Chapter Text
Seth
“What did you say?” Isis demanded, staring at Horus now.
Seth was frozen as he gazed at Horus, who stared right back, tall and intimidating and inexorable, as if the younger god saw everything Seth was trying to hide. It had been years, so many long years, and Seth had been good at hiding it, he had. It was an embarrassment. Degradation. And it was his. Osiris was dead and it was over with, that was all, wasn’t it?
No one else needed to know. Because if they did, particularly if Isis did, then Nephthys…
“Osiris sexually assaulted Seth,” Horus repeated, not looking away from Seth as he spoke. “Before he died.”
“He would never do that,” Isis said, her voice quiet. “How could you say such a thing?”
“My intuition,” Horus replied. “I know that’s what Osiris did.”
“No you don’t,” Seth said, finally getting his voice back. Was Horus being honest? Did Seth just watch his intuition at work? It was that fast? Or was he just connecting the dots? Seth was too out of his mind with worry over Anubis. With fighting Osiris, Anubis being hurt, Isis in distress… it felt just like that night all over again, and Seth had to fight back the fear, and that meant he was saying far too much.
Horus only watched him. “Yes, I do, Seth.”
“Maybe you’re misunderstanding it,” Isis insisted. She sounded afraid.
Horus looked at her, a little annoyed. “I’m not misunderstanding it. Osiris assaulted Seth that night. He was lusting after Seth for some time.” Horus frowned at Seth. “So is that why you killed him?”
Seth almost laughed. That must have meant Horus didn’t know everything. Just part of it. Would it make Osiris happy, to know that his other secret was still safe?
“That’s impossible,” Isis said, still horrified. “He… He wouldn’t do that.” Isis glared at Seth. “You tricked Horus somehow, didn’t you?”
“He’s still under Maat’s spell, Mother,” Horus said as he looked at her with a frown. “And I still have control over him. He can’t affect my powers. But it’s nice to know that you have answers to questions I’ve had all my life, but kept from me.”
Isis’ eyes widened. “You think I kept this from you?! I didn’t! I…” She swallowed and clutched her hands together, nervous. “The night Osiris died, I woke up from a bad dream where Anubis was hurt, and so I got up to go see him, just to check that he was all right. He often got into scrapes with Seth and sometimes, well…” A fond, nostalgic look came into her gaze for a moment. “I just wanted to be sure. I didn’t think the dream was a vision of the future, but I worried it might be.” She shut her eyes. “I found him with a hole in his chest, his soul departed. I was horrified. I healed him, like I said. And I reached out to test the wards on Heliopolis, assuming we had an attacker. I used to maintain them, for protection. But none of them were broken, there was no sign of intruders. And then I went to go find Nephthys, Seth, Osiris, anyone, to find out what was going on. And then I ran into Seth.”
Seth remembered walking through the halls of Heliopolis that night. Osiris’ last words from Duat were still running around his head, taunting him. Seth wanted to check on Anubis and see how he fared. And he wanted to stave off talking to Nephthys as long as possible. And then Seth ran into Isis, whose face was tear-stained
“Seth, Anubis has been attacked!”
Seth had panicked then, because now he had no time to come up with something to say. After all, Sekhmet said things were fine, right? But what could Seth say to Isis?
“I explained that I’d healed Anubis,” Isis continued now, “but we needed to find who did it. And then Seth said…” Isis breathed in deeply. “He said Osiris and Nephthys had gone behind our backs to have Anubis together, and now Osiris was hiding the evidence out of embarrassment, so he attacked Anubis, and attacked Seth as well. Seth fought back and killed him.” Isis shook her head. “But Osiris would never do such a thing. Never. But Seth… Seth admitted to murdering his brother. It made sense that he’d attack Anubis, too.”
“I didn’t. Not… Not then,” Seth finally said, acknowledging what he’d done later. “Osiris did attack Anubis then. He showed me proof of it.”
“Proof of what?”
Seth pursed his lips. He still didn’t want to explain.
Isis scoffed. Then she covered her face. “It’s not possible. He wouldn’t.”
“Osiris is a monster,” Seth said, quietly.
“You lied!” Isis said, tears in her eyes as she glared up at him. “Even then, you lied! And you’re still lying, I know you are!”
“What was I supposed to do?!” Seth demanded, glaring back at her. “Tell you everything he did to me?! Tell you how I barely survived him? Tell you that Nephthys gave him the power of creation in exchange for his seed, and Osiris tried to use that power and Anubis’ stolen soul to try and have a child with me?”
