"I am Horus, who loveth thee.
I come to avenge thee, O Osiris,
upon him that did evil unto thee.
I have set him under thy feet for ever and for ever,
permanently, permanently,
O Osiris, whose word is truth,
whose word is truth."
- The Book of the Dead

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2
"Horus Begs an Audience of Ra"/ Seeing a Large Cat
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Five days ago…

"Shinpi Harakhte." The man bowed before Akito. "A very distant relative. I believe you received my letter?" The man's eyes flickered as he glanced up at the Souma family head from his inclined position. He licked his lips. "Horus begs an audience of Ra," he said, his voice soft but clear. "Now that the time is near."

"Well." Akito's voice was like smoke, soft but cloying. "You say you are a relative?" His tone was an equal mix of detached amusement and boredom, but the glint in his eyes betrayed his interest.

"Very distant, Souma-san." Harakhte repeated, before sinking to his knees before the head of the Souma clan. "My grandmother was the illegitimate daughter of a man whose father had been a Souma. Her mother, and a great deal of my other relatives as you may be able to tell, was Arabic."

Perceiving the veiled insult in the words, Akito's lip curled. Harakhte continued swiftly; it would not do for Akito to become insulted already- there was still much to be said. "But that is not what I came to discuss with you. I am sure you are aware that this is the Year of the Cat. In the Egyptian calendar, of course."

The curl turned into a sneer. "You took great pains to bring that to my attention. When was the first letter, Harakhte? Several months ago?" Hara did not miss the informal address. Well, two could play this game.

"Souma-san's memory is excellent," Hara bowed with exaggerated deference to counter Akito's impoliteness. "It was indeed almost eight months ago now that Hara first contacted you. I… I have been searching for longer than that." His eyes met Akito's, the weight of years beyond his face suddenly behind them. "Much longer. It was only recently that I had thought to look so far from my homeland. I thought that perhaps if blood could travel one way, it could travel the other."

Akito hissed softly, breaking eye contact. "What is it you want?"

"Him." Hara's eyes almost glowed with anticipation. "And as many of the others as you can give me. The more the better, for the ceremony, but he is all I need." Akito turned away to observe the birds fluttering in the bathing dish set up for them, feigning a disinterest in the conversation. Harakhte waited. He had come a long way; he could afford to be patient. He also turned his eyes toward the birds cleaning themselves busily in the water.

"This is my family you are speaking of so carelessly Shinpi Harakhte," Akito said suddenly. "I am responsible for overseeing their lives." He slid a sly glance toward Hara, but paused when he once again met the other man's eyes.

Harakhte whipped his face around at the sound of Akito's voice, tearing his eyes from the birds, but as he locked his eyes with the other man's, they shown brightly golden, strong with some strange emotion. "Their lives," he breathed slowly, as if tasting the words. He shivered and leaned back wrapping his arms around himself. "There is only one constant in life, as you should well know Souma Akito," Hara half-chanted the words, holding Akito spellbound in his gilded gaze. "And that…" He fell forward, catching himself on his hands. "That," he hissed, crouched in front of Akito like a bird ready to spring up into the sky and take flight. "And that, Souma Akito, is pain. Give them to me, and I will teach them." His voice calmed slightly from its frenzied hiss, but his eyes were still bright. "I will teach them."

Akito smiled, the expression sliding across his face like oil through water, and looked upon his visitor as one who has found a soulmate. "Then, Shinpi-san, they are yours for the teaching."

-

Present day.

Tohru was having the strangest dream. It involved a cat, a very large one, and it was flying an airplane, but that couldn't be right…

She woke up, feeling hot and thinking that she should go and open the window. Opening her eyes, she was half blinded by the light. Blinking, she adjusted to it and realized that she was in what appeared to be a room, the walls of which were made of mud. She was sitting on the edge of a bed, where she had been sleeping until she had woken up the moment before. Looking around the small room she was in, her eyes wide in wonder, she saw a man sitting in a chair across the room from her bed. He was older than her, she thought, but not by too much, though he had a look in his eye that made him look much older. It reminded her of someone, but she couldn't place her finger on whom that was.

"Oh!" she said. "I'm sorry, sir, but… where am I?"

He smiled at her, in what seemed to her to be a somewhat inappropriate manner. "You are a guest in my house," he replied openly. He appeared honest enough. And though he looked foreign, his accent was perfect. On second thought there was nothing inappropriate about the way he smiled. He was probably just glad she was awake.

