ꙮ Ella was born in the city of Bayonne in the Bordeaux Region of France on October 10, 1993 to Sofia and Avram Stern, a family doctor and a lawyer, respectively. She has a younger brother named Daniel. Avram is an Ashkenazi Jew whose grandfather, Benny Stern, made his way to France after World War II. Benny was 13 when his father was killed fighting during the Nazi incursion of Warsaw. His mother and two sisters were captured and shipped along with him to Auschwitz. He was the only member of his family to survive. Avram was a devout Jew who attended synagogue and spoke Hebrew around the children as well as French. Sofia was born in Valencia, Spain, and raised Catholic. She spoke Spanish and French with their daughter and son. The family observed the Jewish and Christian holidays, which was educational if a bit confusing when the children were young. Ella's parents wanted them to experience both faiths and decide when they were older if they wished to follow either or neither religion. Though they appreciated and respected both faiths, neither one really stuck with either youngster. Her parents encouraged Ella and Daniel to become involved in sports like soccer and baseball, and hobbies, like collecting old coins, building model cars and so on. Anything to avoid experiencing the most dangerous enemy of youth - boredom. Ella also took dance classes, primarily Jazz and Modern, and in her teens she discovered Ballroom. She also exercised an early talent for the clandestine, becoming the last hidden for hide and seek, skipping school when she wanted to see a matinee, saying she had basketball practice when she was really with her boyfriend... She didn't always get away with such antics, however, especially when skipping her classes. Still, her grades were good, especially in languages. She is a polyglot, fluent in French, English, German and Italian. Her Hebrew and Spanish are oral only with a smattering of reading and recognizing certain phrases etc. After graduating from high school at the age of eighteen, she took some time to backpack around Europe with a group of three friends: Suzy, her best girl friend and two of her boy friends, Philip and Neil. They travelled north through Belgium and the Netherlands before crossing into Central Europe: Germany, Luxembourg, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Austria. They had all been skiing in Switzerland before the trip, so they skipped it this time around. It was liberating, every day without a fixed schedule and going wherever they wanted - within reason, of course. After four months, they went home for Christmas and to rest before continuing. Suzy decided to stay in France, having had her fill of travelling for a while. This left Ella with Philip and Neil, a circumstance that didn't bother her at all. Their friendship was strictly platonic, though the boys did act like chaperones when they were in crowded places, looking out for all of them, but especially her. Especially when they were in remote locations in Greece or urban areas in Italy that looked a bit sketchy. Then it was Israel, which she'd promised her father she would visit, and finally, Egypt. Ella fell in love with Egypt. She visited all the usual tourist sites, like the pyramids at Giza, the Valley of the Kings, Cairo Museum and the temple at Karnak. She cruised the Nile on a vintage barge from the 1920s, swam in the Red Sea and hiked the Old Kingdom pyramids and tombs at Saqqara. She promised herself to return some day with her brother, who loved exploring as much as she did. The trio tried to travel to other countries in North Africa, but they were warned not to even approach the Egyptian borders that led to them. It wasn't safe. Trying to find out from local officials near the border to the relatively new state of Sudan why they couldn't enter was a terrifying experience in itself and they were fortunate that a French patrol noticed the trio, and quickly removed them from the situation. Almost fifteen months of on-again, off-again travel, it was time to go home. ꙮ Not long after, at the age of 20, Ella resolved to join the French Armed Forces, deciding her journey of exploration had shown her many joyous and terrifying realities for citizens of other countries. To an extent, she felt guilty and embarrassed, having not lived a sheltered life but certainly one of peace and privilege. She wanted to make a difference and this seemed to be her path to that goal. After her initial training, she began her military career in the role of a translator based primarily on her language skills. Wanting to do more and push herself further, she was trained in, and had an aptitude for, various fighting techniques, including kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She achieved a black belt in karate and was an avid martial artist. Ella enjoyed the challenges and the good work she could accomplish as part of something bigger. ꙮ Operation Barkhane, an anti-insurgent program, was launched in 2014 with the aim to fight against armed terrorist groups in North Africa. The area covered Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad, all former French colonies. It was a huge undertaking, led by the French military against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region. The French were permanently headquartered in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. They were to assist the governments of these countries to maintain control of their territory and prevent the region from becoming a safe haven for Islamist terrorist groups. Ella was stationed in Chad but served on missions throughout the area as a translator and a door-to-door liberator of suspect occupied villages. The insurgency intensified. Report: "On 4 October 2017, French forces operating as part of Barkhane were the first to respond to the ambush of American soldiers searching for an Islamic State commander on the Niger-Mali border. French air support was requested by the Americans and two hours later Mirage fighter jets arrived from Niamey. Despite the French pilots being unable to engage ground targets due to the proximity of friendly forces, the jets deterrence was enough to end the ambush. A French special forces team were the first ground forces to reach the scene of the ambush, 3–4 hours after the firefight which resulted in the death of 4 American Green Berets." Report: "On 4 October 2019, Lieutenant Gerrard Martinique and Sub-lieutenant Isabella Stern were killed in action near Gao in Mali during a firefight with an insurgent force while on combat patrol to liberate an area of known encampment of insurgents, who were holding a village hostage. Their bodies have yet to be recovered. Both soldiers will be posthumously awarded the Honour Medal for Courage and Devotion." ꙮ Six