Once again, I am blindsided by the absolute stupidity of some people. I
would HOPE that at least someone would figure out that AOL users (and again
I shall point out that AOL sucks disgusting butt) CANNOT LOG ON with this
new security mode! AOL, for some reason, will not let me log on and
therefore update my story. Yeah, I'm sure you're thinking, 'why don't you
just switch to internet explorer or MSN?' Well, I CAN'T. My dad, who is a
voiceover artist, gives out tapes of him doing work for the Baltimore
Ravens and such, and with it he includes his AOL screen name, so they may E-
mail him. I cannot go on Internet Explorer because that too is hooked up to
AOL.
I have complained numerous times to the people working here at Fanfiction.net that this is NOT COOL, and I am very pissed off, but do they answer? No. Do they DO anything about it? Hell no! Why should THEY bend to the needs of a user? What an absolutely outrageous idea that is.
*Sigh* but I need to get on with it. I am currently using my mother's laptop hooked up to a phone on a chair to do this, so please be grateful that I am doing this. Most people, I would think, would give up. But no, not me! I shall work persistently to give you what...
Oh, never mind I'm too lazy to write the rest. Just read, please.
Oh! Yeah. *** means some time has passed. So if I end a paragraph and then do *** under it it is a while before the written dialogue is actually spoken.
Obsequious Sadist~ Thank youuuuu I thought nobody else knew! Or understood... except for Chuen and perhaps Sarah. You should see me in math class, when I'm not spacing out.
Chuen~ Child-like empress, you do not even know what Ja ne means (then again, I don't exactly know either) so don't use it until you find me a Japanese-English dictionary and we can look up Japanese words together.
Science Project thing due next week and I've barely started. Perhaps that's why they give you a month to do it instead of a week. And I havn't even written my song about the air vent! Damn. I'll just do it on Monday (which is lundi in French. ^_^)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kay-ro is a very creepy place, especially at dusk. The shadows seem longer and the faces peeking out at you from the broken windows don't seem so innocent anymore.
And the flocks of ravens that are perched atop the walls and crumbling buildings don't help much, either.
That's right. I think word got around that I was going to go see Chaos, and all of the ravens decided to stare at me while I walk down the deserted streets. As I pass, they move on their perches and ruffle their feathers eerily. I can hear them whispering to one another, though I can't make out what they say. Suddenly one of them shouts down from its perch.
"Ai! Shadow-Girl!"
I look up at it, and it stares at me with black beady eyes.
"What?"
"Don't get angry. Don't disrespect. Don't talk about Osiris. He is friend, but does have a temper."
I nod. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
The raven toks reassuringly and I resume walking, trying to ignore the ravens. At least I know they wish me well.
One of them does, anyway.
***
After a good twenty minutes of walking it occurs to me that I don't know where I am supposed to go. I have been wandering these streets for a good third of an hour and I not only don't know where to go; I don't know where I am, either.
I sigh and sit on a dumpster. The ravens are still staring at me, and whispering to one another. I wonder what they are saying.
"Okay," I say aloud. "You guys win. I don't know where to go, so could you possibly help me? Please?"
They do not say anything, only continue to shuffle around and stare at me.
"Give you cookie!" I try feebly.
One of the large birds cocks its head at me. "That is lame, Shadow-girl."
I finally snap. This is it; I'm tired of being in this fucking surrealist version of life. I don't want to talk to birds; I don't want to see Chaos. I just want to go home.
"It's Raven, you stupid flea-bitten crow!" I scream at it. Some of the
ravens fly off in fright, others get mad and scream back.
I jump off the dumpster and walk down another deserted street, then turn at a corner and walk down that one. Turn, walk, walk, walk, turn, walk, turn, walk, walk, turn, retrace steps a bit, turn, walk, walk...
The ravens follow me after a couple minutes and so now every time I look up I see them staring at me, waiting for me to do something stupid, like die.
"I bet you'd like that," I say to them, "for me to die."
They say nothing but I can tell that right now they are impatient for me to do something. Well, so am I. I am impatient to find the way OUT of here.
"Fine!" I cry up at them. "What am I supposed to do? I don't know! I really don't? What are you waiting for me to do?"
They shuffle uneasily. I hear them mutter to one another and I catch a glimpse of sentence.
"Ask," the raven whispered.
I ball my hands into fists.
