Page 56 of Ra
Azi took the scarab from him and held it in her hand, looking down at its decorative body. “What does The Scarab Prophecy foretell?”
All three men looked at each other as though they weren’t sure who would do the explaining.
Ra took the lead. “There was a time thousands of years after creation, that I and my fellow gods became filled with jealousy toward one another. No matter what we had, and we had a lot, it was never enough. We fought constantly, we battled one another. We tried to influence other gods to join us in our arguments against those we wanted to do away with. We begged Neith to mediate, but what we really wanted was for her to choose our side against whoever it was we wanted gone at the moment. Neith got tired of our pettiness and locked us away in my temple. I suppose we were lucky she didn’t fully destroy us and never look back.”
“If I’d wanted you destroyed, I wouldn’t have given you a way out,” Neith said, and with that comment, making her presence known.
“The prophecy is your way to freedom, and to live again,” Azi said.
“Yes,” Ra said.
“What exactly does it say?” Azi asked.
“The prophecy is three part. It states that things must happen in sequence for all of us to be freed. First, I must beresurrected before any of the other gods. Second, the woman who frees me must willingly give her heart to me. I cannot manipulate or influence her in any way otherwise I negate the prophecy. I can only be successfully resurrected if those things happen in the correct order, without any influence on my part. She must give of her heart of her own free will. Then I can live again, and only then will the others have a chance to follow suit.”
“So, I had to find you, and fall in love with you — without you manipulating me in any way, for you to have a second chance at life,” Azi said. “And I needed this scarab to do it with.”
“Yes,” Ra said.
“That’s only two requirements,” Azi pointed out.
“The third is…” Abasi started.
“…the fact that I’m human, without warning I might add,” Ra said, tossing a resentful glare toward Neith.
“That’s not…” Abasi said, planning to explain what the third part of the prophecy really was.
But Ra stopped him. “Yes! It is,” Ra practically growled, considering removing the man’s head from his body.
“I have to say, I thought the fact that I’d resurrected you as a human with none of your powers was quite amusing. You haven’t complained about that once until now,” Neith said.
“I am not complaining now. I’m simply answering my Azi’s questions,” Ra snapped.
“Well, well. Have we grown up some?” Neith asked, her expression one of surprise.
“This is Azi’s life. My life. I’m pleased you find it so amusing, Neith,” Ra spat.
Neith watched him for a few moments. Finally, she nodded slowly, seemingly answering some unspoken question that only she heard. “Azenath, the idea was that he would have to change so much in order to be worthy of love, that he would earn your heart simply by being who he is. That kind of change is wortha second chance at life. As he was before there was no chance anyone could love him,” Neith said, matter-of-factly. “If he could not become who he needed to be, then he’d be no good for the world.”
“And all of this” Azi said, waving her hands demonstratively around them all, “is why you continued to give me dig after dig, when so many others were competing for the same opportunities. You needed me to find the temple and fulfill the prophecy you created. It had nothing to do with my abilities, my education, my expertise… it was all about your prophecy! Why not just free them yourself? Why drag me into your games?!”
“There is something you must understand, Azenath.”
“God, I hate my name. If there is one thing I am not, it’s belonging to you,” Azi mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief.
“No, you don’t hate your name. You hate being deceived. But I didn’t deceive you. I don’t personally care if you ever free Ra and his cohorts. To my point of view, you are simply very good at your job. And you’re interesting. You’re respectful. You respected my past, and you respected my present, not making me waste hours of my life pretending to speak about things that don’t matter to me. You’re one of the few humans I don’t mind. If you wanted to learn more about our origins, so be it. I gave you the digs you wanted because of you.”
“Cohorts?” Ra asked, his tone fully offended. “I am not a cohort!”
“Aren’t you? Aren’t you and all the gods you felt you needed to create cohorts? All you did was complain and accuse and compete and irritate,” Neith said. “It has been quite peaceful without all of you these years.”
“They are not my gods. And I was not as irritating as they were!”
“You created them. That made them your gods. Perhaps if you’d been the only one I had to contend with, you might nothave been that irritating. Unfortunately, you created more of you than were necessary, and they all wanted, you included, to be me. You can’t be me. I am the only me, and I’m not going anywhere. That means I remain the strongest, always. Forever,” Neith shouted.
“We did not…” he stopped and rethought his intention. “I. I behaved badly. I offer you my sincere apology,” Ra said.
Neith looked at him suspiciously, but didn’t respond.
