Chapter Text
Seth
Horus was eventually sated, and returned to his desk to work, leaving Seth a sticky, pained mess on the cot. He was too tired to do much other than remove the gag and toss it aside. He knew that Horus was hardly exhausted at all. A battle like they went through earlier that day, even facing another god, would be nothing to Horus.
“You keep saying you didn’t let me beat you,” Horus said with his back to Seth. Seth resisted the pointless urge to attack the other god. “But I saw the way you fought. I’ve been watching your training methods. Someone who fights like that as a god unencumbered by any spells wouldn’t have lost to an upstart like me.”
Seth wished the oaf would give up. He’d already beaten Seth and was using Seth as a toy. But Seth oddly found Horus’ wording fascinating. “You think so little of your own abilities?”
“I know my own limitations,” Horus replied neutrally. “Or did you miss the part of this whole debacle where you’re in charge of things and I’m not, because this isn’t my area of expertise?” The annoyance came back, then.
Seth frowned. He truly didn’t know what Horus was getting at now.
“It was amazing, honestly,” Horus said after a moment. There was an odd note of wonder in his voice. “Watching you attack the Greeks like it was nothing. The power you wield, even now… It makes me wonder what you were like as a god when you were at war.”
It was easier back then, Seth thought. Not as tiring. And he had more freedom to move and fight. What he was doing now was nothing by comparison.
“It’s a shame you had to ruin it,” Horus said.
Seth snorted. Of course, more mockery.
“It was also why watching you struggle that foreign god was so odd. It was like…” Horus frowned. “It was annoying. You should have been able to deal with him easily. But you weren’t.”
“It couldn’t have possibly been because I’m trapped by Maat’s spell and your stupid gift,” Seth mused. Had the oaf forgotten?
“I know that,” Horus said. “But it felt like… you shouldn’t have been. Like he should have been nothing.” Horus shook his head. “You represent Egypt’s martial capabilities. Seeing you struggle like that against the leader of an invading force is frustrating and embarrassing for us. He was toying with you.”
“Well, there’s an easy fix for that,” Seth said. “But I don’t see you implementing it.”
Horus grinned. “No, I don’t think I’ll be giving your full powers back any time soon. I’m not that foolish.”
Seth snorted. “Then you’ll have to live with the frustration. Threatening me isn’t going to get me to make up for the powers I don’t have access to. I want this stupid little war over as much as you do.” Being outside was good, but it wasn’t worth the risk of Anubis getting injured. Plus, there was a small chance Horus would take the cock ring off once they were back in Seth’s cell, though there was no guarantee of that… Seth almost wondered if it was a permanent addition to his clothing, given Seth was now more worried about disobeying.
But if nothing else, making things safer for Anubis meant something. He could go back into that tiny windowless room and go through more of Horus’ punishments for that. His body didn't matter, really.
Horus didn’t reply to him. He just went back to his work.
Seth shut his eyes, hoping for sleep.
The next three days were difficult. The Greeks called out their magic users to create vines to grab at the Egyptian attackers and their chariots, strangling, crushing, and tearing apart any who walked nearby. More monsters the size of three humans with many arms walked among the mortals cutting down anyone who came near, and sometimes picking up horses and tossing them aside. On the third day, as the Egyptians neared the beach, creatures in the water began sending giant waves onto the shore, crashing among the mortals. Isis stepped in at that point, ordering the waters to fight back against the Greeks. But the sea wasn’t her area of expertise, so it was a hard battle. Seth cut down a Greek monster that looked something like a giant human with a bull face, who had been targeting commanding officers. Then he continued onto the next giant monster.
The god who’d led the Greeks didn’t reappear. Seth imagined the tornado Horus had used had thrown him for some distance. Since the problem hadn’t returned, he focused on getting to the ships. If he could cut the soldiers off, they’d be trapped and helpless, whether or not they had people in the water using that to cut at their army. Their forces couldn’t hold out forever, anyway.
Seth still didn’t catch sight of Anubis. He hoped Anubis was okay, wherever he was. Their soldiers were tired, too, but rest had served them well. They were all ready to beat back the invaders.
Horus stayed by his side as well, using his powers more often to cut through anyone who got close, and to throw off stronger enemies. Seth thought Horus could say that Seth was formidable, but there was an interesting kind of competency in what Horus did. He didn’t waste time with these soldiers: he just cut right through things. In another life, Seth might even be happy to have someone like that at his side.
