Before there was Authority, there were gods.

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The oldest surviving accounts describe an Egypt governed as much by divine will as mortal rule. The gods were neither silent nor united. Their rivalries moved through temples, bloodlines, kingdoms, and those chosen to serve them, leaving mortals to interpret conflicts they could scarcely understand.

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Among these powers was Heka—the force from which magic itself was believed to flow. It belonged to no throne and answered to no single god. Those capable of wielding it were rare, and those touched by forces beyond mortal understanding rarer still.

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What occurred during the final years of this age remains disputed. Records contradict one another. Names disappear. Entire accounts appear to have been deliberately altered or destroyed.

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What is known is simpler.

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Before the century ended, the first recorded breach between mortality and what lay beyond it would occur.