation, she blinked and looked over to find herself face-to-face with a peculiar being. The creature was a curious amalgamation of elemental properties such as cloud, swirling air, and mist—though it had a generally feminine humanoid shape. Zeni noticed its body was covered in hieroglyphs and other unrecognizable symbols—exuding an aura of otherworldliness akin to a nature spirit or something more deific. Most inexplicably, the creature was floating next to her and grinning.

"Where are we going?" the being asked nonchalantly as if it were the most natural thing in the world to be falling in slow motion alongside a young dungeoneer.

Zeni stared, utterly gobsmacked.

"I'm...falling? To my possible doom?"

"Oh, that sounds exciting!" the being exclaimed. "I'm Serqet, by the way. Guardian spirit of this chamber, at your service!"

"Zeni," she managed to choke out, still trying to wrap her head around the absurdity of the situation. "And, uh, nice to meet you?"

"Likewise!" Serqet replied cheerfully. "So, what brings you to this perilous descent? And more importantly, do you have a plan for dealing with that nasty impact waiting for you at the bottom?"

Zeni's mind raced as she tried to think of a solution.

"Well, I didn't exactly plan on falling, and as for the impact...I hoped my Ka might help, but I'm unsure if it's strong enough."

Serqet gave her a conspiratorial wink.

"Ah, but you see, young Zooni, you've come to the right place. This chamber is positively brimming with Ka energy. If you can harness it, you might just be able to save yourself."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Zeni asked, her voice tinged with panic.

"Well, that's the fun part," Serqet grinned. "You—"

"Let me guess," Zeni interrupted with a gasp, the wind whipping at her hair as she tumbled through the air. "I've had the power inside me all along and need to figure it out?"

The spirit blinked its innumerable eyes.

"What? That doesn't make any sense. The power inside you is puny, and if you rely on yourself, you're going to go splat."

Zeni grimaced, both at the blunt honesty of the spirit's words and the slowly approaching ground below.

"Well, then, what do you suggest?"

The being's countless eyes twinkled mischievously.

"I'm going to do something controversial."

Before Zeni could ask what that meant, the creature reached out and grabbed her by the arms. With a grunt, it spun her around like a hammer thrower during a competition. The speed and force of the spin sent her hurtling toward the pool of water rather than the unforgiving ground.

Zeni let out a yelp of surprise as she arced through the air, her stomach lurching as the world whirled around her. The spirit waved at her, that wide, curious grin still plastered across its face.

"Best of luck!" it called out as Zeni splashed into the pool with a graceless belly flop.

The water was shockingly cold, and the impact stung like a thousand nettles. Zeni was pretty sure from the distance she'd fallen, she still should have been immediately vaporized by the force of the impact if she'd dropped straight there…but she wasn't. The spirit—Serqet, had stopped her terminal velocity when it launched her back up and over, softening the blow. The pool of water had hurt, but it was a far better fate than the one she'd been hurtling toward moments ago. Gasping for breath, she clawed her way to the surface, shivering and sputtering.

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"Thanks... I think," she muttered, glancing around for the strange spirit. But it was nowhere to be seen, having vanished just as mysteriously as it had appeared.

And so, Zeni found herself in the pool, soaked and chilled to the bone but miraculously unharmed. The universe, it seemed, had a peculiar way of balancing its cruelties with moments of unexpected fortune. And while she might question the method, she couldn't deny the result.

Zeni heaved herself out of the lake, coughing and choking as she tried to expel the water from her lungs. Her clothes clung to her, sodden and heavy, but she hardly noticed as she crawled onto the shore and collapsed beside the monstrous corpse. Her mind raced, trying to process the sudden revelation of Serqet and how it fit into the grand design of her Ka and her class. The creature had appeared the moment she'd tried to use her own Ka…

"What the hell just happened?" she muttered, half to herself and half to the lifeless creature. "I mean, I know I've got this whole Ka thing going on, but really, universe? You couldn't have given me a little more warning before you decided to introduce some kind of unhinged dungeon spirit?"

As she lay there, catching her breath and attempting to untangle the philosophical knots in her head, Zeni noticed something odd about the shagallu. Its blue skin seemed to be glowing. It was a faint but unmistakable aura that completely surrounded its enormous form. She blinked, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but the glow persisted.

"Alright, Zeni," she told herself, "you've seen weirder things in this place, like whatever the hell just happened a second ago. Just don't panic. Maybe it's a... magical…dead shagallu? Or something?"

She decided to investigate, her curiosity overcoming her initial shock. She quickly crawled forward, approaching the corpse with an investigative mindset. She squinted, looking for any sign of the aura's source. After several moments of perusal, Zeni realized that the glow didn't seem to emanate from any specific part of the creature. Instead, it radiated from its entire body as if the beast were infused with Ka, even posthumously.

