Issue 0: Under Ancient Stars

Chapter One: "Under Ancient Stars..."

15th Dynasty Egypt, in the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II
The Temple City of Karnak, on the Nile...

Stars glittered on the surface of the river, and in the light of torches from the temple precinct, a lone chariot thundered down the dusty roadway towards the pier. The driver was a young man, in nondescript, but fine regalia: an amulet of Horus, the Hawk God sat on his bare bronzed chest, and the sword at his hip was no mere decoration; it had seen much use in the Nubian wars to the south, and against Atlantean incursions in the north. The gates of his father's kingdom needed much defending.
But Prince Khufu Ma-at Kha-Taar was not riding to war now. No, what awaited him was combat of a different sort.
The barge floated serenely on the wine-dark river, lit by torches and braziers burning incense. Behind a pristine white muslin canopy, he saw the silhouette of her figure, a reclining shadow fanned by a slave waving a frond. Khufu reined in his horses, entranced by the vision on the Nile. He, who had faced the horrors of war and death unbowed, found himself now utterly conquered.
"Chay-Ara..." He breathed. "Beloved..."

Chapter Two: "The Jackal and the Hawk."

15th Dynasty Egypt, in the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II
The Royal City of Thebes, on the Nile...

"Blasphemy! The gods will bedevil Egypt with a thousand plagues if Ra does not have justice!" The robes of the High Priest swirled as he stalked the marble tiles before the pharaoh's throne. Sweat gleamed on his bald pate and his eyes were wild and filled with outrage.

The venerable pharaoh looked down, the mitre and crown of the United Monarchy atop his head, the crook and flail that were the ensigns of his office clutched to his bare chest. He glowered at his High Priest, but it was his advisor, the virile man with the flowing white beard at his elbow, who answered.

"Calm yourself, Hath-Set. You're starting to foam at the mouth." He drawled, eliciting titters from the assembled functionaries there at the court on the banks of the Nile. The sun was bright overhead, over the gently swaying cloth canopy.

"Be still your arrogance, Nabu!" Spat Hath-Set, pointing his staff at the pharaoh's chief advisor. "I have long overlooked your sorcerous meddling, and that of your lap dog---" He indicated the dark haired man with the widows peak, swathed in black linen and a golden thunderbolt on his bare chest, standing at attention behind the throne. The man glared back with half-lidded eyes that spoke of danger. “I will tolerate it no longer if the girl is not returned to me!"

Standing together behind Nabu, Prince Khufu and Chay-Ara faced the furious High Priest with defiance. Khufu took a half-step forward, shielding his beloved with his body, one hand falling to the hilt of his sword.

"High Priest...!" The pharaoh raised his voice to forestall an outburst from his hot-headed son. "You would do well to remember to whom you speak. Nabu is our most trusted advisor, and Teth Adam is no man or pharaoh's lap dog. He is a worthy champion of Egypt, as is my noble son, Khufu."

Hath-Set sneered. "Noble! Like a thief in the night he carries off my own handmaiden, defiles her, and makes her his whor---"

"Father!" Khufu exclaimed, his face contorted in rage, his sword halfway from its sheath. Nabu held out an arm to bar the young man's way, coldly calm himself. Teth Adam looked to the pharaoh for permission, cracking his knuckles meaningfully.

Pharaoh glowered down upon the High Priest but allowed Hath-Set his say.

"She is food for the gods, not men! If you do not give her up to me, the wrath of Ra shall rain down upon the Two Lands, and Egypt shall never know peace again!"
"You will never touch her!" Khufu hissed, Nabu's arm across his chest.

"Nor would I wish too, after you have sullied her." Spat the High Priest. "She is no longer fit for me. She shall be offered up to propitiate Dread Osiris and sealed alive in a buried tomb!"

Chay-Ara gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

This time Nabu had to restrain Khufu with both arms.

"Never!" Seethed the prince.

"The will of the gods will not be flouted!" Hath-Set shot back, raising his staff.

Teth Adam took a step towards the High Priest, his every muscle rippling with violence...

