Curse Of The Desert Sun ⚜ Ch. 6

Surely in all the magic books in this library, there was one that discussed ancient pharaoh's curses.

Aten huffed in frustration, putting down yet another book. How hard was it to find what he was looking for? If he couldn't figure out what exactly he'd been cursed with, how could he hope to be cured?

With a sigh, he stood, stacking the books he'd gotten and going to bring them back to the return cart. A redhead wizard was looking through the returned books, having seen the growing collection of Egyptian titles.

"Finding what you're looking for?" the prince asked, reminding himself to be human.

"Oh, I'm finding plenty, just not what I'm looking for," he replied. "By the way, can I ask something? Judging by all these titles, I was wondering if you happened to be looking for information on Egyptian curses?"

"I am actually," he replied hopefully.

The young wizard held up a finger and disappeared around the bookshelf. Less than a minute later, he came back with a thick volume. "Here, it's only a couple years old. Dr. Zahi's research is some of the most comprehensive ever compiled. It might have what you're looking for."

Aten took the large book and smiled. "Thank you." Bringing it back to the table, he sat down and opened it to the index. Almost immediately a chapter caught his eye. "Tomb Curses... Perfect."

Flipping through the book, he came to the first section of the chapter. Asenath's Curse of Blindness. He decided to read the whole chapter, just to be sure. Seti's Curse of Immobility seemed terrifying, as did The Unnamed Pharaoh's Curse of Parasites. But further along in the chapter was something interesting - Neithotep's Curse of The Desert Sun.

As he read, he mumbled some of it aloud. "The Curse of the Desert Sun, also called the Curse of Fire and Blood on Sand, was first cast by the Pharaoh Neithotep. Standing on the hill atop his tomb, the he drew some blood from his hand, painting a circle in the sand. While the incantation is unknown, paintings from the pharaoh's tomb depict the circle catching fire. Hieroglyphs suggest that the curse upon the tomb would turn the a trespasser into a vampiric being, forced to live off of the blood of others, trapped to dwell in the tomb until nightfall or else being burned to death in the desert sun."

His heart beat faster as he read. This was it.

Reading on, however, his mood sank. There is no known cure for this curse.*

The asterisk... His eyes rushed to the bottom of the page to a single footnote of only a few words: *see Amulets of Mertiaten.

Quickly, he flipped to the page, and saw a short section about the Queen Mertiaten. One of the paragraphs read: Creator of one hundred enchanted scarab amulets, made for healing of illness and ending curses. None of the Amulets of Mertiaten have been located in centuries.

He leaned back in the chair and ran a hand over his face. Of course the book would lead him right to the answer, then rip away his hope. The prince sighed and closed the book. At least now he had a name for this horrible curse.

If only he hadn't gone into that tomb...