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Chapter 26: The Mummy, Part 2

Chapter 26

Velvet took the map to Ilia immediately after performing a few tests on it. She opened it up to see the simplistic, yet stylistic designs ancient Vacuo was famed for.

"You see the cartouche there?" Velvet asked her, excitedly, "It's the official royal seal of Seti I, I'm sure of it."

"Perhaps..." Ilia said as she examined the map.

"Doubting much, Ilia?" Sun teased.

"Well, this me seems to be much older, so I think it's logical for me to be skeptical of a much younger scholar." Ilia defended.

"Huh, now that I get a second look," Yang said, squinting at the screen, "I do notice some facial wrinkles and streaks of grey in your hair... "

"I would say you've aged rather well." Glynda complimented.

"Two questions." Neptune interjected. "Who was Seti I and was he rich?"

"The second pharaoh of the 19th dynasty, said to be the wealthiest pharaoh of them all." Velvet explained, indulging her simplistic friend.

"Good. That's good. I like this fellow. I like him very much."

"I've already dated the map. It's almost 3000 years old. And if you look at the hieratic right here," she pointed to a corner of the map. "Well... it's Hamunaptra." That caught everyone's attention.

"Dear Gods, don't be ridiculous." Ilia scoffed. "We're scholars here, not treasure hunters. Hamunaptra's a myth told by ancient storytellers to amuse superstitious tourists, old and new."

"True. They told that story all the time back home." Sun said with a nod.

"Yes, yes, I know all the rumors and tall tales about the city being protected by a mummy monster and all that, but my research has led me to believe that the city itself may have actually existed."

"Wait a sec," Neptune said, looking up from the map, "Are we talking about the Hamunaptra here?"

"Yes, 'the City of the Dead', where the earliest pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of Vacuo."

"Yeah, yeah, in a big underground chamber." Neptune said, recalling what he could of the legend. Ilia scoffed at him and shook her head. "Oh, come on. Everyone knows the story. The entire necropolis was rigged to sink at Pharaoh's command. Just a flick of a switch, and the whole city would disappear under the sands, taking the treasure with it."

"As the Valeans would say, it's all fairy tales and hokum." Ilia said as she held the map before her lamp as she examined it. Unfortunately, she held it too close and it caught fire. She cried out as she threw it to the floor in alarm. Neptune and Velvet scrambled to put it out, but by the time they did, the most important part had been lost.

"God dammit! You burnt off the part with the lost city!" Neptune said in dismay.

"Well that's convenient." Weiss said, rolling her eyes.

"Totally on accident, of course." Yang deadpanned.

"It's for the best, I'm sure." Ilia said, sitting at her desk. "Many men have wasted their lives in the pursuit of Hamunaptra. No one's ever found it. Most, have never returned."

"Come, come, step over the threshold." Arthur Watts told them. This wasn't the Watts they knew though. He was grossly over-weight, and his mustache was swapped for a unibrow and a pencil-thin goatee. "Welcome to Vacuo Prison, my humble home!"