Thoth by Alessa Thorn

1

Anubis sat in Thoth’s back garden and looked up at the clouds racing across the darkening sky. It had been the perfect sunny day that made him have an overwhelming urge to curl up in the shade of a palm tree and sleep the day away.

If he was still a jackal, he probably would have.

It had been three weeks since Anubis had ripped himself free from his animal form and back into his god one, and the transition had been as confusing as the new world that he had found himself in.

It’s not like he hadn’t noticed the world changing around him during the last five thousand years. He just hadn’t cared. Life as an animal was all built around survival. Now, he had to fight not to get overwhelmed by information and people talking to him and expecting him to answer back.

Anubis rubbed at the ankh on his chest, and felt the briefest flicker of the Duat before it was gone, leaving him empty. As a jackal, he hadn’t noticed that part of his soul missing. Now it was like a sore tooth that he couldn’t stop tonguing.

There were a few things that hadn’t changed for him; he could still hear as acutely and smelled everything as sharp. The latter skill he was hoping didn’t fail him when it was needed.

He had to find her, and he only had the memory of her scent to go off.

The mysterious woman was an alluring blur of jasmine and darkness and death. She had been the one thing that had stuck inside his jackal brain. He had flashes of her but could hold her face in his mind’s eyes. It was maddening, and he needed help to find her.

“Ah, here you are,” Set said, appearing through the gardens.

Anubis had always found his uncle interesting company because he was a mixture of opposites. Being a god of both war and protection meant that you always wanted him on your side for both reasons.

He was softer in his manner than Anubis remembered, and he knew that Ayla, the pretty doctor with the kind eyes, was the reason for it. A part of Set was finally… at peace.

“Hello Uncle, what are you here to teach me today?” Anubis asked.

Both Thoth and Set had taken it upon themselves to catch him up on the world history, but mostly to try to groom him to function amongst the humans again.

“No lessons. I only wanted to check in on you. See if you feel like talking over some food?” Set replied, a hopeful gleam in his golden eyes.

“Why do I feel like you’re trying to bribe me?” Anubis asked.

“You’re always hungry.” Set’s smile was utterly guileless. “And if I wanted to bribe you, dear nephew, I’d tell you about Asclepius’s treatise on resurrection that I have.”

Anubis raised a black brow. “Oh? And how did you get those?”

“I may have stolen them off Apollo for you as a present,” Set replied. His grin widened. “Why? Are you interested in them?”

Anubis laughed, deep and full. Only Set with have the utter nerve to steal from a psychopath like Apollo.

“You win, Set. Where is the food?” Anubis asked, getting up and stretching his long back. He pulled his black t-shirt on again, trying to remember that clothes were needed when he had company.

Kema, Thoth’s consort, had insisted he didn’t need to bother with clothes unless he really wanted to. Thoth had only given her a look that promised retribution, and told Anubis to stop complaining and wear the damn clothes the house provided for him.

Anubis had enough sense to obey the God of Magic, because you never, ever wanted to cross Thoth. He took petty vendettas to a whole new level.

Kema didn’t seem to have the natural fear of Thoth that every other sane person and god did. Anubis suspected it was of the reasons Thoth loved her so much. They both argued near constantly, but they also always smelled like they were in heat, so in his opinion, their disagreements lacked conviction.

Anubis followed Set inside and found Ayla, Kema and Thoth in the kitchen, already waiting for them. Anubis knew they wanted answers, and he had spent the last few weeks trying to piece his memory back together so that he could give them.

Set had cooked Anubis a lamb tagine he was particularly fond of, and he sat down in between Ayla and Kema, who were both prettier than his surly uncles.

“I hope we aren’t ambushing you too much,” Ayla whispered to him.

“Not at all, I know when Set and Thoth are plotting,” Anubis replied.

Thoth snorted. “We aren’t plotting, but it’s killing me. Who the fuck did this to you? Do you remember?”

“Oh no, something the great scribe doesn’t know, how dreadful,” Anubis said, shooting Kema a wink as she pressed a beer into his hand.

“Put him out of his misery as a favor to me,” she begged with a teasing smile. “He’s driving me crazy.”

Anubis chuckled softly. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but you have to do me a favor afterward.”

“What kind of favor?” Thoth asked.

“I need a woman.”

Set swallowed back his laughter. “After nearly five thousand years, I bet you do.”

“Not like that,” Anubis replied, shaking his head. “I need to find her.”

“How about you tell us why first?” Thoth asked.

