Page 25 of Sett and his King
If he’d been like me, maybe…
“How did you escape him? If he used his power to…to force you to do all those things, how did you defeat him?"
I needed to know. If there was another way that I could destroy Horus I had to find out. The scarab couldn’t be my only hope.
"I was given a gift. It helps me resist his compulsion. I used that gift to steal his power and trap it inside the scarab. I thought I succeeded but…it seems he found a way to escape both my tricks and my blade."
I deflated.
There was no chance I could do that. Last time he’d been defeated it took a god and a special gift to do so. I was just a mortal. A human. There was nothing I could do.
We had to find that scarab. We had to find it no matter what.
I turned away from his gaze and focused on my breathing and the information he’d given me, turning it over and over in my head, but if there was something a mortal witch like me could use in that story, I couldn’t figure it out.
Instead, the more I thought about it, the heavier my eyelids became until I closed my eyes altogether and when I opened them the view outside the windows was entirely different.
"Sorry." I sat up and rubbed my face.
Sett smiled and shook his head.
“Nothing to be sorry about. It’s been a long day,” he said.
I hated this.
Why was he being so nice to me? Why couldn’t he be brutal or rude or anything other than nice? Nice was so much harder to resist.
I needed him out of my life. I needed all gods out of my life. And the only way to do this was to find that scarab.
"You can let us out anywhere here." I turned to the driver and opened the door before he’d even come to a stop.
"We’re far away from the city center," he replied.
I threw cash at him and came out searching for the nearest side street where I could use the skeleton key quickly and quietly.
Everywhere was too busy with too many people coming in and out of buildings.
I sighed and turned to look the other way when I noticed Sett. He was taking in everything around him as if for the first time, although now his expression wasn’t one of wonder but of…sadness maybe.
"Everything okay?" I asked but he ignored me and started walking away from me, wading through people and staring at everything with a scrutinizing expression.
This was…surreal.
Seeing a god walk the streets of the place where he had once been worshipped and revered.
Even after three years I couldn’t grasp the concept of gods being real.
Horus felt like my previous master. Just a criminal kingpin with way too much power.
But Sett?
He didn’t walk around as if he owned everything and everyone. He walked with veneration and even humility.
I didn’t want to believe it, but it was clear. In the way he carried himself, the way he inspected everything, the way he watched people.
“Are you okay?” I asked, catching up with him.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
