Magnus Chase and the Wrath of Morpheus

Chapter 12

I Freshen Up My Skills as a Pickpocket

I finished reading the scroll and looked up. The room was dead silent. I couldn't believe it.

"What..." I whispered. "What does that mean? The ushabti in the Brooklyn Museum, and Morpheus, and Tutu..."

I fell silent again. After a while, Grover raised his hand and spoke, "I might have a theory. Maybe you've heard of the war where Camp Halfblood had to fight against Gaea? Well, the Romans were involved too. The gods weren't really able to help because their personalities were split between their Greek and Roman forms. What if that's the case with Morpheus except for now it's Greek and Egyptian? What if Morpheus, aka Tutu, was able to suppress Tutu for all this time until now? What if now that the artifact has been discovered, someone spoke the words on the ushabti and it caused Tutu to resurface in Morpheus's unconscious mind?"

Halfborn cleared his throat, "That could be, but how did it take so long? I mean, it's very likely that these exact same words have been said out loud many times before the discovery of the ushabti. Why didn't all this happen then?"

"In the Egyptian mythology symbols hold great power," Carter started, "Even a toy pyramid can be used for spells. It obviously won't be as powerful as the real ones, but the meaning behind the symbol is the same. That's probably also the reason why Morpheus didn't immediately show up here when I said those words. The only time the phrase will unfold its true powers is if it is spoken in the presence of the ushabti."

"Okay, recap," I said. "Egyptian god of sleep Tutu is a nice guy. The Greeks made their own version of him which ended up being kind of the same dude but with the new name of Morpheus. Morpheus gets angry and starts to deal with his severe personality disorder. Fast forward about 2,000 years where Morpheus is strong enough to restrain Tutu from fighting back. Some scientist digs up a holy ushabti and says this weird phrase that summons Tutu again. Now Morpheus rages once more and wants to rule the world to revenge the injustice he had experienced. To me that sounds kinda resentful but sure, why not?"

"Oh my gods that's it!" Carter exclaimed. He got questioning glances from all of us. "It's his secret name! In ancient Egypt people believed that everybody has a secret name, one that defines you. If someone tells you their secret name then you have control over them, but you have to hear it from them or the person closest to them. What if this is Tutu's secret name? It would explain why he wasn't summoned when I said it, because I just read it off the uhabti."

Hector, who had been quiet for almost the whole time I've known him, decided that this was his moment to finally say something.

"But wouldn't that mean that whoever summoned Tutu in the first place must've had contact with Morpheus or the person closest to him to know his secret name?"

Even though it was a good remark, it sadly just opened up more questions.

"It's probably best if we go to the Museum and ask for the scientist who discovered the artifact," I said. "Maybe he knows more."

"I think it's our only option," Halfborn agreed. "I don't know what else we could do."

"We could stay in one place for more than an hour is what we could do," said TJ. He stood up pushing his chair back and left the library.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Halfborn shouted after him.

"The toilet!"

"Do you even know where the toilet is?"

"Of course I know where the toilet is!"

TJ's boots echoed on the stone floor for about 5 more seconds until he stopped walking.

Silence.

He took another step, then stood still again.

"Where exactly is the toilet?"

Carter shook his head and smiled. I think he started to like us even though we were a chaotic and stupid bunch of teenagers who didn't know how to deal with any of this.

"Up the stairs at the end of the hallway." He shouted over his shoulder.
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About two hours later we had all freshened up and packed some new food in case something unpredictable happened.

But Magnus, what could possibly happen that you can't predict?

Well, dear reader, how should I know? That's why it's unpredictable, and believe me there's always something. If it's not bowling giants then it's evil dwarfs, and if it's neither then it's just unpredictable. This time it had to be something new since we already went through those two experiences. (Believe me when I say that it wasn't fun, and I didn't want it to happen again.)

I'll keep the next part short because you know... It wasn't that interesting. (Alex just said that I just don't want to tell you about what happened because I was screaming the whole way through the portal to Boston, but that's not true. He completely made that up.)

Anyway, we went through another portal with no distractions on my part and landed in Boston.

Somehow we landed in the middle of the street and a car nearly ran us over. The driver stepped out of his car and yelled at us. Something about having to pay more attention, and "stupid kids these days." With excusing gestures we walked off the road.

"Why did we land here? Can't you control this?!" Grover exclaimed.

"Sadly I can't. The place we land has to have a connection to something Egyptian. But I don't know why we landed on exactly this street..."

"Maybe because of this." Hector said and pointed towards a building on the other side of the street. A large sign read Obelisk Inc.

Carter shrugged. "Well, at least it worked. How do we now get to the museum? Do we walk?"

"Let's take a taxi," I said, already knowing the answer I'd get.

"Do you have any money?"

I smirked. "I don't but the man who yelled at us does...well, at least he did." I pulled a thick, brown wallet from my jacket's inside pocket.

Carter made big eyes. "Did you steal that from him?"

"Sorry, old habits I guess. But he had it coming."

Alex stepped a little closer to me. "I'm so attracted to you right now, how is that even possible?" she whispered. My face suddenly got burning hot and I had to take off my jacket. Not that it's any of your concern.

Without me realizing, TJ had stopped a cab for us. "I guess we'll need two. Just wait for another one and we'll meet in front of the museum."

He got in and I quickly followed to escape the situation. Carter and Mallory followed me. Alex, Grover, Halfborn and Hector stayed and waited for another cab to pick them up.
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After we were all together again we walked up to the entrance of the museum. At the counter, an elderly lady sat and watched us with inquiring eyes. She had all the reason for distrust, but I decided to ignore that.

"Good morning. We'd like to speak to-" I turned my head towards the group. "What was his name again?"

"Doctor Bradly," Hector said. "We'd like to speak to Doctor Bradley. Do you know by any chance where he is or where he can be found?"

The woman looked at us as if she was still trying to figure out what we wanted from her.

"You haven't heard?" she asked. "Doctor Bradley died a few days ago."