Immortal

Imprisonment

Looking back, I should've known what was coming. 

We were too powerful, uncontrollable as the wind and tide. We would soon pay for it with our freedom.

Nadia looked at me as I  peered across at the slaves working. "This is wrong", she murmured, "we should free them".

I agreed. But to do so would cause immense trouble for the both of us. We would most likely be tortured or imprisoned for eternity.

"You know why we can't, we're up to our necks in trouble already. They wanted a gift from the gods and instead they got us", I whispered back.

Mere years  ago, we had been slaves and used as a sacrifice for the gods when the middle class  ran out of livestock. But instead of getting great fortune from the gods, we were returned powerful and immortal. Isis and Osiris had looked upon us in pity and saved us by gifted us immortal life and gifts to preserve it and the earth.

 Instead we became human gods, unable to do anything for ourselves, watched with envy and even fear. After several attempts by the pharaohs guards to kill us we were placed in the palace and seen as the pharaohs guests and playthings. His presents from the gods.

But we were on borrowed time. 

As if sensing where my thoughts had gone Nadia continued, " I wonder when his royal nuisance will visit, its bad enough he separated me from my children and lover, but for him to continually make me endure his whims is torture".

"I know but endure it we must if we wish to continue our lives freely", I murmured back, "It's the only thing they know they have on us, eternal torture".

Nadia sighed deeply. She dreamed of a day when she could gather her children  and run away with me from this place to live and nurture the earth as Isis intended. If there hadn't been a power play at hand we may have been able to escape, but we had been under constant watch since it was rumoured that there was a rebellion brewing. We were the the surprise of the rebels invaded the palace, supposed to distract the rebels long enough for the pharaoh to escape. After all, we were mere women compared to the pharaoh, immortality and powers be damned.

I looked out over at the slaves, working under the hot sun to build his monument. 

"Maybe an accident could happen, you know, and some slaves escape and make it to freedom?" I whispered to Nadia, a glint in my eyes as I turned to eye the guards assigned to us that day.

She grinned. "A landslide maybe? Only a couple minor casualties of course, all HIS.. of course".

"Yes, that sounds about right," I smiled. I walked over to the lounge and draped myself over it and retrieved a grape from the bowl. I looked back over to Nadia and raised my eyebrow. Catching on, she came over and sat next to me and poured herself water from the jug. I plucked another grape and twitched my other fingers  just as Nadia twitched hers. Suddenly there was an immense noise and shouting from where the slaves were working. The guards shouted and ran to the balcony where moments ago we had been standing. 

I smirked at Nadia. She smiled while idly rolling a grape between her long, graceful fingers. I put innocent eyes on and turned and asked the guards, "What in the gods was that?!"

"A landslide took half the pharaohs monument down!", the younger guard yelled. So naive. The older guard was shellshocked staring at the disaster zone.

"Oh gods, not his monument! Is anyone hurt? Should we go down to provide aid?", Nadia smirked, she loved teasing and providing trouble. I didn't know what I would do without her to keep me trudging through what I believed was a cursed life and she a blessed. We had grown up together, sisters in life but not of blood. We had been taken by slave traders at a young age and sold together to a middle class Egyptian family. We had been named Nadia and Khafte by them, and we had no memory of our birth names or our parents. Now we were here, trapped in a palace with no where to hide.

"No, it might be the rebel's, creating a distraction to enter the palace undetected. Stay here", the older guard instructed.

Nadia and I rolled our eyes. If only.