“We must help him!” I yelled. While Ra dodged and remained untouched, the blows seemed to be coming closer to landing. The sun god had yet to go on the offensive, so frantic and constant were Apophis's attacks.
“On my back,” Sokar said. His lively blue wings tensed, spreading wide as he flexed them.
I climbed on top of him and Hesiod nodded at me with a confidence so supreme that it bested even my own assured belief. Sokar tensed his wings again and bent his knees before catapulting into the air. We soared towards the two all-powerful beings, their game of cat and mouse continuing. The wind walloped me with waves of air, and I crouched there with one arm holding Sokar’s feathers and the other raised with the glow of wolf fire shining bright.
Sokar flew straight up into the air at such a vertical angle that my body dangled and flapped like a flag, but I managed to hold on. Apophis either didn’t notice us or didn’t care. I was coal! I would scorch the earth in my flame! We ascended directly above to such a height that Apophis couldn’t reach us, and then we stopped; Sokar hovered there with a couple broad flaps of his wings.
Sokar’s loaded-up hovering forced time into a pinpoint of eternity. I glared down over his shoulder, the blue feathers popping into my eyesight. Up this high and in the heat of a battle born from forever, the scent of sulfur gave way to frankincense and myrrh. Holy smells filled my attuned senses. It was as though the Lord was rewarding my valor with the smell of beauty. With my senses alight, I bent forward as Sokar divebombed Apophis. I raised my flaming fist and leapt from his back as the Chaos Serpent’s head jutted close by. I slammed my fist into the giant’s head, a flower of fire blooming out in bright red and covering us both in a hazy, scarlet cloud. I clutched Apophis’s house-sized scales as the beast continued unheeded. Sokar’s dive bomb had failed, and as I clung there, I heard the sharp crunch of bones and a piercing cry of desperation. Sokar had been eaten like a harmless pigeon. I screamed.
I pulled myself up the scales like a ladder, propelling my body up the long steps. I was forced to stop my ascension every time Apophis whipped its head at Ra. Still, I was getting closer. I leapt higher and grabbed the upward slope of skull and clung tight. This high up and now atop Apophis’s head, I stopped in awe at Ra’s splendor. He was truly of the solar nature. A noble soul, a spirit of pure being and power! His light was so blinding yet alluring that even though it pained me to look at, I still couldn’t stop myself from doing so.
What was I to do? My punch hadn’t done any harm and the beast still hadn’t acknowledged my being on its back. Yet Ra saw me, and as he dodged another whip of the head and I clung there tight, he threw me his scepter in a whir of white light. I stretched out my hand and snatched it, sliding downwards but still clinging on. Ra pointed at his shoulder and then at me before flashing away to dodge another attack.
I glanced at my shoulder and at the corrupt wound. Its blackness was particularly foul at the moment, and my skin there was bubbling black like a tarpit. I took the scepter and pierced the flesh of my shoulder with the golden weapon. The spear burst the black like a needle popping a blister free of puss. I then sliced at my palms with the sharp end, and at last the numb rot of my corruption had gone. The spear of bright light had darkened into one of black shadow. I gripped the now chaotic and corrupt spear in hand, and let it glow red in the fire of my wolf light as I pulled myself on top of Apophis’s head. My red and blue light joined with the darkened spear as I thrust it downwards into Apophis’s head. The serpent was stunned and I pushed in harder, my Hyperborean light pouring into the spear even brighter. With Apophis unable to move, Ra finally jumped in on the opening and with his ankh held out, he hovered in front of the beast’s eyes.
Lord of chaos, this is an ordered sphere
My one eye light, the other a tear
Back to nothingness you will forever go
An arrival is to leave, and to leave is to know
His chant carried the magic of a spell—his voice deep in pitch and tone. Apophis screeched and its body shook as I clung there desperately. The screeching pitched higher and the ancient Chaos Serpent collapsed in a puff of ash. With my perch evaporated, Ra came to me and grabbed my hand, holding me aloft. His grasp held the heat of a thousand suns, yet his touch exuded the gentle meekness of one knowing and controlling his power with a soothing warmth that could sear any in an instant, if he so desired.
