As the American trio reached the base of the cellar stairs, leaving the rest of their housemates and guests behind in the dark, Eddie felt Nina's calculating eyes on the side of his head. "You know," she whispered while they ascended quietly, so only he could hear her, despite KT being only a step behind them, "Sibuna's really grown quite a bit. Kira, KT..."
Eddie couldn't help but wonder if she thought that was a good thing or not, and he knew that her opinion should probably inform his response. Be that as it may, he also wasn't sorry for the expansions... not anymore, at least. Gone were the days where secrecy kept people safer. They'd tried that, and it nearly resulted in the end of the world. Sure, not everyone had to know the play by play of all Sibuna's history- hell, he didn't even know the whole story, and at the rate his friends divulged information, he probably never would. But KT was a capable and worthy member of Sibuna beyond just her lineage, and despite any of his earlier misgivings about his twin's involvement in this aspect of his life, Kira had proved invaluable on multiple occasions. Besides, even Amber, the queen of gatekeeping, had given them all the green light, so frankly, Nina could stuff it- Chosen One or not.
"Yeah," he answered in a hush as they reached the foyer. "For the better."
Before Nina could reply, KT gestured with her flashlight down the corridor. "Dexter could have gone into one of the boys' rooms," she whispered. "We should check."
"Sounds good," Eddie agreed hastily, casting Nina a brief side-glance. She'd been nothing but pleasant to KT since she'd arrived, but her critical eye put him on edge. He knew Fabian had informed her ages ago of everything that had happened with Frobisher and Ammut, as well as all their new additions to the team- minus Mara, because that seemed like overkill at that point- but if Nina had thoughts on his friend's involvement with Anubis House's dark underbelly, he hoped they'd reflect that pleasantry.
"Right, I'll take Jerome and Alfie's," said KT, already making a beeline toward the room at the end of the hall. She seemed a little nervous, too, though whether it was from being in the Chosen One's presence, or from the power outage, Eddie wasn't sure.
When she was out of earshot, Nina turned her critical eye on him. "I was only trying to say I'm glad that you had help while I was gone," she said, as though she could read his mind. Maybe she could; Eddie still wasn't sure exactly how deep the Paragon-Osirian connection ran. "I know this stuff isn't possible to do on your own... I'm just sorry that anyone else had to be put in danger. That wasn't my intention." She started walking toward his room and threw the door open: no one was inside. "I guess what I'm trying to say is sorry."
"Sorry?" Eddie squinted at her through the shadows. "For what?"
"No sign of Dexter, Sophia, or Willow!" KT reported from the other room, her footsteps drawing nearer.
"For abandoning you guys when you needed me most," sighed Nina, and before Eddie could assure her that taking care of her sick grandmother was not abandoning them, KT poked her head into the room.
"Upstairs?" she prompted, eyes flitting between the two them nervously like they might explode any minute. Maybe she'd been dwelling on the legends too, about their proximity bringing misfortune.
"Yeah, must be," he replied, and took a single step toward his friend when the house suddenly began to tremor violently. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, stumbling directly into KT and sending them both careening into the wall.
Nina shrieked in surprise and tripped backward into Eddie's desk, the pens and knickknacks atop it skittering across the floor. The house continued to rumble for a few more seconds, then went still.
Eddie ushered the girls out of the room back into the foyer, all three completely shaken. "What the hell was that?" Nina gasped, rubbing the spot where her hip had caught the corner of the desk.
"I'm not sure, but-" Movement above them caught Eddie's eye, but before he could call out or alert the girls, the house began to shake again, more intensely this time. "Get upstairs!" he managed to call over the chaos once he regained his own footing. "Someone's in Victor's office!"
They thundered up to the second floor as fast as they were able, given the circumstances, and stumbled into Victor's office. The moment Eddie and Nina passed the threshold, the earthquake petered out; Dexter was already there, staring at something, and Eddie followed his gaze to Sophia standing in front of Victor's wide open safe. "Sophia?" Dexter prompted.
She turned to them with wide eyes, her face illuminated by the golden glow coming from Victor's lockbox. "Oh, thank goodness! What is that thing?" she gasped frantically, pointing her flashlight at the contents of the safe- not that they needed any light shone on them, given how bright the Touchstone was burning.
KT frowned, crossing to the frightened girl and wrapping an arm around her shoulders in comfort. "And why does Victor want it so bad?"
"The gold of Ra!" Dexter exclaimed. "Like the museum dude said. Victor's going to build the Pyramid of Ra!" He tacked on a cringey evil laugh at the end of it, and Eddie fought not to smack him. He didn't trust this kid, not one bit.
Nina caught Eddie's eye before she walked to the safe, her expression grim. He followed behind her, and the two crouched down before the glowing, crackling artifact. Heat rolled off it in waves, like kneeling in front of an open oven, but Eddie didn't feel as though he had to squint against the light- not like the others; out of the corner of his eye, he watched Nina slowly reach out to touch it. She held it up, tracing her fingers over the edges of it, transfixed. There was a low buzzing sound, and the glow immediately vanished, plunging them all back into darkness.
Eddie wet his lips nervously. A divine tug from the depths of his soul had him moving before he could even consciously realize it. "We have to hide this," he said, snatching the Touchstone out of Nina's hands like she was holding a hand grenade instead of a rock. He'd not only shocked Nina, but himself too, and he stood up abruptly. "Everyone stay in your rooms," he said sharply, aware that the majority of the people in the office with him didn't actually have a room in the house, but not really caring. He rushed down the stairs to his room, knowing that Nina and KT would be hot on his heels despite his demand anyway.
