Chapter 4: Pit Stop in the Duat

When we left the cemetery, we continued walking down a street that took us outside of town. I didn't know where we were going, but the more we walked, the farther away we got from civilization. I wondered if that was the point.

"So…" I started, "how are we going to get around?"

"We'll be using a boat."

"But there isn't any water here."

He shook his head. "We don't need water."

It didn't take long for me to see what he meant. The air in front of us began to ripple. It reminded me of how a hot summer's day can make the air twist and turn around things far away. Only there was a cool breeze today, and it was the air close to us that was turning into a waterless stream. In the distance, a black shape was coming towards us, traveling through the air. I could make out the shape as it got closer. The ends of the boat were curved upward making it the shape of a crescent moon. On the side the wood had a painting of the Eye of Horus.

As impressive of an entrance this boat made, it wasn't that large. It was probably larger than a canoe, but not by much. It didn't seem like a comfortable means of travel. A car would at least have cushioning. But who am I to complain when I volunteered for this. My desire to right my past wrongs was much stronger than any qualms about discomfort.

"Does it go fast?" I asked.

"Up to 200 knots. We could probably get to the other side of the country in a day."

"That's… really impressive."

Anubis took my bag from my shoulder. "Come on aboard. I'll show you around."

"That shouldn't take too long," I replied. When Anubis approached the boat, it sunk closer to the ground to make it easier to board. He climbed on and completely vanished. I froze. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to happen or not. Seeing people vanish in thin air was something that would take me a while to get used to. I took a deep breath and swung my leg over into the boat.

The boat didn't look like the same boat I had climbed on once I was onboard. The deck I stood on was spacious. It could be on a large yacht, or maybe a small cruise ship. The architecture wasn't like any boat I had ever seen. It was a blend of old fashioned with modern, having the structure of a modern boat but built with polished wood of different kinds all around. The doors and windows were bordered with colorful textiles. It was bizarre yet beautiful at the same time.

I wondered if we had somehow transported to some other boat somewhere. Looking around, though, our surrounding was still the deserted road we had walked down. Anubis was next to me unfazed by any of this. He stared intently down the deck. In the direction og his gaze came a black and white shape.

"You have a pet dog?"

"He's more of a friend than a pet," Anubis replied.

The dog was a shaggy-haired border collie. He was ecstatic as dogs get. He immediately jumped up to me, barking and trying to lick my face. I hadn't felt how heavy my heart was until this dog's infectious joy lifted that weight. I instantly loved the dog and began scratching behind his ears.

"This is Paws," Anubis said beside me. "Paws, this is Nakia. She will be traveling with us from now on." Paws trotted around us barking at the news.

"How did you two become friends?" I asked.

"Paws was a stray I encountered three years ago. I noticed that he was more intelligent than most dogs I meet, so I decided to employ him."

"Employ him for what?"

"He drives the boat."

Anubis turned to Paws, as though dogs driving boats was normal. "Why don't you take us to another town in the area while I show Nakia around; someplace that isn't east of here." Paws barked and ran back the way he came. I stood as I watched him vanish around the corner.

"Does he really know how to work this boat?"

"Of course. He's a talented navigator. Come on." He walked with my bag still hanging from his shoulder and waved for me to follow him.

"You don't have to show me around right now," I said to him. "Could you just take me to what room I'll be staying in?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

My room wasn't too lavish which I was thankful for. Walking through the living quarters to get to the floor below I saw enough to know this place looked like those homes you see on the cover of magazines. Except this was a boat, though I suppose this would be my home now.

My room was an ocean teal. It had a queen size bed, a side table with a lamp, a dresser, closet, and connected bathroom. It was rather bare and I left my duffel bag on the floor to mess with latter. I climbed in to the bed and tugged at the sheets until they no longer had that newly-made-bed feel.

The sheets were soft. Egyptian cotton would be a given. They were probably made in Egypt too and not just given that name. It could have been my imagination, but they smelled earthy like sand with a taste of salt water. Even the bed covers were telling me I had been swept away into an ocean.

