Page 156 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts

Amelia’s jaw dropped.

***

Amelia

“How is this possible? How… did I end up here?”

Sobek had returned to his chair and was reaching for some food. Renenutet settled Amelia at the centre of the table and sat opposite her husband. She relaxed into her chair, eyeing Amelia from beneath her black eyelashes. “You have no idea how you ended up on Surat?”

Amelia shook her head. “The last I remember, I was in bed. On Earth.”

Renenutet wrinkled her nose, a gesture that softened her snake-like appearance. “You need to be careful with travel.You were unconscious when you arrived. If you had wound up somewhere else, you might not have woken up in good condition.”

She was speaking as if Amelia had made a habit of this. “Right. I’ll keep that in mind – except I don’t usually travel between planets. I don’t even know how I did it now.”

Amelia’s eyes followed the dishes on the table as they gradually filled up, as if invisible servants were bringing the food. As soon as a dish with roasted steak appeared in front of Sobek – thank goodness he didn’t eat raw meat – he quickly devoured the food.

“You came here by channelling the powers of the watch and the necklace,” Renenutet explained. “The only way a creature with your density could reach me.” Her brown eyes lingered on the necklace. The elliptical irises had threads in them that gleamed with the intensity of pure gold. “The Sacreds are fascinating objects. Each of them carries a certain power, but their combinations are even more impressive.”

“I thought they could only be activated – all seven, together. No one mentioned they could be…combined,” Amelia said.

Renenutet pointed a finger at the empty glasses before them, and a dark purple liquid filled them. “The Sacreds are like an alphabet. With them, you can write. You can create…” She gestured with her hand towards the glasses.

Amelia took a sip. The drink caressed her tongue with a softness she hadn’t expected. It had the scent of fruit and something unfamiliar, which made her muscles relax. “Will you tell me their names? I read that your name means ‘giver of names’ and… I assumed you named the Sacreds or have some connection to them.” She paused, taking another sip. “Before I ended up here, I was thinking about that. It’s probably what sparked my travel.”

Renenutet curled her lips and glanced at her husband. “I likethe openness my wine prompts.”

A wave of anxiety swept through Amelia’s chest.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt you. Why do you want to uncover their names?”

“To stop the Mother of Reptilians.” Damn, this wine did loosen tongues. What if Renenutet and Sobek were supporting the Queen?

“Someone has to do it,” Sobek remarked with a full mouth.

Renenutet stared at her for a long moment while chewing her steak, and those golden-threaded eyes seemed to pierce beneath Amelia’s skin. Finally, she set down her knife and fork and wiped her mouth with her napkin. “What have you learned about the Sacreds?”

“That the humanids gifted them – one to each species on Earth.”

Renenutet took a sip of her wine. “The Earth race always had magic within them, but they didn’t always know how to use it. Many years ago, on Surat, we decided to teach the Earthlings how to activate their innate magic. That was before the Sacreds were ever created. Many of the ideas that helped develop Earth’s civilisation came to fruition thanks to this magic. But every magic, even the purest at its core, requires something in return. The Higher Powers demand compensation.”

“Why did you want to help humans?” Amelia’s fingers itched to touch the necklace, but it felt improper to show such possessiveness.

Renenutet lifted one shoulder. “Because I saw a race with potential. A race with the ability to love. Such generosity in giving love is rare, even on Surat. And after all, we are all made from the same dough. It’s the duty of the more developed species to help those who come after.”

“My wife, the altruist…” Sobek remarked.

Renenutet ignored him. “Unfortunately, humans didn’t limitthemselves to the white magic they paid for with my necklace. Once their eyes were opened to magic, they desired more. They began making deals with the Higher Powers. To this day, I can’t tell whether magic corrupted them – or simply revealed what had always been there. It was greed. Insatiable, tainting even their ability to love. And no matter how much they received, it was never enough.”

Renenutet sighed. “Those deals with the Higher Powers were far beyond the humans’ understanding, and the consequences came swiftly. New diseases emerged – of the body, of the mind. Humans poisoned themselves for a taste of power they couldn’t contain.”

“I don’t understand. What about the immortals’ origin story that’s told on Earth? Gord, Sandir…?” Amelia asked.

Renenutet smiled. “Gord was our ruler. It was he who tasked us to initially visit Earth – and, later, to fix the mess we created. The Higher Powers were gaining control over Earth and threatened to conquer it, jeopardising the balance across the entire universe. That’s when we came up with the idea of creating a new species. One that couldn’t be controlled by magic. And Preni, our geneticist, had a plan.”

Amelia straightened her back, curious to hear more.

“She created a hybrid embryo using genes from a humanid and a human. Then, Gord allowed her to do the unprecedented – to use an alchemical process and insert into the embryo’s structure a particle from each of the Earth’s kingdoms: quartz crystal, wood thread, bat blood. That way, he would belong to Earth, but at the same time, he would be a creature that didn’t obey the laws of magic, couldn’t be bargained with or bound by spell.” Renenutet arched an eyebrow at Amelia. “That firstborn embryo was Sandir, and his blood was immune to deals with the Higher Powers.”