The Seal of Oblivion (13 page)

“This may be a good project,” Isis
suggested looking at the collected tablets with an ancient language written on
them, a language Laqiya recognized as the same Ancient Aramaic in most of the
books in Al-Rana Palace

Laqiya touched the label of an old
block with the painting of a woman on it.

“The first pharaoh of Egypt was a
woman,” she said.

“First recorded,” Isis reminded.
“And it was called Khemet then. Its empire spread well into northern African
and Eastern Europe. This is way before the Roman Empire. I think I’ll do this
one for my report.”

Topic for her report still not
found, Laqiya went over to Adria who was looking at a dark purple bow and arrow
set in a glass case. Above it was a picture on stone tablets of a woman in a
purple outfit consisting of boots, a skirt that met where the boots stopped, a
top, and a long cloak with the hood over her head. The bow and arrow in the
frame was in her hand.

“She looks like the female version
of an Anaxar, don’t you think?” Adria asked.

“An Anaxarete?”
Laqiya asked.

“She was some warrior who served an
oppressive empire,” Adria said. “Definitely sounds like an Anaxarete or
Anaxar.”

Laqiya huffed. “That could be
anyone, not just an Anaxarete.”

Adria gave Laqiya a dry look. “You
really don’t like anything that has to do with the White Rose and your
destiny.”

“You’d feel the same way if you
felt like you had been pushed in this direction since you were seven,” Laqiya
muttered and went back to her picture.

Adria raised an eyebrow and asked,
“Have you chosen your project yet?”

Laqiya shrugged. “I’ll know after I
see the last new exhibit.”

“You won’t know what to choose if
you keep staring at that pad instead of the exhibits,” Adria pointed out.

Laqiya shrugged, and Adria snatched
the pad out her hand.

“Hey!” Laqiya cried.

Adria held it out her reach.

“Come on you,” she said hooking her
arm around Laqiya’s. “We’re going to find your report.”

Laqiya rolled her eyes, about to
argue, until she saw the hanging curtains around a display in the center of the
room.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Probably the new exhibit,” Adria
said. “People have been coming in and out of it all day. You would have noticed
that if you paid any attention.”

Laqiya managed to snatch her pad
back from Adria by then, but she wasn’t interested in drawing anymore. Instead,
she looked at the curtains.

“I wonder what it is,” Sakura said
coming to stand next to him.

“We’ll know in fifteen minutes,”
Isis said sternly, overhearing their conversation from where she was.

“But we don’t want to wait,” Sakura
whined to Isis.

“No.”

“It might not even be the new
exhibit,” Laqiya said to Isis.

“That’s no excuse!”

Laqiya rolled her eyes. “Relax. I
can wait.”

“Worrywarts,” Sakura said licking
her tongue at them as she went to go look through the curtains.

“Sakura,” Adria said going to stop
her, followed by Laqiya who tried to peek around the curtain as she grabbed
Sakura’s arm.

“I don’t see it,” Laqiya said.

“I bet it’s made of gold,” Sakura
said pushing the curtain aside a little to see
better
.

“If we get in trouble I’m going to
blame you two for this,” Adria said pushing Sakura along through the curtain.

“Hurry—” Laqiya jumped when she
felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to face a security guard and
kicked Adria and Sakura behind her.

“Authorized personal only,” he told
them.

“Oh really?”
Sakura asked. “We had no idea. Do you know what’s in there?”

The guard gave her a pointed look,
and Sakura sighed, allowing Laqiya and Adria to pull her away.

“So close,” all three said as they
went back to stand with Isis.

“I told you,” said Isis

“And still ten minutes to kill… now
what?” Sakura asked.

“How about telling us why Chasity
Pearl told us to come here?” Plainshield’s voice purred from the left of them

All the girls jumped, except Laqiya
who said, “Nightshield’s much stealthier than you.”

“I know,” said Nightshield
appearing behind Laqiya, who jumped that time.

