Chapter 14
Charlotte
“Thalia,” Thoth says in a reverent whisper. “This has to be her.”
“Wait a moment. Do you know who wrote this?” I ask in amazement.
It takes Thoth a moment to reply. So many memories seem to pass through his dark, wise eyes. I have a feeling that it takes a lot to make the god speechless. Finally, he answers in a reverent voice, “I would know this handwriting anywhere. Thalia was one of Cleopatria’s inner circle. Handmaidens, they called themselves. But they were so much more than just servants. They trained in combat and magical arts. They were lethal and dedicated to their mistress.”
“Each maiden had a particular magical skill. Thalia, in particular, was a gifted seer especially for a mortal. She trained with me to hone her skills. Her gift was a bit erratic, as many seer gifts are, but she was able to see outcomes and the intentions of people before they happened, especially to those closest to her.”
“I always wondered why she didn’t see the attack from Set coming ahead of time,” he continued with sad eyes on the computer screen. “Or maybe she did and saw no other alternative. I guess we will never truly know.”
This is dragging up painful memories for him, but I have to press on to see if he can determine a translation. It seems this event affected all of the gods quite deeply. Almost like they have been too afraid to connect with any other mortals in order to keep what’s left of their hearts intact.
I click away from the image and open the partial translation from Marium. She has combined my translation with her partial to give the following clues:
“This is what my colleague and I have come up with. The four maidens have to be the handmaidens of Cleopatria based on what you just told me, but I can’t seem to put together these glyphs in a way that makes sense,” I say as I stare frustratingly at the computer.
“Thalia saw where they took them,” Thoth replies in awe. “She wrote it down in code to keep others from fully understanding, but I think she knew we would need to find the pieces one day. She just gave us the guide.”
He launches out of his seat and goes to the desk right behind us to pull up a desktop screen.
“Can you send me those images? The original and the translation?” he asks in a hurry. Clearly he’s having a eureka moment, but is not sharing with the class.
“Sure, can you help with the other glyphs?” I ask as I share the images over Bluetooth. I’m still reeling over the fact that they have all of the state-of-the-art amenities in this temple. Who knew gods could modernize like the rest of us?
He pulls up a very advanced projection with the original image on the left side and the translation on the right. “Let me just double-check your work.”
I scoff and he turns and raises both eyebrows at me. “My portion of the translation is just fine, but look it over if you don’t believe me.”
Those dark eyebrows shoot down and he scowls as he meticulously looks over the Greek portion of the message. After a while, he finally says, “Hmm, it looks like you are competent after all, Ms. Fletcher.”
A smile takes over my whole face, because he finally called me by my name rather than “mortal”. I think I’m growing on him.
He turns to look at me and once he sees my smile he frowns. “What? Why are you so happy?”
“Nothing, just basking in one of your rare compliments, dear Thoth.” I reply with a genuine smile still plastered on my face.
“Stop that and focus, Ms. Fletcher. Your portion of the translation is very precise, but the hieroglyphs need major work. Fortunately for you, I believe I can be of some assistance.”
“Well, to be fair to my colleague, the span of Greek language only lasted so many years compared to the several thousands of years that Egypt could develop and change their hieroglyphs. We still don’t understand much of the language.”
“Which is why you need my help, and I am more than happy to assist,” he replies turning back to the images. “I will say that your colleague did do fairly well with what she did translate, but some of these glyphs are very old and weren’t used very much even during Cleopatria’s time. Thalia had to know this and must have seen that whoever came across her piece of the tablet would find me.”
“Or Horus,” I mutter.
“Who would then give it to me,” he says with a smug smile.
“Please, oh wise Thoth, can you just get to the translation? What did we miss?”
He turns to the images and mutters while he jots notes on a tablet. I creep up behind him and try to see over his shoulder by lifting to the balls of my feet. Annoyingly, he’s too tall and bulky to see over. So, I inch around the side of him to see what his notes say.
Once I get a clear view, he has the translation written with most of the blanks filled in, but they have several variations written on top of one another. I can’t understand his muttering, but there is one glyph that he has yet to fill in the blank for and it is clearly vexing him.
“Sometimes it helps to voice our troubles out loud and work them out together,” I chime near his ear.
After his perceptible jolt, it’s apparent he was too lost in thought to realize I was next to him. He replies, “I am not troubled. It will come to me.”
“Come on, Thoth. Just see if we can work this one out together.”
He must be very stumped because he turns slightly to give me a better view of his tablet. “I’m stuck on the symbol naming the second location. I’m trying to remember places that would have represented peace. That symbol is typically aligned with peace or god-like peace.”
When in doubt, ask the internet. I’m fully aware most academics don’t like the vast amount of wrong information that is out on the web, but in this instance any help to jog this god’s brain would be helpful.
So, I pull out my phone and search “city of peace near Rome . After the circle of fate is done searching, it pulls up an unlikely but possible location. “What about Jerusalem?”
Thoth slowly turns to me with his eyes wide. He just stares at me for a moment before jumping into action, “You are a genius! Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before?” Then proceed to place a rushed kiss on my forehead before going to his tablet to make adjustments.
“What is going on here?” comes a familiar but angry voice behind me.
I turn to see Horus leaning against the entrance to the room staring at Thoth like he wants to tear out the dreads on his head one by one.