---
At last, Sekhmet spoke. "I am not the reincarnation of the Blood God."
His voice was calm, flat, and certain. There was no anger in it, no theatrical denial, no wounded pride at being compared to some ancient divine corpse. It sounded instead like a man refusing an inconvenient shipment someone had delivered to the wrong estate. That made the line hit harder than a sharper reply would have.
He continued before either of them could answer.
"And even if I were, I do not care about some blood throne. I have enough in front of me already. I do not need a god title, or part of legend, or a dead god's burden dropped on my head."
That was when Bat Bat finally lost the battle against her own questions.
"Wait," she said, looking from one prisoner to the other. "Are you both millions of years old?"
Natasha actually looked at her. "No."
