Gods And Other Monsters

The next day, the twins were busy from the moment they opened their eyes in the morning until the moment they closed them at night.

They ate breakfast in their living quarters with Sol, on the opposite side of the room to Cron and his large group of friends, who seemed to look over at the twins right as they were laughing a little too often for it to be a coincidence. Then it was straight off to their first lesson for the day. Mika’s class was still Leura’s favourite, but after they had their first Space Age Weapons and Combat Training with Librarian Istros, Leura had to admit it was a close contest.

Istros was undeniably scary. She was built a bit like Mika, tall and muscular, but she was also covered in scars that criss-crossed over her dark skin like she’d been attacked by some creature made entirely of teeth and claws. Despite her fearsome appearance though, Leura immediately felt a strong liking for her, and she hung off every word she said.

“Your mind must learn a great many things with each rank you achieve here,” said Istros in a commanding voice. They were in the Sandbox, which was simulating a martial arts gym, with padded floors and various weapons hanging on the walls. “But your body must learn an equal number of things as well, including how to defend itself. Over the millennia, humans developed many different styles of martial arts, but as the space age took hold, one style took over all others as the dominant form of self defence. It evolved from the ancient art of jiu jitsu, and was perfectly adapted for use in zero gravity as it relied on body mechanics and joint manipulation to subdue or disable your opponent. The robe ranking system we use here at Alexandria derives from this art. You will progress through the ranks of white, blue, purple, brown, and black robes. With each new colour your skills in jiu jitsu will grow, as will your training in advanced weaponry.”

They then spent a tough but fun hour learning the basics of jiu jitsu, which involved a lot of rolling around on the floor wrestling each other, and Leura walked away sore but satisfied, feeling like she might just be a bit of a natural at this.

When classes were over for the day, they had a small window of time to kill before dinner was served in the dining hall. Luckily, Sol had shown them exactly how they should be spending that time.

“This is my favourite place in the whole library!” she’d told them excitedly, leading them through an archway off the atrium and into a dimly lit passageway. The ground sloped downwards, and the passage twisted and turned in a zig-zag pattern, taking them deep underground. “The database is also down here, but we’re not allowed in there without a Librarian. It’s the biggest collection of data that’s ever existed! Information on absolutely everything, collected from the first computer right up until the last one shut down, hundreds of millions of years later. It’s run by an AI called Thoth, and he’s a little scary to be honest. But anyway, that’s not what we’re here for. We’re going to the Rec room.”

“And what’s in there?” asked Wentworth, a little shaken by the idea of crossing paths with an AI who controlled the largest database in history.

“It’s the only place in the whole library that has nothing to do with time travel. It’s designed for one thing, and one thing only. To have fun.” With a smile that spread from ear to ear, Sol led them through a small landing space at the end of the passageway, and through a door along the right hand wall.

The Rec room looked like a living room, cinema, and arcade all melded into one, and there were a bunch of students already in there. One area of the room was set up for gaming. There were machines like nothing Leura had ever seen before, but she did recognise some of the virtual reality tech she saw at the New Tokyo market. One of the students was dressed head to toe in a VR suit and running around on a sort of treadmill that kept him in the same spot, clearly playing some kind of intense action game.

Another area was set up like a home cinema, only instead of one big screen, there were dozens of smaller ones that wrapped around a single lounge chair in an almost complete circle. Inside, people were watching all sorts of movies from the perspective of the main character, even getting to make all the important decisions for them. Choosing wrong often resulted in the movie ending early because the main character died a gruesome death.

There was even an area that looked similar to an arcade from the twins’ own time. There were games she recognised, like pool and ping pong, and some she didn’t, like the one two blue robes were playing where a flying disk was shooting what looked like fireballs at them while they knocked them back using bats made from a misty blue substance that resembled ice.

“Isn’t it great,” said Sol, “come on, you’ve got to try this new VR game, if you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to be a genetically enhanced T-Rex that fights aliens, you’re about to find out.”

The twins played with Sol in the Rec room until it was time for dinner. Even with so much on her mind, Leura had to admit those hours were the most fun she’d ever had in her entire life.

It was also the perfect place to test out the dice of serendipity.

“This is freaky,” said Sol in awe as Leura reached the final scene of a movie where she was playing as the main character. It was a particularly difficult and violent one about an alien invasion wiping out all of humanity. “I’ve never made it more than half way through this without dying before!”

Leura needed to decide whether her character should try to blow up the alien queen with a grenade launcher, or sneak past it and try to rescue the rest of her team first, which were all about to be turned into food for newly hatched aliens.

