“We do not know, but we think not, because of the rest that is revealed to us. We learn that it is not your body only that will be in danger. Upon this journey you will see a woman whom you will come to love. This woman will, we think, bring you much sorrow and also much joy.”
“Then perhaps the journey is worth making, Ki, since many travel far before they find aught they can love. Tell me, have I met this woman?”
“There we are troubled, Prince, for it would seem—unless we are deceived—that you have met her often and often; that you have known her for thousands of years, as you have known that man at your side for thousands of years.”
Seti’s face grew very interested.
“What do you mean, Magician?” he asked, eyeing him keenly. “How can I who am still young have known a woman and a man for thousands of years?”
Ki considered him with his strange eyes, and answered:
“You have many titles, Prince. Is not one of them ‘Lord of Rebirths,’ and if so, how did you get it and what does it mean?”
“It is. What it means I do not know, but it was given to me because of some dream that my mother had the night before I was born. Do you tell me what it means, since you seem to know so much.”
“I cannot, Prince. The secret is not one that has been shown to me. Yet there was an aged man, a magician like myself from whom I learned much in my youth—Bakenkhonsu knew him well—who made a study of this matter. He told me he was sure, because it had been revealed to him, that men do not live once only and then depart hence for ever. He said that they live many times and in many shapes, though not always on this world, and that between each life there is a wall of darkness.”
“If so, of what use are lives which we do not remember after death has shut the door of each of them?”