The sun was beginning to set as the barque pulled back into the private docking area of the palace, the royal procession stepping off of the boat first before the musicians and navigators. As my feet stepped onto solid ground, the Pharaoh turned to me with a dismissive expression.
"You're free to stay within the walls of the palace," Her tone sounded tired, but there wasn't an ounce of fatigue in her body posture, "I will require your presence later in the night."
"Yes, your majesty," I lowered my head before watching the procession leave with her at the head.
There was no way that I was going to pass up the renewed opportunity to explore the palace. I didn't have much of a chance since I found out that I was embroiled in some godly drama, but now that I was forced to stay here until the Pharaoh was satisfied with Set's demands, I was going to take full advantage of it.
----
Despite being exposed to the sun all day, the marble pillars surrounding the courtyard were cool to the touch, the pads of my fingers slowly running over the meticulously carved stone. To know that this entire palace would be ransacked and left to rot for thousands of years was heartbreaking, my mind taking in as much detail as it could as I looked at reliefs depicting the deities interacting with mortals and servants carrying out pharaohs orders.
The murals scattered around the inner courtyard were simple in comparison to the ones within the palace, revealing scenes of nature along the Nile and mimicking the plants that grew on its riverbanks.
"Does something please your eye?"
I jumped in shock before turning towards the voice, seeing a servant boy standing just to the side with a torch, illuminating the area as the sunlight quickly faded from the sky.
"I'm sorry," I looked back towards the depiction of crocodiles swimming amongst the reeds of the Nile, "I was appreciating the art displayed around the palace."
"Oh, I know you were," The tone in the boy's voice made him sound decades wiser than an eight-year-old should be.
"Thoth," The deity's name dripped from my lips with slight disdain, unsure of what the deity of wisdom wanted with me, "I thought you would be busy possessing your chosen scribe."
"He is quite capable on his own and knows what I demand of him when I send him," The boy gave a smile as his eyes partially closed, the scheming look familiar to me, "Is it wrong to check up on my guided vassal?"
"Last I checked, I wasn't your vassal."
The kid lifted up the torch to expose more of the mural to the light, "Your allegiance doesn't concern me, Ahti."
"Yet you're the one visiting me in the mortal world."
"I am merely doing my job," I heard the scoff in his voice, the boy turning back to me after examining the mural himself, "Which you are making difficult."
"I can't control Set, okay?" I huffed in annoyance as I grabbed the torch from the kid, moving towards the wall dividing the inner courtyard from the first courtyard, "It doesn't matter if I am the reincarnation of Nephthys. Last I checked, no one can control chaos."
"So you believe you are Nebthwt," Thoth's voice stilled my movement, his curiosity rolling over me in waves as I felt an enormous pressure from the kid.
"...I don't know," My shoulders slumped a little as I admitted partial defeat, "Only two weeks ago, I was studying these ruins through pictures taken by the field team in the lab. Now...I've been dragged back in time and the deity of chaos has declared me to be his sister-wife. It's too much for me."
Silence filled the space between us as I took a deep breath, the torch crackling softly as the fire ate at the fat-soaked rag.
"I'm sure that you'll figure something out," Thoth's voice chided, "It's not like you have foreknowledge of where the pharaohs worshiped their gods."
My eyes widened before I spun to face Thoth, instead seeing the vacant space where the boy had been.
I became a little more thankful that he was the Egyptian deity that took me under his wing as I quickly moved towards the front of the palace courtyard, taking a sharp right that brought me into the secluded section of the palace that housed the temple.
Dousing the flame from the torch, I walked as calmly as I could towards the steps that led up to the beautifully crafted architecture. Standing sconces lined the stairway while fire danced along the pillars within the wall torches, illuminating the entire area when the sun could not.
A massive carving depicted the Aten along the back wall, its ray hands reaching down to bless the earth beneath it with light and life while various ranks of Egyptians raised their hands in praise or offering. There were a few scattered benches within the vast empty room, each positioned strategically for different times of the day to be bathed within the sunlight that streamed through carved holes in the ceiling.
A handful of acolytes merely watched with disinterest as I stepped into the temple itself, going about their business when I didn't look directly at them.
If this was the place that Thoth had indicated for me to search, then what I was looking for wouldn't be completely obvious.
I began scouring the perimeter of the temple, taking in the details of the carvings and murals while looking for anything that seemed to be out of the ordinary. The current pharaoh worshiped Set, which possibly meant that there was a part of this temple that she had converted to pray to him.
All pharaohs had done so in the history I studied, even going so far as to have their likeness carved over existing depictions of former pharaohs.
They were gods among men in the eyes of their people.
'This one has the attitude to back up that claim,' My inner voice laughed at the thought, wondering if she'd survive in the modern world where others would treat her just like she treated everyone around her here.
