When they hauled Rekhmir out from the depths of the stone well early the next morning, he was smiling. His eyes were gently shut, as if he were just taking another one of his afternoon naps. At peace. Had it not been for the slight bloat of his belly and the abnormally grey tinge on his skin, he might have been mistaken for being asleep. Technically, he was asleep—except it was an eternal slumber from which he would never wake.

The young priest who had the unfortunate good fortune for discovering him was standing stiffly by the side, his thin lips pursed together and his eyes betraying the residual fear that he was trying desperately to hide. Deep down, he was probably praying that they wouldn't throw him out because of this—priests to the gods were expected to maintain a strict level of hygiene and purity, and having come into contact with a dead body was definitely not the best way of doing that.

Three others stood beside him, all looking down at their deceased colleague with a mixture of emotions reflected in their eyes. Sorrow, sympathy, curiosity, fear. Mostly fear. It wasn't every day a priest was found dead in the Great Temple of Ptah. What if it had been one of them instead? They shuddered at the thought of what it would feel like to drown in a dark, watery grave.

The high priest had been summoned, and he arrived shortly after with Mereneith trailing hesitantly behind him.

"Rekhmir!" Mereneith cried out, pushing past the high priest and kneeling by her mentor's side the moment she saw him lying there on top of the white linen sheet that had been spread on the ground. When Tjethy had appeared at the top of the stairway leading to her underground room telling her that Rekhmir had met with "an accident", she had thought it was simply a bad fall—a broken arm or leg perhaps, or even a hard bump on the head in the worst-case scenario. She had not expected to see him lying here, cold and silent, like one of those stone statues they made offerings to every morning.

She slowly raised her right index finger to his nose and then she collapsed to the ground, tears welling up in her eyes.

"What happened here?" Tjethy asked, looking at the group of frightened priests.

Everyone looked towards the pitiful young priest, whose name was Rawer.

"I-I-I came to the well to draw water for the kitchens at daybreak, a-a-and when I tossed the bucket in, I felt it hit something down in the well," Rawer stammered, eyes darting furtively back and forth. The bucket in question was lying haplessly by the side of the well. "I couldn't see what was down there, so I called Sabu," he looked at the rotund priest standing beside him, "and we tried to fish out the object using some wooden poles."

A box or barrel, or a cat or bird that had fallen in perhaps—it wouldn't be the first time that had happened—but never in their lives would they imagine that they'd ever be fishing out a human corpse. When they caught the first glimpse of Rekhmir's smiling face greeting them, Rawer had been so traumatised that he let go of the wooden pole. The body went tumbling back down, landing at the bottom of the well with a loud splash. The quick-thinking Sabu immediately went in search of reinforcements.

Tjethy squatted down beside the body, first lifting Rekhmir's eyelids and then flipping his arm around. "It looks like he's been down there for at least four to five hours," he said calmly. Unlike the other petrified priests, Tjethy had kept his composure, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he was examining a dead body. "When was the last time Rekhmir was seen alive?" he asked.

The priests exchanged glances with one another.

"I walked with him back to the priests' quarters last night at approximately the eleventh hour," Mereneith said. She wiped the tears off her cheeks, recalling how Rekhmir had smiled and patted her on the head when they parted ways just hours before. He would never be able to do that again.

Tjethy nodded. Turning to the priests, he said, "Make the necessary preparations for Rekhmir's funeral rites. The body cannot be kept within temple grounds," he gave Mereneith an apologetic glance, "so move it over to the embalmers. Tell Nephi to summon all the priests and temple staff to the central courtyard immediately."

Nephi never dallied on a request by the high priest and less than an hour later every single person who worked at the Great Temple of Ptah had gathered at the large central courtyard, all whispering and speculating about the reason why they had been called. Tjethy appeared moments later, taking his place at the front of the courtyard. A hushed silence fell as all eyes turned towards the high priest.

Clearing his throat, he said, "A great tragedy has befallen the Great Temple today. It is with great sorrow that I stand before you today to inform you that one of our brethren, chief crystal keeper Rekhmir, was found to have drowned at the bottom of the well at the western annex early this morning."

The shocking news sent the entire community in a frenzy. A low murmur immediately started going around the courtyard, everyone eager to chip in their views about the how and why of this mishap.

"An investigation will be carried out to determine whether or not Rekhmir's death was an accident," Tjethy's sharp eyes scanned the crowd, carefully observing each and every expression, "or if foul play was involved. Did any of you see Rekhmir after the eleventh hour last night?"

