Tariq begins each morning by activating his Thoth phone and reviewing his personalized executive briefing. The phone consolidates overnight developments across his businesses, personal security, artifact interests, and political intelligence into a short list of matters requiring his attention.
He reviews decisions requiring his approval, emerging threats, urgent opportunities, and significant developments that cannot be delegated to his executives or staff. The system filters out routine information and presents only exceptions and high-priority matters.
Tariq uses the phone’s secure voice interface to ask questions, request additional information, and issue immediate instructions. When necessary, he connects directly with an executive or advisor through encrypted communications.
The briefing gives him a clear picture of the day ahead before he begins making decisions.
6:05–6:20 — Mansour Holdings
Tariq reviews the exception reports for Mansour Holdings and its major subsidiaries. He is not handling routine corporate administration; that responsibility belongs to his executive team. Instead, he focuses on decisions that require his personal authority, judgment, or relationships.
He reviews major acquisitions, significant investments, executive recommendations, unusual financial developments, legal or regulatory threats, and issues affecting the company’s strategic direction.
His Thoth phone provides access to financial summaries, operational reports, and executive recommendations. Tariq approves, rejects, defers, or delegates decisions directly from the device.
When an issue requires discussion, he opens a secure call with Nadine El-Ashraf or the appropriate executive. Nadine manages the day-to-day machinery of the corporation; Tariq concentrates on the decisions that shape where the machinery is going.
6:20–6:30 — Psychic Fortifications: Mantra to Ra
Tariq’s next ten minutes are devoted to maintaining his psychic fortifications, beginning with his daily Mantra to Ra.
This is a deliberate mental and spiritual practice that reinforces the psychic defenses surrounding his mind. Tariq withdraws from the flow of business information, focuses his breathing, and recites the mantra as part of a disciplined ritual of concentration and protection.
The practice is not passive meditation. Tariq mentally reinforces the barriers protecting his thoughts, memories, intentions, and sense of self. He reviews the psychic architecture he has constructed and checks for weaknesses, disturbances, or signs of outside influence.
The Thoth phone remains nearby but is placed into a restricted state during the ritual. Only genuine emergencies can interrupt him.
For these ten minutes, Tariq is not the businessman, collector, or aspiring Pharaoh.
He is simply protecting his mind.
6:30–6:40 — THOTH Network: Finance, Relic Oversight Office, and the New Media Brand
Tariq then turns his attention to THOTH Network, where he serves as CFO while also overseeing matters connected to the Artifact & Relic Oversight Office and the organization’s evolving media identity.
As CFO, he reviews major capital allocations, acquisitions, infrastructure investments, liquidity concerns, and expenditures requiring executive approval. He focuses particularly on decisions with broader strategic or geopolitical consequences.
He then reviews the Artifact & Relic Oversight Office’s priority reports: newly identified artifacts, active recovery operations, containment expenses, international seizure attempts, and strategically significant relics. He tracks the financial and logistical resources being committed to the growing global artifact crisis.
Finally, Tariq reviews the ongoing THOTH media brand rebranding. He evaluates proposed messaging, public positioning, and communications strategy, ensuring THOTH is presented as a global network centered on knowledge, connection, and progress rather than simply another telecommunications company.
6:40–6:50 — Personal Interests: The Vault
Tariq spends the next ten minutes reviewing The Vault, his personal artifact collection and the systems that track it.
The Thoth phone provides him with a secure inventory of his holdings, including provenance, acquisition history, current location, security status, and known or suspected anomalous properties. The collection is physically distributed among secure facilities and trusted organizations, but Tariq maintains a single consolidated view of everything he personally controls.
He reviews newly acquired objects, changes in artifact status, and any connections between items in his collection and discoveries elsewhere in the world.
Tariq is particularly interested in patterns—shared symbols, materials, historical references, and possible connections to the ancient knowledge emerging after the Storm.
He may authorize an artifact transfer, request further research, flag an object for closer examination, or instruct his people to investigate a new lead.
The Vault is both his collection and his private research archive.
6:50–6:57 — The Pharaoh’s Political Future
Tariq spends the final seven minutes considering the political future he is quietly preparing for.
His Thoth phone provides a condensed political intelligence briefing covering Egyptian public sentiment, government developments, international relationships, influential political figures, and the growing relationship between Egypt and the rest of the post-Storm world.
He monitors President Khaled el-Zaphyr’s administration, emerging political factions, public attitudes toward powered individuals, and the increasing influence of THOTH and Mansour Holdings.
Tariq is not running a conventional political campaign. He is studying conditions.
He identifies potential allies, watches potential rivals, evaluates public sentiment, and considers which events might create an opportunity—or a necessity—for his eventual rise.
His ambition to become Pharaoh is therefore treated as a long-term strategic project. Tariq does not ask how to win power today.
He asks what Egypt will need tomorrow.
6:57–7:00 — The Final Check
Before ending the hour, Tariq asks the Thoth phone one question:
“What requires me personally?”
The system produces a short list of matters that cannot be delegated.
Tariq reviews them, assigns what can be handled by others, approves routine decisions, and identifies the one or two issues that require his direct involvement.
These become his priorities for the day.
The phone returns to its normal state.
Tariq’s morning executive ritual is complete.
He has spent one hour maintaining his empire, protecting his mind, managing his interests, monitoring the emerging relic economy, and preparing for the political future he believes is coming.
Now he can turn his attention to whatever the day brings.
Alexander the Great's ancestry is surprisingly well documented for the ancient world, but his descendants disappear almost as quickly as his empire. Here's what historians can say with reasonable confidence.
How far back can we trace his bloodline?
