The Sacrifice #5
I knelt upon the floor, bringing my head even with the table, and took out the small hidden dagger from within the folds of my loincloth.
It would be an added mess for the priests and attendants to clean, but I doubted anyone would be surprised when they found me.
Not even Pharaoh would be angry with me, for it was the boon he had granted me, to mourn however I chose.
I tilted my head back and raised the dagger above my throat.
“Now that, young mortal, would be a waste of a life.”
I gasped at the unexpected voice. More startling, however, was that, although I had not closed my eyes, a mere blink of them proved I was somewhere else entirely.
I scrambled to my feet, and as I tried to close my fist tighter around the dagger to protect myself, I found that it was no longer there. My hand was empty, and I stood in some black void, yet was somehow still standing, as the shadows of unseen figures surrounded me.
“Do not fear,” one of them said, different from the voice before.
“At least not yet,” said another.
They were all resonant and powerful sounding. Some of their silhouettes were difficult to decipher, but others…
One could not mistake the shape of a man with the head of a jackal.
I fell back to my knees, lowering my eyes to the blackness of the floor. “My gods.”
“Yes, we are,” said one of them. I could faintly tell which direction each came from, but not for certain which god spoke.
They were shadows only—eight of them.
“As your gods,” the most recent voice continued, “we decree it is not yet your time to die.”
“You would deny me entrance into the afterlife?” I dared glance up.
“We would offer you an alternative.”
“A-alternative?”
“A chance,” said another, “a set of trials that if you prevail against them will mean reunion with your beloved without the loss of your life.”
I snapped fully upright, ready to leap to my feet at such an opportunity.
“You shall make the journey through the afterlife and face each of us.”
“Through the Duat?” Traversing the land of the dead, a perilous realm of night, filled with dangers that all souls must face before reaching their final rest, could be made easier if the living followed proper funerary practices and mourned dutifully, but in the end, only the soul itself, on its own merits, could reach the Field of Reeds.
To face that while alive would mean no help from the living at all.
“Not quite the Duat,” said another of the gods, “for you are not yet dead yourself. We have different trials for you.”
That was some relief, but trials from the gods, whichever ones surrounded me, would be no easy feat. The more I looked at the shadows, the more I began to recognize some of them. All were male, and I thought I counted Seth among them, which was terrifying on its own.
Was he not an enemy of the gods, a villain in most stories?
More surprising was being offered this at all. I was no one special to have been gifted such an audience.
“May I ask, my lords… why am I being given this chance?”
“You mean despite how you would have thrown your life away?” The direction of that voice and the unfettered vitriol in it made me certain it was Seth speaking.
“Yes,” I answered, lowering my gaze again.
“Because Meryt’s heart was pure enough to bypass the Duat entirely,” a kinder of the voices said. “It is a rare honor to skip straight to one’s weighing, but his heart proved lighter and worthier than most.”
That brought my eyes up again, because of course it was.
“We would see if the love he has for you is just as well-earned,” said another.
“Then Meryt is already in paradise?” I asked.
“He waits within the moment his heart was weighed, reliving his life in reverse. When he reaches the beginning, you will reach your end. Whether that means a reunion or not will be up to you.”
“If you can resist the temptations offered to you along your journey,” spoke the kinder voice again, “you will prove as worthy of Meryt’s love as he is of ours.”
“But if your love does not prove true,” spat Seth, “your heart will be weighed wanting.”
Then I would die but with my soul eradicated by Ammit, the Devourer, to never be with Meryt again. But to have him back, to risk myself for him as he risked himself for me, I could imagine no greater gift.
“Do you accept?” asked one of the others. “You have two options if you do not. You can have the death you wished for and traverse the Duat, as others do. Or you can return to your life and live out your days as you would have, without Meryt.”
“If it means seeing my beloved sooner, there is only one answer.” I stood, holding firm and tall before my gods. “I accept.”
“Without even asking what your trials entail?” Seth laughed. “I doubt you will even last long enough to reach me.”
“Hush,” said the kinder voice, and Seth grunted as if cowed by him.
Then another, I thought perhaps Anubis, who had yet to speak, finally did. “You have accepted. Your trials begin now. Resist us, prove your love for Meryt…” Red eyes glowed from within Anubis’s shadow. “Or perish.”
The blackness gave way beneath my feet, and what had felt like solid ground, imperceptible though it had seemed, was gone now, plummeting me into the unknown ahead.