During the thirteen baktuns, Tlalli Muhaatum, aka Sekhmet, goddess of Egypt and sworn protector of the bloodline of Isis, served loyally as a guide to humanity. Both harboring the innocent and punishing the wicked, she was entrusted by the advanced alien race, the Altunai, to serve as the defender of Earth. During the five thousand plus years that she and the God of the Afterlife, Osiris, played their cat and mouse game, Tlalli recruited the help of only twelve humans to receive the sacred gift of Altunai: Bonding, an act which gave its recipient psychic powers and made them impervious to disease and serious injury. As proxies of the goddess, however, they also found themselves enemies of Osiris. "The Twelve" is told in four volumes, each a collection of short stories which give readers of Killian McRae's Altunai Anthology a peek at Tlalli's proxies over the centuries, as well as hints and previews of the continuing epic due out in late 2012 when the sequel to "12.21.12" releases. Assuming, of course, that humanity survives.