Chapter Text
Seth
Isis met Seth and Horus outside her tent. She looked tall and intimidating, even off a throne, with her make-up, beautiful dress, and sharp eyes. She held her papyrus staff in her right hand, not in a battle-ready posture, but clearly ready to fight if need be. Her angry gaze settled on Seth. He wasn’t quite sure what type of anger it was: it’d been too long since they’d been friendly with each other for his old understanding of her to remain. But he could at least tell she was angry. That wasn’t hard. And he couldn’t guess what in particular it was this time that had set her off. Was she thinking about what Horus had revealed? Was she annoyed that Anubis was a problem she had to take care of? Or was she going back to refusing to accept Osiris had done all that he had?
That would be typical, he thought as he came to a stop when Horus did. There were humans guards set at a distance from the tent, but they were too far to hear much. The came continued to move around them.
Isis turned her gaze to Horus and said, “You’ll wait out here. Seth and I need to talk alone.”
Horus frowned in annoyance. “You’re giving me orders now?”
“Are you a tyrant to refuse to let your mother speak to her brother?” Isis demanded, refusing to back down. “He is your prisoner and will still be your prisoner after I’ve spoken with him briefly.” She crossed her arms. “Or do you expect me to free him?”
Horus simply gazed at her for a moment, before sitting down by the tent entrance and gazing outward at the camp. “Very well.”
Seth wondered what the guards or any passing humans would think of their king sitting in the dirt outside a tent, like a spoiled child sent to a corner. But he supposed that was Isis and Horus’ problem, not his. Seth also assumed he wasn’t going to get a choice in the matter, given he was a prisoner, and Isis just glared at him before walking back into the tent anyway.
I suppose it would be easier to just meet it up front. He wanted to see where Anubis was, but the best person to know would be Isis, so he simply followed Isis back into the tent. Magic shut the tent flap behind him, and he could feel it humming around him.
“He can’t hear us now,” Isis said before she turned back to him. Her anger was still there in her blue eyes, but there was some tempering to it. “Perhaps his intuition will tell him something about the conversation, given it’s faster and sharper than it used to be, but he won’t hear it.” Her left hand rested on the table, and her index finger idly rubbed the tabletop.
She’s nervous. Is it me? Seth crossed his arms. “Why are you telling me you’re trying to hide things from your son? Or do you hope to torture me where he can’t stop you?”
Isis smirked. “Are you afraid of that, Seth?” She was powerful and knew it, and he was at her mercy, and knew that.
Seth smiled right back. “Do your worst.” It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Isis could make him suffer if she wished. After all, she already had. But he was worried about who was sitting outside the tent, angrily deafened to their conversation, or using his own magic to circumvent Isis’ powers. Seth knew what it was like to be cast aside while your loved ones ran off without you. What that did to a person.
Horus isn’t a person, Seth thought angrily. He’s a storm waiting to rip apart everything he hasn’t yet taken. He’s a spoiled child smashing toys apart in lieu of doing anything useful.
“My son is obsessed with punishing you,” Isis said, gazing at him thoughtfully. “He said he kept you when you should have gone to Ra’s sun boat. Anubis confirmed that.”
“Where is Anubis?” Seth asked, being daring. He wasn’t sure why Isis really cared anyway. After hearing about Osiris, after the end of the trial… what did any of it really matter? Unless she believed it was all lies.
“He’s with Khnum,” Isis said. “They’re getting along well, and as the evening deepens, Anubis will likely have access to more of his powers and they can experiment more.”
“Do you know what his powers are?” Seth asked. He envied Khnum, getting to experience that with Anubis. But it was good Anubis was making more allies. People besides Horus and Isis to rely on, though he’d be dependent on Isis’ good favor all the same.
Isis sighed. “Something to do with Duat, I think. I studied him while he and Khnum worked, and there is an aura of the place about him. Maat also felt drawn to him, and indicated it was something gods connected to Duat feel.”
