forum Ancient History, Until it's Not // OxO // Closed

Started July 21, 2021 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

Sethenes was still confused about what had happened, and was staring from the shadows at this person standing in the entrance to his tomb. He eventually shifted forward, into the light, squinting against the bright beam. He spoke, but the language he spoke was ancient Egyptian, which no living soul now knew. He studied this strange figure as best he could, but with the light in his eyes it was rather difficult.

Carter startled awake, blinking blearily up at Ernie. "Hnn…she's…what?" He sat bolt upright. "Ernie! I told you two not to go in there, shit–" he grabbed his hat and bolted towards the tomb, mumbling curses under his breath. He might be eccentric but he still cared about his kids.

Ernie ran with their father. They stopped when they reached the tomb, deciding to wait outside for Dr. Carter to fix this. They felt stupid, why had they let Bella go without a fight? This wasn’t like them! But something had drawn them to that tomb, something strange… and possibly a little bit supernatural.

Bella startled when she heard a voice. “¡Retrocede hijo de puta!” she held a hand out, she’d basically just told him to back off with a bit of strong language. Mama had taught them all about her language from where she grew up, a small town with a close community of immigrants and their children, and their children and their children, down in New Jersey. Their mother was very spiritual, but not all that religious, so of course she was a perfect match for the twin’s father who loved the occult more than anything. She was a fashion designer and made costumes for historical pieces, but more than that she was a brilliant historian even if she’d never gone to college for it. She knew more about the Brujería than anyone, having grown up basically living it. But that all led up to Bellatrix being able to curse someone out better than anyone she knew growing up, or at least almost as well. She grabbed a stick or scepter or whatever it was from the pile of treasures and began to beat up the stranger almost instantly, her blood almost boiling. “You do not sneak up on people like that! Vete, babosa!” she said, batting the strange figure with a stick back into the shadows. She stopped for a second, holding up a hand and taking a breath.

“I am a lady.” she said. “You don’t sneak up on women, Mama always taught me, since I was very little. Of course, little me never thought that I’d be the woman being snuck up upon, ha! Anyways, who are you? Answer quickly or get this stick up your nasty graverobbing butt, as I assume you are here to rob graves.”

Sethenes yelped, grabbing at his scepter. His scepter! That she was beating him with! He babbled something again in ancient Egyptian, but when he discovered she obviously did not speak that, he tried again, first in Arabic, "Quf! Qif! Ma aladhi tafealuh huna?" then in greek, "Na stamatísei! Na stamatísei! Ti káneis edó?" he grabbed the end of the scepter, pulling it away and curling it in front of his chest. It was less a scepter and more of a crook, the royal emblem any pharaoh held in life, and was later buried with. He had clutched this one in death for 3,000 years, only now to be beaten with it by a young woman in his own tomb. He was still hazy and unsure, blinking against the light as he stared at this strange person, speaking in their strange language. The spells of the heka'u had not yet taken full effect, and Sethenes's movements were jerky and hesitant, and the translation portion of the spells had had no effect at all yet. He had no idea what she was saying to him, only that she seemed quite upset. Which made no sense, the hieroglyphs on the door should have described this would happen. He thought. It had been a while since the heka'u went over this with him. Why was this young woman in his tomb, alone, and where were the priests? What was going on? How long had it been?

Dr Carter came into the front room, and found where the door had slid shut, barring Bella inside and himself and Ernie out. He swore again. This sort of thing had never been his specialty. Sure, he had known that the ancient Egyptians were wonders at building things, and that their magicians could, supposedly, work magic. But every ancient culture claimed magic, and none of it could be real. It didn't make sense. He had been working on translating the front doorway and what it had said, and it had said some of the usual, about guarding and protecting the pharaoh's remains. Other portions of it, though, were different, speaking of reanimation and a return to life, of a body that rehydrated and returned to seeming as if it was real. But that, of course, was magic, which shouldn't be possible. And yet, these traps should long have fallen into disrepair and no longer been active. Most ropes would have rotted through by now, any pressure plates sunken down under their own weight. So the fact that this one had managed to not only activate, but activate fully? That was strange and mysterious and questionable all in itself, and if it wasn't for the fact that his daughter was trapped behind it, he would have taken far more time to marvel over that possibility. As it was, he held up his flashlight, flicking it over the runes to see if there were any instructions for opening the door again. He didn't hold much hope for that, considering that it was a trap and defensive mechanism; no way would they include instructions for grave robbers.

