They strolled along the Corniche, the Nile on their left, trees and traffic to their right. The river was no less busy, motor ferries were scuttling across, competing with a fleet of feluccas. Safely ashore, Trueth had to admit those sailing boats were graceful, an exotic flock of butterflies skimming over sunlit waters.

Metjen was steaming ahead, towards the moorings where the hotel ships lay lined up next to each other like rows of sardines.

'The 'Selket' should be somewhere close, keep an eye out,' he said.' If she isn't and they've taken her out of commission, we'll have to fly back. Akil wasn't clear what he wanted to do.'

The last thing she needed was more air travel, so Trueth eagerly scanned the ships that rose like white monsters from the murky depths of the Nile.

'There she is.' Rani-Ra pointed out a boat much smaller and lower than the others, her bow peeping from the end of a row.

'Do I want to know what a Selket is?' Trueth asked as their way led them through the reception areas of the other cruise ships. She counted four varieties of burgundy carpets, two brown ones and a wild patterned orange variation that hurt her eyes.

'It's the name of the goddess of healing and magic,' Ranofer said.

That did not sound so bad. Trueth decided she could relate to that deity. They emerged from the last cruiser and climbed down a rickety ladder to the scuffed deck of the 'Selket'.

Metjen raised his chin at a flag in bleached blue fluttering from the stern, featuring what could only be many legged insect. 'She's often depicted with a scorpion on her head.' He grinned at Trueth.

'Shut up, you. That's far too much information,' she said.

Two nightshirted figures appeared out of a cabin at the front of the ship, waving cheerfully and yelling at the top of their lungs. Trueth had no time to work out why people in this country were so noisy. Instead, she was in for another round of hugging and back-slapping. The exchange with Akil and his captain, Ebo, took a while but Metjen established they could return towards Cairo tomorrow. This gave them a full afternoon in Luxor.

Back on the shore, Rani-Ra excused herself and dashed off in the general direction of the bazaar. A protesting Ranofer sulked in her wake. Metjen had tasked him to protect not so much his sister's health and safety but rather the state of their credit card.

'Right', Metjen said, once more adjusting the sunglasses that kept slipping down his regal nose. 'We'll check out the temple of Karnak. It definitely is one of the 1000 places you ought to see before you die.'

That was typical. Trueth would not have minded retail therapy herself, but as usual nobody asked her. Given that she was here, she might as well visit those famous ruins which had never been on her original agenda. Given her overall lack of touristic enthusiasm, this would not make much of a dent in her remaining lifetime.

The sprawling temple complex certainly was impressive. Strolling through the shade thrown by a forest of buff-coloured pillars with hieroglyphs crawling all over them, Trueth succumbed to the holiday spirit. She also felt privileged. She was the only tourist having visited an undiscovered tomb. And surely none of them had such a knowledgeable and competent personal guide. For once Metjen was making a real effort and his explanations brought a dead civilisation back to life...Her next thought cut into her relaxed mood. He was a priest of that ancient religion, was spawned by that civilisation which was not quite as extinct as she had thought. Visiting the relics of a grandiose past had to be painful, yet his face, so handsome despite the stubble, showed no feelings... .

'Wakey, wakey,' Metjen said. 'I've asked you twice already, do you fancy a drink?'

'What? Oh, sorry, I was daydreaming. Bit much to take in. All these temples, and Amasis' tomb... .'

Metjen grabbed her arm so hard, it hurt. 'Don't mention that tomb here!' He dragged her towards a small refreshment stand in the shade of a pillar and ordered two cokes.

His manners were a lot less attractive than his body. And his fidgeting annoyed her. 'Can't you sit still for a few seconds?'

As he drank, Metjen's sunglasses slid down his nose again and she got the full measure of his empty glare. 'Seen those guys in the shadows? Don't turn around, woman!'

She had indeed noticed a group of men in the usual attire, loitering and talking among the colonnades. But she had paid them no heed. 'What's up?'

'They've spotted me. I'm the Eyes of Ra, and I travel. Lately rumours have started, and I'm getting noticed. Not good at all.'

Trueth pretended to tie the lace of her trainer and sneaked a peek at their audience. The expression on their faces was not in the least friendly. In fact, they were looking daggers at them.

'Shall we move on?' She asked.

Metjen nodded, they slipped off their chairs and strolled towards the entrance.

