Egypt Burning VII

NOTE to all you Egyptologists: I know, I know, I didn't do enough research...so I've got myth 'fact' mixed with my own myth 'fiction'. Just relax and enjoy.

I skipped class today to finish this.


Egypt Burning

Chapter VII




“Osiris...my Lord.” Anubis said as he brought his muzzle to the dirty floor.

“Rise, my Child.” Osiris said gently.

Anubis struggled to his feet, however he kept his ears low and his gaze down cast. Osiris stood before him as an ethereal shadow, a spirit caught between Life and After. Anubis swallowed hard against his tears as he heard Osiris sigh heavily.

“Anubis, what has happened?” Osiris asked without accusing. “Where are the others...where are the Children of Egypt? You are the only one I can find, in this world and the next.”

“I have failed you.” Anubis admitted. “I...I was not ready to take your place as Lord of the Dead.”

“You are my son, you have always been ready.”

Anubis looked up sharply and then cast his nervous gaze around the room as if fearing that someone may have over heard Osiris. The fact that Osiris was his true father was Anubis’s greatest secret. He would have been proud to have been born of Osiris if Isis had been his mother.

However, Isis was not his mother. It was Nephthys, wife of Seth, who had tricked Osiris by disguising herself as Isis and had fooled Osiris. Even Nephthys feared what Seth would do to her and her Jackal child if Seth found out. With Ra’s help the secret of Anubis’s birth had forever remained a secret.

“Where have you been?” Anubis asked. “How have you come to return at such a dark hour?”

“I was foolish and allowed myself to be killed and then imprisoned by Seth.”

“But Isis searched for you everywhere! How is it that she failed?”

“There is one place she did not think to look.”

Osiris held out his ghostly hand and suddenly a bright flame sparked in his palm. The flame grew and turned in on itself until it formed a bright red mass. Anubis stared at it, completely transfixed.

“What is it?” Anubis asked in awe.

“My prison...Isis’s heart.” Osiris responded sadly. “It was the perfect place for Seth to chain me.”

“Her heart felt so empty after your death that she never thought you could be there.” Anubis said, suddenly understanding.

“But I am free now, which means that my Love must be dead. Where is she? Why can I not find her? Where is Isis?”

“She has become a prisoner herself. Along with all the other Children of Egypt.”

“Who would have such power?”

“Ammut.” Anubis whispered.

“Ammut? She is nothing more than a beast, a Servant of Egypt.”

“No longer. She is a true Goddess now and she is determined to Judge us all. She is waiting for Rehema to bring her my Ka Crystal so that they Trial may begin. However she underestimated Rehema’s loyalty and love. There is nothing to keep me from killing Ammut! I will free Isis and the others, even though I know they will tear my soul to shreds for losing control of my Servant and bringing about the end of Egypt.”

“This is not the end of Egypt,” Osiris assured “She is far greater than this terrestrial world.”

“I still deserved worse than Death for what I have allowed to happen.”

“No, you do not...and neither does Ammut.”

“What?!”

“Something greater is happening here. Ammut could not have become a Child of Egypt on her own.” Osiris furrowed his ovine brow in thought. “None of the Children would have the power to do such a thing.”

“Then who?”

“I believe that Egypt Herself wishes this Trial to happen.”

“What? Why?”

“I do not know. It does not matter all that matters is that Ammut is not to be killed, Egypt will not allow it because all of this must be Her doing. It is my hope is that she is finally calling us Home. ”

“What if She isn’t, what if we have failed Her? Ammut may have been transformed to destroy us all, to keep us from the After by consuming our souls.”

“Egypt would not slaughter Her Children unjustly.” Osiris assured. “It had to happen, eventually we all must be Judged. The Children that deserve to be returned to Her will be. I only have one fear.”

Osiris brought out the representation of Isis’s heart that he had shown Anubis before. He handed the fire to Anubis. The weight of the ethereal flame took Anubis by surprise. He looked up at Osiris in horror.

“Isis will never pass the Trial...”

“No.” Osiris bowed his head in defeat. “Her failure to find me weighs too heavily on her heart.”

“But it wasn’t her fault!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“How can it not matter?! Isis will be unjustly destroyed for a sin she did not commit.”

“Sin is not the only thing that makes one unworthy for the world of the After, there are other, more internal factors that can weight down a heart.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Before Mother Egypt can believe in you, you must first believe in yourself.”


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