“Come, we go to my temple in the sky,” he said, his light threatening to consume my own with its brilliance.
“Where is my heart to be weighed? Has all custom fallen from favor?” I said.
“With Apophis finished and Sokar’s sacrifice complete, the scales survive in the one last place here untouched by the gloom of beingless being that is of the forgotten.”
“Then so be it. Hesiod must come,” I said.
“Of course.”
A flash of light singed my sight gold, and then as the effulgence cleared, I found myself faced with impossible splendor. A pale palace with colorful religious artwork covering its walls stood before me. Nine tall obelisks were lined up in front of and away from the palace, each several stories high. They were made of intricately carved sandstone and dusted in a pristine glow of golden-white.
I stood there in a stupor, still clinging to Ra’s hand. Hesiod stood off by himself, clutching at his robe for dear life. I nodded at the poet but he didn’t notice. I let go of Ra’s warm hand and walked ahead. Ra glided in front of me and up to the two enormous silver doors of the temple. A large greyhound was carved into the silver on one side and a cat on the other. As Ra pushed the doors open and I stepped in with Hesiod close behind, I at long last faced the elusive scale that would weigh my heart. The scale was large and silver, standing three times my size. It had a feather on one side with the other empty. Two gods stood beside it.
“This is Maat and Anubis,” Ra said as his light dulled to a less consuming glow.
Maat looked like a normal Egyptian woman. She wore a plain white robe and sported a billowing feathered headdress atop her apple-shaped head. Anubis on the other hand had the head of a black dog with long, pointed ears, and a fit human body with golden-brown skin clothed only in a black waistcloth.
“We will weigh your heart,” Maat said, her body thin and tiny. She looked like a young boy with her youthful, flat features.
“Your heart weighed against her white feather,” Anubis said, gesturing at Maat and then at the feather. “If it is the same weight or lighter, then you are of virtue and may continue on the path of the sun.”
“No, only lighter, Anubis. He is not passing into our decayed, forgotten realm. He seeks to earn the right of my setting sun.” Ra’s glorious eyes shined at the dog-headed god, who blinked with a cold black stare. His ears wilted and he bowed his head, folding his arms under the heat of Ra’s gaze.
“What happens if he fails the test? I will not allow a devouring to take place,” Hesiod said, walking in front of me.
“I’ll kill the lot of them. I’ve been devoured enough for an eternity,” I said. Blank stares from the gods followed and Hesiod looked at me confused. “You’re the ones who brought me here. I don’t want to dally in this decrepit land of the dead.”
“You speak to Ra, the self-created and author of being. I will swallow your tongue!” Anubis growled with his jaw unhinged and his black tongue lolling out from underneath dripping white fangs.
“I know of a God who might find offense at such blasphemy; the same God who you fled from, hiding in the shadows of a powerless past. Connect yourself to that ancient council!” Hesiod said.
I shook my head and crossed my arms. Where was Christ in all of this? Despite His silence, I knew Him to be true. I thought back to Wyrd’s words about the Divine Council. To build a mythical future, the foundation had to be made up of a heroic and great past. Perhaps this was the way to pay the price of return. The redemption of a court long since dismissed.
I peered at each of these beings and kept my gaze and voice level. �
��I was told that I had been sent here to be found worthy of eternal weight and continue on my necessary path. But if Ra wants to cede his throne of light to me, then that is well and good. I did not ask for it, but I will take it now that it is offered. This weighing is a sham. I know I am worthy.”
“Enough!” Maat shouted.
Her feathered headdress wobbled as she stepped towards me. Slow to react and in shock from the wrath and might of her shout, I was unable to stop her hand as it shot forward like a viper. I gasped, twitching and tremoring as her hand ghosted through my flesh and came back out with my beating heart. It was a dark, reddish-blue, and continued pumping as if still within me.
