A Falcon's Light

Chapter 21

The Duat was definitely not what I was expecting. Well, I didn't know what to expect, but it definitely wasn't this. We came out the other side of the gate to the top of a red stone cliff. The view from the said cliff was astounding. Below us was a literal ocean of wheat and reeds, all a golden brown and swaying in the gentle breeze. Great wooden barges and boats cruised above the reeds like on water. However, from out of the sea of gold rose a beautiful city of stone.

The city was the most beautiful Egyptian city I'd ever seen with a huge palace and many temples and hundreds of houses and fields off in the distance. It was like the capital city I had seen when I went back in time but on a much larger scale. The palace for example was more like hundreds of smaller ones crowded all together.

From our vantage point, we could see far off into the distance. The view of other cities peeked from the curve of the sea. Like seeing a city of skyscrapers from the other side of a sea. This was the world of the dead, they probably needed all of this land for all of them. After all, 3000 years of people died and came here.

"It's beautiful. No wonder the Egyptians cared so much for their afterlife." I gaped. Anubis chuckled at my awe and placed a hand upon my shoulder.

"Yes, all those who have died end up here so long as Ma'at and I allowed them to come here. Criminals, for example, will not be found here. However, I do not know where Father and Osiris will be found. I, myself, have not been here in centuries." Anubis slightly grinned at the view. He must feel quite at home here.

"Ok Nubi, how the hell are we going to find them?" Re asked impatiently.

"The best way is to go over there to that castle and ask whoever lives there if they have seen anything recently." He shrugged.

"Will they recognize their own gods here?" I asked just thinking ahead about the massive crowds that would probably get in our way and shuddered.

"Yes they will recognize us, simply due to our armor, but they will not bother us. They all fear me so they will keep their distance, but they shall still watch, especially since they will not recognize you." He showed off his own long fangs in a cruel grin.

"Then let's go." I smiled.

It took us much longer than I had thought to get to the fringes of the large city. We had traveled on one of the large dirt paths through the golden sea, although getting to the bottom of the huge cliff took up the most of that time. People who had passed us on the path and fell into prostration. Most of them were dressed in simple peasant garb and traveled on foot.

Finally, we had come to the city and, like on the pathway, people fell to the ground, words of prayer falling from their lips. Some were visibly shivering at the sight of the black-cloaked man at my side. His long black sharp ears stood at the top of his head like horns. The others had also shifted to their grace form as soon as we had passed the gate, although I suspect the gate made them.

I felt the eyes of those prostrated around us, on me. I probably stood out more than the other, due to my obvious humanity. I was still one god short of being a full-on goddess. So I was still mostly a human. A human in the presence of several of the most powerful gods stood out like a sore thumb. I, however, paid them no mind.

Soon we came up to the gates of the huge palace. It was beautiful with full-sized twin stone sphinxes standing guard on either side of the gate. Their faces startled me however since they had the face I had come to love. Although it was probably Osiris' face rather than Set's. The spear guards fell to the floor dropping their spears to allow us to pass.

One highly decorated guard bowed low at the waist and said he'd lead us to the 'Gathering', whatever that meant. Anubis, as usual, noticed I was confused and explained that the Gathering, was the group of kings and queens who lived in this one palace. Though not all lived in this particular one.