Chapter 8 The Many #5
“What?” I asked, for he was looking at me so seriously suddenly.
Nakht took my hand, my left with his left, so that when our fingers laced together, our braided rings touched too.
“We are as free as we choose to be,
Only captive to each other
With hearts entwined
like our promises that bind
and neither earth nor skies,
shall ever separate us again.
“We are as whole as we choose to be,
Only bare before each other,
With rings entwined
As symbol of heart and soul and mind,
and from now until the end of time,
you are all I need.
“Dusk to my dawn
Until even the gods are gone.”
Well that didn’t stave off my tears.
“Show off,” I sniffled, and Nakht laughed with the most beautiful smile yet and eyes shining.
“You do the same with dancing,” he chided.
“For you? Always.”
“For you,” Nakht repeated, “always.”
I let the tears come then for nothing could have held them at bay after that.
Nakht wiped them away until they stopped falling, and then kissed each of my cheeks.
“Is that what you would be,” I asked, “if you could have chosen any life to live? A poet?”
“Oh, I never dared allow myself to wonder that. What would you have chosen?”
“Honestly? While I would prefer to be a free man, bound to no one but whom I choose to be bound to…” I brought our clasped hands to my lips to kiss our rings. “I think I would still want to dance. Maybe without the erotic end.”
Nakht snorted again.
“That I would save only for you. But to move someone, to move their heart, with just the motion of my body… I don’t think I would want to give that up.”
Nakht snuggled ever closer to me, entangling our legs and keeping our hands laced tight. “I certainly wouldn’t want to give up witnessing it, being a man always moved by your motion.”
“But what about you then? If you did allow yourself to wonder?”
“I don’t know. I think I would want to consume as much knowledge as possible before I decided.
I would study anything, everything, maybe history, other cultures, other cultures’ poetry.
I would want to understand the rest of the world better and immerse myself in everything they are and loved, so I might love it too. Does such a profession even exist?”
I wasn’t certain if it did, for it seemed grander than a mere scholar.
Before I could answer, however, I noticed that the light from the balcony was creeping ever closer up the bed.
“I think our time might be limited.” I frowned at the thought.
We had no idea what came next, no matter how perfect and beautiful Nakht’s poem had sounded.
“The gods will not let us wile away the whole day.”
“I imagine they won’t,” Nakht affirmed. “They were gracious enough to let us sleep and simply exist in each other’s presence for a while, but I suppose… next comes their verdict on whether I passed my final trial.”
“Indeed it does,” boomed Osiris.
In an instant, the scenery changed, and we were upright and dressed, standing in some black void with the shadows of unseen figures surrounding us.
There were eight of them, with most of their silhouettes quite familiar to me now.
Just as I began to scrutinize them closer, the void brightened, and I could see clearly all the gods that Nakht had been with.
Anubis, with beautiful ebony skin and a jackal head.
Ptah, literally a living landscape.
Geb, dauntingly tall as he sat upon the curve of his snake tail body, covered equally in feathers and scales.
Amun-Ra, who I remembered had many forms, but to us now, he—or rather, they—appeared as a celestial figure of both genders and neither.
Seth, wearing his antelope skull mask and full armor.
Horus, also in his armor with his wings tucked behind him and falcon helm in place.
Thoth, the most human with a long black braid past his knees.
And finally, the one we had been with together, Osiris, wrapped once more in his linen strips and adorned with all his accessories.
We had to turn in a circle to see them all, but here they were, gathered in one place.
"What if I refuse?" I spat, foolish though it may be to challenge the gods.
Hadn't we, in some ways, been doing that all along?
"You said I was worthy but that Nakht had to prove his worth.
Why? How could I be worthier than him?" I looked at Nakht beside me and took his hand.
"My heart cannot be weighed without his on the scale beside it because one cannot exist without the other. I won't. I will not be without him."
Geb answered me, "Your devotion is noted."
Worth a try. And worth the adoring look in Nakht's eyes.
Sudden softness against my legs made me yelp and nearly jump backward. I looked down to see the familiar sight of Pasht, the palace cat we both loved, with her white fur speckled with black markings and more black ringing her vibrant green eyes.
“I had nearly forgotten you!” Nakht exclaimed, and I bent to retrieve her, scooping her into my arms so we could both pet her in gratitude for being here to support us, which her presence had to mean, for her purring seemed to say nothing less.
“Meryt, Nakht,” Osiris summoned us to look at him, “your hearts have been weighed not only worthy of each other but of the favor of the gods.”
Nakht seemed too stunned to speak, so I spoke for us.
“You will return me to life? Return us to Pharaoh’s service?”
“Is that the life you want?” Anubis asked.
We looked to each other, and this time, Nakht found his voice.
“What other life could we have?”
“Many peoples across the vastness of the world have yet to realize slavery should not exist,” Ptah said. “One might serve another out of choice, but never out of obligation or force.”
“You would free us then?” I asked.
“You might still be scrutinized,” said Geb, “your love at risk, for as times change, people are not always as accepting of love that does not fit into the molds they believe best.”
“We could give you a new life,” Ra’s doubled voice of varying pitches echoed around us, “one worthy of your love. And though you might find yourselves far from your homeland, and no mortal life could ever be without hardships, we can promise you will find peace and happiness together before you ascend once more to the skies together too. But only if you wish it.”
“That is your choice,” Thoth continued. “Life as you were, death as you are, or new life unknown in another time and place.”
“What say you, Nakht?” Osiris asked.
Nakht glanced once more to me, then back at Osiris.
“I was asked again and again what I would give, what I would do, what I most wanted, but Meryt was the one who died.” He turned fully to face me, speaking to the gods, yes, but also to me.
“He gave up his life to spare mine. It is not my place to choose for us, even if the gods bid it.
Dusk to my dawn, I will follow wherever you lead me, always, as I did when I followed you through the afterlife.
“What do you choose? And whatever the answer, I will be content so long as I am with you.”
As they had earlier, my eyes filled with tears, for there could never be someone I loved as much as I loved my dawn.
“Now you have proven worthy,” Osiris said.
“What?” we both sputtered as we spun to face him.
“Your real final trial was whether you would take choice from your beloved or leave it to him, for true love is selfless. True love would never take choice, but offer it. And in the end, you did.”
“Many times,” Anubis added.
We were both so paralyzed with wonder, we laughed.
Eventually, Nakht asked me again, “What do you choose, Meryt?”
I smiled. I knew which choice Nakht would make, and it was what I wanted too.
“We have read the answer of your heart, Meryt,” Horus said. “You are certain that is the path you wish to tread?”
I should have known they wouldn’t need me to speak it. “Yes, I believe so. It is.” I looked once more to Nakht, for I would never take choice from him either. “Let us see what a new life might bring us, shall we? But only if you agree.”
Nakht smiled just as widely back at me, then looked at the gods in a quick circle. “With Pasht too? I am fairly certain her being here was her way of saying she wishes to join us. Do the gods concur?”
“It seems we must,” Seth spoke at last, and with his voice filling the ethereal chamber, I noticed a slight turn of Horus’s head, as if drawn simply by the sound of him, when otherwise, the gods had all remained still.
“So say you then?” Osiris asked. “You accept your reward?”
Nakht wrapped an arm around me, kissed my cheek, and stroked Pasht’s soft head, as together we faced the gods and answered:
“We do.”