“I’m in!”
Hathor was jolted awake by Sky’s triumphant cry as the sun began rising. She practically fell out of bed in her hurry to get to his room. Troy was already at his side, looking over Sky’s shoulder. Hathor came up on the other side. Imogene, Isaiah and Maddie soon arrived to see what all the noise was about. A short explanation from Sky had them just as excited.
Sky begun flipping through the cameras. The group marvelled at the Restricted Section. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of bookcases, each one filled to the brim with books, scrolls and tablets. There was even a section of glass cases, each clearly covered in some very powerful protection spells.
“Wait,” Imogene said. She pointed at the screen. “Go back, I think I saw someone.”
“At this hour?” Isaiah asked.
“Exactly!” Imogene shook Sky’s shoulders. “Go back, go back!”
Sky did as he was asked, flipping back to the previous camera. The group gasped at what they saw.
Hathor ran from the room, the others close behind. They rushed to the bottom floor of Naiu Dorm, racing down the road to the Library in the light of the rising sun. Hathor led the group to the hidden entrance Dex had shown her. She raced up the corridor and pushed open the bookcase covering the tunnels’ end, letting the others in. Hathor could smell the metallic scent of blood. She followed it easily.
“Camera should be just up ahead,” Sky called. “Two rows down.”
The group hurried into the stacks. Hathor almost overshot the row Sky told them about but managed to skid to a stop, grabbing onto the edge of the large bookcase and swinging herself around. A body lay face down in a pool of blood. Unable to stop herself, Hathor knelt down and rolled the body over.
“Oh my Gods!” Her hands shot to her mouth. The face was unrecognisable but she knew the scent. “Ella!”
Troy appeared at her side, took one look at the hole where a face should have been and swore. He dragged Hathor away with Maddie’s help, the Lyriumian pointedly looking anywhere but the body. Imogene had turned away, one had over her mouth like she was about to throw up. Isaiah had his hands on her shoulders. Sky couldn’t help but stare.
“I will find something to cover her,” Isaiah said softly, taking Imogene’s hand and leading her away.
Hathor scrolled through her phone’s contacts and pressed the first name in her recent contacts.
“Hey, baby sis,” came Jay’s voice. “Whatcha doin’ calling me so early in the morning?”
“Murder,” Hathor said, voice shaking. “Restricted section. Hurry.”
“Where in the RS?”
Hathor looked around but found nothing that could be used to tell this area apart. “Sky, what’s the camera number?”
Sky shook himself from his shocked state. “Let me check.” He opened his phone screen. “Five.”
“Camera five,” Hathor said to Jay.
“Okay, stay where you are. I’m coming.”
What are you—
There is no light and dark, only—
Go to that world. Set up an outpost—
The girl has come of age—
I saw the strangest thing today. There was this star—
I’m not a good guy. I never was—
We follow the Path of the First Sun—
Your Highness, Lemuria has fallen—
Who are you—
I can’t do this anymore—
We must retaliate—
You’re a God! Do something Godly—
It’s the Terpolites again—
Atlantis is no more, My King—
What did we ever do to you—
Hi, I’m Amneris. And you are—
The worlds are filled with darkness—
Embrace the power of—
What do you think, Naiu—
What’s the plan—
One more time, old friend—
I won’t let you destroy my people—
It’s called the ‘Forgotten War’ for a reason—
The worlds are broken. I will fix them—
I am coming for you—
Amneris didn’t realise her hands were over her ears until her father removed them. Her eyes shot open as the voices in her mind stopped, the sudden silence shocking her back into the present. She was beneath the Palace, sitting in the Chamber of the Photon Core. That’s right. Her father had brought her here after breakfast, saying it was the most practical place for practice. The Goddess herself could watch on.
“You’re thinking about it too much,” Lvaane said. “Don’t try to make sense of what’s being said. Let it pass through.”
Amneris nodded, crossing her legs and closing her eyes.
“Focus on your breathing.”
She opened on eye. “You remember I’m dead, right?”
“Amneris,” he said sternly.
“Okay, okay. Geez.”
Amneris straightened herself, hands wresting palm-up on her knees, and closed her eyes. She counted her breathes, even though they weren’t needed, as the voices of time came through her mind once again. This time, instead of trying to make sense of them, she let them float through. A few stood out. Amneris took note of them and their words, then dismissed them. Somewhere far away, she heard her father’s approval.
