It had been ridiculously easy to get into the Council Chamber. Layla had thought it would involve a spell, maybe secret passageways, at least some kind of key, but there was none of that.

"I walk through a door?" she asked, shooting Tawaret a dubious look. "That's it? This door?" She gestured at the flat's entrance.

"Yes. Just open the door, walk through, and you'll be where you need to be."

She glanced at her husband, who shrugged. "Works somehow."

"Portals present wherever when the Ennead is summoned, but every god can create such an access point if they want to," Taweret explained with a smile. "We don't really do it without a summoning. There's no use for it. What would we do in the Council Chamber when we don't have to convene or are summoned? It's not like we hang out and have a little chat or two." She wriggled her fingers, rolled her shoulders and took on a stance like she was about to face a whole rugby team. "Haven't done that particular trick in literal ages! But you never forget how to."

The flat's door cracked open and Layla briefly saw the hallway, which then transformed into a corridor made of gigantic slabs of stone, as if in a pyramid. The door swung open fully.

"Just walk inside," the goddess continued. "Easy-peasy piece of cake."

Layla expelled a nervous breath, flexing her fingers. The armor was a comforting weight around her.

"Easy for you to say," she murmured.

"I'll be with you every step of the way, Layla," Taweret said soothingly. "You won't be alone. Nothing will happen to you."

And she stepped into the corridor.

"What…?" she breathed, voice barely above a whisper. "That's… I can't believe it! We're inside… how…. This can't be…"

She was inside the Great Pyramid. Inside a chamber that didn't exist anywhere but a pocket reality and Layla was in awe of the massive statues of Egyptian deities and their thrones. Everything looked like it had just been finished and polished, not like the relics of old displayed in museums or the illegally acquired pieces found in private collections.

It was like stepping into the past. A living, breathing past.

Above, the capstone gave off a white light that illuminated the room, together with the torches mounted to the walls.

"This is amazing," she whispered, smiling so widely, she felt her whole face would end up in a big cramp.

"It is, isn't it?" Taweret's voice in her ears sounded happy. "This is what it was like. Everywhere. A wonderful time, really. I'm sorry, but I can't let you longer. We need to hurry. This way." She gently pushed her avatar's body toward a corridor.

It was a weird sensation, but not bad, and having the goddess with her gave Layla a little more courage and a sense of security.

She followed the guidance, hurrying through the brightly lit corridor until she arrived in a medium-sized chamber. It was filled with countless little cubbyholes. Many were empty, but still a lot contained small, very elegant and beautiful ushabti. All were no bigger than about eight inches and none were painted, but the detail was amazing.

She slowly approached the wall, recognizing the deities with ease.

"Bes," she whispered. Protector of households. A god of luck and good fortune. "Heqet. Khnum. In Egyptian lore they are husband and wife."

"Oh, that's not really how it works," Taweret clarified chirpily. "No such thing."

"I guess. Oh, that's Khepri, right?"

The goddess agreed.

"And Wadjet and Neith." Layla expelled a breath. "All protective deities. What happened that they were all banished?"

There was no answer and Layla waited silently.

"Taweret?"

"Stuff happened, Layla. Ugly stuff. A rift was created that hurt many." She sounded almost hesitant.

"Like Khonshu?" Who showed his anger and pain quite openly through how he appeared to others. "It hurt him… got him banished…"

"Yes."

"And Anubis?"

A nod. Layla was astounded how easily she saw and felt it all. It gave her a better insight into what Marc's connection to Khonshu had to be. Theirs was even deeper, more intimate and closer, and it involved a soul bond.

"Speaking of which, there he is," Layla stated, nodding toward the niche with Anubis' representation in it.

The replica.

She took it out of the niche and checked it over, her professional eye running over the sand-colored statue. It was something she would put into a display case or up on a shelf, out of reach of grabby hands. It was beautiful!

She let her eyes roam over the many ushabti, almost all being more benign gods, with some of the more war-like ones interspersed. Like Seth, who was in a niche a little further down the left-hand wall.

"We need to check them all," she stated.

It took a while.

Layla had no idea how much time passed. She also had no idea just what to look for as she stood in front of each niche, waiting for Tawaret to do whatever she was doing. The goddess kept repeating 'Nope', 'No', 'Definitely real', or 'Poor soul, yes, that's a real one'. She was feeling bad for many of the deities, which could be a reflection of Taweret's emotions, but Layla really did feel for so many.

