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2.

The redhead took her papyrus sandals and hid them away before she herself blended in the shadows of the temple and waited silently. She heard the footsteps very keenly. They were heavy and paused, giving away that whoever it was, they were heavy, probably a man, who was moving very slowly.

The redhead’s smile widened when she finally saw the man. He was dressed in black; his face was covered but she recognized him right away. Though the shiny weapon in his hand didn’t please her. It put a frown on her face. She was expecting a guest or another devotee of Artemis who had come to the temple to pray. If it was so then she’d have been happier because no one ever visited the temple or even dared to spare a look at its direction.

“Oh, Amkhu,” She greeted the royal assassin as she stepped out of the shadows. The man froze at the sight of the redhead. He didn’t return her greeting. He wasn’t there to greet her.

“I am delighted that you found your way here. You should have told me through a pigeon that you’re visiting, I could have prepared you a meal then,” She complained as she went to fetch some water for the man to drink. She felt the need to show hospitality to her guest even though she knew that he wasn’t there for any good reason. But she was a priestess or pretended to be one so she tried her best to be as kind and serving as a priestess ought to be.

She went to the small corner which she sometimes used as a kitchen. Her steps were gentle and graceful as if she wasn’t under the same roof with an assassin. She took a small tumbler made of mud from there before pouring some water into it from the vessel with which she had fetched water from the river previously.

She had turned her back at him deliberately, knowing that he’d choose the moment to attack her. She was right because in the next moment, she felt him right behind her with the sharp weapon to cut her in half. The redhead sighed before she placed the tumbler down carefully and moved in a blink of an eye and snatched the shiny weapon from his hand before driving it straight to his neck.

He screamed in pain as the sharp weapon met his flesh, piercing through it but one strike wasn’t enough. The impact of the hit sent him straight on his knees. The redhead pulled the weapon back from his flesh before striking at the fresh and open wound again. A splashing sound echoed in the temple as the weapon dug through his flesh and found his bones. The man tried to move away but the redhead was quick to clutch his hair and strike the weapon at his neck again, almost half beheading him.

“Just one more strike,” She muttered to herself as she saw the blood flowing out of his half-cut neck. She was able to see his bone poking through his flesh. It was still intact along with his windpipe. She rose the weapon above her head and swung it hard at his half-cut neck. With a sound of metal breaking through bones, she knew that she had fully beheaded him. His blood splashed on her face and her white satin clothes as the sign of her victory before his body fell on the ground with a loud thud.

She was still holding his head through his hair. She let the head drop to her feet which rolled towards its body, leaving a trail of blood. She sighed at the mess she now had to clean before she took the tumbler which she had filled with water. A few drops of blood now floated on the surface of the water that rested in the tumbler but she was indifferent to it as she raised the tumbler to her lips and emptied it, never looking away from the beheaded body that lay at her feet.

“Let’s see what you’ve got for me, Amkhu,” She muttered as she put the tumbler away and went to her knees to search his body. She found nothing except a few small knives which she decided to keep for numerous purposes.

“Look at the mess that I have to clean now,” She frowned as she looked at her satin clothes and examined the blood that now soaked deep in the fabric. She groaned as she raised and headed to the small, room at the end of the temple where she slept and kept her clothes. She changed in clean clothes before she dragged the body behind the temple where an old furnace was. She was careful enough no to ruin her fresh clothes with the blood again.

The furnace was designed like a well and was previously used to make weapons but after the temple was abandoned, it laid useless but the redhead had found a better use for it anyway.

She deposited the body inside it before throwing in some coal and lighting the furnace. The furnace came to life at once. She placed her hands on its edge and leaned inside to look at the flames that now claimed the beheaded body. The flames slowly grew, reaching her but she didn’t move.

She always found it odd how the fire never affected her. She could very well put herself inside the furnace but she wouldn’t suffer a single burn. She always tried to come up with a reason for this but nothing made sense. Sometimes she thought that maybe it was because she was half enchantress but then she never heard of her mother, who was an enchantress herself, possessing such powers. Not to mention, she wasn’t quite sure about it because she had been abandoned at birth.

The crackle of flames pulled her out her daze and she looked down at the body in the furnace. The flesh had melted away into ashes and now, the flames were licking at the bones before they’d start breaking into pieces.

She sighed and went inside and washed the blood away from the floor and continued to carry on all the duties that a priestess would throughout the day. Though, she couldn’t stop thinking about her sister, half-sister to be more precise. After all these years she still wanted to avenge her?

There was something unsettling about the matter. Whatever it was, it was pulling her to Alexandria where she had been born and raised and banished from. She had left many things back in Alexandria but now, they were calling her back.

As she looked at her discarded clothes from the morning which were now stained with blood, she realized that it was the first time in years when she had killed again. Even if she had disposed the body and washed away the blood, the rusty scent of it still hung fresh in the air, stirring awake a part of herself which she had suppressed for so many years.

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