The Loyal God

A Guest Thought Dead

Seth's hand trembled in Osiris' grasp. His eyes widened. 

From Neith's place on the ground, where she'd been wrestled earlier during the chaos, her own eyes widened, her pupils shrinking in fear. Even if she had known that Osiris was not truly dead, to see him in person was a terrifying thing, reminding her as to why she had never defied him before the dreadful day when Seth whispered Sekhmet's trickery and lies into her ears. He could be kind and forgiving, but also cruel and ruthless, much like life itself. His temper was short and his sense of internal justice and 'right and wrong' strong, no matter if it was true.

"Osiris...!!!" Isis cried out, throwing herself into the man's arms.

"Isis," he murmured, not removing his hand from around Seth's wrist, but wrapping his free arm around her waist.

"O- Osiris?"

"Oh my..."

"Osiris!!! You're alive!!"

"Oh my! Osiris!"

Came the exclamations of the gods who had once been so hesitant to stand up to the god who trembled before the once-king. They were all pitifully weak traitors who had only the mind to save their own hides in the face of imminent danger. Pathetic and slimy were they who were once so hesitant to raise their voices so.

Filthy liars, thought Neith as she glared weakly at the green-skinned god.

Horus merely looked on in silence, as if silently gloating that he was right and Seth was wrong. It infuriated both gods, though Neith more so that the young man was disrespecting her King in such an underhanded manner.

"H...How are y-you still..." Seth stuttered.

It was the first time Neith had heard him so stumped and baffled. It was odd to see her brother, her King, who had been so calm and, dare she say, collected, during this entire ordeal, with only the odd outburst of rage at being treated in such a way, scared and shaking in the hands of the brother that they had thought to be dead all these years. He was taken from a seething, powerhouse of a god who controlled all his heart desired (and it desired much) and reduced to a shaking, nearly blubbering excuse of a god who had not the strength to fight back. It was a sad and uncomfortable sight to the poor god.

However, something snapped in the god of the desert when he made eye contact with the once-king of the gods. He let out a mighty scream, a battle cry of fear and hatred, and swung his hand at the man holding his wrist captive, a blast of sand soaring up with his movements. Alas, when the smoke and dust cleared, his attack was proven to have been blocked. In Osiris' place stood the sun god, Ra, in all her glory, who had stepped in to protect her children's children's children from their own sibling.

"We're in the middle of your trial right now, Seth. You should uphold your dignity as the supreme ruler of gods until the trial is over," she smirked, only proving to earn a glare from the god of the desert.

"Ra..." Osiris murmured from behind the grandiose god of the sun.

"It's been a while, Osiris. I thought you were dead... I could not be happier to see you alive and well," Ra hummed, not turning around to look at the man and his wife, who was trembling pathetically in his arms.

"Where have you been all this time? A lot has happened in Egypt since you've been gone," Ra smiled, as if she already knew where he'd been and just wanted him to say it out loud.

"I was in Duat. I had no choice but to watch over things from there," Osiris stated, much to Ra's glee, eliciting a smirk from the sun god.

"Osiris..." Isis murmured.

"Long time no see, Seth, Neith," Osiris greeted the two who had taken his life.

Neith's glare was icy, matching the strength of the one her twin shot at the man they'd worked so hard to get rid of, but with the opposite intensity. While Seth was fiery and often unpredictable, Neith was the epitome of the winter spoken about by foreign traders, of the cold temperatures and icy rivers. Seth did not rise from where he'd been thrown, knowing better than to try to rise. Neith herself had been forced up from the ground into a kneeling position, presumably to force her to show some form of twisted respect for the gods who had not the courage to stand against her for hundreds of years.

"Hmm... To think you were able to come back alive from Duat. I guess you really are the god of life. You can even resurrect yourself whenever you want. You must have some kind of special secret?" Ra hummed, clearly just loving all of the chaos exuding from this mockery of a trial.

"You all probably have many questions for me," Osiris spoke to the gathered gods.

"Especially you, Seth, Neith," he addressed the two gods.

Osiris walked over to Seth, two of the guards hauling Neith over to join him.

"So you two had doubts about me coming back to life?" he asked, only to receive silence from both, Seth out of contempt and Neith out of respect to her twin brother.

"If you're that suspicious, I think it'd be best for me to testify in front of everyone here," Osiris huffed.

Ra's smirk grew, much to Neith's horror.

"Ennead and children of Ra. I stand before you all to testify the events that have taken place. Will you grant me the time to do so?" Osiris questioned the assembly of gods.

The gods talked amongst themselves, seemingly debating whether or not to let him. Maat walked forward, with the confidence of someone who truly knew right from wrong.

"Osiris," she greeted.

"Judge Maat," Osiris returned cordially.

"There is no one as important as you in this trial. We've all been waiting for your return. There's no reason for us not to grant you the time. In fact, we want you to stand and testify," she proclaimed.

"Welcome back, Osiris," she concluded her little speech.

Osiris smiled a sickeningly triumphant grin, the likes of which Neith had never seen before in her life, not on the battle field nor in her personal life, so acclimated to having the outcome in her control, like a hunter with its prey, that the slightest bit of slipping power rendered her a mess.