CHAPTER 8
Sorry but when rereading this chap I noticed a few mistakes so I hope I got them all and you all like it just as much. Let me know, thanks.
Joseph woke to the sensation of someone nudging him, it had been years since he had a good night's sleep, "get up, slave," he heard. His eyes flashed opened in rage, the jailer had called him slave once but after Potiphar told Hotep his name, he had never again called him slave. "The pharaoh is calling for you."
Joseph knelt in front of Potiphar and pharaoh, as pharaoh said, "Your plan is good and I give you the job of setting it into motion. Your name shall be Zapanapanar."
"As you wish my lord," he whispered, not knowing what else to say.
Potiphar walked with Joseph as they left the palace, "your God has made you ruler, even of me," Potiphar whispered with a small chuckle.
"My lord," Joseph asked his former master stunned by the sudden turn of events.
"Joseph, you answer to no man save pharaoh," Potiphar said as he and Joseph entered a large estate. His estate, not one he ran for someone else, one that belonged to him.
Potiphar and Kuy stood in front of Joseph, "you two are the only ones that know of my past aside from Pharaoh.
"The two guard that were sent for you have been paid handsomely for their silence and I doubt Hathi would risk his neck in telling where he found you," Potiphar told his former slave, "Senunet himself only knows that you were my slave and that you came from one of the northern tribes in Canaan, I have told him nothing else."
"And I thank you for that, Malik," Joseph said, "Pharaoh is doing all he can to make me Egyptian; new name, titles, honors…But Zapanapanar cannot simply appear."
"I suppose everyone was a bit too preoccupied…" Kuy mumbled to himself, "What do you wish from us?"
"Lord Potiphar, you brought me to Pharaoh, logic dictates that you will be the first to be contacted, though a nobleman may send a commoner to you, Kuy, for Egypt to live, Joseph must die; both of you, swear to me, never to tell about my history, ever. As far as anyone is to know I am one of Potiphar's warriors, my name was Kontar, Pharaoh learned of my second sight and made me vizier."
"What about, Joseph," Kuy asked.
"It has been three years Kuy."
"Still, we must consider Zulika's relatives, what will they do if they ever learn the truth."
"I wouldn't worry about that, Kuy," Joseph said, "snuck out a few days ago and got caught up on the local gossip, its really creepy listening to the many ways you have suffered so many horrific deaths." In many ways the rumors were true, Joseph son of Jacob was now dead, and in his place, an Egyptian nobleman and warrior named Kontar was born.
"Very well, Kontar," Potiphar said softly as he handed Joseph a small box that contained a golden armband, a wide gold and blue collar, and a few other trinkets of jewelry. "I know that you don't especially care for jewelry but for this plan of yours to work you may want to cover up your slave mark or simply cut it up so much that no one will be able to recognize it for what it is, and here take this as well," Potiphar handed Joseph a small scroll that was his bill sale, proof that he was sold thirteen years ago for twenty pieces of silver, "and never, I repeat never lose it, personally I recommend burning it."
"Thank you, Malik," he said. He was grateful that he finally held his bill of sale, yet he knew that it alone did not free him; he knew that, deep inside, he was still little more than a slave, still a tool only now he belonged to the king of Egypt rather than the captain of the guard. One day I will be free, that I swear, Joseph again vowed to himself, but at times he wondered what that word truly meant…
How long had it been since Joseph had truly allowed himself to feel anything at all, he wondered, 12 years…13. It had been so long that he often wondered if he would ever again be able to reconnect to his own emotions. Though in truth he felt something now as he stood under Ra's rays, it was a subtle feeling; one he almost didn't recognize…but he did. It was strange feeling it again-contentment. Who would have thought that he would have thought he would feel content in the land of his bondage, but he did.
Few things could make the life he had here better than it was, then again he had once thought that as a slave. Now that he thought about it he was still a slave only now Pharaoh Senunet was his master. Still within him he still held the peace that he had as a slave and in prison.
"Joseph," Kuy called to him. He stiffened at his true name. Joseph was a slave and prisoner in a foreign land, "I mean Kontar."
Kontar, the name that Potiphar had called him, his slave name that he had now taken to be his personal name. Pharaoh had done all he could to make Joseph as Egyptian as he could, father, forgive me, he silently asked again as he allowed himself to be reborn as an Egyptian nobleman. For Egypt to live, Joseph had to die.