Laqiya hit her guardian on the arm
and then asked, “What are you doing here? Weren’t you all taking a much needed
break or something when we left?”

“We were,” Nightshield replied
crossing her arms. “But the birdie came by and insisted we meet her here.”

“We don’t have a clue why though,”
Plainshield added. “Seen her?”

Laqiya shook her head. “Not since
this morning.”

“If she’s playing around with us, I
swear I’ll—”

“Swear what kitty?” Chasity Pearl
asked Nightshield from behind them.

Nightshield huffed as she turned to
face Chasity Pearl, who was looking at the wigs Sakura had been playing with
only minutes earlier.

“What did you want Chasity?”
Plainshield asked in a much more tolerant tone.

“I’m not sure I want to tell you
now. I’m hurt by you spiteful remarks,” Chasity Pearl replied.

Laqiya looked at the scene about to
unfold, sighed, and then held her right elbow while leaning her cheek against
her right hand.

“Looks who’s talking,” said
Nightshield.

“Aww, the pretty kitty’s insulted?

“Chasity,” began Nightshield.

“Pearl,” Plainshield finished.

Chasity Pearl rolled her eyes. “Why
do you always hate on the bird woman?”

“That’s just it. You’re a bird,”
the sisters said.

Laqiya rolled her eyes as the
students began to fill into the room for the new exhibit. She decided to at
least try to get them to stop.

“Guys, could you please stop?”

“And you’re both cats,” Chasity
Pearl countered with her hands behind her head as she walked around the two in
a circle.

“You three please don’t.”

“At least we’re not pets.”

“They’re acting like children,”
Adria said laughing at the three.

“Well cats are known to stay kittens
at heart, even if they are half cats,” Sakura said. “It’s actually kind of
funny.”

“It’s embarrassing,” Isis said.

Agreeing with her, Laqiya stepped
directly between the three and asked, “Chasity, what are you doing here?”

Chasity Pearl looked at Laqiya,
insult for the two feline guardians forgotten, and tilted her head, indicating
her curiosity as she stared for a moment. Then she said, “You really don’t feel
it, do you?”

Laqiya paused and then asked, “Feel
what?”

“Let me see that,” Chasity Pearl
asked when she spied the drawing pad in Laqiya’s hand. She took it from Laqiya
without waiting for an answer.

“Chasity!”

“Interesting,” Chasity Pearl said
looking at the picture.

“What’s interesting?” Laqiya asked.

“You drew the new exhibit,” Chasity
Pearl pointed out as everyone crowded around her to see the picture. It was the
third staff piece sitting on a pedestal, a glass case covering it, in a room
identical to the one they were in.

“Oh please,” Laqiya said rolling
her eyes. “It’s just a coincidence.”

“Have you been here before?
Recently?” asked Chasity Pearl.

“No, but—”

“Then how did you know what
exhibits were going to be on display? This is a very detailed drawing, and
you’ve been working on it all week,” Chasity said handing it back to her.

Laqiya looked at the picture, then
the room, and then the picture again. All the exhibits currently on display
were neatly drawn and correctly placed in her picture. Laqiya shook her head.
There was no way. Were they trying to tell her she was a psychic now?

“Oh, look. They’re about to unveil
the new exhibit,” said Sakura.

Laqiya shook her head. “No way,”
she said. “Chasity this has to be some—”

“Laqiya look!” Sakura said pulling
on the girl’s arm after the curtains had moved away.

Laqiya looked, face turning ashen
at the sight of the exhibit.
The third staff piece.

Chapter
Ten

The
Plan

Though Chasity Pearl had certainly
procrastinated in telling them why she had called the two cat guardians here,
in the end, they had to admit she had done a good job. But neither Nightshield
nor Plainshield would ever say it aloud. Either way, sitting there on display
in a glass case was the last staff piece in all its gold beauty.