When he got there, he crouched by his bed and yanked out a wooden lockable box Ms. Valentine made them craft in drama design that term, discarding the contents carelessly onto the floor. "We need to call a Sibuna meeting," he said to his fellow Americans, shoving the stone out of sight and clipping up the dinky padlock.
"A what?" Sophia asked, poking her head into the room after them. She got no response. "Sorry... None of my business. I just didn't want to be alone, and... thought I could help? Maybe."
"We've got it, thanks," Nina said in that tense way of hers, and KT's jaw clicked shut from where she was probably about to say something along the lines of 'More the merrier!'
Eddie cleared his throat. "Look, Victor's gonna be back any minute. We should take the secret way down to the cellar." He produced the Eye of Horus locket from under his shirt, and Nina's eyes immediately widened as they fell on it. She didn't look happy he was just waving the thing about, but what was she going to say now?
Before she could protest or try to snatch it away from him, he made a beeline toward the kitchen. "Eddie!" Nina hissed, darting after him. "I said it was good you had help while your lives were at stake, not that we needed to tell everyone about everything!"
"Our lives could still be at stake!" he whispered back while he pressed the locket against the stone indent by the oven passage. It glowed and the door slide open with a grating sound. "We have no idea what's going on!"
"Is this how Joy felt?" Nina grumbled, more to herself than to Eddie. Then, she snatched the locket from him and slipped it over her head.
Despite his annoyance with her, he couldn't help but smile a bit. Back where it belongs, he mused fleetingly.
KT and Sophia came running in a moment later, and Eddie didn't have time to wonder where Dexter had gotten to before the young girl's eyes bulged. "Whoa, we definitely don't have secret passageways in the lower year houses!" she exclaimed. "This place is amazing!"
Nina looked between him and KT and sighed heavily through her nose. "It is pretty cool, isn't it?" she agreed, her frustration only just hidden by a curt laugh. "Well, since you've already seen it, might as well head down."
KT shot Eddie an awkward look before guiding Sophia down into the darkness, and he shrugged back. The Osirian and Chosen One might have been cosmically in-sync, but it apparently didn't mean Nina and Eddie were.
-
With Joy's head tucked under one of Kira's arms, she braced herself against a wall with the other while the house shook yet again. Mara crawled under one of the many tables in the cellar, and Fabian crouched beside her with his head covered. Cassie and Erin were foolishly attempting to stay upright, but kept tripping over themselves in an effort to keep from falling. Jerome was still attempting to throw himself against the cellar door to clear a way out for them, but it wouldn't budge. Even when Patricia joined him, the two bashing their full weight against it couldn't get it unjammed. It must have locked behind Eddie and the others on its own.
"Why won't it open?" Jerome cried.
Another thud sounded, louder than the rumbling of stone; Patricia's harsh cursing carried down the steps. They were well and truly trapped down here.
"Cassie!" Kira shouted over the shaking and screeching. "Erin! Get down!"
Whether or not the duo heard her wasn't important; they couldn't manage to stay on their feet anyway, crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Joy shouted something unintelligible into her ear, and Kira tightened her grip on her friend in response. Earthquakes in the UK were uncommon, but not unheard of, so perhaps this was simply a fluke. Somehow, though, she didn't think so. An ancient artifact gets mysteriously stolen from a museum and ends up in the Osirian's pocket, the same day the power randomly cuts out and an earthquake hits, and it's just a coincidence? Unlikely. There was something decidedly strange going on, but Kira didn't have much time to parse through her thoughts, given her primary concern was the house coming down on her head.
Then, suddenly, the shaking stopped and the room settled. Jerome and Patricia were still in the process of trying to unjam the door, however, and as soon as the shaking stopped, there was a loud bang and twin cries as the cellar door opened with ease and sent the two housemates careening to the floor of the upper landing in a mess of flailing limbs. "GET OFF ME, SLIMEBALL!" Patricia bellowed, shoving Jerome's lanky body off her. He yelped, and Joy let out a nervous trill of laughter, while a still shaken Alfie cackled openly. The rest of the students slowly came out of hiding, cautious of a third seismic wave, but after a few moments, it seemed like it was finally over.
"Is everyone alright?" Fabian asked, crawling out from under the table. He made a beeline to Erin and Cassie who were openly crying, while Patricia and Jerome trudged down the stairs, rubbing their bruised bodies with grimaces painted across their faces.
Kira looked down at Joy, who was peeking up into her face with wide, frightened eyes; she cleared her throat. "I think we're fine, Fabian," she said, peeling away from her friend to join the young teens crying on the ground. "Are you guys going to be okay?" she asked, putting a comforting hand on Cassie's shoulder.
"Oh, yeah, we're fine thanks for asking," grumbled Patricia, rolling her neck. "Only just got bowled over by that scarecrow over there."
"I am not a scarecrow!" Jerome squawked indignantly, drawing Joy under his arm.
"I dunno, dude," Alfie remarked. "You do kind of look like a scarecrow."
"Wait, shh!" Mara ordered suddenly, and everyone paused. Voices at the top of the stairs- Victor and Mr. Sweet's voices. "Hide!"
They scrambled into action, darting under and behind anything and everything in an attempt to hide themselves from view. Mara dove for the space under stairs, while Joy and Jerome took cover behind a few barrels of fuel. Cassie and Erin crawled under the table, and Kira and Alfie were tugged by Fabian to the spot behind a half-wall by the secret oven passage. Patricia blew out the candles as fast as she could and rushed to join them, just as Victor and Sweet began descending into the darkness.