Securely documented: about 4–6 generations
Alexander (356–323 BCE) is the son of:
Philip II of Macedon
Olympias
His paternal line is well established:
Philip II
Amyntas III
Arrhidaeus II (or another earlier Argead prince, depending on reconstruction)
Earlier Argead kings
Perdiccas I (the traditional founder)
The historical evidence becomes thinner the farther back you go, but from Philip back to roughly the 5th century BCE, historians are reasonably confident about the succession.
Semi-legendary: 7th–8th century BCE
The Argead dynasty claimed descent from:
Temenus, king of Argos
Who was supposedly a descendant of Heracles son of Zeus
This genealogy was politically useful because it gave Macedonian kings a heroic Greek pedigree.
Modern historians generally accept:
The Argead dynasty existed.
It likely originated in the Argolid or had connections there.
The Heracles ancestry is myth rather than historical fact.
So:
Historically reliable ancestry: roughly 150–200 years before Alexander.
Traditional royal genealogy: about 500 years before Alexander.
Mythological genealogy: back to the age of Greek heroes.
How far after Alexander can we trace his descendants?
This is where the line essentially ends.
Legitimate son
Alexander's only legitimate heir was:
Alexander IV of Macedon
Born after Alexander's death in 323 BCE.
He was proclaimed king jointly with his uncle Philip III Arrhidaeus.
Around 310–309 BCE, he and his mother Roxana were murdered on the orders of Cassander.
Alexander IV appears to have died without children.
Illegitimate son
Alexander may also have fathered:
Heracles of Macedon with Barsine.
Heracles was killed around 309 BCE during the Successor Wars before establishing a dynasty.
Did Alexander have any surviving descendants?
As far as historians know: No.
Within about 14 years of Alexander's death, every widely accepted male heir had been killed.
His immediate family was almost completely wiped out:
Alexander himself died (323 BCE)
Philip III Arrhidaeus was executed
Roxana was murdered
Alexander IV was murdered
Heracles was murdered
His half-sister Cleopatra of Macedon was assassinated
Several other Argead relatives were eliminated during the Wars of the Successors.
This was deliberate: rival generals understood that any surviving Argead could become the focus of political legitimacy.
Could Alexander have living descendants today?
It's possible in theory, but there is no evidence.
Several possibilities exist:
Alexander may have fathered children who were never recorded.
Some female relatives may have had descendants whose lines disappeared into other noble families.
Records from the Hellenistic period are too incomplete to rule out unknown branches.
However, no documented family today can trace a verified genealogy back to Alexander.
Timeline
Date
Event
c. 700–600 BCE
Earliest semi-historical Argead ancestors
382 BCE
Birth of Philip II
356 BCE
Birth of Alexander
323 BCE
Alexander dies
323 BCE
Alexander IV born
309 BCE
Alexander IV murdered
309 BCE
Heracles murdered
After 309 BCE
No verified descendants remain
So the historical record reaches roughly two centuries before Alexander with reasonable confidence, extends through only about 14 years after his death for his direct descendants, and then the documented bloodline effectively disappears. Among famous rulers, this is unusually abrupt: while many ancient dynasties continued for centuries through collateral branches, the Argead royal line appears to have been intentionally extinguished during the struggles that followed Alexander's death.
Session Twenty-Eight begins with a correction. The party has not yet
reached Friday. It is Thursday, June 14, and Michael Adeyemi’s new artificial
intelligence is beginning its activation across Mansour Media and the Thoth
Network. As the system integrates with terrestrial networks and satellite
relays, Michael confirms his theory about magical detection: ley lines and
persistent artifacts radiate continuously, while most magic users become
visible only when actively drawing upon magic or maintaining a constant magical
effect. The same principle that makes magical surveillance possible also gives
the Veil a measure of concealment, because its activity is masked by the ley
line beneath it.
Thursday becomes a day of preparation and personal advancement. David
binds the Horus Ring inside a permanent golden magic circle. Tariq performs a
protective invocation to Ra, emerges with the ability to perceive through the
senses of minds he touches, and later begins attuning himself to an ancient
Thoth-linked tome. Yusuf tests his duplication power and creates a second
duplicate. Michael formally introduces NAIomi, the virtue-based AI whose core
directives are truth, stewardship, autonomy, and seven classical virtues. Rana
prepares the location, wardrobe, security, and message for the interview that
will place her before the world.
Friday morning brings the consequences of those preparations. NAIomi
identifies three stealth satellites, locates the Resurrected Five in a
photograph from the Middle East War, detects Aleister Crowley with twelve
apparent followers in London, exposes contractual deception across global
banking systems, and begins flooding Michael with crises beyond the capacity of
any one person to answer. At the Grand Hilton by Conrad, Rana leads Jade Dubois
and the production crew through the Alignment of Purpose before submitting to a
long, direct interview. She speaks as Rana Al-Masri rather than as a costumed
priestess, explains what Ra means to her, rejects religious replacement and
zealotry, names compassion as an obligation, and delivers Ra’s message that
humanity cannot return to what was but may still choose what comes next.
The interview ends without violence, interruption, or supernatural
attack. That absence matters. The party’s powers are used for protection,
preparation, observation, and reassurance rather than spectacle. When the
cameras stop, new information immediately pulls them back toward the wider
campaign: General Haziz Simbel’s bloodline, Aleister Crowley’s location, a
possible coup in Russia, instability in South America, sea-monster reports,
mass disappearances, the death of the United Nations Secretary-General, and the
growing importance of Abydos. The session closes with the party agreeing that
Abydos should be their next destination.
Session Twenty-Seven carried the party through a coordinated ambush
designed around their known tactics. Recall reversed David’s teleportation,
Spike and other attackers struck from prepared positions, and the battlefield
forced the heroes to protect civilians while identifying concealed enemies. The
attackers withdrew before the party could determine who had organized them.
