Niamh grabbed up the book and quickly informed the others of what she was doing before rushing in the direction of the school. She passed all the mayhem just as the others did before her until she arrived to the school, astonished by what had happened to the building. She handed the book over to Jared who flipped it open and skimmed over the pages.

"Wh-what does it say?" Mr. Rainier asked.

"I don't know; I read Arabic, not Coptic," Jared admitted without taking his eyes off the pages.

"Well can you decipher anything from this?"

"Not with you talking!"

Jonah apologized on Jared's behalf, aware of how stressed his brother was and honestly, they all were.

"Th-there are English pages at the end," Mr. Rainier enlightened. "How about those?"

"News flash," Jared informed, "I can barely read English either."

Mr. Rainier furrowed his brows.

"Dyslexic," Jonah explained.

"Luckily, the rest of us can read it," Niamh reminded. She reached for the book, but Jared came to a sudden realization.

"I can read Arabic, not Coptic," Jared repeated, this time with an expression of clarity. "Okay, it's a long shot, but..." He began flipping through the pages again.

"What is it?" Jonah asked.

"Remember when we first discovered this book?" Jared reminded. "And we saw that familiar Arabic phrase on one page?" Jared found the page and tapped at it.

"Yeah, but it's just an idolized phrase at the top...the rest of the page is in Coptic, right?"

Jared took a deep breath. "Wrong. It's all in Arabic; I was just too lazy to read it."

Jonah glanced back at Niamh and Mr. Rainier, finding that very typical of Jared.

Jared skimmed through the page, most of it useless information, but he did find at least one important fact.

"When you summon a god back to life," Jared said to them aloud, "their existence is monistic..."

"It means one something..." Niamh trailed off, only understanding the prefix of the word.

"Their existences are defined by one reality," Jonah declared. "Their staffs."

"So, destroy the staffs-" Mr. Rainier began.

"-destroy them," Niamh concluded. "One problem though. They kind of have them."

"Yeah?" Jared stood to his feet. "Well I have something too." He looked up. "Okay so Osiris, my right-hand man-you know who you are-I know you might possibly be in the middle of something, but...if you could maybe give me something cool and powerful, that'd be really great. Thanks."

The four of them waited there, glancing around for anything.

"It seems we're settling with my puny orbs then," Jared remarked at the lack of any response from Osiris.

He turned to head through the wreckage of the school, assuming that was the direction the gods had carried on in. Niamh and Jonah followed him, and Mr. Rainier remained there to watch over Lucille and Sarah.

~~~~~
Jared was the first to spot Ptah, Nefertem, and Sekhmet from afar, their silhouettes lined in silver by the moonlight. They were gathered around the gatehouse, no longer moving around.

"What are they doing?" Niamh asked.

Jared shrugged.

Sekhmet suddenly raised her staff up high, and Jared, Niamh, and Jonah all bent down low even though they were a comfortable distance away. As opposed to the black, starry night sky above, it streaked itself in the same nature as Sekhmet's fire-with layers of red and gold. The moon disappeared from visibility causing Jared and the others to stare up at the sky.

They looked back to the Triad, Ptah now with his staff raised. They watched as the gatehouse was torn apart brick by brick and arranged into some sort of high-standing passageway.

"What are they doing?" Niamh asked again.

A faint light began growing from the center of the tall arched doorway which Ptah had just created.

"They're building some sort of gateway," Jared assumed. He didn't know how he knew, but he added, "They're trying to get back home."

"The gatehouse also serves as a gateway to Memphis?" Jonah raised his eyebrows.

"I know; it wasn't even in the school's brochure," Jared responded sarcastically. He shrugged. "Anyway, let's get closer. We have to stop them before the portal is complete."

As they approached, ambulance and police were also arriving on the other side, but they came to a halt at the portal and the gods on the opposite side. The Triad ignored them.

"Alright, we need a plan," Jared muttered.

"Go work your orb magic," Niamh told him. "Jonah and I'll jump in when we're ready."

Jared heaved a sigh and rushed out into view, launching a few orbs at each of the gods. None of them were phased by them though and instead just turned to face him as the light met their skin.

Jared waved awkwardly. "Hi."

Ptah tightened his grip around his staff, but Jared didn't take any chances. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait...Don't you know who I am?"

"The Osirion," Sekhmet muttered distastefully.

"No, I'm not the Osirion," Jared disapproved in a mimicking tone. Instead, he declared in a more profound tone, "I'm the Osirion."

The members of the Triad glanced at eachother.

"And, and before you get any funny ideas about killing me," he shook his finger in the air, "hear me out. Please."

Ptah felt that he didn't have time for it and held up his staff, but Nefertem raised his own staff in front of his father and mother.

"Father," Nefertem reprimanded.

Ptah lowered his staff and glared down at Jared. "Speak."

"Good choice," Jared smirked.

"What is he doing?" Niamh whispered to Jonah. "Is he an idiot?"

"I hate to say it," Jonah replied, not entirely sure himself but having a well-enough idea that Jared was stalling in order to think up a new plan. "But that idiot is a genius."

Jared continued. "Now, you've already killed some people near and dear to me. And you'll kill thousands more-millions, perhaps. And...as the 'hero', as some would call me, naturally it'd be my duty to...kill you." The gods tensed up, but he still continued. "But I won't do that. All four of us here know that. After all, you're much too powerful for me."

"He's doing something," Niamh remarked in a hushed tone.

"But there does come a flaw in your design," Jared revealed, faking an ashamed manner of admitting that. "You see, my Chosen One summoned you here, but frankly, you were only summoned through your stick-staff-thingies. So without them, you're really no god at all."

This caught each of their attentions.

"Here, let me show you."

Jared reached out his hand a crept toward them, all of them wary of his actions. Ptah eventually handed over the staff, trusting Jared to show them what he meant exactly.

Jared took a few steps back with the staff in his hand and for a brief moment, removed the bottom rod from the rest of the staff. Smoke escaped, and Ptah clutched his chest and staggered for a moment. Jared pieced the staff back together whole.

"See?" He raised his eyebrows. "Fortunately, I know how to make you stronger. Immortal without these silly twigs holding you back."

Ptah reached for his staff, but Jared held it back and held up a finger. "Unfortunately," he continued, "you killed some of my friends, and I want them back. And you-" he directed his finger at Nefertem, "-little boy of healing and miracles and all that-yeah, you're going to be the one to bring them back for me."

"This is undignified," Sekhmet declared. "This...inferior has no right making arrangements with us gods."

"Did you not see what he just did?" Ptah retaliated back. "In this wretched condition, we'll never accomplish half of what we set here to do. Now I am the leader of this Triad; I will determine what is and is not undignified."

"I should also enlighten you," Jared chimed-in, leaning forward, "my patience wears thin very quickly."

"Wait here," Ptah instructed to his wife. "Watch the portal. I'll see to it that you are cured as well."

"Oh," Jared announced, "and I'm going to need your staff."

Sekhmet glanced at Ptah with a murderous look in her eye, but she just tossed her staff to Jared who stumbled back a bit as he caught it. He turned around and flashed a wink at Niamh and Jonah as he led Ptah and Nefertem back to where Lucille and Sarah's bodies were.

~~~~~
Clever boy, Jared. Especially under pressure. Cocky for sure, but...clever.

I've just written two chapters over a course of three hours out of a time in which I should be asleep, so I'm pretty proud. I don't know if I should be, but I feel accomplished.

So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as usual, until next time, Aristocrats.