(btw Sethenes is saying the same thing in both Arabic and Greek: "Stop! Stop! What are you doing here?" also yes, it would be ancient Arabic and Ancient Greek, but google translate doesn't have those lmao)

(Makes sense!)

“Uh… what?” she asked, not understanding, then suddenly registering the boy’s speech. “Ah. Um…” she mumbled something in Ancient Greek that approximated to “Thief”, since she barely understood the language herself. Spanish was always more her speed, Mama didn’t like the fact that her father was obsessed with languages that were either foreign to her or long dead, she was too proud for such things as head of household and mother of two children who in her mind should be focusing on the secrets of a living world, like that of the Brujería. But she knew a little Greek anyways, and thus spoke it. “Hmm.” she looked him up and down slowly, noticing how little he was wearing, and what he was wearing. It was as if he was a relic of the past, but that couldn’t be, right? He was firstly too handsome, and secondly… well, she mostly focused on the handsome part. Corpses weren’t supposed to be handsome, even living ones. She’d read stories about romance with zombies, and that wasn’t it. “What the hell are you?” she asked, reaching out to touch his face.

“Can you say your name?” was the next thing she said in Greek, since “Can you tell me your name” was a bit harder to communicate.

He jerked back when she reached out to his face, taking a single back step. His movements were beginning to smooth out as the spells took more effect. His eyebrows drew together in a frown at the word "thief". "Eisai KLEFTIS? Í kaleíte kléfti?" he demanded, glancing around this inner chamber of his tomb, at the golden objects and the containers sitting in neat rows. Obviously nothing had been plundered, at least from this chamber, but with the door closed he had no clue of the state of the outer chambers. At the query about his name, he frowned again, and his eyes flickered to the cartouches on the walls, which contained his name. How did she not know it? Who was she, that she was in his tomb but did not know his name and, indeed, seemed to think he was a thief? "Onomazomai Sethenes, O Faraó ton dýo vasileíon kai gios tou Montoúpet." he said, studying her from those green eyes of his. He adjusted the golden collar that sat along his shoulders, the wings of it extending just past the curves of his shoulders. Soft linen strips hung down from it along his sides, leaving his middle bare, the strips tucking into the skirt-like tunic that covered him from the waist to the knees. He was barefoot, as he had not been able to locate his sandals. Presumably, rats had gnawed the leather to bits.

(greek: "you are a thief? Or are you calling me a thief?" and "I am named Sethenes, pharaoh of the two kingdoms and son of Montupet"

“I did not understand a word of that.” Bellatrix confirmed, nodding her head and smiling awkwardly, giving Sethenes a thumbs-up. “Are you a corpse? Please tell me you aren’t a corpse and that you’re just a stupid graverobber. If you’re a corpse I will, as my sibling says, yeet you into the sky.” she said. “Hmm, you know what? I think I’m going to break out of here. This shit’s creepy.” she said, taking the golden scepter from Sethenes’ hands and banging down the door with it. It wouldn’t budge, but she could, upon getting closer to the door, hear her father moving on the other side. “Dad! There’s someone else in here!” she screamed, trying to get her voice to carry through the door.

Sethenes came forward and took the scepter back, eyebrows furrowing again. "I am…not a corpse." he finally said, in slow, careful, accented English. The translation portions of the spells had finally kicked in, and he managed to speak and understand this strange language that this woman had been babbling in. "But I am not a graverobber, either." he looked down at his hands, remembering just after the spells had begun their work. When he had awoken trapped in a sarcophagus, bound in linens, and his body still withered and dead. He had slowly returned to normal, finally able to kick the lid off and sit up to unbind himself. He held the crooked scepter in one hand, careful not to damage it any further than it must already be, after all the rough beatings that this woman had given it.

Carter's eyes widened, his hands pausing on the door for a moment. "What?" he questioned. "Bel– Bella, I'm not quite sure I understand you!" he called, frowning. "Did…did you say there was someone else in there?" he glanced back at the entrance. "Ernie! Get in here!" he wanted to know if his other child could give an explanation for what Bella had said.

“Yeah! Dad, there’s light coming from the ceiling, I’m going to see if there’s another way out!” Bella shouted, grabbing Sethenes by the hand and pulling him over to where light was trolling down into the room. Ernie walked inside the chamber, fiddling with the cuffs of his jeans. “Dad? Is something wrong? Besides Bella being stuck, obviously.” Ernesto said, looking worried. Meanwhile, Bella had Sethenes stood in the middle of the room whereupon she began to use him as a stepping stool to get higher up, up to hopefully out. “Hold still boo, I’m going to find us a way out of here.” she said quickly.

