Chapter Text
Isis sat at the large desk in her room in Heliopolis, which was covered in scrolls, as one of her birds appeared and explained what he’d seen, letting her see some of the creature’s memory, too.
Seth in tears? Isis wondered, watching the memory in the bird’s mind. It was a surprising look on a god who was usually angry or mocking, and never cried.
A fragment of nightmare from the distant past came to mind, and she pushed it away.
So what? She thought. Crocodile tears, if anything… She’d seen her brother yowl when he was hit, but she’d rarely ever seen him weep, especially as they grew older.
He never really cried, she thought. He always seemed so… remote. Distant from everything. Cold.
She knew of many of the humans Seth and his followers had butchered over the centuries. She’d witnessed so much of it among her own followers, healed who she could, protected who she could… and it was never enough. Seth and his followers were insatiable. All to chase after Isis… Tears couldn’t wash that away.
She remembered Osiris dissolving to reveal the form of a brutalized young Anubis. So what if Seth was Anubis’ father, it was still so harsh…
“Seth could have killed me any number of times in those two matches,” Horus said, his expression sharp as he gazed back at her from his cell. “He didn’t. Would you really call me a coward for stepping knowingly into that situation?”
Horus’ words still rattled her. He was so steady, despite his weaknesses. And Anubis himself had a similar amount of power, if not less, which made both of them weak against any god, let alone the God Supreme. But Anubis still stood up against Seth to bring the army into the city. And he faced the consequences, too. Seth would never let such a thing pass without punishment. All the gods knew Anubis was involved in bringing the army, they would have called Seth a weakling.
He could have died. For us.
Isis grimaced. Children face consequences for their actions. If Seth hates that Anubis stands against him, he should know his path is wrong, and relinquish his position, allow himself to be imprisoned… But he refuses. Crocodile tears will not move me.
“Still planning to kill him, Isis?” Sekhmet asked from behind Isis’ shoulder, making the goddess of magic look back and glare. Sekhmet stood against the wall and grinned at Isis with bright white teeth, and lips that were red as blood. “You should do it before he rebuilds the army to turn back your ally.”
Isis’ eyebrows rose in surprise. “How does he know?” When Sekhmet didn’t answer, Isis thought for a few moments before looking away snarling. “Thoth. He told Seth!” He has changed loyalties, that worthless birdbrain!
She knew not to rely on Thoth or his wife fully, not after what the four siblings had gone through throughout their lives. But the sting of another betrayal was still frustrating.
Sekhmet shrugged.
Isis ignored Sekhmet to look at Hathor’s mirror sitting on her desk, as it was far easier to deal with than a bird god who flocked to whoever could offer him the most comfort. The mirror resisted all her attempts to investigate it. She had pulled all her memories of when Osiris had collected it, but he’d made no specific mention to her of its use. It was just one of many artifacts he’d taken from Ra’s temple.
And Horus’ recall wasn’t helpful, either. Neither Horus nor whatever was in the mirror and claimed to be Nephthys had useful words for dealing with the spell on the thing.
The next step is contacting Hathor, Isis thought. But she knew she was in for a scolding of some kind from Ra. Or perhaps making more deals with Ra or Hathor. And Isis already had so little to give. And she still didn’t know if there was some other deeper game here from Ra or Hathor, especially considering what Horus had gone through. Asking Hathor was too risky.
“You won’t solve it by glaring at it,” Sekhmet said. “Though perhaps if you slept better, you’d know that.”
“And why do you suddenly care?” Isis demanded, tired of interruptions and distractions on yet another worthless day, when she still had the ghost of entering and escaping the labyrinth again on her mind. Demanding entrance from Seth had already taxed her patience. “If this is Ra’s idea of help now…”
“I’m not here because of Ra,” Sekhmet replied. “I’m worried about you, Isis. Your nightmares are making you erratic, aren’t they?”
Isis glared at her. Isis had experienced nightmares for a long time, though they’d grown worse since Horus lost the second match. It didn’t matter. She was a god, and didn’t need sleep like humans did. "What do you know of it?"
“You’re so miserable, it’s like a lodestone for me,” Sekhmet practically purred as she moved closer. “And you don’t understand that the pain of repeating that night over and over again comes from you, torturing yourself. And you’ll never move past it unless you listen.”
"Are you the one sending it?!" Isis demanded. It would make sense if Sekhmet of all people were doing this to her...
