Rise of the Goddess (****All proceeds from the Rise of the Goddess anthology will go to benefit the Elliott Public Library**** Book 1)

by Catherine Stovall

  "You are a fool, and you deserve your foolish humans, just as they deserve you." Her words were more of a sigh than a roar, and she reached out to cover his ethereal hand with her own. She pitied him, and they both realized it at once.

  She sighed again, a gust of wind that swirled over the ocean and lifted enormous waves from the surface. "You need not punish them, or yourself, longer, Uncle. I know you will, no matter, but you need not."

  She pulled away and narrowed her eyes at him again. Her lips pursed once, twice, a third time before she spoke. "This experiment had one great success."

  "And what is that, goddess?

  "It succeeded in convincing me that I have no desire to create a sentient plaything. I would much rather travel the universe, and observe or enjoy what others have crafted and abandoned. Amita Venus has left Atlantis, I hear, and founded a resort of sorts on a planet far from here, and from Atlantis. I believe a visit is warranted, before I continue my travels."

  God began to thank her for her help, but she had already left. He sighed and turned his attention to reclaiming his planet.

  Goddess of My Heart

  Michael Cross

  Love, an unbreakable bond, formed from the threads of life that are weaved through eternity. I was so young that I couldn’t understood the sacrifice Isis had wrought for her husband, the sheer force of her will giving her the strength to cross Egypt for many years in search of him. But as I grew older, I came to understand her heart, even long after my mother had left my side, bequeathing to me the task of avenging my father's death and carrying on in his memory.

  It was to be a celebration of my father’s birth. A day when all of the ancient world came together in one place to share in the joy that my parents, Osiris and Isis, the rulers of all Egypt, had created in their reign. My mother pleaded with my father not to invite his brother, Set, a man with great vision but terrible darkness hidden within his heart. Osiris wanted his family there, and it was a decision that would echo throughout time and see the rebirth of the world that my parents knew.

  “Osiris,” Isis pleaded, knowing it was a futile effort. “I beg you to reconsider.”

  Osiris took his wife's hands and smiled at her. “My dearest love, my brother will be good on this of all days. It is to be a celebration for all. Fear not.”

  “Husband, please!” she said, her heart, full of worry and love.

  “We will not speak of this again, Isis,” he said and dropped her hands. “I want my family with me. You and my brother are all I have in this world. Please do not deny me, my love.” Then he kissed her forehead and turned.

  Isis watched Osiris walk away through the torch-lit hallway. “My husband, I pray my fears are unfounded, but I worry your love for him will end in tragedy.”

  ***

  Love can be blind, and the love my father held for his brother was no different. Isis's words troubled him greatly, but he wanted to believe in the best of Set, a man who had helped him shape Egypt into the greatest kingdom the world has ever seen.

  “Brother,” Osiris said. He looked deep into the bottomless blue eyes of his brother, the same as his. He didn't want to believe that the boy who had saved his life from a crocodile when they were children could turn into a man filled with darkness.

  “My king,” Set responded. He was naked from the waist up, the only adornment he wore was made of gold and lapis lazuli, precious stones set to mark his station as royalty. His head was bald, save a long braid of dark hair that hung far past his waist, where a loin cloth of dark material covered him. His body was perfumed and he was the picture of elegance.

  A deception that fooled many.

  “Welcome, my brother.” Osiris said and embraced him with open arms.

  Isis watched carefully, her body tense and ready for anything. But the moment passed and her brother-in-law tried no deception or betrayal of any kind. She breathed a sigh of relief, but refused to let her guard down. The day was young and she would see the love of her life age with her.

  ***

  Everything was perfect, just as it should be. Everything from the red wine brought from the South, to the food, and the light of Ra shining down—blessing the happy gathering. It was a tribute to Isis's hard work as host and love for her husband. Everything was perfect, or would be—except for one thing.

