She heard that the apartments upstairs were much nicer; they were definitely right. This was about twice the size of hers and Gemma’s place. She put her things on the model apartment’s bed and took out her cell phone to charge it. She had a missed call from Lawrence, but she guessed that he was just checking in. She would give him a call after nice, hot shower. She heard Lawrence’s voice leaving a message while she was in the shower, but she hadn’t brought an answering machine upstairs with her. Someone was in the apartment and they were listening to her voice messages.
She jumped out of the shower and made sure that the bathroom door was locked. She did lock the door, but she saw the doorknob jiggling. Someone was trying to get into the bathroom! A chill went up her spine She was glad she’d brought her clothes into the bathroom because there were no curtains in the apartment. She dressed quickly and wrenched the towel bar from the wall to use as a weapon against the intruder. She would just go out swinging
Great, this is going to come out of my security deposit. Let’s hope the intruder doesn’t have a gun.
She never found out, because as soon as she stepped out of the bathroom, everything went black.
Chapter 16
Memphis saw the symbols from the papyrus. They turned into words:
Everything that is important in our lives is written in the sky.
She woke up to see the stars above her. Her first thought was that she was dead. She didn’t feel dead—just incredibly dizzy. She sat up; the room began to spin and she lay back down. Then she noticed her reflection above her, and it began to speak to her. It apologized for drugging her, but it said they had to make sure that the people watching her didn’t see her leave her apartment building.
She sat up to take a closer look at her talking reflection. She noticed that it had a few more worry lines than she did, and she realized that it wasn’t her reflection but a woman who closely resembled her.
“
Why do you look like me?” she asked the reflection.
The worry lines disappeared to reveal a smile. “Because you’re my sister,” it replied.
Memphis passed out again.
When Memphis came to, the room was lit up. She looked around. It was some type of observatory; the ceiling was windowed and she could see the stars. Her reflection/sister sat across from her. Once she saw that she was up, she got up to check on her.
“
Oh, thank goodness. We thought we gave you too much,” she said. Her eyes were bright blue.
“
Yes, we were a bit worried about you, Memphis.” She heard the familiar voice and turned in its direction.
“
Virgil?” She reached out to touch him.
Is he real?
“
Yes, Memphis, I’m real.”
“
How did you know what I was thinking
?” she asked in her head.
“
Because we can communicate with each other without talking. We are Wadjet, and we are family.”
“
Virgil is your brother and I am your sister, Sarai.”
“
Where are our parents?”
“
They are dead. I’m sorry.”Sarai replied solemnly.
“
Why didn’t you ever try to find me? Do I have any other family members?”
“
We’re sorry, but you were safer away from us. Since we couldn’t find you, we knew the others wouldn’t be able to.” Her sister took hold of her hands.
“
How did you find me now?”
“
Because it’s your time. It is time for you to Rise,” Sarai replied.
“
What happened? You have no idea what I’ve been through. If you think that I was better off without you, my real family, then you are sadly mistaken.” She thought about her foster mother and the unprovoked beatings she endured. She felt all the anger and rage that had been building up for the past twenty-three years rise up her body.
She felt hot. She was burning up. She looked down at her feet. They had started to glow, and they were no longer touching the floor.
“
Claudia was right; they did activate her nodes,” she heard Sarai transmit to Virgil.
“
Memphis, you must calm down. Your powers are active but unstable. We need to complete the process first or you will burn out.”
“
I will become tired?”
“
No, you will die,” Lawrence said as he and Gabriella walked into the room of stars.
Memphis turned on him. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this? About my family?”
“
Um, because you ran out of our house in your underwear, screaming.” Gabriella came to her brother’s defense.
“
It was loungewear and I wasn’t screaming.” Memphis tried to calm down. Her feet slowly settled back down to the floor. “Did you say something about me dying? I would really appreciate that not happening.”
Virgil took her arm and led her back to the settee on which she had been reclining. “You will need to Rise. Unfortunately, your lunar nodes have been activated late and haphazardly. You didn’t reach your center in order to ground your energy. This usually happens during a ceremony at the age of fourteen with the other fourteen in your birth class. The lunar nodes are the repositories of our psychic energies. They govern the whole condition of the human being. It prepares you for your Rising when you turn twenty-four.”
Sarai sat down beside her.
“
What happens during the Rising?” she asked her.
“
During the ceremony, the Star Essence reaches each lunar node and its energies are molded into the Star Essence. This ascent through the nodes can be viewed as an upward journey through the self, which refines and subtilizes the energy of the Star Essence until it reaches the Wadjet Eye. The essence will complete your Wadjet Eye formation and you will receive an energy marking in the shape of a snake that travels in a zigzag motion, the way energy waves travel throughout the seven nodes of the human body.”
“
Once you Rise, you follow the Path of Knowledge, where you are taught to control your powers. Then you take part in the Wadjet Ceremony.” Sarai explained.
“
Is that like a graduation?”
“
Somewhat. The Path of Knowledge will teach you the Secret Sciences of Material and Mental Magick.”
