The Kid Lich Book 2

The Kid Lich Book 2 4 Will P.

The Ferryman

            After Set and Morrigan had made a new ally in the form of Bakasura, the god decided he would take a nap as he was still tired from butchering all of the museumgoers, museum security guards, and Egyptian police. Fortunately for Set, Morrigan, and Bakasura, they'd have a good deal of time before the Egyptian police could even begin to coordinate with Interpol for finding them. If they were careful, they may be able to evade the police entirely.

            But the god of the desert fell asleep swearing revenge upon the humans; as he'd made the rash decision to hold all of humanity accountable for the sins of only one man. After he'd turned in for the night, he tried to hunt his target in the Du'at. But after Set fell asleep, he found the fates had other plans for him.

            Now that Khonshu and Sobek had already navigated the Twelve Houses of Night safely; it seemed the universe wanted Set to do it as well, since leading the gods during this process had mainly been his duty during his pantheon's heyday. Set, being an Egyptian god, realized he could not afford to make an error here.

            Having his physical body wake up to end the dream early was out of the question; time was fluid in dreams, and he would spend the entire twelve hours attempting to achieve something it originally took two gods and one lich all working together to achieve. Plus, with the Set Animal defeated, he had no body besides the human form to revert back to.

            Set's arrival to the Sun Barge was a little different than Sobek's. Since Sobek's divine weapon doubled as a literal part of the Sun Barge itself; the vessel knew it must arm the god with it in order for it to begin. But Set's job was to give orders and fight monsters; not steer. Which placed him in a rather unique predicament: since the Sun Barge now seemed to expect at least Sobek's presence in order to start the snake pupil shaped papyrus boat moving, it wasn't giving Set any sort of substitute tool.

            "Well this can't be good." The god of the desert said to himself. He too was standing on the banks of a wide river. Set figured his only real option was to climb into the boat, unarmed, and kick off and sail and hope for the best. "Fates help me; I'll surely capsize and die at the rapids. What cruel irony; only a few months out of my prison only to die in this pathetic excuse of a dream." Set climbed aboard the boat. The only thing he had going for him was the Sun Barge's natural glow illuminating his surrounding environment.

            As it was for Sobek and Khonshu, the first hour was smooth sailing, nothing but gentle current. It seems that the hour with the hippopotamus kept its obstacle the same as for the other two gods; but Set thought nothing happened, as the beast had crumbled into dust and been carried along the wind and through the river current, unable to reform.

            "It can't possibly be this easy." Said Set, remembering his time as Ra's faithful lieutenant. But weirdly, it was. At least until the rapids came. The rapids would take Set all the way through to the end of the tenth hour, but he had no staff connecting to a rudder so he could not steer the boat that way at all.

            The Twelve Houses of Night also seemed to have a mind of its own. While it deemed the hippopotamus obstacle expendable, the supersized snake, it seemed, was not. Still in human form, and holding on to the papyrus boat for dear life, praying to no god in particular that he didn't capsize and drown, Set entered the 11th hour. It was good Set survived this much; as he wouldn't have ever woken up on the physical plane if he died here in the dream.

            Set knew the gate was supposed to open automatically once the Sun Barge entered into the 11th hour, but it didn't. Instead, the barge slowed to a crawl and merely thudded against the closed gate. "Well how do I get it to open?" Set's specialty had been in creating a prison built to house gods that could only be opened from the outside. A dual-purpose gate like this, one meant to both let gods in and keep enemy monsters out, was not the sort of puzzle his brain was built to solve.

            "Nothing to do now but wait to wake up, I guess." Set again said to no one in particular. After what felt like thirty minutes, Set was shocked to see another boat had cleared its way through the rapids. In the far distance, it looked simple, and Set could tell a humanoid figure was driving it, but that was all. He had no choice but to wait and greet the stranger.

            As the boat neared, Set saw the figure was wearing nothing but a hooded cloak. When it got to Set, he noticed it was actually just a complete skeleton. "I don't suppose you know how to open this gate?" Set asked the newcomer. "Pay the tax or die." The skeleton said. "What? What tax? I don't have any money!" The skeleton, at least, paused to consider this. If it was a death god, it would know that Set, as an immortal, had a weird set of conditions on his soul that would make it hard for a death god to deal with him.

            "I sense death has struck your heart recently." Was all it said. Set, feeling like he had all the time in the world to get through this gods-be-damned gate, continued the conversation. "Well, yes. Some hateful human killed my sacred beast in a Mortal Combat. I don't suppose its death has anything to do with my current predicament?" The skeleton again paused to consider. It took longer this time.

            "It most certainly does." After a few more beats of silence it said: "I sense you had your divinity split 50/50 between two avatars. The choice is still yours: pay the tax or die." Set considered the ultimatum. He caught the skeleton's reasoning: 50% of his soul would've been in the Set Animal, but since it had already been killed prior to his falling asleep and beginning this dream, this death god would already be in possession of it, therefore it held no bargaining power. That just left the 50% of his soul still in his sleeping body. Set was lucid enough to figure he could wait for Morrigan, or sunlight pouring in through a window, or a radio or loud noise to wake up his body and that would get him out of this dream and back to safety. But the skeleton didn't seem like someone to dodge or antagonize. In fact, Set saw this for what it was: a perfect recruitment opportunity.

            "I don't suppose I could get your name while I consider paying the tax or dying?" The skeleton; also reasoning it had all the time in the world, even though it didn't since 100% of its self was stuck here in the Du'at performing its duties as a death god, meaning it couldn't wait for its physical body to wake up, figured telling this new victim its name wouldn't do anything to hurt his collection of this particular soul.

            "Charon." Was all it said. "Oh like the centaur?" Said Set. This was definitely not the right thing to say. Instantly the skeleton's cloak burst into flame before disappearing entirely; then two bright orange balls of fire lit the empty spaces of its eye sockets. "Make that mistake again and you will die, tax be damned." Set was beginning to realize he was completely at Charon's mercy. Charon was the one in control here, and he had to finish negotiating an alliance with him before his body woke up for whatever reason. "Charon, then. I apologize for my mistake." The fire in Charon's eye sockets dimmed a bit; perhaps the flames were proportional to its mood. "So, listen here friend—" "I'm not your friend." Interrupted Charon. "Ok, fine. Listen anyways. I believe I've already paid your tax. The death of my sacred beast, the Set Animal, should be more than enough for you to spare me my life and return this remaining bit of my soul back to my body so I can wake up and end this dream. Do you find that logic agreeable?" Now the flames in Charon's empty eye sockets had dulled to mere pinpricks; and Set took this as a good sign the god was relaxed and at ease again. "I do."

            "Wonderful! But before you send me on my way, I wanted to ask if you had any interest in world domination." The skeleton's emotions were hard to read, especially with its eyes staying the same all the time now. It considered the dream projection of the man the mortals knew as Yates Viled's sentence. "Perhaps. But I already dominate the rivers of Tartarus. I already ferry the souls of the dead onward to my master's kingdom."

            Not the top dog around here. A spy, then. He'd be very useful as an agent to gather intelligence from the afterlife for us. Set thought to himself. Set could feel the dreamscape collapsing. He was nearly out of time; something was waking up his body. "I only ask that you do not attack or hold hostage myself, a Norse goddess named the Morrigan, and a god named Bakasura. For now that is enough. The details of our alliance can be negotiated later, but I can promise the souls of immortals—the hardest type of soul for you to obtain—if you treat us as allies and stay out of our way!" Charon only had seconds to reply. Set barely caught the reply before his physical body awoke. "We have a compact, then, new friend."

End Pt. 4

- Will P.