That Long Wandering Road

Eventually, the raft found itself crashing up against a shoreline, and from that shoreline on came a large temple. Gilda nervously swallowed as she looked up at the temple walls, carved in pure obsidian. “...Wow, someone likes their black. Emo much?” she remarked with a small chuckle.

“I’d avoid you disrespecting Anubis’ hall,” Horus muttered. “Ra knows the dog gets all huffy as it is these days with Osiris gone. This used to be his hall, you know? Before one day, he suddenly just… vanished for lack of a better word, leaving the young -by god standards anyways- Anubis to tend to Ammit the Devourer and the Scales.”

“...Yeah, I’d suppose I’d be more than a little cheesed off if my boss suddenly decided to go on vacation without warning and just leave me his job of all things.” Gilda said as the two strode forwards into the hall, green flames suddenly igniting without warning on either side of them in twin braziers.

“It’s… more complicated than that,” Horus said trying not to meet Gilda’s eyes. “It wasn’t like you said, Osiris didn’t suddenly just decide he was tired of his job and wanted to pass it on to someone else. It was… well, one day he was here going about his business on the throne, judging where souls went and if Ammit should devour them and the next? Gone, no traces left behind.”

Gilda studied her ‘host’s’ tone. He sounded… was that sadness she heard in his tone? No, it couldn’t possibly have been. The Horus she knew was cocky beyond belief, arrogant even. This one was like a completely different person… er, bird. But then again, spending the time around him as she had been, it had given her new perspective on certain gods and how they worked.

“Who was he to you?” Gilda asked knowing she was probably treading on dangerous waters. “I mean… who was he to you? Brother, friend? Something more?”

“The stories conflict. Gods you see, well… we end up repeating familiar cycles in different bodies. It’s like we cannot learn any better. Once, Osiris was a loving father. The next cycle he was a brother for me to fight alongside, my best friend. Our bodies, or at least some of our memories are… recycled I’d guess you’d call it for the next generation,” Horus explained. “Now, I don’t know if it’s like this for the other pantheons out there, though it would certainly explain a lot with the ones like the Aztecs’... But for us? The way we’re set up, it’s almost impossible for us to learn something, retain it for the next lifetime, and then go on and use that knowledge. Take me and Set, or Seth or whatever you want to call him. If we could learn from our conflicts we could probably change for the better, move on and be unstoppable.”

“But-”

“I’m getting there,” Horus said holding up a talon. “Now, yes, you can wonder why I remember some bits and not others. There’s like a mental ‘block’ on certain parts of my memory. Hurts to even think about my past incarnations. I suspect it’s there for a reason. Think about it,” he continued looking Gilda dead in the eye. “If you could remember everyone who you ever were, it would drive you insane would it not?”

Gilda could only nod and whisper out a faint: “...I… I suppose…”

“Now imagine what it would be like for us Gods, who are eclectic beyond comprehension and at times utterly indescribable. I’m talking about you know who, that big guy. Him. Different religion, yes but you get my point yes? What if He had other incarnations, what if He remembered them?”

“...Now we’re just delving into the metaphysical,” Gilda muttered. “But then again, aren’t all Gods in a way part of the metaphysical?”

“...Yeah, let’s not even go there,” Horus said as the halls became pitch black, illuminated only by hieroglyphs. Gilda found herself reaching out towards one of them. Horus shouted out a warning. “Wait, don’t!”

Gilda looked anyways. She saw a burned scarred land, suddenly becoming filled with life as glowing figures -utterly indescribable- strode over the land. She suddenly felt a tug and was pulled back into the Hall. “What… What was that?” Gilda asked taking a deep shuddering breath.

“The very beginnings of time, where we gods walked the earth in our purest of forms. If you had spent any longer gazing into that… I shudder to think what might have happened,” Horus said. “Come along now, best not to dwell in this place for too long.”

“This place?” Gilda asked. “What is… this place?”

“All of Egypt’s history, thousands upon thousands of years. The Greeks and Norse like to think they’re ancient? We came first, before they were even babes in the womb.” Horus said and not for the first time it set in upon Gilda on just how truly ancient Egypt was. Centuries passed and all but in the blink of an eye. The golden ages of Egypt, then the fall. The rise of the House of Life, the greatest of sorcerers. Gilda had to stop and blink just for a brief moment when she saw a man dressed in robes, staff in hand with a serpent by his side in a great hall. Her eyes widened. Was that… No, it couldn’t have been.

“Yes, that was exactly who you thought it was,” Horus confirmed with a nod. “Moses as you call him. The only foreigner to defeat the House in a duel. Come now, long ways to go yet. Hopefully, Anubis can be reasoned with…”

“What, we can’t just explain why we’re here?” Gilda asked. “I mean, surely your word will go a long way…”

“Maybe, maybe not. Like it or not, your Twilight is dead. And despite the circumstances of her demise, bringing her up from the land of the dead would go against the natural order. And Anubis does love his order…”

“Wonderful…”

“You must understand, the natural order is paramount. There was once this fellow in Greece, Sisyphus. Chained up their death god under his bed just so he could cheat death. As a consequence… disaster. Nobody died, not even in wars. Can you imagine the entire cycle of life and death set off just so? Even bringing one person… er, dragon back from the dead may have dire repercussions.”

Gilda said nothing.

“Just something to think about,” Horus said before his eyes narrowed. “He’s here.”

And the shadows began to gather, as a massive jackal rose up out of the floor...