The air bends. The heat from Kahn's body clashes with the divine pulse from my rings. I feel the tension crawl up my spine. My wings flare open without command, black and gold feathers shimmering in the half-light.
He notices. "Your contract doesn't like mine."
"It's not about like," I say, steady. "It's about dominance. Nekhbet doesn't share her sky easily."
The wind kicks dust across the sand. The horizon blurs. Then, the sound, metal boots striking in rhythm. The second wave has arrived.
Saijew's portals open like wounds in the air. Circles of violet flame tear through reality, each one birthing soldiers in obsidian armor. I count fifteen, then thirty, then too many. The general steps through last, his right glove still glowing from use.
Kahn squares his shoulders. "He's not human."
"No," I answer, voice low. "He's worse."
Saijew scans the destruction left from the first platoon. His eyes settle on me. He doesn't look angry. He looks entertained.
"So this is the thief," he says. "You kill thirty of my men and still have the arrogance to stand here."
I tilt my head. "If they were yours, you should have taught them to aim."
He smiles faintly. "Then allow me to demonstrate."
The air ripples. His portals blink open and close in rapid succession, surrounding us. Soldiers pour out, forming a tightening ring. Kahn moves in front of me instinctively. The obsidian layer begins to crawl back over his skin, his veins glowing with alternating flashes of blue and orange.
Saijew lifts his gloved hand. "You'll both die here. The Pharaoh will make sure of it."
"Then he should have come himself," I say.
The general flicks his wrist. Portals open above us. Blades, arrows, and spheres of divine energy rain down.
Kahn moves first. The ground cracks as his temperature spikes. The sand turns to glass under his feet. His body flashes between frost and flame, each swing of his arm leaving shockwaves that split the air. When he strikes the ground, obsidian spears shoot upward, impaling soldiers through their armor.
The light from his body burns white-hot, forcing me to shield my eyes. His voice carries through the chaos, deep and sharp. "Stay clear."
I don't listen. I step forward, wings outstretched, divine energy rushing through me like a flood. Nekhbet's presence presses against my mind, a whisper and a command. Rule. Protect. Dominate.
My wings ignite. Golden feathers burst into flame, stretching wide enough to block the next volley. Arrows disintegrate on contact. The ground trembles beneath me.
Saijew doesn't move. He studies me like a scholar watching an experiment. "So you awakened Nekhbet herself. I wondered who'd be foolish enough to take her ring."
"Foolish?" I repeat. "No. Chosen."
I spread my wings, divine energy surging outward. The soldiers closest to me drop their weapons, clutching their heads as the sound of Nekhbet's cry shreds their will.
Kahn finishes the rest, crushing the last man's head with a single strike. The obsidian shell around his body fractures and hisses, molten steam venting from the cracks.
The desert falls silent again.
I look at Saijew. He hasn't moved. Not a single grain of sand sticks to him.
Kahn steps beside me, his voice low. "That wasn't all of them."
"No," I say. "He's stalling."
Saijew slowly claps. "Good. You're smarter than you look."
I tighten my grip on the rings, each one glowing, white, red, cobalt, gold, pink. Their light spills across the sand like scattered suns.
Kahn lowers his voice. "We can't take him head-on. Not yet."
"Then we make him open another portal."
He glances at me. "To escape?"
"To follow him," I say.
Saijew tilts his head, curious. "What are you two plotting?"
I raise my hand, the white ring pulsing. "Nothing you'll live to understand."
Light floods the field. The wings of Nekhbet stretch to their full length. Her cry splits the air again. Kahn grins, despite the blood on his lips.
"Guess we're doing this," he mutters.
"We were always doing this," I reply.
And together, we charge, me through the air, Kahn through fire and glass, our powers colliding with Saijew's portals in a storm of divine fury.
The air cracked before I could blink. A flash of gold tore through the dust, faster than sound, faster than thought.
Kahn's body went still beside me. His obsidian shell fractured with a sound like stone shattering under frost. He didn't even grunt. The force threw him backward, carving a trench through the sand before he stopped moving. Steam rose from his armor.
My wings snapped open on instinct. The wind hit a moment later, hard enough to bend the air around me.
Saijew stood where Kahn had been. The dust spiraled around him, caught in a current that didn't belong to the world. His right hand was pressed against the sand, his left still glowing faint gold.
The general looked up, calm, his eyes catching mine. "You felt that, didn't you? The shift."
I didn't answer. My wings stayed wide, shadow curling around me in quiet threat.
He rose slowly, brushing his gloves. "The god of air, speed, and courage," he said. "Shu. One of the oldest. One of the few whose strength still breathes through contract." He tilted his head. "You shouldn't be surprised I carry his mark."
I stared at the faint sigil pulsing beneath his glove, the same light that had crushed Kahn's defense in a heartbeat. My pulse quickened, but not with fear, with calculation.
"So that's your god," I said. "Speed and courage. You took both to serve a Pharaoh who hides behind others."
Saijew smiled thinly. "Courage isn't about who you serve. It's about what you're willing to sacrifice." He took a step closer. The air shifted again. The sand rose slightly around his boots, like the desert was breathing through him.
"You don't have to fight us, Asam."
The use of my name froze me.
He nodded once, reading the reaction. "You think we don't know who you are? Those contracts you stole, those rings, they're not meant for rebellion. They're pieces of something larger. Something that should never have been split."
I kept silent.
