Nezzar

Part One: A Tangle of Serpents

Nebetah stared at the window from a corner of her mind. Something had been wrong for days now. Nothing felt right since that moment at the door of mother's house. Mother had been sweeping, getting rid of the dust that settled daily upon the front of their small home when she grew stiff and stared ahead mid-sentence.

When Nebetah reached for mother, everything became strange. She could not remember days anymore. Things she had known, things that should be important, she was forgetting. It was like she was existing in two places. One inside her mind and another outside. It was the oddest feeling. Mother was behaving strangely too.

Nebetah blinked hard and became conscious of her outside surroundings. She was walking next to Mother. In her grip was a silver incense burner similar to the one Nebetah held. They were approaching Lake Manzala. It was that time of the night when most of Egypt was asleep. Something was leading them here but she could not tell what it was.

Each morning she woke up compelled to do things a certain way or run strange errands. All her questions were logged in the back of her throat. Questions like how they got the money to afford a house in the heart of Tahpanhes. Questions like how mother's daughter would feel when she visits their abandoned house and finds no one. Mother's daughter may be mad at her. She had given Nebetah to mother as a care-child, to cater to mother and bring back news of her wellbeing weekly. Now Nebetah couldn't tell if a week had passed or not. She knew days were passing but the need to keep track of time like she was taught was losing significance.

As her legs moved to the lake, she drew within herself once more and opened her eyes. She was in her mind again. Her body felt like a house she could explore for days and days. So many rooms. And there was that window, the only one she had seen so far.

The room Nebetah usually found herself in was empty save for a low stool and a staff bearing a carving of a blue dragon as its grip. She looked at the window again. It had no frame. The only thing it showed was a greyish cloudless sky. Finally growing the courage to see what lay beyond, she dragged the stool beneath the window, climbed atop, and peeped over.

Nebetah froze as an endless nest of snakes and vines greeted her sight. Some were of monstrous sizes, seeming to heave as they moved, while others were slender in comparison, their bodies coiling and twisting. Amidst the writhing tangle, a massive cotton-white serpent suddenly raised its head and looked straight at her. Gasping, Nebetah ducked and slapped a trembling hand over her mouth.

There was a tightness in her chest that wouldn't release; it made it hard to breathe. The house she was in pulsed in time with her racing heart. What if the snake came after her? Crawling to a corner, she pressed her trembling form against the wall and snatched the staff with the blue dragon carving. She would protect herself even if it was the last thing she did.

***

The sound of bubbling water reached Apophis' ears.

Tefnut, the goddess who resided in the depths of lake Manzala had probably picked up his presence. Apophis was impressed. It would have taken a god at Ra's level to detect his presence that fast. Halting four feet from the bank of the lake, Apophis spread his consciousness farther than he normally would in search of any spiritual being in the vicinity. He and the goddess were the only spiritual beings present. Satisfied with his findings, he nodded.

The one-eyed priestess and her wheezing care-child stood under his shield a small distance behind. Both females clutched a smoking incense burner in their right hand and mumbled prayers to Tefnut.

It was midnight. The crescent moon above reflected against the black surface of the waters and there was an unnatural silence about. Save for the rushing water he heard earlier, nothing breached the silence, not even the croaks of frogs or chirps of crickets. The normally busy city of Tahpanhes had retired to an early night.