It was about the size of a small
melon, gold, just like the other pieces, and carved in the shape of an open
rose blossom. It sat on a ring of small leaves and gold thorn vines came from
the center at the bottom, curving over the top of the staff creating a dome to
protect it. Laqiya figured when the staff pieces came together they would
loosen up and wrap themselves loosely around the top of half of the handle of
the staff where someone could reach his or her hand through and grip the staff.

The staff was so shiny that it
appeared to be glowing or maybe it was just Laqiya. It radiated
a warmth
that seemed to just almost tame the internal storm
inside her that was powers, even from the distance, a warmth that Laqiya was
certain everyone in the room felt. For the first time, Laqiya felt like she was
in control of her powers.

She could see now why it was in a
museum. It didn’t look like it had ever touched the ground, let alone been
buried for thousands of years. Then again, it could have just been refurbished,
but that was beside the point. The voice of one of the museum instructors broke
her out of her own world bringing her back to the reality of everything. The
staff piece was in a museum and probably worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars. It was likely something that would be taken on the road so that other
people could see it and never be in one place long.

When the lecture that Laqiya only
half paid attention to ended, she grabbed a pamphlet. Sure enough, the staff
piece was only on display there for the remainder of the month and next Sunday,
it would be gone to Florida. She hated that they had to take it, and that
Roselyn was the only place that would see it. People had worked so hard to find
it, but maybe they had been finding it for another purpose without knowing it.
Not that she wanted it, but for
whoever
the White Rose
would eventually be.

The buses were already outside when
the quartet exited the museum along with the three guardians. While the rest of
their class boarded, the group took the short time to engage in a discussion
about what they found.

“Well, I’m surprised Chasity,”
Nightshield started. “You actually did something of significant importance for
a change.”

Chasity Pearl glared but,
thankfully, didn’t reply much to Laqiya’s relief.

“Well at least it’s found,” said
Isis.

“And?”
Adria
asked and everyone gave her a startled look. “We found it.
Now
what?”

“What are you talking about?”
Nightshield asked glaring at the girl.

Chasity Pearl rolled her eyes.

“Well it’s not as if it’s on
display in a museum,” she said.

“They’re right Nightshield, and the
fact that it’s in a public place and all over the news means the Anaxars
probably already know it’s here,” Isis said before Nightshield could reply.

“Then why haven’t they come and got
it already,” Sakura asked. “I mean it’s been there.
Easy
taking.”

Plainshield and Nightshield
exchanged a look, but didn’t say anything. Just as Laqiya was about to press
them, Plainshield pointed out that the buses were ready and about to leave the
girls.

“We’ll have to meet later,” Isis
said. “Our house is closer than Sakura’s. We’ll meet there. Aunt Shekinah won’t
be home to bother us. That’s okay right?”

Laqiya shrugged. “I guess so.”

“That’s fine with us,” Nightshield
said. “We’ll be slinking around the house anyway for the rest of the day.”

As everyone began to load the bus,
Nightshield put her arm around Laqiya to hold her back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’m starting to feel more and more
that I don’t have a choice, like some stronger force is pushing me and not just
destiny,” Laqiya said. “I don’t like it.”

“You can’t run from it,”
Nightshield said to her.

“Says who is what I’m trying to
figure out,” Laqiya said as she boarded the bus.

At the end of the school day they
walked to Laqiya’s home, where they immediately holed themselves in her room,
hardly giving a greeting to the twins who had gotten back earlier.

Laqiya looked out the window and
then opened it to let Chasity Pearl inside.

“You could have followed
Plainshield and Nightshield in,” Laqiya said.

“You know why I wasn’t in here.”

Nightshield glared, but other than
that said nothing to the half bird as she sat down in her true form.

“Okay can we please discuss the
reason we met up here in the first place,” Sakura said impatiently. “I really
don’t feel like refereeing a wrestling match between Nightshield and Chasity.”

Nightshield and Chasity Pearl
reluctantly turned away from each other. Chasity Pearl then leaned her head
against her right wing and sighed.

