“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Amun-Ra said. “There is a place for chaos. Humans understand and appreciate peace only if they know the horrors of war. They can only grow if there is an obstacle to overcome. The cosmos is only balanced if there is a way to experience the bad along with the good.”
“Okay.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Then what went wrong? Why is he locked up?”
Horus seemed unwilling to answer this time and deferred to Amun-Ra, who sucked in a breath. “Seth is imprisoned not because of causing chaos but because he wants to unmake all that we have created.”
“Including us,” Horus added.
“What? Why would he want to do that?”
“He’s jealous,” Horus said pettily. “He wants to rule it all.”
Amun-Ra narrowed his eyes at his nephew. “Seth seems to have determined that the only way to truly bring balance back to the cosmos is to attempt to refill the Waters of Chaos.”
I tilted my head. “But I thought you said they’d been completely drained.”
“They have been,” he answered.
“Then how would he refill them?”
“He’d destroy us all in the hope that when we died, our energies would return to the place they originated from,” Horus said. “The only exception in his mind would be him and his chosen mate, Isis. With Isis at his side and the Waters of Chaos filled with our life energies, he believes that the balance would be restored with one perfect god and one perfect goddess to rule it all.”
“That’s a long shot. Isn’t it?” I asked. “I mean, there’s no guarantee that your life energies would refill the Waters of Chaos, is there?” Horus glanced at Amun-Ra and a long, meaningful look passed between them. “What?” I pressed.
“When Seth made his first move, the attempt that took Osiris’s life, a part of the power that Osiris had been endowed with returned to the Waters and another portion, we are unsure as to how much, remained with the one who murdered him.”
“Seth,” I declared, blowing out a breath.
Amun-Ra nodded. “Isis stopped the process before it was fully realized and used a powerful spell to remake her husband, but he was not the same as he once was. He was lesser somehow. Isis made it clear to all of us then that she wanted no part of Seth’s plan and that she considered him her enemy.”
“Yes, Osiris, her husband, was the first mummy. Right?” I shifted forward in my seat and sipped from my goblet.
“Correct,” Amun-Ra said. “When Isis became pregnant, a thing that was forbidden, there was very little energy in the Waters of Chaos to create a god. I had to bestow their child with some of my powers so that he might live.
“Because of this, we learned that our powers could be freely offered to another. That is how you became a sphinx, after all. Isis gifted her lions with a portion of her power, and now that energy resides in the two of you.”
I folded my arms. “I’m surprised you didn’t punish her for creating the sphinx spell like you did when she tried to save her husband. It’s cruel to keep them apart.”
“Isis misunderstands my intentions. What you see as cruel, I see as necessary. Isis broke the law and a consequence had to follow. Despite the law, I am merciful. They are allowed to see one another. As often as her duties allow, I grant her permission to visit the afterlife.”
“Still, it seems wrong to separate two people who love each other like that.”
Amun-Ra steepled his fingers and considered me. “Sometimes sacrifices must be made and we must give up the thing we want most in the world so that others might live contented and happy. Isn’t that right, Nephew?”
“Wouldn’t he actually be your great-grandson, not a nephew?” I asked.
“The life I instilled within him called for a reevaluation of our relationship,” he said with a frown. “He is actually closer to a son to me now than anything else, but Osiris chafes at the mere suggestion of it, so I took on the role of his uncle instead. Willful though my charge may be.”
Horus righted himself in his chair with as much dignity as he could muster. “I had to grow up quickly and try to protect myself. Seth came after me at a young age,” he said with a yearning look in my direction.