"Well, that's just strange," she muttered. "I wonder if I'll glow like that when I die?"

Her gaze then turned to the question of what had caused the shagallu's demise. There were no visible wounds or signs of damage on the creature, leaving Zeni baffled as to how it had met its end. She considered the possibility that it had fallen, just like she had, but quickly dismissed the idea. If it had fallen, there would have been some evidence of impact, like a mark or blood splatter, but there was nothing.

Drawing on her Ka, Zeni cautiously reached out with her senses, trying to determine if the glow was connected to the same energy she had just learned to harness. What she found, however, was something altogether different. While it shared some similarities with the usual hallmarks of Ka, this energy felt...strange. It was unique, like nothing she had ever encountered before. It seemed to dance and flicker, defying her attempts to grasp its nature fully.

"Sit…still," Zeni commanded the mystical force. "I'm tryin' to wrestle you into submission…and you're…making that…very hard!"

It took a lot out of her to try and corral the slippery Ka, but she was still intrigued by the odd energy that seemed to inhabit the shagallu's very essence. She gave up after a moment. Whatever it was, it was different enough from what she was used to that it completely waved off any of her attempts—like a particularly sudsy bar of soap. She considered reaching out to touch the creature to see if physical contact might offer any further insights but thought better of it, not wanting to risk angering the shagallu's spirit or, worse—inadvertently activating some hidden trap.

Instead, she turned her attention to the surrounding area, hoping to glean some information about the chamber she now found herself in and search for any evidence that might shed light on the shagallu's mysterious death.

As she did so, Zeni heard the faint sound of something moving. She looked up through the hole in the ceiling and saw a creature perched there, watching her intently. It appeared to have been assembled by a committee of ancient Egyptian gods who had gathered after a few too many cups of sacred wine. The beast bore the formidable head of a crocodile, its rows of teeth gleaming like a saw blade crafted by a dental maniac.

Its body, in a whimsical twist, resembled that of a caracal, sleek and sinewy, complete with tufted ears that twitched in a manner that suggested it was both listening and judging at the same time. And then there were the hindquarters. It seemed that Anubis had decided to join the party at the eleventh hour, gifting the creature with the hind legs and bushy tail of a jackal.

The creature's wings, clearly an afterthought from a particularly creative deity, jutted from its caracal torso, their large, leathery spans reminiscent of a giant bat but with the grandiosity of a hawk's plumage. The resulting creature was an oddity, to say the least. Zeni couldn't help but wonder if it had been designed on a dare or due to a divine wager gone awry.

The creature appeared roughly the dimensions of a particularly well-fed lion that had decided to try its paw at cosplay. Whatever the case, the animal perched on the edge of the hole, its many eyes scrutinizing Zeni with curiosity and malice, as though it were debating whether she'd be more fun to toy with or simply devour.

As Zeni continued to watch the creature, she realized it was making no move to attack or flee. It simply observed her, its beady crocodilian eyes following her every movement. This standoff continued for a few tense moments, neither Zeni nor the creature making sudden moves.

Eventually, Zeni decided that she could do little more than watch and wait, hoping the creature would subsequently reveal its purpose. With a deep breath, she focused her gaze on the being, ready to react if it chose to spring into action. For now, however, it seemed content to merely observe her from its perch, adding another layer of mystery to her already perplexing situation.

Trying her best to ignore the winged beast above, Zeni returned her attention to the shagallu and the bizarre energy that enveloped it. She decided that, despite the potential risks, she needed to learn more about this strange Ka emanating from the creature. Cautiously, she focused her mind and attempted to establish a connection once more with the energy using her own Ka. However, this time, rather than trying to manipulate the Ka as a way of identifying it, she simply brushed against it, trying to make contact rather than force it into a particular configuration—like the mystical energy version of a wave of greeting.

As soon as Zeni reached out to the energy in this way, the light surrounding the shagallu grew brighter, casting an eerie glow across the chamber. The winged creature above rustled its wings, clearly startled by the sudden change. Zeni was taken aback, her heart pounding as she watched the unexpected transformation.

Then, to her immense surprise, the light from the aura began to coalesce, swirling and shifting until it formed something that resembled a floating tablet above the shagallu's body. Zeni stared in wonder as a single symbol appeared on the tablet, shimmering with a translucent silver light.

She did not recognize the glyph depicted on the…tablet, but she knew what it was, much like when she understood Neith's words when she first arrived. Zeni felt a wave of perplexity and excitement wash over her. Overwhelmed, she couldn't help but marvel at the glamorous glimmering glyph floating in the air—an object she'd wanted nearly as bad as when she'd first desired to explore the dungeon.

This was an Ankh.