A low creak behind them alerted Kira to the fact someone- her moron brother, most likely- had just come through the bread oven passage. Sure enough, Eddie, followed by Nina, KT, and Sophia, came crawling out, and Kira immediately clapped a hand over Eddie's mouth before he could loudly announce their position.
"Oh, look, Mr. Sweet, somebody's had a party and not invited us!" Victor exclaimed mockingly, the beam of his flashlight casting the shadow of one of their cakes onto the far wall. "Quite a feast!"
No sooner were the words out of his mouth, did the lights suddenly come back on, and Kira blinked rapidly against her constricting pupils. The only thing hiding Sibuna and Sophia from view was a measly wall, but the rest of their housemates were basically stuck in the open. Sure enough, the gig was up.
"Ah, perfect timing!" the caretaker crowed, apparently having caught some of the others. "Look what we have here, Mr. Sweet! Come on, upstairs!"
"And look who I found," the headmaster clucked disapprovingly, and Kira could just see the back of his head peering down to see under the table where Cassie and Erin were hiding.
"You're all well aware the cellar is out of bounds, and don't think because your time here is almost up means I will tolerate any insubordination!" Victor called over the stampede of footsteps thundering up the wooden stairs into the house. "To your rooms!"
A few moments of tense quiet passed, no doubt her father and Victor waiting till they thought everyone was out of earshot. Laziness, Kira thought to herself. They should know better by now that we travel in packs.
"That stone," Victor said finally, breaking the silence, "is part of the Pyramid of Ra..."
Eddie forcibly wrenched his face from where it was clamped, forgotten in Kira's grip, so he could lean in closer to hear.
"Oh, yes," their father chuckled dismissively, "the one that's supposed to 'rain down gold'."
There was a shuffling, then Victor continued to speak: "A century ago, a renowned alchemist found four of the Pyramid stones, but the Touchstone belonged to the master of this house."
"Frobisher-Smythe," Eric hummed.
"Yes," said Victor. "The alchemist wanted to join forces and share the gold, but Robert refused..."
"Why?"
Victor's voice dropped to such a hush, that Kira's ear drums nearly imploded from the strain of trying to catch every word. "When the Pyramid of Ra is built, a human sacrifice is required in exchange for Ra's gold. Robert wouldn't hear of it, especially not after Louisa tore into him over it. So he sent the Touchstone away, and stole the rest of the stones off the alchemist. According to the vague story Sarah told me, he buried them somewhere on the grounds of the estate." He sighed deeply, and his footsteps drew dangerously close to their hiding spot. "Among all the other treasures hidden here, I've done my fair share of searching for the pieces, but to no success. Still, I knew this day would come..."
Somewhere behind Kira, Alfie accidentally stepped on Fabian's foot quite harshly, and Sophia shifted her weight, and the wooden bit of the wall she was leaning against creaked loudly. Everyone winced, as the twin beams of light snapped in their direction. "Who's there?" Victor demanded.
Kira screwed her eyes shut and groaned internally. They were so busted.
Suddenly, an angel appeared at the top of the cellar stairs. Well, not an angel, exactly, but rather Dexter. Kira couldn't actually see him, but she knew it was him by how comically loud his existence was. "Hey, guys, where did you-" The boy cut himself off, and Kira could picture that wide-eyed look he used to get whenever he accidentally said something wrong or embarrassing in French. "Oh... Hi, Mr. Sweet!"
"Don't you 'Hi, Mr. Sweet' me, young man!" her father spluttered, chasing him back up the way he'd come. "Get back up there! Hup, hup, hup!"
Soon enough, Victor left, too, climbing the stairs and shutting the cellar door behind him with a bang. The keys turned in the lock and Sibuna, plus Sophia, were alone in the cellar once again.
"Okay, we're good," Kira said after a moment, and the group flooded back out into the basement from their tight quarters.
"Victor wants to build the Pyramid to get all the gold?" Eddie mused slowly.
"But he has to sacrifice someone first!" KT said. She looked at them imploringly. "Would Victor really do that?"
Sophia cocked her head. "For all the gold of Ra he might."
Patricia's expression soured at the tween's input. "This is a private conversation, Agent Pigtails," she snapped, which was silly since Sophia wasn't wearing pigtails.
"Patricia's right," Nina added, before anyone could object to her harshness. "And besides, Victor is a lot of things, but he's not a murderer."
"Come on," Sophia begged, sticking out her pinkie finger. "I want to help you guys! Please?"
Alfie always had a soft spot for newcomers, and he grinned. "I say let her stay!" He wrapped his pinkie around hers in solidarity.
Kira shot a sympathetic look at Nina and Patricia, before throwing Sophia her support as well. "What's the harm?" she asked, bumping shoulders with the girl. Everyone was too harsh on the poor duck.
KT nodded hesitantly, melting under the heat of Nina and Patricia's glare. Fabian pointedly said nothing, probably out of fear of his girlfriend's disapproval; Eddie cleared his throat. "Okay, so... welcome to the club?"
"On a trial basis," Patricia ground out, and Nina nodded jerkily. Kira had heard stories of when Nina first arrived, how she and Patricia butted heads over Joy's disappearance like angry bulls. Looking at the two of them now, so fiercely on each other's side, no one would have guessed they'd ever been at odds.
"Right," Eddie said nervously, then clapped his hands as if to hit the reset button. "Okay! Victor said the stones were buried on the grounds. We have to find them before he does."
Someone loudly cleared their throat from the base of the stairs, and the entirety of Sibuna leapt a foot in the air. Mara crossed her arms, and tried to look stern. However, she was looking pretty excited. "So, having a Sibuna meeting without me?" she asked.
Nina turned sharply toward Fabian, who appeared as though he wanted to die on the spot. "Fabian?"
