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If he’d been like me, maybe…

“How did you escape him? If he used his power to…to force you to do all those things, how did you defeat him?"

I needed to know. If there was another way that I could destroy Horus I had to find out. The scarab couldn’t be my only hope.

"I was given a gift. It helps me resist his compulsion. I used that gift to steal his power and trap it inside the scarab. I thought I succeeded but…it seems he found a way to escape both my tricks and my blade."

I deflated.

There was no chance I could do that. Last time he’d been defeated it took a god and a special gift to do so. I was just a mortal. A human. There was nothing I could do.

We had to find that scarab. We had to find it no matter what.

I turned away from his gaze and focused on my breathing and the information he’d given me, turning it over and over in my head, but if there was something a mortal witch like me could use in that story, I couldn’t figure it out.

Instead, the more I thought about it, the heavier my eyelids became until I closed my eyes altogether and when I opened them the view outside the windows was entirely different.

"Sorry." I sat up and rubbed my face.

Sett smiled and shook his head.

“Nothing to be sorry about. It’s been a long day,” he said.

I hated this.

Why was he being so nice to me? Why couldn’t he be brutal or rude or anything other than nice? Nice was so much harder to resist.

I needed him out of my life. I needed all gods out of my life. And the only way to do this was to find that scarab.

"You can let us out anywhere here." I turned to the driver and opened the door before he’d even come to a stop.

"We’re far away from the city center," he replied.

I threw cash at him and came out searching for the nearest side street where I could use the skeleton key quickly and quietly.

Everywhere was too busy with too many people coming in and out of buildings.

I sighed and turned to look the other way when I noticed Sett. He was taking in everything around him as if for the first time, although now his expression wasn’t one of wonder but of…sadness maybe.

"Everything okay?" I asked but he ignored me and started walking away from me, wading through people and staring at everything with a scrutinizing expression.

This was…surreal.

Seeing a god walk the streets of the place where he had once been worshipped and revered.

Even after three years I couldn’t grasp the concept of gods being real.

Horus felt like my previous master. Just a criminal kingpin with way too much power.

But Sett?

He didn’t walk around as if he owned everything and everyone. He walked with veneration and even humility.

I didn’t want to believe it, but it was clear. In the way he carried himself, the way he inspected everything, the way he watched people.

“Are you okay?” I asked, catching up with him.

He closed his eyes and sighed.