My hand shifted on a carving near the back corner, the stone sinking underneath my touch and drawing my immediate focus to what happened. I froze as I stared at the symbol -- a long bar tapered downwards towards the ends to form an upside down canoe with six lines of water swayed down from the underside. The same symbol that was emblazoned on my chest in my dreams.
A soft unlatching sound echoed from the small alcove next to it, a hidden wooden door swinging open just a few inches. Looking around like a child discovering something forbidden, I tried to approach the door as nonchalantly as I could. My fingers touched the firm wood, opening the door wider to see a single torch burning within the new opening before taking it and closing the door behind me as I stepped inside.
The silence within the short hallway was suffocating, the torchlight illuminating another door just a few feet away.
"Is this what you wanted me to find...?" I spoke quietly to no one before reaching to pull open the second door, the breath stolen from my lungs as it revealed the secret prayer room within the walls of the temple.
A large carving of Set stared down at me, the maniacal grin on his face nearly matching that one I saw in my dream as his wide eyes regarded me with something I could only call hostility. His hands were etched into the side walls as if he was trying to envelope me in a death grip, the talons sharp and detailed.
I stood still for a moment to ensure that it was merely a carving and not the deity himself. When he made no move to capture me, my eyes slowly wandered down to the table laying at his 'feet' to see several scrolls laying open near several reed pens and a closed inkwell.
'Today, Set brought another servant girl to me, his sign blazing brightly in my eyes as she pleaded for her innocence. She proclaimed to know nothing of what I asked and tried to escape the court. She was executed promptly to prevent her escape.'
The scrawling wasn't done through a scribe, whose handwriting was trained to be neat and orderly. I moved to sit on the floor, looking through another scroll as I placed the first one back on the table.
'This time a boy was brought to me, his mother pleading with me to have him released from his punishment. I saw the symbol again on the boy's chest and prayed for guidance. I am growing tired of the games Set is playing.'
The scrolls continued marking the person's torment at slaying the people, each entry becoming shorter and shorter until I opened the last scroll.
'This one is different. I see it in how she carries herself in my presence. She does not bear the sign, but Set tells me to be patient. My patience grows thin with this one. My scribe bore several stories from her that he gathered, some of which sounded fantastical and otherworldly, but I cannot know for certain if she was the one to experience all of these things in one lifetime.
'Set came to me more than usual since her appearance, his demands becoming more certain. She is the one he wants and he will claim her when the time is right. I have taken hundreds of lives into his hands and I will bring hundreds more until Set is satisfied with his search. He must be reunited with Nebthwt before I pass into Osiris' hands.'
I blinked in confusion as I leaned away from the scroll, the writing confirming that it was the Pharaoh who penned these.
Nephthys. Everything had to do with the Egyptian goddess of the dead.
The question was why.
There didn't seem to be any urgency for finding the answers except for Set's seemingly relentless search before I was dragged through time, but now that I was here...he was solely focused on drawing out the goddess through me.
But...why?
No immediate or obvious answer popped into my head as I sat in contemplation, staying silent for what seemed like a long time before a thought entered my head.
How can I use this to my advantage?
Set was obviously looking for his sister-wife because of reasons that I wasn't privy to, but if I was able to secure a safe way home through demands...what could the harm be?
I'd go home to a time where he didn't have much power, if any at all. Thoth had stated himself that he was limited on what was going on in modern times because of the lack of belief, so why would that not carry over to all of the Egyptian deities?
"Found you!" An excited roar tore through the small room, cutting off my thoughts and making me jump in surprise as my eyes darted up to the depiction of Set. His eyes widened in pleasure while his lips pulled back a little further to spread the toothy grin from ear to ear.
"Set!" My voice sounded strained through the tension in my throat, moving away from the carving as his hands flexed within the stone walls. Suddenly, his body pulled itself from the carving and loomed over my form, the room not big enough for the both of us to be comfortable.
"Why are you hiding here, Nebthwt?" The room suddenly expanded behind him, the stone slabs shoved away to expose a length of desert all around us. Set stood taller as the sand forming the lower half of his body merged with the sand underneath my jeans and shoes.
Jeans...? Oh, not again.
A pain burned in my chest as one of Set's hands lifted me from the desert, his touch still excruciatingly unbearable like last time. The claw on his thumb lightly scratched at the shirt where my sign lit up my skin, a pleased expression resting on his face before his pale yellow eyes looked back at mine.
"Aren't you getting tired of running all the time?" He almost sounded disappointed, like a father catching his kid doing some forbidden activity.
Thoughts tumbled in my head, wanting to demand that he return me home where I belonged but also wanting more answers that only Set could give. The air became thick with dry humidity as I pushed aside his thumb, standing up in his palm to speak...