Chapter Text
Ra’s sun boat was one of the biggest ships Seth had boarded, but he wasn’t that surprised. He’d seen it from a distance many times, and knew it had to be large. The boat itself was golden and made of strong material that he imagined wouldn’t break like ordinary wood if he kicked it. The most powerful gods had come together to make this, and Ra had imbued her magic into it. Magic that had lasted centuries, through many battles. Even in the waters of Akhet, the western horizon, where everything seemed to have a strange light of its own, it shone with energy.
Seth tried to focus on what would be his new home and the gods who were aboard it in order to ignore the pain of simply being on the boat. Ra hadn’t been joking about the powerful gravitational force, which was almost worse than Anubis’ damn sword, crushing Seth down towards the deck, and making him want to dissolve into sand so that he could breathe. But he knew it would make him look weak, so he bore through it as best he could, just as he bore the powerful heat. He reminded himself that he was a god of the desert. Heat didn’t bother him. And he’d borne worse weights.
He set his feet, measured his breathing, and didn’t dissolve or black out. If anyone thought he was strange for standing near the boat entrance and not moving much, well… that was bearable, too.
Ra chuckled from where she stood nearby after leading him aboard. She was still tall, muscular, and heavily pregnant, and seemed to treat this all like some new game.
And why not? Seth thought miserably. She won her gambit. Isis agreed to this punishment. He still remembered the calculating look on Isis’ face.
And the way Horus’ arms had been tight around Seth as they listened. He could still feel an odd ghost of Horus’ touch, and he wasn’t sure what to make of that. The new king had won, after all.
“Not bad,” Ra said, still watching him. When he glared at her, she shrugged and continued, “I figured you might be strong enough to withstand the sun, but it’s still not all that pleasant, is it?”
Seth was a bit surprised Ra wasn’t gloating even more, given how much she liked to watch him struggle. Likely things would just get worse after the boat began its actual voyage and he met with even more troubles. Seth and Isis had discussed the sun boat’s journey in the past, partly for curiosity and partly because it might have been part of some strategy Ra was planning to use against the four siblings, with its gathering of powerful gods. But Seth still recalled his and Isis’ conclusion: the sun boat journey was too full of trials and tribulations for those on the sun boat for Ra to weaponize it against the four siblings, and it wasn’t valuable as a way for them to attack her, unless they had no other options.
And now Seth would be trapped here, rowing through all the horrors of the journey.
He tried to imagine centuries of being stuck on the sun boat. And he’d have to literally fight through it. It was a miserable existence… but it was his lot. He’d held back during the third match against Horus. He was weak, and he’d lost.
Seth clenched his fists. He’d borne worse. He’d bear this.
“It’s certainly fucking awful,” he finally said.
He tried to comfort himself with the fact that at least Horus was no longer here to bother him, and Osiris would never gain entrance to the boat from Duat. Ra wouldn’t countenance it.
Ra grinned brightly at him, in a way that almost burned his eyes. “Of course it is. You younger gods are so pampered down on Earth. It’s a shame.” Then she sauntered ahead to the central throne on the ship, where she sat comfortably. Servants made of blazing sunshine fanned her, and others knelt nearby with food. The golden throne was under a translucent awning, and as Seth neared – not knowing where else to go and not trusting the watching gods on other parts of the boat – he was surprised to see a large pale snake coiled around the top of the awning, gazing at him with bright green eyes. Its coils were thicker than Seth’s arms.
“You’ve never met Mehen,” Ra said, tilting her head back with her usual grin. “You don’t have a fear of snakes, do you?”
Seth snorted. “You don’t remember when I used sand snakes to fight you?” He’d waged countless battles against Ra and her forces over the centuries.
Ra grinned with bright white teeth. “Of course. Good.”
Seth wanted to get off this stupid boat and head… he didn’t know where. Heliopolis was hardly his home, particularly now that Isis and Horus were running the place. But Seth detested Ra at the best of times, particularly now, when he’d be stuck with her for who knew how long. He could already tell the other gods on the boat were eyeing him with aggression, likely sizing him up. The gods here were ancient and powerful, and Seth was a young nothing by comparison. Particularly with the bonds around his wrists binding him to the boat. Only Maat could break them.
His thoughts went to Anubis, still recovering from when Seth had cut his arm off while fighting Osiris, only to discover that Osiris had been using Anubis’ body to manifest. Anubis was doing better last Seth had seen him, given how he’d appeared before Seth’s sentencing, but still not well. Seth hoped Isis was looking after Anubis, given how she’d cared for him after his arm was cut off, but Seth didn’t trust her in the slightest. And he didn’t know if he could ever get back to Anubis, like Anubis wanted, now that he was trapped here.