"Okay, so maybe after everything with Frobisher, Mara was given the gist..."
Mara held up the book and paper Victor had presumably been rifling through. "And I'm happy to help! You guys are clearly gonna need it." she chirped, oblivious to Nina's displeasure at yet another Sibuna recruit. Perhaps the Chosen One wasn't yet ready to admit that times had changed since she'd been the one solving mysteries under Anubis House's roof.
Before anyone could reply, the door to the cellar opened again, and everyone immediately shifted gears toward escaping without being seen. "To the bread oven!" Alfie hissed, and Nina quickly pressed her locket to the indent. It glowed red, and soon enough they were all climbing back up to the surface world.
Nina breezed right into Fabian and Eddie's room without saying a word, and Kira exchanged a look with KT. They were just glad taking care of that issue wasn't their problem. "Good luck," KT whispered to the boys who'd be sharing with the disgruntled Chosen One, and they performed synchronized grimaces before following after her.
Patricia just harrumphed and blustered up the stairs to the girls' corridor. Sophia frowned after her.
"I don't understand why she hates me..." she mumbled.
"Maybe it was when you dumped a drink on her while making a pass at her boyfriend," Mara whispered so only Kira could hear, and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the memory. Oh, the drama of it all.
KT patted her gently on the shoulder. "She'll come around," she assured her. "She always does!"
Sophia half-smiled at KT. "I hope so," she said. "Well, big day tomorrow, right? I'd better join my housemates."
"Night, Sophia," Kira bid, and the young girl trotted off to the living room where the other three were camped.
"Okay, as much as I want to start investigating right away, I'm assuming you're not sleeping in our room tonight," said Mara, eyeing the two Americans with fond exasperation.
"What makes you say that?" Kira asked, a cheeky smile starting to part her face as KT slung an arm over her shoulder.
"Oh, nothing, except the fact you never sleep in our room anymore."
"Hey, I'm losing this one to rural Vermont college life in, like, two days," KT laughed defensively. "And now maybe there's a human sacrifice and another angry Egyptian god on the table. Let us enjoy our last few nights in the same bed in peace."
Kira covered her face with her hands, red as a cherry. "Oh my god, not so loud!" she whispered while Mara started to laugh. "The babies are in the next room!"
"What, I didn't say anything bad," she protested innocently, but her grin said it all. "Like, I could have said that we were probably going to stay up and-"
"Okay, okay, good night and goodbye," Mara giggled with fond exasperation, waving them up the stairs. She followed behind them. "Don't forget tomorrow is picture day, too! Look sharp!"
"Yes, Mom," Kira drawled, pressing a quick kiss to her roommate's cheek before following KT to the attic door. "Don't stay up all night reading about alchemists, okay?"
"Don't stay up all night with each other!"
KT threw her head back and laughed. "No promises!"
-
Nina didn't speak to Eddie once as they all slowly got ready for bed, only choosing to whsiper with Fabian, who'd remained mostly Switzerland in the whole recruitment debacle. It didn't take being the Osirian to know that the Paragon was annoyed, but really what was he supposed to do about it? When they'd greenlit Kira telling Mara about Sibuna it was in the wake of a barely-avoided disaster- not to mention, they'd kind of figured that was the last of the mystical bullshit that would come knocking on their door.
Finally, Eddie had enough. "You can't actually be mad at me," he said, silencing the hushed conversation between the lovers.
Nina jerked her head to look at him. "I'm not mad," she said madly. "I just would have appreciated a little warning that Sibuna's become common knowledge now."
"Well, I would have liked a little warning too. You know, that the house was gonna fall down on our heads and that Victor might be trying to take a human sacrifice. My priority isn't keeping some dirty little secret," he retorted. "It's keeping everyone safe. If that means Mara and Sophia know about it, that's fine by me!"
"Eddie..." Fabian warned quietly, but Nina bulldozed him.
"It's always been safer to keep everything a secret!" Nina protested. "Why do you think Sarah spent her life keeping everything to herself, huh? The same reason Victor and anybody else has almost no idea about what her parents have hidden in this place! The same reason Victor doesn't know enough to find the pieces to build this Pyramid in the first place!" She shook her head. "It's not that I don't trust Mara-"
"What about Sophia?" challenged Eddie.
Nina scoffed, crossing her arms. "Because I don't trust her. Neither does Patricia."
"Nina..." Fabian tried to interject, but the Osirian cut him off.
"Oh, is that so? So let me guess, you trust Dexter more, then?"
She scrunched up her nose, perplexed. "Dexter?"
"He snuck up after Sophia, didn't he? He was there in Victor's office, cracking stupid jokes. I think he was trying to deflect suspicion."
"I don't know, Eddie..." Fabian trailed off, pausing as though he thought he was going to get interrupted again. When he didn't, he cleared his throat. "I just mean, what if- and hear me out, guys- what if the random twelve year-olds that have been around without an issue for forever actually have nothing to do with whatever happened with the Touchstone?"
"Unlikely," they retorted at the same time; Fabian threw up his hands in defeat.
"Look, regardless of Sophia and/or Dexter being shady, I just wish you would have been more honest with me," Nina huffed. She jabbed a finger at Fabian. "Both of you. You guys withholding stuff from me about who's in the know versus who's not is setting me up to fail. I know I passed the mantle on, but just... have a little faith in me. I'm not going to bite your heads off!"
"You're right," Fabian said immediately, reaching out for her hand from his spot on the bed. "I'm sorry we made you feel left out or like we don't care what you think. That was wrong of us. Right, Eddie?"
Eddie clenched his jaw, still a little peeved, but he nodded. "Right. For that, I'm sorry, Nina."