What had they done? This was severe punishment and why had the Ennead gone down this extreme path? Wasn't there another way?

"Revealing ourselves to humanity," Taweret said softly as they finished another row.

"Huh?" Layla was drawn out of her musings.

"The Laws forbid that we reveal our existence to humankind. Avatars, yes. Anyone else, nope. Never ever. We never interact with humankind directly, only through avatars. They could see their god or goddess, but no one else. We also never interfered on a grand scale, least of all after humankind evolved and we grew apart."

Layla remembered how Khonshu had turned back the night sky. Yep, that had been major interference. He had been punished for it.

"Khonshu was always a special case," Tawaret agreed. "He was very involved in this realm. He has an attachment to it that no one could understand. He didn't step back; he was quite pro-active and his avatars were warriors, not watchers."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"A few millennia ago? No. In the current day and age, possibly," the goddess said slowly.

"Not all did that, though. Interfering with humanity, almost revealing the true existence of your kind?"

"No," came the sigh.

Silence.

Layla waited.

But Taweret didn't explain or offer any more insights. Well, she would have to accept that for now.

Back to checking ushabti.

It felt like ages, but when she was done, there wasn't another decoy one to be found.

"Good news," Taweret stated.

"Makes you wonder why no one caught on to the fake."

The goddess was silent, looking at the figurines through Layla's eyes.

"You can tell them apart," Layla added.

"Well, yes. Because I was looking for something being amiss. If you just walk in here, the fake doesn't stand out," she explained. "And there's no caretaker."

Who would need one anyway?

Layla suddenly blinked when a thought struck. "Uhm, Tawaret…?"

"Yes?"

"How do we know these are all ushabti?"

The goddess was silent.

"Is there a list of all the trapped gods?" Layla continued. "Do you all know who was banished?"

"Well…" she said slowly. "No. There is no list, but we know who is banished. Usually."

"Usually?"

"Oh, I'm not always up to date, you see. Sometimes things… slip by."

Layla chuckled. "Busy job life?" she teased.

"Oh, very busy. Always busy."

"That means there might be someone missing, with no replica to stand in?"

"Osiris wouldn't miss a theft," Taweret protested. "If an ushabti isn't there anymore, he'd see it."

"Alright. We trust in these being everyone?"

Taweret nodded. "Absolutely."

Layla looked at all the trapped and punished deities.

"We can't, little scarab," the goddess whispered.

"I know. It feels wrong to see them all in here. For how many centuries? Millennia? I know not everyone's a good guy. I really wouldn't want Seth released, knowing he's probably closer to Ammit's mental state than Anubis'. But…"

Taweret gave her an insubstantial hug. It felt warm and good, and Layla smiled a little.

"Is this what it always feels like?"

"To be an avatar? Yes, of course!" the Tawaret called out cheerfully. "We love our avatars!"

Yes. They did. Even Khonshu. It had been a different kind of love, an emotion expressed the wrong way. An emotion felt but the god in question had been incapable of showing it until it was almost too late.

"Yes, even Khonshu," Taweret said cheekily. "And no, I can't read your mind. I simply know the silly old bird and I've come to love his avatar, too. Khonshu's approach might have been a bit… off… but he had found the perfect resonance within two human souls."

Layla nodded, a wistful smile on her lips.

Taweret embraced her again. "No god abuses their avatar, Layla. No god would hurt them. Khonshu protects his with everything he is, like we all do."

And Anubis had risked it all, had raised his avatar's dead wife from the underworld, and he had paid a steep price. Khonshu had known he would get banished into an ushabti if he interfered again, and he had done just that to aid his avatar in finding Ammit's tomb. He had trusted Marc to free him.

She nodded. "Mission accomplished. Let's get out of here."

And as much as she wanted to take one of the others along, she didn't.

She slipped out of the room and hurried down the corridor, listening for anything or anyone. She rounded the last corner toward the Chamber of the Gods.

"Oh shit," Layla whispered, freezing mid-step.

The unassuming man with the receding hairline, dressed in a business suit, gave her a mild look. If she had met him anywhere else, she would have dismissed him, but in here, the Council Chamber, he wasn't dismissible at all.

