Hey guys, I hope you all enjoy this chapter- should be fun! And at this stage I think it's gonna be Pipercabeth.
Replies:
Undeath9087: Squishy VS Percy is a battle everyone would pay to see, and yep- Carter in this is an experienced big brother, he knows just what his baby sister needs.
Depthwalker: I'm really glad you're enjoying it- and it'll be a while but I have plans on how to bring the PJO plotline- and I will say that you shouldn't be expecting it to be anything like it is in canon.
Ryan Fowler: Bast is amazing and I love her and I love her reaction to Percy when they meet properly.
The Official Clarisse: Sadie's doing her best and Carter's just an awesome brother- better than in canon probably because he actually has experience with being a brother.
Guest: Honestly Sadie and Percy's bond is gonna be even more fun than Carter's because they're both so chaotic- and yes I plan on having Carter being like 'Woah, woah, no, no she is still a baby fuck off, no one gets to date her until she's fifty' meanwhile Sadie's just there like 'Oooh, Percy has a crush'.
Guest: You have a point- though he is an evil little Squishy.
PJ Fan 285: I'm glad you like it- and don't worry there will be fluff in the future- lots of it, with Bast being the fun aunt figure who encourages Percy and Sadie's insanity.
Loverofbluefood: Thank you and I hope you keep enjoying.
Guest: Thank you- and honestly, I love characters interacting and bonding almost as much or more than the action scenes.
Lol90Ahhhh: I honestly don't think Ares would ever be lovey dovey, that's not how he is, but I mean, it'd be funny.
StarrCall: I'll add it to the poll.
CRATESTW: I mean, Sadie and Carter would probably kill him first.
Nia Salvatore: Thank you! And I mean, Percy and Carter definitely tease each other and bicker- but they were raised to be very close because of how they were raised- and we'll get plenty of sibling bickering and teasing when you add Sadie to the mix.
Aurora Stilinski: Thank you!
Poll
Pipercabeth: 62
Percy/Apollo: 49
Perlia: 14
Percabeth: 10
Pipercy: 10
Percy/Bianca: 9
Perlianca: 9
Percy/Lou Ellen: 6
Pereynabeth: 6
Pereyna: 3
Perachelbeth: 2
Pereylia: 2
Percy/Ares: 2
Perlissse: 1
Pereyna: 1
Perzoe: 1
Perachel: 0
Other: (Say who)
Percy was painfully grateful for her big brother, they ended up sat down, Percy curled into his side, hugging Muffin close as she sniffled and Carter murmured to her softly- telling her that it would be okay- that mom would get there soon and that they'd find a way to save their dad. That everything was going to be fine.
Eventually Sadie's search for more shabati turned into a general search of the library, and eventually she snorted. "Okay- okay you guys, some of these scrolls are so weird. Here's one called The Book of the Heavenly Cow. Like- is it just me or is that weird?"
"It's very weird." Carter snorted, "What's next, The Heavenly Badger?"
"I've never seen a heavenly badger." Percy managed to giggle, turning her head to look back as Sadie grabbed another scroll, "Is that our Heavenly Badger?"
"No-" Sadie hummed as she examined it, "It's the book of Slaying Apophis-" and Percy lurched to her feet, still clutching Muffin tightly.
"What did you say?" she gasped as Muffin meowed, her tail puffing up.
"Uh- is something wrong?" Sadie looked confused, "What's Apophis-"
"Apophis was a giant snake monster." Carter muttered the words, "He was bad news-" he paused- "No-"
"A-Apophis is the embodiment of chaos and evil." Percy whispered. "He was- he is the threat dad was worried about-"
"Oh that does not sound good." Saidie shoved the scroll back into it's cubby hole like it burned her. "I don't know about you two but I don't want to fight some crazy ass snake monster." as if on cue Muffin hissed again and turned and raced up the stairs back to the Great Room.
"We don't have to right?" Carter's voice was nervous, "I mean- he's not actually- not right now."
"Not yet I don't think." Percy took a deep breath, "We should focus on Set for now. What he's planning is gonna be bad."
"Right." Carter nodded slowly, "Right. Set first and then- once we've rescued dad we can figure out what to do about the giant snake monster." he glanced at Percy, "You okay if I help Sadie look around?"
"I'm not a baby." Percy managed a faint smile, "I can sit here while you and Sadie keep looking."
"Good, that's good." Carter pulled away from Percy and got to his feet, moving to join Sadie pulling a scroll out from one of the cubby holes which Sadie hadn't looked in.
He unrolled it, and Percy could see even from where she was sat that it was mostly hieroglyphs. "Oh great- Sadie, you've been reading them weirdly well, can you read this?" he held out the scroll and Sadie peered at it.
"Only that bit where the title should be. It says...Blood of the Great House. What does that mean?"