days before her twenty-sixth birthday, Ella was dead. When she opened her eyes again - an action she thought was impossible - she was in shock and completely confused. She remembered the gunfire, remembered feeling the bullets slam into her body. She remembered falling to the ground and then... nothing. Until 'waking up' in this... tomb. There was no other way to describe the space. Though dimly lit with a few torches and mostly empty, the air was stale and dusty. After a while, she tried to sit up and the furniture beneath her groaned. She was lying on a bed made of wood, upon which was a small headrest and a mattress stuffed with reeds, if she wasn't mistaken. Though not an expert on Egypt and its history, she had paid attention in class during the section on influential civilizations and she had thoroughly enjoyed her exploration of the country as a teen. Her movement caused some sharp pain, which wasn't a surprise considering she'd just been shot multiple times. As quickly as she dared, she checked her body for the injuries she knew should be there, but found none. Then she noticed the statue, standing near the foot of the bed, and she held very, very still. She would swear it had not been there a moment ago, but then, she was pretty sure she was dead and that must scramble your brain, right? Why would she imagine a space which vaguely resembled the ante-chamber of a pyramid, though? Something that felt and smelled very real. Ella squinted at the statue in the flickering light. It was of a man wearing what appeared to be a leather loincloth and the mask of... a dog? In this light, it was difficult to be certain. Ella blinked and the statue was in slightly different location. Her breathing became shallow and that lizard-brain terror reaction she had experienced only a few times in her life kicked into high gear. Too scared and confused to care that she was shaking like a rabbit in a room full of cleavers, she managed to utter, "Qu'... qu'est-ce que... qui... comment..."* "You should probably settle on one question at a time," a voice said. Her head turned sharply to see what appeared to be a boy wearing an unbleached linen tunic, which was decorated with some beading along the hem, and a simple pair of sandals. He took a step closer and the nearest torch illuminated a handsome face. Ella figured in about two years, he would be doted on by the girls at his high school. "Let me start," the boy continued quietly. "Understand that you have nothing to fear. No one will harm you here." He paused, watching her to make certain she was paying attention. She tried to move again and the pain sent her falling back onto the bed in a cold sweat. She swallowed, her throat parched. When the boy appeared kneeling beside her, a small bowl in one hand, she didn't have the strength to jump, so she groaned instead, trying to tamp down her fear. The boy smiled. "Drink. You will feel better." It was water. She lifted her head slightly and took a few sips while he held the bowl to her lips. Letting her head drop back, the room swam a little and when she could focus again, she noticed the statue was gone. The boy placed a hand on her shoulder and encouraged her to be still with the lift of his eyebrows. "Please, we will explain. Understand that you are dead and that you have some choices before you." "I'm... dead..." It was more a statement than a question. Her voice sounded flat. In fact, all sound in this room seemed muted. "Yes. Rest. We will speak again soon." At that moment, she couldn't have remained conscious if her life had depended upon it. Of course, her 'life' didn't really have anything to do with it, since she was quite, quite dead. Later, though keeping track of the passage of time seemed impossible, the boy said it was quite simple. A few of the Egyptian gods were offering dead soldiers a choice: become a agent for them in the world of the living, with abilities to add to their own to assist with 'tasks'. Anubis had chosen her from the available dead to be one of the soldiers in his army. Should she choose to decline the offer, they would weigh her heart and if she is found worthy, she would be taken to the Field of Reeds and live a wonderful After-life. "It is rare to find a soldier of justice wanting," the boy assured her, as if anticipating her concern about the definition of 'worthy'. Apparently, she would not have reached this point if the god hadn't already seen her potential. There were tense moments, some worse than others. You don't die and not have questions and if you don't like the answers - These moments of revelation or lack thereof did not happen all at once. Ella's time in the tomb, as she called it, and the reliability of her memories are disjointed, with no perceived order and no awareness of the duration. Some of the fragments she does remember follow... "What language are we speaking?" "It does not matter. We will understand you." "How?" "That is not important." "Why me?" "You are a soldier." "So?" "You do what is right and you follow orders." "So?" "You have value." "What if I disagree with something?" "You can always place an objection." "Will you listen?" "Perhaps." "And if you don't?" She doesn't recall if there was a response to that one or not. "We should discuss the elephant in the room." "An... elephant?" "An obvious issue." "Which is?" "I'm Christian." "We know." "You don't see a problem with that?" "No." "Why not?" "It is irrelevant to the present situation." "Being manipulated be something calling itself an ancient god is not irrelevant to me!" "We do not care." "Well, fuck you, then." The boy had looked between them, tilted his handsome face to one side and calmly replied, "That is not permitted." "You will receive gifts to assist you." "What if I don't want them?" "You do not have a choice." "If I refuse?" "If you decline, this conversation is done." "What happens to me?" "It is not all about you." "What happens. To me. If I. Say. No?" "You will be judged." "What right do you have to judge me?" "We are in control here." "And?" "You will pass to the Field of Reeds, or..." "Or?" The boy had smiled. "You will rot." And the boy? He was referred to as a 'pharaoh', who, like the beliefs of Ancient Egypt, acted as the go-between, the interpreter of the gods to the people or, in this instance, to the Conduits, the soldiers of Anubis. There were other pharaohs and conduits, though not all of them were able to maintain their new position or their sanity. Not everyone was cut out to be a soldier in this army. Time passed and Ella learned all the boy, her 'pharaoh', would tell her. She never saw the statue again and wondered if it had ever really existed. It was that or it hadn't been a statue but Anubis himself, appraising her. *Trans. "Wha...what is...who...how..."