For those of you who have read the original HOA fic I wrote "Children of the Obelisk" (Which may or may not be in the same universe as this IDK yet.) This is how Nina recognized Raet ;)

Chapter 3

House of Ra

"What the heck," I cried as the pair pushed me into one of the large storage closets and locked the door behind me. "What's going on."

"Don't pretend to be clueless," Elena told me harshly. "Did you do this?"

"Did I do what?" I asked rubbing my head where it had hit the wall when Nile shoved me into the closet. "This has to be some sort of misunderstanding."

"I don't think she did this," Nile told Elena after casting me a curious glance. "From what I hear from Thoth she's clueless."

"Oh back to Thoth!" Elena cried exasperated. "Since when are you two such good friends."

"Wait, Thoth?" Wasn't he... "Oh," I gulped after connecting the dots. "You're…"

"I swear each Chosen one gets stupider than the previous," Elena complained like I was a dumb dog who didn't understand English. "Yes hon, we're gods. I'm Khepri and this is Khnum."

I couldn't place the names exactly, but I shook my head in confusion before asking, "Wait, weren't you both aspects of Ra or something? Aren't you the same person?"

As soon as the words were out I knew I'd struck a nerve. "We are not the same person!" Nile, who'd previously been the calm one, bellowed. "We are all incredibly different!"

"Right, different," I corrected quickly. If there was one thing I'd learned from my conversations with Anubis it was that you always agree with the god. "Um so now that we've established that I didn't do this, what is this?"

Nile/Khnum gave me an 'are you kidding' look before pointing out what I would have realized if I hadn't been locked in a room with two seemingly bi-polar versions of the same all powerful king god. "How did two gods who haven't spoken since the 20's, the Chosen One, the ex-Osirian, a worshiper, and a scale all end up in the same house?" Okay I didn't know what a worshiper or a scale was, but something told me that Justin and Elizabeth's lives were about to get a bit more complicated. (As for my friends and me, our lives had been complicated for a long while now.)

"Oh, right… yeah that is a bit odd." I mean it made sense that Eddie and I were together-that was planned, but how did I end up in the same house as two gods?

"You know what, it doesn't matter because I'm going to transfer," Elena (English is so much easier than Egyptian) decided. "Because last time we lived together it didn't end well."

Nile rolled his eyes, "You can't transfer. Ma'at did bring us all together if only for amusement so we'd better not 'upset the order' by leaving."

"If everything is okay then can I go?" I questioned pointing to the door. These two bickering gods were starting to worry me and, if I had to live with them, I should warn my friends.

"No way," the gods answered harmoniously. "Go get your Osirian and meet back here."

"He's not the Osirian anymore," I reminded them quickly. The more I could keep Eddie out of this the less likely he'd be to die for the third time within a year. "So really he should just be left out of whatever this is."

Elena just rolled her eyes and repeated herself, "Now hon, please don't annoy me by talking back. Anubis would be very upset if I killed you. Now go get the Osirian."

Surprisingly unstartled by the god's half-threat I left the closet before rolling my eyes and going to find Eddie. I'd changed a lot over the past year, but one of the main changes is how desensitized I've grown to the freaky.

"What's wrong?" Eddie asked upon seeing my face. He didn't need an Osirian connection to know I was not happy.

"We have a problem," I told him causing Fabian to hit his head on the dresser he moved so fast. "Or we have a potential problem. Turns out our roommates are gods and now they want to talk to you."

"Are you sure this is safe?" Fabian fretted causing me to shrug.

"They said they didn't want to annoy Anubis by killing me… so I guess it's safer to do what they say than to not."

"You know I thought I was free of this when the Osirian spirit died," Eddie confessed as we made our way back upstairs. "But I guess that's never going to be the case, is it?"

"Probably not," I confessed. "Something tells me that our entire lives will be ruled by the wills of Egypt. At least there is no one actively trying to kill us this time."

Eddie snorted at my joke, but I found it sad that not being under the threat of death was what kept something from being a bad day.

The closet had been small enough the first time, but with four grown kinda-people in it there was hardly enough room to shut the door. "Well this isn't going to work," Nile decided and suddenly a second layer of the room appeared.

"What the heck?" Eddie muttered looking at the shimmering veil around him. I could understand the boys confusion- we were still technically in the closet, but we no longer felt cramped because we had plenty of room. "Where are we?"

