That meant only one thing...
“Ah Chione, you are finally awake” the deep, profound voice of the Pharaoh, came from a large, straight backed chair in the corner of the wide room, he was sitting in it, watching me, and probably had, for the last couple of minutes since my near drowning. I sat up quickly, afraid of being impolite in the presence of the Pharaoh, immediately regretted this action, as the feeling of light headiness engulfed my upper body. “Lie down Chione, you have been unconscious for a while now, the feeling will pass in a few minutes.” He commanded with haste. “What happened after I fell into the water?” I asked innocently, holding my reeling head in my hands. “All I can remember now is the deep dark water, and the fish, and something else...” I trailed off, deep in thought. “Ahh, yes Chione, that something else is why I have been sitting here for the last 24 hours waiting for you to wake up, I have some very important news for you, and some which you may not take easily.” He sighed, looking very despondent. I was amazed, not by the fact that he had news for me; he probably was going to send me to another one of his palaces to dance there, away from Khafre, she was probably really angry about the night before. I was amazed by the fact that I had had been out cold for 24 hours! “Wait, 24 hours? That’s a day ago?” I whispered softly, dumbstruck at his earlier statement. “Yes Chione,” he answered, in monotony. “You were down there for almost 4 minutes, which would paralyse, or worse, kill any normal person. “But you are obviously not a normal person”. He added softly, talking to himself. Now he had caught my full attention, “What do you mean Pharaoh, am I not as normal as any common person?” I asked my voice full of the tension, which had taken over my heart. “Well, to be honest with you Chione, you are not any ordinary young person. I have been meaning to tell you what I am about to now since your 14th birthday, last spring, but things have gotten in the way, and I decided not to tell you until you were old enough to understand the situation you are now in.”
“But because of the occurrence which took place yesterday, I have been forced to tell you. You almost died, my physicians worked on restarting your lungs for over an hour, and I thought that maybe it was too late to save you. Nevertheless, in the end you pulled through and I had you brought up to my quarters, seeing as my daughter has taken over the entire medical lodgings.” He remarked, prudently. I realised then that the Pharaohs heart must have been much bigger than his body. I had pretty much taken over his quarters, used his bed, he must have slept and lived somewhere else during my unconsciousness. Not to mention the worry, I had caused him, obviously he had been very worried, I saw the dark bagged underlines of his eyes, and the tired way which he held his back. His voice brought me back to the present, “However, we are not here to talk about your near demise, I have something else to tell you, something that will probably change your life into something, that most people have only ever dreamed about.” He took a long and deep breath, as though he had something deep and personal to rid of his heart. “Pharaoh, please if I have offended you and your daughter, please tell me, I know that she got hurt last night, and she wasn’t supposed to, and it was my entire fault.” I blurted out, immediately ashamed of my actions. He looked at me and an enormous booming laugh followed it. I gave him an odd look, which made him laugh even harder. “Chione, this isn’t about me! I believe you did a great job in the dance, my daughter needed someone to beat her, her knee was dislocated, but she has seen much worse before!” .He chuckled again at my gesture, “In fact, I believe that Khafre needed someone to beat her and put her in her rightful place. Just because she is a princess, it does not mean she has the right to drown someone. When I am gone, she will be next in line for the throne, she needs to start acting like a role model, for she soon will be one.”
Then all the laughter vanished from his face, and in its place, a look of complete seriousness took over. “Chione, this is about you, have you ever heard about your mother’s death?” he asked genuinely. This question confused me, as I had never heard much about her, Aunt made this a strict law in our house, and almost everything was a strict law with Aunt. She never relaxed, or enjoyed herself, like the mothers I saw when I walked to the markets with her; they talked amongst themselves, and laughed about past experiences. They loved their children so much, and unlike Aunt, they showed it all the time, picking up their children, embracing them after a fall or something that made them cry. Aunt just sniffed and walked by, as if these people were just too lowly for her recognition. Sometimes I felt as if I would have been better off with a mother like that, who loved me, who embraced me when I cried. No Aunt had never done that for me, she just told me that there was no use in crying, and to get up and keep going no matter what situation you are in. I remembered the first time I had broken my leg. I had been practising the ‘falcons dive’, which involved starting on the shoulders of a male dancer, stretching my hands into a dive position, I had to “dive” between their legs, as their arms materialised out of nowhere and carried you safely down, and back up onto the shoulders, in the starting position. I had almost perfected it with Arcmet, my dance teacher’s son, as I dived through his legs his arm got in the way of my flight pattern and pushed me out of the air. I landed horribly on my knee and snapped my tibia in two. He had carried me screaming my lungs out, to the medical quarters in the palace where I spent the next two days in agony as they reconstructed it back into its original shape. Aunt came for me told me not to make such a fuss out of “a small break” ever again! Even the medical staff had told her to leave me over night so the plaster could fully harden around the bone structure. However no, Aunt wasn’t that easily swayed, and she limped me back to our estate, all the while my leg burning with utter agony every time I even slightly nudged it. It took a full two weeks longer to heal because of her mistake. She was why I never really showed much emotion, for as Aunt always said, there was no real use for them.
“Well, I know that she died in childbirth, but I don’t know anything else, Aunt does not approve of talking about the past and its grievances.” With eyes full of compassion, he nodded his head at what I was explaining to him. “Well Chione, I am sorry but you have been lied to, your mother didn’t die in childbirth, and you are not an only child either.” I was completely dumbfounded at what he was saying to me. “No, that can’t be, she would have still been here today, and my twin, well, wouldn’t she be here too?” I asked inquisitively. Drawing another long breath, he continued, “When you and your twin were born, you showed UN childlike characteristics, these were the “symptoms” of what the ancients called, “Keepers”. These guardians were born with special abilities or gifts if you might say, and supposedly, these gifts were given to you for a reason by Isis, the Goddess of fertility.”
My mouth opened into a complete O shape, I just wasn’t comprehending anything he was saying. I could not have been born with a twin! I would have heard at least something, a name, or something! And another thing, I had never done anything un normal in my life, I was just as normal as Aunt, or Arcmet or Khafre(apart from her royalty), there was just no way I could be a “keeper” I didn’t even know what they were! “No, that can’t be, I have never done anything extraordinary in my life. And wouldn’t my “twin” be here today?” I inquired. With a sad sigh he continued. “Chione, your twin is still here today, and so is your mother. And yes you’re right; you have never done anything extraordinary in your life, until yesterday night.”