Seth disliked the idea of Anubis spending more time with Maat, but he had to admit it wasn’t a bad idea if more gods felt inclined to be around him, rather than to flee from him due to his relationship to Seth. “A connection to Duat?” His eyes widened. “But that means he’ll have to go to Osiris…” Seth swallowed, feeling cold. “Osiris could capture him or… Or do something!” After everything Osiris had done to Anubis in the past…
“We won’t let him,” Isis said, her voice sharp. In the moment, she looked like the same goddess who’d gone to war with him, Osiris, and Nephthys against Ra. “Maat will go with him if he has to go, and she’ll make sure Osiris doesn’t touch him. Khnum can also help him access some of his powers through the waters of the Nile, so he should be safe for a time.”
Seth was still unsure, given Osiris’ power, but the knowledge was somewhat comforting at least.
“What has Horus been doing to you during your imprisonment?” Isis asked.
Seth laughed, amazed she was back on that. “You don’t want to know.” The way she’d reacted to learning about what Osiris, well…
“Yes, I do,” Isis insisted, glaring at him. “I’m tired of the secrets and lies. I’m not running anymore.”
“He fucks me,” Seth said. "Until I'm bloody, raw, and unconscious."
Isis stiffened slightly, and perhaps paled, but she didn’t back away.
Seth snorted. “You testified about how he won the trial. Why are you surprised he’s doing it more?” He remembered Isis standing before the court and explaining alongside Horus how Horus had repelled an attempted assassination and assault from Seth, and proved his domination of Seth, thus showing Seth was unfit to rule. As further evidence, she brought forth Sebek as a witness, who took one look at Seth, and then testified over Maat’s scales. Centuries of friendship between Sebek and Seth were buried under Seth’s own actions against all the other gods during his reign, and Sebek’s own honesty. Worse was when Thoth had stepped forward to lend his own expertise on the matter, to indicate who had dominated whom.
Seth felt filthy the entire time, watching all the evidence of his night with Horus being dug out and shown before the court in all its putrid glory. It wasn’t exactly as bad as what Horus had threatened before they’d come to fight the Greeks: being Horus’ plaything was different to losing to him in battle, and too many tales had been spread of Seth being sent off to serve Ra as punishment. But it had been vicious all the same.
Seth was truthful when questioned, given there was no point in lying when his heart was on the scales, and he didn’t have Osiris’ gift for sophistry. All his boasting was pointless now. And then Maat’s spell had wrapped around him, binding him to the floor, and he’d watch them lead Horus to the throne. Isis looked triumphant in the moment. Seth didn’t remember all that much through his anger and frustration. He just hated everyone watching, and himself most of all, for not being strong enough to defeat them. Why hadn’t he tried harder against Horus?
Isis grimaced. “That was self-defense.”
Seth scoffed, unsurprised she was clinging to that. It seemed Anubis had as well, for a time. After all, Seth had been the one to instigate for the affair. It was one reason he was so surprised they all cared now. But perhaps the trial hadn't counted? “It just gave him a taste for more. He uses me as he wants. To offload his anger. I’m a convenient hole for him.” He imagined this was how Horus would have described it. Seth was surprised Horus hadn’t. Unless Isis for some reason wanted to hear it from Seth. Did she think he’d lie about it, perhaps to make her feel better? They both knew what happened when he did that.
“Do you enjoy it?” Isis asked.
Seth’s eyes widened, shocked she’d even asked such a thing. “What the fuck do you think?!” He turned away and glared at the wall. “Fucking… Of course not! He’s a little monster! If I could have killed him by now I would!” He blinked in realization and then laughed. “What, you think because I’m such a monster myself that I must enjoy it? Like meets like?” He scoffed and shook his head. It all made sense that way: of course he'd be into it. Probably bend over for Horus to do his dirty work. “Incredible.”
“After you attempted to assault Horus during the trial, I couldn’t be sure.”
Seth rolled his eyes. Did she think he'd commanded every rape that ever happened? The humans were the ones who went out of control. He simply didn't reign them in. “The trial was… foolishness. Not something I wanted as a long-term plan.”