Anubis calmly ate a mouthful of food, enjoying watching his uncles squirm a little too much.

“I have spent the last few days trying to get the story straight in my head for you, such as it is. Maybe you will understand a little better what happened than me, Thoth, because of the dark magic involved,” he began. He sipped his beer and hoped that he wouldn’t regret telling them.

* * *

Anubis was roaming in the Field of Reeds, talking to the dead and making sure all of the borders were safe from ambitious demons trying to find their way in.

Pain sliced through his chest and gripped onto his Ka like a hook grabs a fish. Before he could untangle himself from the strange magic, he was yanked from the Afterlife and into the human world.

Around him candles and lanterns burned, the air smelling of incense and blood…and sickness. Anubis stood to his feet, his eyes adjusting. He was in a family shine in a fine house.

“Great One, I am honored by your presence,” a rasping voice said. Anubis turned as a man shuffled forward on crutches. He was not an old man, but his skin was gray and clammy, and eyes burned with fever.

“Why have you summoned me, human?” Anubis demanded.

“In the past week, I have watched my brother die. I have watched my wife and children grow ill. I want them to live. I want to live,” he said, coming closer. “My brother was a great priest. He believed in sacrificing and prayer. Look what that got him.”

Anubis tried to step outside of the circle around him and was instantly knocked back. “And what are you?”

The man smiled weakly. “I am Wahtye, and I am a sorcerer. I don’t believe in sacrificing or prayer. I believe in bargains so I have summoned you to make one, Lord of the Sacred Land.”

“You take me for a djinn, human? I don’t make bargains,” snarled Anubis, his jackal head bursting free atop his shoulders. 

Wahtye held up a small statue of Anubis. “You will heal me and my family from the sickness that plagues us, or I am going to hold your Ka ransom.”

“I do not heal. I do not make bargains. I do not answer to mortals.”

“Very well.” Wahtye began a chant, words Anubis couldn’t follow. The hook in his chest yanked harder and harder. He scratched at himself, trying to free himself from their invisible grasp. He was a god. How did the sorcerer have such power over him?

With a roar that shook the surrounding stone, Anubis morphed into his jackal form and threw himself at the barriers, keeping him inside. He howled against the magic flaying against his skin, but he pushed his way free just as something came loose inside of him. The hooks were gone, and Anubis bolted into the night.

* * *

Anubis had finished his beer. The others were staring at him, their expressions a mix of anger, confusion and pity.

“That’s all I can remember. After that, I was the jackal fighting between my animal consciousness and my god one. I went…mad,” Anubis admitted. “When I got a clear enough handle on who I was, I would search for the sorcerer. I knew I had been summoned to Memphis, but I couldn’t find the house or the shrine or my Ka.”

“And that’s why you were haunting Saqqara,” Thoth said, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “A sorcerer that was powerful enough to summon you, but not strong enough to keep you in a warded circle as a prisoner to bribe you. He would’ve died with your Ka still in his possession.”

“That was my thought, too. Perhaps he thought I would return for it, but I couldn’t find him again.” Anubis ran his hands through his black hair and shut his eyes. “There were times when I felt like I was close. Both the jackal and god would feel some connection near the pyramid. I think that’s why I kept returning to that area.”

“Who is the woman? How does she fit into all of this?” Set asked.

“She is the only thing both jackal and god remembered. She was there, near the place where my Ka is. She smells of jasmine and darkness and death. That’s all I know,” Anubis replied.

“All around that area is archaeological dig sites,” Kema said thoughtfully. “I wonder if she was one of the people working there.”

“I would know her by smell. I just need to get there…”

Ayla laughed softly. “Anubis, you can’t go around sniffing at ladies.”

“Can’t I? Who is going to stop me?” he asked, raising a brow.

“Stop thinking like a dog for a second,” Thoth interrupted. He got up and paced the kitchen. “We need to find your Ka before some enthusiastic archaeologist or treasure hunter does. There are burial sites all throughout that area, it’s like a needle in a haystack. We need to think of a way to get you onto the site without rousing too much suspicion, not only to find this woman of yours. We can use the humans to dig where we need to.”

“Okay, so who usually is at those kinds of sites?” Set asked.

“Archaeologists, diggers and…the money,” Ayla replied, eyes lighting up. “Philanthropists. Rich people who love to throw money at things they are interested in.”

“Yes, Ayla! That’s perfect,” Kema said. Her expression grew deviant, and she looked exactly like her grand-sire, Hermes. “Seems to me, what we need is lots of money and a grand disguise.”