Tonight, beneath a sky jeweled with stars and framed by restored pyramids older than history, Halo delivered her most uplifting concert yet. The private amphitheater—ancient stone updated with bleeding-edge tech—glowed with our lights and echoed with our songs. Roughly a hundred flesh-and-blood guests were present, but the entire world watched with a short delay. A trick of timing, sure—but it made the experience feel more intimate, more sacred.
Halo was radiant—literally—as Isis reborn. Phoenix returned to play Osiris. The Darklight tour now feels lighter than dark, but I suspect that’s intentional. The show was more than a performance; it was a resurrection. Life and death, past and future, separation and reunion. They wove those themes into a story that made even the most hardened Azzie executive smile and tear up a little.
I spent some time with Evie. A moment of peace. Then drifted to speak with High Priestess Sekhmet-Het of Bastet—our feline-headed friend on her second act—and Selvetra Vivekzai. To her credit, Selvetra came willingly, bearing the stolen scepter of Amun-Ta. True to her word. The price of exile is steep, but not final. I suspect she’ll be sticking around. For now, she walks beside me.
The scepter… well. Turns out it’s incomplete. No capstone, no full function. I recognized what it needs—a piece of stone I’ve seen before, from a very particular continent we don’t speak of in polite company. I kept that to myself. I’m sure it will come in handy.
I sent word to Vivek. The scepter was placed under maximum security and shipped immediately to Samarkand. Suborbital. Nothing less. Our guardians? Bioroids. Aztlan models. Reliable. Or so we thought.
An hour later—chaos. Medical emergencies. One dead. One alive. Neither still human. Not even close. Stony skin. Black, mirrorlike eyes. No body hair. No detectable vitals. But alive, or something near it. I’m calling them Obsidimen.
Something in that scepter… or something near it. This is going to make waves.
After all that, the afterparty was surprisingly tame. Halo stayed. That alone is rare. She smiled. Laughed. Even danced a little. So maybe something’s gone right.
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