"Try and keep us away," he made a mock suggestive face at John and stuck his tongue out. The three of them laughed.

---

The following afternoon was bright and sunny, but with a strange cold front moving in from the east. Jed was running, with John lagging behind him. Naturally, they'd missed the early subway. Naturally, they were running late.

Gasping for breath (being a cab driver, he wasn't in the best of shape) he came to a stop in from of the imposing crystal of the Royal Ontario Museum.

"Hurry up, John, Melissa hates it when we're late."

"F--, John, she know's we'll be late, we always are. Late or on time, she's still gonna be pissed," John's flaming red hair looked greasy in the sun. Jed sighed with a resigned manner.

"There she is," looking gorgeous, and unimpressed, as usual, "Hey Mel. We missed the subway again. Sorry. Let's just- go in, okay?"

His heart was beating abnormally fast. For some reason, he was excited to see the exhibit. And a little bit scared.

Melissa was leaning against the wall with the museum's exhibit guide in hand, reading it, "Yeah, that's why I grabbed one of these" she waved it in front of his face, "and now I get to tell us where we're going first." she turned on her heal and headed into the ROM.

"Hey, I want to see the Egyptian exhibit first," Jed's voice sounded strange in his throat, insistent. They paid the entrance fee and began to wander the marble halls. Jed stopped suddenly. He thought he heard someone...whispering his name. His full name.

"Hello?" he whispered, to no one in particular.

"Jed common!" Melissa called back to him, "We're going to the dinosaurs first! Then the Romans and the Egyptians are along the way after that"

"Fine." Jed ground his teeth angrily. This trip was his idea, so he felt that his exhibit should be first. Of course, Melissa's route would make a lot more logistical sense. He followed her warily.

"Man!" John's voice was always a tad too loud, "I haven't been here since the fifth grade! The weird glass sh-- sure looks different from the inside."

"One of those modern architects, I think. Too arty for my simple tastes." Jed gave Melissa a pointed look.

Melissa rolled her eyes and walked on, inspecting one thing or another. Eventually, finally they came upon the Egyptian exhibit and she gestured forward as she looked back at Jed, "There you go little child, be free" she teased.

"Shut up, Mel." he stuck his tongue out at her (childishly, of course), and set out searching through the sea of gold and sandstone. Some of the artifacts attracted his eye- a dagger inset with a ruby, a couple of spear heads. John shuffled back and forth.

"Are there any mummies? I wanna see 'em."

Melissa pointed deftly to a later part of the exhibition. Naturally, she was carefully reading the displays. From beginning to end. Jed sidled up to her, pretending to be interested and standing especially close to her...

"Djedefre." He stopped. The voice again. From the next room. Jed stepped quickly, then ran headlong into the other room. In the center of the exhibit sat the shining talisman that had been haunting his dreams. The glass was ajar, leaving a tantalizing gap. Jed was far beyond reason at this point, voices behind him fading to a buzz.

He lifted the glass and placed his hand over the blood-red ruby.

A light filled his vision, the cameras in the room were already on the fritz and acted up like there was a ton of static interference.
Jed blinked and one of his brown eyes turned blue as someone else gazed out of them. He looked down at his hand, the talisman was gone from the case. He touched his chest, right over his heart and felt the cold metal embedded in his skin.
A grin slid across his face, "so it begins" Malum whispered to himself and looked back down at the case. There was nothing else in it. He moved to another case, other talismans in show but nothing of what he was looking for.

The cameras snapped back online, showing a dark skinned male with white hair and mismatched eyes to the security room-not to mention the open and empty case. Alarms began to ring.

Malum startled as the noise pierced his ears. That didn't sound good, and what he was looking for didn't seem to be here anyway. The exits were becoming barred, he had moments-it was time to test out this new body. Breaking into a sprint he slid under the first bars as they lowered and then he made a break for the nearest window. Before it could be covered he jumped out through the glass, shattering it everywhere and then taking off down the street.

"What the hell was that?!" John jumped back from the case as the screeching alarms sounded.

"No idea!" Melissa yelled to him, "Jed! You okay?"

As if as an answer, Jed's lanky body slid out from under bars lowering in the next room. Melissa's mouth dropped open. He didn't even glance at her as he lunged straight for a window, angling his feet such that the glass shattered perfectly. Melissa ran to the window and watched one of her best friends take off down the street.

"The f---?" John stared, "Was that Jed?"

Melissa could only shake her head. Seconds later, security stormed the exhibit and forced the two of them to the floor.

The police showed up and the museum got shut down for the rest of the day while they took statements.

Meanwhile Talon had just been on her way into work when some guy came barreling passed her and knocked her on her butt on the pavement. "OI!" she yelled in complaint.

Malum wouldn't have given it another thought if not for the brief and accidental moment that Malum's arm brushed the unseen surface of the talisman that was embedded over Talon's heart. For a moment, just that one split second, Malum and the princess could see each other as though looking into one another's souls.

