Anubis disappeared in a cloud of pink pixie dust.
Isis looked at me as I caught my breath. His claws were so close my face still stung from his acidic smell.
"You'll have to forgive my nephew," she said as I turned to her, "As one would imagine, he's quite...unnerved from his loss."
"Wait," I looked around me, but Hannah wasn't there, "Where's Hannah?!"
"Awake," Isis' expression changed, and she looked more benevolent, "Don't worry. You'll join her soon enough."
That sounded like a threat.
"Well, um," I bowed, "Thank you, my Queen."
Bowing's not exactly my thing, but the last time I met Isis, Mac refused to bow down and got turned into a frog.
I'm not kidding. He still croaks every once in a while.
"Rise," the goddess acknowledged, and I rose.
"I personally don't believe you stole the Ankh," she looked at me intently, "I sense no aura of death about you, apart from traces of my nephew's presence. That doesn't mean I will be able to rescue you forever, and Anubis' claim, if only partially, appears justified."
She gave me a look, "Do you understand?"
"I...think so?" I answered, and she continued.
"The state of the world is in one nearing chaos, to put it lightly," she picked a grape from thin air and tossed it into her mouth, swallowing it before she continued.
"Someone has stolen my nephew's sacred symbol, the Ankh of Death and Life, and is using it to reanimate mindless corpses the world over. International panic is already rising. If this threat is not stopped soon, I fear that mortal civilisation may fall."
The goddess's eyes studied me, and the air felt colder. "I want to assure you that if you did steal the Ankh, or aided the process of it's theft, Anubis will find you. The best hunters among the gods have already been sent to investigate the case. We do not take any imbalance of our realms lightly."
A basket of fruits appeared in midair, and she took an apple from it and held it up. "Want a fruit?"
I nodded, and she casually tossed the apple at me. My hand caught it easily, as if it had a mind of its own.
"If, however, you are innocent, you will need to prove it," I took a bite out of my apple as Isis continued and immediately felt better. I started to feel more at ease, and my breathing steadied. I began to feel stronger, rejuvenated. I could almost feel my sleeping body get stronger.
"Proving innocence for a crime that grave will not be easy," Isis said, "The thief has stolen the Ankh of Anubis, one of the most powerful weapons known to us gods. The thief has altered life and death, scaling the balance between good and evil; order and chaos. The thief hasn't just robbed Anubis of the most powerful weapon in two of our three realms. The thief has stolen the bridge between the realm of mortals and the realm of demons."
Isis looked worried, "This theft has already caused an imbalance of power between life and death. If the imbalance is left unchecked, it may topple over, severing the connection between the mortal realm and the nether realm; my realm and that of Anubis."
Mid-bite I muttered, "I don't see how that's a bad thing."
She shook her head, "But it is, Son of Fate. Without a connection to the other realms, the mortal realm cannot stand. It will be weakened, spiritually shrivelled. Without a connection to death, to the chaos of the netherrealm, man would be left essentially immortal." The goddess frowned, "Man is an imperfect being, Jones Fate. Could you imagine what would happen if an imperfect being such as man was given the perfection of immortality?"
YOU ARE READING
The Ankh of Anubis... Trials of Fate Book III
FantasyMath class was hard enough; I didn't need the mummies. Anubis, the Egyptian god of death, has lost his most sacred weapon, an Ankh believed to possess power over life and death. All of a sudden, dead bodies all over the world are coming to life...
