Reason for Hope

Mr. Thorndyke was less concerned about Set's approach than he was the rubble of the damaged display case. One of the containers within that display had cracked open upon impact, spilling gems about. “My word. The solution was here all along.” Set was nearly upon us. “Ms. Chapman, do you trust me?”

“How do you mean?” she asked.

“There's no time for all this fooferal.” Mr. Thorndyke collected a gem from the rubble of the case and placed it into her hand. A yellow glow began to form around her hand. It least, I thought it was yellow. It felt yellow. In the green haze, making out a different color was difficult.

Set paused, actively concerned for the first time. “What did you just do?”

Mr. Thorndyke triumphantly stood up to his full height. “Stopped you, that's what!”

When Ms. Chapman opened her eyes, she looked different. No physically, not like her clothing or face changed, but her expression changed. It was kindly but stern. “After all this time I am called and for what purpose? In order to deal with you Set. Why am I not surprised?” Her voice was strange, not really different, but it had a different quality to it. A chime maybe? It was hard to pinpoint this new sound.

Set's face grew harsh in expression. “Isis. You were never enough to defeat me and time had done nothing to alter that truth. Flee while you still can or my revenge shall begin with you!”

“My dear brother. You may be many things but clever is not chief amongst those things,” Ms. Chapman, or perhaps Isis, noted. “Forgetful may well be accurate.”

With that, the grinning Mr. Thorndyke raised the picture of the Eye again, causing Set to recoil in pain. Isis closed her eyes and quickly began muttering words that meant nothing to me. Suddenly she flung her eyes open and her hands in the air.

That's when things became strange.

Even Worse

Although we outnumbered them, the minions of Set managed to surround us easily. We were afraid to touch them lest they have the power to kill us via touch. Larry kept rummaging through his bag and showing items to Mr. Thorndyke, only to replace them once he received a dismissive shake of the head. Slowly we were reduced to hiding behind display cases so that we could not be reached. At least we were together.

“The pattern doesn't fully contain his power?” Harry asked, panic clearly in his voice.

“His power is greater than I expected,” Mr. Thorndyke noted. “The containment is insufficient to completely hold him in at this point.”

“Why do you continue to defy me?” asked Set. “Cease your worthless resistance and join me.”

“No,” I said bluntly. “I already have a job that attempts to crush my soul. My life may not be perfect. Everything may not be just the way I'd like it but I would rather keep working at making it better than give up to help you win your petty revenge.”

Set just laughed. “As if you have a choice in the matter!”

On the other hand, Mr. Thorndyke smiled at me. “Nicely put young man. I may not have used those words myself, but the sentiment behind them can't be faulted.” Larry displayed a sphere shaped device from his bag of tricks to Mr. Thorndyke, bringing an even brighter smile to the man's face. “Is that what I think it is?”

Larry nodded and then paused. “I suppose that depends on what you think it is.”

Mr. Thorndyke's excitement did not fade. “It's a ecto-spiritual displacement device!”

Larry smiled. “In that case, it is what you think it is.”

“Then use it my friend!” encouraged Mr. Thorndyke.

Larry wasted no time in doing so, rolling the sphere towards our attackers. Bouncing off a gun man's foot, the sphere suddenly stopped, feet emerging from it to balance it. Gaps appeared in the top of the device. A barely audible whirring noise began, sounding rather like a muffled vacuum. The energy levels of the reanimated attackers began to fade. The green of that area seemed less green somehow.

A gun man reached out towards the retreating Larry. As it collapsed, the gun man fell on Larry, knocking him roughly to the ground. Harry had been trying to grab Larry away to safety, missed, and fell into a display case, crashing through it to the ground. Djed-hor, as he fell, bumped one of the canopic jars out of alignment, freeing Set. Much of this felt like it happened all at once.

Set laughed again. “As I said, you have no choice.”

He approached us.

Oh Dear

The closer we drew to Set, the more pervasive the green glow became, infusing everything with a green hue. It was not particularly appealing. While we expressed our concerns over it, Mr. Thorndyke was once again unworried. “It's just a symbol of his strength,” he declared. “It cannot harm us yet.” When I asked how he knew that to be so, Mr. Thorndyke just walked into the glow and smoke, showing himself to be unharmed. It made us follow him so it was hard to argue with his success in this regard.

Set was still in the main gem room. He'd gotten a chair from somewhere and was calmly sitting in it as we poked our heads around the corner. He looked like he might be asleep.

We pulled back. “You remember the pattern?” Ms. Chapman checked. We all nodded, apart from Larry who just stared. When he was nudged, he smiled brightly and nodded. “Good because once he realizes what we're trying to so, he's likely to resist.”

“I would,” I mumbled.

We stepped quietly and carefully into the room, working to stay behind Set and out of his line of sight. Glances were exchanged to line ourselves up properly. It was really difficult to maneuver in the room as the air was so very green. It even tasted green, although I'm not sure how that was so. Light and shadow didn't seem to act properly. It was very disorientating.

One of us had to walk 'in front' of Set with their sculpture and lucky me got to be the one to lead that charge. Once I reached what I felt was the edge of his vision, I paused, concerned over what might next occur. I just needed a moment to take a deep breath before I was about to put my life on the line. Harry caught my eye and gestured energetically for me to continue. I nodded and took that step forward.

