The Maahes of the necropolis. Ptahmes-Ankh took the mantle as the great stone-and-brick tombs of Memphis's nobles were rising on the ridge at Saqqara, and he saw what the Children of Apep saw: a city of the dead, full of dark rooms, sealed doors and families who would never open them.
He spent his tenure warding the necropolis, tomb by tomb, with Kheti-Wer's marks and a company of mason-watchers. He did not clear the tombs of the brood. He closed them, one at a time, from the inside, and sealed them again behind him. It took thirty-one years.
A century later, when the first great pyramid began to rise at Saqqara, the architects found carved marks already under the foundations. They did not ask what they meant. The Pride has always believed that is the best kind of work.
What he left behind: the warded necropolis, and the habit of closing doors rather than fighting what was behind them.