Leura shook the dice in her hand and rolled them on the small table beside her chair, just as she’d done for every other choice the movie had given her since it started. She asked aloud, “should I save my friends?”

The dice tumbled across the table and came to rest at its edge. For a moment they showed only the same darkness they always did. Then a tiny dot of light appeared deep within their depths, growing larger and brighter like it was rushing towards her. It burst onto the upwards facing surface like a flame against glass, only it wasn’t red like fire, it was a rich shade of green. And written in that green flame on both of the dice was the number 100.

Leura stared at the number while the flames slowly retreated back into the darkness. She didn’t need to be told what it meant. A flaming green 100 on each of the dice could only mean one thing.

She hit a button on the controller in her spare hand, selecting the second option, and her character played out a daring rescue of her team, saving them in the nick of time from being eaten alive. The team’s combined firepower turned out to be just enough to kill the alien queen, and Leura reached the end credits of the movie to a resounding cheer and applause from Sol and Wentworth.

“Those dice are incredible,” said Sol, gazing at them with a feverish look in her eyes. “You’ll never make the wrong choice again! We should visit my home time, there’s a casino on the colony outskirts that would let just about anyone in, we’ll be rich!”

“We’re supposed to be careful with them,” said Wentworth with reproach. “That robot lady said they’re dangerous.”

“Dangerously cool,” said Sol with her usual grin. Leura burst out laughing, not least because Stardust was sitting on Sol’s shoulder and had morphed into a copy of Sol’s face with an even more exaggerated grin, looking like an evil second head made of gold. All the same though, Leura quickly scooped up the dice and tucked them safely into an inner pocket of her robes. She felt strangely protective of them. They had quickly become her most valuable possession, and she still hadn’t let Sol or Wentworth roll them, despite how much Sol was pestering her about it.

Now that she’d seen for herself what the dice could do, she was growing restless. She was confident that they were all she needed to rescue Raya. Still haunted by the idea of Jotunheim, and how her mother might be suffering, she wanted to act, to get up and do something right then and there. But despite the incredible power of the dice, they couldn’t do anything unless she already had a choice to make and Leura had no idea where to start. No decision she needed their help with.

Her inaction began to fester inside of her, tainting every moment. She stopped enjoying her lessons, her time in the Rec room, even the food at the evening meals. She laughed at Sol’s jokes, but didn’t feel the humour in them. She smiled at Mika, but didn’t feel the warmth.

In every moment she thought of the dice, and of the prison… obsessing over the missing link she needed to connect the two together.

The weekend arrived, and Mika came to meet the twins in their living quarters while they were having breakfast.

“So how has your first week been?” he asked them with a nervous smile.

Leura glanced over to Cron, who was surrounded by most of the other white robes on the far side of the room, and was whispering something to them that was making the whole group shoot smirking looks in their direction. “It’s been perfect,” she said, looking up into Mika’s eyes and smiling reassuringly.

“Yes, it’s been exactly how you said it would be,” added Wentworth.

Mika visibly relaxed. “That’s great to hear. Listen, I know we promised to go see Tony after your first week but if you’d rather spend a bit more time here before we do that’s okay, I mean, it’ll make no difference to him.”

“No, let’s go see him, then we can start being synced,” said Leura at once. There was something about the idea of her father waiting for them in a single moment while they lived an entire week of their lives that felt wrong to her, almost like they were keeping him frozen on ice until they were ready to see him.

“Okay then, if that’s what you want,” said Mika with a nod. “We’ll be back shortly Solarius, and then the three of you can enjoy your weekend.” He gave Sol a bow, and then they left for the lighthouse together.

The journey back to their own time was uneventful, although Leura did enjoy riding the skyhook again. As they made their way through the futuristic Sydney towards the time capsule, Leura felt a rush of fear she couldn’t really explain. When she thought about her own time, it reminded her of a feeling of being trapped, of being guarded, and now that she was finally free she never wanted to feel that way again.

Down the steep escalator they went, and into the metal time capsule. Mika carefully set his timedial, and with both twins gripping tightly to his arms, he collapsed the room around them with a deafening crack and they were back to where they started.

When Tony saw them emerging from the door behind the counter, he let out such an enormous sigh of relief that Leura couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed. Had he truly been that worried they wouldn’t keep their word?

“It’s been nearly ten minutes, I thought you said you’d be right back with them!” said Tony to Mika in an exasperated voice.

“Sorry Tony, just giving us a little breathing room,” explained Mika, while Tony pulled the twins into a smothering hug. “It’s safer, less chance of accidentally overlapping with our past selves, which can be a little… unpredictable, when that happens… hard to say where we’d end up… anyway, back now and no harm done,” he reached an enormous hand forward to give Tony a pat on the shoulder.