“No…” Isis said, putting her hands over eyes.
“Tell you that I begged him to let Anubis go?!” Seth continued, stuck in how she was listening now. Listening, after years of turning her back on him and calling him a murderer. “Tell you that he drugged me to keep me in line? Tell you that he spoke to me as if we were lovers? As if I should be happy even as I screamed at him to get away from me?” Seth had cried himself out over the years on his own behalf over everything that was lost: his relationships with Nephthys, Anubis, Isis, Osiris... He buried himself in alcohol and drugs to forget it all. How the man he’d trusted most had destroyed everything, and Seth had failed to recover any of it. He had no tears left for himself now. He just felt tired. “What should I have told you Isis? What would have convinced you to take my side, rather than spitting in my face and fleeing?”
Isis didn’t say anything for a long time. She knelt on the ground by Anubis’ side, holding her face in her hands.
Horus was still watching them both, his hand clenched. He was tense, and Seth felt that something would break it all any second. The world was just the four of them, and one of them wasn’t even awake to be part of it.
For that, Seth was glad. He didn’t want Anubis to go through the pain of all this. How his family had failed him in so many ways. He’d gone through enough. But Seth knew something had to change: if Anubis agreed to help Osiris willingly, Seth had to warn him. Osiris couldn’t be trusted. Anubis’ current injured state alone was proof of that.
“Anubis is my half-brother,” Horus said, quietly. “How strange.”
Seth shut his eyes. Horus had instigated all of this, in his own way. No matter how hard Seth tried, it had all come up. It was all over. But he needed to know… “Isis, what finally convinced you?”
Isis didn’t reply for a while, but finally she pulled her hands down and gazed over Anubis with a bleak expression. “I took Anubis from his room and went to Nephthys after I fled from you. I planned to warn her about you, and what had happened with Osiris and Anubis, and asked her to come with me to flee from you. The three of us could go together.” She laughed bitterly. “Nephthys confessed to giving Osiris the power of life in exchange for his seed.” Isis shook her head with a rueful smile. “I screamed. I hit her. I left Anubis and fled. I didn’t want anything to do with any of you. But I wanted answers from Osiris.”
“You knew…” Seth said, quietly, and angrily. All those years… She’d known what Osiris had done. But still sided with him!
“Nephthys was your wife,” Isis replied, angrily. “It made sense she’d take your side! And I couldn’t take Anubis with me if Nephthys insisted on staying in Heliopolis with you.” Isis shook her head. “But Osiris… Osiris would be honest to me. I brought him back to life and talked to him. He insisted you attacked him unprovoked, that you’d wanted the throne for yourself.” She looked down at Anubis. “He said Nephthys was desperate to have a child for you, but was unable to bear children, and so he helped her with Anubis. But he didn’t expect you to get so upset about it.”
Seth wanted to rip the sands beneath them apart, but Anubis was there. Seth couldn’t hurt him. “You knew it all…” Had Osiris explained why Nephthys couldn't bear Seth a child? The thought sent chills through him.
Isis scowled at him. “That you took advantage of a bad situation to take the throne for yourself? Yes, I knew that.”
Seth laughed, suddenly unafraid. Unafraid of anything, even the darkness in his own head. What did any of it matter, really? He was damned either way. If Isis wanted to spit her accusations, and everything else was laid bare, then what was the point anymore of hiding? “I didn’t take the throne, Isis. Osiris practically gave it to me.”
Isis frowned. “What?”
“He refused to let me go,” Seth said. “He couldn’t die. Not then, anyway. He was the god of life. I needed Sekhmet’s help to even escape him, briefly, the first time, because he’d drugged me so badly. And the only way I could keep him away from me was to kill him.” Seth snorted. “That didn’t work. So I tricked him.” He smiled, still remembering. Osiris with all his plans, all his manipulations. All his patronizing comments about how Seth was nothing without him. “I could see how obsessed he was with me, to the point he’d murder his nephew and son, lie to you, and drug me to get to me. So if I was the thing that mattered most to him, then I’d see how far he’d go, because I refused to stay and be his toy. I made a bet to see whether I could kill myself before he healed me.”
Isis’ eyes widened in horror, and Seth tried to feel something for her then, anything like the sibling bond they'd once had to make him stop, to let her rest and thinking things through properly, to spare her what was left. But he couldn’t, really. What was begun had to be finished.