Evidently unwilling to pursue any further argument, Nina bobbed her head before slowly crawling into bed beside her boyfriend. "Night," she bid.
Eddie ran a hand through his hair and smiled without his teeth. "Night," he replied, pulling back the covers of his own bed and dropping into it before flicking off the lamp light. Maybe there was some merit to the whole 'bad things will happen' thing. If the bad things were being annoyed to death.
And the possibility of a human sacrifice. That was bad, too.
-
Kira hid a yawn behind her hand, slumping down beside Eddie in her assigned chair for the class photo. All four of the boarding houses in their year, as well as a handful of day students, were milling about the stage, waiting for the photographer to show up. Nina had elected to stay behind at the house to do a bit more sleuthing, but Kira thought she'd probably have a rough go of it, what with all the underclassmen still hanging around there.
She yawned again. She and KT definitely shouldn't have stayed up as late as they had after an already exciting day, but who was going to begrudge them the time spent together? If the past year had taught them anything, it was that quality time was precious. Even so, at the moment, Kira was immensely grateful to her past self for not volunteering to be on any of the organization committees for the leavers' day festivities, because watching Joy, Willow, and Jerome zoom around the room was giving her headache. To be fair, though, Jerome hadn't exactly volunteered, but he also couldn't exactly say no to Joy. It was hard enough saying no to her when she wasn't your girlfriend; Kira imagined the rotation of the Earth would change before Jerome could weasel his way out of anything.
"Do you think Patricia is mad at me?" Eddie whispered, snapping Kira out of her brain fog for a minute. "I swear I'm not trying to flirt with Sophia, she's just there, y'know?"
Kira looked down the row at Patricia, who picked at her nails absently in her spot wedged between KT and Mara, then looked back at her twin. "Nah, she's not mad at you," she assured him. "She's just not a fan of Sophia."
Across the room, Willow was talking to Mr. Sweet, Joy, and Jerome, the camera in her hand going off at random intervals. It was kind of distracting, actually.
"I just don't understand why she's being so prickly with her, is all." Eddie sighed and half-rolled his eyes. "I mean, like I keep saying, she's just a kid."
Kira had to agree, but she could also rationalize Patricia's behavior. That was what being the observant twin out of the two meant. "Eddie, don't forget the year she's had," Kira replied. "She's just being... I dunno, hyper-vigilant."
"Of course I didn't forget," he muttered crossly, slumping down a little in his chair. "And I get it, I do, I just... feel bad."
"Don't," Kira said, holding back another yawn. "Since apparently it's my job, I'll worry about Sophia's well-being, and you just worry about spending time with your girlfriend before vacation."
Even though Patricia had accepted an offer to attend school in the States, not far from where Eddie was going, there was still a whole three or so months before they'd be back in the same place again.
"And also apparently worry about Ra wanting a human sacrifice," Eddie added wryly. "Honestly, remember when we thought this place was normal?"
"No kidding," she snorted. There was something else, though, something in the way Eddie's face seemed to quiver with tension that made Kira pause. He looked as exhausted as she felt. Something else was troubling him beyond Patricia and Sophia. "What is it, Eddie?"
Hesitating, he bit his lip; Kira raised her eyebrows coaxingly, and he sighed. "It's Dex," he said. "Dexter. I really don't trust him."
She was startled enough at such a statement that her short laugh caught in her nose. "You're still on that? Eddie, I'm telling you Dexter is just... well, Dexter."
"What is that's just what he wants us to think?" he insisted. "No one is that goofy, Kira, it could be an act!"
Kira frowned, starting to feel uneasy. Was Eddie actually serious? "Dude, I've known the kid for two years, and he's always been that goofy. Some people are that goofy." She tried for levity: "I mean, look at yourself."
"I'm not joking!" he snapped. "Just... we should keep a special eye on him. That's all."
Before Kira could say anything more on the matter, the conversation between Willow and Jerome got louder. It seemed any suspicions of subterfuge would have to go on the back burner for a bit.
"And where's the photographer you booked?" Jerome's incredulous laugh drew their attention to the center of the student lounge where now only Willow and Jerome stood.
Willow grimaced, then spun around to face him with a sunny smile like she'd never been concerned at all. "Right here!" she announced. Immediately groans went up through the gathered students; what would have been at most ten minutes of picture taking was now going to take upwards of half an hour. What was she thinking? "Look, I have spent the last three summers photographing fairies. Surely, I can manage a photo of my classmates!" No sooner were the words out of her mouth, did she accidentally hit the button on the camera, capturing an unsuspecting Jerome in a brief flash of blinding light.
Startled, he slapped his hands to his eyes, crying out like the drama queen he was. "Ahh, I'm blind! I'm blind!"
"No, you're not," Willow giggled sweetly, then turned to face the mass of students on the stage. "Okay, Daniel, you move to the back. Other than that, you all look wonderful! This is gonna be fabulous!"
It took a good ten minutes for Willow to work out the settings on the camera, mostly due to KT's help, and another five to adequately balance the camera on the back of one of the lounge sofas. Once the timer was set, Willow rushed to her spot. "Okay, everybody!" she exclaimed as they all adjusted themselves with pre-picture anxiety. "Say 'squee!'"
"Squeeeeee," they droned in unison, before morphing into a scream of panic at the last second as they all futilely lunged for the camera when it pitched backwards off the couch- not before flashbanging the entire class of 2013 in one fell swoop.
Kira blinked the spots from her vision, finally wide awake. Scratch that thirty minute prediction- they were going to be there for at least an hour.