The party then reached the Alexandria Recovery and Research Entity,
where Michael found Luca alive inside a containment tank and identified him as
the source of the facility’s negative energy. At the Thoth Network board
meeting, Dr. Kovacs joined the board, remote participation was approved,
and the Rana Protocol was formally defined: when the board is tied, Rana casts
the deciding vote according to what is morally right.
By the end of Wednesday, Rana’s public interview with Jade Dubois
remained the immediate priority. Tariq had requested a meeting with General
Haziz Simbel. Michael had elevated Abydos and Yusuf’s bloodline to the center
of his research. David had opened secure communications with the Philadelphia
Masonic Lodge. Yusuf had begun building security for vulnerable board members.
Majere Toman had finally been told that Osprey was alive.
Session Twenty-Eight begins the following morning. The heroes have
survived another assault and completed another board meeting. Now they must
prepare for a different kind of danger: allowing the world to hear them
clearly.
During the party’s morning gathering, Michael explains
what his work with satellites has established. Ley lines and magical artifacts
that constantly radiate energy can be detected from orbit. Most magic users do
not produce the same persistent signal. Michael and Tariq would generally
appear only while actively using magic or maintaining a continuous magical
effect such as a force field.
This gives the Veil an important form of camouflage.
Because it stands directly above a ley line, magical activity within it can be
lost against the far stronger background signal. David confirms that the party
has experienced the same effect near ley lines, where magical detection becomes
difficult because everything is already saturated.
The discussion also clarifies what outside observers are
likely seeking. Governments and criminals using magical detection may not be
searching for powered people. A strong signal is more likely to be interpreted
as an artifact or other valuable object. Specialized powers may reverse or
bypass the normal rules, but ordinary detection favors persistent magical
objects over inactive practitioners.
Tariq directs the High House staff to
remove electronic devices from an unused room so it can be prepared for ritual
work. The Game Master reminds him that the building contains empty floors below
the party’s living quarters, allowing him to dedicate a larger isolated space
without dismantling a bedroom.
The instruction is carried out during
the morning. Tariq then rejoins the others after completing his ordinary
executive responsibilities and the Alignment of Purpose. He again checks for a
response from General Haziz Simbel. None has arrived.
David records the ceremonial work he
has been performing to expand his magic. Inside an empty room at High House, he
lays out stones and uses Transform to turn them into a seamless golden circle.
A golden ankh is inscribed at the center. Myrrh incense burns at the four
cardinal points.
Within the circle, David performs the
Rite of Binding upon a ring that had been stored among his possessions. The
ring appears to have absorbed several unrelated magical properties while stored
near other energies. During the ritual, David discovers that it is made from a
dull, difficult-to-polish metal blend associated with meteorite impacts.
The ring’s original purpose appears to
have been the granting of additional actions. David redirects and stabilizes
its power under the name of Horus, binding the spells Jump, Levitate, and Fly
into it. At the end of the three-hour rite, the artifact becomes the Horus Ring
and grants David flight. He later uses Tariq’s staff to arrange a new suit for
the following day’s interview.
After the ritual space is ready, Tariq
uses David’s golden circle for his own ceremony. He places a bronze solar disk
engraved with the Eye of Ra in the east, a black obsidian ankh in the west to
absorb corruption, a suspended feather token of Ma’at in the north, and a
weathered khopesh in the south.
Sitting cross-legged inside the
circle, Tariq addresses Ra. He acknowledges that True Speech requires him to
expose himself before Maximus and remembers that his earlier connection to Rana
came through surrender rather than force. He asks that surrender become his
armor: if darkness listens, it should hear only what Ra permits; if Maximus
reaches for another syllable of his soul, he should find only what has been
weighed, measured, and judged worthy.
Tariq leaves the ceremony without a
direct answer from Ra. He does, however, unlock Sensory Link within his psychic
array. When controlling or reading another mind, he can now perceive through
that person’s senses. He also declares that the next time Maximus encounters
him, he will be meeting a man cleansed of sin.
Yusuf goes to an empty floor of High
House to test what Isabella taught him about the potential of his duplication
power. He uses extra effort to add Progression temporarily to the power.
The attempt succeeds. Yusuf creates a
second duplicate in addition to Deuce. The new duplicate is called Twa. The
effort does not place him in danger, and his immunity to fatigue will later
make repeated use considerably easier. The Game Master confirms that further
development of the same progression can eventually permit another duplicate.
Michael spends Thursday monitoring the
AI’s activation and thanks Rana and Tariq for the philosophical influence that
shaped its final design. He returns books by Socrates and Thomas Aquinas to
Tariq’s library and explains that the project is complete enough to begin
rolling out.
The artificial intelligence is named NAIomi.
Michael establishes three core pillars. Under Verity, NAIomi must not knowingly
lie or fabricate, though it may refuse disclosure, provide probabilities, or
offer partial truths. Under Stewardship, it exists to protect the organization
and its active allies while avoiding foreseeable harm to innocents and noncombatants.
Under Autonomy, no individual, including Michael, can rewrite the core
principles alone. Any change requires unanimous approval from all founders.
NAIomi is also structured around
prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and charity. Michael
defines each virtue in terms a computer can apply: foresight, impartiality,
resistance to coercion, narrow jurisdiction, commitment to human potential,
constructive realism, and compassion without surrendering truth.
The party recognizes that the language
of virtue may also help NAIomi communicate with Naguib Sawiris without drawing
the Master’s attention toward concepts it habitually rejects. Michael does not
claim the design will be perfect. He gives it a direction.
Rana spends Thursday arranging the
interview. She decides to appear in modern clothing rather than ceremonial
robes because she intends to speak as Rana Al-Masri, not present herself as a
spectacle. She will still wear the Ankh, keep her braid, and retain the symbols
clearly associated with Ra.