I could neither speak nor move. It was as if time refused to budge until the scale decided whether I should live or not. Yet this scale was my tether to eternity and there was no stepping free from this precipice. So I watched, spasming there, impaled by time. Maat placed my heart on the scale and it didn’t move an inch. But then my heart shook, flopping back and forth like a dying fish. The scale suddenly dropped on the side of my heart, bending under the weight and straining until it busted apart, my heart’s weight toppling the entire thing over.
Maat looked petrified, staring at me as if I were Apophis himself. “Never... to be such a beast. That powerful and evil... never have I seen such weight.” She pointed a long finger at me. “You have been jud—.” She was cut off as Ra stepped within our closed bubble of time, shattering it as we returned to the present.
I gasped and collapsed as Ra tried and failed to lift my fallen heart. It was too heavy, even for him. He yelled, “Back! Anubis and Maat, do not intervene. This is something else, something foul. Back!” His eyes flashed red as Anubis and Maat stepped away in horror.
Hesiod knelt to the ground and held me, trying to keep me steady. But I was a man without a heart, and as my brain darkened and my blood ran cold, something occurred inside. Not the glowing light of Hyperborea that had saved me so many times before. No... this was the venomous darkness of Sobek’s corruption. The venom I’d thought cleansed after my rebirth at the pyramid. But it had hidden within my bones, finding refuge in my dark. Ra’s spear apparently hadn’t purified everything after all. The reinvigorated darkness filled my vacant chest and I gasped as I went rigid, flinging up to my feet as if yanked by a rope.
“His eyes, his eyes are black!” Maat shouted from the corner, her back pressed against the wall.
I ignored her and went to pick up my heart that Ra still desperately pawed at. Why did I need such a mortal organ? Why did I, slayer of gods, Titans, and primordial beings need such an anchor dragging me down? I snarled and lifted my bare foot. My body was awash with black and covered in inky tendrils that waved around and poured free like rivers of liquid shadow. I stomped my foot down at my heart but Ra flung me back with a burst of sunlight. Hesiod ran behind me and held me tight, pinning my arms to my sides as I growled, my shadowy veins writhing wildly through my body.
“I don’t need mortality anchoring me to weakness!” I screamed.
“Remember my anvil,” Hesiod whispered, his voice a soothing balm of warmth to my cold dark. “It pulled me into darkness, my attempt at immortality failed. But your heart is an anchor to life. Life! If to live is weakness then call me weak. To live one has to die. These gods, they are not alive as you and I. Is there a god that truly lived as us? Is there a god that truly died as us? Not here. Not here! You Roman, have you forgotten your birthright?” I wept under the force of such reason and light as he continued, “Take up your suffering heart and carry that weight into greatness.”
He let me go and my mind clawed inside itself, trying to pull back the shroud of darkness consuming me. Black veins rippled through my skin, mirroring the storm within my soul. My vision flashed black then clear, back and forth as I stumbled to my heart. I reached down, Ra watching me with a terrible fear that was unbecoming in those powerful eyes. Holding my cold, slow-beating heart in my hand, I had to grasp my forearm with the other to prevent myself from squeezing and choking the life out from it. I pushed my arm towards my chest and thrust it at my body. My heart was sucked inwards as a black whirlpool mixed with bright white light drowned it into my flesh.
My sight vanished and I could only see within. The sky animals from the pyramid gathered together into a battalion of wild light. Across the surface of my whirlpooled soul, a herd of black wildebeests grazed on my essence. They dripped disease and rot as if dead and raised as corpses. Their incessant and heretical feasting on the river of my soul had corrupted the stream.
My creatures of light, those magnificent beasts, thundered into and through the streams of my spirit, their light purging the pollution as they passed. The wildebeests raised their heads at the approaching light. They bellowed fearfully, their voices as crooked and stooped as an old scythe. They herded together and cowered. They hurried away in a sprint, massing together into an amorphous blob of darkness.
They kept running, looking for a cliff to hurl themselves off of instead of facing the truth of light. My immaculate sky beasts overtook them and ripped through their blob of darkness. In an explosion of blue and red light, I breathed in pure air and opened my eyes. Hesiod and Ra stared down at me. Hesiod wrung his hand with the cloth of his robe. Ra’s countenance was paled and weak with worry. Hesiod gingerly held his arm out and I grabbed the extended hand happily and embraced my brother.
