War Of Egypt II • The Persians

Chapter 11: Lineages & Blood

    Prince Ahmes did not know what to say or how to react. But he stared at Set, and stared, stared some more...and stared. Many questions still swarmed his mind but finally he found an important one; why was Set here, if he was already dead? Before he could ask, Set left his side. The god walked over to a lounging chair and sat down, adjusting his long black shendyt and the neck collar around his thick neck. He looked up at the boy and beckoned him forward with his left hand curled.

   "Why do you stare so much?" He asked and pointed to the floor in front of him. "Sit."

    Ahmes looked at him and at the floor. Normally he would not do such a thing asked of him, he was a Prince and he was a god! This time, he obeyed in fear and made his way over to sit in front of Set. "Why am I here? Why are you here?"

   "My Kingdom, I can do whatever I want, little Ahmes. But you," he pointed down at him, "are here because I want to look at you."

   "M-me? You w-want to...look...at me?"

    Set suddenly leaned down, closer to Ahmes and eyed him carefully, "stop stuttering. I can tell you fear me, and you should, but do not overdo it. That is just stupid. Mmm must have inherited it from your mother's side." When the last statement left his pale burgundy lips, Set reached up into Ahmes' hair and flicked his head to the side before pulling back into the chair.

    Ahmes was starting to feel annoyed rather than fearful, "my mother is great! She is from the blood of Osiris and Isis."

   "Ah," the god grinned, "my brother and sister. I loved them both, and still they refused me of all Egypt had to offer. That was why I had to kill Osiris, you know. A reason."

   "Funny way of showing unconditional love," muttered Ahmes with raised brows as he carefully picked a huge beetle crawling across his thighs and dropped it to the ground, where it scurried off.

   "Never said it was 'unconditional'." Set shook his head and looked down at him. His eyes followed the beetle and then fell back on his grandson.

   "Um can I just ask how you are here? Did Kha coming back, awaken you from the dead or something?"

   "No, I am very much dead. But I can form an extension of myself from my soul that lives on. No one knows but I guess I did not find a reason in using this until I met you."

   "Excuse me?"

   "You look too much like your mother, like Horus," Set deducted as he scanned the boy up and down, taking apart the differences and similarities. "I suppose the other kid looks like Kha."

    Without thinking, Ahmes blurted the first thing that came to his mind. "Yes—like you."

    Set did not move a single threatening muscle, instead Ahmes caught him giving a half smile as he leaned forth and rested his heavy elbows on his thighs. "I take it, very handsome then?"

   "Ye-yes?"

    Set nodded, "not so bad yourself, kid. Work on your speech, then you will be a true descendant of Set."

    His words churned up in Ahmes' mind. All this time he referred to himself as a god, a Prince; the son of Ametis and Kha. He never thought back to the light behind Ametis or the darkness behind Kha, but now he realized it was inevitable. The balance that everyone so talked about, where he was the moon and Atenosis was the sun, where he was light and Atenosis was darkness—it went beyond that. Even though they ruled half each of a whole, Ahmes now understood that it did not matter because they came from a mixture of both—forming him and Atenosis apart. And so his mind, content with the discovery, lifted the veil on the other family he decided to suppress for long enough. The darkness lifted to show Set and Nephthys.