"Great house," Carter mused. "What do the words sound like in Egyptian?"
"Per-roh. Oh, it's pharaoh, isn't it? But I thought a pharaoh was a king?"
"It is," Carter said. "The word literally means 'great house,' like the king's mansion. Sort of like referring to the president as 'the White House.' So here it probably means more like Blood of the Pharaohs, all of them, the whole lineage of all the dynasties, not just one guy."
"So why do I care about the pharaohs' blood, and why can't I read any of the rest?"
"You should care-" Percy piped up, "It's super important-"
"They're names!" Carter gasped the words, "Look, they're all written inside cartouches."
"Excuse me?"
"The circles," Carter explained. "They symbolize magic ropes. They're supposed to protect the holder of the name from evil magic." He eyed Sadie. "And possibly also from other magicians reading their names."
"Oh, you're mental," Sadie shook her head, sounding incredulous.
"Sadie," Carter said, his voice urgent. He pointed to a cartouche at the very end of the list—the last entry in what looked to be a catalogue of thousands. Percy was pretty sure she could guess what he'd spotted.
"KN." Carter announced, "I know this one it's our name, Kane."
"Missing a few letters, isn't it?"
Carter shook his head. "Egyptians usually didn't write vowels. Only consonants. You have to figure out the vowel sounds from context."
"They really were nutters. So that could be KON or IKON or KNEE or AKNE."
"It could be," Carter agreed. "But it's our name, Kane. I asked Dad to write it for me in hieroglyphs once, and that's how he did it. But why are we in this list? And
what is 'blood of the pharaohs'?"
"You're on the list because the Kane's are descended from the Pharaohs- on both sides."
"You-" Sadie's gaze swung to Percy, "That's insane."
"Nope. That's why the House are so scared- having the blood of Pharaohs on one side if powerful enough as it is. But having the blood of Pharaohs on both sides is a whole new level of power- they're scared of what you two could do."
"We- that-" Carter shook his head, his face ashen "That's crazy no one can trace their heritage back that far-"
"Dad managed to track my moms family to Hatshepsut. She was a Pharaoh."
"So you're blood of Pharaohs too then?" Sadie raised an eyebrow and Percy nodded.
"Yep. Daddy only looked into it because I had talent that he wasn't expecting- nothing like you two-" not when Sadie had used a freaking Divine word with zero
training, "But I'm pretty good. And I have training now."
"Good to know." Sadie snorted, "This is so weird-"
"We should keep looking." Carter said after a moment- he looked kind of stunned, like he'd been bashed over the head. That made sense.
And since she was feeling somewhat better Percy got to her feet and moved to join her brother and Sadie in their search.
"Hey- you two." Sadie called out after a few minutes, "Look at this- he said about five gods right." she held up a picture so that they could see it. A picture of some of animal-headed gods, five in a row, with a starry woman figure arching over them protectively like an umbrella.
"It's them." Percy declared quickly, "Set, Osiris, Horus, Isis and-" she paused, brows furrowing, "I can't remember the last ones name. Dad would be disappointed in me."
"Hey, dad always expects too much from you." Carter wrapped an arm around Percy's shoulder, "But you're right I remember the story now. That's the five it has to be- and the starry woman is Nut, their mother."
"A goddess named Nut?" Sadie laughed, "What's her last name? Case?"
"Very funny." Carter rolled his eyes, his lips twitching, "She was the goddess of the sky." He pointed up at the ceiling- and the painting of nut up there.
"So what about her?" Sadie's voice was curious, "Come on you two- you're the ones who know all the stories you nerds-"
"I resent that! Carter's a nerd, I'm just like, a super genius-" Percy yelped when her brother pinched her ear in retaliation.
"I am not a nerd. And it's something to do with the Demon days I think. It was to do with the birth of the five gods but it's been a long time since dad told us the story- unless he told you it recently-"
"No, no-" Percy shook her head, "The last story dad told me was the story of Set tricking Osiris-" that made Carter wince.
"Oh god I remember that story-" he paused, "That- that's what-"
"Yeah." Percy nodded, "That's what Set did to dad. I know."
"What are you two talking about?" Sadie frowned "Come on-"
"In the stories Osiris was king and Set tricked him into getting into a sarcophagus- I can't remember how he did it but once Osiris was in the sarcophagus he sealed it down and- he-"
"Drowned him in molten lead." Percy piped up when Carter faltered, shuddering, "His wife Isis eventually found him again to try and rescue him but then set shattered his body and scattered it all over Egypt. She did find him and piece him together eventually but he couldn't be brought back fully so he became God of the Dead."
"He-" Sadie went pale, "That's what- holy shit that- dad-"
"Yeah." Carter nodded, "It doesn't sound good-"
"We'll-" Sadie took a deep breath, "We're going to save him. We'll find a way no matter what. So- we need to find out about the Demon days stuff right?"