-
After they managed to escape Willow's clutches and go back to the house, Eddie was feeling way better than he had that morning. He and Patricia were doubled over laughing at the memory of Jerome's blinding at Willow's hands, while Kira, KT, Alfie, and Fabian skipped along behind them, giggling too.
"His face!" Patricia crowed as they all walked down the hall toward the boys' room, leaning heavily on Eddie for support while he struggled to hold her up, weak from his own hysterics. "His face, I can't breathe!"
"And they way he just stood there and screamed," KT laughed. "Willow's final revenge!"
"Drama queen," Kira snickered.
"Hey, now, cut him some slack!" Alfie defended his roommate, but even he couldn't help but burst into guffaws. "Nah, I got nothing."
"Poor Jerome," chuckled Fabian.
All laughter halted, though, when Nina stepped into the hall from Fabian and Eddie's room, her face ashen. She was holding the wooden box so tightly, her knuckles were white.
Eddie's heart leapt into his throat, but Fabian was the first to speak. "What's wrong?" he asked, crossing anxiously to his girlfriend.
"It's gone," she said, her tone hard and tense. She looked first at Fabian, eye twitching, then at Eddie. He withered under her gaze. "The Touchstone is gone."
His jaw flapped uselessly, aware the others were equally as stunned. It was Patricia who managed to snap them into action, however. "Not here," she whispered urgently, gesturing for them to go into the bedroom. They filed in anxiously, and by the time the door was shut behind them, Eddie's brain had rebooted.
"Okay," he said, "who took it?"
"Victor?" KT suggested, her hand wrapped tightly around Kira's wrist.
It was definitely plausible, but something about Dexter's odd behavior the night before and back at the museum wouldn't leave his head. "Maybe," he began slowly, cut off by a rapid knock. The door opened to reveal Dexter himself, panting heavily as though he'd run across campus. It was no coincidence, and now Eddie was pissed.. "You..." Eddie said, pointing. "You were the only one alone with the stone at the museum. You weren't napping, you were about to steal it! Guys, he must have gone back for it when we left the room."
"Wha-? No!" Dexter protested, brow furrowed. "Look, you need to talk to Sophia! She was out in the woods just now, and-"
"She has an alibi: me! Okay, you can't blame this on her!" Maybe his sister had a point about feeling protective over these kids. Eddie took a threatening step toward the boy, and Kira sucked in a loud breath of shock at his aggression. To his surprise, Patricia stepped in and planted herself firmly between them.
She glared at him but there was anxiety in her eyes, whether because of his defense of Sophia or the fact that for a second Eddie had been ready to throw down with a thirteen year old, he didn't know. "I think we should hear Dexter out before throwing around accusations," she said lowly, just to him.
"She's right. I want to hear what he has to say," KT piped up hesitantly, and Kira bumped her shoulder with hers comfortingly. It was all feeling very deja vu-ish.
Patricia place a hand, feather light, on his arm, but he jerked it away, ashamed by his outburst but not ready to back down yet. He was certain there was something wrong. "No, where is it, Dexter?" he snapped.
"Eddie," Nina and Fabian implored him at the same time, in varying tones.
"Why won't you even listen?" Dexter exclaimed. "I'm trying to tell you that-"
The door swung open again, catching Patricia hard in the side, and Sophia ran in. "Oh, sorry!" she gasped, then turned to the rest of them with a friendly wave. "Hey, guys! Hey, Dex!"
It was bad enough that this was happening at all, but now both subjects of contention were here. The air in the room felt compressed, like a faulty pressure cooker ready to explode. If something didn't happen to lessen that tension, something was gonna blow.
"Dexter was just leaving," Eddie bit out in an effort to save them from the ticking time bomb.
Dexter's eyes snapped to him from where he'd been glaring at Sophia, and he opened his mouth as if to make one last plea. Then, he seemed to think better of it, and shoved past Sophia out the door.her into the hall. Eddie let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"Wha-?" Sophia breathed, eyes darting around the room nervously.
"Touchstone's gone," Eddie muttered by way of an answer, deflating into himself.
Her eyes widened comically. "What? No! But who? How?"
Patricia scoffed, and Fabian covered the sound with a loud cough. "It's not just the Touchstone we need to worry about. I mean, the other stones are buried somewhere on the grounds, right? We need to find them and dig them up."
"Okay, so any leads?" KT asked. "You know, before one of us gets sacrificed?"
"Let's not panic, okay?" Kira said. "I mean, let's be logical. Frobisher probably didn't just bury them in the ground, right? It's not really his style."
"She's right," Nina remarked with a heavy sigh. "Sarah's father always had a flare for the dramatic."
"Weird to hear you call him that," Alfie mused. They looked at him curiously. "Just that for a year he's been Zombie-Frombie-Smythe to me. Kinda forgot he was anyone's stuffy, dramatic dad."
"Can we focus here, people?" Fabian snapped.
There was a knock at the door and in skipped Mara. "I think you might find this useful," she said primly, holding a yellowed old newspaper aloft between her fingertips.
Nina pursed her lips and shot Eddie a pointed look. "Look, Mara, if you've come here to-"
"Wait!" Fabian gasped, pointing at the picture. Eddie peered over his shoulder to get a look at the newspaper clipping too. It featured a more youthful Frobisher than even what the curse had preserved. In fact, Froisher didn't look much older than they did now. "This photo is from The Cairo Telegraph in, uh, 1900. And there, beside Robert, is that our alchemist?"
Sophia eyes widened, and she pulled Fabian's arm toward her so she could better see it. "Really?" she exclaimed.
"Nice fez," giggled KT, but when no one else besides Alfie laughed, she cleared her throat. "Hey, what's he got in his hands?"