"I DID ask? What the fucking hell do you think I've been DOING for the past five minutes?"
They still do not answer.
"Fine," I mutter through gritted teeth. "I will ask, one... more... time." I pause to gather my breath.
"Where. Is. CHAOS?!?!"
The last part I scream so loud that I am sure the whole city heard me. All of the birds freeze when they hear me scream, then fly away in terror.
Good. They SHOULD be scared. I stare at the diminishing figures of the ravens in the distance.
"Do you need help, miss?"
I jump and turn around. It is the music boy from yesterday. He is sitting in his regular spot, next to his boom box. It's weird... it's like he is sitting in the exact same place as last time, in front of the same old building. But that's impossible, I am sure that I was not passing that building.
"Yeah," I whisper. "I need to get out of here."
He stares at me with very, very dark brown eyes.
"I'm sure I could tell you... but that would totally ruin my sending you here in the first place."
O_O "You?" I ask.
"Yes. I sent my raven to get you; I made the maze and the riddle. It was really quite simple. I do love riddles like that."
My brain has stopped functioning. "Wait, wait... a riddle? That's all this was?"
The boy nods. "Yes. It's a riddle of pride; I made it up myself. You walk around in circles, trying to find a certain thing when the answer is all around you. All you had to do was ask the birds. When you did, I appeared."
My mind freezes. "You mean... you are Seth?"
A flicker of absolute disgust resonates over his face, then quickly disappears.
"No," he says quietly. "Seth is a Hebrew name. It means 'substitute', and obviously people keep confusing it with my REAL name, which is Set. SET, Raven. Please remember this. I do not like it when people get my name wrong."
"Sorry. That's just the way I heard it in school and stuff."
The boy nods. I find it weird that Set, the god of all things evil and black would take the form of a young punkish boy. I ask him this, and he chuckles.
"I wanted to be in a form you would recognize. You know, if you saw any of us in our true forms you would probably die or be blinded. Besides... I think it suits me, don't you?"
I stare at him, trying to see how it would suit him. After a minute or two, I am still at a loss.
"Beastie Boys?"
He stands up and dusts off his navy-blue jeans. "All will be revealed in time, young Raven. Come, let us walk."
***
We walk through the dusty streets of Kay-ro, and as we pass the ragged and poor looking children, they look at him with fear and hatred.
"Why do they run away from you?" I ask, after one child blesses himself before fleeing as if for his life.
"They know what I am. Little children, and I mean really young ones see what is real. As you get older that goes away. You see a seventeen year- old kid you met on the street; they see an incarnation of evil and chaos. I am not a pretty person." He paused, and looked ahead.
"Besides," he says, starting to walk toward whatever he was looking at. "They run away and curse at me because I am the one who made them they way they are. I bring them flies and sickness and poverty. They have many reasons to hate me."
He stops in the middle (or end? I don't know yet) of his speech and stands in front of a young woman holding a baby. The baby is white and frail, and so is the woman. He raises his hand over the baby's head and it starts to cough horribly. I can almost see the sickness going through the infant's body; the poor child would be dead in a week, maybe less. The woman looks at hm with horror on her face and rushes into her dilapidated house, slamming the door behind her.
"Why did you do that? The kid will die now!"
He looks at the ground sadly. "Raven, it's hard to explain. Let me just leave it at that is what I am supposed to do."
"No, tell me why you do this! Don't you get sick of all the people dying because of you?"
He stops and glares at me angrily.
"Damn, Raven! I thought you were smarter than this! Yes, I do get sick of watching people despair because of what I do. I hate watching people die and I cry every time I kill the mother of a child. But if I don't the world will be even worse off. People have to get sick, and there has to be poverty and infertility and chaos, because if there wasn't what would balance out all the good things?"
A flicker runs through my mind again, and I try to grasp onto it. I almost have it this time but once again it slips through my fingers.
"Hidden Meanings," I whisper.
"Exactly."
***
"Why are you acting this way?" I ask after a while. We have been
talking about things,
about life in general and about very specific things. It is truly
awesome; having someone that is exactly the
same thinking level as you are to talk with.
"What do you mean?"
I pause, trying to gather my thoughts.
"I mean, aren't you supposed to be an evil god? I mean, you were supposed to have killed your brother for the throne of Egypt. Why are you acting really friendly to me?"