"Oh," she repeated, her forehead creased with thought. "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't seem to remember how I came here. Or," she blushed and mumbled, "your name, sir."

"That is because you were unconscious when you came here. And my name is Harakhte."

"Wh…What?" Tohru jumped up from the bed. She wasn't wearing shoes; they were sitting next to the bed. Her mind was caught in a momentary paralysis as she tried to decide if she should put them on or not; she was inside, but the floors were made of dirt…

"Please!" Harakhte made a calming gesture. "I will explain everything, and I promise there is good reason for all I've done, and I will take you to your companions, but first… come with me."

"Companions?" Her brow furrowed further. She decided to put the shoes on; the ground was hot. One decision made, she slipped them on as she tried to piece together exactly where she was and who could possibly be here with her. "Souma-kun?"

"Yes," he replied, then smirked. "Though I'm not sure exactly who you are referring to, I think it can be safely said that he is here."

She thought harder. She remembered the airport. "Kyou-kun," she murmured as she thought, her eyes closed tightly with the effort of remembering. "He came with me, and we were seeing the others off…"

Harakhte sighed in fond exasperation. "Very well I will explain briefly, but then you must come with me. I have brought you here to my home in Egypt, you and many of your friends among the Souma family. I brought you here to help me. I am in desperate need of this help, and, forgive me for being rude, I could not ask more politely and risk being denied." She nodded, listening with wide eyes to his words as things began to make more sense. A little more sense anyway. She was still alone in a strange room with a man she only vaguely remembered meeting.

"Now, come with me." He stood and held out a hand toward her, the other holding the door, which, she could see, was a hanging cloth rather than any of the sliding or hinged varieties, to one side so that she could go through it. She looked at him nervously, but something in her told her she could trust him. So she did.

She walked over to the door and went out into the sunshine of the day. The air out here moved, which was a slight relief from the heat of the room she had just left. She stood for a long moment, looking around her at the village. The people moved about, busy with the tasks of the day. Harakhte came out of the door as well and stepped around her. After awhile he cleared his throat. "If you please Honda-san. There is time, but not such a great deal."

She blushed. "I'm sorry Harakhte-san!" She hurried after him as he started off toward the edge of the busy town. The people they passed seemed to respect Harakhte very much; as he passed by them, they bowed their heads. Tohru looked around her with large eyes, taking in everything she could without taking the time to stop. Harakhte lead her to a cave in the side of a huge rock that thrust out from the sand that surrounded it on all sides. She ducked through the fairly small opening and once inside she stared around her in wonder. The chamber was filled with light. It was much larger than she had thought it could be from the small opening. A statue stood in the center of the room; Harakhte stood before it, his head bowed respectfully. The statue was of a man with the head of a hawk, though his face seemed distorted; a great cat sat by his side, its head under his hand. With a soft, "Ooooh…" she moved toward the statue. Once she was closer she could see the face more clearly and realized why it had looked strange at first. The statue had no eyes. Or, rather, it had an image of the sun in one eye socket; the other was empty. Tohru felt a strange feeling as she looked at the statue's one eye. The eye pulled at her, drawing her into it until she thought she would fall into it and keep falling without any end. Not that it would be bad to do so. Beauty lay there, in that eye of gold, and she could keep falling forever and ever…

Harakhte grabbed her by the shoulder and she started suddenly. "I'm sorry," she murmured, shaking her head to clear it of the strange feeling that had passed over her. Glancing up at Harakhte she saw he was looking at her with that same look he had had earlier. It was rather disconcerting, and she was glad when he looked away and changed the subject.

He drew her attention to the walls of the chamber. The statue had drawn her eyes to it when she first entered the room, but now she saw the walls were painted with scenes. Many of them were scenes of people going about their lives, but in the center of the wall going all around the room there were panels that were separate. She stood before one just to the side of the doorway through which she and Harakhte had entered.

"That is Hathor." She jumped; she had not known Harakhte was right behind her. He smiled at her when she looked at him and continued to explain the painting. "Hathor is an important deity to my people." He gestured to the long horns curving up from the god's head. "He is usually represented as having the head of a cow, his favored animal. Though very gentle in most things, he is not one whom you would wish to anger."

He took a step back and gestured to the other side of the door. The painting there depicted a wild boar ravaging some hapless miscreant. "Taueret," he said. "Together, they guard the doorway to the temple of Horus."

"Horus?" Tohru repeated. She glanced back at the statue. Harakhte smiled thinly then directed her attention back to the walls.