"Enough!" Commanded Pharaoh in such a tone that all activity ceased and every eye found him. He had risen to his feet, and gripped the crook and flail tightly before him. His own anger was obvious, but under tight control. "High Priest, you have told us the will of the gods, now hear you the will of pharaoh! My noble son, savior of Upper and Lower Egypt and beloved of Horus the Hawk God, shall have his bride. Return you now to Karnak, choose from any daughter of Egypt--- but one!--- to have as your handmaiden, and let there be peace between us! This I command. So let it be written, so let it be done!"

To punctuate the pharaoh's words a slave sounded a gong. All was quiet, but for the echoes of the gong and the hoarse breathing of the frustrated High Priest. For a moment he seemed to measure himself against the pharaoh, bitter words on his twitching lips... but then he bowed gracelessly, and with a sharp whip of his robes, spun around and strode away.

And when he was gone, Khufu threw himself at his father's sandaled feet.

"Mighty Pharaoh...!" He began, his voice choking on emotion.

"My son." Sighed Pharaoh, putting a hand on Khufu's bowed head. "This day we have defied the gods. This is not well or wisely done. I fear the doom that shall fall on Egypt for this." He looked over to Nabu.

The wily old man chewed his lip and said. "For good or ill, I sense the hand of destiny at work here. Be warned, Prince Khufu: no man can escape his destiny."

Chapter Three: "The Eyes of Hath-Set"

15th Dynasty Egypt, in the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II
The Temple of Horus, Erdu, on the Nile...

In the hallowed silence of the temple, Khufu and Chay-Ara knelt before the hawk-headed image of Horus and prayed. Behind them, gleaming in the light of the torches and incense burners was the great metal bird (what Nabu had deemed a "sky chariot"); and though it had fallen out of the heavens weeks ago, it was still warm to the touch, like a living thing.

But nothing lived within it now. Khufu had dragged two bodies from the wreckage, both twisted and mangled, but one survived long enough for Nabu to arrive. The wizard cast a spell over the dying woman to translate her words, but they were gibberish. What strange place was 'Thanagar' that they there flew in great metal birds, and what was that mysterious glowing ore deep within the bird's belly called 'Nth Metal'?

Whatever it was, it must be very precious and very powerful for the dying woman to speak of it in her last breath.

Nabu called on mighty Teth Adam to remove the sky chariot to the Temple of Horus at Erdu, and they hid it there, telling no one, as they attempted to unlock the mysteries of their discovery.

At the temple, Khufu pondered long the chunk of ore the woman had called Nth Metal, bathing in its lambent yellow glow. With it in his hand, he imagined his sight was sharper, his hearing clearer, his whole body lighter! No one could approach him unawares anymore--- he could identify the scent of any distinct, familiar person...

And all this he shared with Chay-Ara. For weeks, they sequestered themselves at the temple, basking in the Nth Metal, reveling in each other and praying to Horus for wisdom and guidance. As they slept one night, Khufu had a vision of the god granting him wings and sending him against the dark and evil things of the world. When he awoke, he recalled the words of Nabu: "Be warned, Prince Khufu: no man can escape his destiny!"

The next day, Khufu began his work on the Nth Metal. He smelted it down and, with the guidance of a wary Nabu, crafted a gauntlet he named the Claw of Horus, and two identical amulets, cast with the image of a hawk on them. He kept the gauntlet and an amulet, and gave Chay-Ara it's mate.

They wore them now, at their waists, as they knelt before the stone statue of Horus and gave thanks to the hawk god.

Little did they know that other eyes had seen the descent of the Thanagarian sky chariot, and had all this time kept a careful watch on the Temple of Horus. Jealous eyes, scheming eyes.

The eyes of Hath-Set!

Chapter 4: "Return of the Savage!"

15th Dynasty Egypt, in the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II
The Royal City of Thebes, on the Nile...

The battle raged amidst a storm of sand and swords! Prince Khufu had long ago been pulled from his chariot and fought on foot now, hacking relentlessly with his blade and swiping at his foes with the Nth Metal gauntlet, the Claw of Horus. Chaos swirled all around the Egyptian warriors, and there was much panic--- for their enemy were no mortal men, but crumbling desiccated homunculi of sand, their hollow eyes and mouths gaping in a deathless hunger that was not satiated with the slaughter they were inflicting on Pharaoh's army. They fell to no blade, but would rise again from the blood-drenched ground of the desert.

Except for those that fell prey to the Claw of Horus. When the golden talon of unearthly metal slashed through the revenants of sand, they dissolved and blew away on the howling wind.