Sekhmet laughed. "Even I can't easily make another god have a nightmare. This is all you, Isis."
Isis shook her head, not fully believing her. She’s just here to waste my time. “Whatever. That doesn’t matter. I need to figure out the mirror. Get Horus out of the labyrinth…”
“You can barely see past Osiris reappearing before you,” Sekhmet said.
Isis glared at her again. She’d met plenty who assumed she was just Osiris’ tag-along, but Sekhmet saying it was particularly aggravating. I controlled the Nile for him! Nephthys ensured peace! Seth and I won wars! We gave him his precious peace as much if not more than Osiris earned it!
Isis was more than that. She was a goddess in her own right, a leader, a strategist, and the mother of Horus.
“You’re not that good an actress,” Sekhmet said with a laugh, as if she could hear Isis’ thoughts. “You’re lucky most of the other gods are all witless fools, anyway. Not that it matters.” She leaned in. “You were happy to see him there.”
Isis rolled her eyes. “I was surprised… I haven’t seen him in person since I resurrected him.” There were so many long nights over the centuries where she ached for him and hated aching for him. Where every attack by Seth’s followers felt like a reminder of why she’d fled Heliopolis. A reminder that Osiris had abandoned her and left her to this. And she had to survive without him.
And yet still, her body kept remembering him. And her nightmares of that final night kept taunting her over it.
“And you missed him,” Sekhmet crooned. “Even after everything he’s done.”
“Osiris didn’t kill all my followers,” Isis snarled. “Osiris didn’t imprison our son. He…”
“Still betrayed you,” Sekhmet said as she leaned over Isis’ shoulder, smelling faintly of alcohol, which made Isis cringe. “Manipulated your sister, cornered Seth and slept with him behind your back, and experimented on humans…”
“What?” Isis demanded, turning to face Sekhmet, who was grinning at her. Even with the goddess’ smell about her, Sekhmet’s words pulled at Isis’ curiosity. “What are you talking about? Experimented…?”
“You used every trick in the book you had not to win against Seth,” Sekhmet said, “but to make him pay for the crime of being wanted more by the man you love.”
“That’s not true!” Isis said, feeling aggravated and embarrassed. “He’s made me suffer!” Centuries of running and hiding. Relying on Nephthys to escape the labyrinth. Fearing that Horus would be taken from her, as she traveled, often alone…
“Which he?” Sekhmet asked with a smirk.
Isis glared at her, wishing the lion goddess had never come into the room. “Stop distracting me! That’s not—!”
“I only came to tell you the truth,” Sekhmet said, sweetly. “I want to see if you change your heart after seeing what I have to show you.”
Isis narrowed her eyes. “After you colluded with Seth on the night Osiris died?” She’d heard the stories: about how it was Sekhmet’s hand in suggesting how Osiris’ corpse ended up. She knew better than to trust Sekhmet on anything, even on what color the sky was.
Sekhmet chuckled. “I didn’t do anything but help save Seth from Osiris. And offer some suggestions here and there… Seth was the one who did the rest.”
Isis only glared, refusing to play Sekhmet’s game.
“If you want to know about Osiris,” Sekhmet said. “About the truth? Then I’ll show you. In your dreams. If you’ll trust them.”
Isis was ready to say no. It was a risk, to walk anywhere with someone like Sekhmet, who was a wildcard at the best of times. And with the foreign god’s army approaching, Isis had to be ready to direct them. To plan. To ensure Horus’ safety and Seth’s destruction.
But she also had no leads on the mirror. And she meant to get answers for it. If Osiris really had plotted with the mirror, and if he’d done even more than she and likely Seth knew, then Isis wanted to know! Sekhmet watched them all, and she, perhaps more than anyone, was likely to have answers no one else did.
What other options do I have, anyway? Isis thought, gloomily. Ask Hathor for help?
“Fine,” Isis said. “I’ll see what you have to say.”
Sekhmet grinned at her.
It took a while to get herself to sleep, difficult as rest had been lately, but finally Isis was off, wandering the darkness of her dreams, back to Heliopolis at night so long ago, as her mind always took her. But just as the cries from Seth and Osiris came to her, Sekhmet took her hand.
Isis didn’t want to be grateful to the exasperating lion goddess.
Sekhmet showed her visions of Osiris’ temple, where he conducted bizarre experiments to create children, which Isis realized were to use on Seth.