"Right." Carter nodded, "He mentioned them in the dream."
"Can either of you read it?" Percy peered at the scroll. "I can't."
"I think it's written in hieratic." Carter said after a moment, holding it out so that Sadie could look at it, "You're our scroll reader, hieratic is like hieroglyph cursive. Can you read it?"
"No." Sadie frowned as she stared at it as if it had personally offended her. "No I can't. Sorry."
"I wish I could find the story in English." Carter shook his head as he spoke- and there was a cracking noise from behind them.
The empty-handed clay statue hopped off his pedestal and marched towards the trio. Carter and Sadie scrambled to get out of his way, pulling Percy with them, but he walked straight past them, grabbed a cylinder from its cubbyhole and brought it to Carter.
"It's a retrieval shabti," Sadie gasped "A clay librarian!"
Carter swallowed nervously and took the cylinder. "Um...thanks."
The statue marched back to his pedestal, jumped on, and hardened again into regular clay.
"I wonder..." Sadie faced the shabati. "Sandwich and chips, please!" her request was ignored, and Sadie just looked disappointed.
Carter uncapped the cylinder and unrolled the papyrus. He sighed with relief. "This version is in English."
As he scanned the text, his frown got deeper.
"You don't look happy." Sadie frowned.
"I remember the story now- and the more I remember the more worried I am." Carter admitted. "None of this is good news."
"Start from the beginning." Sadie almost demanded.
Carter took a shaky breath. "Okay. So the sky goddess, Nut, was married to the earth god, Geb."
"That would be this chap on the floor?" Sadie tapped her foot on the big green man with the river and hills and forests all over his body.
"Right," Carter said. "Anyway, Geb and Nut wanted to have kids, but the king of the gods, Ra—he was the sun god—heard this bad prophecy that a child of Nut—"
"Child of Nut." Sadie snickered- and Percy giggled.
"It is kinda a funny name-"
"You two are so childish." Carter rolled his eyes, though he smiled slightly.
"Sorry, sorry do go on. We'll behave." Sadie did her best innocent look.
"—a child of Geb and Nut would one day replace Ra as king. So when Ra learned that Nut was pregnant, Ra freaked out. He forbade Nut to give birth to her children
on any day or night of the year."
Sadie crossed her arms "So what, she had to stay pregnant forever? That's awfully mean."
Carter shook his head. "Nut figured out a way. She set up a game of dice with the moon god, Khons. Every time Khons lost, he had to give Nut some of his moonlight.
He lost so many times, Nut won enough moonlight to create five new days and tag them on to the end of the year."
"Oh, please. First, how can you gamble moonlight? And if you did, how could you make extra days out of it?"
"It's a story!" Carter protested. "Anyway, the Egyptian calendar had three hundred and sixty days in the year, just like the three hundred and sixty degrees in a circle.
Nut created five days and added them to the end of the year—days that were not part of the regular year."
"The Demon Days,"Sadie guessed, "So the myth explains why a year has three hundred and sixty-five days. And I suppose she had her children—"
"During those five days," Carter agreed. "One kid per day."
"Again, how do you have five children in a row, each on a different day?"
"They're gods," Carter said. "They can do stuff like that."
"Makes as much sense as the name Nut. But please, go on-"
"In Greek myths my grandpa swallowed my dad." Percy pointed out, "Gods like, never make any sense."
"Right. Gods equals weird, I'll remember that."
"So when Ra found out, he was furious, but it was too late. The children were already born. Their names were Osiris—"
"The one Dad was after."
"Then Horus, Set, Isis- Like Percy said and, um..." Carter consulted his scroll. "Nephthys. I always forget that one too."
"And the firey man- Set he said that dad released all five of them right?" Sadie asked slowly. "Exactly. So I assume they were imprisoned together and Dad didn't realize it? They were born together, so maybe they had to be summoned back into the world together. And Set, was a really bad dude. Like, the villain of Egyptian mythology. The god of evil and chaos and desert storms." he pointed at one of the figures in the picture- at Set.
"The Red Lord." Sadie swallowed hard.
"And there's more." Carter took a deep breath, "Those five days—the Demon Days—were bad luck in Ancient Egypt. You had to be careful, wear good luck charms, and not do anything important or dangerous on those days. And in the British Museum, Dad told Set: They'll stop you before the Demon Days are over."
"He didn't-" Sadie looked hesitant, "He didn't mean-"
"He meant us." Percy said suddenly, "He had to- dad doesn't trust the House of Life, and he knows you two have me to help you- and we have other help." of course- explaining that Sadie's cat was a goddess wouldn't be easy.
"I think Percy's right." Carter took a deep breath, "And if the last five days of our calendar year still count as the Egyptian Demon Days—they'd start on December 27, the day after tomorrow."