“
The purpose of the Coronation is to solidify our powers before the Rising, and then we will move forward to preserve order and repel chaos, to fight The Seventy-Two for control of the human collective.
“
The history of our people is in the stars. The history of all people lies above. The gods put the constellations there to show us the way back to our heavenly home. We are just travelers here on Earth.
“
We come from a long line of Star people. It began with our Star father, Imhotep. We all used to be connected to the gods, but as humanity gradually descended into earthly consciousness, human beings were not left totally without guidance.”
“
Do you recall my transmission of the fight between Horus and Seth?”
Transmission? “I remember that it was a topic on your show. When Isis went to search for Osiris before Horus was created, a boy playing the river told her his location. She blessed the boy with prophetic vision. The boy was Imhotep.”
“
Imhotep was chosen by Isis to guide us. He founded Saqqara, a mystery school and temple. They were kept secret to hide from the followers of Seth. He carefully selected pupils who were sworn to secrecy and became specially trained and led on a path of initiations.
“
The initiates were then sent out to the world to rule according to their vision and knowledge of the world of the gods. These initiates received guidance from the heavenly beings who revealed their workings through the rhythms of the stars. They were considered to be highly evolved humans—Star People.
“
The adepts had a practical knowledge of the time-rhythms of the planetary spheres within the fixed stars, are heavenly beings guiding humanity. This knowledge extended not only to matters concerning daily life, but also over processes of immense ages of time. With this understanding, the adepts could know the timing of important future happenings. Our family took over the managing of the schools when Imhotep ascended.” Virgil explained.
“
He ascended? To the sky? The solar system?”
“
Yes. He became a constellation over three thousand years ago. This is why anthropologists weren’t able to find his tomb and no mummy has ever been discovered. He rose to the plane of Immortals, and he left us with the knowledge to do the same. We have protected it from The Seventy-Two. We need to aid humanity to become a galactic race of beings. With the Age of Ophiuchus upon us, we can push each human toward that path. They are capable of becoming and taking part in the divine plan of creation.”
“
So, since Imhotep left us with the knowledge to do this, why doesn’t it just take place now? The world is a mess; it’s filled with suffering and strife.” She looked to Virgil for an answer.
“
But that is exactly why we must wait. This plane is in chaos. We cannot bring it to the next level. Like you, humanity must find its center before it can rise. Our parents saw a way to tip the scales, to give us more power to defeat The Seventy-Two and to bring order to the world so we can renew our relationship with the gods. Through their knowledge of the Magickal Sciences, they created a special substance: The Star Essence, a miniature replica of the Universe containing all of its power and energy. They theorized that if a child was conceived at the right time and they were able to implant the Essence, it would fuse with the fetus and a divine being would be formed.”
“
They predicted the most powerful times to be in 1977 and 1988,” Sarai interjected. “They would create celestial beings made from the stars, and like the demigods Osiris, Isis, and Seth, they would be mediators between the Stars and man. They would lead and set the pace for entry into the New Age, created to offer guidance, knowledge, and vision.”
“
They chose the most devoted men and women from Saqqara to be the star children’s parents, protectors, and teachers. They would form a family and travel to chosen locations to best view the constellations at the proper times. The families led by our parents decide to move to a safe location, a place that man could not easily access, or hadn’t accessed for centuries,” Virgil specified.
“
They moved to Zarzora.” Sarai added.
“
Isn’t that a lost city?”
“
More like a hidden city. It exists on the horizon—on the solar plane. It was paradise. They soon allowed other families from Saqqara and a few gypsies to join us. Soon, if you were able to find Zarzora and you did not pose a threat, you were allowed to stay.” Virgil explained.
Sarai looked at her. “We had to be heavily protected because when we are born, we are weak and need special concoctions to build our magic and aid in the fusion of our Star Essence with our physical form. We were conceived under the proper constellation. At the moment when fertilization occurs, the Star Essence drops down to fuse with our physical form. The Star Essence now draws in forces from the planets that connect us to the power of the neturu.”
“
The Star Essence is a structural partner of our individual existence, which, at the moment of fertilization, becomes the basic form of us,” Virgil supplemented. “When Horus was injured, Isis healed him and made him stronger with the Wadjet Eye using the name of Ra.
“
We were created under the name of Ra through the Magickal Science. The Star Essence is in us and is activated during the ceremony of fourteen, and then, during our Rise, it reaches our Wadjet Eye and we become Wadjet Warriors.”
“
There are twenty-eight children and two birth classes. We align with the fourteen True Zodiac signs. We are born all over the world to ensure proper constellation alignment. From one place on the Earth, different constellations are seen at different times of the year. This happens because the Earth is always turning on its axis and moving around the Sun, making one orbit each year. A star that is visible at during one part of the year may appear close to the Sun six months later.” Sarai stated.
“
Lawrence and Gabriella are part of your birth group, the Eighty-Eight, but they had their Rising two months ago. You and your brother Cairo are Ophiuchus children. You have a special tie to Osiris and Isis, and your Rise will take place on your birthday.”