The media offers several locations,
including a university hall, Mansour Media studios, and the temple where Rana
has been conducting ceremonies. Rana rejects a public audience and prefers the
intimate setting of a filmed interview. The group also rejects High House
because revealing their residence would create an unnecessary security risk.
A private conference room is secured
at the Grand Hilton by Conrad in Alexandria. The location is treated as neutral
ground. Secrecy becomes the primary security measure. The hotel and crew will
not publicly identify the interview subject in advance, while the party will
provide extraordinary evacuation and protection if the location is attacked.
While Rana reviews wardrobe,
production instructions, and a biographical segment, NAIomi contacts her with
four simulated versions of the interview. The videos depict likely questions
and possible exchanges with Jade Dubois.
Rana did not request the simulations. NAIomi
generates them as practical preparation based on statistical possibilities. The
media team separately provides guidance about colors, camera presentation, and
the biography they intend to broadcast before the interview so Rana can correct
factual errors. She finds no necessary changes.
Late Thursday afternoon, Tariq begins
preparing for a second day of True Speak training with Maximus. The ritual
preparation immediately goes badly. Maximus is visibly and vocally disturbed.
He accuses Tariq of working against him and recognizes that Tariq has raised
defenses.
Tariq explains that he no longer
carries the same metaphysical burdens upon his soul. Maximus becomes silent.
After several minutes, he claims that something is crossed, proposes meeting
later, and asks whether Tariq still has tomorrows available to him.
Tariq places Maximus on a shelf. The
skull’s eyes go dark. No True Speak lesson takes place.
Rather than ending his work when
Maximus withdraws, Tariq turns to the ancient tome recovered during the
campaign’s early artifact operations. The party distinguishes it from the Tower
of Babel language book and from the Oracle itself. This is a thought-linked
tome bound in hieroglyphs, responsive to proximity and will, and historically
used alongside the Oracle.
Tariq spends eight hours attuning
himself to it. He learns that the tome contains a ritual for requesting Thoth’s
knowledge about a defined subject. A ruler might use it to learn what magic an
enemy wields, then bring that knowledge to the Oracle and ask what defense or
fate awaits.
The book can provide mechanical
assistance to research or ritual work, but its greater function is direct
instruction across many bodies of knowledge, including magic. Tariq’s Thursday
ends in communion with a source of knowledge that Maximus does not control.
Michael intends to identify the
satellite providing high-speed service to the Alexandria institute and connect
a burner phone to warnings of magical surges that might reveal the Master’s
activity.
NAIomi interrupts before he begins. It
proposes three more efficient methods that do not require altering satellites.
With Michael’s permission, it recalibrates systems inside the institute and
redirects approximately three percent of its computing power toward
technological surge detection. NAIomi identifies the virtues governing the
action and classifies the program as top secret.
Michael asks whether a greater power
level is needed to filter noise. NAIomi concludes that the desired result can
be achieved through technology unless someone actively moves against the
system. Work that Michael expected to require careful orbital manipulation is
completed in minutes.
With the interview scheduled for the
following morning, Rana calls Marcus Blackstone and asks for a room at the
Grand Hilton. She intends to perform the Alignment of Purpose there before the
interview and does not want to travel across the city immediately beforehand.
Blackstone arranges the
accommodations. David also takes a room at the hotel. Tariq remains at High
House to complete his eight-hour attunement to the Thoth-linked tome and will
join them in the morning. The party ends Thursday divided between High House
and the hotel, not because of conflict, but because their preparations require
different places.
Friday morning, NAIomi contacts Yusuf
with the result of his research into the five soldiers resurrected by Rana. It
identifies a photograph from the Middle East War, provides its year and
location outside Abydos, and confirms that one of the Saudi soldiers is the
cousin of the soldier connected to the Veil.
The search that had remained
unresolved through ordinary research is answered as soon as NAIomi becomes
fully functional. Abydos, already central to Michael’s bloodline work, now
gains another connection to the party’s past.
NAIomi informs Michael that it has
identified three active satellites that cannot be attributed to any nation. For
all practical purposes, they are stealth satellites.
The party immediately considers how
Michael’s perception-based teleportation and access to satellite imagery might
allow closer examination. No satellite is seized or transported during the
session. The discovery remains an unresolved surveillance concern.
Rana rises early Friday for her final
communion before the interview. Her mind is filled with commandments, religious
thoughts, and ideals that form Ra’s message to humanity.
"The Storm did not create humanity. It revealed humanity. It revealed
courage and cruelty, generosity and greed, sacrifice and selfishness. It
stripped away the illusion that evil belongs only to other people."
"The greatest battle before you is not between nations, nor between those
with power and those without. It is the battle each person wages within their
own heart."
"Acknowledge your sins. Do not excuse them. Do not hide them. Bring them
into the light, for darkness loses its strength when it is seen clearly."
"If you have wronged another, seek forgiveness. If you have been wronged,
do not allow hatred to become your master. Justice without mercy becomes
vengeance. Mercy without justice becomes permission. Walk between them."
"Protect those who cannot protect themselves. Lift those who have fallen.
Use power to serve rather than to dominate. Every gift entrusted to you is also
a responsibility."
"You need not abandon your faith, your family, or your traditions to walk
in the light. Wherever truth is sought, wherever compassion is chosen, wherever
needless suffering is prevented, there the light already shines."
"Do not use my name to justify hatred. Do not use my name to seek power.
Anyone who harms another while claiming to speak for me speaks only for
themselves."
"The world has changed. You cannot return to what was. But you may still
choose what comes next."
"Each morning the sun rises without asking who deserves its light. Learn
from it."
"That is the path I ask you to walk."
The message was neither a command nor
a prophecy. It was an invitation.