The second evening of battle, when Horus and Seth were back in Horus’ tent, Horus demanded once again that Seth tell him what made Horus worse than Osiris.
Seth remained silent, kneeling on the ground and wishing Horus would get whatever he planned over with.
Horus said, “I can still activate the cock ring, you know. I know you hate it.”
“So do it,” Seth spat out. And then pain filled him so suddenly and sharply that he fell over on the ground. It was like someone was stabbing hot pokers into his lower chest and strangling him all at once. If Horus was still talking to him, he couldn’t hear it, because everything was just the pain. He twisted on the dirt ground, trying to get purchase on something, to ease himself, but there was no relief.
But he’d dealt with pain before. He’d survived it. He couldn’t attack Horus in his current state, but he could survive.
He woke sometime later not realizing he’d fallen unconscious. His head was in Horus’ lap, and the younger god was petting his hair. It was so strangely tender that Seth wanted to weep. Horus had done this before, and Seth had yanked himself away, only for Horus to pull him back. But now Seth felt too weak: exhausted from dealing with the agony. Seth didn't want this faux tenderness: it was almost worse than simple torture.
“What is so powerful about this that you refuse to tell me?” Horus asked, moving his left hand over Seth’s hair, gently carding the bright red strands. “What are you so afraid of sharing?”
Seth was glad he was too weary to respond. It was better than trying to force himself to be quiet. For some reason, Horus stayed that way for a time, just carding fingers through Seth’s hair. Seth wanted to bite his fingers or something to get him away, but even that was beyond him. Instead he shut his eyes and let sleep take him.
The next night, after Horus and Seth discussed the day’s events, Horus said, “I have often wondered what my life would have been like if you hadn’t killed my father. If I’d grown up in the palace in Heliopolis like Anubis. You’d have likely trained me just like him.”
Seth could easily imagine it, too, though he wondered Horus was going down this line of questioning. Horus would often meander when they were in that dingy little office/cell of Horus’, but out here for some reason, Horus did it even more often. Seth still expected things to change to hurting Seth at any moment, though. He wasn’t fooled by their “calmer” conversations.
“But I was born for revenge,” Horus said, gazing thoughtfully at Seth. “For my mother’s revenge, for my father’s revenge. I don’t think either of them wanted me for anything else. So you see, in a way, this, between us, is all that I am.”
Seth simply stared at him, confused.
“In a way, it’s because of you that I live at all, Uncle Seth,” Horus continued, gazing at him. “It is because you hurt my parents. And because you spent all my life hurting me along with them.”
Seth grimaced. It’s not like he’d told Isis to fuck Osiris again, or take his seed from the Nile or whatever it was she did to have Horus. Seth had begged her to help him against Osiris because of what he’d done to both of them, after all, and she’d refused. But he could see an idiot like Horus coming to this conclusion.
Horus looked to the tent wall ahead of him. “When I first realized that, I was angry, you know. It seemed such a stupid reason to exist. But now I see you fighting out there, even like this. And… I can understand how such a god would inspire fear and rage. Why they call you a god of chaos as much as war.”
They only do that because they hate me, Seth thought. He’d certainly called Osiris any number of things since that hateful night.
“If I only exist to balance such a god,” Horus continued, “Then perhaps…” He frowned. “Perhaps it’s not all stupid. Perhaps it’s almost an honor.”
“Careful,” Seth said quietly. “That almost sounds like respect.”
Horus chuckled. “Am I not a student learning from a teacher? Some respect is owed.”
Seth snorted. “Respectful students don’t treat their teachers the way you treat me. They don’t use children as hostages.”
Horus laughed. “Anubis is older than I am: he’s not a child. And grateful as I am to you for my existence, Uncle Seth, we are still what we are. You are the ruination of my parents’ lives, and my life. And I am your balance, meting out punishment, not just for us, but for all of Egypt.”
“If you really wanted that, you’d have killed me and given me to your father to punish.”
“You are not his to punish,” Horus said, darkly, glaring at Seth. “Ever since that night you came to my rooms to assault me…” Horus sighed. “I thought I’d kill you then. All my life had been bent towards one purpose: to be rid of you. To save Egypt. You were my enemy. Yet here you were, using your body to try to dominate me. All my life I’d known you as an all-powerful god, but in my bed you were lust incarnate. And I knew… you were mine there, too.”
