Egyptian Timewave

Chapter 30

The room the guard had showed her to is small, and fairly bare. Clearly, treatment of those you are arresting hasn't changed much over the millenia. Abayomi finds a stool pushed against the wall and drags it further into the open space filling the room before she perches on it. The guard is doing who knows what elsewhere, who knows how long he'll take?

She doesn't want to be standing all that time. When the door opens twenty minutes later, Abayomi looks up from where he had been picking at the loose threads of her dress, confused by the sound of a second pair of footsteps. It is the same guard from before that steps in through the now-open door, but there is an older man behind him, dressed in an identical uniform. Another guard? Abayomi blinks and straightens in her seat.

"You know, that was quite a long time to be away if you just dragged me here to ask a couple questions. My companion will me looking for me."

The first guard snorts softly. "I'm sure your companion will have some patience."

Internally, Abayomi snorts. Sure, Anippe can be patient, but this isn't exactly your everyday circumstance. The other girl is sure to be fretting.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

The elder guard responds this time. "We shall see, I suppose. Now, shall we begin?"

"Sure, I'd love to get out of here and back to what my actual tasks for the day are. But first, I have a couple questions for you." A raised eyebrow is her response, but the man waves a hand in her direction in a 'go on' motion. "Okay, what are your names, and why are two of you needed just to ask me a couple of questions?"

The younger guard laughs softly. "Oh is that all the questions you have?"

"For now, perhaps."

"Very well. My name is Kheti, my superior is Huy. As for why he needs to be here, he is my superior and should be present for the questioning, and he will be asking you many of the questions."

Abayomi sighs. "How long will this take then?"

Huy makes a sound of amusement, "This will take as long as it needs to take."

Dryly, Abayomi quips back. "Informative there, huh. Fine, if this is going to take an undetermined amount of time let's get started. The sooner that happens the sooner I can be done with this."

Huy leans back against the wall. "Why were you eavesdropping?"

Abayomi shoots a glare at Kheti. "What, did you tell him I was eavesdropping? I told you, I was just walking!"

"He told me that you were walking, ran into each other, and when you got up you tried going back the way you came. To me, that sounds a lot like someone who was eavesdropping and was just trying to cover their tracks."

She huffs. "I was wandering around while my companion was busy with a private conversation! When I got up I was turned in that way already, so why not just go back that way?"

Kheti snorts. "Perhaps because you had already come in from that direction?"

"I reiterate, wandering. It was no detriment to me if i went back and took another path I hadn't taken before, I was just spending time."

"Hmmm. Say we believe you. Why did you come to the temple first place?"

"We came to speak with a priest."

Huy shifts, pushing across the wall to lean towards her. "Myself and my companion, of course. I've already said that I wasn't there alone. I've said so several times."

"If your companion was having a private conversation, presumably with the priest you just mentioned, then why were you needed?"

She glares at the guard. "I'm a handmaiden, I am there to serve my lady. Where she goes, I go as well."

Huy moves to ask something further along that vein, but Kheti cuts in before he can. "Back to the eavesdropping-"

"Wandering."

"Regardless of what you were doing, you must have heard something. You were close enough to the conversation that the sound would have reached you."

"I heard overlapping voices, that's it. I don't know what was said, how many people were talking, or how long they had been talking for. All I know is that multiple people were discussing something."

Huy raises an eyebrow. "You heard nothing of note?"

"Nothing." It's not really a lie, most of the things they were discussing she had already heard mentioned before.

"Could you identify anyone that was speaking?"

She points at Kheti. "Him presumably, since he came from that direction."

"Anyone else?"

"No, all strangers."

That wasn't a lie. If she crossed paths with any of them in a hallway, she wouldn't recognize them. Maybe the two priests, but they would have to talk first. She's never met any of them before. Huy leans back against the wall, seemingly appeased.

"If you don't know what was said and you wouldn't be able to recognize any of the speakers without further context clues, I suppose we don't have much further to ask of you."

Abayomi perks up. "Does that mean I can go now?"

"Not yet. If you were in the temple in order to fulfill your duties for your mistress, then who is she?"

Just then, someone knocks on the door and pokes their head in.
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Who do you think was at the door? What's going to happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out