Carter grimaced. "Don't…don't get hurt, Bella! We can figure this out." He turned to Ernie. "Did anyone else go in there with you? Bella says there's someone else in there with her, is there a possibility someone followed you in?" Goddamnit this was his fault somehow. He hadn't told them enough, hadn't ensured they would listen, hadn't had someone posted to watch the entrance. This was his fault.

Sethenes frowned as she climbed on his shoulders, looking up for a moment, then over at the door. "What are you doing?" He questioned, arching an eyebrow faintly and unsure if he be offended that she was using him as a ladder. "There is no way to leave that way, this tomb was designed not to be accessable through anything but the door." The tomb was sealed tight; otherwise water or creatures could have gotten in and wreaked havoc on Sethenes's body.

“Well then where is the light coming from?” Bella asked, using a snarky tone to convey irritation. “Anyways, I’m sure I can just punch my way out of here. The ceiling is a little cracked and I’m pretty certain that a few good knocks and we’ll be out in a jif.” she said, adjusting her stance so she’d be less likely to totally topple over.

“Dad, I swear, there’s nowhere and nobody around for miles. If anyone was here, we’d be aware.” Ernesto said, suddenly getting worried. What if Bella was hallucinating from dehydration, or what if there was somebody in there? Either way, she’d probably be dead soon. They had to get her out, no matter what their father thought. “Dad. Get me a shovel, I’m going to try and dig her out. Screw historical preservation and all that, I’m getting my sister.”

Sethenes twitched. "The light is from spell work so I didn't awaken in the pitch black. How in Anubis and ma'at did you get in here if you know nothing of the rituals?" He demanded, but didn't let her fall. Not yet. He would, if he felt he needed to. "You cannot punch your way out, there are…dozens of feet of rock and earth above our heads, you will only kill us both in a cave in." He frowned, shaking his head a little bit.

Carter frowned, pressing his hands to the door. "There has to be some sort of mechanism to open it again. The workers wouldn't have wanted to get trapped by mistake." He replied, looking around at the hieroglyphs. "We can't destroy this, Ernie. It has so much historical significance! It could change everything! This trap shouldn't even have worked, after so long, yet it did, and the significance of that…" He shook his head, then took a breath and refocused on the problem at hand. "Breaking it down is a last resort. We would know if Bella was…less than well."

Sethenes twitched. "The light is from spell work so I didn't awaken in the pitch black. How in Anubis and ma'at did you get in here if you know nothing of the rituals?" He demanded, but didn't let her fall. Not yet. He would, if he felt he needed to. "You cannot punch your way out, there are…dozens of feet of rock and earth above our heads, you will only kill us both in a cave in." He frowned, shaking his head a little bit.

Carter frowned, pressing his hands to the door. "There has to be some sort of mechanism to open it again. The workers wouldn't have wanted to get trapped by mistake." He replied, looking around at the hieroglyphs. "We can't destroy this, Ernie. It has so much historical significance! It could change everything! This trap shouldn't even have worked, after so long, yet it did, and the significance of that…" He shook his head, then took a breath and refocused on the problem at hand. "Breaking it down is a last resort. We would know if Bella was…less than well."

"Fine, fine, but I don't like this. And if Bella shows even the slightest sign of being in danger, I'm smashing this stupid tomb to pieces." they growled, then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I'm just scared, and I need some air. I'll be outside." they said, shaking their head. Ernesto then walked outside, sitting down on a patch of sand to keep from crying.

"Alright, whatever. Although as I recall, this particular tomb has been worn away at for a while. Maybe only a little bit of falling rocks will harm us." she said, trying to scratch at the ceiling ineffectively.

Sethenes frowned, and moved, rather ungracefully setting her down. "You are not breaking open my ceiling." he said, glaring at her for a moment. "That is not happening, I will not allow it." he was still holding his scepter, the crook that was a symbol of his leadership. "Where are the priests? Why are you here, alone, with no knowledge of what this tomb contains or entails?" he demanded. "Why were you not trained in the heka'u, and why did I wake alone?" he wasn't supposed to have woken alone. The priests were supposed to have opened the tomb and unwrapped him before the spells took effect, which was why there was such a lapse in timing between the door first being opened and the spells going into effect, to give the priests time to work. Instead, Sethenes had awoken alone, trapped in a sarcophagus and bound so tightly he could hardly breathe.

Carter nodded, still studying the doorway, gently pressing his hands against it to see if he could just hit the right hieroglyph and make it move.