Seth glared at him. Horus had used this language before in different ways, but he hadn’t really laid it out like this, as if it was pre-destined or something. And tonight Seth was awake enough to fight back. “I don’t belong to you.” Seth knew Horus was obsessive, but to come up with such a weird scenario in his head? Why? It was ridiculous. And it grated more than ever, as, in the past, Horus hadn’t been using Anubis in the way he was. He hadn’t been marking Seth with the cock ring. Now he practically had Seth trained to kneel by his side. Seth could feel all the ways he was changing himself to be an obedient pet, and in that moment, when Horus was sketching out another of his ludicrous fantasies, it frustrated him even more.
Not just a spoiled child with a toy, not just a man desperate for answers. But too much like… like…
Seth felt chilled.
Horus watched him. “Don’t you? You’re mine to do with as I please. As much as I was designed for you, it’s almost as if you were designed for me.”
My desert. You are my soil, and I am your tree.
Seth was up off the floor and had his hands wrapped around Horus’ throat before he realized it. He cried out when pain hit him in the crotch and he collapsed back on the ground. He curled in tightly on himself, trying to crush the pain away somehow, but couldn’t escape it. It was like fire was blooming in his core and burning him apart. His attempts to dissolve into sand failed, and the pain only worsened. When he could barely see anymore, the pain vanished, and he sagged into a heap, weeping onto the floor, the left side of his face resting in the dirt. He was too weary to be ashamed.
“That was stupid,” Horus said. “And here I thought you’d been brought to heel.”
Your body is now mine.
He was too weak to fight back now. But he had to. He had to make the man see how insane this was. “You lunatic… Osiris…” Didn't he have any memories of Seth when they were young? Did he ever even listen back then?
“…What?”
“I’m not yours.” He'd rather die than be a toy.
For a moment, all Seth could see was Osiris, gazing dispassionately down at him, that dangerous confidence like the world was his to do with as he pleased. Like Seth was his to do with as he pleased. But then Seth blinked and he could see Horus with his blue falcon headdress eyes, kneeling over him, a thoughtful expression on his face. Seth could feel the floor of the tent, smell the battlefield. He was in the present, not trapped in that night with Osiris.
Or had he never truly even left that night?
Seth was too exhausted to do anything more than let the darkness take him.
In the morning, the fourth day of fighting, Horus didn’t say anything to him. Seth knew he’d given away more than he planned, and doubtless Horus would bring it up again. In the sunshine, everything of Osiris was burned away. The god was in Duat, that was all. Seth was Horus' prisoner, and he'd get through it as he got through anything in his life. For now, they had a battle to win. Horus stood at Seth’s side throughout it all, and Seth focused on killing. Making it to the beach was a bloody slog, but they finally made it near enough for Seth to use the sand to rip many of the large ships to pieces, while the soldiers who could observe from nearby cried out. Many of them fled the hungry sands, but some fell with their ships.
Horus used his tornadoes to mop up soldiers as Seth worked.
Seth reasoned that at least he was useful. Osiris never stepped onto the field of battle, but here Horus was, putting himself in harm's way, though no soldiers even touched him. Isis was doubtless proud.
Horus let another of his tornadoes go, and a small red bird landed on his shoulder. He listed for a moment, and then called to Seth, “Cease. Mother has met with some of their remaining leaders. The Greeks are calling for a surrender.”
Seth pinched his lips together. That made sense. These warriors were outmatched. They’d come here to face one war god, and instead gotten an admittedly weaker Seth, but also Horus with his abilities, Isis with her resources, and whatever Maat was doing behind the scenes. Let alone whatever havoc Anubis was up to. He was only a demigod, but he was strong.
The area around Seth and Horus was empty of living fighters for some distance, as the sands calmed. Body parts, abandoned weapons, arrowheads, and broken pieces of equipment littered the ground. In the distance, the sounds of yells and metal on metal quieted, and Seth breathed in the open air, savoring it while he could. A surrender meant his time of semi-freedom was nearing an end. He glanced to his left when he sensed movement, and saw a lone person walking towards them.
Seth frowned. No soldiers should be here. The Egyptian commanders had their orders, and the Greeks were dead, fleeing, or possibly surrendering. Though maybe this person was just trying their luck while Seth and Horus were still.
But then the person’s silhouette became clearer, and Seth’s eyes widened in shock.
“…What is Osiris doing here?” Horus asked at his side.