(with help from chompy)
The sphinx felt as if she was on top of a hill.. adrift in a sky, though she was standing in a darkened house with no electricity. Having dealt with the man (or at least the shade of him) the sphinx turned back to her task. A task that had been in the making for centuries, with careful plots and planning. Perhaps this was not chess.. it was a gambit, and clearly others had been playing as well. She did not fear the human, for he had only lived a human life span. There is no way she could have been bested, no matter what he wished for to protect his grandson.
No... these wishes were set, and soon the sky will be filled with more Sphinxes..
"Time to go," she thought as she released the raw magic that had returned to the world, honed by practice. It was.. nice to see it. So nice to see aspects of her own world. She steps through the portal back to the home, carrying the stone in her front paws. Was there another wish to make perhaps? She wasn't sure...
Upon stepping through, she found herself in the bushes of a local park, her magic not enough to take her all the way there. There was not a sound to be seen. Even worse her front paws have turned to stone. There was no panic in her voice. None at all, for she had done exactly what she wanted. Her ending was to be a new beginning. "It is time?" she asks before following with another question "..How... how long for?" There was a brief pause as the petrification process extended up her paws and to her torso. It won't be long now, but she could feel herself smiling. I see...until my wish... no longer affected her." she said nodding. "A fair trade."
The stone rested in her front stone paws as her body quickly turned to stone. The sun rose, glinting off that rocky hide, a statue... nothing but a simple statue, guarding the most powerful object in all of existence. "...And now all I can do is wait" she thinks watching the park and hoping, a brief trickle of a tear upon her eye.