  He stood there, his dark eyes the same as her husband’s, yet filled with a malice that only she seemed to see. Set. He was Osiris's only surviving relative, yet his existence held more turmoil for her and Egypt than the deepest waters of the Nile. She knew she shouldn't let his presence darken this day of all days, but he was the shadow of an eclipse creeping across the sky.

  He approached her with a confident smile, practiced and honed with years of trickery. His greatest feat had been deceiving his own brother. But she swore that, if she had the power, it would be the only triumph that Set gained over Osiris. Ever vigilant she watched over her husband. She would be his ears where he was deaf—his eyes where he was blind. She would help Ra's light of truth shine where Set tried to stamp it out.

  “Sister,” Set said, bowing his head to her.

  How she hated when he called her that. She inclined her head back to him, giving him a sign of respect they both knew he didn't deserve. It was in that truth that the greatest irony laid. For Isis's magic showed her Set's true nature, but Osiris, his mind full of love for his people and a heart filled with wisdom, seemed oblivious.

  Isis watched Set with her husband. She ran her fingers across her armband, set with precious green stones and intricately carved script, and prayed for guidance and protection.

  ***

  “Brother,” Set announced and raised his golden goblet of wine to the sky. “Of all here, no one could say that he is more proud than I am of what you have done in our Egypt, the kingdom of two suns.”

  Isis tensed, her fear rekindled of what Set might do.

  Osiris sensed none of his wife's concerns as he stood and embraced his brother. “You honor me, my brother,” Osiris said.

  Set faced the room. “Our people of this very Egypt, I have brought with me a gift for my brother and his wife. I know long have they tried to conceive a child.”

  Isis felt her face redden in shame. She had tried for so long to give Osiris an heir, but the gods did not seem to favor them. She had tried spell and potion, but all it ever did was make her ill. Set knew it was a point of pain for her.

  “Behold!” Set gestured to his followers. They carried a long object covered in the whitest linen.

  It was beautiful. A long sarcophagus made of gold and precious stones. The air was filled with a tense excitement. Everyone present, even Isis, felt awe at the power emanating from the sarcophagus.

  Set pointed to gift. “Here, Brother,” he said. “Within this, you will find the secret to having an heir. It has taken me a year to make this for you. It is my gift to you in celebration of your birth.

  Osiris stared at the sarcophagus before he turned, his eyes wet with emotion, to Set. “Brother,” he said. “You do me and my beloved Isis great honor. I admit, I had my doubts, Set. But you have proven me wrong, and I can think of no other person I want by my side, serving our Egypt than you. Truly, this is a golden age for all!”

  Isis felt her blood run cold. Set, devious and full of darkness, had planned well. He knew Osiris's weaknesses. He knew that both Isis and Set had little love for one another. Nothing would appeal to Osiris like his brother, who he yearned to believe in, working toward helping Osiris and Isis conceive a son. If Set blessed them and a son was born, it meant he had given up all ambition for the throne.

  Isis watched her husband's eyes cloud with hope. Her heart sank. She had desperately wanted to give the man she loved a child, but something dark had stopped her. She had long suspected one of Set's followers, but she had never found proof. Set's cruel choice of trickery wounded her deeply. He looked into her eyes with a compassionate smile, but she saw the twisted nature of his soul in the dark recesses. She
tried to hide her emotions, and his smile morphed into one mocking her pain.

  Isis tore her eyes from Set's. She yearned to feel Osiris's arms around her. No, she would not let Set ruin this day for her husband. She would be the perfect wife and protect Osiris from everyone, even his own brother.

  “Husband,” Isis said. “Let us take this golden casket to the temple of Min. Surely he will bless us more strongly there.” She knew she needed time to discern whatever trickery Set was planning. Her only hope was to stall for time.

  Osiris smiled at her. “Fear not, my love. I will not shame our bond. Set has found a way for us to have a child, and I shall not disappoint you or our people.”