“Sobek’s filth had festered deeper than I thought possible.” Ra rubbed his beak and watched me with hesitance. “I do not need to weigh your heart to understand your worth. But... I fear that darkness will always remain within you. It can be used rightly and effectively, as you saw when you pierced Apophis. But it needs to always surrender to your light of glory. All mortals have such a shadow lurking, but none so strong.” He rubbed his eyes and sighed. “Gods of darkness, those gods that you mortals so desperately cling to, gods of your own making—they and you together override the good in your nature and you succumb to the nothingness. You become an avatar of unbeing, a herd beast of burden for nothing but yourself. By being so selfish, you fit into the herd better than you’d ever know, as the herd animal cares only for his own safety, unworried if another beast in his herd gets eaten as long as it is not he. Use your chthonic force but always in submission to your Hyperborean light. That is a power greater than the scale of the dead. It is a power that when balanced in truth cannot be judged. It overcomes judgement.”
“I think... yes, I understand.” My voice faltered, wavering with weakness as Hesiod steadied me, helping me remain upright. I gently brushed him away and stood straight. “Now what?”
“The Indestructibles,” Maat whispered from her corner in the room.
“Yes, you must,” Anubis added, his voice meek and his disdain for me humbled in the face of such force.
“They are right. We brought you here, Apollo’s solar wisdom informing us all, so you might head north.” Ra nodded and gazed his eternal eyes deeply into mine. “Through the light of the eternal northern sky, its stars blinking portals, there the great pharaohs go. There, as you will see, there all the heroes go, though the name differs. You must go to this realm. Remember that all is not as it once was. You might be led astray but this is necessary. The crumbling of myth means nothing is certain. Keep your eyes open and your head in the light of the sun. You now will ascend one step higher to the world above and to the promised land ahead. It is what all of Egypt’s pyramids pointed at, perfectly primed for the greatest pharaohs to ascend.”
“And how can I go there?” I asked, my strength returning at the thought of such a heroic realm of glory and greatness—such promise and purpose.
“My light.” Ra bowed his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “I was and am fading fast, and these remaining embers of mine will only be kept aflame in your eternal glow.”
“Yes,” Hesiod said, “Yes, it must be so.”
“It mustn't be anything, but if you are willing, then who am I to reject such a worthy gift?
I will not let you go forgotten into the void. I will carry your torch, not letting it burn itself out.”
“Then you are as great as we’d all thought and hoped.” He looked up and raised his hands to his eyes. Plucking them out, he squeezed them both until they burst and golden embers floated free. The embers were swallowed into the green forests of my irises, invisible yet tangible within.
Ra’s eye sockets were two blazing furnaces and he tensed as light and warmth poured free from his empty eyes. His light filled my body with a wash of fire and when it subsided, Ra was no more. The sun god had finally set for good. Hesiod grabbed my hand. Anubis and Maat bowed in deference, prostrate on their knees. With the light of Ra as my guide, I willed my being towards the heroic north. And in the warm blaze of my mighty light, Hesiod embraced me and I held my brother with a love greater than the glow of sunlight within. We flew north and spread our spirits, soaring like winged branches of a growing tree.
***
Cerberus Lives!
"Awake, oh Cerberus. Awake, oh loyal guardian of death,” I said to the sleeping giant.
To awaken him from the slumber of Hypnos, a sacred song would have to be sung. A sacred song that only I, the golden god of musicians, could sing. I was this hound’s only waking sound. Who else could bring him back from the silence of sleep? My golden lyre glimmered into my hand from out of the air and extended its shining rays over the slumbering beast. I strummed, the notes gentle and pure, bringing a twitch to his ear.
Not Orpheus, my notes awaken even he
Not Orpheus, but Apollo sings for thee
This sleep of yours, not from fickle fitness
This sleep of yours, closed eyes to unwitness
Cerberus Slept Page 11