I am so, so, so sorry, but it looks like this will be the new norm. I'll try to update on the weekends as much as humanly possible… but I have play every day until 5:30 and then high school comes with homework. If you guys want I could write multiple chapters on the weekend and try to spread them out over the week. It's up to you so just review with any thoughts.

Also, as if the aforementioned news isn't bad enough, my choir trip is next week. I mean that's good for me 'cause I get to see Les Miserable, Pippin' and After Midnight while performing at St. Patrick's Cathedral and random Catholic schools around the city, but it's bad for you because I won't probably get a chance to update until the 21. Unless you guys live in New York City and want to stand in Times Square with a poster featuring my pen name all week… sorry. I really am sorry.

And now that I'm done with the heart wrenching real life news how about some painful (literally) fictional news?

Chapter 14

House of Isis

Eddie

"Eddie what is wrong?" Fabian cried hurtling after me. In my panic to find the solution to the box so Raet would stop hurting those I love, I hadn't said a word to my best friend. Even now, looking in his desperate face, I didn't know how to tell him.

"Raet took Nina and Patricia," I told him a desperate panic soft in my voice. I needed to keep a clear head, but if Raet was to be trusted, Alice, little baby Alice, was about to be born somewhere terrible premature and in need of help. I had only a few hours to find what I'd spent months fruitlessly searching for. How was I ever going to save them?

Before Fabian could get words out of his terrified and shocked face, a new voice spoke voice like a mother singing her baby a lullaby. "I cannot help you free them, or open the box, but I can give you more time."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked spinning to face the women. She was younger than her voice led me to believe- probably only in her early 20's, but one look in her eyes and I knew the gentle blonde was a lot older than that. "And which goddess are you then?"

"Getting better at that I see," the women told me with a smile. "Good thing too because I'm sure you'll be visited many times with offers and proposals that all turn out to be tricks. I am Isis, and have the one proposition you should not refuse." I don't know my Egyptians as well as I should of (being the Osirian and all) but I didn't need to be Fabian to understand who this woman was. Isis was a biggy.

Re-directing my mind to the only thing that mattered I spoke a bit too harshly, but Isis, ever the understanding mother, overlooked my tone. "You said you can help. How?"

"I am the patron of marriage, families; I can protect your wife and child… Khepri, Elena as you know her, will help me keep Alice alive. I can't free them, but my powers allow me to make so no harm can come to them." In my life I've watched disasters end well, but never before had I been so relived. If Isis could keep Alice alive then I had time. I could find the answers Raet needed and free everyone I loved from the mad goddess' grasps.

"But you can't help Nina, can you, because she has no family. Because we're not married," Fabian's muttered words stopped my heart in my chest. I saw Nina as such a sibling I thought the protection of family counted, but Fabian was right. Nina and I were like second cousins once removed or something. We weren't really family, so Isis's protection was void.

The goddess' sad nod confirmed my deepest fear. "Unfortunately the Chosen One is not under my domain and Raet has warded the place where they are so Anubis, who's domain she is under, can't get in. There is not a single being alive, save Raet of course, who can keep Nina alive with magic. But there are plenty who can do it with wisdom." My head was down, but I knew the goddess' eyes were carving into me as I stood there silent. I could save Nina, and I would, but I just didn't know how yet. "Raet kills Nina she loses. I can keep your family safe Eddie, and Raet will keep Nina alive. You must now use any resource you can to save them for we gods have done all we can."

"Can you at least tell us where they are?' Fabian pleaded voice cracking. I understood his despairing tone- Raet would keep Nina alive, but not well. Once again my short fallings caused pain to others. Patricia suffered because of me, Nina suffered because of me, and now my daughter would suffer because of me. KT used to call me a superhero, but no hero in all of history has caused as much pain as me.

Isis nodded, but even before she spoke I knew how useless the question was. "They're in the Library of the gods, it used to be part of the Library of Alexandria. It's miles underneath rock, pavement, and skyscrapers. It would be impossible for you to free them without Raet's help."

Fabian didn't seem to recognize the catacombs name (and I know I didn't), but we both recognized our lack of options. "Your wife has just begun labor," Isis informed me breaking me from thoughts of despair. "I must go and help her and you must begin your search."

"Wait!" I cried before the goddess could vanish into the Du'at. "Why are you helping me? What do you want in response?" Because they do, they always want something from us no matter what.

Isis's smile began sad, but a fierce determination grew as she listened to her own words. "You are my husband's servant here on earth… and I love a tragic love story. It seems that whether or not he marries his Chosen One the Osirian finds undying love in someone who deserves better. Except you're that exception. You do deserve Patricia because you are more than the Osirian. You're Eddie Miller." I wish Isis could have just left with her encouraging words still ringing in my ears, but as always my luck didn't hold out. "And I need a simple promise from you. Do not let Raet get her hand on the Sheut." Even now the word send shivers down my spine. The Sheut, Raet's 'weapon' the secret of the box. "She wants it to have power over my son and I refuse to allow that to happen. Find how to return the Sheut to its rightful home and do so. Just don't let Raet get her hands on it if you want there to be a world for your child to grow up in."

The last promise I made ended disastrously, but Isis and Raet are very different goddesses, and this vow was one I happily made. Raet would not win. I'd save Nina, I'd save Patricia, I'd meet my child.

It would all work out in the end.

It had to work out in the end.

Well i just gave you a major spoiler... see if you can figure it out. I'm so tired i might go to sleep now and update my other story in the morning. Don't forget to mention in a review if you want me to save whatever i write over the weekend for during the week so updates are more even. Night guys don't let the scarab beetle bite.