Chapter 6

The invitation remained on my bedside table all night and I must have read it a dozen times. There was no company logo, no organizer's name and no explanation of who had sent it.

Only one sentence lingered in my mind.

‘History is waiting to meet you.’

***

The following morning, Leo frowned the moment I showed him the invitation.

"I've never heard of this excavation." He said.

Ayesha took the card from my hand. 

"Neither have I." She turned it over and it was blank. "No contact information?"

I shook my head. "I thought maybe it came from the archaeological center."

Leo looked unconvinced.  "I'll ask around."

I watch him quickly dial his phone and talk while Ayesha and I are standing on the other side, watching him. After several phone calls, his expression became even more puzzled.

"Strange." He said while walking back to where we are.

"What?"

He stroked his hair nervously "Everyone says there's a private excavation happening today."

"So it's real?" I asked, confirming it.

"They say yes, but no one seems to know who's leading it." Ayesha exchanged a glance with him before smiling reassuringly. "If it's an official excavation, there's no harm in taking a look."

"Besides," she added, "you've been talking about Pharaoh Kharef for three days."

I laughed. "I have, haven't I?"

Leo sighed dramatically. "If we don't take you, you'll probably sneak off by yourself."

I gasped. "I would not."

Both of them stared at me in disbelief.

I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders. "Well… Maybe."

"That's what we thought." Leo sighed.

Nearly an hour later, the SUV left the main tourist route and followed a narrow dirt road winding deeper into the western desert.

The farther we drove, the quieter everything became, even the wind seemed reluctant to disturb the silence.

"There shouldn't be anything out here," Leo muttered, checking the GPS again. "But the directions keep leading us farther west."

Eventually, they reached a small excavation site surrounded by temporary fencing.

Several archaeologists moved between equipment and stone fragments while workers carefully brushed sand from recently uncovered ruins.

Everything appeared perfectly normal.

Yet something felt… Different.

The moment I stepped out of the vehicle, a strange warmth spread through the scarab pendant resting against my chest.

Again… Ayesha noticed me touching it. "Everything alright?"

"Yes." I nodded. "I just..."

She looked at the pendant that I touched.

"It feels warm."

She smiled. "Probably from the sun."

I wanted to believe that, I truly did, but…

Their chat was stopped when a middle-aged archaeologist approached them with a welcoming smile.

"You must be Miss Maritza."

I blinked in surprise, what?

"You know my name?"

He nodded, "We've been expecting you."

Before I could ask another question, he gestured toward the cliffside.

"We uncovered a previously sealed passage two days ago and you're among the first visitors allowed inside."

A shiver ran down my spine but I moved forward to see it.

The entrance was narrow, unlike the grand royal tombs open to tourists, this passage looked untouched and the air inside felt cooler, older with dust coating every stone and no restoration lights illuminated the walls, only portable lanterns guided the way.

"This doesn't look like the other tombs," I whispered.

"It isn't," the archaeologist replied. "We still don't know whose burial chamber this belonged to."

I glanced around and saw there were no names carved into the walls, no recognizable royal symbols but only strange hieroglyphs unlike any I had seen before.

The deeper they walked, the quieter everyone became, even the workers lowered their voices as though they instinctively understood they had entered sacred ground.

The corridor finally opened into a circular chamber and unlike every other tomb I had visited… It was completely empty; no sarcophagus, no treasures and no statues, only a single black stone altar stood in the center with its polished surface reflecting the lantern light.

"That's unusual," Ayesha murmured. "The chamber looks unfinished."

The archaeologist nodded slowly. "Or perhaps… It was never meant to hold treasures."

As everyone spread out to examine the walls, I found myself drawn toward the altar. Each step I took felt strangely natural. Almost… Expected?

"Miss Maritza?" Leo called. "Don't wander too far."

"I'm just looking." I smiled over my shoulder. "I'm not touching anything."

The stone floor beneath my feet was uneven and before I realized it— My shoe caught against a raised edge.

"Oh!"

I stumbled forward and instinctively, I reached out to steady myself but the rough stone scraped across my palm.

"Ouch."

It wasn't deep, barely more than a scratch but a tiny bead of crimson appeared on the side of my hand.

"You alright?" Ayesha hurried over.

I sighed. "I'm fine, it's nothing."

Before she reached me… One small drop of blood slipped from my palm and it landed softly upon the black stone.

...Plink.

Everyone watched and Leo chuckled. "Well… At least you didn't fall."

I laughed awkwardly. "Guess I'm more clumsy than I thought."

Ayesha handed me a tissue. "Here."

I nodded gratefully and took it but before I wiped my hand… Something caught my eye.

The drop of blood… Was gone, not smeared, not dried but it was gone completely as though the stone had… Drunk it.

I frowned. "Did either of you see that?"

"See what?" Leo asked.

"My blood… It disappeared."

The three of them looked down at the altar to see the surface was perfectly clean.

Ayesha smiled gently. "It probably soaked into the stone."

I slowly shook my head. "It couldn't have. This stone is polished, there isn't even a crack."

Leo leaned closer before shrugging. "I don't see anything unusual."

I sighed and massaged my head lightly, maybe he was right, maybe I was imagining things.

After all… It had only been a single drop.

Still… I couldn't shake the feeling that something had just happened.

Something no one else had noticed.

***

Meanwhile deep beneath the chamber… Far below the ancient foundations… A crimson drop slipped through a hairline crack no human eye had ever seen.

It traveled downward past the walls that were untouched for three thousand years. Past the forgotten corridors and the sealed gates bearing the mark of the House of Khepri.

Until it reached an enormous stone door covered in gold hieroglyphs.

The blood struck the center of the seal.

For one long moment… Nothing happened.

Then— The crimson vanished because the seal absorbed every trace and ancient symbols burst into a faint golden glow before fading once more.

A voice older than history whispered through the darkness.

"The blood has returned."

Another answered.

"She is the one."

Beyond the sealed door… A man lay motionless upon a throne of black stone.

His eyes remained closed.

His breathing unchanged.

Yet the corner of one hand...Moved.

Only once.

As if the forgotten king had heard destiny calling his name.

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