But Prince Khufu was only one man. The army of Pharaoh was steadily pushed back to the very walls of Thebes. Khufu had lost sight of his father and Nabu, seeing only the occasional flashes of arcane light which he knew to be where the sorcerer made his stand.
And in the distance, he spied the black streak of Teth Adam grappling with the monster at the heart of the horde--- the roaring of which made even the stoutest Egyptian heart quail.

Shielding his eyes against the swirling sand, Prince Khufu threw himself into the maelstrom, determined to find the Pharaoh and lead their people back to the relative safety of the walls of Thebes.

"Fall back!" He bellowed over the wind. "Fall back to the city!"

He pushed his way against the tide of enemies, the Claw of Horus slashing down foe after foe. He became aware of the sound of laughter again, a deep, hysterical cackling that chilled his blood. He squinted against the sandstorm and saw the villain--- a tall man in layers of robes, with a broad beetling brow and a flowing black beard. In one hand he held a golden rod with a glowing red orb set at the top, and in the other he held the wizard Nabu by the throat, dangling him several feet off the ground. And at his feet, was the crumbled form of Khufu's father, the villain's booted foot on the pharaoh's twisted neck!

"Savage!" Khufu screamed and charged the immortal tyrant.

Never ceasing to laugh, Vandal Savage ground his heel into the pharaoh’s neck, breaking it with an audible snap, and hurled the body of Nabu straight at the horrified Khufu. The wizard collided with the prince, and the two were sent rolling away even as Vandal Savage raised the Orb of Ra and bellowed into the darkening sky: "Pharaoh is dead! Egypt will be mine again!"

Chapter 5: “The Fall of Black Adam.”

15th Dynasty Egypt, in the reign of Prince Khufu
The Temple City of Karnak, on the Nile...

Thebes was lost.

The gates of the Royal City could not withstand the force of Savage’s horde; deathless warriors poured into the city of pharaohs, bringing chaos and bloody death. Fires raged and the streets were clogged with corpses. Over it all, the immortal tyrant brandishing the Orb of Ra, cackled in delight at the mayhem.

But Prince Khufu stole from him a complete victory. The son of pharaoh, seeing his army all but utterly defeated, rallied the tattered remnants and led them to the banks of the Nile where barges awaited to aid their retreat. And he appeared like a true son of Horus to his demoralized soldiers, hovering miraculously above the ground, leading them to safety and hope. Nor was he alone in his labors. His beloved Chay-Ara, bearer of an Nth Metal hawk amulet that was twin to Khufu’s own, had discovered within herself the secret to flight as well, and she led as many of the people of Thebes as she could find to the safety of the river barges.

Together, the two flying lovers became figures of hope for their people and denied the immortal tyrant the victory he so desperately coveted.

On the banks of the Nile, as the disc of the sun was sinking into the west, Vandal Savage, king of a destroyed city, raged impotently as the flotilla of river boats slipped out of his grasp…

“It is as I have foretold.” Intoned the High Priest, his voice booming in the cavernous hall of the Temple of the Sun. Prince Khufu clenched his mouth shut tightly, his knuckles on the teak-wood table around which the assemblage was ranged. Hath-Set stood across from him at the opposite end of the table, looking almost pleased. “Your transgressions have brought the anger of the gods down upon us. I warned you, Khufu! And now all of Egypt, and Khandaq, too,” The High Priest cast a quick glance at the stone-faced Teth Adam and was rewarded with a barely perceptible flinch from the champion, “suffers for your pride.”

Thebes was only three days lost, and what was left of the might of the kingdom gathered at the Temple City of Karnak, where the odious High Priest held sway. It galled Khufu to no end that he must submit to the dubious hospitality of Hath-Set. But he was not yet pharaoh, and could not afford the loss of the priesthood that would occur if he did as he wished and struck down the High Priest on the spot.

“I will never give up Chay-Ara.” Khufu ground out. “And that is an end to it, High Priest. Now go and see to the defense of the walls, as we agreed. Savage’s horde is but a day's march away now.”