“Who dares disturb the slumber of Set?” bellowed the creature from the chair. I froze in place. Mentally I knew I should hurry to my position, still try to trap him, but his voice had stopped me cold.

Slowly Set stood and turned to face us. “It was most kind of you to try to not wake me from my meditations but I was aware of you from the time you reentered the exhibit.” The wicked smile on his face was focused on Mr. Thorndyke. “I wish I could say it was a pleasure to see you again but we both know that would be a lie.”

“We couldn't have that,” Mr. Thorndyke stated. “Good thing you held your tongue.”

“What brings you here,” demanded Set.

Mr. Thorndyke shrugged his shoulders. “You no doubt. To assist in dismissing you.” Rapidly, he brought the picture he'd removed from the wall from behind his back. This stylized drawing of an Eye staggered Set. “Now!” cried Mr. Thorndyke.

It took a moment to realize what he meant and react properly. While Mr. Thorndyke continued to point this image at Set, we scrambled into position with our jars, arraigning them as designed. After some minor adjustments, the sculptures glowed slightly. They were active.

Realizing this, Mr. Thorndyke advised us to cease our adjustments and hid the eye from Set's view. A chuckle emerged from Set. “Is this old trick all you have? Pitiful.”

“I don't see you creating anything new.” Having thusly retorted, Mr. Thorndyke leaned over to Larry, muttering in his ear. Larry began rummaging in his bag of tricks.

Set just continued to laugh. “My will has not been thwarted. My will shall yet be done.”

The gun men entered the room from the corner from which we entered. Immediately my eyes checked on the other exit to the room. There I found the mummy. Oh bother.

“Free me!” he demanded. “Free me so that all may be united in Set!”

We're Doing What Now?

The second floor seemed calm but we took no chances. Moving quickly but cautiously, we walked around the Bison Hunt diorama, heading for the secondary doors to the Jewels exhibit, the ones by which we'd left in a hurry some time previous. How long has it been now? It's getting late.

As we walked, Mr. Thorndyke further explained his thoughts. “Set may be powerful but by no means is he all powerful. If we have the right artifacts available to us, we may be able to trap him.”

“Do you mean to form a pentagramic pyramid around him?” Ms. Chapman asked.

Mr. Thorndyke grew quite animated. “That is it precisely! If you know of it, then I'm sure you know more about it than I do, you being an expert in the field.”

Ms. Chapman smiled. “You are helping to jog my memory. This isn't the sort of information I normally need in a moment of crisis.”

“What's a pentagramic pyramid?” I asked. “I mean, I know what a pentagram is and what a pyramid is but not the combination of the two.”

“A pentagramic pyramid is an ancient symbol of mystical power,” Ms Chapman explained, “formed by the five points of the pentagram with a sixth point creating the pyramid point. Many of the sorcerers of Ancient Egypt believed it to be a conduit of power supplied by the gods themselves.”

“Was there some special process involved in activating this pyramid?” Harry asked. “It seems to me that they'd use it all the time if it was simple.”

We entered the exhibit, paused for a moment to adjust to the different gloom levels, and headed for the first display area. “It's all about math,” Ms. Chapman explained. “Angles and shapes. The pyramids are filled with similar patterns as part of their anti-grave robbing traps.”

“Considering how some of those were cleaned out, that doesn't seem to bode well for our plan,” I observed.

“There are other factors at play there,” Mr. Thorndyke explained as he began working to open a display case. “Over time the shapes in the pyramids lost some of their precision as the energy feeding them ceased to flow.”

I had to think about that for a moment. It seemed like a strangely specific level of detail. “Really?” As he opened a display case, Mr. Thorndyke took a moment to nod to me. I stood there, in the gloom, suddenly aware of a hazy green glow emerging over the interior walls of the exhibit. Was this knowledge any stranger than anything else I'd experienced tonight? Not really. For that matter, he may well be guessing, theorizing, extrapolating even.

I was tired. I was nervous. I was fearful. I had already decided to trust Mr. Thorndyke. This piece of knowledge was not much of a stretch but it did make me wonder.

Mr. Thorndyke waved me closer in order to to hand me a canopic jar, one with the faint shape of a falcon still visible in it. It was heavier than I expected and I quickly brought my other hand in to prevent myself from dropping it. “This is stone.”

“What did you expect something from Ancient Egypt to be made of? Plastic?” asked Ms. Chapman.

I just stared at the eroded, aged, carved figure in my hands. The age, the history, seeped from it. “This is real?” I dumbly mumbled. “I just didn't think... I mean, for some reason it never occurred to me that...” I brushed the top of the jar with the back of my hand. “Where have you been and what have you seen?”

Mr. Thorndyke quickly broke my moment. “Mostly the inside of a tomb. I'm sure it's not as exciting as you think.” He pried a picture from its mount on the wall, provoking an excitable reaction from Ms. Chapman. Mr. Thorndyke waved her off. “If we survive, it can be glued back on to the display. If not, well, we won't have to worry about it, will we?”