The Pharaoh's View Hotel sat perched on the edge of Cairo like a glass and marble monument to modern excess, its top-floor penthouse offering an unobstructed view of the Giza pyramid complex.
To mortal eyes, the ancient monuments appeared distant across the sprawling cityscape.
But to the three figures standing at the floor-to-ceiling windows of the presidential suite, the pyramids might as well have been in the hotel's backyard.
Distance, after all, was a concept that bent around beings who had spent eons learning to reshape reality from the inside of a cosmic prison.
Callianeira stood with her back to the room, designer dress flowing like liquid storm clouds around her impossibly perfect form.
