As the bright light filled my vision, the air suddenly grew to extremely, extremely warm and dry, the sound of wind ripped through my ears and skirted across my suddenly bare skin as my footsteps met stone floor…barefoot footsteps.
I looked up as I found myself in a massive open courtyard: open hallways to the sides with only widely spaces limestone and alabaster pillars adorned with engraving of papyrus, lotus, Hieroglyphics and various other depictions. Sculpted white stone pathways making a cross through the long courtyard, the spaces around the pathway sunken and occupied with large ponds with floating lotus, lilies, papyrus grasses and other fixtures like some statues, fountains and things like that. The slopped roofs visible above the pillar tops were coated in cobalt colored tiles, gold adornments hanging over the edges as wide open pathways allowed the warm breeze to filter about the castle/temple.
As I walked ahead, all of the various attendants of my father and of the afterlife bowed their heads towards me as I made my way through the chambers, halls and various courtyards. The sound of people chanting sections of the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Netherworld and the Book of the Sky. The heavy scent of honey, dates, clean linen, fresh papyrus scrolls and all sorts of spices filled my nose as did the various sounds of traditional Egyptian music.
I paused at a moment as I passed wall sized flanking mirrors as I looked at myself, seeing myself in this form was something I get to see every so often, but…I need to ensure I am presentable for my father’s time. I’m actually only half Egyptian through my father, through my mother I am half Russian, but I really don’t look Russian at all. I’m rather tall, but impossibly thin, just…never have been able to keep weight on my person: deep toned tan skin and because I’m here: my person was wrapped in a golden aura glow, my eyes glowed gold and white and my hair which is only to about my collar normally, now hung down my back to my waist. A large black jackal head shaped headdress rested atop my head with a black-gold stripe cape piece hanging down my back and shoulders, shirtless, but covered in masses of gold jewelry adorned with onyx, obsidian and other black gemstones, a huge gold collar guard like piece over my entire collarbone and shoulders in thick gold and studded with black stones, a knee length black linen wrapped skirt with a matching gold and gemstone belt and barefoot today, but I had the usual black leather, gold and gemstone bracers, a large vaguely sickle shaped khopesh resting on my hip and a fetish off my other, the long black/gold coiled wand ending in a tied on section of snake skin. My eyes edged in traditional black khol in that Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra like shape and gold pigments across my skin.
I walked through the halls and chambers before walking through a set of entrance pylons shaped like jackals on their back feet, walking into a very large open roofed chamber, huge gold pans hung off the walls filled with red hot coals with handfuls of incense powders being tossed into them, the walls covered in vividly colored and intricately carved hieroglyphic stories just past the loop of thin limestone and alabaster pillars, a few fountains spotted the room, large statues of canopic jars, large golden glowing ankh along the ceiling lines, elaborate structures of woven glowing gauze wrappings and a thin waterfall along the back wall spiraling throughout the room. Two huge obsidian jackal statues adoring the back corners with the nine bows depicted: the nine bows are a representation in ancient Egyptian art that represented the foreign powers who tried to invade Egypt, showing our ability to stand above those nine enemies whom all bowed to us. The scent of embalming spices and herbs along with the caustic scent of salt plumed from the fire filled pans, papyrus sculpted of gold and stones adorned the room and centered at the back was a massive gold stone throne adorned with leopard skins and near the top of the throne were these two long gold prongs off the sides ending in large pans; one had a very large glowing white feather in it and the other was empty.
There seated in the throne was…my father…Anubis: the Egyptian god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs and the underworld. A tall, rather darker skinned man sitting tall and proud in the throne, his back pushed into the left side corner of the seat with one leg draped over the right arm and his other propped up with a heel resting on the edge of the seat, taller than human should be, maybe pushing ten feet tall on his feet. Built like an Olympic runner: tall, thin and lithe, but still extremely muscular, body covered in this golden sheen and black markings across his upper arms and chest, knee high gold gladiator sandals with a knee length wrapped linen skirt in dark tombstone gray, shoulders and collar covered in a massive gold guard adorned with bone like charms and pieces along with lapis lazuli, turquoise and other gemstones, but his head was extended by a few extra inches leading to a massive black jackal head, sleek close inky skin with massive pointed ears with a gilded interior: a gold circlet around his brows with a flounce of blue and black striped cape hanging down his back, two mirrored thin bands down his chest ending in wide gold clasps, matching lapis adorned cuffs were around his upper arms and wrists with other pieces down his arm and across his person, white eyebrows and matching nails on his hands and feet, a gold sash wrapped around and over his skirt with a patterned shawl around his waist over the top of his skirt. His left hand shifted as a large gold ankh emblem, the size of his hand, lazily shifted in the air around his hand as he held a massive dark stone and lapis lazuli staff in his right hand, the top shaped like a crook and the bottom ended in a rather horseshoe like shape, hanging charms of leopard skin hanging off the top and piercing glowing cobalt eyes.