I wasn't tired, though I feigned it to Anubis. I had just run away from my home without saying anything to my family. There was a note on the kitchen table, but it was blank. While trying to think of something I could say to them I realized it wouldn't matter. I didn't want them to look for me, but they would. I would rather they assume I was dead and move on, but they would hold on to the hope I was alive. Leaving them a message wouldn't change that.

I hoped Molly was okay. I wondered what she would think of my disappearance. I felt a pang of guilt at thinking she would be angry enough to be glad I was gone. I didn't know how strong our friendship was. I felt like an unnecessary distraction in her life that she could easily live without. There wasn't anything that would hold our friendship together after this.

I wasn't tired, just quietly miserable.

I didn't have a good grasp of time. There wasn't a window and I had no clock. I would have to ask Anubis if he could get me one. I stared at the ceiling for a while letting the reality of where I was sink in. I still felt like if I fell asleep I would wake up in my own bedroom.

There was a knock at the door. I got out of the bed and answered the door. Predictably it was Anubis. "Could you come up on deck?"

"Sure."

Anubis didn't reply, but merely left to go back upstairs. I slipped on some shoes and followed after.

It was already dark. I was surprised so much time had already passed. Back at home my aunt and uncle would be worried that I didn't come home. Paws came scrambling to us on deck. I gave the big dog a hug and he generously licked my face.

Looking out I noticed we were by a river. Not in the river, no. That would be to boat-like for our boat. We were floating beside it.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"We need to switch boats."

"…Why?" I asked cautiously. It couldn't be because this boat can't float in water or something, could it?

"This boat can't take us into the duat. We'll need one of my boats to do that."

"Um, first, what's the duat? Second, I thought this was your boat."

Anubis walked over to the ledge carrying some cloth bags filled with something I couldn't see. Paws had already leaped off the boat and out of sight. It felt like the fall was too dangerous to jump off from. I was never going to get used to this.

"This boat is my brothers. There is only one boat that is allowed to sail between the Earth and the Duat. All other boats must stay in their respective worlds." He leaned over the ledge, dropping the bags over. He then sat on the ledge with his feet dangling in free air. "Get off the way I do and you'll see the ground before getting off." He leapt off and disappeared.

I did as he said. When I looked down at my feet over the ledge I saw that the ground wasn't far from my feet like it had looked a moment ago. It only took a small hop off the side to land in the moist grass outside. The boat looked like a long canoe again.

"This is too unreal…" I said in an undertone.

Where we were was deserted, but not too far off was a town upstream. A storm of street lights glared and reflected off the river's water. Long bridges were illuminated with red lights and small boats were dabbled here and there in the river.

Paws was with us running down the shore, turning, and running past us in the other direction. He was happy to have the space to run like crazy.

"So what's the duat?" I asked.

"It is the name for our underworld; the land of the dead."

"Is it really okay for me to go there? I'm not dead, you know."

"And yet you wear Osiris' amulet which is only meant for the dead. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be able to take you at all."

I reflexively felt at the bump under my shirt made by my pendant. It was said to give form to the dead. What would happen to me if I went into the duat without wearing this?

Anubis walked toward the water's edge. He stood for a moment, his eyes focused just over the water. Then he lifted out his hand and a thick fog devoured the river. From the mist, a black boat sailed toward us. It was the same as the boat we were just on, except that it was bare of any decorations and was made of a dark, black wood. And it floated in the water instead of the air. Weird.

Paws bolted into the boat first which made it rock back and forth in the water. Anubis steady it and reached out a hand to me. I took it and he helped me get on. The boat didn't magically change when I entered it. It was like an ordinary boat on the inside than it was on the outside. But this was Anubis' boat while the other one belonged to his brother. I guessed Anubis wasn't the type to invest in such extravagant features as his brother, whoever he was.

When we started drifting forward through the fog, I took a glance behind me and did a double take. I wasn't sure what was behind me. It looked to me like a person made of a thin black veil that was easily transparent. It was holding onto a paddle that was steering the boat. When it turned its head in my direction I quickly whipped my head away. What I saw next quickly erased my mind of the steersman behind me.

