I decided to be a little generous to those in the market today. Especially since most people were instead out replenishing their water, ironically with the jars Catra sold mandatorily when you’d go get some water from her. I’m carrying so much that just tripping could cause it all to tumble everywhere. Heavy loads after a payday like mine are the only time I wish for more strength rather than more certainty I can make myself (and everything I’m wearing and carrying) invisible.

I get back to our house...and see her symbol inside it. And someone holding it. I drop everything, and tackle whatever soldier was threatening my wife.

I manage to get him held down, one hand on his neck and the other on his arm holding his weapon, but it seems he’s stronger than I expected, and I feel arms around my shoulders pulling me back. So he brought reinforcements. Pathetic.

“No no no!” I freeze at the voice behind me. It’s Pili pulling me back.

“He’s not one of them!” This time it’s Asenath saying that. Incredulous, I step back...and see another raccoon right here in my house with her famous hook. I don’t think I’ve seen him ever around, and no raccoon would ever carry something of Catra’s. He coughs for a second and then mutters, “Salim was easier to introduce myself to than you.”

“What exactly is that, outcast?” I say tersely to what he’s holding.

“Um...you’re him, right? Slytunkhamen?”

“Who wants to know? Bomani sent you? Pamiue? The majesty herself?” I say that last part with my forefinger and middlefinger bending over twice.

“Well, you might not believe me, but we’re related. I’m from the future. The far future. I’m Sly. Like you, only without the Tunkhamen. Sly Cooper.”

“And what would a Cooper be doing with that thing?” I gesture to his hook.

“What would a Cooper be doing without it?” he counters. “Come to think of it, in the old drawings I’ve seen of you in the Thievi - anyway, old drawings I’ve seen of you show you with two of these. These canes. Smaller ones. Yet I don’t see any other canes anywhere.”

“Maybe I should interject,” says Asenath. “Mr. uh, Sly, you must not be from around here. That question-mark shaped symbol represents Queen Catra’s anarchy.”

“You mean the kitten who locked me up? Now that you mention it, everyone was looking at me quite funny holding my cane.” He holds up his apparent cane.

“Catra is a very controversial ruler. She doesn’t think so and it’s illegal to talk about her that way on the streets,” explains Asenath, “but ever since she came into power after her mother Calypso passed, things have been so much more rough.”

“All we really know about her,” jumps in Pili, “is Catra one day got really sick when she was a teenager. Some kind of disease, I think. Then after she healed, for some reason she grew to be really aggressive towards those who she believed made her sick. Perhaps one of our kind sold her bad fish or something. And cats have been worshiped ever since the pyramids were first built, decades and decades earlier. What she says is that symbol-” She points back to the cane. “-is what she saw in her vision when she thought she was about to die from the sickness but then came back well again.”

This Sly stares at his hook like he didn’t realize it wasn’t pure gold or something. “Well…” Sly starts. “This isn’t that kind of symbol. It’s been in my family for generations. I mean, my ancestors have had different canes, but…” He looks up at me, looking a little nervous. “Slytunkhamen...if my memory is correct, you were the first one in my family to use this symbol for thieving.”

Asenath and Pili look at me in alarm.

“Well, how do we know anything you say could be true? How are we even related?”

Sly pauses, then I see something ding above his head like a firefly. “For the first one, if what I’m saying isn’t true and that we’re not related, how would I know about your invisibility technique?”

I get a jolt. Asenath and Pili look around and I know why. This raccoon arrogantly said that too loud.

He goes on. “And how would I know you’ve never - I mean, you can’t turn invisible while trying to move? You have to stand still? How do I know you have used that technique to steal from corrupt pharaohs and greedy noblemen?”

“Have you been interrogating our friends and neighbors?” asks Pili aggressively. She stands up.

“No. I came here in a time machine. Accidentally. It’s broken now. And it brought me here.”

“A machine that...controls time? How would that even work?” I ask.