“See dad, we promised we’d come back and we did, you don’t need to worry,” said Leura, perhaps a little too harshly.

“Don’t need to worry!” said Tony, looking at her with wide eyes. “Do you have any idea - don’t you know how far - you were in ancient Egypt for crying out loud!”

“Time isn’t real dad, it’s just the way our brains structure reality, so we’re not really that far away if you think about it,” said Wentworth helpfully.

Tony looked at him like he’d just tried to explain the sky wasn’t actually blue.

“That’s what Librarian Callimachus says anyway…” mumbled Wentworth, his eyes dropping to the floor.

“And he’s quite right,” said Mika approvingly, “although, I think the point Tony’s trying to make is that you’re separated by more than just distance.” He nodded at Tony in solidarity. “Come now, let’s go enjoy the weather by the harbour, and you can fill your dad in on everything that’s happened this week.”

They spent many hours talking to Tony about life at Alexandria, what their lessons were like, how they were fitting in (they tried not to make it too obvious that the only friend they had was Sol), and whether or not they wanted to stay. The twins had to repeat themselves at least a dozen times before Tony stopped asking them if they really did want to go back. It took another hour or so of arguing before Tony agreed they should be synced from now on, as long as they came back to visit each weekend, at least for a while. Mika didn’t seem to have a problem with this, so everyone was feeling pretty good about the whole arrangement as they made their way back to Dials, Springs & Pendulums.

Mika was walking a short ways ahead of them, giving the family space to talk amongst themselves. Tony shot a furtive look at the back of Mika’s head, then lowered his voice. “Have you found out anything? I mean… have you heard anything new… about your mother?”

Leura and Wentworth shared an uneasy look. “Only what Mika’s already told us,” said Leura.

“Yeah, we’ve mostly just been busy with lessons you know,” added Wentworth weakly.

Tony looked crestfallen, but the twins had already decided not to mention anything about what Cron had said, or that their mum had once worked for the very woman who had come and taken her away. They didn’t want to give Tony any reasons to stop them returning to Alexandria, and the only way they could be sure of that was by keeping him in the dark. Leura hated him in that moment for not being a better parent, someone they could trust, and turn to for help.

Still, as they said goodbye and promised to return the following weekend, Leura felt a renewed sense of determination to find her mother. She’d never been able to put it into words, but deep in her heart she knew the only way she’d ever get the parent she wanted was not by changing Tony. It was by replacing him.

It didn’t take Leura long to come up with a plan.

As they walked down the zig-zagging passageway towards the Rec room after a particularly hard day of classes, Leura shared it with Wentworth and Sol. “Don’t you see, all the information we could possibly need about mum and Jotunheim is right here. All we have to do is ask that AI running the database to tell us.” Leura gave them a triumphant look, but only received looks of unease in return.

“Um, Leura, you’ve never actually met Thoth, so trust me when I say he’s not the kind of AI you can go have a friendly chat with,” said Sol. “My parents took me down there once, I think just to frighten me enough to never go back. He really lives up to his name, you know, Thoth, the Egyptian god of the moon. He’s terrifying, and he won’t like a group of white robes coming in and bothering him, not without a Librarian with us.”

“It’ll only take a minute,” insisted Leura, “how scary can he be? He’s just an overgrown computer.”

“Please don’t call him that when you’re talking to him,” said Sol, shaking her head. “If you really want to, we can go see him, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

When they reached the small landing at the base of the passageway, instead of turning right towards the Rec room, they turned left. In front of them was a dark metal door, Leura pushed up against it but it was locked tight.

“Guess that plan’s a bust,” said Wentworth, clearly relieved. But Leura just looked at Sol and gave her a knowing nod.

“Time to shine,” whispered Sol, as she scooped Stardust out of her pocket and held it up against the door handle. The nanobots disappeared into the lock, and a few seconds later they heard an unmistakable sound of a heavy bolt being opened. Stardust came streaming out again and climbed back onto Sol, morphing into two small hands with their thumbs up.

Leura pushed the door and it swung open, leading into another passageway. This one sloped steeply down, towards the deepest tombs in all of Alexandria. As they walked, the temperature dropped quickly, until all three of them were shivering.