“You were setting an example for your followers,” Isis said, sharply. “Rape is an excellent tool of domination, after all. A favorite of your followers.”
“So who was Horus setting an example for?” Seth asked.
Isis grimaced. “You made a surprise attack on him, turning it into a match between you both, partially for survival. He won it fair and square.” Her eyes widened. “Is Osiris where you got the idea from?”
Seth scoffed. “No, it was Sekhmet's idea.” Her stupid plan that he'd thought he could make his own.
Isis’ glare sharpened. “She has much to answer for.”
She wasn’t the one who did it, Seth thought. But he had his own bones to pick with the missing goddess.
“At the time you tried to attack Horus at night, you were in the middle of a match for the throne,” Isis said. “What did you think would happen if you lost? How did you think anyone would view it?”
I didn’t really think I’d lose, Seth wanted to say. He wasn’t sure what he felt at the time. Desperate, frustrated. He’d seen Horus beat him and just wanted to tear something apart. He could sense Osiris coming for him, and just wanted things to be over. The waiting was the worst part. “Justify it to yourself however you want,” Seth finally said. It was another way he knew it was pointless to argue in his own defense. Whatever Seth did was wrong. Whatever Horus or Osiris did was right. It was just the way of the world.
Isis looked away. “I admit asking if you enjoyed it was a bad question.”
Seth raised his eyebrows at her, surprised.
“But you were simply so gleeful in telling me,” Isis explained, looking a bit exasperated. Then she shook her head. “I just needed to be sure. You and I are not good at talking to each other and haven’t been so in hundreds of years.”
That’s been obvious to me for ages, Seth thought snippily.
“But I want to know what has been going on between you and Horus, in more detail than Horus will give me.” Her eyes shone. “I told you I’m tired of running. So tell me all the damn filth you think I can’t stomach.”
Seth met her hard gaze for a moment before he said, “He’s just like Osiris.”
Isis stiffened.
Seth laughed. “You’re happy, aren’t you? That they’re similar. It’s what you most want to hear.”
Isis was quiet for a while, staring ahead without seeing. Finally she shut her eyes, sighed, and said, “No, it’s not what I want to hear. The god whom you and Horus have described… I don’t want Horus to be like him at all. And I’m seeing more and more than he’s more like Osiris in all the wrong ways than I had realized.”
He’s already building a rift between you both, Seth thought, considering Horus’ comments about Isis during Seth’s imprisonment. Have you finally noticed that, too?
“Horus and I are talking a little about all this,” Isis said. Her expression grew sad. “He admitted some of it to me.”
Seth had figured that out, but was grateful she was being honest, anyway, for all the good it did either of them.
“But he doesn’t trust me,” Isis continued, clearly pained by it. “That will be hard to mend. But we must, for our own sakes and for Egypt.”
Seth didn’t want to think about how he’d destroyed Anubis’ lack of trust between them, and how much Isis’ struggle with Horus made some sense. Though at least Anubis never did all the shit Horus did, Seth thought. Betraying me was even more self-defense than the match that decided the trial. Even now, though, Seth wanted to tell Isis things would be okay, that she’d figure it out. Old pieces of themselves from ages past, trying to claw their way to the surface. He thought he’d buried them beneath everything else, beneath Osiris and Horus and everything Isis had left him to. He didn’t like this. He wasn’t meant to comfort Isis anymore. Not after everything.
“So I need to hear your side,” Isis said. “In full.”
“Why are you confiding in your enemy and not Maat?” Seth asked, cautiously. Why was everyone suddenly so candid with him? Why was she putting herself in the hands of someone who didn’t know how to handle anyone at all, and who only destroyed everything he held?
He remembered Anubis in his arms, crying himself to sleep, clinging to Seth like he had when he was younger. And awakening to godhood to defend Seth.
That was his own power, Seth thought. He’s always been stronger than me in the ways that matter.
