"Rania, it is morning my child," a man's voice calls warmly to her.

A small hand reaches for the hand on her shoulder. "I don't feel well, Daddy," the small girl whispers.

Her father sighs as he feels her forehead. "You have a slight fever, Rania. I will inform Princess Nefertiti that you will not be with her for the afternoon, and send for a healer." He leans down to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. "I will be back once I have spoken with Pharaoh Seti. You may sleep."

She nods slowly as she obeys her father. Before she falls back into slumber, she glimpses her father's robes billowing slightly behind him, and his shaved head turned to look at her one more time as he leaves her small room.

A small girl with tangled black hair sleeps on in her bed as Ardeth Bey checks on his uncle's adopted daughter. "Bahira?" he calls gently into the room with full bookshelves on every wall and few toys in the appropriate chests.

Her eyes open slowly, revealing stunning green eyes. She yawns and rubs her eyes as she slowly wakes up. She then perks up as she recognizes the voice as one of her favorite people. "Ardeth!" she greets him, sitting up with a grin.

He gives her a rare smile, one that few could believe the Medjai chieftain to be possible of wearing. "Good morning," he greets her as she folds back her blanket carefully. "Did you sleep well?"

She frowns a little. "I had a weird dream again, Ardeth."

He frowns at this, and kneels before the little girl he is so fond of. "Strange in what manner?"

She closes her eyes to remember the fragment of the dream. "I was being called Rania, and I woke up not feeling good, so a man I was calling Daddy told me he would tell Princess Nefertiri and Pharaoh Seti that I was sick." She opens her eyes as she remembers the robes. "I think he was a High Priest. He had a big white scarab on the back of his robes. Is that Osiris?"

He blinks at the consistency of the one man in all of her dreams. "Have you ever heard this man's name, Bahira?"

She shakes her head. "Never."

"Was there anyone else?" he inquires again.

"No, it was just us." She then tilts her head. "I thought next week was when you were gonna come to Cairo."

He chuckles slightly at her. "You are correct, but I thought we would come a little early for this trip."

"Why?" she asks, pure curiosity in her eyes.

"What day is today?" he asks in return.

"It's… July thirty-first… it's my birthday!" she cheers, the grin most who visit the museum are familiar with.

"That's right, Bahira. I bought you something I think you might enjoy," he informs her, handing her a small wrapped package. "But, you have to wait to open it until breakfast. Terrence will want to see what this is as well."

She takes the gift with great care, before wrapping her arms around Ardeth's neck. "Thank you, Ardeth."

He hugs her back gently, resisting the urge to tickle her that he almost always gives in to whenever he visits her. "You're welcome, Bahira. Now, I think I shall leave you to get dressed." He frees himself from her grasp and leaves her small room, walking down to the kitchen just below her room, where his uncle sips at a cup of tea. "She's had another of the dreams of ancient times."

Her adoptive father sighs. "She's had them every night for the past several weeks, and I have my suspicions on who the High Priest she refers to may be."

"The Creature?" he guesses, receiving a grim nod of confirmation. "I admit that when you wrote of her dreams involving a High Priest of Osiris, Pharaoh Seti, and Princess Nefertiti, he was the first one I thought of as well. And we know from Nefertiti's diary that he had a daughter named Rania, whom she often tutored and played with while their fathers were busy."

Terrence sighs. "I do not wish to jump to any conclusions without further proof, but it is hard not to in this instance." He hears the faint pitter patter of the little girl he's come to love as his own. "Let us continue this later, I do not wish to alarm her."

Just as he sets his cup down, she runs into the room with the biggest smile she can muster on her lips. "Papa!" she cheers as she runs to him, being caught under her arms and lifted into the air. "Papa!"

"Hello to you too, Bahira," he greets, a smile growing on his own face. "And just what has you so excited this morning?"

She laughs, her eyes twinkling with happiness. "It's my birthday, Papa! And Ardeth came to Cairo early!"

Both men, though happy, sense that this can't last long. Not with the possibility of what may soon come to pass.