The Egyptian Queen ONC2020

Chapter 6

"So, I think I'm gonna regret asking this, but what's a canopy jar?"

After Victoria had rummaged through her bags of clothes and found her dad's sweatpants and an old boyfriend's muscle shirt, she had made a pot of coffee and strategically stashed a hard metal statue under the cushion of the couch they were now sitting at.

"A Canopic jar, or organ urn, is a traditional jar with the heads of Horus' sons: Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef. An organ, stomach, liver, intestines, and the lungs would be placed inside and guarded by the head of that god. These jars, or more so the organs, follow you to the afterlife."

Victoria swallowed her sip of coffee hard to keep it from coming back up. "I see. And..." Victoria gave a pointed look to the urn sitting on the coffee table she'd pulled in between them.

"Uh... well. It's a long story."

"Madu, I've got all the time in the world. And honestly, if you don't want me to call the police on you I suggest you tell me everything I'm supposedly not remembering."

Madu sucked in a breath and scooted closer to the edge of the two-person couch he was sitting in. "Nahabet-"

"Victoria," She corrected him again.

"Victoria, you and I had lived prior to the life you see yourself in now." He continued. "You see, as children, you and I lived in the capital together and as we grew up I was drafted and sent to be part of the castle guard. Two years later the new Pharoah declared he wanted a bride who was one among the people. Every young woman in the capital was called the Pharaoh's throne room. That day I was on rotation at the Pharoah's side so besides me and another guard and some advisors there was no one else in the room." Madu stopped and hesitated.

"What is it? Go on."

He sighed. "The Pharoah was a cruel man. He had each girl come up to him one at a time and answer one question. He asked all of you to declare your purity."

"Wait, you mean all he asked was if they were virgins or not?"

"Yes but," Madu tripped over his words. "At that time it was still punishable by death if you had been suspected of having laid with another man. So I don't know what he was expecting when he chose to ask that but he did and each and every girl climbed the stairs to his throne and he had them declare it to everyone in the room."

"That's sick. There were how many people there to hear that." Victoria twisted her hand and her face was scrunched up in uncomfortable disgust.

"I think that was exactly his intention. To show his future bride that her desires as queen were safe from no one's ears. But, Nahabet, after the first girl declared that she was a virgin he'd waved his hand like she was nothing and the executioner grabbed her and sliced her head off in front of all of you."

Victoria's eyes widened and she was taken aback. "He had them killed for following the law?" She croaked out.

Madu ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "For the life of me, I can't find reason as to why he'd done it in the first place, even now." 

"Oh, Nahabet you wept for those girls!" Madu reached out and grasped Victoria's hands in earnest and she stiffened. "You'd wept for days after too. You blamed yourself for not getting to the castle sooner and being first in line. You'd cried out in your sleep for weeks about how if only you hadn't been the last in line to decree your purity."

Victoria gently swept her hands out of his and said, "I don't understand what you're saying."

Madu looked down again and hesitated. "That day you had gotten to the castle late because your sister had lost your good necklace, the one your mother owned, so when you got there you were the last one in the line of girls. After each one was killed, blood spilling out of the room like a flood and bodies piled in the corner, you held your chin high while you went up those stairs, you were so sure that you'd be killed along with the rest of them. I think, looking back, that you'd hoped you'd be killed so you could join those girls. You went up there and looked him right in the eyes and you declared that you were no longer pure."

Victoria choked on her coffee and raised her eyebrows. "Wait," she laughed uncomfortably. "I wasn't... I had..."

"Yes, you weren't a virgin. But the Pharoah chose you because of it. No other girl in that room had laid with another man. Afterward, he'd assigned the other guard and me to be your own personal guard and I watched your world turn into a lavish dream. You were officially the Queen of Egypt. Yet you were still burdened by the deaths of those girls."

Victoria stared at the coffee table for a long while before speaking. "But you said we'd been executed. Why? And if any of this is true how the Hell am I alive right now?"

"That's also a very long story," Madu said.