Rhea's Treasure

The night passes and the hot desert sun rises back above the Sahara. Fathi's workers are hard at work with bringing every last piece of valuable artifact out of the tomb and each little trinket is put on trays in a long tent just next to the main one. The trinkets are numbered and a map is drawn of the location each number was found. The workers lift items restlessly for the first hours of the day when it's bearable to work outside until it's midday and the sun is burning so hard nobody can work anymore and the workers go to their tents to rest and eat lunch.

"You offer lunch to these guys?"

Nolan looks at Fathi, not believing it and the man raises his head and squints his eyes: "Yes... why wouldn't I, American?" Nolan shrugs and turns to the map in front of them. "So... is this all of it? Every last thing?"

"Every last thing. My men are thorough! They leave no stone unturned! They will steal even the things you didn't know were there, hahaha! No... seriously, they do." His face goes serious and Nolan doesn't know quite how to respond so he points out a large pile of trinkets being discovered in one place, the tomb.

"So. Here. There was clothes? And jewelry and that cartouche? And... What's this one? Is it an ear ring? Why is it separate from the jewelry?" Nolan looks at Fathi confused and he sticks his tongue out and points at it. "Piercing in tongue, mr. Brahman. Rhea was well known for her excellent oral sex skills, hahaha!" he slaps his thigh and Nolan gets a blush and groans: "The name is Braham. But it's still jewelry, isn't it? Why put it away from the others?"

Fathi shrugs and mutters: "Sex toys go in the other pile. Look, she had a golden anal plug here too." Nolan reads closely and sure enough. "What the hell... I need to see this." He and the rotund supervisor get up and walk to the side of the room towards the specific selection of items. As they walk through the room they pass Baya the angel, Monica and Connor Tusk who are investigating the cartouche closer.

"Yup! That's me. I'm an angel. I can fly, you know." The boy says excitedly and Monica shows him the cartouche and squats down a little: "You need to tell me what guarding you means. Was she your guardian like a parent or a guardian like a soldier? Also, what does cage mean in this context? Were you locked up?" The boy laughs and taps his chin and smiles: "You are so curious! I'm not sure why they called mama's tomb a cage. No clue." He waves at Nolan as he passes by and continues: "I always called Rhea mama, but I don't think I came out of her vagina. ... was that a bad word?" Monica looks at Connor who is looking away and shrugs.

Fathi and Nolan reach the adult toys section and Nolan hurries to a luxurious golden buttplug with a ruby planted at the base. "I can't believe this... I mean... why not, right? But that thing must be heavy... wouldn't it just, you know?"

Fathi frowns and waves his hand: "What? I do not understand you, American. She put that in her ass, yes. What is the issue? I hear girls do that still today." Nolan whistles while showing on his finger how the buttplug would fall due to its weight. Fathi frowns more and crosses his arms: "Huh, is this one of your mysteries, mr. Brahman? You know, I watch many American archeology movies, haha! Ms. Shun is just like..."

Nolan sighs in frustration and tries to look for the tongue piercing. "What's a whip doing here? Isn't that a weapon? Or a tool or something?" Nolan asks and Fathi gets a weird smile on his face which makes Nolan uncomfortable: "Wait... I'm not that familiar... oh... oh." The man gets a blush and goes back to looking over the items as Fathi bursts out laughing.

After looking at the ancient adult toys for far too long, Nolan conducts that there is nothing like a tongue piercing anywhere. "Wait... it's not here. Fathi. What did you say about your workers again?"

The man thinks for a moment and shrugs. "I offer them lunch?" Nolan shakes his head and sighs: "No, you said they are thieves. Any chance someone stole the tongue piercing? I see the number here but nothing on the plate." Nolan points at the empty tray and Fathi shouts and pulls on his curly black hair: "Dammit! This always happens!"

After the man calms down the two head to tell about it to the others. And before long the whole site is closed up and all the workers are called to a different tent while the researchers go search the worker tents. As Nolan already knew and with Monica's expert confirmation, that tongue piercing is a very central and important part of the expedition and must absolutely be found.