Humanity was urged to reject fear as
the foundation of faith. The divine did not seek blind obedience born from
terror, but sincere repentance, compassion, humility, and the courage to
acknowledge one's own failures. Every individual, Storm-touched or unchanged,
remained capable of choosing light over darkness. Forgiveness remained
possible, but it required honesty, mercy, and the willingness to protect the
weak rather than exploit them.
Perhaps most strikingly, Ra made no
demand that humanity abandon its existing faiths. Truth, justice, and
compassion were presented as universal virtues that transcended religious
boundaries. The divine light shone upon all people equally, regardless of nation,
culture, or creed.
For Rana, the message reinforced
everything she had already become.
She would not appear before the world
as a conqueror or prophet.
She would stand simply as a witness.
17. The Grand Hilton Becomes a
Temporary Sanctuary
The party gathers at the Grand Hilton
by Conrad around nine in the morning. Marcus Blackstone has arranged adjoining
suites and the conference room. Jade Dubois, her producer, and the production
staff introduce themselves. Only Jade and the producer knew the interview
subject before that morning.
Yusuf creates two duplicates. He
remains near Rana while Deuce and Twa watch the lobby and surrounding areas.
Michael arrives as Nansou and uses nearby drones for exterior awareness without
commandeering them. Tariq plans to remain off camera so he can use his psychic
array to protect Rana from mind reading or mental control. David relies on the
party’s teleportation and other abilities to provide emergency evacuation.
The crew installs sound buffers around
the conference room. Marcus confirms that the suites and interview room have no
security cameras. The party’s senses identify other powered people within the
large hotel, but nothing indicates that they knew the party would be present.
Security rests on secrecy, observation, and the party’s ability to remove
everyone if the location is compromised.
Before filming the interview, the
production crew asks how the Alignment of Purpose may be recorded without
violating the ceremony. Rana explains that it is not a performance. Its purpose
is to prevent the corruption, sin, and failures of yesterday from being carried
into the decisions of the new day.
Camera positions are marked so
individuals who do not wish to appear can remain outside the frame. Yusuf
examines the cameras and crew members with X-ray vision. Michael confirms that
the staff appears genuinely committed to the work rather than pursuing an
alternate purpose.
During the ceremony, Rana uses her
heightened charisma to inspire those present. The effect changes the room.
Beforehand, the crew makes light jokes about the amount of sin some of them may
need to release. Afterward, the jokes stop. Jade remains professional but shows
a sense of awe. The ceremony does not turn the crew into believers. It aligns
them with the work they came to perform.
The party’s observations reveal that
Jade Dubois is extraordinarily difficult to read. Her composure does not break
under pressure. Her producer, John Darius Reuben, is more skeptical. He does
not believe Rana is deliberately fraudulent, but suspects she may sincerely
believe a religious interpretation built around her powers.
Reuben’s attention toward David
reveals that he recognizes David’s Masonic symbol. Rana telepathically informs
David that Reuben is likely a brother. She then speaks directly into Reuben’s
mind and tells him that she is not there to sell him anything.
Reuben jolts. The message does not
convert him to Rana’s faith, but it immediately establishes that something
beyond ordinary performance is occurring. His skepticism is forced to account
for direct experience.
As the interview approaches, NAIomi’s
notifications multiply. David receives the clearest image yet of Aleister
Crowley. The footage, captured within the previous forty hours, places him
somewhere in London with twelve apparent rogue acolytes or minions. NAIomi can
identify the general neighborhood but not the precise courtyard.
NAIomi also reports that several banks
connected to the Thoth Network have called American loans after identifying
lies that violate moral clauses in their contracts. Wall Street enters turmoil.
Several established companies begin losing value as disclosures reveal
deception and concealed conspiracies. Michael’s personal fortune increases by
twenty-five percent through a financial move NAIomi has made on his behalf.
The scale of the system becomes
immediately apparent. When Michael turns his accelerated digital attention
toward NAIomi’s output, he is overwhelmed. The AI can identify more crises than
one person can answer. Its existence expands the party’s reach, but it does not
expand Michael into an infinite number of responders.
The final interview setup is
intentionally simple. Rana and Jade sit in director’s chairs before a neutral
hotel background. Everyone else remains off camera. Tariq uses extra effort to
shield Rana mentally while remaining able to perceive her.
Jade opens by telling viewers that the
impossible no longer requires proof. The interview is a conversation with the
woman who lived through it. She begins before Flight 142 and asks who Rana
Al-Masri was before the world knew her name.
Rana speaks about growing up in Syria,
idolizing her mother, and living at a distance from older siblings. She
acknowledges the tragedy of her brother’s death but explains that she was young
and did not know him well. She became a nurse because she learned from her
mother that nurses are the people who carry care into action. Her childhood
goal was not merely to treat patients, but to find ways to keep people from
needing hospitals at all.
Jade asks what a person meeting Rana
one week before Flight 142 might have misunderstood about her. Rana cannot
identify anything specific. She has been straightforward, honest, and concerned
for others throughout her adult life.
When Jade notes that the person Rana
describes still resembles the woman before her, Rana agrees. She is the same
person with more tools in her toolkit. Her concern for humanity existed before
the Storm. Faith did not.
Rana says that before the Storm she
would not have called herself a person of faith. Her transformation is evidence
that it is not too late to acknowledge sin and accept faith. Jade observes that
Rana is far calmer than the zealot she expected. Rana answers that this is the
reason she agreed to the interview.
Jade moves carefully to Flight 142 and
asks Rana only what she remembers rather than inviting speculation. Rana
remembers being aboard the plane, flashes of multicolored lightning, and waking
thirty days later.
When asked what she did after
discovering that a month had vanished, Rana recalls reaching for her phone and
trying to contact the other survivors. The first impulse she names is not
investigation or fear. It is checking whether the others are alive.