“Once we used to plan strategy together,” Isis said, pulling him back from his self-flagellation.
Seth wanted to scoff again, but knew his childish tantrums were stupid. “A long time ago. And you spent years evading me.”
She smiled. “But you’re currently standing here under a spell from Maat, aren’t you? And it’s not like I couldn’t fight back against you if I wished.” She glanced at the tent entrance. “Besides, Horus is right outside, and he already beat you once.”
“If you want him to rape me again, you could just ask him,” Seth couldn’t help but say.
Isis’ expression became closed off.
Seth smiled. If she wanted to be the poor put-upon mother, she would have to deal with the actions of her son. Ones she’d used against him in the past. If she wanted to claim that Seth was setting an example for others, well… what example was the king of Egypt setting? And was Isis going to keep supporting it?
“I wouldn’t have him do that,” Isis said.
Seth wasn’t sure he believed her, but he was tired of this dancing around. “So what strategy do you want to talk?”
“Besides hearing more about what Horus has done, I still want you to tell me what happened that night with Osiris, in more detail that you said before,” Isis said. She gazed at him with a great intensity. “I want to know all that Osiris did. What you would have told me if you hadn’t panicked and overthought the situation, and without Horus breathing down your neck nearby after he’s been keeping you in a cage in Heliopolis.”
“Why?” Seth demanded, feeling his hackles go up a little at her description. There was a bit of fear still, but she already knew it all anyway. What more was there to hide?
“Because I’ve spent a good part of my life doing the same for others,” Isis replied. “Listening to the events from the victims of your policies and the victims of Ra’s and Osiris’ policies.”
Seth frowned, not sure where she was going with this.
She smiled. “Do you think rape was invented during your regime? It was worse, but it wasn’t brought into existence then.”
Seth knew that, but her phrasing… “Grouping Osiris into the bunch like that is… different for you.”
Isis breathed in deeply. “I want to know everything Osiris did. Before I hear some new piece of it in a courtroom.” She met his gaze. “If I’m to continue to hate you, I want it to be for the things you actually did, not the ones I imagine.”
“I’m not some human victim,” Seth said, coldly. “I know what I’ve experienced. I’m a god of war. I’ve been through worse.”
There was an odd expression on Isis’ face, but it changed to determination. “So give me context for what Osiris has done. Shocking me is useless. Tell me, in your own words, what he put you through. If nothing else, it will help Maat and I prepare his trial.”
“Shouldn’t she be here if that’s your goal?” Seth might have to repeat himself, and he didn’t like that. But he also hadn’t thought much about what he’d have to testify to. It would be humiliating. Far more so than even the end of his own trial. But he’d also been through worse, so… did it matter?
“Maybe later,” Isis said. “For now you start with this. You tell me. And then I decide how we go forward.”
“How compassionate,” Seth said sardonically.
Isis smiled. “Should I pretend to comfort you and tell you that it’s your choice? That a situation wherein you are still atoning for your actual crimes, you can choose how what is carried out will happen? You say you’ve gone through worse, to warn me off from trying to be at all gentle, yet you also expect me to lie in an attempt to make you feel better?”
Seth’s expression stiffened. And what was that about gentleness? He just didn’t want…
He didn’t know what he wanted. Comfort he couldn’t stand, certainly not from Isis. It felt too dangerous, like Osiris was lurking in the shadows. Or Horus, taunting him with more pain…
After a while, Isis’ gaze softened a bit. “I’m not planning to send out missives with the details, Seth. But I need to know. You went mad after learning what Nephthys did. Do you expect me to be any different with Osiris?”
Seth’s shoulders sagged and he lowered his head. “No.” He’d already seen her go mad once over it. And now with the truth… he supposed he could understand.
“So talk to me,” Isis said, quietly. “Tell me what happened that night. In full.”
What choice did he have anyway? His only alternative was waiting until Isis lost her patience. And he could do better than she had, couldn’t he? He wouldn’t run away from it all. Not anymore. “…All right.”