"It's a canopic jar," Sophia replied gravely, and Fabian furrowed his brow.
"Yeah," he said slowly, though whether he was impressed by her knowledge or suspicious of her like Nina and Patricia, it was hard to say. "Ancient Egyptians used them to store a mummies' organs after death."
"Ew," remarked Kira and KT at the same time.
"What else does it say?" Nina asked eagerly.
Fabian wrestled back the newspaper from Sophia and flipped it over. "Well, this side is an article about nap time," mused out loud, and Eddie perked up a bit at that. Now that was interesting to him. Fabian shook his head and turned it back over. "Maybe... the first letter of each line spells something out?"
"Okay, so what does it spell?" Patricia prompted.
"Uh... uh... muffin top!"
Mara laughed from her place by the door, and sauntered up to the salutatorian. "I think this is what you're looking for," she corrected, pointing to the edge of the paper where there was a dark smudge. "Someone wrote out coordinates of some kind while leaning on the clipping. It transferred over."
Fabian began to splutter indignantly. "Uh, uh, yes, leaning on the clipping! That's where I was going with this!"
"Mara, if you weren't already getting that medal tomorrow, it would be a crime," Alfie said, offering her a high five, which she accepted eagerly. "We need her in Sibuna, guys!"
Nina coughed loudly, but ultimately, she knew the decision was out of her hands. Eddie smiled without his teeth at her. "So... you think you can help us out, Mara?"
She pretended to think. "Okay, I guess I can join your little clique! Since you obviously need me."
Eddie watched Kira hide a laugh behind her hand at Fabian's outraged expression, and he struggled to not burst out laughing as well, not just at Fabian's face, but at Nina's too. They were two peas in a pod, no doubt about it.
"We ned to see where those coordinates lead. Maybe even tonight? We might be able to find the other stones!" Sophia suggested.
"Okay," Eddie agreed. "Okay, yeah. Fabian, can you get us a map of the estate?"
"Yeah!" he agreed immediately, his pride already wounded. He looked pointedly at the valedictorian. "Yeah, I can do that no problem."
Mara just rolled her eyes.
-
Kira, KT, Mara, and Sophia crept down the girls' corridor that night, past a sleeping Joy and Willow on their way down stairs to meet up with the boys, Patricia, and Nina. They were all going treasure hunting- the old fashioned sort of treasure hunting, complete with shovels. No one was really looking forward to digging up the lawn, but it was potentially a matter of life or death... no one could really complain too much when it came down to that.
Since that afternoon, the girls had spent a good chunk of time up in KT's room trading funny stories about Sibuna happening, much to Mara and, to a lesser extent, Sophia's delight. The latter seemed distracted, probably by the wacky circumstances she was only just beginning to learn about; Kira could relate. Some things she still had trouble believing the stuff Sibuna got up to.
"Oh, KT!" Sophia piped up from the back of their little squad. "You dropped your, uh, key! Wow, it's really pretty."
"Gosh, thanks!" KT replied, taking it back from her with a grateful smile. "The amount of times we've lost this thing..."
"Please don't remind me," Kira laughed, only half kidding. She was still a little traumatized from her lethal adventures with the Moon Key.
At Sophia's questioning look, Mara jumped at the chance to fill her in: "It's a key to the estate," she explained.
"Oh?" the young teen asked.
KT chuckled sheepishly. "Kind of a long story," she said. "My family sorta built the place."
Sophia's expression faltered, but she was smiling again a second later. "Oh, wow! You're a Frobisher?"
"By blood, I guess." KT shrugged. "Im just a good ol' fashioned Rush, though."
"And we like you that way," Kira laughed.
"Well, that's amazing," complimented Sophia.
"Mhm... But enough about me, we'd better hurry up if we wanna meet the others before we all get Victored!"
They hurried down the hall, Sophia lagging behind just a bit. Kira looked back at her to make sure she was still coming, and faltered at the expression on her face. It was ice cold hatred, and for a moment, Kira swore she saw a glimmer of gold lurking behind Sophia's pale eyes. Then, she was smiling again, bubbly and sweet as ever. "Wait up!"
Kira blinked, then shook her head. It was probably just the trauma, but she couldn't help but think about Dexter's adamant accusation. Perhaps there was some merit to Patricia and Nina's dislike... or perhaps Kira was just paranoid.
Paranoid, she decided uneasily. Definitely paranoid.
-
They spent several hours digging around the grounds of the school, and Eddie was actually surprised at the amount of random crap they unearthed. By the end of their search, they'd accumulated few sacks full of junk, and they decided to sneak into the school to search through it all.
Once it was all laid out on the stage, though, their haul looked a lot more pitiful than it had outside: a few random plates, a cracked frisbee, a garden gnome holding a tulip, and among other wrapped- and boxed-up pieces of forgotten garbage.
"It's like the worst yard sale ever," KT complained, while Sophia sat down heavily on the stage beside their treasure trove. They were all exhausted from the effort.
"Definitely no pyramid stones," Fabian remarked, holding up a broken piece of pipe.
"Alfie, why did you even take the gnome?" asked Nina, arms crossed over her chest. She and Mara were covered in grime from when Alfie accidentally tossed too much dirt over his shoulder while digging.
"I thought it might be a clue!" he protested weakly. Under everyone's disbelieving stares, he sighed. "I thought Willow might like it..."
"Never mind that," Fabian dismissed. "Victor said they'd be buried on the grounds."
"He also said he'd never managed to find them," Patricia pointed out. "So, like, maybe he was wrong."
"Okay..." Mara trailed off. "Then could we just go back to bed?"