“What is there to discuss?” she
asked dryly. “The thing is locked in a museum, and we can’t get it. Case
closed. What are we going to do about it?”

“She’s right,” Adria agreed.

“There must be something we could
do though,” Sakura said. “We can’t just leave it there unprotected. That place
has all kinds of security, but it can’t stop Lady Sahajah. If she gets her
hands on it, she’ll shatter the seal of oblivion and that means The Tyrant can
get out. Right?” she added to Nightshield.

“That’s about the worst case
scenario,” Nightshield replied.

“It’s not like we can just go up to
the museum and ask for it,” Chasity Pearl said seeming bored with the whole
situation.

 
“Maybe we could buy it. Aren’t there some
types of riches at the castle?” Sakura suggested, but Nightshield shot it down.

“That’s like asking for trouble. If
we did that, the next question would be how we got the money. It would raise
too much suspicion, and we want to do this as quietly as possible,” the
Nightshield said shaking her head. “The last thing we need is the FBI or
something nosing all in our affairs.”

“That makes sense,” said Sakura.

“Besides, why buy it when it’s
rightfully belongs to the White Rose anyway?” Plainshield asked. “That’s like
owning a house, renting it out and then having to buy it back from the person
you rented it to.”

Laqiya’s amber eyes hardened with
serious contemplation, and she furrowed her eyebrows together. Plainshield’s
comment was something to think about.

“So what do we do? Go the museum
and say ‘Hi, you know my friend is the reincarnation of the greatest warrior of
all time and you know that golden rose over there? It rightfully belongs to
her, and if we don’t get it, it could mean this evil tyrant would be let out of
oblivion.” Sakura rolled her eyes and added, “They’ll really believe that,
huh?”

Isis, who had been quiet the entire
time, looked at Sakura. “Well we have to do something. It’s not as though we
could break in and steal it.”

“I disagree with you Isis. We
shouldn’t
, but that doesn’t mean we
can’t
,” Laqiya said speaking for the
first time.

“I don’t like that look,” Isis said
looking at her cousin. “It’s that look you got when you and Nephthys were
seriously considering doing something that would get us in trouble.”

“It may be the only way. It is the
only way… Oh my God I can’t believe I’m considering this. I don’t even want to
be the White Rose, but… But even in that case, Lady Sahajah can’t get it. Ugh,”
Laqiya groaned.

“What do you have in mind?”
Nightshield asked raising an eyebrow.

“We just take it back,” Laqiya
replied simply.

“That’s stealing!” Adria exclaimed
in alarm.

“Depends on your point of view,”
said Laqiya.

“You said we’re going to take it
back. That’s stealing,” Plainshield explained.

“And regardless of the
circumstances, we don’t want to have to resort to that,” Nightshield added
leaning against the wall with one arm across her chest to support her other arm
so that she could lean her face on her hand.

“No,” Isis said shaking her head.
“She said take it back not steal. And regardless, it may be the only way.”

“Take it back… steal, what’s the
difference?” Adria asked

“Let’s have an English lesson here.
To steal is to take something that belongs to somebody else without their
knowledge or approval. To take something
back
is to
reclaim
something that
originally belonged to you but was stolen or in this case borrowed and never
returned,” Chasity Pearl explained. “Get it?”

“No, I don’t,” Sakura said
immediately.

“I still don’t agree with this. If
we’re caught, we could be sent to jail!” Adria protested

Laqiya ignored Adria and instead
replied to Sakura’s question.

“Say I let you borrow my car
Sakura.”

“You don’t have a car. You can’t
even drive,” Sakura pointed out.

“Hypothetically, Sakura,” said
Chasity Pearl rolling her eyes.

“Okay, I gotcha.”

“Now let’s assume I wanted my car
back, but you wouldn’t give it to me, so I take the keys and drive away with it
because it’s my car. So take that same scenario and replace it with the
museum.”