She felt her—Naiu’s—power splutter to life somewhere deep inside. Amneris reached down, pulling it up to the surface as she’d done many times before. She felt the power slowly leave her body, though it didn’t go far. The power was in her hands. It would do whatever she wanted.
Amneris opened her eyes, finding starlight dancing around her body. It bounced off the diamond names in the chamber, casting rainbows over the gold floor and walls. Amneris closed her eyes again, allowing her power to do as it pleased.
Her form flickered.
The power vanished.
Amneris once again opened her eyes. Her power was gone and she remained in her Lyriumian form. She looked up at her father and shrugged helplessly. He appeared more confused than her.
“What do you think?” Lvaane asked the only other person in the room.
“What do I think?” the Goddess Naiu sighed. “I have no idea.”
The Embodiment of the Photon Core—Naiu herself—was sitting on the same pedestal as her orb of power—the Photon Core, also known as Naiu’Ka—her legs dangling over the edge of the ancient stone.
Naiu pulled her white silk shawl over her pale shoulders. “There must be something inside you blocking the change.”
“Thank you, First Being of Light, Good and Order, for stating the obvious,” Amneris said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Now, if you could tell us something useful, that would be great.”
The Goddess’ silver eyes narrowed. “This would never had happened if you didn’t use my power to destroy the Dark King,” she said, “which is the exact thing I told you not to do.”
“It’s not like I destroyed the worlds,” Amneris countered, standing, bracing her hands on her hips. “And I did complete my mission. Enliatu is no more, nothing to worry about.”
“Something which you did through overkill.” Naiu walked forward. “You used everything. Had that not been under your control, we would not be having this conversation because there wouldn’t be a Creation left for us to converse in!”
“Oh, right, it’s my fault Tara freed him so obviously blame must be put in me. Meanwhile, you and the other Gods did nothing. All you did was sit on your mighty arses and watch!”
“As a matter of fact, it was your fault!”
“Enough!” Lvaane stepped between them. “Enliatu was destroyed and Creation remains as it was,” he told the Goddess. Then he turned to Amneris. “You kept control of the power but, had you lost it for even a moment, everything would have been destroyed.” He looked them both in in eyes. “You will resolve this matter.”
The two women glared at each other.
“Immediately.”
They sighed in unison. “Sorry.”
“Good.” He turned to Amneris. “Back to where you were.”
Huffing, Amneris returned to her spot on the polished gold floor. “I don’t get what listening to the voices of time is supposed to do other than give me a headache.”
Her father begun to pace. Again. No doubt he was holding his tongue, preparing to give another lecture.
Naiu sat on her podium. “I hate to agree with my chosen, but she makes a point. She has never been one to learn from the past.”
“Something she must learn to do as Queen,” Lvaane said. “The history of our people is important, even more so now the Forgotten War has ended.”
Naiu leaned back on her hands. “Never thought I’d see the day of Naka’s defeat.”
“Except he isn’t defeated,” Amneris interrupted. “Naka will choose another from the Acheron Family, his power will probably overtake them again, and we’ll be right back to where we started.”
“Or we could think positively,” her father said. “The new Naka’Idis may be a good person.”
Amneris snorted. “Sure. Right. And I’m not immortal.”
“You should also be focusing, not listening in on conversations.”
She stuck her tongue out at him.
A vibrating noise filled the room, causing the three to jump. Amneris eyed the far side of the room where she’d dumped her jacket, shoes, dagger and phone. She glared at the latter object. The phone didn’t stop buzzing. Amneris waved her hand. The phone flung into it.
Her eyes widened at the very long text message Jay had sent after the call failed. “We’re gonna have to put this meditation thing on hold.” She jumped to her feet and dashed to her pile of things, tugging on her black heeled ankle boots and leather jacket.
“Did something happen?” Naiu asked.
“What sort of First Being are you?” Amneris turned to her father. “There’s been a murder at the Academy.”
Hathor and her friends stood in a line in Headmaster Orion’s office.
Orion himself sat behind his desk. Jay leaned against its corner, arms crossed. Amneris, however, paced in front of the line of students, hands behind her back as she moved. Normally, Orion would handle Academy affairs, but because this was something so big, the Queen herself made the journey to make a judgement.
“You know we have grounds to expel all of you,” Amneris said.
“What?” Maddie exclaimed.
“You think we murdered Ella?” Imogene cried, outraged.
Amneris stopped in her pacing, turning to face the group. “No, but you were found with a dead body in the Restricted Section of the Library after hacking into the camera feed and using a secret passage to get in.”
“Yeah!” Sky exclaimed. “After we saw the body!”
