The pair of women scrambled to their feet and drew their swords and stood back-to-back. The man in regal robes yelled something out. Enid took a few seconds to translate it, her father had taught this language to her, more as a matter of history then of any real use. The men with kopeshes started to advance.

“Mom is this where we’re supposed to be?”

“No, this is Egypt, like two thousand years before I was born. We are really fucked this time. Egypt is not a good place to be. The cats are here.”

“What did he just say?”

“It wasn’t good.”

“Tell me.”

“I believe he said: Kill the slaves. There was something about desecrators…”

Hazel took a better stance and a shield of blue energy formed on her arm it was the shape and size of a Viking round shield. She looked down at it.

“Mom, what happened?”

“Were you thinking you wish you had a shield?”

“Hey ya, I was. You know I think I’m starting to like this armor.”

Enid shrugged. The first of the royal guard swung at Hazel who blocked it then used her strength the knock him down with a bash from the energy shield. She stabbed him with her sword. One attacked Enid who kicked him in the chest as he was lunging at her she swung her sword in a level arc beheading another. Between the two of them they killed twenty-five royal guard leaving them alone with who Enid assumed was the Pharoh. They must have been a frightening sight black armor, silver blades and blue energy wings cutting down his royal guard like they were harvesting grain. When the pair looked at him, he stumbled backwards and fell and started back peddling along the floor. Hazel picked him up by the front of his robes. Liquid started rushing onto the floor as he relieved himself.

“Uhh, mom what should we do?”

“Don’t kill him, he’s probably their king. Just knock him out, we can’t stay anyway, we need to get our asses out of here fast.”

Hazel punched the last remaining man then hit his face on her knee and cracked him on the back with the pommel of her sword. He groaned and fell the floor when she released him.

“Uh…the soldiers didn’t seem that scary.”

“I’m not scared of the mortals. It’s the cats.”

“Cats? Like Blackie?”

“Think like…as old as me, as powerful as me, hyper-territorial and a lot of extra careless disregard for vampire lives, and not bound by any law not to kill me. There are three of them and only one that might talk to us first, and she would probably play with us in her cat form so much my father couldn’t identify our remains.”

“We should go then.”

“We will, I just need a few minutes to figure out when we are.”

Enid picked up an alabaster statue that was on a stone table near the throne. She put it down.

“Uh so ya, I was about right. If I am reading the statue and the hieroglyphs right, That’s Pepi the second. So we’re in the 23rd century BC. Judging by his age mid 23rd century BC.”

“What does that mean?”

“I won’t be born for another twenty-two hundred years, and you won’t be born for another twenty-four hundred years. This is the exact opposite direction! I’m now four millennia before when I’m supposed to be!”

“Mom it looks like its midday we need to get out of here.”

Enid nodded and the pair rushed out of the palace. Most of the palace guard had already been killed so they didn’t run into anyone on the way out except some slaves, or servants. When they reached the streets of Memphis people scattered as the ran through them. The pair ran hard out for thirty minutes but they were both exhausted by that time. They had made it just past the walls of Memphis.

“We can’t keep up this pace mom.”

“You could if you were in wolf form. Change and keep running.”

“I’m not leaving you behind.”

“We don’t both have to die. Just go, I can slow them down.”

“It is not even night yet. It will be in seven hours or so and we can’t get out of Egypt by then, just go, I can put my helmet up and I can fly.”

“That will be obvious to anyone looking up mom. They just need to ask a random person who was walking around today.”

“What do you suggest?”

“The ritual I was taught to hide myself, it stops scent, sound, seeing.”

“But…”

“I can use it on us both.”

“How long does it last?”

“Hours if I need it to, it will tire me out.”

“Well, why don’t we just keep moving and when it’s close to nightfall you can use it. Maybe we can get out of their territory.”

Hazel had caught her breath and so had Enid. The pair started again but at a jog this time instead of a full out run. Enid wasn’t sure when they had to stop but as night grew close, they used Hazel’s ritual to become hidden from detection and continued onwards. The reached a large body of water. Enid identified it as part of the Red Sea. It was closer than she expected, likely because water levels where higher than in the 21st century, or epoch…if that was even the right term. They stopped and Enid knew they were safe this was the border. Once they found a town and could get passage they would be out of Isis’s territory.