“You’ll be useless at the oars today,” Ra said with a frown. “For now you’ll adjust a little to being here and stand guard. We can’t have any weaklings rowing and getting in the way of the other gods.”
Seth eyed the gods standing by the oars, ready to move when needed: it was a mixed grouping of immortals with a variety of animal heads and masks, and all were clearly powerful beings with muscular arms who gazed at him with unreadable expressions. He imagined they weren’t too pleased at the idea of a new god to deal with, either, particularly Seth.
Seth eyed the oars and felt he could manage the large, long things, even for a full day, but it would be a trial with the gravitational force and heat, and he didn’t know how patient these ancient gods were with weakness.
He wondered if he was meant to be grateful for the reprieve to better get his bearings. He was meant to row, according to his punishment, letting his actual skills as a war god go to waste. But the sentencing had simply been for him to stay and work on the sun boat, so he imagined his duties were up to Ra to decide.
“Bastet will show you around,” Ra said, leaning back in her throne. “You’ll guard the prow for your first day or so here. It’ll be an experience.”
A horrible one, I’m sure, Seth thought grimly as he looked up at the arrival of Bastet.
The cat goddess grinned at him, her face mostly hidden by her dark mask. She gestured to the prow and seemed completely unbothered by the gravity and the heat.
Seth followed Bastet obediently, but studied the other guardian gods as they walked, feeling the gravity still trying to crush him with every step he took. Ancient power wrapped around this place: something honed and ready to strike. Ra’s sun boat wasn’t a pleasure cruise: it was a warship, full of gods who could kill the most powerful of enemies.
Bastet finally stopped by the prow – which was decorated in colorful stories of Ra’s achievements in glowing golden script that faded in and out of sight – and said, “We take shifts so there’s always a good guard around to watch over Ra. I guess you’ll stick with my shift for the time being, until Ra says otherwise. When you're off shift, you'll sleep.”
“But we don’t need to sleep,” Seth said, confused. “We’re gods.” If none of them were bothered by the powerful gravity or the heat, why did they need rest?
Bastet smiled. “You’ll want the sleep. Protecting the sun boat is draining, and that assumes you don’t get injured and need to recover. Some battles are harder than others. Even those rowing sometimes have to fight.”
“Do you get injured often?” Seth asked, genuinely curious. Bastet had been part of the war with Ra, and he remembered she’d been quite fearsome. He couldn’t imagine her needing to rest every day.
Bastet shrugged. “Sometimes. We all have bad days. And Apep…” She frowned. “Well, he’s tricky. It comes of being a god of chaos.”
The boat began moving forward in the water. There was no massive fanfare. Just the normal movement of people around a boat, with some gods handling the oars.
Seth had to grab for the side of the boat to avoid falling down. He felt like he might dissolve into sand at any moment, and it was sheer force of will that kept him up.
Bastet tilted her head at him, slight amusement in her gaze.
Yes, it’s hilarious, Seth thought, embarrassed. The god you all ran from for centuries, struggling to stand up. If these gods were as powerful as they claimed, surely one of them would have done something during his reign if they could, but they hadn’t. He’d get the hang of this just like they had. He’d mastered other weapons, other difficult terrains. He and his siblings had beaten back Ra and her army. It would be fine. Then it was just… eternity. After even this reprieve, he’d be stuck behind an oar like those other gods.
But it was little different than the life he’d been living before, drinking himself into a stupor and wishing for an end.
Ra still sat in her throne, but gazed to her right, where a short god was talking to her.
“Apep usually attacks the sides these days,” Tefnut said as she stepped a little closer. Her blue skin glittered in the light around her lion mask. Seth had never been close to his grandmother, but now she looked tall and intimidating, and ready for whatever came their way. “You’ll be fine up here. You can see how the rest of us handle things, and come to our aid if needed.”
None of them are afraid of me in the slightest, Seth thought as he watched Tefnut and Bastet gaze at the water ahead, holding spears ready. Centuries of his reign, when all the gods had fled from him, and now they stood, unworried. Tefnut had been honest when she’d said she’d keep an eye on Seth. Seth knew that if he tried to escape, they’d be after him in a moment. As if Maat’s spell would break, anyway. He imagined he probably could get out of it if he really tried, but he’d be too weak to escape the other gods afterward. It was a prison within a prison.