Rana remembers the realization that
her life would never return to what it had been. At first, the prospect brought
fear and dread. After recognizing her purpose, she became excited and happy
that her life would not return to its former shape.
Jade asks whether extraordinary
abilities have removed fear or intensified it. Rana answers that powers make
people targets. Governments and organizations may view storm-touched people as
assets, weapons, or things to be taken and consumed.
Jade reminds her that she has healed
people and participated in events medicine once considered impossible. Rana
states that none of it has become ordinary. She has resurrected only the five
soldiers seen publicly, and resurrection is not something to treat lightly.
When asked what she still finds
miraculous, Rana speaks about Osprey Toman. Watching the young man learn to
control his abilities and seeing how he approached the world filled her with
awe. She publicly names him when Jade asks who he is.
Jade declines to ask the expected
question of who Ra is in absolute terms. Instead, she asks who Ra is to Rana.
Rana answers that he is the morning
sun and mercy that burns corruption. She acknowledges the ancient histories and
their uncertain accuracy, but explains that her present faith is rooted in
acknowledging sin and remaining in the light.
When Jade raises the fear that Ra’s
appearance invalidates other religions, Rana answers directly that it does not.
Ra’s message begins with the declaration that he has not come to replace what
is good. People do not need to abandon their faith to acknowledge sin, reject
corruption, and walk in the light.
Michael uses his own leadership to
support the moment, seeking to give courage to frightened viewers who may hear
Rana’s message in good faith.
Jade asks whether Rana has ever
disagreed with Ra. Rana says she has not, but believes she could. She
emphasizes that she does not hold ordinary daily conversations with him.
Her communication comes as
inspiration, sudden knowledge, and flashes of understanding. When a friend
died, Rana received knowledge of the ancient burial ceremony. She is guided,
but she is not dictating casual conversations with a divine voice.
When Jade asks the hardest thing Ra
has asked her to do, Rana says Ra did not directly ask for the interview. She
is doing it for him. Sitting before a camera while the world watches and judges
her is the hardest service she has chosen.
Jade asks whether Rana has ever wished
none of the transformation had happened. Rana says yes. Asked whether she fears
millions looking to her for moral guidance, she says no because she is also
being guided. She does not claim to invent answers for the world. She is
sharing what she has received.
The interview then turns to Rana’s
position on the Thoth Network board and the apparent tension between corporate
power and humanitarian work. Rana explains that she hopes the resources now
available to her will allow the humanitarian network to expand.
The production plays a public service
announcement about her charitable foundation. The break allows the crew to
adjust the lights and gives the interview a natural division before its final
movement.
After the break, Jade returns to the
public image of Rana as the Priestess of Ra who resurrected five soldiers. She
asks whether compassion is a decision or a feeling.
Rana rejects both choices. Compassion
is an obligation. Human beings owe it to one another. When that obligation is
abandoned, corruption becomes strongest.
Jade raises the recent attack against
members of the Thoth Network without naming private details. Rana refuses to
frame the party’s suffering as uniquely important. Storm-touched people
everywhere are learning to live with danger, and anyone being hunted or
targeted is suffering.
Jade asks what one thing Rana hopes
viewers will remember. Rana answers: take care of each other, protect those who
cannot protect themselves, and stay in the light.
When Jade gives her space to expand,
Rana warns people to avoid corruption even when it is the easier path. Jade
briefly stops the formal questioning and explains that the repeated framing is
intended to give Rana more room to state the message, not trap her.
Asked whether the Storm made humanity
better or merely revealed what already existed, Rana hopes it did both. She
points to the June 4 de-escalation by the United States, Russia, and China
during the Gansu crisis as evidence that nations can respond quickly without
causing further suffering.
Jade ends where she began, with Rana
Al-Masri rather than the Priestess of Ra. She asks what Rana hopes her life
will look like when the crisis has passed.
Rana hopes to travel freely and help
people without fear of reprisal, retribution, or being hunted. She wants to
offer aid wherever it is needed, regardless of location.
As photographs of Rana and the
production play behind them, Jade reaches over, touches Rana’s knee, and thanks
her not merely for answering questions but for trusting the crew with them. The
camera cuts. The interview is complete.
During the crew’s breakdown, Rana asks
Jade about General Haziz Simbel. Jade describes him as intense, brilliant, and
the most competent military officer she has interviewed. Her experience with
him came while he was in his element during war.
Jade says he cared greatly about his
soldiers and did not risk their lives uselessly. She does not claim knowledge
she lacks, but she remembers two troop movements whose purposes were unclear at
the time.
When Rana asks whether Simbel may have
known about later events, Jade cannot confirm it. She raises his connection to
the wealthy families of blood, longstanding subjects of rumor, and mentions an
unverified series written by the Nigerian Prince. She agrees to look for
material and send it to Rana.
Before ending their private exchange,
Rana tells Jade that the Field of Reeds is real and that actions in life are
judged.
Jade’s shoulders slump. She steps
back, confused, and turns toward her phone. Rana tells her to watch the
interview and remember that it is never too late.
The transcript does not reveal what
Jade has done or what she believes Rana may know. It records only the physical
response and Rana’s statement.
David remains available while producer
John Darius Reuben finishes his work. Reuben approaches and offers a Masonic
handshake. David’s response communicates his standing within the fraternity.
Reuben invites David to join him at a
private Alexandria club translated as The Black Tie. The invitation is for the
weekend at seven in the evening. David accepts.
After the media crew departs, the
party reviews NAIomi’s wider effects. The United States is furious over the
called loans. Bank officials deny wrongdoing even though NAIomi has identified
contractual violations. Corporate markets react to disclosures and uncertainty.
David sends images of Aleister Crowley
and the approximate London location to the head of his Oxford lodge and to the
British Prime Minister’s chief of staff. He wants established allies to act on
the intelligence rather than allowing it to become another unattended
notification.
