Chapter 72

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Author's Note: Just to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding punctuation: "text" means that it is said aloud. "text" means that the voice is special, and you should assume it is telepathy unless told otherwise. 'text' means that it is the inner thoughts of the POV character, and that they are not directed at anyone, I rarely use it. 'text' means that it is still the thoughts of the POV character, but this time directed at someone.

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When Tracey heard Mr Grindelwald's voice in her head, asking her to steal the pair of earrings while everyone was busy dealing with the monsters Ethan had decided to call guardians, unaware of how close he was to their actual name, she had been excited.

Not that she was a thief! But she did find something exciting in slipping through people's attention. It made her feel safe and in control. Moreover, she felt obligated to help Ethan and his family because they had brought her with them and showed them so many amazing things she probably would have never experienced without them.

At first, the earrings were just that, regular earrings. Although the others had said it was magical, she could not feel anything special from it, so she just kept it hidden.

But later on, as they approached the room with the golden pyramid, Tracey heard a weak voice call out to her, "I need your help."

When she heard it, she looked around, but realized it came from within her. The voice was too weak for her to know whether she knew it or not, but as she looked around, she only met Ethan's gaze.

'Is that you Ethan?'

Ethan's only response was to tilt his head as she stared at him, before she heard the same voice again, this time a little stronger, "No, I am from the earrings. But you cannot tell them you hear me."

Tracey did not react outwardly to her words, but on the inside she voiced her suspicions, 'I'm hearing a stranger's voice in my head and I'm not supposed to say anything? Nuh huh!'

The next thing she heard was a sigh, before the voice explained, "I am Nefertari, and you need my help just as much as I need yours. You and your friends are in a grave danger, and if you do not do anything, then you shall all perish at the ends of my captor."

The voice sounded clearer now, and it was a woman. Tracey was not so convinced it really did belong to the Queen in whose tomb they were. Still, the voice's words arose a sense of curiosity within Tracey as she asked, 'What do you mean your captor? Who is it? And why would he want to hurt us?'

Tracey assumed it was a man without any real second thoughts in her mind.

"You are in his temple."

This only made Tracey more cautious towards the voice as she questioned, 'Isn't Ramesses II supposed to be Nefertari's husband? You should have done your research better.'

The voice was not discouraged however, and instead spoke as if it held the wisdom of the ancients, "The innocence of maidenhood, how beautifully pure. But beware, for you are soon to reach a marriable age. You will soon get to discover what men really are, and by then you will understand that husband and captor are two sides to the same coin."

What was she on about? How did husband and captor have anything to do with each other? One was the love of your life, your second half who would be with you until the end of your days, and the other was a criminal who wished to harm you.

The voice's words made no sense to Tracey, so she replied, 'You sound like a crazy person. Pharaoh Ramesses II and his Queen Nefertari were known for loving each other. Who are you really? And I'm not even near marriageable age by the way!'

She felt like she needed to add that last part.

The response was immediate, and visceral, "Love?! There was no love between that monster and me! He controlled me for nearly my whole life! For my whole childhood I was under the thumb of my father, and when I became twelve, he sold me off to marry that peasant Ramesses! I thought I was finally freed, and fell into the illusion of love, but all men are the same! He used me, and when he had grown wary of me, he replaced me with others!"

Tracey fell silent as she listened to the voice proclaiming to be Nefertari. She still sounded a little crazy, but there was real rage in that voice. A rage that had festered silently for thousands of years.

'Why did you not leave him then?'

The answer to her problems seemed quite simple to Tracey. If the woman was not happy with her husband, why not leave? Tracey had a friend in fifth grade whose parents divorced. It had been a messy thing, but they did find a solution.

The voice became calmer this time, although it undoubtedly still carried anger within it, but this time it was colder, "I did try. And I paid for it. I was his first wife, and a prodigy in magic. And men always crave what they cannot have, so when I tried to escape, he enslaved me, using these very earrings. Then, I was forced to become a passenger in my very own body, obeying to his every orders like a thrall. He could have asked me to kill myself, and I would have been forced to do it."

Tracey felt the pair of earrings get hot inside her pocket, and she was not sure whether it was a trick of her mind or if they were really getting hotter. Still, she was starting to believe the voice as she asked, 'Let's say you really are Nefertari. What do you want?'

The answer was instantaneous, and came from the very core of the voice's being, "Vengeance!"

'I kind of got that already. What I meant was, what do you want to do about it? You said we were in danger.'

This time Nefertari was calmer, although there was still a sharp coldness to her voice. "This is not Ramesses' tomb, because he never died. He has found a way to beat death, but he needs a new body. He is going to possess one of you, probably that boy over there, and kill the rest of you if he is not stopped."

'How do we stop him?'

"I do not know."

'Well, aren't you useful? You barge into my head, talk like crazy, warn me of dangers and don't offer any solutions. I still think I should tell the others about you.'

Much to Tracey's surprise, Nefertari, or the voice proclaiming to be her, did not refuse straight away, and instead explained, "That woman cannot be trusted. The son of Egypt either."

Tracey looked at the only woman present at the time, then at the twin with them, and asked, 'You mean Snyde and Bilaal?'

"I do not know their names, but I have picked up some things from your interactions. You came in with the father and son, and the others are strangers, correct?"

'Pretty much.'

"And they were the ones who coincidentally discovered the existence of this temple, were they not?"

'How do you know that?'

"I might have been bewitched at the time, I still remember the construction of the temple. A powerful spell of such complexity you could not even start to fathom it was used to hide the temple. The only way for people to find it would be to have found the bait. And if they followed the bait, then they are here to find Ramesses' treasure, unaware they would be freeing him in the process."

Thinking back on the way Ethan and Helene had managed to crack open the spell, she said, 'Thousands of years have passed, your spell might not be as strong as you think it is. And even if they really cannot be trusted, Ethan and Mr Grindelwald can absolutely be trusted. Mr Grindelwald can use telepathy as well, and Ethan might be able to do it too knowing him, so we could tell them.'

Nefertari shut her down immediately, "No. While inside the temple, Ramesses can intercept all telepathic messages. Whispering would be safer than using telepathy, but those two would hear you. So you cannot tell anyone."

Repressing an urge to sigh, Tracey relented, 'Fine, what do we do then?'