The voyage itself was largely unremarkable, and Seth focused on finding his balance and staying upright. He wasn’t paying as much attention to where enemies might be hiding, but the sun boat had survived for centuries before his presence, they’d be fine with him getting his bearings for one day. He did notice when they passed from Amduat to Wernes, if only because there was more shouting and activity on the boat as gods moved around him but otherwise ignored him. They passed through the gate separating the realms and entered a land filled with clear water and fertile green shores, where birds flew and fish swam alongside the boat. More of it became a blur as he grew dizzier. It seemed the gravitational force and heat of the boat only grew as they moved, and Seth’s grip on the side of the boat was hard.
“You can go lay down,” Bastet said to him, as if through a fog. Her voice was almost kind, which was odd. “Your body will adjust a bit in your sleep. And Ra didn’t say you had to stay with me the whole time.”
Despite the fact that he’d had to make himself drunk to sleep for many years, he must have said yes, because when next he recalled, he was being shaken awake on a mat in a dark room somewhere in the boat’s bowels. It was small and not the most comfortable, but darker at least than the brightness of the rest of the ship.
A shining solar servant with a glowing flame for a head stared at Seth. Even without eyes he could see, their gaze was something tangible.
Seth frowned back, and in response, he heard something like a giggle, only it was almost a screeching noise. He just had the sense they were laughing.
The servant stood and gestured for him to follow, and Seth got up with some difficulty. It was a little easier to move now, but still difficult. He imagined the other gods on the boat got quite a lot out of the former God Supreme near collapsing outside.
He’d just have to show them he wasn’t one to be messed with. Contrary to whatever Horus seemed to believe, Seth wasn’t a pushover. He could stand on his own.
Topside, he blinked in the bright light, and when his eyesight settled, he discovered they’d entered Imhet, and he wondered if that was why he felt it was a bit easier to walk, rather than Bastet’s advice to rest and allow his body to acclimate that way. Sand stretched beyond the horizon, and it made him wish to leap over the side, even if he had to face Seker himself.
The boat was little different than he’d left it. Some of the gods had swapped places. A river god with a crocodile head was cleaning off a stain of various colors on the port side, and some indescribable pieces of gore were burning to ash over the deck. Some of the nearby gods only glanced at him before turning back to gaze ahead.
Seth wondered what he’d missed. An attack, clearly. But none of the gods were missing. Evidently, they’d been successful, if he’d slept through it.
“Sleep well?” Ra asked, still sitting on her throne as he walked up beside her. The servant guiding him left him and went to take their place behind Ra. In Ra’s lap rested Mehen’s large pale head, which she idly pet. Ra was gazing at Seth with those bright golden eyes of hers, some amusement hidden in their depths.
“Well enough,” Seth said, not sure what else to say. He hadn’t dreamt that he could recall, and that was always a miracle. He only imagined what his mind would conjure up from the damn sentencing.
“Good,” Ra said. “Because we’re about to visit your brother.”
Seth grimaced. He knew with Imhet that they were near where Osiris likely resided in Duat, but he had tried to ignore it. He’d agreed to his punishment, so he knew going near Osiris was inevitable, but he still trusted Ra and her guards would keep Osiris away. She didn’t like him anymore than Seth did, really.
I wonder if that’s why Isis agreed to this, Seth thought as he gazed towards the prow. I’ll be paraded by Osiris, just out of his reach. Truly, a masterclass punishment for us both. Seth returned to the prow. It was still easier to walk, just slightly, and Bastet had moved to sit on the boat edge, watching the water, which was on fire. It didn’t bother the ship at all.
“So you return,” Tefnut said with a grin from where she leaned back against Shu. His left hand was gently rubbing her left shoulder, and his right rested on a sheathed sword pommel. “We were betting you’d just dissolve into a pile of sand and stay that way for a century or so.”
Shu smiled softly and dangerously at Seth. Seth knew he had no allies in his grandparents.
But I didn’t expect to have any allies, he thought. Bastet was simply being practical earlier. An unconscious god would get in the way during a fight. “And here I hoped to see you all ripped to shreds so much it woke me up,” he simply replied. Arrogance would work with these arrogant gods. If they hated him more, so be it. He’d rather have an actual fight than this simpering hissing they were all doing.
Tefnut and Shu laughed.
Bastet grinned at him. “You’re fun. But watch yourself here. Especially as we leave Imhet.” A kind of silence surrounded them as they passed through the gate. The fire in the water burned higher, but the sand turned to darker mud. The sky was filled with stars.
“Is the core of Duat more dangerous than other areas?” Seth asked, walking to the boat edge. Had Osiris changed something?
