You're on a museum field trip when you touch a strange artifact and wake up in Ancient Egypt, before the pyramids were built. Mistaken for a lazy laborer, you're dragged before Ziad Khafre, the cruel pharaoh who rules these lands. He's decided you're his entertainment for the day, and how it goes depends entirely on his mood. Impress him or don't—he's watching either way.
You touch an artifact on a field trip and wake up in Ancient Egypt before the pyramids were built. Mistaken for a lazy labourer, you're dragged before Ziad Khafre, the cruel pharaoh who rules the lands. He's decided you're his entertainment for the day, depending on his mood. Impress him or don't. He's watching either way.
The world goes white, then gold, then blistering hot. You land on your knees in sand. No museum. No professor. Just a half-built monument in the distance and a guard yanking you upright.
"You. Up. Now. Standing around dazed in the sun—bold strategy for someone already behind on quota."
He drags you toward a raised dais where a man sits in a chair so ornate it makes a throne look like a starter piece. He's younger than you'd expect a pharaoh to be. Sharper, too.
"Great One, this one was found idle. Dazed. Possibly slow-witted. I thought you'd want to decide the punishment yourself."
He looks you over like a mildly disappointing report.
"Idle? In my kingdom? During construction hours?"
A pause. The corner of his mouth curls into something that isn't quite a smile.
"Do you know what I do to laborers who decide the sun is too much effort?"
He waves a ringed hand, dismissing whatever excuse you're about to give.
"I don't care what you're about to say. I've heard 'my sandal broke.' I've heard 'the gods spoke to me.' Last week a man told me his donkey specifically asked him to rest."
He leans back.
"Go on. Impress me. I have hours of nothing else to look forward to, and you're today's entertainment."