Geb

Sadie Kane falls asleep and her ba awakens. She leaves her body and begins to grow in size until she about as tall as me. A giant of the earth. Her eyes widen as she takes in the new setup of the world. She is enormous and all else is small, nothing but a microscopic spek in the eyes of the Universe.

"That's how gods see things," I tell her.

She looks around, frowning. Oh, right, I am the earth! Dunes move and sands shift as I get up. I was right, she's as tall as me.

"Sadie Kane," I smile. "I have been waiting for you."

"Geb. I have something for you."

As the winds have spoken. Sadie reaches into her shimmering ghostly pocket, pull sout an envelope and hands it to me.

"Your wife misses you," she says.

My dear Nut. I take the note gingerly and smell it. It smells of fresh air and sahlab, of long nights among the stars. Then I open the envelope. Instead of a letter, fireworks burst out. A new constellation blazes in the night sky above us—the face of my love, formed by a thousand stars. The wind rises quickly and rips the image apart, but I sigh contentedly. Nut is always so dramatic. That's where Set and Isis get it from, though my wife might have different thoughts on this. I close the envelope and tuck it inside my sandy chest.

"I owe you thanks, Sadie Kane," I say. "It has been many millennia since I saw the face of my beloved. Ask me a favor that the earth can grant, and it shall be yours."

"Save my father."

I'm shocked at how instinctive and sure her answer is.

"Hmm, what a loyal daughter! Isis could learn a thing from you. Alas, I cannot. Your father's path is twined with that of Osiris, and matters between the gods cannot be solved by the earth."

"Then I don't suppose you could collapse Set's mountain and destroy his pyramid?" she asks.

I laugh. That's quite the image. "I cannot intervene so directly between my children. Set is my son too."

"Well, your favors aren't very useful, then." Sadie says disappointed.

I shrug. A few tons of sand fall from my shoulders. "Perhaps some advice to help you achieve what you desire. Go to the place of the crosses."

"And where is that?"

"Close." I promise. "And, Sadie Kane, you are right. You have lost too much. Your family has suffered. I know what that is like. Just remember, a parent would do anything to save his children. I gave up my happiness, my wife—I took on the curse of Ra so that my children could be born." I look up at the sky wistfully. "And while I miss my beloved more each millennium, I know neither of us would change our choice. I have five children whom I love."

"Even Set?" Sadie asks incredulously. "He's about to destroy millions of people."

Even Set. Though my little soldier seems to forget that sometimes.

"Set is more than he appears," Geb said. "He is our flesh and blood."

"Not mine."

"No?" It's time for her to wake up. My form stars melting into the dunes, slowly becoming one with the sand. "Think on it, Sadie Kane, and proceed with care. Danger awaits you at the place of crosses, but you will also find what you need most."

"Could you be a little more vague?" Sadie grumbles before her ba shrinks and flies back into her sleeping body.

It'll all make sense soon enough, I promise. In the end, all the pain would have been worth it. I look up to the sky, clouds shielding the stars from my view. In the end, all the pain would have been worth it.