Chapter Text
“Why did you visit me that night?” Horus asked as he lowered a bloody flail.
Seth was breathing hard as he leaned his chest against the pillar his arms were bound around. His back stung from the many times Horus had struck it, and he could feel places where he was bleeding. It was either late or early, he didn’t know. Horus had simply tied him to the pillar and began striking him apropos nothing in particular, like most of Horus’ punishments.
“Answer me or it’s more strikes,” Horus said. He flicked the flail so that Seth could hear the now-familiar noise. Seth had used them before to try them out, as he’d used all weapons. But he’d never been on the receiving end of one.
He had to admit, he didn’t like it much.
But Horus had asked him a question, and he grasped in confusion for what it was for. All his recent memories were pain and refusing to scream, because he knew Horus wanted to see the personification of evil broken, and Seth was petty enough to try to deny him. “What night?”
Horus chuckled. “The night of the second match, Uncle. What other night did you voluntarily visit me?”
Seth tried to think back, but it was so hard these days. He’d been Horus’ prisoner for weeks now, maybe months, or so it seemed. He rarely saw sunlight and it was difficult to track time otherwise. Horus’ punishments kept his mind too occupied to do much.
Seth almost wondered if Isis had given him all the books on how to fuck and torture someone, or if Horus was just naturally inclined to be creative that way. He was still crude and inexperienced, but even a crude and experienced tyrant could cause pain.
Seth knew that firsthand.
Horus pressed the tails of the flail into Seth’s back, near one of worse cuts, making Seth grunt in pain. “Answer me, Uncle.”
Seth swallowed. The sentencing Maat had created gave Horus control over Seth’s powers, so crushing the stone column he was tied to was out of the question. And he could never forget it: the rare time he slept, he could hear the snakes of the spell hissing in his nightmares. It didn’t stop him from squeezing the column in hope it would suddenly give way, and he could make what was likely another doomed escape attempt. “I wanted to beat you.”
Horus laughed. Seth hated his laughter. “I know. But why then? Why choose that?” Seth’s eyes were blindfolded again, but he could well imagine Horus’ patronizing head tilts, his cruel smile. Horus was nothing but mockery. “You always look at me with such disgust, yet you specifically chose to try and violate me in this manner.” Horus lowered the whip to above the cleft of Seth’s ass.
Seth bowed his head and gave up on crushing the column with his weakened arms. He was shaking a bit, too. He barely slept, and Horus always wore him down with one new torment or another. It was pathetic.
The only thing he could be grateful for was that because of the blindfold, Horus couldn’t see his eyes. Horus couldn’t see the exhaustion, or the occasional times Seth teared up.
“But it didn’t work out, did it?” Horus said, moving the tails carefully over Seth’s bruised flesh, making Seth gasp. He leaned forward and kissed Seth’s right shoulder, making him shudder. “You enjoyed it.”
“I didn’t enjoy it.” The memory was murky, but still there, amongst Seth’s other failures. After the second match, with Seth’s humiliating defeat, Seth meant to make up for it, ruin Horus forever, and end the trial simply. But Seth’s body had betrayed him that evening. Afterward, as he lay there in bed with a sleeping Horus sprawled over him, he’d damned Sekhmet for putting the idea in his head in the first place.
“You know what would humiliate him the most. That stoic boy would never be able to handle it.”
But when it came to it, Seth hadn’t been able to go through with it. He’d made a fool of himself seducing the boy, thinking it’d be easy... but then he’d hesitated. And he didn’t know why.
And Horus had taken the initiative, pushed him down and… Seth hadn’t been able to fight back. He’d tried and been too weak, just like now. And his body had responded to Horus’ ministrations, like it always did in his captivity.
Eventually he’d mustered enough strength to turn into sand and float away, too weak to even strike his nephew in slumber, and wanting only to bury himself in a dark place where no one could see him, and perhaps even he could forget the humiliation beneath alcohol and incense. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. Because, as Horus so often said, Seth’s choices didn’t matter.
“You responded so beautifully,” Horus said before moving his lips down Seth’s back to lick over the stinging cuts. “Just like you do now.”
Seth grunted at the feel of Horus’ tongue on his injuries. It hurt, and made his limbs twitch.
Horus leaned his head against Seth’s right shoulder. “I was only seven years old when a playmate at one of our hiding places was stolen by slavers and raped to death.”
Seth stiffened.