'Don't worry,' he said after a few metres. 'They're not following.'

'How can you be sure? You don't have eyes in the back of your head?'

For a moment, he remained quiet. 'I know, believe me.'

'You mean they know who or what you are?' Trueth turned around, but nobody was behind them.

'They suspect something.' Metjen kicked a stone aside. 'They need not worry, really. People with our talents are getting marginalised by modern civilisation. In the not too distant future nobody will be left. And I fear at least in this country we've got uncomfortably close to such a scenario ever since this...relic gave us such a start.'

'Welcome to my world. I've been there a long time, and it sucks.'

In what could pass for companionable silence, they sat on a stone wall behind the ruined pylons.

'What do you expect from doing this?' Trueth asked. 'Apart from trouble with your whacky boss, once she hears what you've done? And too many pissed-off gods if I understand you right?'

'You do. In the last few weeks, I've gone against everything that ever counted in my life.'

'But why? And how do I fit into the picture,' she added as an afterthought.

Metjen turned towards her and removed his sunglasses. His eyes were glowing from within, and while it was good to see that his powers were returning, Trueth would have preferred not to witness such progress from close by.

'Like it or not, we're one of a kind. There might have been others where you came from, maybe I missed them. But there aren't enough of us left in this world. I have this dream. I see us all come out and be useful,' he said with a sigh that seemed to come from a long way down. 'At the moment my problem is more immediate and Iseret believes somehow you might be part of the solution. I'm not sure what she has in mind but I can't just sit on my hands and leave things to fate.'

He hopped off the stone wall and helped Trueth, whose muscles had stiffened. The glow in his eyes had morphed into an amused gleam. 'You know, there might well be another reason these men are miffed—they are jealous that I snagged a tourist lady for myself...only joking,' he said hastily as she advanced on him.

They left the temple, made it back across the Nile into their hotel, which they all left at dawn to embark on the 'Selket'. As her cheerful captain manoeuvred the miniature ship away from the banks of Luxor, Trueth gazed back over the railing towards the Western hills. The sun blazed down from above as it had always done, refusing to answer a single one of her many questions.

In the past, the Pharaohs would have longed for the good speed they were making. After the recent action, the pace of a boat with motor problems—the reason Akil wanted to have it thoroughly overhauled in Cairo before returning it into service—was daunting. Still, the cabins were comfortable, the food they shared with the crew so delicious that Trueth threw all caution to the winds and even stopped showering with bottled mineral water. They must have so many curses churning in their backwash, the one intended for tourists would not make any difference.

Any attempts at paying Akil for his kindness were indignantly waved off, he considered them to be 'Bringers of good luck'. That was reassuring. However, not everybody shared his view, in many places people swore once they spotted Metjen, making signs that indicated his immediate and permanent relocation to the bottom of the Nile would be much appreciated.

Instead of lounging in this pleasant limbo, Metjen devised a training schedule for aspiring servants of Ra and Hathor respectively and drilled his sister and brother not only in the required canon of formal texts, but also in the livelier side of their craft.

Trueth at first stayed away and sat on the back deck with a collection of dog-eared Discworld paperbacks, but the droning voices lured her closer. Or maybe it was the explosions. She was not sure about that. She joined the circle when Metjen promised her to refrain from his missionary efforts and instead teach her how to develop her talents along with his siblings.

'Is this not going to cause issues with Akil or Captain Ebo?' Trueth asked.

'Not as long as we manage not to damage our transport,' Metjen reassured them. He still had to cast a veil over the ship, to avoid any pyrotechnics from getting noticed.

Trueth learned how to tap the power the others called sun-flow, coax it upwards, exercise control and put it to good use instead of slamming rays of destruction into her unsuspecting environment.

At one point Akil asked them whether they could sort out their failing engine. Metjen explained they would need to understand motors, which none of them did, but possibly Trueth could help with the issues the galley had been experiencing since that morning?

Trueth fumed, stormed into her cabin, spent a couple of hours online, clanged into the engine room–and fixed the machine. This earned her an oily high five from the engineer. Akil was ready to hire her services on a more permanent basis, but Trueth did not see her future in magical engine maintenance. Uncontrolled eruptions of her visibly growing powers still happened far too often.

Good we're moving on water, I don't always irritate the same birds. Trueth mentally apologized to an irate heron whose fish dinner she had boiled away from straight under its beak.

