The Curse in Her Blood

Chapter 21

Robin

We only get a few days of silence to let Set heal before we're expected to join the world of the Gods again. It came to us in the form of a golden summons. A glittering iridescent invitation to a party for that would be taking place that evening. A little last minute if you asked me. But with it came a note saying that the tests will resume the day following the party.

There were two invitations, but I noted that one invitation was addressed to Set and the other was addressed to Set's Mortal Girl and I realized that Set didn't know my name. And neither did any of the other gods.

And if that were true... well... let's just say that was super rude. I had introduced myself a bunch of times, one of them had wanted to whip me and none of them, not even the god who I was helping, knew my name?

Set didn't fully confirm it right away. When I asked if the others knew my name, he had shrugged it off as the Upper World Gods not caring about trivial things such as the names of mortals. But when I asked if he knew my name, he had gone a red color and avoided my eyes.

That right there was enough of an answer.

When he realized I knew the truth he tried to give me some lame excuse. That with everything that had happened with our escape and everything in between well... he had apparently forgotten what it was.

He told me it could easily be righted. All I had to do was tell him my name. And I could. But that wouldn't have been fun, now would it? So I refused to give it to him. I had to teach him a lesson of course.

Oh boy, he didn't like that. It was clear as day that, just like Osiris, Set was used to getting his way. He wasn't as violent about it though, but that was probably because he needed me. Me refusing to obey him, to reason with him, was driving him crazy.

First he tried guessing my name. When that didn't work, he decided to give me a name. He settled on Mortal Girl or Astarte II, but I wouldn't respond to them so that kind of ruined his plan. He had resorted to calling me any name to see if that was the right one, it hadn't worked yet, but it was cute to watch him get frustrated when he was wrong.

His nose would scrunch up and his lips would purse in this cute way. He still wasn't wearing the right face, but from what I could gather it was mostly his face. There must have been something about it that he was changing, something minor. I wasn't sure why he was still doing that, but I wasn't going to say anything. I was having too much fun teasing him.

But it wasn't all fun and games. Other then Set not knowing my name, I had a very real, completely different problem on my hands.

The invitation specifically stated that everyone invited was to bring something hand made as a gift for the birthday goddess and I was at a loss at what I should make.

It wasn't like I had my crochet needles with me and, seeing as the party was later that night, I wouldn't have had time to make anything anyway. That didn't leave me with very many options. So I asked Set what I should do and all the infuriating God did was laugh at me.

Gods did want for paltry offerings like those, they wanted things made of magic and wonder. Gifts carved out of spells and relics. No, I wouldn't be able to make anything worthy of a god by myself.

Then I asked who the birthday girl was and he told me that it was Hathor. Hathor was the goddess of love and fertility. She was supposed to be married to Osiris' son Horus but it was not a happy marriage and they were currently separated, usually separated actually.

She loved a party and she had already stood up for me once, at the initial introduction, so when Set said it would be fine for me to not come with my own gift I didn't believe him. He kept saying that Hathor was more reasonable than the others. That I could put my name on is present and she wouldn't care. She'd know that I wouldn't've been able to make anything to her standards, you know, being a mortal and all.