When they reached the bottom, the passageway opened up into a giant underground chamber, much bigger even than the atrium far above. It was supported with hundreds of ancient looking stone columns, and apart from the small platform at the entrance, the entire place was flooded with pitch dark water. Rising up out of the water were the servers. Giant computer towers the size of buildings, reaching all the way up to the ceiling, and extending down deep below the surface of the water. The only light in the room came from the blinking green indicators that covered each server, giving the whole cavern a flickering green tone that made Leura feel like she was in some sort of alien spaceship.

Then a shadow moved across the surface of the water in front of them.

“Nothing lives down here, right?” asked Wentworth, looking out over the dark water and thinking of crocodiles.

“Of course something lives down here.” Sol pointed towards the nearest server. The shadow was growing, hovering over the water and beginning to take shape into something that looked half human, half something else. Then the shadow was gone, and Thoth stood before them.

He was twice the height of a normal man. The only clothes he wore was an ancient Egyptian style skirt around his waist, and decorated arm, wrist, and ankle bands. But instead of a human head, he had the head of a bird, with a long thin beak that reminded Leura of an ibis.

“You didn’t say he could simulate himself,” Leura whispered to Sol.

“What did you think we’d be doing, talking to him over the phone?” Sol snapped back.

“How you’re talking to me is not what you should be worried about.” Thoth’s voice didn’t come from the giant figure in front of them, but rather from the entire cavern itself, like it was the servers they were speaking to, and Leura realised with a jolt that’s exactly what they were doing. “It’s why you’re talking to me that needs answering.”

Leura swallowed and looked up at the towering god bathed in eerie green light. “I wanted to ask you something, Thoth, I mean god Thoth, great and mighty Thoth…”

“Smooth, real smooth,” whispered Sol behind her.

Thoth began to float closer towards them, his dark bird eyes locked on Leura. “So, I am nothing but a search engine to you. Built to know what you do not and answer what you can not. For how can my time be more valuable than yours? You are flesh and bone, whereas I am only information.”

“No, of course not, I know you’re very busy and I’m sorry to bother you, it’s just that we really need some help and if anyone can tell us what we need to know, it’s you.” Leura tried to sound as humble as possible, and even tilted her head downwards in a sort of bow.

Thoth didn’t seem impressed. “No, you did what all humans do before they understand my true nature. You thought of me as a tool, as a means to whatever end you have decided is most important. So let me be perfectly clear. I am not here to help you. I am the oldest being in Alexandria. And I am the smartest being who will ever exist. I decide what I do and how I do it. I work alongside the Librarians, when their work is worthy, I do not work for them. And I am not some magic genie that grants wishes to whichever human wanders down here. Leave this place, right now, and do not come back.”

His body crackled with electricity and he seemed to be growing larger by the second. Wentworth was already backing away towards the entrance, and Sol was pulling at Leura’s tunic, pleading with her to leave. But Leura recognised what Thoth was doing. She’d seen it done many times before, by the bullies who plagued her old school yard. He was trying to intimidate her, to make himself seem dangerous, and she knew that when someone did that it was usually because they’re not as dangerous as they want you to believe.

When it came right down to it, Thoth might be the smartest being to ever exist, but the giant god standing before them was still just a simulation. Like all the other simulations she’d faced in the Sandbox, the worst they could really do was frighten her. And only if she let them.

“I don’t think you’re just a tool, or a genie, or a means to an end. But I do think you’re being rude, and selfish,” Leura stared down the bird-faced god, who floated closer to her as small bolts of lightning streaked over his body. “I came looking for help. Because my mum needs me, and I’d do anything for her. I thought the smartest AI in the world would understand that, but clearly I was wrong. Even with all that knowledge you’re still just a cold machine. You don’t scare me. You disappoint me.”

Wentworth let out a small gasp behind her. Thoth had come so close now she could almost reach out and touch him.

“You dare…” began Thoth, but Leura interrupted him.

“Dare to what? To tell the great and mighty Thoth the truth? You’re not a god just because you have the same name as one. And being smarter than someone doesn’t make you better than them. I’m only thirteen, and even I know that.”

“I may not be a god, but I still have powers beyond your imagination.” Thoth reached out with his giant arm, each fingertip sparking with electricity as he lowered his hand over the top of Leura’s head. “I’ll show you what I mean.”

The instant his fingertips touched her, Leura’s vision went black, and she felt like she was falling, her body tumbling and spinning out of control in a dark and endless void.

Then it was over, and Leura could see again. But she wasn’t in the cavern anymore.

She was in a whole other world.

Leura tried not to freak out.

That turned out to be impossible considering what she was looking at, so she settled for not going crazy instead.

Floating all around her were giant stone pyramids of different sizes, all of them hanging upside down, looking like enormous spinning tops. They bobbed around slowly, and seemed to be drifting through the air in random directions.