They found a fishing village which had a well. It was silent by this time of night. Hazel used the well to drink and they sat on a wooden dock. Enid pulled out some food she had stored in case the trip did not go as planned. It was just bread and preserved fish, but it would feed Hazel. They dangled their legs over the edge looking out at the placid sea. It was a full moon, and it was shining across the water. It was peaceful, and unlike Halvd’s village in Norway, warm.

“It’s nice here. I don’t think I’ve ever been this warm at night.”

“Well, it’s going to get colder at night as soon as we get past the Red Sea, we’re going to be hitting a desert.”

“What is a desert?”

“Arid, lots of sand, blistering heat during the day, frigidly cold at night.”

“Then why are we going in this direction?”

“We need more of my father’s blood to create the doorway and in the middle of the 23rd century BC he was somewhere in the middle east which is across the Red Sea.”

“So, it’s going to be easy then?”

“No, not in any way will this be ‘easy’. The middle east is massive, and we are on foot.”

Not to mention the Night of Sorrows happens sometimes around now and then the Pogum.

Enid coughed.

“What?”

And then the Pogrom against the traitors and Pugmentia, The long night, the apocalypse, The night of blood, and whatever else the Pugmentia refer to it as.

“No that’s already happened.”

Remember your history lessons wife. Who was Pharaoh Pepi the second’s mother?

“Ahimintep or something.”

No, think harder.

Enid thought back to the lessons Chomaggus had taught her. It took her a few minutes, by this time the sky was showing the first hints of pink.

“Isis’s youngest child.”

And what happened to Isis’s youngest child?

“She was killed during a failed assassination attempt on Pepi the Second.”

What happened shortly before that?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Motherfucking fuck fuck!”

“Mom, what is Lucius saying?”

Enid screamed out over the water.

“Fuck!”

Enid didn’t answer Hazel right away she just took a bite of the bread and began to chew. It stopped her from yelling anymore. Heads were poking out of nearby hovels from her yelling. Hazel started to look really worried when her mother wasn’t answering her, so she shook her.

“Mom, tell me what is wrong.”

Enid swallowed hard and pulled out a bottle of hundred proof rum she had picked up in porta prince in the mid-sixteenth century and took a long drink and offered it to Hazel who looked at it.

“Take a drink I know it won’t do anything for you, but it will make me feel better.”

Hazel took a drink and swallowed her face went red and she coughed a few times afterwards and handed it back to her. She was still coughing as she spoke.

“Was that poison? It burned.”

“Hundred proof Jamaican rum, I liberated a crate from a pirate ship in sixteen-fifty-three.”

“What is ‘rum’?”

“Very strong alcohol.”

“It tastes like it would kill a normal human.”

“If they drank the whole bottle in one sitting it probably would.”

Enid put the cork down and held the bottle in her hand. She took another long drink and coughed a few times.

“Is there anything you don’t have in that bag?”

“A way out of this shitstorm.”

“What is wrong mom, you didn’t tell me, and you’ve been avoiding the subject.”

The sun was rising over the sea and the fisherman were starting to get their boats ready. The two pale skinned women raised more than a few eyebrows, but Enid was out of fucks to give by this point and also somewhat intoxicated after half a bottle of extremely strong rum. She was slurring her words slightly. At least the sunlight let her get drunk, unlike her daughter.

“So, Lucius reminded me that we’re in the middle of a civil war, a vampire civil war.”

“What is a civil war?”

“A rebellion, youth uprising, whatever.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The younger vampires think the older vampires are fucking them. And let’s be honest they are. So, they are rebelling. It started in Egypt. There is a faction of Pugmentia, they follow a death god, not a death god, a vampire, but he says he’s the God of Death and Decay. Don’t know what they called themselves, they were wiped out so well, we got to write the history book. Anyway….where was I?”

“Mom, are you drunk?”

“Very.”

“We need to get you out of the sun so you can sober up.”

Hazel was trying to help Enid up and Enid ripped her arm away. The armor enhanced her strength and Hazel wasn’t familiar enough with hers to use it.

“Let go and sit down I’m telling a fucking story.”

“Mom, you’re making a scene.”

“I am past the point of giving a fuck. My mother is dead, I’m stuck in this shit hole century and my daughter can’t get drunk with me! Sit your ass down.”

