Chapter 11

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

Carter Kane

Nephthys' palace was beautiful and elegant beyond anything I can come up with for two reasons. Firstly it had a somewhat illusory, not-quite-there feel, rather like the reflection of sunlight on water – you know that the reflection of the sun is there, you can see it there, but you cannot really describe it: I certainly cannot. And Nephthys' palace had the same quality; it was and was not there at the same time.

"Wow!" somebody said behind me. I think it was Sadie. Or Zia.

It was then that the second reason why I cannot describe Nephthys' palace manifested itself: Apophis. Well, his shadow at least, and unlike everything else around us it was quite solid and here: a solid line of inky blackness that blotted all of the color and light around it.

"Didn't we banish you already?" I snapped: after Set's visit my temper was short.

"You can't banish me, little pharaoh," Apophis hissed/laughed inside our heads. "I am Chaos, the counterpart of Order, the shadow of Egypt, and I am always present."

"Then be present somewhere else," I suggested. "Back at the North Pole, for example. Or at least in Mexico."

"No! I like it here! You can't make me go!" Apophis snapped before he caught himself.

"We can't?" even Sadie caught onto the Serpent's slip. "We already banished you from the world; all that is left is your shadow, so why can't you concede us this one and leave?"

"Because I got Nephthys!" Apophis hissed, now sounding triumphant once more. "She was sorry for herself, she desired what she couldn't have – pardon me, whom she couldn't have and who in the end preferred the company of a ghost to her – and I came upon her when the rest of the Duat wasn't present and took over. You cannot save her!"

"Excuse me, Chief Lector," Walt spoke up in the same polite tone of voice that Sadie tends to use when she does something crazy. "Can I borrow your staff?"

"Will you be able to return it?" uncle Amos had also remembered Sadie at this moment.

"..."

"Fine. But this is the only time, young man."

"Thank you." The last words were said by Anubis, rather than Walt, as he took uncle Amos staff and it glowed some sort of a dark grey color – the color of Anubis' magic.

And then Walt/Anubis hit Apophis in the face with it so hard that the serpent's head rocked back... but that was it.

Uncle Amos' staff, on the other hand, resembled a cigarette's butt: much shorter than what it was once and still smoking.

"Want to try again?" Apophis hissed as he flicked his tongue. "You cannot hurt me, little god! I am Apophis! I am the shadow of Egypt! Gods tremble at my sight-"

"Excuse me," senhorita Vasquez carefully approached Walt with Zia in tow. "Can we now try something?"

"Your puny tricks cannot do anything!" Apophis hissed, but now he sounded more worried than confident. "I am-"

"We know," senhorita Vasquez said wearily. "You are shadow; you are negative energy, not unlike the power of Anubis. Let's see how you handle this!" and both of them grabbed Apophis by neck instead.

Zia Rashid

The world flickered. One moment we were grabbing Apophis' inky-black neck, the next we were inside it, in a colored, flickering sphere that contained lady Nephthys – and she wasn't happy to see us.

"Ra," she said with bitterness, "the God of Kings. Come to mock me?" and she was looking at me as she said that.

Instinctively, I bristled. The time when I was the host of Nephthys and Ra was still a blur to me and probably always will be, but I did not enjoy it either; I opened my mouth to say this... when a flicker of warmth went through me and chased away the chill I didn't know I was feeling.

"No," my companion said instead. "We've come to get you out of Apophis instead. He is not good company for anybody."

"Is he? Just like him, I am alone-"

"Well, actually, your son and husband are on the other end: they were the ones that got the House of Life involved," I spoke up.

"...What? Since when does Set care about me?" Nephthys stared.

"He is your lord husband, you are his lady wife, you have had a son together already," I shrugged. "Of course he cares about you."

"Since when?" Nephthys stood up and began to walk about. "He is Set, the Father of Jackals-"

"And you're the mother, I suppose," my companion spoke up. "And furthermore, what's wrong with jackals? There are worse animals out there, like the hyenas, for example."

Nephthys stared. "You are a very strange woman."

"My father is the high priest of Sobek, and my mother is something else. Of course I'm strange," senhorita Vasquez shrugged. "But even my father and his god were respectful of you, the Avenging Mother, the Lady of Waters and highly so. There is no reason why you should be staying with some powerless shadow that just draws its strength from you."

"And whom should I be staying with? You?" Nephthys snapped as she approached senhorita Vasquez.

"I am a Sobekite – if you are powerful enough to handle me, go right ahead," the latter smirked.

Lady Nephthys' eyes and mouth formed a trio of indignant O-s that quickly formed into a glare as she reached out and grabbed her other interlocutrix – and there was light.

TBC