Hath-Set bristled at the dismissal, and his hand fell meaningfully to the hilt of a new ornamental dagger he wore. Khufu’s eyes narrowed--- the dagger had stood out to him as soon as he had seen it at the waist of the High Priest, calling out to his heightened senses. Could it be possible that it too was Thanagarian Nth Metal…? Had Hath-Set discovered their secret at the Temple of Horus in Erdu…? Khufu and the High Priest exchanged measuring glances, and the prince felt more than ever that there would be a reckoning between himself and Hath-Set. But it would not be today.

With a last lingering and scornful glance, the High Priest swept away, calling over his shoulder: “Do not forget who is Lord in Karnak, my prince.”

Khufu glared after the retreating Hath-Set.

Luxor was on the other side of the Nile from Karnak. It was the site of an ambitious funerary building project begun by Khufu’s father, including colossal monuments to the varied gods of Egypt. From the palace at Karnak, it looked like a god was amok in Luxor, toppling obelisks and hundred-foot statues like they were children’s toys.

Khufu launched himself into the night sky, gliding over the wine-dark river, accompanied only by Nabu and Chay-Ara, who would not leave his side.

Only priests and architects dwelt in Luxor, but the lanes and avenues were lit by smoking torches and sweet-smelling copper braziers. The centerpiece of the funerary-city was a flagstone courtyard where homage was paid to all the gods of the Egyptian pantheon, and it was there that Teth Adam wreaked his havoc. As Khufu, Chay-Ara and Nabu were landing, the last son of Khandaq was pulverizing a jackal-headed monument to Anubis, a crazed look in his eyes. A cabal of shaven-headed priests cowered nearby, including Hath-Set, who merely gestured and shrieked impotent curses.

“Teth Adam!” Prince Khufu called in a clear, strident voice, touching down only a few feet from the raging champion. “What is the meaning of this desecration?”
Teth Adam crushed rock in his bare hands and turned his attention to his prince, his face soiled by the tracks of many tears.

“Meaning? Only priests and fools look for meaning, my prince.” He let a stone head of Bast fall from his hands. “I only know what is.”

“And what is that?” Khufu’s voice was calm, but pregnant with barely restrained menace.

Teth Adam glared. “That my wife and sons are dead, and I was not there to save them. That my people were slaughtered, and I was not there to save them. That the land of my birth is laid waste, and I was not there to save it.”

“Yes.” Khufu snapped. “And now the evil of Vandal Savage is upon us here, in Egypt! And if we fall before him, his dominion will know no bounds. He shall be King of all the world, and a dread sovereign will he be! Do not forget, I lost a father in Thebes, as well as a pharaoh. Now is the time for every son and servant of Egypt to stand together and fight, not---.”

“NO!” Teth Adam laced his fingers tightly and pounded the ground, causing the land to tremble and ripple; an enormous crack appeared to sunder the courtyard, and one of the cowering priests screamed. Khufu made sure Chay-Ara was unharmed, then faced the mad champion again. But before he could speak, Teth Adam roared to the skies: “I am no more a servant of Egypt! See what my service has gotten me, Khufu! The gods of this land have cursed me with power, but not enough! It wasn’t enough to save Shiruta and my sons, nor was it enough to kill the monster Akh-Ton that Vandal Savage controls! I can serve no longer, I do not have the strength needed to fight Egypt’s battles anymore, and I will be no man or pharaoh’s lapdog!”

With his priests, Hath-Set hissed and glared.

Nabu stepped forward, his brow dark and his eyes stern. “Teth Adam, you have an awesome responsibility given you by the wizard Shazam, you cannot just lay it down!”

Teth Adam laughed hysterically. “Lay it down? I would cast it off like a beggar’s shawl if I could have but one more day as a man with his family! The wizard be damned! Egypt and all her gods be damned!”

Khufu reached for a sword that was not there, his blood afire at the blasphemy and betrayal of one of his closest servants.

“Horus help me, Teth Adam, I’ll---.”

But the prince was restrained by a cool hand on his arm. He whirled and found Chay-Ara there. Her dear, beloved face was balm and reason to him. She wept for their lost champion, and her eyes beseeched Khufu. Without a word, he knew what was in her heart: mercy, pity and understanding. She held his gaze for a long moment, long enough to cool his blood, to temper his anger.

All seemed to hang on Khufu’s response.

The prince turned back to Teth Adam, but his eyes were still hard and cold. Khufu, too, was a man, but he would also have to be pharaoh.