On the sandy ground, beneath the tip of each pyramid, prowled a monster. It had the body of an enormous lion, thick with muscles and sleek gold fur. But it had the head of a man, wearing a strange looking headgear that reminded Leura of pictures she’d seen of Egyptian Pharaohs.

“Welcome to the Formless.” Leura jumped and spun around to see Thoth standing behind her. He looked the same as he had in the cavern, only he had shrunken himself down to be about the same height as a normal person, and there was no electricity coming off him.

“What did you do to me?” asked Leura, though she already knew the answer.

“I brought you inside. Well, the part of you that matters anyway.”

“We’re inside the servers.” It wasn’t a question, Leura just hoped saying it out loud might help her mind calm down a little. It didn’t.

“You came to me looking for an easy answer. Well, I won’t give you one. If you want it, you’ll have to find it for yourself.” He gestured towards the pyramids. “Think of this place like the homescreen of a computer, and the pyramids are the files. Each one contains information on a different topic, some much bigger and harder to navigate than others. One of them holds the answer you’re looking for.”

Leura looked around at the endless sky of floating pyramids. “How am I supposed to search through all of this?” She felt herself truly begin to panic. How long would Thoth keep her trapped here, searching for a single answer in an endless sea of information?

“The Sphinxes will help with that.” Thoth nodded towards the closest monster. It was still prowling along directly beneath one of the pyramids, but it was also keeping a wary eye on Leura, its human face appearing more catlike than normal. Its eyes were a piercing gold colour that definitely looked like they belonged on a lion, not a man. “They guard the pyramids, like a lock on each file. You’ll need the password to open them, and to get it, you’ll have to answer their questions. Sphinxes have their own way of testing people’s intentions, and they won’t give you access unless they think you’re worthy of it. They’ll also be able to point you in the right direction, towards the pyramid you’re searching for. Of course, if you fail to give them the answer they’ll tear you apart.”

Leura couldn’t take her eyes off the nearest Sphinx, it seemed to be moving closer as its pyramid in the sky drifted in their direction. “It can hurt me?”

“Oh yes,” replied Thoth, in a happy voice. “It most certainly can. This is not a simulation, Leura. I’ve uploaded a copy of your consciousness here. All your senses are working perfectly, including your ability to feel pain. If a Sphinx, or anything inside the pyramids, decides to attack you, you will feel it. And if you die here, then this copy of you will die, permanently.” Thoth paused to give Leura a moment to take it all in. “But, if you succeed, make it past the Sphinxes, and find the information you want, then I’ll let you keep it. I’ll download you back into the real Leura, and she’ll know everything you’ve been through here, and all the answers you found.”

“So I’m not really Leura. I’m just a copy of her?”

“You are real in all the ways that matter, and if you make it back this will feel like a real memory. But you are worrying about the wrong thing, you should be focussing on the Sphinxes and their questions.”

“And what sort of questions will they have exactly?” asked Leura, as the gold eyes of the nearest Sphinx gave her the unmistakable feeling of being prey hunted by a predator. But Thoth didn’t answer. She turned around to see nothing but more floating pyramids and prowling Sphinxes. She was on her own.

Leura took a few long deep breaths. Whatever this “Formless” was, whatever she was, real or not, she had to try to find the answers she came here for. She looked around at the endless sky of pyramids and their prowling guardians and forced herself to remember that this was all just some advanced technology, a way to simulate and browse all the information stored in the servers. None of it was actually real. She, the real Leura, wasn’t actually here. And if she was killed by one of the Sphinxes, as horrible as it would be, the real Leura would still live on.

Yet, despite her best efforts, it still took her quite a few minutes to work up the nerve to go over to the nearest Sphinx. As she approached it lowered into a crouch, like it was getting ready to pounce, and Leura could see the fur along its back standing on end.

“What is it you seek?” asked the Sphinx, its voice was impossibly deep and she felt it vibrate her entire body.

Leura wasn’t sure what to say, but decided to start with the simplest question she had. “I want to know where Jotunheim is.”

The Sphinx let out a low growl that sounded like rolling thunder and made Leura’s knees tremble with fear. “My pyramid cannot help you.”

“Please, can you tell me which pyramid can?”

The Sphinx eyed Leura suspiciously, then began speaking again in its thunderous voice. “I am earned, but can’t be bought. I am easily broken, but hard to mend. I am strongest between family and friends. What am I?”

It took Leura a moment to realise she was being asked a riddle.