He never wanted to have a child with me, Isis thought as she gazed at Osiris’ angry face as he destroyed his work under the moonlight, crushing what looked like partially formed babies. It was only when I revived him that he agreed to it. But for Seth—!
She hadn’t known if she’d wanted a child, precisely. She’d liked the idea, and had enjoyed helping to raise Anubis, but she’d been busy, too. Raising one child was enough, surely. But seeing this only reminded her of what Osiris had never even bothered to offer.
How many mortals died for these experiments? Isis wondered as she watched Osiris in his temple. Even the floods never abused them this way. And all for what?
Sekhmet pulled her onward, and Isis watched as Osiris confronted Ra, demanding answers, sounding not like the brave leader she imagined, but rather a child throwing tantrums. Isis had spent much time with human children on her travels, and often watched over them with Horus. Horus had always been so well behaved, despite the life he lived. He asked for so little. He barely even cried.
“So he manipulated things to start a war with Ra,” Isis said. “It doesn’t change what Seth has done.”
The scene shifted and she was again standing outside that awful room, listening to Seth and Osiris talking. And her feet propelled her forward, no matter how little she wanted to approach. She saw Seth move into Osiris’ arms and kiss him. She’d seen it so many times and yet it still sickened her like it was a fresh slap in the face.
When she turned her head away, she could hear the sound of pained cries, and realized they weren’t her own. It was Seth crying, and begging. Pleading, like any number of victims he’d left in his devastating wake while he was king.
He chose this, Isis thought, refusing to face it. For Anubis. Yet she couldn’t look. Not again.
“I’ve seen this before,” Isis finally said. “You show me nothing new, Sekhmet.”
The scene shifted on a cry from Seth, and Isis was watching what she realized was her old bedroom in Heliopolis. Isis – her past self – sat on her bed, weeping. And with the tools nearby and the smell in the air, Isis wondered—
Seth burst into the room, dressed in his regular clothes and wearing his headdress. “Isis! I need your help!”
Isis went cold as she watched Seth approach, and watched her own self bristle and firm up against Seth. This was the night Osiris had died. And Isis had just created her own curse.
“We should stand together as a united front against them,” Seth insisted to her. And Isis recalled how angry she’d been. How hurt. How late this had been from him, when he should have come to her first. How Isis had nearly killed Anubis herself, but chosen not to.
He was so arrogant and self-centered, she thought. Just like Osiris, thinking of me as a tool in his box rather than a sister. A friend.
But now, at a distance, she could see the manic look in Seth’s eyes under his mask. The way Seth, her strong brother, who was ordinarily terrifying on and off the battlefield, shook slightly. The quiver in his voice.
He’s afraid, she thought, with surprise.
“We can lie,” Seth practically begged. “Say we slept together or something. To make them regret what they’ve done. To show we’re stronger.”
Isis lowered her gaze in embarrassment of the stupid idea, knowing that she would only speak rejection. That Isis would be trapped in the labyrinth and Nephthys would free her, and then Isis would revive Osiris before fleeing Heliopolis for hundreds of years.
“Isis, please,” Seth said, begging. “We have to do this!”
He sounded so desperate. And in that moment, Isis recalled the report from her bird servant. Seth with tears in his eyes. What he’d said to Anubis.
Reports said he’d drink himself stupid and go on rampages, she thought. Is that all from my rejection for his foolish ideas?
Isis had seen much pain on her run from Seth. Many victims of his and his followers. How even the survivors often fell into despair and destruction. They would drink themselves silly or drug themselves into comas, and sometimes death.
“But I did come to you for help!”
“I just wasn’t myself then, that’s all. If I’d had more time…”
“So what?” Isis demanded of this shadow of her brother. “You still hurt me! You still hurt my children! So many of them!” Her eyes stung. “Even if it was out of pain, you worked to destroy me…” She looked away. “I’m not responsible for what you did!”
The scene shifted again, and Isis saw herself and her siblings sitting on thrones for celebration. The war with Ra was over, the sun was high over the four siblings, and the humans danced and sang around them.
Isis breathed in deeply and sighed. Sekhmet is failing whatever she wants with this.
Her gaze went to Seth, who looked bored and annoyed. No more tears or desperation. No more tugs on her heart strings, despite how much she hated it.
He was just a god, that was all.
And then she looked at Osiris. Tall, regal, a true ruler. Her heart hurt, and she hated it.