Hazel gave up and sat down beside her mother. The pair were now attracting a lot more attention with the full light of the sun shining down on two women wearing skintight black body suits with blades the likes of which no one had ever seen strapped to their backs. The blades seemed to ward of any direct approaches though. No one in the village seemed to be armed, or armored. When Enid stopped yelling at Hazel people went back to their daily routines.

“Where was I before you interrupted me?”

“You were handing me the bottle so I could have a drink.”

Enid gave her the bottle and Hazel promptly emptied it out. Enid glared at Hazel.

“That is priceless rum you just poured out.”

“We can use this…clear thing for water and you’ve had enough of this liquid fire.”

Hazel grabbed Enid’s Atlantean pack before she could get another bottle out. Enid reached over and fought with Hazel for the bag and Hazel held it away from her shorter mother who was either too lazy or too drunk to actually stand up and try to grab it. Enid gave up.

“Whatever keep the fucking thing. And it’s called a fucking bottle you..you…primitive bitch.”

Hazel snatched the cork from Enid’s hand as she tried to throw it at her. Hazel didn’t understand what her mother had just said, but it didn’t sound nice. She took a deep breath. She’d seen enough drunk mortals to know her mother was just drunk and angry.

“You were telling me about what did you call it?”

“The rebellion.”

“What was Lucius saying about it?”

“He was reminding me that a bunch of royal guards were killed by Pugmentia blood slaves shortly before it started in earnest. Isis started cracking down hard on the death cult.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It means she started killing them.”

“So, what does that have to do with us?”

“We were the Pugmentia blood slaves, we started the Rebellion.”

I wouldn’t say that, it was going to happen anyway, the power imbalance made it inevitable. And the imperials who backed them wanted access the Atlantean archives and artifacts. The outrage at Isis retaliating against the first assassination attempt was just an excuse.

“You know how fucked up it is the husband that died two thousand years in the future from now is talking to me is? He wasn’t even born yet.”

“Mom what happens after the guards were killed, think mom, it is important, are we safe here?”

“Ya, we’re safe, its daytime duh, the war was vampire on vampire. The humans…oh…the humans were used as pawns to fight each other as proxies at the start.”

“Mom, I didn’t understand that language.”

“Oh sorry, it was Russian.”

Enid laughed.

“Mom, stick to Latin.”

“Why not English? English is better the anything, you know why, because there’s like fifty versions of it, but you can understand each other.”

“Mom, please, stick to Latin. When did the war start?”

“Why did I never teach you English? What kind of mother doesn’t teach their daughter English, literally like 15% of the world speaks English, that’s like almost one and a half billion people.

She leaned towards Hazel and was almost whispering.

“I didn’t teach you English, I’m a bad mother, I’m sorry.”

Enid’s eyes went wide.

“And I didn’t teach you mandarin either, or French, or Russian, I’m such a terrible mother. I mean when we get home you are so screwed. I mean you won’t understand anything. And like you don’t even know how to use a computer…or a tablet. Or act at school. Holy shit I’m bad mother, like the worst. Or math, I mean, how could I not teach you math? Its math. I mean you’re sixteen, and it’s like you don’t know anything.”

Enid was being emotive with her hands and was completely lost in the spiral. Hazel grabbed Enid’s arms and pulled her towards her.

“Mom, mom, mom!”

Enid looked at her as she was snapped out of her spiral.

“We’re on the shore of the Red Sea, it’s the 23rd century BC, none of that is important, what is important is how long do we have before people are trying to kill us. The vampire rebellion, when does it happen? How does it start, when is it open fighting?”

“When Pepi the second’s mother is killed in the second failed assassination attempt, then Tiamat is drank dry by the Imperial rebels and pugmentia, they steal her power, raid the library and burn it.”

“When does it happen?”

“How should I know?”

“Ask Lucius.”

“He doesn’t know either, he paid less attention in history lessons then I did. He was pretty and dumb, its why I liked him.”

I will not take that personally since I know you are drunk, but you’re right I don’t know if it was a day or a year.

“See he doesn’t know either. Told you.”

“He can hear me?”

“Of course, he can hear, he’s not deaf.”

She pulled out Lucius and looked at him.

“You’re not deaf, are you?”

The gleaming silver blade attracted more attention as it shimmered in the warm summer day. People stared at it as they passed.

