Cursed Times - Only Yesterday! Sequel to Wattys 2015 winner!

Chapter 14: Trueth - A Wake

Seisi dropped the scroll he had been squeezing in his hands. 'The divine scripts are very clear. His chances are...not good, certainly not without a shadow.'

'So if we don't find anyone to go with him, that's it then.' An image arose in Trueth's mind, an image of a beautiful corpse drifting through space into eternity...the empty shell of her love forever frozen in the void... . Trueth wiped her eyes on her greasy sleeves, hoping nobody had seen her.

The professor banged on the ebony table they were gathered around, making her jump. 'I will not accept this!' His wife singed the edge of the papyrus she had been re-reading. 'Dear... .'

'Well, if ever there was a right moment for divine intervention, it's now,' Trueth said.

A scroll materialised on the table.

'Eeek,' Rani-Ra and Ranofer jumped back simultaneously, Metjen's parents froze, and Seisi threw himself on the floor with his arms outstretched. An earthy odour flooded the room, a smell of a rich and treacly medicine. Trueth held her breath, for a moment she thought she heard the scrabbling of many feet in the corner, yet there was nothing to be seen.

The grains in the sand-clock trickled away their anxiety.

Trueth exhaled, tiptoed towards the table and gave the cylinder an experimental tap. Nothing happened. One slightly battered looking scroll, frazzled at the edges, matching the nerves of the people assembled in the library.

'Don't touch that,' a hollow voice sounded from below. Trueth bent down and observed Seisi still doing his carpet-impersonation on the ground.

'Why not? It's a new document we haven't checked yet.'

'It comes from the gods for sure.' He was hard to understand given that he was mumbling into dusty stone slabs.

'Even better. About time they got involved, I would say.' For a moment, she held her breath but nothing happened. No smiting from above. No unearthly music.

Nothing.

Trueth picked up the gift of the gods, assuming it was that and was about to unroll it when she noticed a raffia ribbon bearing some insignia pressed into baked clay. The professor and his younger son were slinking towards her, curiosity written all over their faces.

'Seisi, cease your supplications and have a look at this. There is a funny seal on it and I don't want to just break that thing.' At the very least she would be in trouble with her adoptive father who looked hungrily at the document she held in her hand. She raised her finger. 'Just bear with me.'

The top of Seisi's head rose above the table, followed by the grimy rest of his body. He must have examined the seal, for his eyes widened.

'Selket!'

Trueth grabbed his arm. Otherwise, he would have prostrated himself once more. She had a closer look at the seal. Yup. Dominating the hieroglyphs in the clay was one of these stinging arachnids that seemed to be the bane of her life. 'Cool, do I now get post from the goddess I'm supposed to be serving?'

Seisi sighed. 'She might well have sent you a sign. However, you will not be able to read whatever is written, it is one of the sacred documents. And you cannot do this either!' The latter was addressed to the professor who had been creeping even closer.

'Super, what am I supposed to with a text I can't read? And why can't I read it? Oh let me guess—it's taboo, whoo hoo. And if I touch it, I fall into a deep sleep for the next one hundred years or so, right?'

Seisi balled both hands into fists and started stretching out one dusty digit after the other.

'What are you doing?'Trueth asked.