The black garlic sizzled as it hit the oil, releasing a scent like thunderstorms and buried secrets. Kai Ishtar stirred the pot with rhythmic precision, his calloused hands moving in the same patterns his mother had taught him years ago in this very kitchen.
"Kai! The dumplings are burning!"
Lila's voice cut through his concentration. His thirteen-year-old sister stood on a milk crate by the stove, waving smoke away from a pan with one hand while clutching her battered gaming tablet in the other. Onscreen, pixelated monsters writhed.
"You were supposed to be watching them," Kai said, rescuing the dumplings with a flick of his wrist.
"I was busy!" Lila jabbed at her screen. "The Mummy King has a new attack pattern this week. Look!"
Kai glanced at the game. The boss monster's movements were... wrong. Not like the programmed patterns he'd memorized helping Lila grind for loot. These were fluid. Almost alive.
A knock at the stall's shutters made them both jump.
"Delivery day already?" Lila scrambled down as Kai wiped his hands on his apron.
When he lifted the shutter, the alley was empty except for a package wrapped in faded linen. No courier. No note. Just their address inked in spidery hieratic script – the ancient Egyptian writing their father had taught them to recognize but never translate.
Kai's wrist itched where his snake-shaped birthmark curled around bone.
"Open it!" Lila bounced beside him.
Inside lay three things:
1. A bronze ring shaped like a coiled serpent
2. A clay vial of something that smelled like funeral spices
3. A lock of hair identical to Lila's raven-black waves
The moment Kai touched the ring, all the lights in Pharaoh's Bowls went out.