Succession

(Fly away, where I find another day)

Chapter Summary: The afterlife for the ancient Egyptians was The Field of Reeds (Aaru) which was a perfect reflection of the life one had lived on earth.

LUXOR

News of the Shipwreck and of the Pharaoh's demise caught the entirety of Kemet completely off guard. An expedition to retrieve the body and search for clues as to what caused the incident was deployed and before a week was over, they had their answers. There had been a huge storm that caught them unawares and, since they were not equipped to survive a storm of that magnitude, they were quickly overwhelmed. The fact that the ship also hit some of the rocks placed near the first waterfall only helped with the inevitability of their fate.

Still, once the body arrived to Thebes, the ceremonies began. The council wanted to call a priest from the local temple of Anubis to perform the rituals, but they found a quick refusal from the queen herself. "I must remind you all that, before becoming a Queen, I was a Priestess and a Maiden of the Temple of Anubis. So I thoroughly refuse to have someone else come and perform the rituals for my late husband."

They wanted to refuse her, their dislike of the girl growing exponentially, but even if they had wanted to argue back, they found no support from the rest of the court. They all saw her as a mourning wife wanting to give a proper farewell to her beloved.

And so the rituals began the next day.

The Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth was made behind closed doors, with Massika leading everything and only getting help from some of the maidens from the local temples. She made sure that only people that she trusted was to be there with her.

They chanted and mixed oils with the body, they prepared the linens and the ointments. All the while, when they came out of the rooms, Massika organized everything regarding the offerings that would be going with the Pharaoh to his tomb.

Seventy days later, they all parted to Luxor.

There was a huge procession going out of Thebes, with the coffin containing the Pharaoh on the front of it, and Queen Anukit leading the procession. She was wearing black and green robes, symbols of life and death; As queen, she was obligated to wear as many ornamentations as possible, she was wearing a huge necklace made mostly of emeralds that covered almost all the front part of her chest. On her arms there were golden bracelets, with scarab motifs, and on her upper arms, she was wearing some cuffs. Her wig was as ornamented as the rest of her, with small appliances of gold and silver attached to it.

She was projecting a rather impressive image, almost like a goddess walking among mortals, image that was accented by the time the sun rose on the horizon and illuminated her fully, causing awe on the rest of the people watching and / or joining in the procession.

By the time they reached the Valley of the Kings, and Ahmose´s Mastaba, a great deal of people had decided to join in the Pharaoh's last journey on Kemet. Still, only a selected few were allowed to enter the Mastaba to deposit the mortal remains of the Pharaoh and the offerings he was to present to the gods for safe passage.

One by one, the people that entered the Mastaba came out slowly. The last one being the Queen, a situation that everybody attributed to the fact that she might still be mourning. However, once she was out, one of the nobles there flanked to the base where the rest were already waiting and without a word, they all started the procession back to the Palace on Luxor.

Nobody said it aloud, but they knew turbulent days were coming their way.

Days quickly morphed into weeks and soon, half a year had passed. In the meantime, all of the Pharaoh's previous responsibilities fell upon the Regent Queen, who in most of the people's opinion, had been doing a marvelous job.

In fact, several of the governors of the cities were really satisfied with the new management, since a lot of the issues that the previous ruler had deemed unimportant or not urgent enough were being dealt with the efficiency and care of one that was really preoccupied with her subjects.

Nevertheless, as always, there were a select few individuals that were not happy with the Queen's performance. Or with the queen in general, especially since before the Pharaoh's demise, they were looking for ways to get rid of her and replace her with someone more suitable to their needs.

They needed a different puppet, one that followed their instructions to the letter, not one that was just playing dumb while also thwarting their plans and machinations.

The problem was that, there was no-one with a better claim to the throne of Kemet. And even if they managed to find someone, there was no warranty that they would be able to influence their decisions. That and they actually felt the people's approval would not be in their favour.

They even tried to manipulate her, the same way they did with Ahmose into marrying someone, but somehow, she was able to refuse to even pay attention to their suggestions, going as far as claiming she was still mourning.

As if they would believe her.

So they let the time pass, waiting for a mistake or for something that could give them an edge they could use against her.

THE DUAT

Even though the judging of souls was a rather easy affair for the gods involved, whenever they judged the soul of a ruler of Kemet, some special regulations must be observed.

They had to thread carefully, since they would be judging the one who is the physical representation of Osiris, and judging those actions were almost like questioning the god himself.

On top of that, judging Ahmose was… an interesting affair… interesting enough that Anubis almost excused himself from the trial for the first time in centuries. Still, the god was professional enough to act completely neutral, even as he heard him plead his innocence while his list of sins were being recited by the 42 initial judges.

The Weighting of the Heart was next, and it was no surprise that the first thing that Ahmose did when his heart was placed against Maat's feather, was to recite a spell from the Book of the Dead. With that, he was able to avoid the Devourer of souls, passing through the gates to his new existence in the afterlife.

The rest of the souls from the shipwreck were quick to follow the fate of their old ruler, all of their hearts being balances against one of Maat's Feathers, before the goddess herself delivered their sentencing.

Soon, the Hall of the Final Judgment was empty, save for Thot and Anubis. The former, still organizing his notes and archiving the newer sentences. The latter lost in his thoughts, while his own notes and the books he used for the trials were scattered around him.

Thoth knew why the god was in that mood, and he even contemplated leaving him alone so he could mope in peace. Then again, the very reason for his depressing mood had just become a widow, and as such he could easily get back into her arms.