"They're all very helpful to our cause," he continued. "You could stop running, stop killing. You could belong to something greater than yourself."
I looked at him, then at Kahn's body half-buried in the sand. Steam still curled from his armor. My rings pulsed faintly, each light flickering in its own rhythm.
"You talk like you're saving people," I said. "But I've seen what your cause does to men. They burn, they rot, they beg for their gods to kill them before the Pharaoh does."
Saijew's jaw tightened, but his voice stayed even. "Every kingdom demands blood. The difference is whose blood you spill to build it."
The wind picked up again, brushing dust between us. My wings flared wider. His sigil brightened.
"I won't hand you the rings," I said.
"I didn't ask you to," he replied, stepping closer, his tone softening. "I asked you to understand what you've taken."
I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes. "Then explain it."
He studied me for a long moment, as if weighing whether I deserved the answer. The air around him shimmered again, his form blurring, the line between flesh and wind thinning.
"Each ring binds a fragment of divine order," he said. "When you took them, you didn't just claim their power. You broke a seal that's held since before the first Pharaoh took breath. The gods were meant to remain asleep. You woke them."
The words hung in the air like a verdict.
Shu's sigil dimmed slightly. Saijew's gaze hardened. "The Pharaoh's war isn't against you. It's against what follows you."
I didn't move. My wings stayed out, my breath steady, but every pulse in my veins screamed louder.
Behind him, Kahn groaned, shifting slightly, obsidian dust flaking from his skin.
Saijew's eyes flicked toward him, then back to me. "Decide, Asam. You can fight me, or you can learn why your gods chose you."
The air shimmered again. His body flickered once, twice, then vanished, leaving only the echo of wind where he'd stood.
I stared at the sand for a long time, every nerve alive, every ring burning hotter.
Then I turned to Kahn. He was on his knees, smoke curling from his shoulders. I reached him, knelt, pressed a hand to his chest.
His pulse beat weak but steady.
"Shu," I whispered. "The god of courage."
My reflection wavered in his cracked armor.
"So that's what they call courage now."
The wind carried no answer. Only silence.
The wind hadn't stopped moving since he vanished.
It pressed against my wings like something alive, whispering in the same rhythm as his voice.
You don't have to fight us.
The words gnawed at me. They echoed louder than the screams of the soldiers I'd killed, louder than the hum of the rings on my hands.
Kahn stirred again beside me. His obsidian shell cracked, then fell away in pieces, leaving his skin pale and damp with sweat. He breathed like someone who had swallowed fire. I could see the faint outline of his veins glowing beneath his skin, the residue of divine heat still trapped inside.
He opened his eyes and met mine. "Where is he?"
"Gone."
Kahn tried to stand, failed once, then pushed himself upright, leaning on his blade. The air shimmered where Saijew had been, faint traces of gold flickering like dying embers.
"What did he say to you?"
I didn't answer right away. My gaze stayed fixed on the horizon, where the pillars of fire and cloud marked the border between kingdoms. Between one war and the next.
"He said I don't have to fight," I said finally.
Kahn gave a sharp, bitter laugh. "You believe that?"
"I didn't," I said. My fingers brushed the rings, one by one. They pulsed faintly, like hearts that didn't belong to me. "But the gods inside these… they're awake now. He wasn't lying about that."
Kahn looked at me, wary. "You trust him?"
"I don't trust anyone," I said. "But I understand necessity."
He frowned. "Necessity?"
"The Pharaoh's men will keep coming. You saw what they sent today. Imagine what they'll send when they realize what I carry."
Kahn's silence told me he had imagined it.
I turned to face him fully. "You fought for your own survival. I respect that. But I've seen enough to know survival alone isn't enough anymore. Saijew offered something different."
He stepped closer. "He serves the Pharaoh."
"Maybe," I said quietly. "Or maybe he serves something older."
Kahn's hand tightened around his sword. "You think aligning with him is better?"
"I think staying alone makes me predictable," I said. "And predictable people die."
He didn't answer. The heat between us was sharp, carved by doubt and exhaustion.
Then I said it, the words steady and deliberate. "I'll go with him."
Kahn blinked. "You what?"
"If what he said is true, then I need to know what I've unleashed," I said. "If those gods inside these rings are truly awake, then I've already started something larger than us." I paused, then added, "And if he lies, I'll kill him."
The look in Kahn's eyes shifted. He understood, maybe against his will.
"You'll need someone watching your back," he said.
I tilted my head. "You offering?"
He nodded once. "Someone has to keep you from burning the whole world down."
For the first time, I smiled. It was faint, but real. "Then stay close."
The wind shifted again. Golden light rippled in the air ahead of us, a familiar hum rising from nowhere. The portal began to open, bending the world like rippling water.
Kahn tensed. I didn't.
When Saijew stepped through this time, there was no army. No weapons drawn. Only him, the faint shimmer of his sigil glowing beneath his glove.
He looked between us, then at the rings on my hands. "So you've decided."
I met his gaze. "I have."
He inclined his head slightly. "Then come. The Pharaoh's court will move soon. We don't have much time."
As I stepped toward the portal, the rings pulsed again, their glow bleeding across my hands, cobalt, gold, red, pink, white, five gods whispering all at once.
For a moment, I felt the weight of what I was doing.
Then I pushed it down.
Confidence, courage, lies I'd never needed.
What I had now was purpose.
And for the first time, I wasn't walking toward death.
I was walking toward understanding.