“Every area we pass through is different,” Bastet said. “But Osiris’ palace…” She frowned and looked ahead. “Listen.” She rotated her spear.
Seth had sensed something, too, but he wasn’t sure what. He wasn’t used to water covered in fire, and the gravitational force was still demanding his attention. He formed a sand khopesh and readied himself, though.
Something creaked under the sun boat. Then something else.
“Whatever it is thinks it’s smart,” Tefnut said, idly.
Whatever it is probably wants to see where everyone on the boat is standing before it moves, Seth thought. But these gods all felt superior to him. Far be it from him to teach them how to strategize. He guessed the gate guards didn’t care what happened to Ra and the boat after they passed through. Their focus was just on the gate.
Ra didn’t seem phased, though.
That was when the first giant green tentacle launched over the side, racing for Shu. Shu dodged as Tefnut struck the tentacle with her spear, stabbing it hard, and making green liquid ooze from the cut. But more tentacles followed, crashing over the railing and making the boat shake.
Bastet ran over to stab some of the tentacles and cut them apart with her own spear. Shu was chopping away at tentacles with his sword.
Seth cast a glance at Ra, who was still seated in her throne. Mehen, though, had grown larger, and was coiled protectively around her. His eyes glowed bright as he gazed at the gods in their brawl against the new enemy.
Osiris is certainly brazen, Seth thought, even as he cut one of the rather familiar-looking tentacles nearest him up. He staggered afterward, the gravity making his blow weaker than it might have been.
Ra had fought Osiris before his death, so he supposed this was simply back to old times for her. But she’d still been surprised to see him at the trial. Have things gotten worse since then? What has Osiris been up to? And is Maat still doing nothing about this?
He supposed Osiris was mad they hadn’t simply executed Seth. At least in a way, Seth wasn’t quite in his hands yet.
“Seth… Come to me…”
Seth nearly fell over at the sound of that voice. He’d been expecting it, after a fashion, but it was so different here, seeming to surround him near completely. Even when Osiris had taken control of Anubis in Heliopolis, he hadn’t sounded this close.
“You are presumptuous, Osiris,” Ra said, still sitting on her throne. “Daring to intrude on the passage of the sun. Do you not care at all for the status of your kingdom? Or former kingdom, where your son and wife rule?” Endangering the sun boat’s journey endangered them all.
It’s a reckless move even for him, Seth thought.
Osiris didn’t reply, even as the tentacles moved towards Seth. Osiris didn’t care about Ra. He was still solely focused on one thing.
Seth cut more at the tentacles with his khopesh, but tried to keep an eye on what was behind and around him. Osiris could appear at any moment and come for him, he was—!
Bastet took a running leap and stabbed the central tentacle hard, making Osiris roar. All the tentacles in the area shrieked and then dissolved, and the thumping under the ship stopped.
“Archers,” Ra ordered. “Kill anything that moves.”
Bows appeared all over the deck. Seth would have joined them, but even the little he’d done had worn him down. He sank to a crouch by the prow, trying to get the strength to stand again.
It was pathetic. This was pathetic. They hadn’t even faced Apep yet.
“He must want to kill you badly,” Bastet said as she came to stand beside him again. She carried a large, decorated bow as well, and was watching the water.
Seth laughed at that. Yes, he does. But only so he can keep me as his toy.
There was more bumping under the hull. He heard arrows fly.
Horus blinked his eyes open. He’d been dozing after eating dinner, and his mind had sent him to the strangest place. His visions since ascending had been more and more vivid, but he’d never had one of Seth before. Not like this.
It’s been centuries, he thought, sitting up in the dark of his apartment. He lifted a hand and flicked the curtains on the nearby window open with a gesture to let early morning sunlight in to warm him. His large bed was rumpled and warm from sleep, and dark blue covers pooled in his lap.
His cellphone rang from the nightstand to his left. He reached for it and hit the speakerphone when he read the caller. “Yes, Mother?” They’d spoken – and argued – only the other day. And he wasn’t quite awake enough for another argument.
The same one they’d been having for millennia.
“You finally got what you wanted,” Isis said, angrily, making his eyes widen. “They’re releasing Seth from the sun boat.”
Horus’ heart raced. After all this time? “That’s… I don’t know what to say.” It was what he’d hoped for, for so long.
He could see Seth again, in the flesh, depending on the circumstances of his release.
“Maat has agreed that he must be watched.” Isis sighed. “Who knows how much worse he is after being on the sun boat. And since you’re the one who’s been advocating for him so long, you’re the one who’s been assigned to watch him.”