The landscape and city nights were gone. We were no longer sailing in a river but through dark sand that was almost black. It did not hinder the boat but glided around us as though it were water. We were surrounded by thousands of doors. They floated up above and all around. They were in every direction. No matter how far I looked, they seemed to continue forever into the darkness. No door was the same. Some were simple doors like I had in my house. Others clearly came from some other century. Some weren't even doors but drapes blocking a doorway.

"We're coming up to the first one," Anubis said. I looked to see what he was talking about. In the sand ahead of us was a large, stone pedestal. On its surface were carvings of hieroglyphs. It widened out on the top to make a large, bare surface. We sailed up against it and were level with its top. Anubis grabbed a water jug and loaf of bread and set it on its top.

Suddenly, all the doors started flying before the pedestal. They were a blur in the sky as they started to collide into each other. I cupped my hand over my ears. The sound was deafening, like an explosion of wood and metal. All the doors gathered until they were all one large doorway. I let go of my ears. There was now only one door. It was very tall but, despite its great size, it was not ornately decorated. It was only a simple wooden door.

The large door slowly cracked open. From inside a stream of thousands of people came walking out onto the dark sand. There was nothing about them to suggest they were dead. They all looked like ordinary people. The only thing remarkable about them was how differently they dressed. Their clothing ranged from different countries and different eras. Yet, even if they looked like they came from prehistoric times, there were no old people. Everyone appeared to be in their prime years other than the occasional child in the crowd. It was their eyes that made them look old. Even the little children's eyes were engraved with a look that spoke of their years.

They all walked toward the pedestal and no one met my eyes. Hundreds of hands grabbed at the bread and water, but even as they would walk away with it in their hands, the food stayed on the pedestal. Our boat started to move forward and left the crowd behind us. We came to what looked like a cave the river of sand flowed into. Guarding the entrance on each side was two sphinxes. They turned their human heads toward our boat as we approached. I tried not to stare but it was hard not to. It was a bizarre sight, and much more real than the simplistic art of Egypt that represented them. Anubis gave them a nod and they turned their gazes away from us. We went into the cave, but it wasn't a cave at all. In fact, we sailed into a place identical to the one we had been in before with doors floating everywhere you looked.

We passed through two more rooms like this and went through the same routine of laying out the food, the doors crashing together into a larger one, and thousands of people coming out, hands stretching out for the offering. The doors became more elaborate, and the pedestal grew more decorated, with the last room having a golden pedestal. It was like everything was divided into different neighborhoods for the poor, middle class, and rich.

After drifting away from the golden pedestal, the path ahead was split apart. There were five doorways, each guarded by its own sphinx. We sailed straight ahead without a pause. Passing the sphinxes, Anubis said quietly, "It's easy to get lost here. Don't wonder anywhere without me."

"Trust me, I wasn't planning on it." Ahead was a magnificent entryway. Flames were blocking our way, but they instantly went out when we approached them. We stopped in front of a large staircase made of the same dark stone the sand we sailed through probably broke off from. Above I could make out large pillars all sumptuously painted with hieroglyphs and patterns. The light from within flickered here and there suggesting the movement of many people that were out of our sight. Anubis, Paws and I climbed out of the boat leaving the barely visible shadow figure inside. Instead of climbing the stairs, Anubis turned to me.

"We're going to go meet someone named Thoth. When you meet him, you need to ask him if he'll lend you his protection. We'll need it for our journey."

"What if he says no?" I asked.

"Oh don't worry," Anubis said with a grin. "He loves mortals." He started up the stairs and I followed suit. At the top we were met by a grand plaza. It was enormous and filled with many gods. At the center, where you would normally expect a water fountain, a giant scale cast a shadow on us. Instead of walls there were numerous hallways lined with doors. I stuck next to Anubis not wanting to get lost.

There were so many gods. Some were standing in groups talking to one another. Others were bustling through in a hurry to get somewhere. Only half of them looked human. The other half had animal heads, ears, or tails. Eyes followed us, well mostly me, as we walked through the large room. I shrunk behind Anubis keeping my eyes to the floor. I jumped when Paws started to bark and run happily away from us.

