Chapter Twenty-Six

It was the cold expressionlessness of Sekhmet's words that shook Cierra. She had no doubt that Baaqir, if he ever re-surfaced, would die a horrible death.

"Why," Cierra hesitated, unsure she wanted to ask Sekhmet anything else, "Why would Baaqir lie about West Mountain?"

Sekhmet thought for a moment before answering.

'The West Mountain is a place of legends. In all my years I have never seen it or heard of another finding it.'

"Do you think," Cierra pondered out loud, "Baaqir told others about the West Mountain being here?"

"Ah!" Cierra clutched her head in her hands as a wordless wave of anger filled Cierra's mind.

'If they have come seeking the West Mountain, they are not as smart as I thought.' Sekhmet said, her voice low.

'Girl,' Cierra bit her tongue, not wanting to correct the goddess, 'You said the nightmares took Freya?'

Cierra nodded, "They're keeping her in Fólkvangr, in a cavern. They were experimenting on her divine artifacts," Cierra pointed to the murky stone on her bracelet, "Driling in some sort of black," She tried to find the right word, "…ooze."

'How brazen, do they try to corrupt our items and usurp the gods themselves?' Sekhmet asked, mostly to herself.

'You are useless to me here,' Sekhmet declared, 'Leave. If you come back, come with Ra and the will to fight or I will kill you myself.'

"But—" Cierra was still forming her sentence when she found herself in bed, staring at her ceiling.

"I have an idea," Dawn started, "Why don't we go to the city square and just walk around, checking out the shops, and see if Jeremiah passes by with his 'Tia' again?" She smiled at Cierra mischievously.

"Then we can know for sure what their relationship is," She ended, head in her hands as she looked up at Cierra from her perch on the bed.

Cierra sighed, getting dressed. One day Dawn was going to become a full-on stalker.

"I feel like there's a law against waiting for people to show up somewhere so you can follow them around making conjunctures about their lives." Cierra said, laughing.

"Fiiiine," Dawn sat up, "Wanna check out that new bookstore, Bell Books?"

"You mean the one that just opened up next McAlisters, in the city square?" Cierra put a hard emphasis on 'in the city square,' so much so that Dawn had the good sense to look slightly embarrassed.

"Come on," Dawn pleaded, "What's the likelihood that he'll show up anyway?"

"How about this," Cierra proposed, knowing Dawn would refuse, "Let's go to the gym together, work for a bit and then we can go check out the bookstore?"

"Ugh!" Dawn threw her hands up dramatically. "You know exercise is my only weakness!"

"Last offer: I drop you off at the bookstore on the way to the gym and pick you up when I'm done, and you can tell the results of your sleuthing?" Cierra offered.

"No," Dawn drew out the 'o,' "You've defeated me, I see reason."

After having hit the gym and gone for a run, Cierra was grateful to go home, take a shower, and lie down. She felt a bit like she was splitting in two, where one half of her was concerned with calculus and graduating in May, while the other was wondering if Sekhmet was eve now being invaded by nightmares and subdued.

Now that she thought about it, she realized the vessel of Sekhmet had never once moved, besides breathing, and she had never heard Sekhmet's voice come from the vessel itself.

Would the nightmares be able to get to her if she wasn't physically visible? Cierra wasn't sure. Still, she didn't want to leave Sekhmet under attack for too long, it seemed cruel to allow her to suffer the same fate as Freya.

Cierra resolved to win over the shapeshifter tonight. They had to accept her holding not one, but five divine artifacts. Not to mention all of the information she had accidentally gathered regarding nightmares, Freya, and now Sekhmet. Maybe tonight they would even be able to try and give Sekhmet a hand, though Cierra realized, that would depend on what kind of fighters the shapeshifter's group was.

She hadn't given too much thought to who, or what, they were, but when she thought about them, she imagined a small group of fighters. For some reason she saw a group of rogue style fighters, dual wielding daggers, or maybe they were all shapeshifters, and they could take on the appearance of something truly threatening, like a life size Godzilla.

Nothing could possibly defeat a small troop of Godzillas.

Preparing for the night to come, Cierra went ahead and moved the sword form her closet to the space in bed where Dawn had slept earlier. The metal was cool in her hand, and for a moment she felt guilty, as though she had let the sword down in some way by allowing it to go untouched the night before.

She set it down and then went to her desk to research the Egyptian sun god, Ra. Sekhmet wanted Ra, and Cierra had read that everything Sekhmet did was in part due to her reverence for the god. From those myths, Cierra knew that Ra was powerful, but it was only now, during her research, that she realized he was considered a king of gods.

Cierra thought for a minute, wasn't Zeus also called the king of all Gods? She could have sworn she remembered that from some story she had heard years ago. Googling 'list of all god kings,' Cierra found that each pantheon usually had its own 'King of the Gods.' There was Zeus in Greek mythology, Ra for Ancient Egyptian, Amun for New Egyptian, the Jade Emperor for Chinese, and dozens of others spanning just as many religions.

How was she supposed to learn all these stories? How many of them were in the dream realms?

Cierra made a note to ask the group she planned to meet later tonight. They had to have the information she so desperately craved.

"Cierra," Her aunt's shout from downstairs interrupted her thoughts, "Come down for dinner!"

Shocked, she looked at the time. It was already after six and all she had was a list of god kings and various words like 'murder-y' and 'sexual harassment' labeling the few she had managed to read about. One god, Huītzilōpōchtli, was specifically known for his love of human sacrifice, while Cierra was convinced Zeus would be labelled a predator unfit for life outside of prison if he ever came to the real world.

Stretching out her arms over her head, Cierra found herself surprised by how engrossed she had become in her research; the hours had flown by. It wasn't just the stories, but also the strategy Cierra had just started thinking of while reading them. Already she was wondering how best to survive an encounter with any one of these god kings.

Cierra walked downstairs, thinking about what she might do in various situations. Huītzilōpōchtli was a non-starter for now, but the other ones, they seemed reasonable in degrees.

As she entered the kitchen, she was surprised to find her aunt and uncle already sitting at the table, photo album between them.

"Have a seat," Ernǚ said, nodding at the chair in front of them. Cierra's heart skipped a beat. Had she done something wrong recently? Was there something she was supposed to have done today that she had forgotten about?

"You're not in trouble, don't worry," Uncle Trev laughed, "Nǎinai called your aunt earlier today and told her you had been asking questions about your parents, so we wanted to share some photos of the two of them with you."

Her aunt picked up the conversation as Cierra sat down. "I know we don't talk about them much, but it's okay if you want to know more about htem sometimes." She paused, "They passed away when you were so little, it would be weirder if you weren't curious."

"Your grandparents have had this stashed away for years, so I went by and picked it up today after work," She said, opening the photo album. On the first page were the characters for Měinǚ, or beautiful daughter, and Damien. Cierra's maternal grandparents, Nǎinai and Yéyé, had stuck to traditional Chinese names for their children, but Damien's family had been in the states a generation longer, and had chosen a more western name.

Turning the page, Cierra saw a woman with straight black hair down her back laughing, shoulder leaning on a slighter taller man with deep set, dark eyes. Her mom was slender in every definition of the word, her arms long and twig like, face angular. Her father was built with more muscle, his shoulders wide and his face slightly round.

It was easy for Cierra to see how she took after both of them, with her angular face, but stronger build.

"Can you tell me more about them?" Cierra asked, surprisingly emotional.