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Sethan eyed the goings-on patiently, his arms crossed in front of him and a reserved expression on his chiseled features. The appearance of Isis meant little to him; he had always scorned the gods which the Egyptians had worshipped, and saw them as little more than dangerous lunatics. If Sethan was actually any sort of son of Ra, he was a bastard at best. The presence of the "mother of the Nile" only confirmed Sethan's suspicion that this "ankh" they sought was actually the divine phallus of her brother-husband. How very uncouth. Regardless, he now had to take the time to talk out the details of this expedition with its architect, Atticus.

Sethan motioned to the demon from afar. "Atticus, if I may have a word?"

Walking a fair few paces away from the stone circle, he eyed Isis distrustingly as Atticus joined him. Sethan clenched his fist, and the pressure of the air around them shifted dramatically. A miniature cyclone of wind a dust formed around the two of them, which howled like a chorus of the damned. In Arabic, this was known as [i]Al Azif[/i], the sounds of night. While it would not protect their conversation from divine ears, all other eavesdroppers would be sufficiently dissuaded.

Sethan again crossed his arms and spoke in a low and serious tone to Atticus. "I needn't comment on why you asked me here this evening, so I will get straight to the point. I will manage this treasure hunt for you, and you will have your friend back." He held up a hand before continuing. "Though I do not want you to misunderstand; I have empathy for you and your subordinates, but I am fulfilling a personal matter in my homeland. This 'Max' will be resurrected, but only as long as you keep my presence in Egypt under wraps. Bain and Holye, they do not want me returning home. Why, I do not know, but you must not let them know I am there until my business is finished. This is all I ask of you."

Atticus looked up to the dead king, suspicion clearly forming behind his eyes. “All you ask of me? What I am doing for Max is nothing against the direction of the Company, it is simply not under their direction. You are asking me to willingly go against an agreement that you made as a condition of B&H bringing you back into this world. This is no mean request you are making of me, Sethan.”

The mummy's jaw tightened and lips pressed together before explaining himself. "There was no 'agreement,' my friend. They have used idle threats and bureaucracy to keep me in their palm, and I frankly tire of it." His expression then softened as he locked eyes with Atticus. "I owe them my life as well as you do, but my life is still my own. I must find what they are keeping from me. I am a man without a past, and a king without a kingdom. Do you know what it is to be stripped of all that makes a man himself?"

The incubus' brow knitted together as he closely examined Sethan's face, studying him for any possible traces of treachery or deceit. “Listen,” he said, releasing the breath he had been holding, “Sethan, I have sympathy for what you have lost. I can't say I know what that’s like, but I do know what it’s like to live without knowing who or what you are.” His voiced lowered and his tone softened as he tried to reason with the other man. “My friend, it pains me to say, but what will returning truly gain you? With your kingdom gone, what is left for you there?”

Again, Sethan's expression stiffened with his conviction. "I want, no, I [i]need[/i] to know [i]why[/i], Atticus. These... voids in my memory, they gnaw at me from within. I feel like I am not all here, and that most of me died with my kingdom." His eyes darkened as he found himself at a loss for words, unable to further express his internal suffering. "Perhaps I will find peace, perhaps not, but at the very least I will know the reason for Irem's fall."

Atticus gave a long pause, still carefully watching the other man, his own uneasy thoughts visible in his expression. “If I do this, no one must know that I let you go willingly.”

"Worry not." He held his hand up again, now as a sign of assurance. "If I find what I need, I will make sure that there is nothing to connect the two of us." He paused, before a slight smile worked its way onto his face. "Perhaps someday, as I build the foundation for New Irem, you could be there with me; sowing the seeds and laying the bricks."

“Someday, perhaps,” Atticus returned his tentative smile, knowing that this was the closest thing to an acknowledgement of true gratitude that he would receive from the mummy, “I suppose I may grow tired of this job in due time, and a change might be pleasant.” He extended a hand to Sethan. “You have my word. Do what you must, and your secret will be safe with me. I will do what I can on my end to keep B&H off your trail. But make no mistake Sethan, I will not betray Reginald Hoyle’s trust. I have my own convictions to uphold.”

Rather than shake his hand as they did earlier, Sethan took the demon's hand in his two and leaned down to place a kiss on his knuckles. He returned to his feet, and though he said nothing, stared Atticus dead in the eye with an expression of pure solidarity. With a wave of his hand, the small cyclone vanished, and Sethan wandered back to the stone circle, though still trying to avoid the gaze of Isis.