“So I killed myself over and over,” Seth continued, “while Osiris kept bringing me back to life, refusing to let me die without his "consent." Eventually I pretended to enter Duat, and Osiris sacrificed his immortality to join me in Duat.” Seth met Isis’ horrified gaze. It felt vindicating, and like Seth was stabbing himself once more with knives. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her this way back then. He’d hoped they could comfort each other, as they had before. He’d hoped that maybe, one day, they could talk about it, like they talked about so much.
But she’d refused to listen. And gone to her precious Osiris and forgiven everything, apparently. If Nephthys took Seth's side, then Isis took Osiris'.
“He sacrificed his throne to follow me in death,” Seth said. “I didn’t kill him. He killed himself because of his madness.”
“No…” Isis said, tears in her eyes. “Why? Why?”
“Because he’s a monster,” Seth said, recalling the obsessive looks on Osiris’ face. How they’d made Seth’s skin crawl. How Osiris felt entitled to Seth’s body and mind. “I tried to understand. I asked him why he went so far.” Seth shook his head. “He was too far gone. He insisted it was love. To the very end.” He still remembered gazing into the waters of Duat then, listening to Osiris spew his poison into the space between them, even as he slowly faded into Duat. What a fool, Seth thought.
Isis covered her eyes. Seth considered all these years and she knew Osiris lied to her about Anubis and Nephthys until she finally confronted him about it, and she let his new lies sway her, and only now was she choosing to see it clearly. A part of Seth still wanted to comfort her. And a part of him was hurt anew. It was like nothing between them had ever meant anything. Like Seth had to hurt himself to make a difference in her eyes.
Perhaps that's how I know I really am a god of war, Seth thought, bitterly. I'm always the one who has to go to the front lines to deal with these things. Getting injured isn't surprising. It's even expected. I just heal afterwards, anyway. There's nothing to worry about.
“…You didn’t kill him,” Horus said, quietly.
Seth’s lips thinned. Horus was still there, listening to it all. So many of Seth’s secrets laid bare. So many of Osiris’ secrets, too. But Seth still felt scraped raw by them.
“You didn’t murder Osiris,” Horus repeated.
“I didn’t,” Seth said, quietly. “He killed himself.” Seth snorted. With Nephthys’ help, after a fashion.
“I know,” Horus said. “I can tell you’re not lying.”
Seth blinked, unsure what to say to that. He expected Horus to use the cock ring, or to knock the tent aside and declare Seth’s actions to all of Egypt, to humiliate him. He wondered if Osiris’ recent actions had actually been more to Seth’s benefit than Seth realized.
Seth blinked, unsure what to say to that. He expected Horus to use the cock ring, or to knock the tent aside and declare Seth’s actions to all of Egypt, to humiliate him. He wondered if Osiris’ recent actions had actually been more to Seth’s benefit than Seth realized. It almost amused him, to know Horus was leading to Osiris' downfall in the way Anubis had with Seth. One final act of revenge, perhaps, on Seth's part.
“…I’ll have to speak to Maat,” Horus said. “This changes things. Not everything, of course, there are still the crimes you committed against Isis and myself, and against Egypt.”
Seth smiled bitterly. “Of course.” He was still Egypt’s monster, at the end of the day. Almost her destroyer, too.
“And Nephthys will have to speak to Maat, as well,” Horus said, surprising Seth. “She’s spent too long in silence.”
Seth’s face paled. He had no right to demand Horus leave her alone. And there was nothing to be gained in begging. He knew it’d happen. He knew she’d learn everything if he told anyone…
So he stayed quiet. Because what else could he do? He and Nephthys were strangers at this point, and had been for hundreds of years, and even more than that. It shouldn’t bother him what she knew about him. She already went to Osiris behind his back, and hid Anubis’ true parentage from him. She couldn’t trust him. She couldn’t speak to him properly. She just hid.
He wished he’d stop caring about it. But even if he did, there was nothing he could do. Even attacking Horus now would get him nowhere.
Horus gazed down at Anubis. “And Anubis will have to be questioned. This puts Anubis’ connection with Osiris in a new light.” He looked at Isis. “We’ll have to discuss what’s to be done with Osiris, as well. After the talks with the Greeks… there will need to be a new trial.”
Isis’ face was wet, but her tears had stopped. She gazed up at Horus with a defeated expression. “Yes.” She looked at Seth, her expression unreadable. Pain, sorrow, anger… all lost in the whirlpool of her gaze. “There will be.”