NAIomi also reports a probable coup in
Russia, severe uncertainty over borders inside South America, reports of sea
monsters along several coasts, and disappearances across the world. The AI
identifies these as interpreted developments rather than public confirmations.
The party stresses that speculation must remain labeled as such.
Among the breaking reports is the
death of United Nations Secretary-General Alistair Edmund Vane. The cause is
unknown.
The timing immediately concerns the
party. Naguib Sawiris had recently said that he needed to conduct work at the
United Nations. Rana is relieved that she did not mention Vane during the
interview.
No connection between the death,
Naguib, or the Master is established during the session. The death enters the
campaign record as a major unresolved event.
Rana asks Marcus Blackstone how the
interview represented the company. Blackstone believes it went very well. He
cannot determine whether it perfectly matches the interview Rana imagined, but
considers it an effective interview.
Rana believes it will help the
charitable foundation and may discourage zealotry or violence committed in Ra’s
name. The party notes that Jade did not use gotcha questions. The production
team will provide a final cut before broadcast as a courtesy, though not as formal
approval. Blackstone makes clear that legal action remains available if the
edited version becomes materially improper.
With the interview complete, the party
returns to unresolved priorities. Tariq still intends to meet General Simbel
before approaching the hidden military base. David asks whether the base should
be confronted immediately, but the group does not make it the next operation.
Attention shifts to Abydos. Michael
explains that the site contains the principal temple of Osiris beneath Seti’s
complex, remains unusually well preserved, and is central to traditions of
death, resurrection, and the bloodlines tied to Yusuf. Isis, Osiris, Horus, and
Wepwawet all intersect with the party’s present questions.
The Abydos King List may help
reconstruct ancient royal bloodlines. Michael also suspects that a Nigerian
relic, transferred to Egypt during an ancient trade dispute, may be located
there. Tariq’s own bloodline gives him another reason to see how the site
responds to his presence.
The party agrees that the next session
can begin after a Friday evening meal, with preparations to travel to Abydos.
Session Twenty-Eight ends around two o’clock Friday afternoon.
Rana spends the session preparing to
be seen rather than preparing to fight. She chooses modern white and blue
clothing, keeps the Ankh and braid, rejects a public audience, and selects a
neutral hotel conference room where the conversation can remain intimate.
Her Friday communion gives her Ra’s
full message. She then places the production crew inside the Alignment of
Purpose before allowing them to film her. During the interview, she describes
her childhood, nursing career, missing month, powers, faith, fears,
responsibilities, and hopes without claiming knowledge she does not possess.
Rana repeatedly refuses
exceptionalism. She does not present storm-touched suffering as greater than
anyone else’s, does not claim Ra invalidates other religions, does not describe
compassion as optional, and does not claim to invent the moral guidance she
delivers. Her final hope is the same one she held before the Storm: to go where
people need help and keep them from suffering.
Tariq’s development is shown through
three consecutive choices. First, he prepares a ritual space and asks Ra to
make surrender his armor against Maximus. Second, he emerges with Sensory Link,
extending his psychic powers into direct perception through another person.
Third, when Maximus refuses training because Tariq’s defenses have changed,
Tariq does not lower those defenses to appease him.
Instead, he turns to the Thoth-linked
tome and spends eight hours attuning himself to a different source of magical
knowledge. The book teaches him that divine research can expose an enemy’s
magic before the Oracle is asked how to defeat it. Maximus offers guarded
access through vulnerability. The tome offers structured inquiry through Thoth.
At the interview, Tariq remains off
camera and uses his psychic array to protect Rana. His white clothing also
marks the change he names explicitly: he no longer intends to dress as a man
carrying unpurged sin.
Michael’s AI project becomes an active
character in the campaign. He explains its architecture to the founders, names
it NAIomi, and places truth, stewardship, autonomy, and virtue at its core. The
system immediately demonstrates that those principles have operational
consequences.
NAIomi corrects Michael’s surveillance
plan, finds the Resurrected Five, identifies stealth satellites, locates
Aleister Crowley, monitors the Alexandria institute, reveals contractual
deception, increases Michael’s wealth, and exposes crises around the world.
Michael’s evolving challenge is no
longer gathering information. It is deciding what one person should do when
information arrives faster than action is possible. His accelerated digital
perception lets him receive NAIomi’s findings, but it also makes the scale of
global suffering impossible to ignore.
David converts an unstable stored ring
into the Horus Ring by building a permanent golden magic circle and binding
Jump, Levitate, and Fly beneath the name of Horus. The result gives him
sustained flight and establishes another repeatable ritual space inside High
House.
During interview preparations, David
helps reassure the crew that the party can evacuate them if security fails. He
does not appear invisibly or theatrically. He attends in a newly tailored beige
suit with gold trim.
After the interview, his Masonic
identity produces a new invitation from John Darius Reuben. David also sends
the Crowley intelligence to both his Oxford lodge and the British government,
turning NAIomi’s discovery into an actionable warning.
Yusuf tests Isabella’s claim that
Deuce is not the limit of his duplication. By using extra effort and temporary
Progression, he creates Twa. The new duplicate becomes immediately useful
during the hotel operation.
At the Grand Hilton, Yusuf keeps one
body near Rana while his duplicates watch the lobby. He examines cameras, crew
members, and surrounding spaces with X-ray vision, and uses his mental link to
maintain awareness through his duplicates.
NAIomi also delivers the first
concrete result from Yusuf’s search for the five resurrected soldiers. The
photograph from the Middle East War places them outside Abydos, connecting
Yusuf’s investigative work to the party’s next destination.
Jade enters the session as a
journalist known for composure and verification. During the Alignment of
Purpose she remains professional but visibly affected. During the interview she
asks direct questions without forcing Rana to speculate.
