2 YEARS AND 8 MONTHS LATER
The bound and gagged people struggled against their captors as they were dragged out of the backseat of Mark’s SUV. The slaver gestured at one of his men, who pulled a suitcase out of the nearby shack. The thug opened the suitcase in front of Mark, revealing it to be filled with bottles of water. Mark took out one of the bottles, checked the cap (unbroken) and labelling (not removed), shook the bottle, and put it back with the others.
The slaver nodded as he watched Mark inspect the suitcase. “See you next week, eh, friend?”
“Yeah, sure. See you next week, Rachid.”
Mark took the suitcase and put it in the boot of his car, along with the canned food and spare fuel. Rachid started checking up on his new slaves as Mark began driving out of Cairo. Rachid was one of the biggest slavers of the region and sent his steady supply of slaves captured from nomadic groups in the Sahara and farming villages along the Nile into the irradiated ruins of Cairo and Giza to gather scrap and supplies.
Mark was his biggest supplier of captures by a wide margin, and was well-paid in salvaged water from the city.
Mark had delivered seventeen slaves to Rachid in the past month, and more than 200 in the last year. He hated doing this to the innocent people, but this kind of thing was all he was good at. He could be a caravan guard, but those groups were dangerous to join, they were prime targets for other slavers and the Servants. And Mark wasn’t joining the Servants.
After all, with everything they must have done since the world ended, they couldn’t be good people. Yeah, that didn’t make Mark feel any better about the situation.
Rachid figured that, if Mark was so good at capturing slaves alone, getting him some help would be a good investment. He repeatedly offered to lend one of his thugs as an assistant, but Mark shot his offers down every time. He worked alone, as generic as that sounded.
After a few hours of driving along the Nile, Mark cooked himself dinner on a makeshift campfire and settled in for the night, watching the western clouds darken through the windshield as he fondled the medal he still refused to pawn off.
-
As the sun set on Egypt, Ren’s golden, opulent skyboat split off from the procession of immortals patrolling the air, broke through the clouds of ash blanketing the sky and headed back down towards the palace. Originally done by Primoi across the world to survey their territory, the trip across the sky had taken on a largely ceremonial role. Still, it was useful to maintain contact between the various Domains all over the world.
Ren, his regal clothing contrasting his tiny frame and shrivelled skin, keeled over in his throne in the centre of the boat. The throne automatically transformed into a luxurious bed onto which Ren was lain to rest by his Primus attendants.
“Ugh, glad he’s finally been shut up.” muttered Renan, queen mother of the Egyptians. “This job always ruins a perfectly good week.”
“So how many people did he say were responsible for Thotep’s death this time? Sounded like a record.” enquired Thel, suppressing a smirk.
“Nah, he only accused nine people. Record’s still ten. Does he even realize he’s accusing me of doing it when I’m right here? I’m tempted to give him back his Ro and give him my own if it means that dementia of his is fixed.”
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“Hey, how’s your investigation going on Thotep?”
Renan sighed. “As nowhere as always. Honestly, I don’t see why you keep asking, it’s always the same. The whole library was burnt to a crisp, there’s nothing to work off of.”
Thel growled. “I bet Deus would figure this all out in half a second if he actually gave us a second thought.”
“For now, I guess we have to figure out who’s going to be the new librarian. I’m gonna mi-“
Renan was cut short as the boat was rocked by a thunderous wind, blowing the ship off course from the palace. The boat was engulfed in a sandstorm so large and thick it seemed to the passengers that the world itself had been swallowed.
“Thel!” Renan cried out. “What’s going on?!”
“I don’t know! I can’t stop it!” yelled Thel, standing on the bow of the ship with his arms stretched out.
Renan attempted to write out a spell, but the wind blew away the glyphs before she could finish. Another gust launched some of the attending Primoi off the side of the ship.
“We’re all gonna die!” yelled out Thel, staggering off the bow and falling to the deck. A gust of wind tilted the boat downwards momentarily, throwing several attendants off the side and into the storm. Ren’s body rolled out of the bed and was dangerously close to falling off the boat until Renan, holding onto a decorative statue, grabbed the sleeping Primus.
“Thel! If we give you our Roi, do you think you’ll be able to stop the storm?” yelled out one of Ren’s attendants.
“Uh, I think so. What other choice do we have?”
Thel crawled to the middle of the boat. One by one, Renan and the three remaining attendants clasped their hands together and slowly pulled them apart. When their hands were pulled apart, a uniquely-coloured string of glowing symbols appeared between their hands. As the people took their strings and wrapped them around Thel’s arms, where they melded into his skin, Thel began to emit an aura of red light. By the fifth string, he stood up and, with a wave of his hand, instantly dispersed the storm to reveal the calm Egyptian evening. The broken corpses of the thrown-off Primoi lay strewn across the sandy ground hundreds of feet below.
The boat landed roughly on the ground in the middle of nowhere. Standing arrayed in a line on the ground nearby were half a dozen beings with feathered heads and arms who roughshod, salvaged armour. Standing at the front was a larger Primus with a glowing orange eye in the middle of his forehead. From the markings on his armour, he appeared to be from the Chinese Domain. The bird-people at the back looked exhausted, like they had just run a marathon.
Thel strode over to the one at the front. Even though the guy was a good deal taller than most humans, Thel still towered over him. “Great work, Erlani. That was a real impressive storm you guys cooked up.”
Erlani folded his arms and smirked. “I only allow the best. I take it that your plan worked, then?”
Thel grinned. “I don’t know, how about we do a test run?”
He turned around and pointed at a patch of desert a few miles from where the group was standing. In the blink of an eye, the sand in the desert was blasted outward in all directions, blanketing everything as far as the eye could see in red dust. Sand began pouring back into the colossal crater at the epicentre of the blast, which went all the way down to the desert’s bedrock.
Thel let out a satisfied chuckle and turned back to Erlani. “Yeah, I think everything turned out alright. I’ll call you once my part of the plan’s done, and then we can continue. See you in… twelve hours?”
Before Erlani could answer, Renan spat sand out of her mouth and stormed up to Thel. “Alright, what’s going on? We gave you our power, and now you’re talking to these Chinese guys? And what plan? Tell me what’s going on!”
Thel held up a hand. “Whoa now, slow down there, sis. What’s going on is going to be plain to see soon. For now, though...”
He clenched his raised hand into a fist. Tendrils of red, chaotic energy burst from Renan’s chest and back, wrapping around her and releasing a loud sizzling sound wherever they made contact with her flesh.
Renan screamed and fell to the ground, tendrils still binding and constricting her. The other three attendants on the boat shrank back in terror. Even the Chinese behind Thel looked worried. Eventually, Thel unclenched his fist and the tendrils fizzled out of existence, leaving Renan groaning on the ground.
Thel continued. “For now, all of you are gonna play along. C’mon, that boat’s in no condition to fly. We’ll have to walk the rest of the way.”