Unfinished Gems

Sands of Time - 5

Chapter 5

~

Atem was pissed, there was no other word for it. Not only had Anubis nearly succeeded in kidnapping his son (thwarted only by the extreme paranoia none of them were aware his wife possessed regarding the matter), but he had also made several insinuations regarding his wife tat made his blood boil. The thought of his beloved Avatre being magically forced to service Anubis made him rage at the idea.

The fact Anubis had successfully managed to capture his wife, more so.

The man's smug grin and the dull, almost expressionless gaze in her eyes was riling him up something fierce. It was only the meditation exercises Avatre had taught him that kept him from doing anything rash.

And then it happened.

Anubis went to kiss his queen in front of Atem...only to start howling in absolute agony as blood began to seep from a very obvious target. One that made Atem cringe in almost sympathy.

Avatre's gaze went from dull and lifeless to pissed off and vengeful. She looked like an angry goddess about to let loose extreme violence on someone very deserving of their ire.

By the end of it, Anubis is barely able to duel the Pharoah and certainly in no condition to survive it. His lovely wife is very thorough.

"I'm almost afraid to ask this...but exactly what did you do to him once you dropped the act of being under hypnosis?" he asked carefully.

"Castration hex. Specifically one that would cause his manly parts to quite literally explode into so many pieces that it would take an expert with perfect control of their magic to put it together properly," she said without hesitation. "Like hell was I going to let his little plan of raping me and using me as a toy for him to take out his hatred of you unanswered."

Atem blinked, turned to the now cooling corpse of the dead sorcerer...then openly cringed.

Avatre's chuckle was the farthest thing from reassuring.

"Relax, the worst I would ever do to you if you annoyed me would be to turn you into a small animal for a few days at the most. I like that part of you too much to use that particular hex," she said with far too much cheer.

"Good to know," he said faintly.

The fact he makes a point to remind her of this fact for weeks after so that she definitely never considers using that particular hex on him was a private matter. She certainly wasn't complaining.

~

This was undoubtedly Anubis' back-up plan. Atem had briefly mentioned the dangerous outside who was the reason why his father had ordered the creation of the Millennium Items, but he had told his wife with confidence that this 'Scorpion King' had been driven back in defeat thanks to the Items.

So when Avatre saw an obviously magical army led by a man who fit the bare description Atem had of the Scorpion King on one of her flights, she knew she had to warn her husband.

"You saw a what?" said Atem.

"There was a magical army heading in this direction, at least three days ride," said Avatre. "Since I haven't seen the man in question, I was mostly basing it on what you told me of this Scorpion King."

"Preposterous. We drove him deep into the desert," said Akhenaten.

"Again, I wouldn't know if it was him or not. But unless you know of people naturally being born with a jackal's head wielding a weapon with what could only be well trained proficiency, I'm going to assume an army that was created by magic," said Avatre flatly.