Right after I say that sentence I regret it, remembering the raven's words. 'Don't mention Osiris.' He is silent for a very long time (2, maybe 3 minutes) before he answers.
"Raven, are you evil?"
I am shocked. "No!" I say loudly.
"Well, you dress in black clothing. You wear dark makeup; you don't talk to many people. You must be evil if you are all those things."
"I'm not! I like the color black, and..." I stop. I have figured it out now.
He smiles. "Just because people think that what I do is evil, does not mean I am evil as well. It is like you and your clothing. Your clothing is dark, but you yourself are not sadistic, masochistic, or anything else that it implies."
"Ah. Okay, I get it now... wait! My clothing isn't masochistic!"
He goes on. "Anyway, I had a good reason for killing Osiris."
"What was it?" I ask, still fuming slightly about the masochistic crack.
"He fucked my wife. You know, Nepthys? She has a son, Anubis. You've probably heard of him. Good kid, but not mine. He takes after his father's profession."
"Weirdly, that makes sense."
He laughs. His laugh sounds like a wolf barking, but it is a laugh all the same.
"You know Raven, I always liked you. I liked the way you think, the way you saw things. Reminds me of Thoth. Now there's a nice guy, his kids are all wonderful thinkers."
O_o "He has kids?"
"Damn straight. He always liked the bookish type, though. Me, I went for the wild ones."
I close my eyes. "Set... no offense but I really don't want to know."
Set smiles.
We walk in silence for a good five minutes. By the time we speak again we are out of Kay-ro and into the city of Domino. Familiar houses pass and people I know I've seen before pass.
"So..." I say. "You never explained the Beastie Boys thing. Is that some godly message to mankind or something?"
He chuckles. "You should be so lucky. No, I like that kind of music because... it makes me feel like myself again. You know that feeling, when you close your eyes and you hear the bass drum pounding out a good ¾ time and you remember what you are? It isn't everywhere that you hear that kind of music, but that song I was listening to was.
It's also that rock songs represent chaos in its entirety. It's all relative. To someone who does not normally listen to it, it can be absolute nonsense but if you listen long enough you find a rhythm and basic beat. There is no absolute chaos, unless you want to include Nun but he's entirely different. The Egyptians thought that there was, but they just didn't study the music long enough."
I understand. Hell, I SHOULD understand. I listen to chaos every day, and I know the beat.
***
"Raven," he says quietly, breaking the silence, "I didn't call you to
tell you about me, or
to talk about things. I called you for a reason."
"Which would be... what? A holy quest from Ra? Inside information? Explanation for the messed-up visions I've been having?"
He shakes his head.
"No, no holy quest, no inside information. And as for the visions... you would have to ask the other gods themselves. Since you've had them it probably means they want you to know something. But anyway, I came here for something else."
"What?!" I am getting really impatient. I wish he would hurry the hell up, I really do have homework.
"Advice."
I stop and stare at him. "You made me come out here, wasted my time for over an hour, just for a piece of ADVICE? I could get advice from a fucking fortune cookie!"
He stares back at me, glaring with his mud-brown eyes.
"You should never turn away help, Raven. And advice can be the most useful help you can get."
Somehow he struck a blow with those words. I feel myself humbling before his eyes.
"Okay, what is it then?"
He leans against a wall and closes his eyes for a long time. I wait, more patiently than I thought I would.
After a while he looks at me again and I see a demonic creature behind him, as if a shadow. The creature has the body of a man and the head of an armadillo. (Or at least that's what it looks like. I can't be sure.) He doesn't look to be so bad, but you can almost see the shimmering waves of evil intent that surround him.
Somehow I pity Set. I doubt he wants to be the way he is, just like everybody wants to be different at some point in their life. Set can't change, like humans can, though. He was made to be hated and despised. It must be lonely that way.
"Suffering," he said softly, "is life. I know this, obviously. Sometimes, for something you love to live, you have to let him suffer. The whiter a person is, the darker their shadow is. Though, without that shadow they will cease to truly exist."
He holds his hands up and entwines the fingers. "Symbiosis. That's what it comes down to. If it makes it easier think of it as that Ying-Yang thing."
"Who... or what... are you talking about?"
"I think you know. He really is more than he seems."
I open my mouth to protest, then shut it again.
"How did you... know about that?"
He smiles slyly. "It's kind of obvious."