"What if Victor finds us with this stuff?" KT asked. "He's gonna ask questions."
"She's right, it's too risky to just leave it here, and it's too risky to bring it back to Anubis," sighed Kira.
"So what do you suggest we do?" Nina retorted.
"Hey, guys," Alfie said, holding up a tattered old canvas box, "what about this?" He turned it upside down and Eddie only just caught the large object that tumbled from it before it smashed on the ground.
He slowly unwrapped the linen that covered it, a grin creeping onto his face at the sight of a distinctly Egyptian looking item. "Bingo," he said. "It's a can optic jar, right, Sophia?"
"Canopic," Fabian sighed, ever the long-suffering.
"May I?" Sophia asked, taking it from him before he could answer her. She smiled at it.
Suddenly, Mr. Sweet materialized out of the darkness, snatching it out of her hands. They all jumped out of their skin. "I'll take that," he said sharply, eyes sweeping the dirty mess on the stage. "A midnight excavation? I assume that's the reason for this gathering... and for the large holes in the front lawn!"
Eddie winced. They probably should have done a better job at covering their tracks.
"Mutant moles?" Alfie suggested.
Mr. Sweet was unimpressed. "I should be writing to your parents," he snapped, and both Eddie and Kira made sure to look anywhere but at their father. "Including yours, Sophia. I don't believe in the peer-pressure excuse, and this is certainly not a good start to your secondary education."
Eddie watched Sophia's eyes fill with tears, and before anyone could react, she ran off with a hiccuped sob.
Eddie felt a stab of pity for her. "Come on, Dad, was that really necessary? You don't have to pick on her, it was all of us!" When no one moved to go after her, he huffed and went himself. He could feel Patricia's glare on the back of his neck, but he didn't care. She was a kid, and he knew damn well what it felt like to be ostracized as a kid.
"Eddison! Sophia!" Mr. Sweet called after him. "Come back here! No, nobody else is going anywhere!"
He ignored his dad, sprinting out into the night. Someone had to be this girl's friend, and if everyone else was too busy with petty grudges, then he was just going to have to step up.
-
When Eddie arrived back at the house, he heard the faint sounds of Willow, Joy, Cassie, and Erin upstairs watching a movie or something, but other than that, there was nothing but stillness in the house. No sign of Dexter, either.
"Sophia?" he whisper-yelled into the foyer. He checked the living room: nothing. "Sophia?"
Light footsteps on the stairs caught his attention and he pulled his head back into the entrance hall just in time to see Sophia halt on the bottom landing. He started to offer her a word of comfort, when he noticed the object in her hand. The Touchstone of Ra glowed vibrantly in her palm, and even her quick attempt to hide it behind her back, didn't do much to dull the light.
"What are you doing with that?" he asked slowly, and Sophia smirked. Oh. For the second time that school year, Eddie felt like a real idiot. "You stole that stone, didn't you? Patricia, Dexter... they were right! You're the one who framed me!"
"Such a worthwhile field trip," she hummed, descending the stairs till she stood before him, the Touchstone gleaming in her grasp. "All it took was a few bedbugs and a forged invitation to the museum." She batted her eyelashes at him mockingly. "So sweet of you to bring the Touchstone home for me. Good old Eddie to the rescue."
He thought back to when she'd come bounding up to him and Patricia after they'd been shouted out of the back room. She'd been way too close, hadn't she? Even brushed his bag! The whole time, he'd thought she was just a lonely, clingy kid, when in reality she was just preying on his better nature.
The betrayal stung less than the Sinners', but it hurt just as much realizing he was that easy to manipulate. "We let you in," he breathed. "I trusted you!"
"What's happening?" Both he and Sophia started, whirling around to see Dexter come out of the kitchen with a plate of cookies in his hand.
While Sophia was distracted, Eddie shook off the humiliation and took action, snatching the Touchstone of Ra out of Sophia's hands and racing into the living room.
"Stop!" she ordered furiously and darted after him.
He ignored her, rushing into the kitchen. A surge of power flared up in his hand and the door slammed behind him, trapping her in the parlor with a golden flash of light. The other door to the kitchen slammed shut, keeping Dexter out, too. Was it the Touchstone's influence or his own making the house react? He couldn't quite tell. Alive in his hand, the pyramid top almost felt like an extension of himself, warming his blood with its raw power. For a moment, Eddie could understand why so many coveted it to the point of death.
He shook it off. Now was not the time to be duped again. "Say goodbye to your pyramid, Sophia!" he snarled, furious with both her and himself, and slammed it onto the ground with all his might. It shattered like glass, and he felt a rush of relief. Well, that was sorted, at least.
Sophia didn't look too concerned, though, patently watching the pieces on the floor. With a sense of dread, Eddie looked down at them, jaw dropping in shock as they slowly reformed into its original, unblemished form. Before he could even blink, the stone seemed to charge up, and a bolt of white-hot energy surged up at him. He was hit square in the jaw, and the force slammed him back into the window, where he slammed his head against the glass.
Eddie must have blacked out for a moment because when he groggily blinked awake, Sophia was chanting some incantation while holding the glowing Touchstone in front of a dazed-looking Dexter's face. She finished her ancient incantation, and spoke in English: "Find Sweet and bring me that jar," she commanded, and Dexter inexplicably complied.
Eddie thought back to the lecture Mr. Cornelian gave them, about the Touchstone's power wriggling its way into people's minds. This clearly spelled out trouble for everyone, and he managed to get to his feet, blinking stars out of his vision and stumbling into the laundry room. If he wanted to retrieve that stone and protect that jar, he needed a second to recover.
He owed his girlfriend a massive apology.