Dad shifted before standing as he stood, letting go of the ankh charm which let it dangling around his wrist from the thick gold chain there, he walked with the staff like a walking stick, but he didn’t need it. Strapped to one of his hips was a tall swirled blue/gold scepter with a leopard skin tied around the top by the limbs so the body and tail fluttered along the scepter, topped in an upward facing crescent moon and a large diamond like shape off the bottom of the haft. His form shifted slightly as he shrank to a much more human size.
“My…son…” he said as he walked over towards me, the crook and flail of gold and lapis nestled into a harness against his sides, he walked up to me, still far taller than me and I’m probably just past six feet tall. He kissed my forehead before gripping my shoulders, “What is it? I heard your request for speaking to me earlier. Something is worrying you?” he asked as he motioned for me to follow alongside him.
As we walked through seemingly endless gardens, pavilions where mummies were being embalmed and processed, chambers where sarcophagus being sculpted, carved, decorated and adorned, in another where mummies were being laid to rest or their mouth’s opened along with other sorts of other death and mummification needed work. The spectral shapes of souls and Dad’s staff milling about in human shapes of color or more so in flesh of people dressed in the proper regalia of an Ancient Egyptian mummification specialist or the other aspects.
“Well…earlier today…I saw a man…running down the street. I was able to catch up to him, he was covered in broken shackles, cuffs and a thick collar that was a muzzle too.”
“A muzzle?” he asked confused, I nodded.
“And the metal was this weird color: green, blue and gray all at the same time somehow, glowing blue runes around them and impossibly powerful…I did some identification magic on it and it said the metal was something called…Atlantis Iron”
“Atlantis Iron?” he said more musing to himself as he looked up towards a large open section of ceiling open to the large chamber the underworld we were in.
“A doctor at the hospital is a demon…she said that the only place that that metal is mined and made is…the realm of…Leviathan.”
“You know us deities do not like messing with or dealing with deities of other religions and other pantheons. Leviathan is a Judeo-Christian archdemon deity.” He said, still walking with his staff which clacked softly against the stone floor. “Why was the man muzzled?”
“I…I don’t know: not a single person in the hospital…including me, were strong enough to break the enchantments on it: no amount of unlocking spells, charms or magic removal would work.”
“…that must be extremely strong enchantment magics…Do you know what race that man is?”
“No…he…he didn’t know where he was, what time it was or anything like that…I didn’t get to ask his name he was panicking about the world so much: he…he had no idea what cars were, or anything…modern.” I said
“He must have been imprisoned for a very…very long time.” He added as we paused in a large circular courtyard adorned with a large target shaped garden of ever fruited date and fig trees. “I see why you request my help, my dear son, but…I’m afraid because the person whom has a hand in the imprisonment of this man is of another pantheon…I cannot do anything. Us, Egyptian deities, hold ourselves to a much, much more…strict and moral code than that of other pantheons, they are always meddling with each other…though I have heard of some strange council of all of the love deities across all of existence, but…I much rather prefer to stay here.” He said
“What…what should I do?”
“I am not sure, Nomarch: I do not know anything about Leviathan other than their name…I do not know anything else.”
“Have you ever heard the names…Emperor of Typhoon or King of Sleet and Snow anywhere?”
“Once or twice, but…other in passing, nothing really. I’ve only heard them said about some…upstart deity of some kind.” Dad said as he reached up to grab a fig and toss it into his mouth as we walked out of the fig and date grove. “I…really do not know anything other than that…but…I fear as to what may come about because of finding this man. If he was a personal prisoner of Leviathan, one of the eldest beings in all of existence across all of the pantheons and worlds…I’m afraid of what he might possibly be, what he did or…whom he actually is. If he was shackled for so long…I’m afraid of what he possibly could have done…an archdemon that old would not imprison someone for that long for no reason.”
“Still” I said as I took my headdress off to rake my hand back through my hair, my hair here is so, so much longer than I am used to, my hair only hits my collar actually, so to have it to my waist here, it’s so strange feeling. Dad reached out to rest his hand atop my head, softly patting my head as I looked towards the ground, thinking about where I possibly could get information on how to get those shackles off.
“You should…probably be heading home, you know time in this place is…strange.” Dad said, I nodded.
“Please say hi to Mum for me”
“Of course and she sends her love as usual.” he said with a toothy smile of his jackal mouth as he hugged me close, resting his muzzle atop my head as I leaned into the hug, gripping his back as I rested my head against his shoulder, Dad always feels like the hottest summer in the middle of the sandy dunes, smells of sweet honey, spices and incense, I enjoy being here, but…it does not care for me to be here because of how I am still alive and not entirely divine. “And your sister sends her regards as well.”
“How is Kebechet?”
“She is well, busy with her work as usual…Anput also sends her hello.”
“Send mine to them” I said as I rose my hands in a few gestures before bringing my forearms together in front of me then moved them out like spreading curtains and stumbled back into my flat.
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