"Is it really?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Luckily for you he's too dense to get the picture yet, so he isn't off-put by you. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me." He pantomimed zipping his lips shut.
I smile. "So... are you saying that he's bad or something?"
He nods his head, then stops. He looks kind of confused.
"Not... really. Yes and no. It's hard to explain. The two sisters could explain it better." He looks up at the sun, and I can see it reflected in his eyes. It doesn't seem to affect him. "You'll probably be meeting them soon."
This is annoying, I wish he would stop being so vague all the time. Why is everybody being so vague to me here?! At least back in America people were fairly blunt about things. If you had a problem, people would tell you. Most of the time.
"Look, I just... damn, I'm just saying..." I stop, trying to word my thoughts correctly. "I'm just saying I don't want mysteries."
Set laughs. "Too bad, Shadow-girl, because mysteries are what you are going to get for a while. And, before you ask, you're stuck with that nickname as well."
"Why? Is it because I wear black or something?"
"No. You'll see why soon."
I close my eyes and realize how exhausted I am.
"Fine. Just as long as, in the end, no one else is hurt I don't care."
He nods and bows to me, then walks away. It is only then, that I see the little golden ankh in his hand.
I decide that now is the time to go to Burger World. Hopefully the gang will still be there and I can spend time with them. Perhaps I will actually talk as well.
As I walk to the restaurant I wonder if I will ever see the god of Chaos again.
Probably not.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
Hey! New gods introduced. Here they are (I got it right this time!!!)
Nun~ According to the ancient Egyptian creation myth, Nun was the waters of absolute chaos. It/He was the only thing before there was land, then the first land (Or Ra, depending on what myth you read) rose out of the waters of Nun. Nun was also associated with the chaos that existed at the edges of the universe.
Set~ The god of chaos, plague/pestilence infertility, and all other things that threatened harmony Egypt. (In this story I have him representing poverty as well.) The most famous Egyptian myth about him is when he murdered his brother Osiris for the throne of Egypt. His nephew (Osiris's son) Horus fought him and won, then became the ruler of the living.
At first I was going to do this chapter with Anubis as the god, instead of Set. Then I read more about Set and wondered what his point of view on the whole thing would be, and who better to give advice about balance than the god of Chaos himself? I hope you liked the chapter. It is a bit longer than the others but I'm not sure whether you would notice that or not.
I really do hope that you caught the little thing I put in there. It totally hints out the ending, but it's hard to find if you're not looking for it specifically.
Good day, and so forth
Khani
I have complained numerous times to the people working here at Fanfiction.net that this is NOT COOL, and I am very pissed off, but do they answer? No. Do they DO anything about it? Hell no! Why should THEY bend to the needs of a user? What an absolutely outrageous idea that is.
*Sigh* but I need to get on with it. I am currently using my mother's laptop hooked up to a phone on a chair to do this, so please be grateful that I am doing this. Most people, I would think, would give up. But no, not me! I shall work persistently to give you what...
Oh, never mind I'm too lazy to write the rest. Just read, please.
Oh! Yeah. *** means some time has passed. So if I end a paragraph and then do *** under it it is a while before the written dialogue is actually spoken.
Obsequious Sadist~ Thank youuuuu I thought nobody else knew! Or understood... except for Chuen and perhaps Sarah. You should see me in math class, when I'm not spacing out.
Chuen~ Child-like empress, you do not even know what Ja ne means (then again, I don't exactly know either) so don't use it until you find me a Japanese-English dictionary and we can look up Japanese words together.
Science Project thing due next week and I've barely started. Perhaps that's why they give you a month to do it instead of a week. And I havn't even written my song about the air vent! Damn. I'll just do it on Monday (which is lundi in French. ^_^)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kay-ro is a very creepy place, especially at dusk. The shadows seem longer and the faces peeking out at you from the broken windows don't seem so innocent anymore.
And the flocks of ravens that are perched atop the walls and crumbling buildings don't help much, either.
That's right. I think word got around that I was going to go see Chaos, and all of the ravens decided to stare at me while I walk down the deserted streets. As I pass, they move on their perches and ruffle their feathers eerily. I can hear them whispering to one another, though I can't make out what they say. Suddenly one of them shouts down from its perch.
"Ai! Shadow-Girl!"
I look up at it, and it stares at me with black beady eyes.
"What?"