“Oh I get it. The museum is
borrowing your staff piece and won’t give it back even if you claim it. So we
take it back whether they like it or not because it’s rightfully yours,” said
Sakura in understanding. “That’s genius.”

“Laqiya,” Nightshield began. “It’s
much more complicated than that in this case. Trying to break into that museum
is like breaking into a Pharaoh’s tomb and getting to all the treasure in his
chamber. It’s darn near impossible.”

“We are the impossible,” Laqiya
pointed out. “I can wield all the forces of nature. And Plainshield likes this
kind of stuff. She can help with security.”

“That will only get you so far,”
Nightshield warned. “Laqiya, if this messes up and add that you don’t have much
control over your powers…”

 
Nightshield didn’t need to finish it. Simply
put, they were in a lot of trouble if they got caught. The Anaxars and Lady
Sahajah would be the least of their worries.

“Hm.
I get
to play with a security system,” Plainshield said seeming intrigued by the
idea.

Laqiya nodded and then turned to
Sakura and Adria. “What do you two think?”

Now Sakura looked hesitant.

“What if we set something off and
get caught? I’m too young to go to jail,” she said.

“Well you’re right. We couldn’t go
to jail if we did get caught… with adults,” Laqiya added.

“But we could get juvenile prison.
And that would mean Laqiya can’t ask herself what she’s going to wear to school
every morning. That jumpsuit would be it for about three years. We can’t just
go in and take something because it’s yours. If it’s in another person’s
possession on their property, it’s stealing!” said Adria.

“There’s a simple solution to
that,” Nightshield said. “Don’t get caught.”

“Well duh, Nightshield,” Laqiya
said.

“How do we stay out for most of the
night without our parents finding out?” Sakura asked.

“Wait a minute. I didn’t agree to
this,” Adria said.

“We need the staff piece. End of
discussion,” Nightshield said and went back the discussion at hand.

“We have a sleepover at Sakura’s,”
Laqiya said.

“Let it be next weekend. My parents
won’t be there conveniently, and my grandmother won’t bother me much if I’m
upstairs. She’ll never know we left the house,” said Sakura.

“She’s not as oblivious to things
as you think Sakura. I still think we should be careful about it. Order pizza,
gossip, play games, play music all night, just until we’re ready,” Laqiya
suggested.

Sakura only dismissively agreed.

“Better safe than sorry,” said
Adria

“So what’s left?” Chasity Pearl
asked.

“The most
important part, of course.
How do we get in the museum?” Isis asked.

“Perfect… The hard part,”
Nightshield sighed. “That’s your thing Plainshield. What do you need?”

“A teleport to
the castle.”
Plainshield grabbed hold of Isis. “Be back in about five
minutes.”

Gold rose petals came from out of
nowhere in a light breeze, briefly obscuring Isis and Plainshield before they
disappeared completely. Sakura turned to Laqiya.

“How is it you know so much about
my grandmother?” She asked.

“I talked to her that day I went to
see if you were home. She’s a nice woman. Hold old is she?” Laqiya asked.

 
“In her eighties, I think. Anyway did she go
into her rants of predicting the future?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t notice. She almost
never talks in the present tense. She’s always referring to something that’s
going to happen in the future. I love my grandmother and all, but sometimes I
think she’s a bit of a nut in the head sometimes. Seventy-five percent of the
time I don’t even understand what she’s saying.” Sakura shrugged.

Laqiya raised an eyebrow.
“Really?

Sakura didn’t get the chance to
reply because Isis and Plainshield returned.

Plainshield unrolled the paper in her
hands. It was a layout of the museum.

“Where did that come from?” Adria
asked.

“I snagged it from the main office
of the museum this morning. I thought we might need it,” Plainshield added
seeing the scowl that appeared on Laqiya’s face. “Besides all I did was take a
layout, you’re about to steal an item from an exhibit in the museum that’s
probably worth more than this house and everything in it.”