No, I’m not deaf but you should put me away, you’re drawing even more attention than before.

“You’re dead you can’t tell me what to do!”

“Mom put it away, you’re making people nervous.”

“You can’t tell me what to do either, I’m your mother and you haven’t been born yet.”

Hazel took Lucius from her mother’s hand gently and put him in his sheath.

“Neither have you.”

“Oh, then we shouldn’t be here.”

“Yes mom, we shouldn’t but we are. Is there anywhere we can go that you know you will find your father around the Rebellion?”

Enid shook her head.

“Nope, he was still wandering around…and around.”

“Is there anyone you do know how to find?”

“Uncle Remus!”

“Where is he?”

“Babylon!”

Its not Babylonia yet dear, it’s still Akkadia.

“Akkadia!”

“Which is good because I can speak, Akkadian.”

She pulled out Lucius again and looked at him.

“Are you sure it’s not Sumeria?”

“Mom put your sword away!”

Enid shoved Hazel’s arm away but put the sword away.

No dear, its Akkadia, but he is in the province of Babylon.

“Well, that sucks my Sumerian and Aramaic are better than my Akkadian. I mean who wants to speak Akkadian right?”

“Mom, how do you know all these languages if you weren’t even born yet?”

Enid started giggling

“I’m a cunning linguist.”

Hazel blinked at her; She had no idea what her mother said.

“Mom, Latin.”

“My dad made me learn them, like fifty languages, since I was twelve. What kind of monster makes their daughter learn fifty dead languages? I mean who does that? I only taught you three, you see how nice I was to you.”

You know, I think I understand why he made us learn so many languages now, you must find him in this time. It would be just like him to do it to help us and not tell us why. Cunning old bastard.

“Good news! Lucius says we should find him.”

“Him who?”

“Dad!”

“His name wasn’t Sextus though, that was his Roman name….uh…what was his name.”

Romulus

“Romulus! Yes that’s it. See that’s why I married him. He’s so smart.”

“You just said he was dumb and lazy.”

“Well he was smart sometimes. Not very good in bed though. Your father was better. Like so much better. I mean like I would walk funny afterwards. Halvd was pretty good too. But Hazel did that woman know how to touch a woman.”

“Mom, eeew! I do not need to know this.”

“What do you care it’s not like you met either of them.”

“Still…just stop it. And focus on the here and now.”

“He’s not talking now; I think I hurt his feelings.”

“I’m sorry Lucius, I still love you more!”

You did not hurt my feelings. I know you had your reasons when we were together.

“I’m sorry Lucius, it’s not your fault my father sexually abused me. I wish I’d gotten counselling before we got married.”

“Mom…Sextus…”

“No not Sextus, my father, my real father. I didn’t even get to kill him, he was gone by the time I could get to Scotland. Then I pulled him out of the ocean…why did I do that? I should have killed him.”

Enid pouted.

“I was going to cut off his manhood and feed it to him after I fed him some blood…then I was going to let it regrow and do it again and again and again.”

“Mom, mom, please, focus, where is Akkadia from here.”

Enid pointed east.

“That way somewhere. What do you think? That I have GPS, or Google Maps, those don’t exist yet! There’s no satellites up there. How can we have GPS?”

Enid scoffed. Hazel was utterly confused.

“Mom, what are you talking about?”

“Global positioning satellites, what else could I be talking about? Like pull my phone out, it’s not going to get a signal, we’re going to get lost in the desert and you’re going to die of dehydration and it’s all because there are no satellites.”

“This is hopeless you are way too drunk to be useful.”

Hazel pondered for a few minutes and then she focused on her connection to the spirts and reached out. She sensed Lucius near and tried to speak to him.

“Lucius?”

Yes stepdaughter?

Hazel’s eyes went wide.

“It worked!”

Yes, I was hoping you would think of trying to talk to me. Your mother is drunk.

Enid had given up and now and was laying back on the dock staring up at the sky.

“I’m sorry I should have stopped her.”

It is alright Hazel, you’re sixteen, and you have no idea what she has in that bag.

“What do I do Lucius?”

First off, you need to find passage on a ship. Akkadia is southeast. You can navigate by the sun and the stars. Also, Halvd gave Enid a compass with a sunstone. Also, she has some weird thing in her bag that she said was a compass, its round has a black and red arrow that always shows north.