“Were you involved in all this with Nephthys, too?” Isis demanded of Osiris’ memory, knowing he wouldn’t reply, just as Seth hadn’t. “All this, just for Seth? All the pain you wrought, for that?” She remembered how awful and hard the wars were. And she’d believed it was to protect them. To keep them all safe from Ra.
She watched Seth sulk away, and Osiris act the caring older brother, back when things had been fine, or so Isis had thought. Already, she knew, his heart was set on one goal. The one he watched walk away. Not on Isis sitting beside him. Adoring him.
The scene shifted and she watched Seth talking with the human servants about the loot he was being rewarded from Osiris’ haul. He didn’t seem happy, but he also seemed so… so normal. Not like the brash, arrogant god she knew.
He was different back then, she thought in frustration as she saw Nephthys approach and chat with Seth. Isis watched Nephthys laugh, clearly happy, as she teased Seth.
“What am I, a kid?!”
“Pfft,” Nephthys said with a laugh as he held Seth’s arm tightly, nearly pressing her child to his tall shoulder. “Aren’t you? Or are you just a cutie?”
“Don’t tease me,” Seth said, his tall back to Isis, sulking as he used to. But he leaned into Nephthys rather than away. All his body language focused on her. His fingers teased closer to her side, and there was love in every word between them.
“How can someone so cute be so grumpy?” Nephthys pressed, leaning even more against him. She held him tight, as if he was the most precious thing in the world.
I haven’t seen her happy in centuries, Isis thought, distantly, even as it stung to remember this, too. For all she looked back on these times for memories of the mirror, she’d avoided things like this. Even then, she didn’t think seeing these two together like this could hurt so much, but it did.
Nephthys leaned in to kiss Seth’s cheek, even as Seth wrapped his left arm around her back, not painfully, but to support her, and hold her close. His face blushed under his mask, and as they continued to talk, Seth pressed her to his chest, tucking her under his chin, as if to guard her from others.
“Cute…” he said. “Yeah, right… You’re cuter.”
“Agh!!” Nephthys howled, “That’s so cheesy!”
It was all so simple and silly. They act like children, Isis thought with a roll of her eyes. But in a blin, she saw them pull each other close, gazing into each other’s eyes, lost in their own world, before they finally kissed. They were wrapped so tightly it was hard to see where they each began and ended.
Isis grimaced. I don’t need to see this. She already had the memory of Seth and Osiris burned into her mind.
“Pay attention, Isis,” Sekhmet said, pulling Isis back from herself. “You’re missing it.” She snapped her fingers as she pointed.
A light shone from the side of the room where she’d pointed.
“Hm?” Nephthys asked as she pulled away from Seth’s embrace, while still holding onto him. “What’s all this?” Her eyes were on a pile of loot from Ra.
Isis frowned, watching as Nephthys picked up… Hathor’s hand mirror!
This was that day! Isis thought, horrified. I remember… As she watched Nephthys study the mirror, Isis recalled considering it when assigning out the spoils, and discarding it herself, as it didn’t reflect anything. She only had memories outside of this, so she never knew…
I was the one who sent it to them, she thought, miserably. She’d tried not to focus on it as she worked on the mirror. Whenever she did, it made her angry. Because it was foolish to blame herself, and still possible that the mirror had gotten to Nephthys, if it ever did, in some other way. And it was foolish to insist Osiris had somehow known Isis wouldn’t keep the mirror. It had to be an accident that she wouldn’t take it. That it would end up with Seth. That Nephthys would take an interest. There was too much risk involved!
He doesn’t have the power of foresight, Isis thought bitterly as she watched Nephthys and Seth turn to bed, happily, still embracing, as if they wished to never part. And then they started losing their clothes.
“Ooh, this is fun,” Sekhmet said, clearly delighted.
Isis’ face burned. “I don’t need to see this.”
“But it’s getting exciting!” Sekhmet said, her eyes on Seth and Nephthys’ bodies.
“Move past this!” Isis demanded.
Thankfully the scene shifted again, and Isis saw Nephthys sit up as Seth slept. The look on her face as she gazed down Seth was so loving. His arms were still wrapped tightly around her, even in slumber.
She does love him, Isis thought. She did, then. But… then why go to Osiris? She’d seen that look on her parents’ faces. On their grandparents’ faces.
On her own face, in the past, as she gazed at Osiris.
That adoration was obvious, and meant you only saw one person. There was no way Nephthys, the Nephthys whom Isis had known, would stray.