As they went north, the 'Selket' chugged past an ever-changing landscape. The many shades of green bordering the river changed position with the straw, grey, and brown of the wastelands. Until, they too slid into the distance to make way for clusters of palm trees and little villages. Women spread out clothes on the riverbank and carried back jugs of water into their houses, while their children were splashing in the Nile.

All around, oxen lowed, donkeys brayed, mudflats reeked, and a cacophony of voices blared from television screens fed by satellite dishes that mushroomed from the clustered squares of the buildings.

They had to stop several times as the drive shaft had developed an imbalance altering the 'Selket's' progress to a drunken wobble. It threatened to strand her on the sandbanks lurking under the surface of the Nile. Eventually, this was no longer a threat—with a bone-jarring scrunch the boat shuddered onto a bank, crockery fell out of cupboards, passengers fell out of beds and a few cartons of the mineral water stowed close to the stern took a plunge into the river.

They attracted immediate attention. Large amounts of friendly fellahin downed their tools and came to the rescue, swarming over the boat as they tried to push the stranded vessel from the sand. A tractor was put into service and pulled them free. Akil invited their helpers on board, but they only waved, then returned to their work. Metjen first disappeared into his cabin and afterwards into the bowels of the boat to fix the shaft. Akil grinned and gave him a thumbs-up, no doubt striking another item off his repair list.

In a village set among a sea of sugar cane, 'Selket' stopped to take on water and the little party went out on foot to explore. The village shop displayed a large device of dubious design. 'What's this?' Trueth asked and wished she had not done so as Metjen displayed that smirk she found so annoying, strode towards the shop owner and ordered. The man shoved long pale stalks into the apparatus and after minutes of chomping it disgorged a cloudy greenish liquid served in plastic cups. Trueth ogled the inside of her cup, and several ice cubes glinted back.

'Sugar cane juice is good for you, lots of minerals and vitamins,' Metjen said.

'Yes, and no doubt plenty of bacteria,' Trueth said, still staring at the liquid doubtfully.

'No, just loads of calories.' Rani-Ra giggled as she sipped from her cup.

'Drink that juice!' Metjen glared Trueth down. She raised the cup and swallowed the green gunk which gave her a mouthful of grassy sweetness and hopefully nothing else. Metjen patted her on the back.

With the 'Selket' back in business, they persevered up north. Their progress was much steadier now that Trueth had given the engine a final boost which earned her another handshake from the delighted Akil. The only problem, apart from a general make-over, remained in the galley, but Rani-Ra and Trueth staunchly resisted their cook's invitation to fix matters. This time Ranofer came to the rescue.

Other interruptions came from outside. There were locks where they had to wait in a queue together with other boats and barges dodging the sandbanks in a never ending water ballet. Interrupted only by lectures, practices and meals, the hours floated by with the timeless landscape flaring up, turning black—only to emerge again from the mellowing mists of the morning.

One of these saw Trueth leaning on the railing where she gazed at golden cliffs jutting out dangerously close to the navigable part of the river, judging from the eddies they caused in the current.

'What are you thinking about?' Rani-Ra had materialised beside her with a smile in her voice. Trueth found it refreshing not to have a tank driven into her mind for once.

'I'm enjoying the scenery. Egypt is a magnificent country,' she surprised herself by saying. 'I only wish I could ...' She tried to catch the thoughts that swarmed through her brain and right out again. She hurtled herself at one of them. 'I'm lost. I've finally found people like me, but you come with strings attached.'

'If you want answers, I'm afraid you'll have to brave Iseret. She's always been fair and looked after her lot even if their numbers are dwindling.' Rani-Ra scrutinized the cliffs, all laughter gone from her voice. 'It's only recently she's been acting up. It affects Metjen as well, you see. I fear he's trying to fix what can't be fixed any more—whatever is going on, he needs help, and you can give it.' With that, she turned and left Trueth alone at the railing.

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Thank you for reading and for all the feedback you are giving me! I have taken almost all suggestions on board, this is so helpful! And the votes help as well, so if you could just push that little star ... thank you! 

This chapter is dedicated to @NicoleCandySLV , because of the retail therapy - and the journey. Do make sure to read her fantastic novel which truly is unique, I'm certainly enjoying it

The photo is 'Nile in Egypt', copyright Ian Sewell, December 2004. I took it from Wikicommons without alterations.