  “Osiris,” Isis whispered. “Please, I beg you. Don't—”

  Set stepped in and clapped his brother on the back. “Fear not, Brother. I know in my heart that if anyone can solve this riddle, it is you.” He knew it was a challenge that Osiris could not back down from.

  Osiris smiled at him and nodded, “I thank you for this gift, dear brother.” Then he went to the golden sarcophagus.

  Osiris placed his hands on the golden lid. Biting his lip in concentration, he tried to learn the secret of the mysterious markings. His fingers found the symbols of Ra's light and the secret teachings passed down with the priests of old. Smiling, he nodded and pressed the hieroglyphics in order. The sarcophagus shuddered slightly before opening with a hiss.

  Osiris raised his noble face, proud of his accomplishment, but where he had assumed he would see brotherly love and pride on Set's face, he saw something far darker. He had only a moment to glance at Isis, who looked at him alarmed, fearful for his safety.

  “Behold, Brother,” Set said, smiling sinisterly. “This is why you do not have an heir!” He pulled away the burial shroud to reveal a nest of vipers, the deadliest of all serpents being the Asp. “Their venom has made the love of your life barren. I have mixed their poison with Isis's potions. You shall never have a child. This is my gift to you, along with being buried in the Egypt that should have been mine!”

  Set shoved Osiris before into the sarcophagus he could react and slammed the lid shut after him. Shouts raised alarms and the royal guard came running to defend their ruler.

  Isis heard screaming. She realized as she ran toward her trapped husband that the screams were her own. Time seemed to slow around her. Members of the court ran past her, frightened for their lives as Set's followers attacked and the royal guard fought feverishly to protect their ruler.

  She made it to the fight just as Set and a handful of his followers pushed the golden trap to the side of the banquet room that overlooked the waters of the Nile below.

  “No!” she cried out just as Set pushed the final time, sending the sarcophagus into the waters.

  Isis dived in after the golden casket. She sank into the cold waters of the Nile, struggling to get to her husband inside the sarcophagus. She reached for it with both of her arms, shafts of sunlight sparkling through the water. The currents carried the casket ever deeper, away from her reach. She tried to cry out, but water filled her mouth and lungs. She couldn't breathe, but still she fought to get to her husband. Darkness began to close in around her, but still she reached for the love she knew deep inside she was losing.

  Finally, hands grabbed her and pulled her back to the surface. An alien world devoid of anything that she treasured met her eyes. It seemed colder, harsher. All that she loved had sank into the Nile, leaving her alone and forgotten.

  She lay on the riverbank, coughing out the last of the water in a sob of despair. She wanted to curse the earth and sky, the gods that had brought the man she loved into her life only to tear him away so cruelly. She wanted to throw herself back into the water, to sink again so that she could eternally be with her beloved, but the arms of the royal guards that had saved her were there to block her escape.

  Isis turned and faced Set, who sat atop a horse far down the embankment, anger and pain welling up within her. She smoldered with the desire to burn him alive and visit her pain upon him.

  He smiled, filled malice and cruelty, and void of any warmth or soul. This was Set's true self, unmasked for all to see. But what did it matter now? She watched him laugh, turn and ride away with his followers, triumph all around him. By the laws of Egypt, he would be pharaoh and there was nothing she could do about it. The land and people would face a darkness matched only by the darkness within his soul.

  Isis stood and began to wander the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her face and body wrapped in mourning clothes. The air seemed stale to her, food and drink were without taste. Everywhere she went, she heard tales of the horrors that Set visited upon the people of Egypt, but she knew she could do nothing. At night she dreamed of her husband being torn from her arms, never to see him again. Her spirit and heart were broken.

  One night, she dreamed that her sister, the goddess Nephtys came to her and told her of a land far away where children spoke of a golden sarcophagus with a tree, far larger than anything that they had ever seen, growing out of it. Her hope renewed, she searched the land for her husband's body. But Set was ever watchful and his people followed her. Finally, she found his sarcophagus, but it was stolen by Set and torn apart, scattered across the Egypt that Isis and Osiris had loved so greatly.