"Don't get angry. Don't disrespect. Don't talk about Osiris. He is friend, but does have a temper."
I nod. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
The raven toks reassuringly and I resume walking, trying to ignore the ravens. At least I know they wish me well.
One of them does, anyway.
***
After a good twenty minutes of walking it occurs to me that I don't know where I am supposed to go. I have been wandering these streets for a good third of an hour and I not only don't know where to go; I don't know where I am, either.
I sigh and sit on a dumpster. The ravens are still staring at me, and whispering to one another. I wonder what they are saying.
"Okay," I say aloud. "You guys win. I don't know where to go, so could you possibly help me? Please?"
They do not say anything, only continue to shuffle around and stare at me.
"Give you cookie!" I try feebly.
One of the large birds cocks its head at me. "That is lame, Shadow-girl."
I finally snap. This is it; I'm tired of being in this fucking surrealist version of life. I don't want to talk to birds; I don't want to see Chaos. I just want to go home.
"It's Raven, you stupid flea-bitten crow!" I scream at it. Some of the
ravens fly off in fright, others get mad and scream back.
I jump off the dumpster and walk down another deserted street, then turn at a corner and walk down that one. Turn, walk, walk, walk, turn, walk, turn, walk, walk, turn, retrace steps a bit, turn, walk, walk...
The ravens follow me after a couple minutes and so now every time I look up I see them staring at me, waiting for me to do something stupid, like die.
"I bet you'd like that," I say to them, "for me to die."
They say nothing but I can tell that right now they are impatient for me to do something. Well, so am I. I am impatient to find the way OUT of here.
"Fine!" I cry up at them. "What am I supposed to do? I don't know! I really don't? What are you waiting for me to do?"
They shuffle uneasily. I hear them mutter to one another and I catch a glimpse of sentence.
"Ask," the raven whispered.
I ball my hands into fists.
"I DID ask? What the fucking hell do you think I've been DOING for the past five minutes?"
They still do not answer.
"Fine," I mutter through gritted teeth. "I will ask, one... more... time." I pause to gather my breath.
"Where. Is. CHAOS?!?!"
The last part I scream so loud that I am sure the whole city heard me. All of the birds freeze when they hear me scream, then fly away in terror.
Good. They SHOULD be scared. I stare at the diminishing figures of the ravens in the distance.
"Do you need help, miss?"
I jump and turn around. It is the music boy from yesterday. He is sitting in his regular spot, next to his boom box. It's weird... it's like he is sitting in the exact same place as last time, in front of the same old building. But that's impossible, I am sure that I was not passing that building.
"Yeah," I whisper. "I need to get out of here."
He stares at me with very, very dark brown eyes.
"I'm sure I could tell you... but that would totally ruin my sending you here in the first place."
O_O "You?" I ask.
"Yes. I sent my raven to get you; I made the maze and the riddle. It was really quite simple. I do love riddles like that."
My brain has stopped functioning. "Wait, wait... a riddle? That's all this was?"
The boy nods. "Yes. It's a riddle of pride; I made it up myself. You walk around in circles, trying to find a certain thing when the answer is all around you. All you had to do was ask the birds. When you did, I appeared."
My mind freezes. "You mean... you are Seth?"
A flicker of absolute disgust resonates over his face, then quickly disappears.
"No," he says quietly. "Seth is a Hebrew name. It means 'substitute', and obviously people keep confusing it with my REAL name, which is Set. SET, Raven. Please remember this. I do not like it when people get my name wrong."
"Sorry. That's just the way I heard it in school and stuff."
The boy nods. I find it weird that Set, the god of all things evil and black would take the form of a young punkish boy. I ask him this, and he chuckles.
"I wanted to be in a form you would recognize. You know, if you saw any of us in our true forms you would probably die or be blinded. Besides... I think it suits me, don't you?"
I stare at him, trying to see how it would suit him. After a minute or two, I am still at a loss.
"Beastie Boys?"
He stands up and dusts off his navy-blue jeans. "All will be revealed in time, young Raven. Come, let us walk."
***
We walk through the dusty streets of Kay-ro, and as we pass the ragged and poor looking children, they look at him with fear and hatred.
"Why do they run away from you?" I ask, after one child blesses himself before fleeing as if for his life.