Two shaky hands were tentatively raised into the air. They belonged to Mai and Paser, who shared the same sleeping quarters as Rekhmir.

"Rekhmir came into the sleeping quarters at around the eleventh hour and he immediately went to bed. When I woke up the next morning he was already gone, so I thought he had just gone about his morning chores. I'm a heavy sleeper, so I didn't notice when exactly he left the room," Mai blurted quickly, eager to wash any suspicion off his back.

Paser, the younger of the two, was a little more hesitant with giving his testimony. "I was already in bed when Rekhmir returned," he said slowly, eyes darting up to glance at Tjethy, "and I thought I heard some noises in the middle of the night. It could have been Rekhmir getting out of bed, but I didn't turn around to check so I can't be sure."

"And do you know what time in the night that was?" Tjethy asked.

Paser shook his head. "The crickets were still calling and there were no bird sounds, so I suppose it wasn't anywhere near dawn. I went back to sleep after that so I don't know what happened after that."

And with that, the trail was dead.

No one had seen Rekhmir anywhere near the well in the middle of the night, so there were no leads whatsoever about what could possibly have transpired. After Tjethy announced the commencement of Rekhmir's funeral rites and said a couple more lines extolling the crystal keeper's contributions towards the Great Temple, the crowd was dismissed.

"Hem-netjer-tepi," Mereneith chased after Tjethy as he turned to head back to his office, "this isn't just an accident. Rekhmir was murdered and we need to find out who did it. Please!"

She knew that if there was no evidence pointing towards a culprit, the entire incident would eventually just be written off as an accident, but she was convinced that it was otherwise. It made no sense for Rekhmir to have wandered to the well in the middle of the night when he hardly even drew water for himself in the day. Chores such as drawing water were reserved for the novices or the kitchen help in the temple, so priests of Rekhmir's rank had no reason to be fetching water for himself. Even if he had tried to get water, how could he have lost his footing and fallen in so easily? The walls of the well came up to the average person's chest—even higher for someone as short as Rekhmir.

Tjethy stopped, turning to look at Mereneith with sympathy in his eyes. "I'm sorry for your loss, Mereneith, and I promise that I'll try my best to get to the bottom of this, but I need to caution that this investigation may not yield the outcome that you are hoping for. If there are no eye-witnesses then it'll be impossible for us to determine how the entire incident happened. I think what's important now is for us to ensure that Rekhmir's final journey is prepared as best it can, so that he can move on to the afterlife." He patted her on the shoulder, then continued walking away.

As she watched Tjethy retreat into the distance and disappear through a passageway, the sense of despair slowly began to set in.

It's not an accident—I know it's not. Someone murdered Rekhmir intentionally. But who? And why?

Her mentor had always been a peace-loving sort of man and his jovial personality put him on good terms with almost everyone that he worked with. Even though he could be a bit of a miser sometimes and he had a bark that was far worse than his bite, he had certainly never done anything that might deserve to get him killed. Thinking back to the last conversation she had with Rekhmir back in the crystal vault, Mereneith sensed that something had already been off about Rekhmir then. First, he hadn't showed up to meet her after the new year's rituals like he promised, and then he seemed genuinely startled when she called out to him at the crystal vaults—like he was afraid that it was someone else come looking for him. Who was it that he was afraid of? And then there was all that talk about getting her married off, as if he wanted to offload her to someone else as soon as he could. At that time she had thought that he was just being naggy as usual, but on hindsight, could it be that Rekhmir had already seen this coming?

After checking in at the embalmer's to make sure that preparations for Rekhmir's funeral rites were going smoothly, Mereneith went back into her cave, curling up in a corner and searching her brains for any clue—anything at all—that could help her solve the mystery behind Rekhmir's death. Any other person in her shoes might have cried all day, but not Mereneith. She didn't have any time to waste on tears. The more time she wasted, the more likely it would be that any sort of evidence there was out there would be erased for good, leaving her no chance of uncovering the truth.

"Mereneith, are you down there?" Nephi's nasal voice came echoing down the stairwell. "We need to clear Rekhmir's things out from his quarters. Since you're closest to him, go take a look at the stuff and decide what we should include as part of the burial and what can be discarded, alright?"

Mereneith grunted in response. She wasn't in the mood to entertain Nephi and she was certain he didn't want to extend his interaction with her either. Once she heard his footsteps head away, she picked herself up and went over to Rekhmir's room at the priests' quarters.