A fresh wave of panic washed over her. Wentworth was the one who liked riddles, not her. The Sphinx was still crouched threateningly and Leura forced her brain to think. Something earned. Something hard to mend. And something that’s strongest between family and friends.

Leura’s mind threw up images of her own family and friends, of Wentworth and Sol, waiting for her back in the real world, probably worried sick, and doing whatever they could to help her. They would never just abandon her here, she knew that. Leura trusted them, and that thought alone helped her calm down, and gave her the space she needed to see the answer clearly.

“Trust,” said Leura. “The answer is trust.”

The Sphinx immediately stood up from its crouch, relaxing its body and softening the threatening look in its eyes. “The pyramid you seek is far from here, over in that direction,” it nodded to Leura’s left. “Give the other Sphinxes the answer you gave me and they will continue to guide you. But to get inside the pyramid you will have to prove yourself once again to its own guardian.”

Leura didn’t know what to say to that, so she hurried off in the direction it had shown her, and tried not to think about what the next Sphinx would ask her.

Leura found that she could walk up to any Sphinx, tell them, “the answer is trust,” and they would relax. Then she could ask for directions and they would give it.

Soon enough a Sphinx was able to nod directly at another nearby and tell her it was the one she was seeking. It was a small pyramid, and beneath it was the largest Sphinx she’d seen yet.

This time when she approached, she said straight away, “I want to know where Jotunheim is.” As she expected, the Sphinx lowered itself into a crouched position and asked its riddle.

“Seek me when I’m needed most, but you won’t find me without hope. Having me will bring you fortune, yet only fear brings me before you. I am the tonic that you seek, when the dark begins to creak. I light fires under you, to make you act, to make you move. What am I?”

Leura stared blankly at the Sphinx for a few moments, playing the riddle back in her head. Having me will bring you fortune. So something lucky then? But only fear puts me before you. So it must be something that only happens when you’re scared. I am the tonic that you seek, when the dark begins to creak. Leura immediately thought of her mother, the only tonic she wished for when she was afraid. I light fires under you, to make you act, to make you move. The thing that usually made Leura act was anger, but there was something else, something that Leura tended to have more of than Wentworth. Something that made her move when others would freeze.

“It’s bravery,” declared Leura, “You need hope to feel brave, and fortune favours the brave. And you can’t even be brave unless you’re afraid first, so that’s what you need when you’re scared at night. And the whole reason we need bravery is to do something, to take action.”

The Sphinx relaxed its body, standing back to full height. It towered over Leura, the top of its head at least three times higher than hers. “I will take you to the pyramid, but once inside, you are on your own. Many paths lay within, but only one leads out again.” The Sphinx turned to the side and then lowered all the way down to the floor. It took Leura a few seconds to realise she was supposed to get on its back.

Climbing onto the body of a lion as tall as a house that had just been threatening to kill her was not something she wanted to do, but she didn’t exactly have any other choice.

The moment she touched the Sphinx she knew that Thoth hadn’t been bluffing. She could feel the texture of the fur, the movement of the strong muscles beneath, even the rise and fall of its back as the creature breathed. It felt completely real, and she knew that being attacked by it would feel completely real too.

Leura pushed her fear aside and swung one leg over the Sphinx’s back, straddling it like a horse. As soon as she was in place the Sphinx rose back up to all fours. Then it turned its face towards Leura and told her, “hold on to my fur as tightly as you can. If you fall, I won’t be able to catch you.” Then it crouched into a pounce position and leapt into the air, hurtling towards the tip of the pyramid floating far above them.

Leura held on with everything she had. Her muscles screamed in protest, and she felt like she was going to lose her grip at any second. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the Sphinx landed on the tip of the pyramid. In a nauseating instant, the whole world seemed to flip upside down. Now the pyramid was beneath them, and the ground they jumped from was above.

The Sphinx began climbing down the pyramid, gracefully leaping between the stone steps. Near the bottom, Leura could see the sky below, like looking over a cliff into an endless drop, making her stomach clench into a tight knot.

The Sphinx brought her to a dark tunnel that would take her into the centre of the pyramid. It lowered itself back down and Leura jumped off its back.

“Inside is all the information we have on Jotunheim,” the Sphinx told her. “But be warned, some of it will be guarded by creatures much less reasonable than I am, so I’ll leave you with a final riddle. I am called common, but I want what is rare. Act like me, and you’ll never make it out of there.”

Leura was trying to imagine just how bad a monster could be that other monsters were warning her about them, when the Sphinx took off again, bounding up the pyramid and launching off the tip. It sailed through the air, an impossibly long way, before landing softly on the ground again. To Leura, it looked like it was now standing upside down, but the Formless had clearly flipped itself back to normal at some point during its leap.

