Epilogue

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

"Set! Father of Jackals!" the voice of Horus, the Pharaoh of the Gods was like that of a war trumpet only much louder. "Where are you, you Evil day?"

"Horus! And Shu! And Tefnut too, I guess," Set said brightly as he and Nephthys (and a reluctant-looking Anubis) were sitting at a foot of a pyramid. "Have you also come for the BBQ?"

"...What BBQ?" Horus asked after a pause. "Set, what is going on here?"

"Well, after Shu over there pointed out to me that my lady wife wasn't in the Duat I went looking for her here," Set said brightly, "and I found her, and now we're having some family time, here, in Memphis, if you don't mind."

"Memphis? This place was old before us," Horus was backing down – slightly.

"Not Memphis Egypt, Memphis USA – besides, Thoth has invited us to his party-"

"Thoth?" Horus looked around. Sure enough, there was Thoth, doing the actual BBQ'ing of the meat (and vegetables) alongside his baboons... those that were not playing basketball with Babi. Nekhbet was acting as a judge. Some distance away Bast and Serqet were going through one of their long arguments and beyond them...

Sobek emerged from the Mississippi river. "Done," he grunted in his usual manner.

"What's done?" Horus mechanically asked.

"The latest damage Apophis' shadow tried to inflict on Ma'at," the crocodile god said simply, before adding: "o Great House. Are you here for Thoth's party as well?"

"No," Horus said crossly. "Thoth!"

"Yes?" the god of knowledge carefully looked at his superior.

"Next time you throw a party at your place, try to notify us as well – otherwise it just gets confusing. Where are Bes and Tawaret? Here as well?"

"No, in Brazil, dealing with hippos," Set said flippantly.

Horus glared. "There are no hippos in South America!"

"There are now. A bunch of drug lords had them as pets – then the lords went down and the hippos escaped into the wild and were on their own for a while. Still are, though Tawaret probably has a plan as to what to do about them."

"Wow. That places sounds – and looks – more and more like home every day," Horus said, slightly wistfully, before turning to Shu. "Yet there was no reason for you to drag us here – Thoth's parties are an acceptable alternative, remember, oh god of wind?"

"Yes, my lord," Shu muttered as he and Horus (and also Tefnut, though it was hard to say – Shu's wife tended to blend with the background a lot and consequently was very hard to notice) went back into the Duat.

"And we're back," Set said brightly, and the impromptu party continued.

"Walt, are you decent? Can I come in?"

"Yes, Sadie. What is up? You have recovered-"

"Let's just that Carter and I had had enough of each other's company for a while – recording our adventures does tend to strain our relationship, ironically enough – and I came to check on you. With Anubis being elsewhere-"

"Sadie. I'm not yet at the point where I can drop dead at any minute, honestly!" Walt almost wailed in exasperation. "Plus Anubis has sort of left a bit of himself – sort of a nominal stand-in, really-"

"He can do that?"

"All gods can – leave a nominal presence of their essence in their hosts and go back to the Duat or vice versa. So Anubis is in me still, somewhat, and will probably returning to me in the future: hanging around with your parents can be quite annoying from time to time."

"No, really?" Sadie muttered. "Anyways, um, speaking of hanging around, you think that senhorita Vasquez will?"

"I have no idea. She is a Sobekite, and they are quite fatalistic: when something is done it is gone, and you cannot have it over again. She probably thinks that her adventure with us is done and gone and so are we in her life-"

"Not if uncle Amos persuades her otherwise – I hope," Sadie said with a giggle but then turned serious. "Of course I think that he has problems with ladies – just like Carter. Want to go and spy on them?" she asked Walt just as the latter was taking a drink – and it was promptly spat out.

"Sadie! You can't just go and spy on the Chief Lector and his not-quite-a-date!" he flailed his arms once again. "That's just wrong!"

"Really? Then I guess I just go and do that on my own," Sadie said theatrically and left.

Walt caught up to her after several minutes.

"Fine, I'll go to keep you out of trouble!"

"Yay!" Sadie said brightly – and things in the Twenty-First nome were back to normal.

End