I looked around Anubis' shoulder. At first I thought Paws was playing with a hairless lion. When they got closer to us, pouncing and snapping at each other cheerily, I noticed that its snout was long and flat like a crocodile and its skin was dark, smooth leather. The creature was the same size as Paws but not nearly as cute. Not in the slightest.

"Come here, Ammit," Anubis called. The creature complied and took pace beside him with Paws running in an excited trot beside her. I couldn't help but smile to myself at how strange of an entourage this was.

"You have quite a few pets," I said. Ammit growled at me but Anubis gave the creature a look that made it stop.

"She's a goddess, but she doesn't like to behave herself so I have to keep my eye on her. Sometimes it does feel like having a pet." Ammit made a sound that almost sounded like a 'Humph'.

We continued along, Anubis guiding us through the corridors. I tried to look around without keeping my eyes locked on anyone for too long. It was too strange, though, that all these gods that I was used to picturing with Egyptian clothes were dressed in modern clothing. Even a god with a falcon head was wearing a navy blue suit. My eyes lingered longer than they probably should have on two goddesses walking towards us in the hall. They were both very beautiful, each of them looking very Egyptian with smooth black hair and wearing elegant, modern dresses. When the taller of the two made eye contact with me, I felt like she was looking straight into me rather than at me. I quickly turned my head away blushing. No sooner had I that ahead of us there was a squeal and a crash.

The source of the noise was a small goddess standing in a pile of fallen boxes. She looked like she could be twelve years old. She had short messy hair that was black but shone green in the light. Her gold eyes looked terrified, embarrassed, and alarmed all at the same time. She started frantically picking up the boxes she had dropped. When Anubis crouched down and picked up one of the boxes for her, she squealed again.

"Ah, A-Anubis, thanks," she stammered. She was looking down, trying to hide her burning cheeks, but couldn't since she kept making quick glances at me. I started to feel very out of place. Anubis didn't seem to find her behavior abnormal. He just smiled and replied, "You're welcome. It's good to see you, Kebechet." He continued down the hallway without stopping for conversation. Kebechet's jaw dropped and she stared at his back with wide eyes as though mushrooms had started growing out of his ears. I hastily followed after Anubis leaving the staring goddess behind.

After many turns Anubis finally stopped in front of a dark, wooden door. I waited but Anubis walked straight into the room. "Shouldn't you knock first?" I asked.

"I gave up knocking centuries ago."

The room looked like an office within a library. All the walls were made of bookshelves completely filled with books. When I looked up to see how tall the shelves were I couldn't see the ceiling. The bookshelves looked to continue on forever. In the center of the room was the most cluttered desk I'd ever seen. There were piles of papers stacked over every surface. They were stacked so high it was a wonder they didn't topple over. Behind the stacks, I was surprised to see a computer amongst the mess. Facing the monitor was a man with neatly cut brown hair. The light of the monitor reflected onto his square glasses. When we came in, he didn't move and continued to stare at his computer. Anubis approached as close as he could to the desk avoiding stacks of books and papers.

"Thoth." The man didn't look up but started typing into the barely visible keyboard. "Thoth!" He continued typing without pause.

"THOTH!"

This time he did look up, saying something in a foreign language. Swearing by the sound of it. He glanced at Anubis for a moment. Then he rested his gaze on me. I tried to pretend that I found my shoes very interesting while he stared curiously at me.

Anubis gestured to me. "Thoth, I would like you to meet Nakia. She will be accompanying me while I'm away."

I glanced up and muttered a short hello. He finally turned his gaze back on Anubis. "Is this about what Bitou told you?" he asked. Thoth's voice held a very poetic sound to it and he spoke very fluently. I had the impression that he could be very persuasive without trying to be.

"Yeah. She can sense my canopic jars," Anubis replied.

A grin slowly crept on Thoth's face as his eyes bore into mine. "Interesting," he said slowly. He made his way around his desk and approached me, navigating the crowded piles in a way only the creator could. He shook my hand with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, young lady."

"It's nice to meet you too," I responded automatically. The moment was brief, as Thoth suddenly pulled away and was so focused on Anubis now, one would think I had vanished in thin air.

"Before I forget, Anubis," Thoth said, "there is a matter that needs your attention. It would be best to go see Osiris now."