“I am no good with navigation. Mom tried to teach me…but I didn’t think it was something I needed to know.”

Well, the pack basically works by thinking what you want, and it should appear in your hand when you reach in. So, think compass, or map.

Hazel nodded and reached into the bag and thought of a map. She had seen them before among the Roman soldiers. A folded piece of…parchment showed up in her hand and she looked at it. She fiddled with it for a few minutes before Enid sighed and unfolded it and shoved it onto Hazel’s chest in a crumbled mass. Hazel tried to hold it out, but it was too wide. There was a crowd gathering on the land side of the dock watching the whole thing happen. Hazel did her best to ignore the eyes on her and decided the best thing to do was flatten it out. She put rocks on the corners and started looking at it.

Show me the map.

Hazel pulled Lucius out of his sheath and held him over the map.

Okay, this is the middle east, I can tell by the river names. I don’t understand all those brown lines all over it. But by the Tigris. Iraq and Bagdad. Akkadia is right where it says Bagdad, or thereabouts. The nile, if you look across from there, the sea. That’s the Red Sea she’s talking about. That narrow piece there, you’re somewhere along there. So, it’s actually northeast of here. She’s right you need to go across the water then go across land, if you go north and around, you’ll be in Bastet territory, and it will take longer. She probably has coin in her bag, it will be gold, the boat captains and merchants won’t care who you are if you offer them enough. Who knows with her she might even have currency from this time period, she hordes so much. Oh, those brown lines are highways!

“How do you know all this if you’re dead?”

My bond with Enid, I’ve started getting some of what she knows. This English she speaks in when she gets upset, I can understand it. And I think this map is in English.

“Lucius are we in danger?”

Yes and no. Uncle Remus will be curious enough about your Atlantean armor and Enid’s sword that he’ll see you. But these aren’t…people. These are vampires that are so ancient that they aren’t human anymore in any way shape or form. They are so far beyond the human condition they do not think like the three of us. So, you need to be especially careful. Your mom can get away with more because they’ll see her as a young and stupid child who doesn’t know better. The only saving grace you have is that the treaty prevents them from harming you physically. Isis and her lot will skin you alive and watch you die to entertain themselves. They hate wolf-kin. Father, I have no idea what he was like. He would never authorize the Pogrom or twenty-four hours of night when I knew him, so he was likely…less forgiving. The rebels would kill you and drain your mother dry if they could. They see it as their way of gaining freedom, stealing the power from the Ancients, and your mother, she’s actually considered an ancient even if she’s only a few thousand years younger than the true ancients. Any vampire older than a thousand years is an Ancient.

“Why is mom…so human?”

I don’t know. Most vampires her age barely notice humans beyond them being food. She is even more human now than when she was mortal. She never got drunk. And when I touched her, she would go stiff. I’m not sure she’s even a vampire anymore. She is something more. No vampire could make a soul-drinking weapon, or forge Atlantean steel. The Atlanteans didn’t even forge it they wished it into existence. I don’t even think she knows what she is becoming. No vampire outside my father has ever spoken directly to the spirts.

“Should I be worried?”

I do not know. I have never seen the kind of power she pulled out of the sky when you were hurt. The ground was shaking around her. The village it was just, gone. Like a hand reached down from the sky and swept it away. Those Seers were all seven or eight hundred years old. She swept them aside like they were ants. I don’t think anyone here is a threat to her. She seems to be a tidal force of nature, but she acts as if she’s still a hundred-year-old vampire.

“How many people did she kill Lucius?”

Hundreds in an instant. They simply ceased to exist. It was blood magic, but it seems to be getting less and less harmful to her, and her power is growing the more she uses it. If you are worried about her, then you need to stop her from using blood magic. It is dangerous.

“I will. What should I do now that she’s passed out?”

Fold the map up put it in the bag and find passage. Keep her in the sun. She’ll be easier to deal with passed out. You might want to buy some proper clothes and heavy cloaks, so you don’t freeze in the desert and you don’t stand out. I’ll translate for you. Just repeat after me when you’re talking, I know the same languages Enid does. I’ll do my best to try from now on, might make your life easier.

“I am glad to have you for a stepfather.”

I wish I could be your father in the flesh as well. It was the one thing I was the good at.