"They know what I am. Little children, and I mean really young ones see what is real. As you get older that goes away. You see a seventeen year- old kid you met on the street; they see an incarnation of evil and chaos. I am not a pretty person." He paused, and looked ahead.
"Besides," he says, starting to walk toward whatever he was looking at. "They run away and curse at me because I am the one who made them they way they are. I bring them flies and sickness and poverty. They have many reasons to hate me."
He stops in the middle (or end? I don't know yet) of his speech and stands in front of a young woman holding a baby. The baby is white and frail, and so is the woman. He raises his hand over the baby's head and it starts to cough horribly. I can almost see the sickness going through the infant's body; the poor child would be dead in a week, maybe less. The woman looks at hm with horror on her face and rushes into her dilapidated house, slamming the door behind her.
"Why did you do that? The kid will die now!"
He looks at the ground sadly. "Raven, it's hard to explain. Let me just leave it at that is what I am supposed to do."
"No, tell me why you do this! Don't you get sick of all the people dying because of you?"
He stops and glares at me angrily.
"Damn, Raven! I thought you were smarter than this! Yes, I do get sick of watching people despair because of what I do. I hate watching people die and I cry every time I kill the mother of a child. But if I don't the world will be even worse off. People have to get sick, and there has to be poverty and infertility and chaos, because if there wasn't what would balance out all the good things?"
A flicker runs through my mind again, and I try to grasp onto it. I almost have it this time but once again it slips through my fingers.
"Hidden Meanings," I whisper.
"Exactly."
***
"Why are you acting this way?" I ask after a while. We have been
talking about things,
about life in general and about very specific things. It is truly
awesome; having someone that is exactly the
same thinking level as you are to talk with.
"What do you mean?"
I pause, trying to gather my thoughts.
"I mean, aren't you supposed to be an evil god? I mean, you were supposed to have killed your brother for the throne of Egypt. Why are you acting really friendly to me?"
Right after I say that sentence I regret it, remembering the raven's words. 'Don't mention Osiris.' He is silent for a very long time (2, maybe 3 minutes) before he answers.
"Raven, are you evil?"
I am shocked. "No!" I say loudly.
"Well, you dress in black clothing. You wear dark makeup; you don't talk to many people. You must be evil if you are all those things."
"I'm not! I like the color black, and..." I stop. I have figured it out now.
He smiles. "Just because people think that what I do is evil, does not mean I am evil as well. It is like you and your clothing. Your clothing is dark, but you yourself are not sadistic, masochistic, or anything else that it implies."
"Ah. Okay, I get it now... wait! My clothing isn't masochistic!"
He goes on. "Anyway, I had a good reason for killing Osiris."
"What was it?" I ask, still fuming slightly about the masochistic crack.
"He fucked my wife. You know, Nepthys? She has a son, Anubis. You've probably heard of him. Good kid, but not mine. He takes after his father's profession."
"Weirdly, that makes sense."
He laughs. His laugh sounds like a wolf barking, but it is a laugh all the same.
"You know Raven, I always liked you. I liked the way you think, the way you saw things. Reminds me of Thoth. Now there's a nice guy, his kids are all wonderful thinkers."
O_o "He has kids?"
"Damn straight. He always liked the bookish type, though. Me, I went for the wild ones."
I close my eyes. "Set... no offense but I really don't want to know."
Set smiles.
We walk in silence for a good five minutes. By the time we speak again we are out of Kay-ro and into the city of Domino. Familiar houses pass and people I know I've seen before pass.
"So..." I say. "You never explained the Beastie Boys thing. Is that some godly message to mankind or something?"
He chuckles. "You should be so lucky. No, I like that kind of music because... it makes me feel like myself again. You know that feeling, when you close your eyes and you hear the bass drum pounding out a good ¾ time and you remember what you are? It isn't everywhere that you hear that kind of music, but that song I was listening to was.
It's also that rock songs represent chaos in its entirety. It's all relative. To someone who does not normally listen to it, it can be absolute nonsense but if you listen long enough you find a rhythm and basic beat. There is no absolute chaos, unless you want to include Nun but he's entirely different. The Egyptians thought that there was, but they just didn't study the music long enough."
I understand. Hell, I SHOULD understand. I listen to chaos every day, and I know the beat.
***
"Raven," he says quietly, breaking the silence, "I didn't call you to
tell you about me, or
to talk about things. I called you for a reason."
