An Angel Called Eternity

Faetales and Forgotten Stories - Child, God, Dust: The Pure

Tjenkha, Central Nekhtou, the Kikhepis.
The Third Day of the First Moon, 2400 BD.

"Your Magnificence? Please, I apologise for rousing you at such an hour."
Amerys rose, bleary eyed and tired. Why had he been awoken? Was it morning already?
"What? What's happened?"
The servant who roused him was his father's spymaster, responsible for knowing what everyone was doing all the time. Amerys didn't really understand what was happening, nor did he really know the man's name, but that wasn't really important. The man was a servant, a 'functionary', or whatever he called himself. Amerys didn't need to know him properly for many years yet. The man stayed silent, looking at the young boy with pity, and so Amerys tried again.
"It's not my name-day for a few days yet. Why have you woken me up?"
"Come with me, your Magnificence. I'll explain on the way."
The child nodded and made to follow the man, who walked him to a chamber a few rooms down where several slaves were preparing what seemed to be a smaller version of his father's courtly clothes. The spymaster spoke.
"Are they ready yet?
One of the slaves, who seemed to be in charge of his wardrobe, gave a deferential nod.
"Almost, master. A few more moments, I beseech you."
The spymaster nodded and turned to Amerys.
"I am sorry, my young Magnificence. Your mother and father... bad men came in the night. Your divine father ascended to take his place alongside Djaf the Undying after attempting to protect your divine mother. She joined him an hour ago. I am sorry."
Amerys blinked in confusion.
"But... how can father be by Djaf's side if he's the King-of-Kings? He can't be in both places at once, can he?"
The spymaster ran a hand through his black hair, and closed his eyes for a moment. The slaves in the room had gone deathly still, each seemingly too afraid to break the tension in the room. Amerys took a moment to look over the outfit that had been made for him. There were a pair of purple baggy sleeves connected by a length of gold fabric running just under where his neck would be, a pure silver usekh, and a purple linen kilt. To the side was a selection of fine jewellery; bracelets of precious metal, golden earrings, amulets and necklaces of precious stones. His favourite was a pectoral to be attached to a necklace, which was little more than an uncut fist-sized sapphire. He gazed into the sapphire as he was want to do, seeing his reflection cast back at him from its polished surface.
Then the realisation of what the spymaster meant this whole time hit him.
"Wait, mother and father are-"
The spymaster cut him off with a curt word and a nod.
"Yes."
Something about the way he said it, the thing that he said, the fact that his parents were no longer here...
Amerys sniffled, and wiped at his eyes with the sleeves of his nightclothes. The spymaster started, and rushed forwards. He knelt to be able to look Amerys in the eyes, a steely glint in his gaze.
"No your Magnificence, you must not weep. Weeping is most unbecoming for one as divine as yourself."
"But father-"
"IS DEAD. There, I have said it. I tried to keep my words gentle, but if that is the only way you will understand then it is how I shall speak to you. Your father is dead, and I am taking you to sit the throne before one of your cousins tries something stupid. Come."

The walk to the throneroom was conducted in silence. Every now and again they would pass a pair of guards wearing animal-faced helmets who would fall in line behind them, the sounds of their marching feet all that could be heard in the night. Amerys had always enjoyed the artistry in the great corridor leading to the throneroom; he might have been five, almost six, but even he could somewhat appreciate the artwork on the walls and ceiling of the room. Great battles in which Nekhtoudum armies clashed with southern rebels or northern legions, of nomadic bands kneeling before Amenrut the Breaker, of the great monsters slain by Harakhty Dune-Tamer in the days before Djaf had united their people. It was truly a magnificent sight that would captivate him on any other day.
But today was not any other day.
Today his mother and father had been killed, and he was to sit the throne before they had even gone cold. It wasn't fair, why wasn't he allowed to cry?
Because I am divine. I am of the gods, not mortal ken. I am above such displays.
He repeated the words as a mantra in his head, trying to stave off tears. He looked to the walls once more to try and distract himself, but all he could see were bad men where the triumphant were, and father dead at their feet.
He felt fury rising within him.
"Who did it."
The spymaster smiled.
"I knew it would not take long for one as just as yourself to ask that question, your Magnificence. I believe it was a group of nomads whom your father had been feuding with over a proposed plan of his."
Amerys scrunched up his face in confusion.
"What plan?"
"Your father wished to build a monument greater than any other to honour Djaf the Undying, an undertaking the likes of which have never been attempted. He wished to make a statue of one of the mountains that line the Valley of the Gods. Do you know where the Valley of the Gods is, my young Magnificence?"
Amerys shook his head, and the spymaster continued.
"Ah, it is no matter. It seems such a plan is not meant to be anymore."
Amerys started, turning to face the spymaster.
"NO! No! Father died because the bad men didn't want him to build it, so I'll build it for him! To spite them!"
This seemed to give the spymaster pause.
"You... you wish to undertake your father's ambition?"
"Yes. Wait, no. He didn't go far enough. He put Djaf above the other gods, but that was my divine father's only mistake. I will not just build his monument to Djaf; I would build monuments to Abuskhau, Abayomi, Ini-Herit, Tskal, and all the other gods beside them. This valley will live up to its name, by my will. I will not let my father die for nothing."
The spymaster sighed and continued walking.
"If that is your will, your Magnificence. Come, the throne awaits."