The crying, begging Nephthys on that night when everything went wrong, because she loved Osiris…
And now Isis watched Nephthys go back to that damn mirror. The mirror that was always there, every time. A mirror that allegedly contained a version of Nephthys who claimed to be the wife of Seth.
And Isis saw the curse take hold, but the memory was just a memory. She couldn’t tell what else it did.
“What does the mirror do?” Isis demanded as she looked at Sekhmet, who was only smirking. “Tell me!”
“You can guess, can’t you?” Sekhmet replied with a sharp-toothed smile.
Isis recalled the flash of light that had drawn not only her attention, but also Nephthys’. “You! You did this! You ruined us all!” She could still see the adoration in Nephthys’ face. In Seth’s face. The love that had vanished so long ago. “They loved each other! And you… you—!” All that love had burned away.
“I see Osiris isn’t being blamed for any of this,” Sekhmet replied, coolly. “You should be honest. Osiris is the one who made this happen. I only made sure it didn’t go as Osiris planned.”
“But there’s no way…” Isis half-pleaded. “The mirror was just one of many trophies… Osiris couldn’t have known I wouldn’t keep it. That Seth wouldn’t want it… Why target Nephthys?”
“He didn’t target her,” Sekhmet said, sounding annoyed. “You know the only person he wanted to target. What he wanted to do to Seth with it.”
Isis’ blood ran cold as she considered Seth in Nephthys’ place, insisting he’d hidden his love for Osiris for so many years, apologizing…
“He stole it from Ra…” Isis said, recalling Osiris facing Ra in her temple. And he’d meant for it to go to Seth. He’d known Isis for so long. He knew her tastes. Had likely known she wouldn’t care for it, and so it would end up in Seth’s portion.
That flash, Isis thought again. That was Sekhmet making Nephthys take note of it. If Nephthys hadn’t seen it, if Seth had been the one to keep it… What would have happened? She looked at Nephthys in horror.
“Oh? I just… saw someone…” Nephthys’ voice sounded distant.
“No…” Isis said, watching Nephthys turn away, from her, from Seth… from everything. The spell, whatever it was, had taken hold.
Sekhmet pulled her alone, making her watch Osiris manipulate Nephthys. How Nephthys sounded so unlike herself. How the sister Isis had once known would never have agreed to such things.
I thought as much of Osiris and Seth once, too, she thought. But no matter her bitterness, she’d seen Seth and Nephthys together. She’d known that kind of love.
This was all wrong.
“Her memories are trapped in the mirror now,” Sekhmet said. “She only sees him, now.”
“You could have just told me from the start,” Isis said. “Why show me this?”
“Would you have believed me?” Sekhmet asked.
No, Isis thought as she watched the man a part of her still cursedly loved manipulate their sister. Manipulate their brother. Manipulate Isis with centuries of lies.
And he smiled as he did it.
Isis woke in her chambers, and saw it was late afternoon. After a moment, she could tell that a day had passed. She felt weary, and slowly pushed herself up, before turning to rest her feet on the floor.
She turned to gaze at the empty doorway. No one had seemingly come to call on her, or at least it wasn’t apparent. She likely wasn’t missed. Seth, Thoth, and Maat were busy. Nephthys and Horus were in their own cells, voluntary and involuntary. Anubis was wherever he willed.
Osiris was dead.
She could still recall Seth running in to see her, desperate. How her heart had grown still under her own curse. Over the centuries she’d wished for her siblings of old. The ones she’d loved. Whom she’d thought loved her.
Osiris had lied. Nephthys had been brainwashed.
And Seth? What had he lost without even knowing? She and Seth had both loved so deeply, and how had they been rewarded for it? How much of Seth had broken that night, over and over, just like Isis?
Isis knew what it was to know your son was at risk. And what ends she would go to, in order to stop that.
She reached out to the ghost of Seth’s hand, offering her a place at his side. To stand together against those who’d wronged them. But there was nothing but air.
She pulled back her hand and hugged herself. It changes nothing. He’s done too much to me. One pain shared was not everything, even if Osiris was at the root of everything. Even if Isis bore some of the blame, because Osiris had used her to ruin them.
Osiris is still out there, she thought. In contact with Maat, other gods, Anubis… What will he do next? She looked at her desk, where the mirror sat. And how will I save my sister?
She thought of the army approaching. How hard she’d pushed for it. How Egypt was unprepared for it. How Seth was possibly unprepared.
She clenched her hands into fists. What revenge will either of us have, in the end?