“Mother and I couldn’t save them. Though Mother tried.” Horus opened his jaw and bit down into Seth’s shoulder, making the older god gasp. When Horus let go and pulled away, he licked the wound, and then said, “Not everyone perished. Some were captured. I have reports from families being reunited. Egypt is slow to recover. It likely never will. You cannot undo that kind of trauma. That loss.”
Seth’s hands twitched in their bonds.
Horus shoved his fingers into Seth’s ass, making Seth grunt in pain. He was still filthy from their previous sessions, but Horus never seemed to care. He even seemed to enjoy it. “You can’t bring back dead parents. Dead children. A whole, un-assaulted mind. Those are gone forever.”
“Does it satisfy you, then?” Seth said as Horus worked away. “To rape me over and over for them?” Seth laughed. “Do you think this makes up for it? Balances Maat’s scales? One rape for another? Or a dozen or more, really?” He’d lost track at this point. His body was a worthless thing meant only for Horus’ amusement.
Horus was quiet for a time before replying, “No. It doesn’t.” Horus leaned in close to Seth’s left ear. “But killing you is too quick for what you deserve. For all the pain you caused.”
“Do you think I regret it?” Seth demanded as Horus replaced his fingers with his cock. “Do you think I give a single fuck about them? About your pain? Or theirs? They’re just humans!” Horus shoved himself in like he always did, and Seth gasped through it. “None of them matter!”
“Is that why you hurt them, Uncle?” Horus asked, not thrusting yet. “Because they’re nothing to you? You abandoned your duty as Egypt's protector and became her destroyer?”
“They were a means to an end,” Seth replied. “I just wanted to hunt down Isis.” He grunted as Horus pulled out and thrust back in, hard. “I don’t care about any of you. I’m not a king, after all.” His cheek banged against the pillar with the power of Horus’ thrusts, and he remembered another night, with a different body at his back. “I'm not anyone's protector." He couldn't protect himself, let alone anyone else. "You’re all nothing to me.” Every name, every story Horus told him, all of it was just noise.
“This nothing likes the way your ass feels around me, Uncle.”
Seth scoffed as his hips banged into the pillar. When Horus came inside him, Seth winced in disgust. He wondered how much of this it would take before he was broken. He didn’t understand why he wasn’t already gone. Nothing Seth did seemed to push Horus hard enough to finish him off at once. It was just slow torture. It was exhausting.
I don’t care, Seth thought as Horus pulled out of him, letting Horus’ seed leak out of Seth’s ass onto the floor. I wasn’t a king. In the many long lists of victims and their injuries, Seth simply turned away. He had to listen, of course, Horus made him listen. But so what? Seth was a monster. Monsters hurt people. They killed people. It made sense.
“It’s good you admit it,” Horus said, patting Seth’s left cheek before he stepped away.
Seth’s bruises stung. Shortly, he heard the desk chair scrape over the floor, and shortly after that, the sound of a quill on papyrus.
Seth sagged against the pillar. A short reprieve, perhaps. Before Horus came back for more.
“I just think it’s funny that you planned that,” Horus said, surprising Seth. “Thinking it would, what? Break me?” Horus laughed. “You have no idea what I went through while Mother and I were on the run.”
Seth had heard much of it before, so he had some impressions. And certainly he’d tried to kill Horus on a few occasions. They would not have been easy deaths, either. But thinking about what Horus asked, Seth wondered. “Were you raped?” Was that why he chose this manner of revenge?
Horus snorted. “No. But if not for Mother, I likely would have been. And I lost more than one friend to your animalistic followers.”
Seth snorted. “So, it’s just revenge after all.”
“For them and others, yes.”
So was what I tried to do, Seth thought. Though it felt empty and pointless. What did Horus care about Seth’s concerns? He’d said he was king, and his opinion was all that mattered. Seth’s job was to be the warm thing that Horus stuck his fingers or cock into.
“You’ll have to speak up if you want me to hear you, Uncle.”
Seth snorted. “Why? You’ll fuck me to near-death anyway.”
Horus chuckled. “Of course, Uncle. But I like hearing you run your mouth. You have a pretty voice.” The tone sounded just like Osiris.
Seth’s heart raced, and he called a weapon to his hand, any weapon… but nothing came to him. “Fuck off.” Seth reminded himself that even though Osiris had managed to revive himself, he was still in Duat, dead. And Horus seemingly had no intention of sending Seth there any time soon.