"Yeah, I better go see what she wants." As Anubis said this, Ammit started growling at a particularly large stack of books, crouching down as though she would pounce.

"Please take that beast with you. The last thing I need is more ruined books." Thoth heaved a big sigh and crept back to his desk. Ammit switched targets and started growling at Thoth's retreating figure.

"Quiet," Anubis snapped. Ammit stopped growling. "I'll be a moment. Paws, stay here. Come on, Ammit." They both left, Ammit still growling at Thoth but happily trotting off. Paws whimpered at the empty doorway. I could feel for Paws. Being in the duat felt much more real and ominous with Anubis gone.

"Let me guess," Thoth said and I looked to see he was now watching me intently. "Anubis brought you here so you could ask for my protection. Am I right?"

"Um, yeah. He did."

"Of course. I am right 99% of the time." He stood up robustly and paced the small area behind his desk. "Lets see. I believe I kept some in the upper shelves. This will be very interesting."

Before I could ask what was interesting, Thoth disappeared. In his place was a large white bird that very much resembled a stork. The bird flapped its wings and started to fly up the shelves till it was out of sight. Paws circled the floor and barked to the unseen bird. It took me a moment to register that Thoth hadn't disappeared but had turned into the white bird. I stared up the bookshelves with Paws.

In the darkness above, the white bird returned from its depths. Then Thoth was standing before me with his hand out to me. In his palm was the same stone amulet of the bird Thoth had just turned into. "Take this. Hurry and try it on."

I took the pendant and unhooked my necklace. The light of the room glimmered on the amulet already on my chain. Thoth pointed at the necklace that was now safely around my neck. "There you are. Now, do you speak Italian?"

I cocked my head. "No…?"

"How about Japanese? Or maybe Swahili?"

"No, just English," I said shaking my head.

"Wonderful," Thoth proclaimed. "It works perfectly then."

"Because I don't speak Swahili?"

"My pendant, of course. I am the god of wisdom, but I am also the tongue of Ra. There is no language I cannot speak. Don't go taking off, or you won't be able to understand what other people are saying."

I held the pale white stone against my palm. The charm seemed so ordinary in my hand that it was hard to believe I little piece of jewelry could do so much. The silver amulet caught the light again and shined rays of light onto my shirt. "I never asked Osiris for his protection…" I said quietly.

"When it comes to him, you don't need to," Thoth replied. "There aren't many who still believe in our power. I'm sure Osiris is just happy to have some followers left. And you are on a quest to help his son recover his heart. Why wouldn't he lend you his protection?"

"I didn't know Anubis was Osiris' son."

Thoth gave me a smile that was more sad than happy. "You have much to learn," he said.

He started walking back to his desk. I sat on the floor with my back against a chair that was too stacked with books to sit in. Paws came over and settled himself against my leg. Staring at my new pendants, I suddenly felt that I really didn't know anything about this world. Even though I knew stories from what my parents had told me when I was young, it wasn't enough to know everything about the gods or how they live. I didn't even know there were so many gods. I was only familiar with about maybe ten of them, and even then I didn't know anything about them outside of the stories. And here I knew who Osiris was. I knew he was married to Isis and had a son. But I had no idea that Anubis was his son, which wasn't right. Anubis already told me Nephthys is his mother. Then how could Osiris be his father?

Thoth was right. I really needed to learn as much as I could about these gods

"Well," I heard Thoth sigh from behind his desk, "there goes another one."

I looked up and saw him fiddling with the back of his desktop computer that was hard to distinguish from the piles of paper stacked around it. With surprising force, Thoth took his keyboard and flung it across the room. I jumped. It slammed into a wall and strategically fell into a pile of other electronics. I walked over to the desk to see Thoth opening a drawer that had about five more keyboards in it.

"Umm, was there something wrong with it?" I asked him.

"The space bar was sticking," Thoth said simply, now connecting the new keyboard to the desktop.

"You know, you could have taken the keys out and tried to fix it…"

"If a pencil breaks in half, do you glue it together? No, you get a new one."

