Drabble #2: Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady
A/N: I loved the feedback! Especially the flame, it helped me very constructively, because now I've decided to spell out this pairing for you: I-N-C-E-S-T. Yes! Gladly supporting a tradition that Egyptian royalty has been notoriously carrying out for millennia. Thank you, lovers. You guys are the shining examples of hope in this creative community.
Especially Aquawolfgirl, you gave me that last little shove before I can present you this oneshot. I like it a lot. Maybe I should expand this one to multi-chapter? Apologies, by the way, since I've not updated at all for a while, but I promised myself I'd read ToF before churning out new stuff. This doesn't really stick to canon, in fact most of it is probably made up.
Timeline: Probably in the last book, future-fic. Established ZiaxCarter.
What, Sadie Kane doesn't get, as the sky screams of blasphemy and battle, is why anybody would dump Carter.
It makes no sense, she deduces, as she flings a white-hot ray blasting at the nearest octo-legged, fire breathing demon clawing at her. He's intelligent. He's kind. He'll worship you if your name starts with a 'Z' and ends with 'ia'.
"Look behind you!" Walt warns from somewhere, probably caught in a dead-lock fight of his own. Sadie casually flicks her finger and mutters an incantation, the wisps of her own hair hovering over her vision as set-animal copy goes poof because of her awesomeness.
You're getting good at this, Isis commented in her mind, not entirely unimpressed. Only if you could just stop thinking about-
"RARRGH!" Oh sweet Jehuti, that thing scared the spirits out of her. She kicks its slowly dissolving corpse, annoyed. She looked over her shoulder, staring at the boy in question. He was more vicious than normal, blasting voluminous fireballs and countering the mass of demons with a flick of his staff.
He looked… like he genuinely wanted to kill something. And that frightened many different parts of her. Isis, what's going on with the numbnut?
Silence. Nothing I, as a woman, can comprehend. She rolled her eyes, strolling over to the mass of injured and weak magicians thirty meters away. Bollocks. Talk to Horus. She squinted to her right and saw a lone figure of a girl, burning shapes into the sand.
Another ten feet and- He is rather silent too. She clenched her jaw and swiveled away from the main tents and walked, even faster, to the tents nearest to the slowly setting sun. Carter insisted, she thinks idly. Something about Horus's power and the West.
She reached the furthest flung one when- Sadie.
What?
… Be careful with your words.
She didn't even bother a response to that. She angrily swiped at the opening and crossed her arms, placing herself down at the tent pole in the middle, teeth almost cracked with her grinding.
Maybe she should set his tent on fire. It would be so easy. Maybe she should set his staff, the scrolls, his favourite handbook of basketball statistics on fire and then slap him and then kiss his stupid-
No. Just… no. "Sadie?" An oddly feminine voice greets her. She looks up, sharply.
A very puzzled Scribe of the First Nome stares at her, uncomprehendingly. It quickly turns into sympathy.
She stares- no, glares- back. "You. Fancy seeing you here, Zia." She sighed.
"I hoped, you at least, would understand. But…" Zia swoops down and sits next to her, grabbing a flask of… something and pouring it into her mouth, wincing slightly as it burned her throat. Sadie's anger suddenly dissolves when she sees the weary, all too old for her age look on her face.
She settles for an: "You're an idiot." Zia nods, looking away. "He's just so in love with you. And it's as if you don't know. You're finally with us, because by the way, he saved your bloody arse, and now you dump him." She finishes her rant and when Zia still doesn't look guilty, she furiously grabs the flask and swigged it.
Sadie.
"Just shut up, okay?" She says out loud, and Zia gives her a queer look. She huffs.
Zia manages a sentence, however small her voice is. "You… wouldn't know. Because you haven't been buried in a tomb, with Apophis snaking in and out of your dreams."
Actually, she would know. About the second part anyways. But she obeys Isis and keeps her lips shut. "And," she continues, staring straight ahead. "Osiris visited me once in his dreams."
"My dad?" She snaps her neck to Zia so fast she fears whiplash. She nods. "He told me… things." She resumes. "And I understood." … Right.
"What exactly did you understand?" She asked carefully, gripping on to the flask. Zia gives her a strange smile, a sad one that lingers on her face even where her lips twist downwards.
"You remember the time in Alexandria you saved Carter's life from the serpent poison?" Sadie nods. She thinks she knows where this is going. "And he told you about his ren."
"Yes. So?" Zia leaned forward. "So, Sadie, even amongst magicians – another's ren is a special privilege to be in possession of. In our realm, it is the equivalent of literally giving your heart away."
Zia's expression was earnest, as if begging her to understand… what?Was this about Carter not telling Zia his secret name? "Trust me on this; my brother would blurt his secret name to you in a heartbeat."
The other girl's eyebrows plummeted downwards. "What? Yes-No. No. That was not what I meant. Sadie, giving your secret name away willingly, with love – it's sacred. It's the foundation of Ma'at: pure, willing love, shared amongst humanity. That creates Order. That battles Chaos."
Sadie squinted at her. "That's brill, really. Magnificent. But how does this relate to me or my dad?"
Zia blew hot air through her teeth. "I was getting to that. Sadie, Osiris came to me in my dreams because he knew what happened in Alexandria. He told me that no one else could possess Carter's ren. No one."
Everything cleared into sharp focus, and for one brief, terrifying moment- she understood. She speaks true, Sadie. Isis affirmed, and the goddess's voice was relieved.
"Carter…" Her chords fail her. She tries again. "Carter belongs to me?" The last word is expectedly high pitched, the prospect of another human being, much less her brother, belonging wholly to her still sinking in.
Her knees heroically braved not collapsing under the realization. "I mean. Just me. Nobody else. Not even you or Mum or Dad or any other Jane on the street- oh my god. H-how, what.." The words flopped around uselessly in her mouth.
Is this how you felt? She asked her host goddess silently. With Ra or Osiris or anyone? Another silence. Zia was looking at her with pity in her eyes that she didn't like one bit.
We are just women, Isis explained. We bear life inside us and that makes it easier, if only slightly to realize another is now yours as well.
"Sadie," Zia called for her attention, that same queer smile on her lips again. She looked up vacantly. "Um, another thing… you should know. This is usually, um, accompanied by sacred vows of marriage." She blurted in a rush.
Her eyes widened. "Please, please don't tell me we're married now." She begged.
Zia's cheeks flushed. "No! No. You two can't- I mean, aren't married. Not if you want, I mean. That is why we broke up. We can't…You are his Queen. " She said at last, shrugging in defeat.
"Who's Queen?" They both freeze. Carter emerges from the tent entrance, various emotions flitting across his face and settling with vexation, glancing to and fro. His bronze forehead shines with the perspiration from the blasts of fire, and he stood, raking his hair so insecurely it made Sadie's heart ache. Their tame, ridiculously transparent Carter. Sadie's Carter. They don't get to share him any longer.
"Sadie is whose Queen?" Her heart slammed in her chest like a kite dying to break free.
"No one." Sadie swallows thickly. "I'm stuck with you as always." Zia's eyes dimmed slightly, and her chin tilted downwards.
He grinned slightly, but it dissipated as Zia strode past him quickly, the tears threatening to blur her vision. The scribe stopped at the entrance of the tent, turned and aimed a half-smile at both of them.
"You two talk."