  Isis's cry of despair reached the heavens, and again the goddess Nephtys came to her. Together, they searched the land again and found every piece of Osiris. Fearful of Set coming to tear her husband's body away from her again, she knelt and prayed on the riverbank of the great Nile.

  Her tears fell onto the face of her husband's body. The pain within her heart had grown into a chasm of unending torment. She knew she had failed him and their people.

  Her eyes heavy, she slowly fell asleep with her arm draped across the man she loved.

  A quiet sense of peace and tranquility descended onto the embankment. Isis wasn't sure if she was still asleep when she blinked open her eyes, blinded by a brilliant light before her.

  “Isis.”

  She raised a hand to block some of the light and stared into the eyes of man she had given her heart to so many years ago.

  “Husband.” she whispered.

  Osiris smiled at her with all of the love he had for her, which he had carried into the world beyond. “My dearest love. My wife.”

  Fresh tears dripped down Isis's face. She didn't know if the moment with him was real, but it felt true in her heart and that was all that mattered to her. She stood up and walked to the glowing form of her husband. She reached out a hand and he gently took it.

  “I'm so sorry I failed you,” she whispered.

  He smiled at her. “My love, you have never failed me. It was I that failed you. I should have trusted your heart. I dreamt of a perfect Egypt, when all I needed was you by my side.”

  She embraced him and felt the world all around come back to life in the moment. The wind blew warmly across their skin and through the reeds, whistling their song. The waters of the Nile washed over their feet, reminding Isis of the first day they had met.

  “Our time is over, isn't it?” she asked.

  “Only in this world, my love,” Osiris whispered. “We have been brought together again for a short time before I must leave your side. But one day, I swear, we shall be reunited. I promise you our hearts will never again be parted.”

  “Then,” she said, gazing into his eyes, “if this is to be our last moments in this world, love me again as a man loves his wife.” She reached up to her shoulders and slipped off her dress, letting it fall to the earth beneath her. She let herself drink in the moment of Osiris' eyes on her body. How she had missed the way his eyes longingly roamed across her breasts, down to her stomach and long legs.

  He removed the brilliant shimmering garment around his own body and embraced her tightly. He let his lips brush across her skin and felt his body quicken with desire when she moaned at his touch. The moon had risen and the silvery light gave the world around them a new, etherea
l look. He lay her down next to him among the reeds and lost himself in her body as she wrapped her arms and legs around him. Their voices echoed across the embankment as their bodies lost control together.

  ***

  My father disappeared from the world of the living that night. His pure love for my mother and his unending quest to protect and help our Egypt prosper earned him a place among the gods. He became Osiris, Lord of the Underworld. His human body was never seen again, but his heart, true to his word to my mother, never left her side again. It was placed in their only son. In me.

  My mother went on to give birth to me. The gods had blessed her with one final gift under the watchful eyes of my father from the world beyond. She stayed by my side as I grew, teaching and protecting me, being the goddess of my heart. Set pursued us relentlessly, but she was always there to stop him.

  When the day came that my father called her to his side, I knew it was time to reclaim the throne of our Egypt and to protect the gift that my parents had given their lives to give me.

  I took a deep breath and set my shoulders. Even from the land of the dead, I felt the love of my parents. A battle lay before me, one that had begun before I was born, but it would be one that I would finish. With my parents in my heart, I will bring Set's actions before our Lord Ra and Anubis, for him to finally be judged for the evil of his heart. Guided by the threads of love that my parents had woven, their sacrifice would free our Egypt and set right the wrongs of a man who had destroyed so much.

  I stood before a man of shadows and pain, and I saw the truth in his eyes. He was afraid.

  “Hello, Uncle. It's so good to finally meet you.”