The silence was sacred in the Temple of the Sun, broken only by the light rustling of the golden veils.

Atem-Ka approached the onyx slab where the stranger's body lay. She had emerged from the darkness a few moments earlier, collapsed at the foot of the statue of Ra, her arms bare, dressed in unfamiliar fabrics. No portal had been entered. No door had been opened.

Yet, he recognized her.

"I saw you... in my dreams," the pharaoh murmured, his deep voice echoing in the empty room. "You carried light in your eyes. You came from a time even Thoth has not yet written."

He knelt, one knee on the hieroglyphs carved in the stone.

"Awaken, stranger. The gods have kept your secret for too long."

Atem-Ka reached out... and the moment his fingers brushed her skin, a warm breath blew through the air, and the torches lit themselves.