Castlevania Nocturne: A Guardian's Tale (Part 2)

The Missing Mummy

Edited 2/5/25

Emma trudged through the dunes of the Sahara desert. The sky orange with dusk and the dry winds blew grainy sand against her face. She  pulled the hood of the red cloak over eyes. There it stood, among the blood red haze and the desert sands. The temple. For a reason unknown, she knew she had to go there.

Of course, she couldn't explore an ancient Egyptian temple without being harassed by vampires.
I've come to the right place.  Four vampires rose from the sand like demons, eyes glowing menacingly at the intruder on their sacred lands.

Emma stood her ground. "You can let me through peacefully, or I can kill every one of you. Your choice."

They chose poorly, and she dispatched them with quick ease. "Told you." In the back of her mind she sensed something was off, but she couldn't put a finger on it. She kept going and entered tomb.

The tomb of Sekhmet was dark, dusty, and murky with thick air. Hieroglyphs adorned the walls and the torches gave a warm light to the otherwise pitch black chamber. On the alter stood a line of jars, power emanating from them.  "How peculiar." Emma murmured to herself opening a jar, wrinkling her lip as she sniffed it and pouring its contents onto her gloved hand.

Blood. A drop of blood plopped onto her palm and levitated before her eyes, shining brightly in molten light before imploding onto itself like a dying star. "Supernova blood." Emma remarked shaken. "Completely normal." More vampires poured in, acolytes of a long dead goddess. Emma acted fast, letting her instincts and experience take command. She hacked and murdered every last one of them, until the temple stank of their blood.

"Something's not right." Emma murmured to herself. "Why does it feel like I'm not really here?" Nevertheless, she continued further into the temple, glyphs prickling until she stopped dead on the stairs realizing . When fighting the vampires she hadn't whistled command of her sword at all! Not even used her arcane powers! She felt....detached, as if merely floating along for the ride. That's the only way she could describe it.

We must keep going. A faint whisper urged, and she carried on. Into the burial chamber of an Egyptian goddess. "Sekhmet." Emma instantly knew, approaching the sarcophagus in the center of the tomb. It was empty.

Ire spiked through Emma's heart. "You had me kill every last one of you." Emma growled. "And there's nothing fucking here?"

"It appears so." A voice said behind her. She turned around and saw a man  in a black robe staring amused at her. She instantly identified him as a mal'akh.  His eyes are as dark blue as the night outside with glyphs running down his forearms.

"If you weren't my wife's kind I'd bloody crush your throat." Emma growled.  "You sent me off knowing it was an empty tomb."

"I was unaware the body of Sekhmet was stolen."The angel denied in an accented voice. "But I had my suspicions. This is not good. The corpse must be found if you are to stop to Erzsebet's plans." 

Emma shrugged. "I came all this way for nothing."

"No. If you hadn't come here, you wouldn't have known the mummy was absconded, and my human village would still be plagued by the undead." He raised his torch. "I haven't been in this chamber in centuries. Once vampires claimed it,  I avoided it.  I'm relieved they've done nothing else to desecrate this sacred space."

"They've honored it well, Ardeth." Emma grumbled. "They fought to the bloody death over an empty tomb." She noticed the hieroglyphs and images on the wall. The Lion goddess shown on every wall, and she narrowed in on familiar figures.

"I know those creatures."

"Ah." Ardeth smiled. "You should.  This tells the story of Sekhmet from her rise to fall, and hope of return." He waved his torch over the images. They  depicted a roaring humanoid  lioness roaring atop a field of blood and flames, then being subdued by winged  birdlike beings she was all too familiar with.

"Sekhmet was once a terrible goddess of unimaginable bloodlust. Too powerful for even the gods of this land to defeat. Her father, Ra, requested help from the Watchers, and  together they devised a plan. They filled a great lake with beer dyed red with ochre, fooling Sekmet into thinking it was blood. She voraciously drank herself into a drunken stupor, and the Watchers cut her down, killing her physical body. But before the final strike, she roared a prophecy; She would return. It is said by drinking the blood of her enemy's daughter, she would regain her power, and destroy the world."

"Charming." Emma remarked, before dread crept into her veins. "The Blood of her enemy's daughter. Only one Watcher bore children."

Ardeth nodded severely. "From my correspondence in Cairo." He handed a letter to Emma. "He managed to track records of this tomb's history and the dates of raids throughout the centuries. A mummy was stolen over five hundred years ago by vampiric vagrants and sold at an auction. Such transactions leave paper trails, and my dear colleague Erasmus holds the beginning of one. Go to the museum of antiquities in  Cairo, he's the curator there. He'll help you."

 "Thank you. Ardeth." Emma suppressed a growl. Apparently not all angels were insufferable  pretentious busybodies. 

"The honor is mine." He lowered his chin.  "Good luck Alucard. The fate of the world rests in your hands."

"Not mine alone." He clenched his fist. Damn the world, the only thing that mattered in it were his wife and daughter. He needed to protect them.

                                        .......

Emma jolted away. "Dad?" Her voice came out as a harsh whisper. She was in her own bed and her own body again. 

"Are you all right, Em?" Vance sat at her bedside. 

"I am.....I think?" Emma rubbed her head. "I dreamed I was my father...I saw through his eyes! He was in Egypt.....!"

"Easy." Vance calmed her. "Breathe slowly."

Emma practiced her breathing, and explained when she was settled enough.

"That's quite a vision." Vance mused. "But not unlikely. He is your sire, Em, and you naturally share a connection with him. You can sometimes see through his eyes while you dream."

"I remember the date on the boat ticket." Emma furrowed her brow. "Six months ago. Why would I get a Sight so far back?"

"Sometimes visions are delayed if the connection between sire and progeny is strained." Vance's eyes flickered. He rightfully assumes their bond would be further strained by this knowledge.

"He's awake." Emma grumbled stiffly. "And he didn't come."

"If your vision was six months ago, he may very well be on his way." He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We have more to hope for Emma."

"We better have hope." Emma grumbled stiffly. "If he broke his promise to go tomb raiding." The pain in her chest was not from the recovering wounds.