Back to the Future

Farewell

"That's so brave of you, dear..." Mrs. Al Nour sniffed, almost breaking Trueth's bones with her hug, her eyes wet and her kohl smeared.

Trueth held her back, feeling guilty for sacrificing herself to save Kemet's people - for running away like that from Metjen. She gulped the feeling down, bidding her farewell to the people she had learned to love and appreciate.

"Well, it's been good knowing you all," Trueth said, trying to lift their and her own spirits, before walking into the night with few chosen for the mission.

None of them talked but to make sure everybody knew by heart his or her part: Trueth felt somewhat grateful to Imhotep for keeping out Metjen or Seisi out of it, they would have made the passing of the portal too painful.

You're going back home, she told herself.

But is the Demon World you true home, o Noble One? A voice, one of the priest in the chariot mind-asked.

Trueth shrugged and didn't reply.

She wasn't sure what she would find on the Portal's other side - she was not even sure how many years have pass. What she would have done if all the people she knew - her mother, her sister, her former schoolmates and colleagues - were dead? What if the world had so much changed that she would be more alone than before, the loneliness heighten by the warm memory of her time spent with the Al Nours and the brothers and sisters at Selket's Temple?

She shook her head, trying to not think about what was waiting for her at the Portal's other side. Grief; Loneliness; Pain. Death.

It didn't matter, as long as Bitterness didn't turned into Acrimony and she from Light to Dark.

That realisation had stuck her like a slap, the first time she had felt a pang of jealousy: she saw the danger of her unrequired feelings and that was why she had tried to move on by befriending Itet and trying to reciprocate Seisi's feelings. For a bit it worked, only to see all she was able to accomplish in that department crumple under the class differences.

We are arrived, a voice echoed inside her mind and she stealthily moved with the other seven priests to the almost-finished Portal.

The plan's first part was easy to do - meddle with some of the constructors' minds as to change the Portal flow when activated. The second part was to activate it before it was finished. The third - Trueth's task - was to destroy it from the other side.

Things were going smoothly, as the dark priests were so sure of themselves they didn't guard the unfinished Portal.

It's too easy, Trueth thought as caught by a feeling of foreboding.

She was about to share her thoughts with the others, when the enemy fell on them.

A trap?

Who's the traitor?

We're almost done!

Run, Lady Thueris!

Voices whirled into her mind as the Portal activated, a hole of light.

Trueth swallowed, gulped down her sudden panic, closed her eyes and ran into the Demon World - back to the place she had never meant to leave - all calling her own sun-flow and throwing the amulets Imhotep gave her to accomplish her task.