“It’s not the murder you can be expelled for, it’s the breaking into an area you know full well not to go in after hacking the system that you can be expelled for.”
Troy visibly flinched at the thought of impending expulsion. “At least you don’t think we’re murderers.”
Amneris gave them all a look that made even Isaiah shiver. “Wait outside.” They hurried to do so.
Jay watched on as Amneris continued pacing, his head following her movements. “Keep that up and you’ll fall through the floor.”
She waved a hand. “Not now. I’m thinking.”
Someone had infiltrated the Academy, that much was obvious. The questions were ‘who’ and ‘why’. Amneris suspected it had some connection to the Rebels, but that seemed way too obvious. The Rebels wouldn’t murder someone on Lyriumia, especially not in the Academy, without leaving some sort of signature behind to say it was them. There had to be more to it.
Amneris stopped pacing. Someone was trying to prove a point. That they could get into her school and kill right under her nose. Hathor had been their first target; a way to say ‘I’m here. Deal with it’, but they hadn’t realised she was immortal. The second murder, the human girl, done in the Restricted Section was to show the killer could go anywhere. This was someone who’d done their research or who had been there for a while now.
Students and staff were in danger but Amneris couldn’t send them home on a theory. Besides, a lot of them didn’t have homes to go back to and were year-round students. What were they supposed to do? And on top of that, sending everyone home would only tip the killer off and give them an escape. Amneris tugged her hair. What to do, what to do . . .
Orion broke through her thoughts. “Are the students safe?”
Amneris gave him the look. “Of course they are. It’s not like someone was killed on campus or anything.”
The Headmaster raised his hands. “My bad.”
Jay said, “If Sky can hack the system, it’s safe to assume the killer did, too.” He eyed Amneris. “You don’t really think it was one of Hathy’s mates, do you?”
“It wasn’t them. They don’t have the mindset or the motives,” Amneris said. “Wrong place, wrong time. That’s all.” She ran a hand through her curls. “Why? Why, why, why, why, why? Why now? What’s changed?”
“Changed?” Orion asked.
“Something’s made them step up their game. They wanted the attention. So, that’s the question. What’s changed?” When no answer came, she turned to the two men. “Throwing this wide opening to the group.”
Jay turned to Orion. “You have all students and staff of file. All their info.”
“Yes,” he said.
“Gonna need a copy.”
The Headmaster nodded. “I’ll send it through.”
Jay asked Amneris, “You want me to stay here and keep an eye on things, just in case?”
She grimaced. “If it’s not too much to ask.”
A large group of students were waiting outside the Tower. Amneris’ power sparked when she saw them, and she cursed under her breath. Hathor and her friends were right at the front. They were the ones that rushed forward.
Hathor all but jumped into her arms. “What’s going on, mum?”
Amneris kissed her brow. “Wish I knew, baby, but someone clearly wants our attention.”
“And?” Troy asked.
“And they’ve now got it.”
Isaiah spoke next. “What can we do to help?”
“You can focus on your studies and let us handle it,” she answered.
“But we cannot—”
“You can and you will.” Amneris eyed her daughter and her friends. “If you really want to help, look after each other and stay out of this. Should someone come after you, which is very possible at this point,” she added at their surprised expressions, “then and only then can you fight. Am I clear?”
“We’re clear,” Imogene said before anyone could object.
“Good.” Amneris smiled. “Now get back to class.” She looked behind them at the rest of the students. “That goes for you, too. Go learn shit before your teachers get pissy.”
The group broke up.
“Wait.” Amneris pointed to a man near the front of the group. A Snake Shifter, judging from his scent. He pointed at himself, confused. “Yes, you. Stay here. Your little gang can remain behind, too. The rest of you can go.”
The man and his friends remained in place as everyone else left the area.
Amneris approached them, hands clasped formally behind her back. “We do not tolerate racism in this school. And that is just the first page of about twenty I’ve received on all of you.”
The group looked horrified.
“Because of this, I am giving you all a chance. You can either learn from this experience and take punishment with your heads held high, or I can kick you all out of this school here and now.”
“Do you really think—”
Amneris stared up at the man with an ice-cold glare. “I can inform your parents you will be returning first thing in the morning, or you can have detention, though do note this will be the last detention you have. It will be immediate expulsion next time. For all of you. I expect to hear your answer by this evening.”
Somewhere deep inside the Academy, someone made a call. It was a short message, but very clear.
“It’s me. They’re onto us. Move the next phase up.”
