I startled from the stone I sat on, knocking over the water jug as I staggered to regain my footing. Cold water greeted my bare feet while I took deep breaths, slowly looking over towards I had last seen Khnum.
The Nile deity was still present, his emotionless expression meeting mine with a hooded stare.
"Did...you know?"
"I'm not all-knowing, Ahti," The tone Khnum used was dismissive, barely moving from his position when he leaned back a little, "I don't know what you saw."
"I saw Nephthys slain on the Nile riverbank," My breathing steadied while I took delicate steps back towards Khnum, "I heard Set...I think he's obsessed with me because I'm the last lifetime she has as a mortal. When I die, he'll take her back as his wife."
"Then why not die and get this over with?"
"I don't want to die, Khnum!" I took another step towards the impassive deity, shock and anger registering on my face, "I want to go back to my home."
"Yet, you're not bartering with those who could possibly ensure that to happen," He merely lifted an eyebrow, his pale yellow eyes meeting mine in a challenge, "Your son and his father."
"Anubis...and Osiris?" I mentally reeled from the suggestion, unsure about either option laid before me, "But...they don't have temples in the area, from what I know. Plus, they're both dead realm gods that I wouldn't really be able to meet without almost dying again."
Of the two, Osiris was the harder to communicate with. He was the lord of the dead, the one that weighed hearts against a feather of Ma'at to see if the heart's owner was able to pass on to paradise or be fed to the monster Ammit. He was said to escort the souls of pharaohs to paradise himself should they pass the weighing.
He was also the same deity that Nephthys had lain with to produce Anubis, the very act causing all of this to happen to me.
I didn't really feel like drawing more ire to me from a deity that may feel slighted of being tricked into sleeping with someone who wasn't his partner, not to mention the possible wrath of Isis, Osiris' wife and Nephthys' sister.
"If I can't communicate with them, who would I turn to then?" I pried Khnum for some wisdom, knowing the answer yet not wanting to hear it.
"Set."
I closed my eyes in resignation, angered that once more I found myself in a position where I may have to make another bargain with the very deity that had dragged me here. While I had asked Atum to leave me here, Khnum had made it clear that he didn't want this little town in Set's sights...and since Set was always pursuing Nephthys within me, I was the one that had to leave before he arrived. While it would be easier to keep hiding from the chaotic deity, I knew that I would eventually tire from fleeing.
Set was a certainty; I was temporary.
"Khnum, I will ask you for one thing," My eyes met his pale yellow hues in a neutral gaze, "I want your protection while I use your Nile to traverse away from Djedet."
The only response was a slight recoil of his head, as if he hadn't expected me to ask that from him.
I picked up the empty clay vase of water, dipping it into the Nile once more before walking towards the embankment, "I have Atum's protection until the poison within me has been bled, so I know that I am moderately safe from mortal danger. This town had been kind to me while I recovered from the assassination and I wish to repay their kindness with an unseen action. Djedet will not fall to Set's anger."
"You understand that what you're setting out to do may result in your death, right?" The river deity followed me along the Nile's shoreline, his feet hovering just above the mud and clay while my feet sank into it, "I thought you were wanting to remain free."
"Call it a change of heart," I huffed as I readjusted the heavy vase on my hip, stilling and looking at the ram deity over my shoulder. The expression he wore was a pleasurable mixture of confusion and understanding, "I don't want to die, true...but this was never about me ever since I was dragged here by an impatient chaos deity. I am Nephthys' last lifetime and everything that I've felt from her has been apologetic, albeit annoying when I want to fight instead of rolling over and surrendering for something I never did. She won't let me be myself here, taking control when I refuse to listen to her."
Khnum's eyes widened as his gaze shifted past me.
"That is rather pleasing to hear."
My skin prickled in fear at the new voice, my voice lodged in my throat as I lost all bravado. I could barely turn around completely, catching the set-animal headdress from the corner of my eye.
"To see you alive with my own eyes is relieving, Nebthwt. For a small moment, I thought I'd have to cleave this place in twain to find you, too."
Wide yellow eyes stared down at me from within a shadowed face, the humanoid mouth pulled wide in a vicious grin made from sharp and pointed fangs. The gray fur under the headdress waved in the air as a breeze coldly blew by us while the newcomer's hands remained at his side.
"...why..."
The question only made him widen his eyes further, the worn expression nearly maniacal. I swallowed thickly as I turned more towards him.
"Are you still so angry at what Nephthys had done to you that you're persistently hunting her down in every lifetime?"
Set, while the same size as me, felt much larger than I could hope to see. His skin trembled with either exhilaration or rage, the very fiber of his being barely holding back his true power. Even when I had been dragged to his desert realm, what I had seen felt small compared to the aura he was now exuding, "You still ask me questions..."
"My life has already been claimed by your hands," The water vase was placed on the ground, my eyes never leaving his penetrating gaze, "I just want to satisfy my curiosity for answers."
The wind grew colder, something I thought impossible around the deity that embodied the deserts surrounding ancient Egypt within the Nile valley.
"If I answer, will you give me your heart?"
My ears perked up at the phrasing, anger swelling in my chest.
"I want to make a bargain with you, Set," I rested a hand over my heart to reiterate my point, "My organs are for Anubis. You will separate Nephthys from my soul and deliver me safely back to my home, in my own time period."
Set's eyes hooded dangerously, the smile never leaving his face, "I answer your questions and take Nebthwt back to my side...and put you back in your own time? You already know that answer, desert flower. I can't allow you to leave until she releases you."
His words echoed in my head, the memory of laying on Anubis' table flashing in my head.
"I'm not the deity you should be bargaining for freedom with."
"Nephthys is dead!" I shouted in frustration, clenching my fists tightly as I braced myself in anger, "I saw her corpse fade into the Nile with you shouting at her that you won't forgive her until her last lifetime has been lived!"
"And you think you're the last?!" Set roared back in anger, his death-like skin pulsing as he made to lunge at me, his white fangs flashing while spittle flew against the wind, "No! You're the thirtieth human that Nebthwt has used to hide from me! The only reason you still live is because of our previous bargain."
The wind suddenly shifted as heat poured from Set, his human-sized form growing with every passing second, "You wished me to stay by your side for seven sun crossings. After that has passed, I claim your soul and drag my wife back to me!"
I balked internally.
Set considered the first bargain to be active. My mind raced as I tried to remember how many days had passed since I 'died' at the Pharaoh's hands.
Four.
"Then you're to remain at my side for another three days!" I pointed a finger towards his face, snarling in frustration, "If the only reason I still live is because of our bargain, then you're bound by your word to complete it!"
The deity seemed stunned, the grin finally dropping from his lips as they remained parted in a semi-shocked expression. His frame slowly shrank back down to a human size once more as the heat dissipated enough to let the water-chilled breeze pass over us again.
"I still bear your symbol, correct?" I looked down my nose at Set, seeing him barely nod in confirmation, "Then our agreement is still active. Answer my questions and I will not fight you on the seventh day."
The look of partial defeat on Set was one I would always relish: his pale yellow eyes downcast to my feet while his lips were set into a small frown, his shoulders a little slumped forward while he bowed his head in my direction.
"You wish to know if I'm still angered with Nebthwt..." The air suddenly grew hot again as his gaze slowly lifted up to my face, the yellow eyes thickly rimmed with red and green as a ferocious animalistic snarl pulled his lips apart, "...unconditionally."