As Nephthys cloaked the Egyptian sky in her dark cloak, twinkling with little dots of starlight, the whole of the nobility was gathered at the palace for a night of festivity and celebration. As the cold months set in and the nights grew longer in the new capital city of Cairo, the Queen Mother had decided to take advantage of the beautiful backdrop and host tonight’s court event under the stars. Anyone who was anyone in this country was expected to be there and not appearing would likely be taken as an affront to the most powerful woman in Egypt -- unless of course who were on death’s door. Then you might have been excused, but one never truly knew with Isetheperu. The Sheifas was no exception to this and now that finally all of the children were of court age, they had all been bundled up and brought to the palace as if they were perfectly shining dolls -- if they were not smart enough to escape their parent’s fussing first by making themselves scarce that evening.

Poor Sutekh, on the other hand, was in absolutely no shape to be going to any courtly event or function. The young man was curled up in his plush bed, shivering and shaking as he woke from another fitful sleep. He was sick. Struck down by the same coughing and aching fit that had swept through the lower parts of the capital city during this point of the year. It was almost cyclic how when the marginally colder months swept in, a sickness would shortly follow. Luckily for the young man, this wasn’t anything that he needed to worry about. Although he was currently abed with a terrible fever, those of the noble heis rarely ever died from these coughing fits. Or at least they didn’t like those who lived in the hovels and shacks of Cairo where constitutions were weaker and one missed paycheck could mean starvation. Sutekh didn’t have to worry about any of that given that he had been already blessed by the gods by being born into one of the most powerful families in Egypt. He had access to a steady supply of warm foods and the best physicians that his mother could summon. Sutekh would be miserable during the week or two this illness would run its course, but he would soon enough be back on his feet in no time -- no matter how much he looked like death warmed over this evening.

Maybe that was why he had thought nothing about waving away the servants shortly after he convinced his family that he was fine enough to be left at home. His entire body may have been hurting -- his muscles practically screaming whenever he shifted from one side to the other, trying to get comfortable or pull more blankets over his tired form-- but he knew that he was going to be absolutely fine. The illness was something that should be properly feared, but this wasn’t the first time that Sutekh had caught this bug that caused so much devastation in the poorer districts of the city. He didn’t need a team of attendants fussing over his every move. What he needed was sleep and that was not going to happen if he had a constant stream of people rushing in and out to give him a broth he did not have the stomach to keep down or constantly being roused by the twittering birds that were the family staff outside his door. Not when his weakened state made him so sensitive to the noises that even a whisper could wake him. However, he knew that his family (more likely his mother) would not be pleased if he turned away his help and so he only did it once he was the only Sheifa who remained in the house as all the others headed off to the event hosted by the Queen Mother elsewhere in the city.

Although a few of the older slaves who had been working for his family twice his lifetime plus several years had raised an eyebrow at the heir’s command to have this entire wing of the house be left alone so that he could sleep; even they had been convinced by their younger counterparts who were eager for this unexpected break to listen to the little lord Sheifa. Now they were elsewhere, probably in the kitchens, cooking themselves a fine meal and enjoying this brief respite from the neverending labor they had to complete to give this royal hei the luxurious life they led and once the spare casket of beet was bright out (one that would never be noted as missing from the vast family stores… well no one would be checking on the seventeen-year-old tucked up in his bed until shortly before the Sirdar and his wife came home.

This may have been what Sutekh wanted as he curled up into his blankets, tucking his shivering body beneath the plush coverings, he would soon come to regret it. Another terrible cough wracked through his chest as his eyelids fluttered, beckoning him to return to his feverish dreams filled with little more than vague shapes and bursts of colors. His whole chest moved with the noise, spasming as the dry hacking tried to force Sutekh to turn out his own lungs. Having been subjected to the horrible noise for several days at least, the young man tried to at least muffle the sound by turning his head into the feather-filled pillow, letting that deafen the worst of it.

Little did Sutekh know this thoughtless decision to try and quiet himself was the smartest one that he could have ever made. In fact, there was a good chance he would never fully know the gravity of the danger he was in that moment as his family’s choice to attend the starlit event and his own resolution to turn all the servants away was noticed by another person outside of the household. Someone who could see that this wing of the house had grown dark and silent, seemingly empty of any souls to guard over the treasure that was surely within these rooms. The very same treasure that this stranger was tasked with retrieving.

They had been waiting and watching. Sutekh would never know how long they had been watching the Cairo residence, searching for the proper moment to attack. However, with the knowledge of Sutkeh’s illness being a closely guarded secret so that no enemies of the royal hei could wish him ill-will and there not being so much of a single candle lit in his room as it would have been too bright in the darkness -- they would not know that there was still someone home. Not that this little lordling would pose much of a threat anyways as he only had minimal training with the bow and almost no energy to even pull the string back to notch an arrow. This might be the only chance that the stranger had to strike and complete the mission he had been sent out to complete and no one was going to stand in his way.

Even though the stranger sworn to silence might not know about Sutekh, the young man was soon going to learn about the presence of another in his home. After all, with the house being so silent, Sutekh could have heard a pin drop in the farthest bedroom away from him and the noise that the stranger would soon make as they entered through another’s bedroom was most certainly louder than a mere pin dropping onto the floor.

The young man might be blissfully unaware of it right now, but he was in mortal danger as an intruder broke into the saraaya and there wasn’t a damn thing that the shaking and shivering boy could do to protect himself.