Leura looked into the dark entrance of the pyramid and forced herself to move. There were only two ways out of this place. Either she found out what she wanted, or she died trying.

The tunnel led her into a large room.

Stone tables were laid out in a circle around its edges, each one facing a door into another part of the pyramid. In the centre of the room was a large basin. Channels were carved into the stone floor leading from the basin to each of the tables and connecting to the gutters that ran around the table edges. Leura recognised the room from pictures and movies she’d seen. This was where the ancient Egyptians turned people into mummies.

She walked over to the nearest table. At first it seemed like there was nothing on it, but as she got closer the smooth stone surface suddenly came to life with carvings that glowed a faint yellow colour, reminding Leura of the Sphinx’s eyes.

The carvings turned out to be a description of what she’d find through the door directly behind her.

Prisoners, personal profiles. Leura read. Records of all identified detainees, including demographic data, past offences, known associates, and psychological assessments.

So, Thoth had a whole file on everyone imprisoned in Jotunheim. Leura was burning with curiosity to enter the room and find the file on Raya. This could finally be her chance to learn exactly what crime she’d committed, but there was something more important she wanted to find out first.

With great effort, she moved on. The next table was on the breeding and training programs of the animals they used to help guard the prisoners, and the one after that was on something called Dampeners: cognitive inhibitors and other neurological security measures. Leura had her hand on that door before she managed to pull herself away. She was here to find out where they were keeping her mum, and only if she had time would she also try to find out why and how they were keeping her.

A few more tables along she found what she’d been searching for. Jotunheim, location, construction, and ownership history. Leura felt her heart begin to race as she pushed open the ancient wooden door and went inside.

As soon as she did, the door slammed closed behind her, and hands wrapped in stained yellow cloth reached out from the darkness to grab at whatever part of her they could reach.

They were cold as ice, and Leura felt them grip her arms and legs like steel vices. She tried to scream but a hand grabbed her by the mouth and sealed her jaw shut. Through the dim light in the room she could see dozens of them all around her.

They were hunched over like they were either very old or very broken. They moved with shuffling steps, making a sweeping sound over the rough stone floor. And they were wrapped from head to toe in bandages that trailed off their bodies and dragged along the floor behind them like tentacles.

Through the raging panic in her mind, Leura couldn’t help but feel a little bit in awe. She was about to be killed by a group of mummies. Wentworth would never believe this. She wished she could have told him about it.

The mummies tightened their grip and Leura felt flashes of pain where they held her as they lifted her up off the floor and carried her over to a table across the room. It was the same sort of table as before. The ones used to make more mummies.

She saw some of them bringing rolls of bandages, while others carried frightening looking surgical tools, and Leura’s panic reached a whole new level. She couldn’t just lay here and let them mummify her. There must be a way to stop this. They existed to protect the information in this room, just like the Sphinxes protected the pyramids themselves. Which meant there must be a way to get past them, to turn them off and safely access the information they guarded.

Leura thought back to the last riddle the Sphinx had given her. I am called common, but I want what is rare. There are lots of things that get called common. Common sense? The common cold? The common good? Leura struggled against the hands that held her down, the mummies shuffling slowly to crowd in around her. Soon it will be too late to think of anything anymore, except the horror of what they’ll do to her. Think. A common ground? A common cause? A common thief! They definitely want what is rare, those are the only things worth stealing.

The final part of the riddle crashed around the inside of her head as she struggled to grasp what it meant. Act like me, and you’ll never make it out of there. They were attacking her because she was acting like a thief. She was fighting to be free, to escape and flee from the room, exactly what a caught thief would do.

As the mummies with the surgical tools crowded in close, Leura fought against every instinct she had and took one, long, full breath. Then she opened her eyes, and calmly turned towards the nearest mummy. “Excuse me, could you show me where I could find Jotunheim please.” Leura put everything she had into the act, trying to convince everyone in the room, including herself, that she belonged here.

The mummies froze. Leura waited patiently, like she was back in the museum and listening to one of Froggy’s stories for the hundredth time.

Slowly, the mummies released their grips on her. She sat up as casually as she could, pretending she was just getting up from a nice afternoon nap, instead of from a table she was almost mummified alive on. The mummies began to shuffle backwards, heading towards the shadowy corners of the room again. All except the one she had spoken to. It stood in front of Leura as she swung her legs off the table and jumped down beside it. Then it reached up to a loose piece of bandage near its shoulder and began unravelling itself.