"But taking apart a keyboard is really simple - "

"The last time I tried to 'fix' one of these contraptions, it ended with a fire, foul smelling smoke and a melted milk jug."

"A melted what?"

"Since then I haven't bothered trying to fix one of these things. Contraptions made by humans are unnecessarily complicated. There's no logic to them."

"It's not that complicated…" I said in a whisper. My uncle worked with computers. He taught me a lot of things about computers to the point I can usually fix any problems that came out without having to ask him. To me, computers are everything but illogical. But I'm a human. He's a god. Our definitions of 'logic' may not be the same.

"There we are," he said with a flourish of fingers across the keyboard.

"Excuse me, but could I ask you something. That is," I said looking at the mountains of papers stacked around him, "if you're not that busy."

"Oh, this," he motioned casually to the piles and piles of papers. I couldn't help but marvel how bored he looked pointing out the papers that would have given me a heart attack. "I have an eternity to finish this. What would you like to know?"

"You said Osiris is Anubis' father, but I remember Osiris being married to Isis."

"Yes, that's true," Thoth nodded.

"And Anubis' mother is Nephthys. How… does that work?"

Thoth scratched at his neck looking lost in thought before say, "Well, you know who Nephthys is married to right?"

"Oh. No, I don't."

"Well, she's married to a god named Set."

"The evil god?" I interjected.

Thoth smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I don't know if evil is the right word, but it is in his nature to stir up trouble. Well, there was a time when Nephthys wished to have a son. Set, however, can never bear a child. Even so, Nephthys was determined and devised a plan. She changed her appearance to look identical to Isis and snuck into Osiris' bed. And her plan worked. By the time her true identity was discovered, she was already pregnant with her son."

"So that's how it happened…" I murmured. "Was Osiris angry?"

"Of course. Many were. It took a while for Osiris to get over his anger enough to recognize Anubis as his son. Isis, however, welcomed Anubis from the beginning as though he were her own son."

"She wasn't angry at all?"

"Perhaps she was, but she knew better than to hold it against Anubis. And if she was ever angry at Nephthys, I never noticed. She's too quick to forgive as always, but that is how Isis is. Anyhow," Thoth leaned against his desk, his serious demeanor completely dissipated, "that's what we know for sure happened. There may be more too it, but that would be entering the realm of speculation and theories."

"I don't need to hear the theories. You've answered my question well enough."

"How about theories over why you can sense Anubis' heart? You wouldn't happen to have any yourself would you?"

I hesitated, uncomfortable with the subject suddenly changing to being about me. "I don't know. It only started two days ago. There's really nothing special about me to explain why I can do this."

"It is most curious indeed. Could you explain how you see them?"

So, I did. I explained the green glow and the restlessness. The more I spoke, the more distant Thoth's eyes grew. When I finished, Thoth stayed silent with a face concentrated in thought. "Do you have any ideas?" I asked interrupting the silence.

"I have many. 68 to be exact. I can't decide on just one until we know more." Thoth gave me an apologetic smile. "This will have to stay a mystery for now. If it is any consolation, I do know that these things don't happen by coincidence. It is destiny that brought you here."

"Right. Well, destiny sure makes some funny choices," I remarked. I carefully leaned against the bookshelf behind me and rested my head looking into the abyss of books above us. "At least Anubis managed to find a couple of jars himself. Eight jars will be better than finding twelve. No, seven jars. Nephthys kept one of his jars."

"Yes, his greatest emotion," Thoth confirmed.

"You're a theory guy. Do you have a theory on what emotion Nephthys kept?"

Thoth nodded with an enthusiastic smile. "But of course. I believe its Anubis' love she is holding and, considering my success rate, there should be no doubt that I'm right."

"His love? I know everyone says love makes the world go round, but the stories I've heard of him didn't make him out to be a romantic."

"The old stories only tell so much. Anubis is very protective and loyal. Those feelings are born from strong feelings of love and trust. If there is any part of Anubis' heart you can define him by, it is that."

"You know him better than I do," I concluded.

"You'll get to know him in time. Anything else you want to ask?"