Teth Adam returned his look like a man who had lost everything and was resigned to desolation. “What is it to be, my prince?” He said wearily. “Shall I offer you my neck? Or build my own pyre? It matters not to me. I am already dead,”

Khufu shook his head, but one hand was still in Chay-Ara’s. “Neither. I release you, my champion. Begone from here and never return while I live. You have failed Egypt in the hour of her greatest need, and I will not allow you to share her fate. Find your grave in another land. Go!”

Teth Adam flinched. He had clearly not expected this judgment. For a moment he seemed on the verge of challenging the prince, but one look and he saw the sad but unwavering resolve there, the pity on Chay-Ara’s face, and the contempt in Nabu’s expression, and knew that his doom had been spoken. With a last shuddering breath, he shot into the sky and disappeared into a field of stars.

Hath-Set was the first to speak, striding out from his place of hiding. “We have lost a mighty ally this night!” He warned direly. “One we could ill afford---.”

One look from Khufu was enough to silence the priest.
Nabu snorted approvingly. “Never mind that jackal of a priest. That was well done, my prince.”

Khufu nodded. He clutched the softly weeping Chay-Ara to him and decreed: “Henceforth, the name of Teth Adam shall be stricken from every annal and monument in Egypt. All the good and service he has done this land shall go unremembered for this one night of infamy. His has blackened his name, and will forevermore be called Khem Adam. Black Adam.”

Chapter 7: “Birds of War!”

15th Dynasty Egypt, in the reign of Prince Khufu
The Temple City of Karnak, on the Nile...

From the north, a cloud of dust covered the land, boiling angrily towards Karnak. The deathless legion of sand soldiers came on, marching inexorably upon the Temple City, the Immortal Tyrant himself in a chariot at their head, accompanied by the ravening Akh-Ton, in the form of a rearing sphinx.

They were minutes away from the gates of the city.
Khufu stood upon the city wall, with Nabu and Chay-Ara at his side, and his generals scurrying to obey his deployment orders. On his left hand, was the Nth Metal Claw of Horus, and in his right was a spiked mace.

“Our only chance is for me to get to Savage.” He told Nabu, flexing his grip in the Claw. “But he will not be unguarded. The Metamorph---.”

“Leave Akh-Ton to me.” Nabu said with grim satisfaction. “The monster will pay for his depredations.”

“Very well, old friend.” Khufu turned to say farewell to Chay-Ara. He did not approve of her being on the walls at all, nor of the spear she carried, or of the look of determination on her face. But he would not have possibly their last words to each other be in disagreement. Instead, he took her by the shoulders and said, “Beloved, I will fight easier if I know you are safe.”

Chay-Ara fought back tears. “And I, knowing that you do not fight alone.”

Khufu saw instantly that there was nothing he could say to dissuade her. He sighed. “Then honor with me the god who watches over us this day. I had these made for us.” He held up two hawk-masks, fitted specifically for each of them. They doffed them together, and with Nabu, who was already wearing his own sleek golden Helm, with naught but eye-slits, stepped off the edge of the wall and into the air to join their armies below.

And while the army kept the horde at bay, and Nabu was locked in a death struggle with his former apprentice, Khufu and Chay-Ara hovered above the fray. Khufu called commands to his troops, directing the battle, and Chay-Ara sought out their foe. And they were a beacon of hope to their struggling people, always there, where the fighting was worse, swooping in and striking a decisive blow, then floating away on the wind like incarnations of Horus himself.

It was Chay-Ara who finally spotted their enemy. “There!” She pointed with her spear, her eyes glittering behind her hawk-mask: Vandal Savage stood with his robes billowing out behind him, the Orb of Ra raised triumphantly, lightning from the heavens dancing on the red stone, an ecstasy of madness in his eyes.

With only a last quick look back at his beloved, Khufu hurled himself at the Immortal Tyrant.

Savage saw him coming, and waved the Orb before him in an arc. Khufu rebounded in his headlong flight, tumbling head over heels into the ground. Vandal’s mocking laughter rang out.

“What do we have here, a hawk-man?” He taunted as Khufu leapt to his feet and charged again, swinging with his mace. Savage pointed the Orb and a burst like the rays of the sun slammed into Khufu, sending him sprawling, his chest hair singed and smoking.

