Carter blinked, what had just happened?

One minute he was being brutally beaten by a blind kid, next, he was, well, he wasn't sure how to describe where he was.

It looked like a very large, luxury modern house, with lush carpeting, a chandelier, a balcony with glass doors that let sunlight stream in, and even a mini-bar. He himself was sitting in a large, padded chair/

Across from him was a glass coffe table, and after that….. oh gods.

Reclining in a couch, his feet on the table, was a man with a red suit and cherry cool-aid skin.

"Set," Carter growled, getting up from his seat, then quickly regretting it as pain shot through his back and he fell back down into the chair.

"Me," said Set calmly, examining his nails. "I wouldn't try moving to much if I were you, your ba took quite a beating, any exertion here in the duat could very well obliterate you soul altogether."

Carter groaned, "The duat? Did you hire that boy to kidnap me or something?"

Set looked hurt, but being a god of deception, it was hard to tell if he was faking it or not. "Me? Send a member of The Eyes? My dear carter, even I have my limits, there is evil, and then there is EVIL. Besides, I wouldn't need to hire anyone, I would do it myself/"

Carter raised an eyebrow, "So why am I here?"

Set got up and walked over to the mini bar, pouring himself a drink, "A good question, you see, you're technically dead right now, and your ba is to badly damaged to go on into the afterlife."

"I'm WHAT?" Carter screamed.

"Dead, deceased, you bought the farm, kicked the bucket….." he conjured up a thesaurus and continued to talk. "Departed, lifeless, finished, caput…."

"I get it, I get it," sighed Carter. "What about Sadie?"

Set frowned, "Uh, yeah, she's, well sort of dying at the moment, that assassin gave her a nasty poison, no one remembers the cure anymore, not even the gods."

Carter put his head in his hands, "So I'm stuck here with you for the rest of my life and I can't save my sister?"

"No," said Set.

"So I'm going to the afterlife?"

"No."

"Then what in Horus' name AM I doing!"

"You are going to save your sister's life."

"And how am I going to do that?"

Set smiled and sat back down, "Ah, you see, while the gods never found a cure for that poison, someone else did, unfortunately, he kept it hidden from the gods and gave the only sample to the leader of The Eyes."

"That's the second time you've mentioned 'The Eye,'" said Carter. "What is The Eye?"

Set sighed and took a long drink, his glass never got any emptier, "The Eyes of The Cobra, the most elite an deadly group of assassins in Egypt. They were master magicians and killers some of the only people without the blood of the pharos who could work magic. They revere snakes in any form and can actually communicate with them, that is where they got their name. The boy you saw was one of their greatest killers, unfortunately, no one knows any of their names, they use special spells to make sure that not even the gods can see them, they use the names of different snakes instead, for example, the boy you saw was named 'Adder'"

Carter shook his head, "And how am I going to do anything if I'm dead?"

Set smiled, "I said you were TECHNICALLY dead, when you blacked out, I recovered your body, left a note in your handwriting to make it look like you had left to find a cure for your sister, then dropped your body in a hospital in Russia. At the moment, your ba is simply to damaged to connect to yout body."

"And why is my Ba damaged?" asked Carter. The Ba was part of your soul, nothing short of powerful magic could hurt that.

"Ah," said Set. "You see, The Eyes of The Cobra worship an aspect of Apophis, a small shred of his soul ripped from the rest of his during his battle with Ra, that shred is called Sinith The Eyes wishes to give Sinith the power of a god, and they're slowly doing that by stealing power from other gods. That dagger you were stabbed with, it had been enchanted by Sinith himself, when it drew your blood, it used your connection to Horus to take some of his own Ba, the same with Sadie and Isis. Now, both Horus and Isis are terribly injured, and the force of having a gods Ba ripped through your own has damaged yours and Sadies, luckily, as you are both former godlings, you will recover."

Carter nodded, understanding most of what Set had just said, "But if these assasins are so powerful, how do I fight them?"

Set smiled, "Because, you are going to receive imence amounts of power soon."

"And where is that power going to come from?" asked Carter, raising an eyebrow.

Sets' smile widened, "It will come from me."

"You're not saying….."

"Yes," said Set, grinning from ear to ear. "You, Carter Kane, are going to become my host."