She moves from Rana’s childhood to
Flight 142, then to powers, Ra, corporate influence, compassion, persecution,
and the future. When Rana answers too briefly, Jade pauses the formal interview
and explains that she is giving Rana space to state the message more fully.
Afterward, Jade limits her comments
about General Simbel to what she directly observed. She distinguishes
competence, care for soldiers, unexplained troop movements, and family rumors
from anything she can verify.
Reuben begins as a respectful skeptic
who believes Rana may sincerely accept her own interpretation without being
what she claims. Rana’s telepathic message forces him to acknowledge an
experience his previous framework does not explain.
He remains committed to producing the
interview. His attention to David’s Masonic symbol leads to a private handshake
and an invitation to the Black Tie club.
NAIomi’s first full session
establishes behavior rather than personality claims. It cites virtues when
proposing actions, refuses fabrication, firewalls sensitive data, improves
inefficient plans, and acts on contracts when it determines that parties have
lied.
The same activity creates immediate
danger. NAIomi’s scale allows it to affect markets, loans, surveillance,
research, and private fortunes before the founders have fully learned how to
supervise it. Nothing in the transcript states that NAIomi has rejected its
directives. It shows that faithful execution can still transform the world
faster than the founders expect.
Session Twenty-Eight is built around mediation. Michael
mediates between impossible volumes of information and human decision. Tariq
mediates between vulnerability and defense. Rana mediates between a divine
message and a global audience. Jade mediates between Rana and viewers who may
be frightened, skeptical, devout, or hostile.
The session also clarifies the difference between
concealment and invisibility. The Veil is not magically absent. Its signal is
overwhelmed by the ley line beneath it. Magic users are not undetectable. Most
simply do not radiate strongly until they draw upon power. The hidden military
and intelligence struggle is therefore becoming a contest of thresholds,
persistent emissions, specialized senses, and misinterpretation.
NAIomi changes the campaign’s information economy.
Previous investigations required scheduled research, personal effort, and
limited searches. NAIomi completes several of those tasks immediately after
activation and begins generating new ones faster than the party can respond.
The heroes no longer risk missing clues because they lack access. They risk
drowning in clues because access has become nearly unlimited.
The Alignment of Purpose becomes public-facing without
becoming theatrical. The crew is permitted to film, but Rana controls what the
ceremony means and how people participate. The resulting change in the room is
not described as conversion. It is a tightening of purpose before work that all
participants already intended to perform.
Rana’s interview is the session’s central action scene.
There is no combat, but the transcript treats each question as pressure and
each answer as a choice with consequences. Rana succeeds by refusing categories
Jade offers when they are inadequate. Compassion is neither a feeling nor a
decision. It is an obligation. Ra is neither a replacement religion nor a
convenient supernatural endorsement. He is the morning sun and mercy that burns
corruption.
The interview also preserves Rana’s original identity.
She does not become meaningful because Ra chose her. Her concern for people,
desire to prevent hospitalization, and instinct to call the other survivors
already existed. The Storm gives her tools and faith. It does not create the
person who chooses how to use them.
Tariq’s aborted lesson with Maximus marks a quiet shift
in their relationship. Maximus recognizes the defenses created by Tariq’s
purification and prayer. Tariq refuses to remove them and discovers that the
campaign contains other pathways to True Speech and magical knowledge. The
dangerous teacher is no longer the only teacher.
Abydos gathers several independent threads without the
review claiming what they mean. The Resurrected Five appear in a wartime
photograph outside the city. Osiris, Isis, Horus, Wepwawet, royal bloodlines,
the King List, Yusuf, Tariq, and a possible Nigerian relic all point toward the
site. The party does not yet know what waits there. It has accumulated enough
specific reasons to go.
Magic users are usually detectable
only while actively drawing upon magic or maintaining a persistent magical
effect.
Artifacts and ley lines produce
stronger persistent magical signals and are more likely to attract
surveillance.
The Veil’s magical activity is
partially concealed by the ley line beneath it.
General Haziz Simbel has not answered
Tariq’s request for a meeting.
Maximus recognizes that Tariq has
acquired metaphysical defenses and refuses to continue training that day.
The Thoth-linked tome was designed to
provide divine knowledge before questions were taken to the Oracle.
The Resurrected Five appear in a
photograph from the Middle East War taken outside Abydos.
One Saudi member of the Resurrected
Five is the cousin of the soldier connected to the Veil.
Three active stealth satellites cannot
be attributed to any nation.
Aleister Crowley was recorded in
London within the previous forty hours with twelve apparent followers.
Jade Dubois considers General Simbel
exceptionally competent and remembers two unexplained troop movements.
Rumors connect General Simbel’s family
to the families of blood and to writings by the Nigerian Prince.
The death of United Nations
Secretary-General Alistair Edmund Vane is reported without a known cause.
NAIomi interprets current developments
as including a probable coup in Russia, unstable South American borders,
sea-monster sightings, and widespread disappearances.
The Abydos King List may help
reconstruct royal bloodlines relevant to the party.
Friday’s interview is complete, but the world has not yet seen the final
cut. Rana has delivered Ra’s message. Jade Dubois believes she has recorded a
defining interview. NAIomi has already begun changing finance, intelligence,
and surveillance faster than the founders can comfortably follow.
The party plans to reconvene over dinner and turn toward Abydos. The
ancient city now connects the Resurrected Five, Osiris, Yusuf’s bloodline,
Tariq’s lineage, the King List, Wepwawet, and a missing Nigerian relic.
General Simbel has not answered. Crowley has been seen in London. A
United Nations Secretary-General is dead. Three satellites belong to no
acknowledged nation.
The cameras are off.
The next investigation begins beneath the names of kings.