Malum quickly backed away and stared at Talon for a moment as he tried to figure out what had just happened. It had felt so familiar and for a moment this girl had looked just like the princess he had once known. He glanced at his own hands, somewhat foreign to himself, perhaps she saw someone else now as well. A slight smirk pulled at his lips as he locked his mismatched eyes on the girl, "Good morning princess" he nodded to her, glanced back at the museum as the alarms rang, "Ta" he took off running again.

The contact shimmered through Kiya's very being. She caught those beautiful, mocking mismatched eyes, and a passionate mixture of emotions colored her being. Malum. At his brazen comment she lost all caution.

"Excuse me, but I need to cut the throat of that two-faced son of a jackal." and with that, she seized control of all of Talon's physical abilities.

"Malum!" she yelled, causing passers-by to turn in alarm, "I swear in the name of Bast, Ra, and all of the Nile, I will end you!"

Talon's long legs gave chase, but her garments were not ideal for running. Kiya didn't mind, though. It certainly was an improvement over flowing kalasiris. She kept Malum firmly in her sights as he ran towards the busy road.

Talon yelped in alarm as Kiya took over so suddenly, ~um... oh boy...~

Malum glanced back, seeing the princess coming after him he couldn't help but laugh aloud, "Come off it princess" he called back to her, "you never could catch me" he took off down a dead end alley but without stopped he jumped up on the dumpster and then leaped up to the fire escape that came down the side of one of the buildings. He barely made the jump and cursed the lack of muscles on this new body. All those years of staying in perfect physical condition and now he was tied to this... flimsy cab driver. He could feel his heart pumping and his muscles straining to keep up with what Malum was used to being able to do. "curse this pathetic vessel" he gasped for breath as he made it to the roof of the building.

Kiya followed in the footsteps of the lanky cab driver, her steps driven by her anger. Luckily Talon's body had a reasonable muscular structure- which made up for Kiya's lack of experience. She rounded the top of the building and followed Malum, who was quickly becoming out of breath. This was a new experience for her.

And she was gaining, rooftop by rooftop.

Leaping over the edge to a slanted rooftop, she slid across the tile, unable to keep her balance. Her instincts as a princess had never quite prepared her for this. She caught herself squarely by the drainpipe, hanging overtop of a narrow alleyway. She cursed as she tried to struggle upwards.

Malum glanced back at her, breathing heavily now. He ran a hand over his brow, sweat. Who on earth sweats THIS MUCH?! it was unseemly and he couldn't keep up this pace. He had to lose her, he still had no idea what this world had, everything he saw in passing deserved far more exploration than he had time for at the moment. Even the rooftops themselves were made of the strangest materials. "As pleasant as it would be to catch up with you princess. I really haven't the time." he called back to her before vaulting over the side of the roof he was on and quickly making his way back down to street level.

Kiya swore violently in Ancient Egyptian as she struggled up the tile. Sitting down firmly on its surface, she balanced herself before retreating to the inner level of consciousness.

"I apologize for that intrusion," she inclined her head respectively to Talon, "I didn't catch him either."

Talon nodded back to her, still a little disorientated, "Uh... yeah, it's okay I guess? Who was that guy?" she questioned aloud as she took over he body again and began making her way back.

"I cannot know who the body belonged to, but he hosts the most dangerous and vile person in all of Egypt. He is the Thief King Malum." She spat, gesturing over the ankh that hung around her neck, "Or the acting Thief King. I'm not entirely certain if the magical hierarchy would pass to him. Not unless he killed his brother..." Kiya mumbled to herself.

"Woooaaahhhhh okay...." Talon shook her head, "man, you guys are comp-li-cated" she sounded out the word for emphasis. "Anyway, so-" she cut off as she stared at the museum, fully locked down and surrounded by cops, "... I take he came from here then...."

"Yes..." A thought occurred to Kiya. It couldn't be mere coincidence that both her and Malum had resurfaced at the same time, in the same place. "Were there...other amulets like mine, by chance?"

"Yeah" Talon replied, thinking for a moment, "a bunch actually. They were found all over Egypt and collected together, no one really knows the significance but they were thought to be linked somehow... Don't tell me there's more of you?!" she exclaimed suddenly, a little too loudly as she gained a few looks. She cleared her throat and shifted away, trying to look inconspicuous. "are there?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Several, in fact. I know of at least ten that I would want as our ally- if they have been found, it must be time for the reawakening. The return of magic to the world as it is." Kiya surveyed though the edges of Talon's vision regally, "It is my responsibility to find the heirs where possible."

"Okay..." Talon replied, navigating through the crowd, "but I don't see any way of getting a hold of the others. It is, y'know, a museum with all that high tech security and stuff."

"I do not understand... what is this "tech" of which you speak? Is it some form of modern magic?" Kiya began wandering through the expanse of Talon's consciousness, looking at images, "The world certainly has changed shape since my days on the Nile."

"Yeah, a lot has changed" Talon agreed, "lets see... does this help?" she closed her eyes, thinking over all the crazy technological advances she could think of and sending it all to the princess' consciousness."