The House of the Rising Sun

Chapter Twenty-Nine: New Life, and Soon, New Beginnings

Chapter Twenty-Nine: New Life, and Soon, New Beginnings

Selene

The next morning I awoke with butterflies in my stomach. Alexander is back. I was so happy. I had to make an offering to the gods; there was no doubt about it. I got up and ransacked my room for something suitable. That was my mission for today, to go to the temple and make an offering to Khepri, for letting us borrow his temple, Anubis, for watching over us, and Hathor, the goddess of love, for, well, love. I went to a chest I had, where I kept my jewelry and opened it up. I found the bracelet of the goddess Sekhmet that Amenemhet had given me for my birthday a few years ago. I couldn’t give that up, nor the scarab necklace Sosigenes had given me the same day. I put those on, however.

I dug further into the chest and found the golden ankh necklace Sosigenes had gotten me from…Thebes, was it? The gods loved ankhs. They always carried them. It was their symbol, after all, the symbol of everlasting life. This would make a good offering, I thought. I decided on one offering per god. I drew out a golden bracelet that depicted Hathor’s horns and the sun disk and set that aside with the ankh. One more. For Khepri. I reached in again. My fingers met the cool, smooth surface of a pendant and I drew it out. It was a golden ostrich feather—Ma’at’s Feather of Truth. I had my three sacrifices ready and I wrapped them up in a white cloth to take them to the temple.

I closed the chest, dressed in a pleated linen gown, lined my eyes with kohl, grabbed the bundled items, and walked to the main hall.

“Sosigenes, I’m going to go to the Temple of Ra,” I announced. He was writing, but he turned to me to say something. Suddenly, however, he broke out into a fit of coughing. “Holy Isis, Sosigenes, are you okay?” I demanded, dropping the offerings on the ground and rushing to his side. The coughing slowed and stopped and Sosigenes was able to regain his breath.

“I am getting sick,” he said. “I’m okay, though, my dear. Just a little sickness.”

“I hope you’ll get better soon then,” I replied warily. He shook his head and smiled.

“Never mind me, Selene. Don’t be long at the temple.”

“I’ll get you some honey for your throat,” I offered.

“Thank you.”

I picked up my offerings from the floor and I left Sosigenes, who started another coughing fit. Honey cures everything, I thought. Maybe all he has is just a dry throat.

I was worrying for Sosigenes the whole way to the Temple of Ra. I tried to take my mind off of it by thinking about Alexander and our night in the temple yesterday. I hoped the gods didn’t think we had desecrated their space by kissing in the temple.

I reached the entrance to the House of Ra, where I planned to make my offering. To be honest, I didn’t know if the priests would accept offerings to Anubis and Hathor, since this was the Temple of Ra, but I had to take a chance, for the gods.

I walked up the steps and entered the temple. There were many priests, which I was grateful for.

“Excuse me,” I said, getting the attention of the priest closest to me. He was an old, short, chubby man with a leopard print robe and absolutely no hair on his body. That was required for a priest, in order to be pure for the gods.

“Yes?”

“I would like to make an offering to the gods Khepri, Hathor, and Anubis.” I opened up the white cloth and showed the priests the jewelry. His eyes lit up.

“I can give the offerings to all three gods, even though this is not the temple of Hathor nor Anubis.”

“Thank you,” I smiled.