Mai and Paser had already taken out all of her mentor's belongings and laid them neatly on his bed. Having spent most of his life here at the Great Temple, Rekhmir didn't have very many personal belongings since there was no need for them. A couple of clean shendyts, some clay trinkets from his hometown of Meidum and numerous scrolls that contained the teachings of Ptah and also some of his own research. Mereneith unfurled one of the scrolls and ran her fingers down the row of text that had been written in Rekhmir's neat hand.

"That's all there is," Paser said. "We were thinking that maybe he would like all his keepsakes from home, and perhaps some of those scrolls. The high priest says we'll leave it up to you to decide though." Sensing that Mereneith needed some time alone, he quietly stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Always so fixated on growing crystals, Mereneith thought as she read through Rekhmir's scrolls. They meticulously recorded the different variables he had used over the years to improve crystal growth, complete with data of the results obtained from each trial. It was no wonder he had managed to keep the position of chief crystal keeper for so many years, even though there were many others who were eyeing the same post.

There had been many a time when Mereneith had gotten into arguments with Rekhmir because she disagreed with his philosophy towards the Ak'heka crystals. Rekhmir was obsessed with being able to grow the crystals better, but that was the end of it; she, on the other hand, wanted to explore new ways of harnessing the crystal's energy, something that she believed was still grossly underdeveloped. "The use of the crystals is decided by the king and the high priest—it is not our business to interfere. Know your boundaries, Mereneith," was what he used to say to her. Rekhmir had always known his boundaries, but look where it got him in the end.

Shaking her head, she rolled the scroll back up, setting it down on top of the rest. When she was done sorting through everything into two neat piles—one that would be buried with Rekhmir in his grave and another that was to be thrown out—she looked around at the empty area that used to be her mentor's private space. Taking a deep breath, she quickly left the room before the stinging sensation in her nose started the waterworks flowing.

Mereneith made her way to the crystal vault, the one place where Rekhmir had spent most of his waking hours. It felt surreal walking in knowing that she would no longer see his pudgy figure waddle its way down the aisles of pots, conscientiously checking in on each and every one of his "babies", as he called them.

"Do you miss you him too?" she whispered, looking down at the small, translucent crystal glowing in its pot. "Well that makes two of us."

Since the crystals were his pride and joy, it made sense that he should have a couple of them accompany him on his journey to the afterlife to help him light the way. She didn't think that Tjethy would object, so she was going to take them first and report it later.

Her feet carried her back to the spot at the far east of the extensive vault where she had found Rekhmir just yesterday. It hadn't even been a full day, yet everything had changed so drastically. A single tear trickled down her cheek and landed in one of the crystal vats with a dull plop.

She cursed, quickly picking up the contaminated pot. The crystals needed a very precise microenvironment for optimal growth and the salt in that teardrop would ruin it if she didn't do something about it quick. Digging her hand into the pot, she fished out the crystal and threw it into another pot.

Just as she was about to turn around to clean out the contaminated receptacle and fill it with some fresh medium, she paused. Peeking out from beneath the small pot that had been sitting beside the one in her hand was a tiny hint of white, barely noticeable because it blended in with the colour of the birch rack beneath it.

Mereneith lifted up the suspicious pot, revealing the small piece of parchment that had been shoved underneath. The papyrus contained a short message written in Rekhmir's hand, partially smudged from the water that had leaked out from the base of the clay pots.

"First day of the second month of Akhet, by the hour of Nut. Location, north of the stepped pyramid at Saqqara. Beware of Tjethy," she read out loud, puzzled by the queer message that her mentor had scribbled in an apparent haste. "Tjethy?" But why would he be telling her to be wary of the high priest? In her mind, Tjethy was the epitome of purity and righteousness—the perfect man and the only one deserving of the position of High Priest of Ptah. Could it be that he had anything to do with Rekhmir's abrupt demise? Mereneith couldn't bring herself to consider this possibility.

Regardless the reason, Rekhmir must have wanted her to find this message else he wouldn't have chosen to hide it here. He had known that if he met with mishap, that she would definitely come down here to honour his memory, which was why he chose to slip the message at the place where they had last spoken. There were hundreds of small crystal pots in this vault and it would be almost impossible for anyone else to have located this within a short period of time.

"But what do you want me to do with this?" she whispered.

Rekhmir had thrown her a riddle, yet he was no longer around to provide her with the answers. 

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