This was Osiris' avatar. Not in ceremonial armor, but that didn't mean anything. He was as dangerous as the next, capable of using magic.

"Layla El-Faouly," he greeted her.

"Osiris," she replied.

He inclined his head. "Avatar of Taweret. I see."

She scowled at him. "You probably don't."

"Your presence here is… unexpected."

"Not breaking any laws."

His smile was faint, almost more of a twitch. "So far. No summoning was sent out to the guardian of the afterlife."

"Oh, pft!" Taweret muttered, only for Layla to hear.

"May I ask what your presence here infers to?"

"You may not."

"He needs to know!" Taweret insisted, pushing forward and Layla's eyes briefly glowed.

"Will you stop that?!" she snapped. "That's rude!"

"My apologies, dear," came the more sedate reply. "But he does need to know. Please?"

She sighed and shook her head. "Alright. Next time, ask first?"

Taweret gave her an insubstantial hug that was apologetic and loving in one. Layla closed her eyes and felt her body relax, then Taweret took over and Layla was on a backseat.

"Now listen here, Osiris dear," the goddess said sternly, hands on her hips, Layla's stance now mirroring Taweret's in her true form. "We came here because there has been a theft that went by under your nose!"

"Theft?"

"Someone stole Anubis' ushabti and replaced it with a fake in the chamber."

The dark eyes of the other avatar flashed. "Impossible!"

"Oh, very possible. That's why we came here. To check on how it's possible and who else might have been replaced with a replica." Taweret-Layla glared at him. "Anubis' ushabti is a replica. It was stolen over a thousand years ago by a human and sold off to others."

"No one can enter the chamber and steal an ushabti!" Osiris declared.

Taweret-Layla raised a hand. "We did. We didn't steal anything, but we checked those banished in stone. Anubis is theoretically still there, but only as a very decorative piece of art. The real ushabti was taken and ended up in human hands!"

Osiris looked somewhere between enraged and disbelieving. He turned on his heel and marched into the chamber. Taweret-Layla hurried after him. Layla was almost laughing in glee and Taweret reflected it, despite the seriousness of the situation.

They found the head of the Ennead in the chamber, right in front of Anubis' cubbyhole, and from his expression Osiris knew this was a fake. Layla could almost imagine a dark cloud forming over the other avatar's head.

"How did this happen?!" he finally hissed.

Taweret-Layla pursed her lips. "Dear, that's what we've been wondering, too."

"Where is the ushabti now?" he snapped, whirling around to face her.

"Gone."

His eyes narrowed.

Taweret-Layla smiled innocently.

Osiris' expression shifted from murderous to cool and controlled. He stalked out of the chamber, radiating anger.

"That's our cue," Layla whispered.

"Go, girl!"

Layla didn't make the mistake to believe that she had gotten away. She had been allowed to leave. She also never doubted that had Osiris wanted to keep her in the pocket dimension, she would have found it impossible to walk through the portal and back into the realm of humankind.

"He's not a bad guy," Tawaret told her when she muttered those words. "Just… intense. Part of the job description, I'd say. I wouldn't want that job anyway."

"Aren't you part of the Ennead."

It got her a shrug. "Sure, maybe, but I haven't been summoned to stand in my old place ever since, well… the rift. Too much happened. Not that I wouldn't go, but it's not my kind of thing."

Layla looked thoughtful as she walked down the corridor that led back home. "Can you just not be part of the Ennead? Isn't it a position of honor?"

Tawaret sighed. "Yes, maybe for some. Khonshu holds the same title. He never renounced his place, which is a good thing. Come to think of it, neither did." She chuckled. "Maybe we're the back-up? Anyway, Osiris isn't the bad guy, Layla. He does what he does for the best of the Overvoid. Not everyone can understand his reasonings, or how he executes the Laws, but it's a lonely place, all there at the top, and even with Isis or Horus as his seconds, he makes those executive decisions."

She nodded, deep in thought. "Must be quite a blow for him to know someone stole that ushabti and he never knew."

Taweret's presence quieted, grew more somber. "Yes. Very much. Poor guy. It happened so long ago, I doubt investigating the theft would result in anything. Just be happy it was the only one."

Layla was. Very much so.