The Last Trial Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian papyrus containing artwork depicting the Last Trial and thus information about how to beat the Death Date.
Description[]
The papyrus depicted Ma'at, the Egyptian goddess of justice and the afterlife. She'd place the deceased's heart on a scale of justice and the feather of truth on the other. If the heart was lighter than the feather, then they passed on to the blissful Field of Reeds. But this depiction is unusual, in every representation, Ma'at takes a heart and weights it against an ostrich feather, but it is too colorful to be an ostrich. The three shadows is a version of the famous etching called "The Last Trial."
According to the story, in ancient Egypt, three prisoners were given a second chance to correct the mistakes that they had made in life. The first prisoner used his chance to find love and was rewarded with a companion, the second put past grievances to rest and was rewarded with peace. However, the third prisoner chose vengeance "and a river of blood was shed." It became known as the Last Trial as it was a test and if the last man had chosen to forgive his enemies instead of taking revenge, he would've been rewarded, but he chose to take revenge. Over time, it became known as an allegory and a story about redemption.
A hidden layer of the papyrus depicted the constellation of Draco with the Omega Sapphire in the middle of it and the tail touching Ma'at's scales. This was showing that a chosen returnee, a dragon, could use the Sapphire to tip the scales in favor of the others.
History[]
Manifest[]
Wingman[]
TJ Morrison discovers the papyrus in Egypt and sends it to Ben Stone with the image of a peacock showing up in both it and a Calling that Cal Stone has. Levi works to decipher it with the help of Olive Stone and Angelina Meyer, telling them that it depicts Ma'at and the weighing of souls from Egyptian mythology. However, it's odd because all other depictions feature the goddess weighing a soul against an ostrich feather and this parchment has her using a peacock feather instead. The papyrus is missing a section and Levi wonders if anyone had written about this before. Olive tells Angelina she thinks that it's a sign that when you come back, you're being judged.
Olive later shows her father the papyrus, telling him that it's important. While Olive had thought it would give her a clue about the Death Date, without the missing piece, it's useless.
Eagan Tehrani later sells several artifacts he stole from a museum. Inside of an urn is the missing piece of the papyrus which Eagan throws into Ben's stolen bag before throwing them both out.
Water Landing[]
Michaela Stone finds a drawing in Jace Baylor's trailer that matches part of the ancient papyrus. Olive recognizes it from the papyrus and Ben realizes that it was a part of Jace's Calling and guesses that the violence was Jace's interpretation of what he saw.
While trying to decipher the symbols found in Jace's drawing, Levi recognizes one as matching the papyrus which has been greatly restored by the grad student. However, Levi hasn't finished the restoration yet, so he doesn't know what it means. The two finish the restoration and Levi determines that the papyrus is a version of the famous etching called The Last Trial which featured three criminals whose stories match Jace, Kory Jephers, and Pete Baylor. Olive realizes that the Last Trial is happening to the three meth heads and asks how the prisoners stopped it, but Levi just calls it an allegory and a lesson about redemption. The Last Trial was a test: if the last man had chosen to forgive his enemies instead of taking revenge, he would've been rewarded. Because he didn't, the last man was killed instead.
Graveyard Spiral[]
Olive returns to campus as Jace chases Michaela on his Death Date, only to find that the papyrus has been crated up to be shipped away as the restoration is complete. Olive manages to scare the guys transporting the papyrus into not leaving with it.
As Olive studies the papyrus, a janitor brings Ben's bag containing the missing piece of the papyrus that was earlier stolen by Eagan Tehrani. Olive is able to restore the missing piece and makes a horrifying discovery. Olive calls Michaela and reveals that the papyrus shows that the Last Trial isn't about each person being judged individually. Jace, Kory and Pete all came back together, and they are all being judged together. Moments later, a shadowy figure rises from the body of Jace who had died after failing to beat his Death Date and kills Kory and Pete.
Rendezvous[]
After seeing the image of the woman that the Omega Sapphire was hidden in, Olive recognizes her as the goddess Ma'at from the papyrus. Olive tells TJ that the papyrus had taught them that the 828 Passengers were all going to be judged together on the Death Date.
Inversion Illusion[]
TJ is able to check the papyrus out of where it's being stored thanks to being the person who had found it in the first place. TJ mentions that he had got it back from Levi, causing Olive to become briefly uncomfortable. The two find that on the papyrus is a hole on Ma'at's chest where the Omega Sapphire should be and the sapphire could help them to tip Ma'at's scales of judgment on the Death Date. TJ suggests that they aren't seeing the clue that they need because the Egyptians sometimes used pigments that were vibrant blue but faded away over time. The papyrus might have more to it that's just hidden from view and can only be seen using an infrared filter.
Olive and TJ use Grace Stone's old DSLR camera with an infrared filter to photograph the papyrus. On the new image, the sapphire appears on the depiction of Ma'at with a bunch of dots surrounding it. When connected together, the dots form the constellation of Draco with the tail of the dragon touching Ma'at's scale and the sapphire in the middle of the dragon. Olive and TJ realize that the papyrus is saying that if a passenger, a dragon, gets touched by the sapphire it could tip the scales in favor of the 828 Passengers on the Death Date, meaning that they and thus the entire world could survive the Apocalypse. The dragon is Cal and Zeke Landon -- overhearing Olive and TJ's discussion -- uses the empathic powers that he got from beating his own Death Date to save Cal's life at the cost of his own.