“So ungrateful. You know you’re kept warm here. Sheltered.”
Seth scoffed. “Such warmth. Getting fucked half to death or beaten on the regular…”
“You have a roof over your head. No animals come after you at night. Me to care for you. Most of your victims didn’t get that.”
Seth leaned his head against the column. Of course. More about how terrible Seth was to the humans. He recalled his followers calling out to him over the years, and others still, begging for mercy. What mercy could Seth provide? He couldn’t save anyone.
“I could just kick you out into a mob of your followers and see what they do with you. Without your powers, after all… They’d rip you to pieces. They’re little better than animals, and rip each other apart if they can’t rip apart others.”
“Why don’t you, then?” Seth asked, idly curious. Would this be a new torture? “Wouldn’t that be easier for you? Letting someone else do the grunt work?” At this point, it was preferable. He couldn’t imagine the humans were this imaginative.
“You’re mine,” Horus said, with some venom. “To do with as I please.”
You’re no different than your father. So much had happened to Seth that he wondered if Osiris’ ministrations were being eclipsed. Seth still had nightmares about that night Osiris had assaulted him. And this wasn’t the only time Horus had sounded like his father. But in a way, this all made more sense. After all, Seth had spent hundreds of years hunting Isis and Horus down. Seth had never wronged Osiris, other than to reject his advances. Vengeance from Horus made sense. It was Seth’s lot: as the loser, he was no different than any of the winner’s other subjects, and would be used as Horus pleased.
Seth’s choices didn’t matter. And he wished he’d realize that at some point, so that he’d stop fighting. Perhaps this would all be easier.
Why did I take Sekhmet’s advice? Seth asked as his back throbbed. If he hadn’t, he might not be here right now. He might even still be king. Still tearing Egypt apart until it eventually collapsed. And then there would be nothing. No one. Silence.
“Judging by all this,” Horus said, “You made a terrible king.”
Seth laughed.
“Do you find that funny, Uncle?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“If I was so terrible, then why did you need an army to defeat me?”
Horus chuckled. “Oh, Uncle. I didn’t need an army, remember?” Seth heard Horus push back the chair and walk over to him. There was hot breath on Seth’s ear. “You practically let me defeat you.”
Seth felt his heart race as Horus stood there, emphasizing his point, until he finally felt satisfied and returned to the desk.
“No, I didn’t,” Seth said, quietly.
“Louder, Uncle. I can’t hear you properly.”
“I didn’t let you defeat me.” He wasn’t weak.
Horus laughed. “Of course, Uncle. A king is always right, after all.”
Seth clenched his hands together in impotent fury. “Fuck you.”
“We both know that’s not something you’ll ever manage.”
Seth’s cheeks burned and he yanked at the column. There was a slight creak, but it didn’t budge. “I’ll kill you! If it’s the last thing I do!”
“Are you threatening me, Uncle? Your king?”
Horus was up and back over by Seth almost immediately, and grabbed his hair, yanking it back.
“Why?” Seth replied, wishing his mouth was wet enough to spit. “Are you going to rape me again for it? Or whip me? Stuff me with another ridiculous contraption overnight?”
Horus was quiet for a while before he finally added, “One would think you want me to punish you, Uncle.”
Seth snorted as he tried to ignore the pain in his scalp. “Pointing out you’re predictable isn’t the same as asking for punishment.” He wanted to bury his claws in Horus’ skin and tear. If he was free—
Horus hummed. “You’re right. I am a bit predictable. But that’s okay.” He let go of Seth’s hair, allowing Seth to breathe more easily. “Because I’ve got all the time in the world. And soon enough you’ll realize that this isn’t a game wherein you eventually get to argue or fight your way out.”
Seth frowned.
“You’re my toy, Uncle. My prisoner. So yes, I’m going to keep you here for stress relief when I’m too exhausted and furious to continue to clean up the mess you left behind you. And that is all you ever will be, since you insist on learning nothing from your wrongs.” There was a laugh. “Oddly, I always find our time together inspiring for my work. So really, this is generally good for me.” There was scratching on papyrus, and Seth realized Horus was back at his desk. “It’s best you accept that. Or continue to whine. I’m sure I can make the guards keep quiet while they watch me fuck you.”
Seth leaned his head against the column and shut his eyes. He wondered if Horus could see his shaking now. And Seth tried to remind himself it didn’t matter anyway. Nothing did.