The Scared God [ManXManXMan]

Chapter Thirty: Замутить - Zamutit' ~ Part Two

~Chapter Thirty: Замутить - Zamutit'~ 

Once Hors and Perun have left the room, the door closed behind them, Anubis turns to my unmade bed – I never had the chance to make it before everything happened – and waves his hand over it. A pile of books and scrolls appears in the middle of the sheet pile before unbalancing and tipping over, leaving a couple of scrolls to roll towards my pillows. I stare at them for a moment, my brain short-circuiting, and then turn to Anubis in awe.

Some gods – myself included – are able to summon specialized weapons that have some sort of attachment to them or been laced with runes or magic to allow for summoning, but... that was basically reverse teleportation. Unless those books have some sort of really strong connection to him, he should not have been able to do that, and from the way he just let them tumble over, I rather doubt he cares about them enough to have formed that kind of a link.

"Teach me," I blurt out, because that has to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen a god do, and I have seen many fascinating displays of magic throughout my life. This, though, is new.

Or really, really old.

Anubis shakes his head, and I have to remind myself of the reverse meaning before the crushing disappointment can get to me. "Not today, but when you have more magic and freedom, you may call on me for a lesson," the Egyptian god says, as stoic as ever, though something about the look in his eyes tells me he is actually interested in having a student.

I would argue that I have freedom now, but there is really no point. Though I am not sure how much he knows about my situation – and if Perun told him or if he just somehow knows – he seems to know that I am not free to leave. Perun, Hors, and I might get along better, and they might trust me more now than before, but I doubt they would let me leave, especially not after what happened the last time I left the safety of this realm. Anubis could easily protect me, as he has multiple millennia of experience and power over Zeus, too, but all it would take is for me to be alone for a few seconds, and I could end up back in his clutches.

"What are these for?" I ask instead, eyeing the books again with more interest.

Anubis' attention does not waver from me as he explains, "Hermes came to me today and asked me to deliver them to you during my visit. He expressed the importance of them reaching you, though he did not explain why."

This makes me pause. "He...went to you just to have you deliver these books to me?"

Hermes might be the god of luck, but even that is too lucky; there's no way he could have known without being told that Anubis would be visiting us today.

"No. He was delivering a letter to Amun-Ra from Zeus," the Egyptian god says, "and he must have overheard something about our intention of forming an alliance with your pantheon, as he came to me to deliver these."

"Thank you," I reply, now unable to take my eyes off the books and scrolls. I am not sure what is so important about them, but they must be really special if Hermes felt the need to have them brought to me. There is also the question of why Hermes could not bring them to me himself, but I trust Anubis to have known whether it was the real Hermes or not, so I trust they are not some trap set by Zeus.

"In return for delivering them," Anubis says, and I finally look at him in apprehension, as that is never a good start to any sentence, "I ask that you inform Hermes that I am no delivery boy."

"I–yeah, okay," I stutter, relieved that it is not some outlandish request because Hermes did not offer to owe the favor, leaving the favor tab up to me to pay off. "Is there, uh, anything else you wanted to talk about?"