"See here Anubis, messenger from the other world. Thoth, god of wisdom. Apep, serpent of the underworld." His lip curled when he spoke the last name; obviously not a friend, Tohru thought. She was slightly dizzy, as Harakhte had whisked her around the room showing the paintings to her in no particular order. But he stopped her in front of the wall directly opposite from the doorway.

She looked up at the painting here, and shivered as a strange feeling washed over her. It must be just her imagination, but she thought the eyes… the eyes painted on the wall stared back at her… The painting was of a woman, and beside her was a man. Their hands were clasped and the fondness on her face as she looked at him was easy to see even though she was not painted with much detail.

"Isis," Harakhte breathed, his voice reverent. "And Osiris, King of the Dead. Her husband." Tohru's eyes were fixated on the painting, so she didn't see the look Harakhte gave her. "Isis is the queen of all the gods. She is honored for her skill in healing and how she shares this skill with mankind." He smiled down at the head of the woman in front of him. "Also, for her devotion to Osiris after Set…" He was about to continue but the sound of someone entering the chamber stopped him and made him turn. Yuki stood in the doorway. The eyes he fixed on Harakhte were suspicious.

"Honda-san," he said.

She tore her eyes from the painting and turned to look at him. "Souma-kun!"

"Are you alright, Honda-san?"

"Yes, yes!" she assured him quickly smiling at him brightly. "Harakhte-san was just showing me this temple of his people."

"Of course." Yuki leveled a pointed glare at Harakhte.

The man merely smiled. "It is time we were returning anyway, Honda-san." He bowed to her and made no move to touch her as she preceded Yuki out of the doorway.

Once outside, Tohru turned to Yuki. "Who else is here? Harakhte-san said that he had brought you too, but…" Her voice trailed off, the dreamlike quality that had pervaded her morning faded and the reality of what exactly was going on struck her more forcefully. She wanted to hold Yuki's hand.

She was surprised when she felt a hand slip into hers. She held it tightly. "We didn't know where you were," Yuki whispered. He wasn't looking at her, but she could hear the slight tremble in his voice that betrayed his worry.

"I'm alright," she said brightly. She didn't want anyone worrying about her.

He turned and smiled at her. She smiled back. "I'm glad to see that." He turned his eyes back to the path in front of him. "To answer your question, there are nine of us here. You, myself, Hatori-san, Shigure, Momiji, Kagura, Haru, Nii-san, and that stupid cat." His gaze was angry. "According to Hatori, this 'Harakhte' claims to be related to the Souma family, though how he knows about…" His voice trailed off. "You should not be alone with him," he began again, shooting a concerned glance at her.

She nodded. That was true, but… "For some reason, I don't think he will hurt me," she confided.

Yuki looked doubtful, but nodded in acknowledgment of her admission. "Still," he persuaded, "try not to. Please?"

He was very worried. She could see it in his eyes. She nodded. "Yes. I will." He smiled at her, and she had to return the gesture.

They were coming back to the village now, and Tohru could see Kyou coming toward them.

-

What the hell was going on? Kyou didn't like it. Not one damn bit. He wasn't exactly used to being included on family outings, and waking up in the damned heat in a place that was obviously not his home with unconscious family members strewn around him had not been his idea of fun. Nevermind the fact that he'd had the most annoyingly insidious headache ever since he'd seen that man at the airport.

That man. Haru said his name was Harakhte. Apparently this was where he was from. Well, Kyou didn't give a shit about that. What the hell were they doing here? And most especially- what the hell were he and Tohru doing here?

Maybe that bugged him more than being forcibly abducted onto an airplane and taken god only knows where and the fact that he couldn't damnit think with the pounding in his head. That Tohru had been forced into this too… And then she had vanished from under their noses. If that psycho had done all of this to get at Tohru… Kyou couldn't properly say what would happen to the filth, because it was something so awful he hadn't thought of it yet.

He was both relieved and annoyed when he saw her walking with Yuki. Of course that damn rat had to be the one to find her. The sun was making Kyou's head hurt so bad that he could barely see, let alone think about trying to look for someone.

"Kyou-kun?" Tohru's hand touched his arm. "Are you alright?"

"Head hurts," he mumbled, shrugging off her concern. Refusing to look at the pair made him notice the person trailing after them. It was that damn ma… He stopped. Harakhte, his mind supplied, and suddenly, with that thought, the headache was gone.

Later, he couldn't remember what he said to Yuki and Tohru but it must have been something that made them not worry about him any more, because when he started following Harakhte as the man walked away into the desert no one tried to stop him.

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