"Which would be... what? A holy quest from Ra? Inside information? Explanation for the messed-up visions I've been having?"
He shakes his head.
"No, no holy quest, no inside information. And as for the visions... you would have to ask the other gods themselves. Since you've had them it probably means they want you to know something. But anyway, I came here for something else."
"What?!" I am getting really impatient. I wish he would hurry the hell up, I really do have homework.
"Advice."
I stop and stare at him. "You made me come out here, wasted my time for over an hour, just for a piece of ADVICE? I could get advice from a fucking fortune cookie!"
He stares back at me, glaring with his mud-brown eyes.
"You should never turn away help, Raven. And advice can be the most useful help you can get."
Somehow he struck a blow with those words. I feel myself humbling before his eyes.
"Okay, what is it then?"
He leans against a wall and closes his eyes for a long time. I wait, more patiently than I thought I would.
After a while he looks at me again and I see a demonic creature behind him, as if a shadow. The creature has the body of a man and the head of an armadillo. (Or at least that's what it looks like. I can't be sure.) He doesn't look to be so bad, but you can almost see the shimmering waves of evil intent that surround him.
Somehow I pity Set. I doubt he wants to be the way he is, just like everybody wants to be different at some point in their life. Set can't change, like humans can, though. He was made to be hated and despised. It must be lonely that way.
"Suffering," he said softly, "is life. I know this, obviously. Sometimes, for something you love to live, you have to let him suffer. The whiter a person is, the darker their shadow is. Though, without that shadow they will cease to truly exist."
He holds his hands up and entwines the fingers. "Symbiosis. That's what it comes down to. If it makes it easier think of it as that Ying-Yang thing."
"Who... or what... are you talking about?"
"I think you know. He really is more than he seems."
I open my mouth to protest, then shut it again.
"How did you... know about that?"
He smiles slyly. "It's kind of obvious."
"Is it really?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Luckily for you he's too dense to get the picture yet, so he isn't off-put by you. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me." He pantomimed zipping his lips shut.
I smile. "So... are you saying that he's bad or something?"
He nods his head, then stops. He looks kind of confused.
"Not... really. Yes and no. It's hard to explain. The two sisters could explain it better." He looks up at the sun, and I can see it reflected in his eyes. It doesn't seem to affect him. "You'll probably be meeting them soon."
This is annoying, I wish he would stop being so vague all the time. Why is everybody being so vague to me here?! At least back in America people were fairly blunt about things. If you had a problem, people would tell you. Most of the time.
"Look, I just... damn, I'm just saying..." I stop, trying to word my thoughts correctly. "I'm just saying I don't want mysteries."
Set laughs. "Too bad, Shadow-girl, because mysteries are what you are going to get for a while. And, before you ask, you're stuck with that nickname as well."
"Why? Is it because I wear black or something?"
"No. You'll see why soon."
I close my eyes and realize how exhausted I am.
"Fine. Just as long as, in the end, no one else is hurt I don't care."
He nods and bows to me, then walks away. It is only then, that I see the little golden ankh in his hand.
I decide that now is the time to go to Burger World. Hopefully the gang will still be there and I can spend time with them. Perhaps I will actually talk as well.
As I walk to the restaurant I wonder if I will ever see the god of Chaos again.
Probably not.
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Hey! New gods introduced. Here they are (I got it right this time!!!)
Nun~ According to the ancient Egyptian creation myth, Nun was the waters of absolute chaos. It/He was the only thing before there was land, then the first land (Or Ra, depending on what myth you read) rose out of the waters of Nun. Nun was also associated with the chaos that existed at the edges of the universe.
Set~ The god of chaos, plague/pestilence infertility, and all other things that threatened harmony Egypt. (In this story I have him representing poverty as well.) The most famous Egyptian myth about him is when he murdered his brother Osiris for the throne of Egypt. His nephew (Osiris's son) Horus fought him and won, then became the ruler of the living.
At first I was going to do this chapter with Anubis as the god, instead of Set. Then I read more about Set and wondered what his point of view on the whole thing would be, and who better to give advice about balance than the god of Chaos himself? I hope you liked the chapter. It is a bit longer than the others but I'm not sure whether you would notice that or not.
I really do hope that you caught the little thing I put in there. It totally hints out the ending, but it's hard to find if you're not looking for it specifically.
Good day, and so forth
Khani