The Memory Painter

Finn’s cell at Suffolk County Jail in Boston was far away from the other inmates. High-profile cases were generally given special treatment. He had been charged with voluntary manslaughter and tucked away there since Conrad’s death, where he would remain until the trial and sentencing.

These circumstances had made Bryan’s visit possible. He had relied upon Bodhidharma’s stealth to maneuver past the security cameras and had used one of Hermese’s techniques to disable the night guard. As Guardian, Hermese had been taught that the Earth was one big spinning magnet, and that magnetite tissues existed throughout the human body but were concentrated in the brain. Modern science had only begun to understand biomagnetism during the past thirty years, with the advent of high-resolution electron microscopy. But with Hermese’s knowledge, passed down from Horus himself, Bryan inherently understood these connections and how to control them. With the touch of his hand, he had taken the guard’s mind from a waking beta state to a delta state in an instant, skyrocketing him past dreamland into a slumbering abyss.

Bryan found Finn’s cell and stood in the shadows, watching him sleep. His thoughts traveled back to Hermese and how she had not been able to protect herself from Seth’s attack. Seth had entered her quarters while she had been bathing, killed her maids, and then bound her before she could use her powers. He had been wearing armor covered with lodestone, a natural magnet that interfered with her abilities. Somehow he had known how to defeat the House of Atum. Bryan wondered who else had led the Apophis and if their spirits were now at rest. To plunge the world into perpetual darkness was soul-crushing karma indeed.

Finn murmured in his sleep. He was dreaming, and his words made Bryan pause—he recognized the life Finn was remembering. Bryan’s enemy had also been his most devoted student once, cutting off his own arm to prove his sincerity. He waited for Huike to wake. Would he remember what Bodhidharma had told him?

Finn seemed to sense his presence and woke up with a start, his eyes wet with tears. He turned to look at Bryan.

Bryan let the silence rest between them for a moment and then swept it away. “You were speaking Chinese,” he said with surprising gentleness. “Have you remembered our time together at Shaolin?”

“You knew.” Finn spoke in Chinese. “You had seen our future and you still forgave me.”

“Do you remember what I told you that day?”

Finn nodded, crying like a lost child.

Bryan recited Bodhidharma’s words to Huike in Chinese. “One day you will remember this life, your earnestness, your goodness, and you will meet the malevolence that binds your spirit. On that day, let go of the shame of having fallen and allow it to let in the light.”

“You can’t offer me such peace. I’ve done too much harm,” Finn answered as Seth in their ancient tongue.

Bryan pulled a small, wrapped bundle from his bag and slid it across the floor through the bars. “Life always returns what it takes from us.”

Finn looked down at the package with confusion.

“I found Kiya.”

Finn choked down a sob and he dropped to his knees in front of Bryan’s gift, afraid to touch it.

“She’s in Egypt, as vibrant as she was before. This is for you.”



FORTY-EIGHT

Linz stood at the center of her sand garden, staring at her latest attempt to re-create the Brotherhood of Horus’ emblem. It amazed her that she had been unknowingly drawing variations of it for months. Her brain just hadn’t caught up to her mind, and she now understood that they were two very different things.

The doorbell rang. Linz dropped the stick and ran across the garden, demolishing her work and trailing sand everywhere. He was here.

She threw opened the door and they stared at each other, much like they had the first time they had met. The difference was that now they could see past themselves and recognize they were bound by love. It had moved them through time, had been their compass through the brine of life, and guided them against all odds to make their remembering possible. Love had collapsed ten thousand years.

Bryan moved forward to cross the remaining distance that separated them. He took Linz’s hand and kissed it, placing it on his heart. They held each other for a long time.

He finally whispered, “I missed your father’s funeral. I’m sorry.”

“Conrad was Ramses,” she told him. “He was waiting for you to remember.”

“I know.”

Linz pulled away and looked up at him. “How?”

“After I remembered everything, I realized he had spoken as Ramses to Michael that night at his apartment. Michael just couldn’t understand him. Finn remembered Seth at around the same time. When Finn realized who Conrad was, he knew he had to separate us. Conrad’s decision to show up at the lab made Finn desperate.”

Linz still felt confused. “But how did you know Finn was Seth?”

“The sundial in his home was the symbol of the Apophis.”

Linz had forgotten about the sundial, but Bryan was right. Its shape and design were identical to the emblem Seth had worn around his neck.