There really wasn't much else I wanted to ask. I already felt weighed down by the weight of information he had already given me. But I didn't want to wait for Anubis in awkward silence so I asked for something silly. "What is Anubis' lesser name?"

Thoth laughed. "Oh no. I'm not going down that road."

"Come on," I egged on. "Anubis won't tell me so of course I'm dying to know."

"Exactly. If I tell you his lesser name then he'll turn around and tell you my lesser name. No deal."

"You're using a nickname too?"

"No deal," Thoth repeated.

I sighed. "Fine, I guess I have two names I need to find out."

"You are determined aren't you?" Thoth said in a serious voice that was soon ruined by the smile that crept on his face. "That's good. No magic can help you as much as your own strength of will can." After Thoth said this, Paws ran out of the room barking loudly. "He's back." Thoth went to his desk. He rummaged around in the drawers till he found a blank notecard. He wrote on it and handed it to me. At a glance I could tell instructions were written on it. "If you ever need me, go to the closest library and ask for Seshat. She can always get in contact with me."

"If you go to the library and start ripping books, Thoth will come immediately in person."

Anubis was leaning against the doorway. I only saw him a moment when Thoth quickly grabbed a stapler off his desk and lunged it at Anubis. It hit him straight on his head and then clattered onto the floor. Anubis bent over rubbing his head. "Ow!"

"So it was you!" Thoth seemed an extra feet tall in his anger as he shouted. "I will have you know that your brother thought it would be fun to blow up three shelves of books to test this theory! Three shelves! As soon as I show up you know what he does? He laughs in my face! He starts carrying on, saying 'It's true! He really will show up!' And then he flies off leaving me with a mess of destroyed books and alarmed mortals! I can't believe…"

"It wasn't me," Anubis said calmly.

"What?" Thoth exclaimed taken aback.

"I didn't tell him," Anubis continued. "Horus was the one who told me about it."

"Little Horus?" Thoth asked.

"Yeah."

"That child!" Thoth hissed the words as though they were a swear word. "Then who was the one who told him?"

Anubis ruffled his hair still rubbing his head. "I don't know. It may have just been an excuse so you wouldn't know it was his idea. It sounds like something he would do."

"That child!" Thoth hissed again. As Thoth continued mumbling profanities to himself, Anubis made his way to me. "Did you get the amulet." I pulled my necklace from under my shirt as a response. "Good. We should be ready then. Thoth?"

Thoth stopped his muttering and seemed to snap out of his angry state. "Ah, yes. You are leaving I presume."

"We need to get started with our search. Let me know if Kebechet needs my help."

"Don't worry about that. She's been very enthusiastic about her new responsibilities." Thoth walked to us and shook my hand. "It was very nice meeting you, Nakia. You have many hardships ahead of you, but as long as you trust Anubis you should be fine. Also, keep in mind that Anubis' new emotions are strongest when he first receives them." Thoth gave Anubis a grin as though he was remembering a funny memory, but Anubis' face stayed placid. "Be careful of that. Well, be on your way. Tell your brother he will face my wrath when we meet again," Thoth said to Anubis. Anubis cracked a small smile at this remark. "As he usually does."

Suddenly, Thoth's warm face became serious and still as he stared at Anubis. "He smiles…" He quickly maneuvered back to his desk and started opening his drawers. "He finally smiles. We have to commemorate this moment!"

For a second we stood watching Thoth scouring his desk, confused at what he was talking about. There was a second where Thoth found what he was looking for and I saw a digital camera in his hand. Anubis quickly grabbed my wrist and started dragging me out of the room.

"Wait," I heard Thoth's voice calling from behind us. "I just want one picture. It will only take a second!"

His voice faded into silence as Anubis had us almost jogging away from his office. When we got to the wide plaza, he finally slowed down. I thought about asking if he was camera shy, but I just didn't feel like now was an appropriate time to ask.

We made our way down the stairs back to the boat we took here. The shadow figure was waiting where it had been before and I tried not to stare. Paws jumped quickly into the boat, making it rock heavily in the sandy river. Anubis swung one leg into the boat to try and steady it. He held out his hand to me, "Ready to go?"

I nodded and took his hand. We sailed through the river of black sand out of the duat into the real world.