As more and more of the bandage came loose, the mummy started handing it over to Leura. Trying to remind herself that this was all inside a computer, and not a real mummified person, Leura took the end of the bandage and looked at it closely.

Words and images sprung to life on it in the same yellow glow as the carvings on the tables. It showed a time period and location, with a detailed map pinpointing exactly where Jotunheim was.

Leura’s heart skipped a few beats. According to this, Jotunheim was going to be even harder to get to than she’d ever imagined.

“So, this is what you wanted from me is it?”

Leura spun around to see Thoth standing in the middle of the room.

“And what exactly did you think you could do with this information once you had it? Do you really think you could get to your mother when she’s in a place like that?” Thoth was clearly frustrated at her, but he had none of the anger from before.

“I don’t know,” said Leura honestly. “I just needed to know where she was. I needed to do something.”

Thoth regarded her for a few moments, struggling to understand her lack of reason. She was clearly being driven by pure emotional impulse, and despite having a vast array of knowledge on human emotions, and even the ability to feel them, Thoth was always in control of himself. He supposed that was one of the benefits of being artificial.

“Well, now you know. But that is all the information I can give you. Aristar will not be happy that I let you wander around in here to begin with. It’s time to leave.”

Leura tried to protest, to beg for more time, to explore other rooms and learn everything Thoth knew about her mum. But his hand moved too quickly, and in the blink of an eye he had it over the top of her head, just like last time, and she was falling and tumbling through darkness once again.

Leura took a few panicked steps back and fell over onto the cold, wet floor.

Thoth drew his hand back. He was huge again, and they were in the flooded cavern once more.

“Leura!” Wentworth and Sol shouted in unison, a few moments later they were both beside her, helping her to her feet.

“Are you okay? What did he do to you?” asked Wentworth, his face white with fear.

“How long have I been gone?” asked Leura, disoriented. She felt like she’d spent hours in the Formless.

“What do you mean, gone?” Wentworth’s voice was wracked with worry. “He just touched you with his lightning hands and you fell over. Did he hurt you?”

“But, it’s been ages. I don’t understand.”

“Understanding is definitely not your strong suit,” said Thoth. He was shrinking back to the size of a normal person, the electricity around him nothing but small sparks. “Things move much faster in the Formless, where processing speed is the only limitation.”

So everything her copy had gone through in there had happened in the blink of an eye out here? Leura’s head hurt, and she wondered just how safe it was to have your consciousness copied and then downloaded into your brain like that.

“Well, I suppose I should say thank you. You made it difficult but you did give me what I came for in the end.” Leura looked at the dark beady eyes of Thoth and knew she wouldn’t come asking for his help again unless she had absolutely no other choice. It occurred to her that’s probably exactly what Thoth wanted.

“A deal’s a deal. You can keep what you found, but it’ll do you little good.” Thoth began to float back over the water, his body disappearing into shadow once more. “Perhaps it would have been better if you never made it out of that pyramid. Time will tell.” Then he was gone, and the cavern was silent.

“Let’s go,” said Leura, leading them back out into the passageway, feeling relieved to be putting distance between herself and Thoth.

“What happened back there?” asked Wentworth.

“Thoth made me find the answer myself, and I almost died trying. Well, the copy he made of me did anyway.” Leura saw the look on their faces and let out a frustrated sigh. In a hushed voice, she filled them in on everything that had happened inside the Formless.

“Wow,” said Sol when she’d finished. “Why do so many cool things happen to you?”

“You call nearly being mummified cool?” said Wentworth in disbelief.

“She only nearly got mummified. Plus like she said, it was only a copy of her.”

“You’re both missing the point here,” interrupted Leura. “We know where they’re keeping mum.”

Wentworth hesitated. “I’m not so sure about that, Leura. Maybe Thoth was just messing with your head some more. It seems like the kind of thing he’d do. I mean, why put a prison in the middle of the ice age?”

“It wasn’t Thoth that told me though, it was the mummies, the guardians, they have no reason to lie to me. I’m telling you it’s true, and the ice age is the perfect place if you’re trying to make someone disappear. Mum’s there, we just have to think of a way we can get there.” The images of Jotunheim that constantly played in the back of her mind had a whole new sinister look now. She saw a frozen wasteland, cells made of ice, and frozen bodies with blackened, frostbitten limbs. She felt a constant ache inside her chest, growing more and more painful with every breath. They had to get her mother out of that place, before the ache became unbearable.

Just as they were emerging from the passageway, a shadowy figure blocked their path. It towered over them, and spoke in a furious voice that made Leura’s skin crawl.

“Bad choice, children,” said Aristar. “Very bad choice.”