“If Bentley were here, he’d be able to give you the rundown, though it’s so complicated I don’t know how helpful it - anyway, listen, Slytunkhamen. I know a fair bit about you. I know your favorite food is fried crocodile, because you hardly ever get to eat any and you have to cook it in secret from anyone who can talk about it to higher-ups. I, uh...I know you gained your invisibility technique after you defended Akhenaten’s sarcophagus from thieves who wanted to erase his history, so his ghost thanked you by entrusting you with the power, to do what was right for those who needed it from authoritarian foes. In fact, it’s sort of flooding back to me, some information about that leader, Catra. You claimed there was, um, an election she created to-”

“To con and then do more conning,” interjects Pili, and I see a smile on her face. “Yeah, that’s what happened. And you’re looking at her former competitor.”

I see the grin on this Sly’s face, and I’m beginning to relax. Some of this still sounds too good to be true. There’s always ways to interrogate that sort of information out of someone, and the fact he knows so much about me should be cause for alarm. I can tell Asenath’s not totally sure.

Sly then turns to Asenath. “Oh, and I know you’re expecting a boy.” There’s a pause. “I mean, I don’t know what ways there are of knowing here in Ancient Egypt, but it’s going to be one.” He scratches his back. Our silence has caused slight awkwardness. “Pili,” Sly gestures. “I don’t remember the Thievius Raccoonus mentioning what happened-”

“Thievius Raccoonus?” I say at the same time as Asenath.

Something seems to register in Sly. “Oh, so you haven’t...I’ll tell you about that. It’s a long story. So, Pili, about that election. Can you tell me what it is that happened?”

Pili shrugs. “Sure. After Catra’s mother passed and she got into power, Catra began giving huge bonuses to her richest allies. When it became apparent most of us were hungrier under her rule and there was look at a revolt, Catra suggested we have an election to vote someone different into power if people were truly unhappy. And I was the only one who stepped up against her. No one else was brave enough to make themselves known as an opponent to the heir.”

“That’s brave of you, Pili. Truly,” says Sly. 

“Yeah...and it didn’t turn out well. That was mainly because…” She sighs. “Because I let a rumor go around of a woman I was in love with, and it became talk of the town I was a detractor from tradition too unholy to rule.” Pili then gives a slight laugh. “And it was the truth.”

“So you’re a lesbian,” says Sly. “That shouldn’t be anything to be ashamed of.”

“That’s what I’m called?” says Pili, frowning, actually looking emotional. “There’s those out there other than me? There’s a name for it?”

Sly nods without hesitation. “Yeah. And it’s a natural feeling. The world may not know it yet, but it’s been proven by science. So...I guess that really pulled your vote down, huh?”

“To be honest, I don’t even really know. I think some in this neighborhood decided in the end not to vote to not risk their necks, but Catra definitely got a lot of her friends to get out and vote too from the palaces. I heard it was close but no cigar.”

“I’m so sorry, Pili.”

Pili grins. “It’s okay. I’ve gotten over it. And the best way to get over it? If the rulers stole their way into power to get some fresh berries, then all you have to do-”

“Is steal those berries back.” This Sly finishes for her.

I gesture to the running water. “This was our little work. And I’d say it’s our biggest caper yet.”

“And I’m all for it,” says Asenath. “I just hope, for our son’s sake...well, I guess it’s a son...I just hope for his sake, that we don’t make too many enemies or else we’ll be thrown out of town. I want our world to be fair, and I support rebellion when corruption looms. I just…” She sighs and stands up, facing Sly. “I heard a raccoon looking just like my Slytunkhamen got captured, and hearing how Pili set loose those crocodiles? Maybe we should be worried. Hearing how you might be captured really shook me this morning.”

Sly looks perplexed. “I’m really sorry, ma’am.” He then decides to sit down next to her and lightly touches her belly. “How along are you?”

“About five months. Or five and a half.”

Sly stares at the belly, and seems to be pondering something.