"Why are you still here?" Thoth decided to breach the subject in a nonchalant way, hoping he did not sound too interested or invested in the answer.

Coming out of his reverie, Anubis looked confused for a minute, before the question actually sunk in. "It is not right to seek her out, and you know it," he answered with a deadpan expression. "She must be mourning him, even if a little."

Thoth saw him turn around and finally start collecting his things. He also saw him spacing out a lot while doing so. "But she will not be mourning forever, and I don't see you preparing for another extended leave."

"That's because I'm not leaving."

"Excuse me, what?" The answer catching Thot completely by surprise, it was not what he was expecting from his friend, not after all the pretty things he used to tell him about his "beloved" and all those talks about spending her mortal life by her side. The fact that he was now renouncing all of that was… unthinkable.

"You heard me, I'm not going back to her, not now, not this life. If I see her again, it will be once she has passed the trials of the Hall of the Final Judgement."

Breathing deeply, calming himself before he snapped against his best friend, Thoth thought carefully how to word his next argument… because it seemed that Anubis was forgetting some rather important facts here.

"And what if she never comes here? Are you sure she will be part of this side of the afterlife? She could be going to a completely different place, once she dies. Anubis dear, should I remind you that your little girlfriend is not a normal human?"

Anubis did not deign to give him an answer, simply gathering his things and leaving Thoth alone in the Hall. For his part, Thoth could only gape incredulously at the retreating back of his friend. He also gathered his things, but instead of chasing Anubis to continue their discussion, he headed to a different direction.

He found who he was looking for, and before the other god was able to even greet him, Thoth announced. "Seth, we need to talk. I need to ask for a favour, since Anubis is behaving like an idiot."

Nodding for him to go on, Thoth recounted his earlier conversation with the other god, his reactions and his arguments. Seth listened attentively, sometimes interjecting when something was not clear to him.

"I just think that he is still hurt by all this, and let's be honest, it will be some time before he is able to think about this situation without hurting. Maybe we should give him more time," Seth reasoned, not really agreeing with his friend's actions but understanding them either way.

"But we should remember that as special as she is, she is a mortal… and I don't want Anubis to have eternal regrets over not taking advantage of however long they had in this life."

"So what was that favour you wanted?"

"I want you to help me look over Massika, I'm going to enlist both Horus and Ra into beating some sense into this idiot, but in the meantime I need you to watch her. Your position as commander in chief would give you the best excuse to look for her regularly, while mine as scribe would give me access to her almost any moment. So, will you help?"

"For her and that idiot?" Seth smirked playfully and the twinkle in his eyes told Thoth everything even before Seth loudly announced "Count me in!"

THEBES

Almost four months after the death of Ahmose, Massika decided that she would move her center of operations to a different city, and even if she would have wanted that city to be his beloved Hardai, it did not have the means to support the entirety of the government forces.

Besides, the idea of being in Hardai without Khaba was not appealing in the least.

So she settled for the next best thing, and she moved to Memphis instead. There were obviously those who were not pleased with this decision, however she managed to justify the move claiming that since it was near the most fertile lands of the Nile, she would be able to better oversee that the Harvest of the Year was not affected by the lack of a King. She also said that it would look better for the population if their current ruler was concerned about their future and not just about commodity, and luxury, something that the palace on Thebes was well known for.

Those in the court and in the council who already loved her, were pleased by her commitment to their country. Those who had always despised her, abhorred her even more at their inability to contest her claims.

It was then that the move to Memphis began. Another three months later and all that was left to move was some of the bigger treasures and the people that would work there. They were scheduled to be in Memphis by the end of that week.

The move was supposed to be a smooth affair, just moving from one place to the other without incident. Instead, the day before they left Thebes, the Queen and her aids received intel that strange people sailing their way from the northeast side of the Ocean. Whispers seemed to suggest that those strange people were the ones behind the temple raids and that they might be heading their way soon.

Suddenly, the move to Memphis was a really good decision… and a necessity that needed to happen as soon as possible.

MEMPHIS

With the help of Het, Massika was able to post several groups of sentinels near the borders of Kemet, paying special attention to everything that happened in the Sea; before long, she was receiving reports of who exactly was approaching her kingdom.

"They are known as the Sea People, since they have no known land to where they belong. They are a group of barbarians that enjoy disrupting countries and looting what they could after they wage war against them"

Massika pondered the information for a moment, reflecting on the things that Ahmose told just before his death. She remembered his urgency to travel to Punt, and how he was rather insistent on going personally to oversee the retrieval of the stolen temple items. Suddenly, she thought that maybe, he that knew something else was going on and wanted to prevent it.

She made her impressions known to Het, who after reviewing what he knew, confirmed her suspicions. Those thefts were related to the could-be invaders… so nothing good could come from the fact that they were heading their way.

"Het, you are aware that I don't know a thing about warfare, so I will be relying on you if the worst should happen."

"And you know that I appreciate you greatly, not only because of why we met, but because of who you are. However, what you are asking of me is not as almost siblings in law, but as a Queen to her Commander in Chief." Without any prompting, Het bowed to her, crossing one arm over his chest before solemnly reciting "I, Het of Nubt, Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of Kemet, pledge myself to you, Queen Anukit of Kemet, to serve you in everything that is within my abilities, both during peace and during wartimes."

Stunned speechless, it took Massika a couple of minutes to formally accept his pledge, before thanking him profusely, which only prompted a small chuckle from him. "It's the least I could do for you, little Queen."