Rite- Ceremony, Ritual 

"A solemn ceremony or act."

༄⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙:༅

"Make yourself comfortable . We're going to be here a while.." 

Jin crossed the room to sit across from me as my eyes beaded him down.

We were reunited in an old leaky sea-side tavern. Him, Jimin and I. There was a small inn above the bar downstairs and we must have been the only ones staying there since Jin had no problem locking the tiny common area for our group's little chat.

The smell of salt and rotting seaweed wafted through the open window. I marched towards its wooden frame, slamming it closed in frustration. 

Leaning against it, my shoulders heaved as I tried to take a calming breath. It didn't work. 

Glancing out in front of me, the view was relative to my own spirit. Deep swirling waters. Dark and thrashing... restrained by the sharp black rocks below. 

Just like the sea, I felt sorry for myself too in that moment. 

"Tess if you'd just sit down..." Jimin started.

"I don't want to sit down."

My back was turned to both of them and I sulked picking a tiny splint of frayed wood from the dusty sill. A quick turn of my head to the side just about allows me to manage another seething look in Jin's direction.

"Wait.." I growled, "If this is about that hunch you had earlier on in the desert about a stupid curse, Jin? I swear to.... "

Jin glared at me guiltily while Jimin swallowed, clearly nervous but said nothing.

My stomach plummeted. the last thing I needed when everything was already going wrong, was for Jin and Jimin to back out this. 

"I can't believe you're throwing this whole mission! Over what? An unfortunate incident of scurvy among the crew and a little thunderstorm during the night?" I screeched. 

Jin, detecting the panic in my voice was already assuming his matter-of-fact tone and reasonable demeanour which i could not give a toss about at the moment to be quite honest.

"First off," he said,  "We are not giving up. And second, will you show some humanity... this is not just about treasure and the three of us getting away rich. This, is about perfectly healthy men mysteriously dying overnight! This is about bodies found in a burnt state, not scurvyed-  where there had been no fire. And this is about an unusually violent storm that so happened to only take place in the clouds right above our  ship!" Jin grimaced and I held my ground, fists curling.

We stood like that for a while, breathing in silence glaring at each other.

When my determined gaze didn't falter, Jin deflated slightly. His dark eyes softened and a small part of me did too. we didn't want to fight. Not over this, not over anything. 

Jin was my friend, after all. 

My trusted friend and guide who had never let me down. Ever.

Well, not until today.

I turned away from him in a huff, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Calm down, Tess." He soothed eyeballing me, "I promise, as soon as Namjoon gets here, we'll head back to Cairo where it's safer and where we have better resources to investigate these occurrences properly."

Kim Namjoon? Jin's lead researcher in ancient history and artefacts...what did we need him for?

"Investigate? But there's no need!" I choked, feeling my temper brought to a boil again.

"Tess," Jimin tried to quieten me, "Please.."

"No! What are we, ancient grave-robbers or the fucking CIA? I want to get out of this reeking fish bucket, Jin and I want to do that now. With my treasure!"

I saw them both wince and observed their worried glances at my mention of the last word, treasure.

"Jin," I said slowly, "I know what you're both thinking, that I'm not being reasonable here. But..."

"Think?" Jimin snickered and I rounded on him glaring his way too.

He cleared his throat and looked away suddenly taking up a deep interest in the dusky skyline which was now pouring golden light in through the old window.

The look on Jin's face darkened.

"If you want to be reckless, fine.  Go ahead. Take the treasure, you won't have my help doing it."

I felt breathless at his answer 

"Really?" My voice came out high pitched and screechy from the level of dismay. Jimin must have felt what I was feeling. That the whole thing was unravelling into an out of control absolute mess. This wasn't us. This isn't the way we rolled. All that was left was failure if we didn't pull together and claim what was ours to take!

My eyes stung with tears and Jimin gripped me firmly by the shoulders. I looked down at his hands on me, vision blurry not daring to meet his eyes so he would see me crying and as if reading my mind, 

"Tessa, I know that you feel like you need this." he said.

The shock of hearing the truth made me turn my eyes upward and they joined his. Deep, and trusting.

"Jimin, you know I do." I whispered. 

"Well that's why you have to trust us. So that we can get out of this, with everything we ever wanted, ever dreamed of...we have to trust each other."

☾

That night, I sat alone in my room at the inn, bored and agitated.

I felt terrible about the fight I had with Jin and incredibly uneasy about going back to Cairo.

Counting the cracks in the stuccoed ceiling wasn't helping and when I finally gave up on sleep, I found no other choice but to pull a pair of boots on and swing the heavy greek embroidered coat Jimin had stolen for my last birthday over my shoulders.

Creeping quickly down the Inn's rickety staircase, I scurried past upturned barstools and out the entrance.

The air was cold and damp but a new fire flared inside me as my gaze landed on the shed nearby. 

I walked over. One of our shipmen sat guard, already half-asleep. 

"Ma'am!" He grunted in greeting, "It's quite late.."

I raised an eyebrow in the dim light, not about to be reprimanded.

"Its never too early for me to start about my business," I said and he sobered up immediately, opening the rusty padlock to the large shed.

"Is this what we have?" I asked, "Is it all here?"

"Aye Ma'am. It's all what's left after the merchant stole what he did anyway." 

My jaw tightened remembering the merchant's face.

Min Yoongi!

He was probably already leagues ahead of us now on the sea and preparing to cash in on far more of his fair share of what we'd agreed. 

I would catch up with him..

Eventually.

I had to.

A whistling breeze swept inside the shed and I shivered, coming back to my senses. Ill thoughts of Min Yoongi and what I would do to him the next time we'd see face-to-face could wait.

I stepped forward, heart thumping as my hand outstretched and my fingers ran blithely along the crates and vases piled high inside.

I felt troubled. Worried about how we could get this all back to Cairo, relieved that we could even salvage what we did and fearful that we might loose it all in the process.

Slowly, I walked to the corner where something familiar caught my eye. The turquoise stone and gold trimmings of Kim Ho-Taep's earn.

"I told you, I'd keep you with me." I smiled thinking of the artefact's insane value. I stroked the top of it's lid, trailed my fingers down its sides and closed me eyes. A warmth spread through me, I don't know from where. 

All was not lost. And I'd make sure of it.

Feeling the encryptions even with my eyes closed I could read them out loud. Father had taught me that.

I uttered the last word of the scribe. 

"Shenu."

A swift gust of wind surprised me suddenly! Slamming the door to the shed shut and causing me to spin around in the darkness, alarmed. The atmosphere felt all too quiet all of a sudden and I made haste to leave.

Saying a hurried goodnight to the watchman, I fled to safety back up the creaking staircase, down the hall and turned into my room latching the door behind me. 

My breathing slowed and I let my weight fall against the door, tugging my boots off then flopping onto the bed.

Now feeling tired, I chuckled with my face against the mattress at how silly I was being. Jin's spooky stories were starting to get to my head a lot more than I thought. 

༄⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙:༅

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