"Exactly where we were… but on a different plane of sorts," I explained feeling the familiar lack of anything that came with this place. "We're in the Du'at."

"So Anubis had been teaching you something in all those hours he's abandoned his post," Nile spoke impressed.

"Wait Anubis?" Eddie's head flashed in my direction as he spoke accusingly. "You've been talking to Anubis again?"

"Again?" Elena scoffed. "Honey she never stopped talking to him. Ever since the god helped bring you back from here he's been breaking every rule in the book to visit Nina."

"Can we not fight about this now?" I asked before Eddie could yell at me. "We have some things to talk about… but not here. I hate this place."

I considered asking why both gods started laughing at that declaration, but decided I probably didn't want to know. Unfortunately, they shared anyways. "This is the land of the dead… thought the throne room of Osiris and the real Afterlife is in a different level. No one likes this place."

"What's that?" Eddie wondered pointing to the box that lie on the empty plane of the Du'at.

"Don't ask about that don't think about that," Nile demanded. "It's for the best you don't know." Of course being told we couldn't know made both of us want to know more, but you don't fight with gods.

"You didn't actually think it would be here, right?" Elena skeptically asked of Nile. "Because the chances were next to none."

"Care to clue us in to what you're talking about?" An exasperated Eddie muttered, but the gods were so busy fighting (again) that they didn't even hear him.

"No I knew it wouldn't be here!" Nile defended. "But we needed more space."

"You're always so predictable!" Elena cried. "You just make excuses when you're wrong."

"Cut it out you two." At the sound of the voice I turned to see a women with flaming red hair (literal flames) who gave the gods a glare so hard I knew she too had to be a goddess. "And tell the children what needs to happen."

"Fine Raet," Elena mumbled as if scolded by her mother. "Meet another form of Ra, Raet-Tawy. She's the annoying bossy one."

"I'm the one who keeps everyone else in line," Raet corrected. "Funny that I'm the least known of all our aspects. We've brought you here into the du'at because Ma'at, or the universe as you'd consider it, has been set off balance. There are two possible situations that ma'at finds balanced- a living Chosen One and a living Osirian or a living Chosen One and a fully dead Osirian. Either way there is balance-all or nothing. Eddie survives as a counterpart to you Nina your balance in every aspect. However, the balance is set off by the lack of Osirian nature to counteract that of the Chosen One."

"Sorry I came back to life then," Eddie groaned. "But I'm not going to kill myself if that's what you want."

"Certainly not," Raet objected while the other two gods just shrugged like they didn't care much either way. "Without any Osirian at all there is a dangerous kind of balance. The best option would be for you to get your Osirian nature back."

"Is that possible?" Call me selfish, but having Eddie around as my Osirian really made me feel less alone with my odd destiny.

"It's somewhere here in the du'at," Elena answered. "So technically if you wandered around for long enough you'd find it and could stuff it back into your body."

"The du'at is infinite!" I reminded her. How were we supposed to find Eddie's Osirian spirit when it could be anywhere? "We'd die of old age before finding it."

"Technically no time passes in the du'at," Elena corrected, "But something tells me Raet here is going to be annoying and guide you to the spirit. Personally I think watching you wander would be more interesting."

"I don't know exactly where the spirit is," Raet confessed causing my rising hope to deflate. Typical. "However if the Chosen One could mark it on the map I'd be able to lead you to it."

"What? I don't know how to do any map marking!" I wanted to help, but I had no idea how to do that.

"The spirit is essentially dead," Raet told me with little patience. "Anubis has been bragging about your abilities. Prove he was right by doing the spell."

"Wait," Eddie interrupted. "You know how to do magic? What exactly have you been doing all summer Nina?"

Squeezing my friend's hand tightly I flashed him an apologetic smile. "I'll explain on the road. Do you have a map or anything?"

If I wasn't dealing with gods I would have been surprised by the infinite and ever changing map Raet revealed, but grasping the map in my hands I pictured the power radiating around me and the golden spirit I once stuffed back in my dead friend's chest.

"There," I told Raet pointing to a dot on the map. "That's where it is."

"Great," Raet answered sarcastically. "Well don't just stand there! We have a soul to find and balance to restore."

With a simple shrug the five of us followed behind Raet who led the way into the depths of the du'at.