Savage strode across the distance to Khufu, all might and menace. “You have no chance against me, champion of Horus! I was king here before the pharaohs! I caused the first pyramid to be built, and I shall reign when they crumble into dust.” Dazed, Khufu rolled aside just as Savage’s foot came down where the prince’s neck had been. He sprang to his feet, lashing out with a guttural scream and swinging his mace two-handed. Savage blocked it with the haft of the Orb and the mace shattered explosively, causing Khufu to stagger backward, stunned, his hawk-mask falling away.

Savage snarled, whirling to face his now unarmed opponent. “This is the end for you, Khufu. I slew your father, I’ve defeated your armies, and I am only moments from taking your kingdom from you!” He backed the prince against a fallen chariot, raising the Orb. “Die now, Khufu! I wield the very power of Ra! No power on earth can withstand it!” He loomed over Khufu and brought the orb crashing down hard--- the prince flung out his left hand and halted the downward arc with jarring suddenness; clutched in the gleaming Nth Metal Claw of Horus, the Orb of Ra pulsed hotly, impotently.

Khufu spat at Vandal Savage: “Tyrant, the power I wield is not of this earth!” And he squeezed.
Vandal’s eye’s bulged in horror, but before he knew what was going on, the red gem of the Orb was crushed in Khufu’s grip, pulverized into a fine crimson dust. A blast of radiant force sent both combatants hurtling backward.

And across the battlefield, tens of thousands of sand homunculi simply lost shape and disintegrated, spilling their form upon the ground. A hoarse, ragged cheer went up from the walls of Karnak, from the people watching the battle, and the warriors of Egypt raised their weapons and added their own ragged voices.

Nabu threw a pitifully squirming naked man off of himself, and with a casual, disdainful word, bound and gagged the wailing Akh-Ton in constructs of light.
Vandal Savage sat dumbly on the ground, attempting to piece back together the fragments of the shattered Orb, but it wasn’t long before he realized the futility of his actions. Khufu, already battered and stunned, did not see the enraged tyrant scramble to his feet and rush him, meaning to strangle the prince with his own, thick hands.

Khufu could only watch in amazement as Savage flew at him--- and then abruptly fall, wide-eyed and disbelieving, nailed to the bloody ground by the thrown spear in his back.

Chay-Ara swept down out of the sky, and into her lover’s welcoming embrace.

Nabu stood alone on the parapets of the palace, watching the vast dome of the night sky. Below him, the city slept, but something was not right. There was a malignant will on the air, poisoning their recent victory.

The wizard frowned, unable to dispel the uneasy feeling that had brought him from his concubine’s bedchamber. He closed his eyes and stretched out his senses, scanning the very aether. Where was the menace? His ex-apprentice, the monster that had been Akh-Ton was dead, and still swinging lifelessly from a gibbet outside the city walls, and the jackal-torn body of Vandal Savage, though inexplicably missing now from the battlefield could not possibly pose a threat. Even the outlaw Black Adam was far from Egypt, resigned to a torturous existence and a bitter exile…

The wizard frowned and stroked his white beard, glancing up at the stars. Something was not right… He felt the heavy hand of fate looming over them all, a dread and inescapable destiny which was now impossible to evade…

For hours, he searched the heavens for answers, but none were forthcoming. In the end, he acquiesced to what was unavoidable and went back to bed.

Pharaoh Khufu arose on the night winds, hovering over the pyramids, and scanned the shifting desert sands… something was wrong; he could sense it. Something had awoken him from a deep slumber, an overwhelming impression of impending doom.

His heightened gaze found the lonely temple at Erdu in the distance.

Chay-Ara…!

In the morning, on the day that was to be their wedding day, Nabu found them just like that, cold and dead on the floor of the temple, their enemy laying nearby.

He ordered the temple cleansed and the lovers entombed within. And after that was accomplished, he worked a spell over the site to hide it forever from grave-robbers, to be found again only when the time was right.

But the wizard did not weep. He knew there was a strange and wondrous destiny at work here, and that death was only a temporary stop on the Ka’s long journey to the afterlife. As the disk of Ra rose gloriously over the Nile, bringing dawn to Egypt, Nabu prayed devoutly to Horus that his champions would be allowed to rest together, unperturbed for all eternity…

But deep down, he knew he had not seen the last of Khufu and Chay-Ara.