Castiel
Castiel had welcomed the familiar feeling of being on a horse. They remembered the first time they ever rode one. Back in Russia, where they were born, their mother had helped them onto an old stallion and they had enjoyed riding through the fields by their home, not having a care in the world.
Of course, this was all before they had come to America, before they had become involved in the war and this gods-damned camp.
Focus, Cas. Be angry later. Don’t fall off the pegasus now.
“I trust you know what to do when you arrive?” Chiron had asked before they left. They had rolled their eyes. They and Alexis had been over this a dozen times already with the centaur and him treating them like they were five had been pushing it with what they were willing to take from him.
“Yes, horse-brain,” they had sighed, turning to Alexis. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” she had replied. And with that, the two of them had soared into the cloudy blue sky and towards the city.
Following a brief and weird interaction with Nico, and possibly the worst magical journey Castiel had ever taken, they were walking into the Cairo Airport.
Chiron had given them what he told them was a magician’s wand to open the entrance. Castiel and Alexis agreed that it looked like a boomerang, not a wand. They had been instructed to find the sphinx with hieroglyphs on its cheeks and tap its feet of it with the wand. Supposedly, it was an entrance reserved for the Greek camp leader.
What the centaur had not warned them about was the fact that there were seventy-billion sphinxes in the airport.
“Are we walking in circles?” Alexis asked, annoyed. “Because I know we’ve seen this exact sphinx before.”
The statue in question had a particular cleft in its left eyebrow, and Castiel agreed that it looked shockingly familiar.
“One more turn. Just one more.” Alexis marched off toward the next intersection. Castiel scrambled to catch up.
“Do you think he forgot to tell us a step? ‘Cause this feels stupid.” Cas sighed, squinting at the signs on the walls. They’d read a few books in Arabic during their long stay at Valhalla, but it was increasingly clear that it hadn’t stuck.
Alexis turned right, and they immediately saw another sphinx. Upon closer examination, however, this one was also devoid of hieroglyphs.
“Fucking hell.” Castiel’s voice grew dark. They were getting tired of this. They had been walking for over an hour. They hadn’t found the sphinx. They were tired, hungry, and pissed at Chiron.
“There has to be something we’re not doing,” Alexis said. She tapped her foot anxiously. “There has to be. He must have skipped a step. Can I see the wand?”
“Oh, yeah, the ‘magic wand.’” Cas hissed, dropping their backpack to search for the stick. “It’s magic, totally not a fucking boomerang that makes us look stupid. Did I mention it’s definitely magic?”
“Can you calm down, please? I’m as frustrated as you are but we need to figure something out,” Alexis huffed. “We can’t just sit and complain, we have to find a solution.”
“Jesus, ok, I get it. I’ll stop complaining.” Cas pulled the boomerang out of their bag angrily. “Not like this is the most stupid mission ever and the horse definitely sent us here to fail on purpose.”
“Hey, Cas, can we try for a more positive attitude? The pissy mood is really not helpful.”
Alexis reached for the wand, but Cas stood up, holding the wand down at their side. Their anger boiled over.
“Oh, I’m sorry, am I bothering you? I’ll just keep my mouth shut then, we can keep wandering around this hellhole for hours and see what happens. You know, maybe we should just ask this sphinx really nicely, see if it likes our positive fucking attitude.” Cas turned to the sphinx. “Please, holy sphinx, can’t you see how super fucking positive we are? Can we please enter your secret base that totally isn’t made up?”
A glow appeared on the sphinx’s cheeks. After a moment of stunned silence, Alexis grabbed the wand from Castiel’s limp hand and tapped the foot of the sphinx.
The pedestal under the sphinx opened into a small door.
“See? Positive attitude.” Alexis ducked into the opening.
Castiel’s face burned. Their anger evaporated, leaving them feeling like shit. Alexis hadn’t deserved any of that.
“Ok then,” they sighed, following Alexis underground.
After a long, dark tunnel illuminated by the glow of Alexis’ new sword, they emerged into an alleyway. At the end of the alleyway, they entered onto the main street of the First Nome.
Castiel couldn’t help but marvel at the vast expanse of buildings and beautiful architecture. Sure, they remembered buildings from the 1800s to be breathtaking, but the Egyptian underground was at a whole new level. Along the street walked people who were obviously magicians. One woman strolled by with what looked like a leopard on a leash. Two more men were duelling, standing inside odd-looking chalk circles.
“Woah,” Alexis breathed. Woah was right.
They walked along the street, dodging pushy merchants and dangerous animals. In the distance was their destination - a massive hall with a large, open entryway.
“Sorry about earlier,” Castiel said once they had moved away from most of the other people.
“Whatever. Just try to be a little less aggressive next time?”
“Sure. I just hate that horse,” Cas growled.
Alexis sighed. “Look, I get that you don’t love him, but maybe we can let it rest? We don’t know many other people with as much information as he has.”
Unfortunately true. How the horse knew so much was beyond Castiel. Before they could continue the conversation, they entered the massive hall.
The Hall of Ages was one word. Magnificent. Okay, maybe two words. Magnificent; and creepy. Swimming around them in clouds of light were images of what Castiel assumed to be images from Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian Era, as people nowadays called it. So many faces among the memories lined from the floor to the ceiling. Faces of men in battle, women being burned at the stake, children crying as their parents were taken from them.
They reached the end of the hallway at last and found a man in long, draping linen robes. He had dark skin and black braids which were woven with gold beads at the ends. He wore a fedora and dark, round sunglasses. He was studying an array of glowing hieroglyphs that lay at his feet.
“Amos Kane?” Alexis called as they drew nearer. He glanced up at the sound of his name.
“That’s me,” he said warily.
“My name is Alexis Ricci, and this is Castiel Holland. May we have a word?”
**
“So. You two are from the 1860s, you both are magically not aging, and you’re here because the universe is in mortal peril.” Amos Kane laughed without humour. “Strangely, the last part is the most believable of it all.”
Alexis and Castiel shared a relieved look. At least he was open to listening.
Amos had led them into a side room. It contained a large table with a war map on it, except it wasn’t like the war maps Castiel remembered from the civil war. The pieces were intricate, and Cas was pretty sure some of them were moving on their own.
Amos had sat at the end of the table, leaving Castiel and Alexis to sit on either side of him. Sure now that the Chief Lector was willing to hear them out, Alexis continued with the spiel Chiron had given her.
“Like we said, the gods are disappearing, at least from the Greek pantheon. We don’t know why exactly, but Chiron thought it best to alert the other groups and assemble a meeting to discuss our next steps.”
“It’s not just happening with the Greek gods,” Amos added, frowning. “For the last few years, the gods of the Egyptian pantheon have been uncharacteristically silent. And this after the House finally rewrites its laws on contact between mortals and gods,” he added ruefully. “I don’t believe there can be a positive explanation for this.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Alexis said.
“Then let’s get to business,” Castiel jumped in. “Seeing as this concerns everybody, we need people from each group present.”
“You said that already,” Amos said gently. “Unfortunately, I cannot leave the First Nome without good reason. And although I may deem this matter good reason,” he raised his hands to fend off Alexis’ exclamation, “I can’t say that the other members of my council will agree. The House of Life has passed many peaceful years without the gods' interference. There are many who think that their absence is a good thing.”
“That’s ridiculous. The gods are necessary to keep balance. They’re the forces for good, even if they’re annoying.” Alexis crossed her arms.
“Maybe the Greek Gods are. Egyptian deities are not so black and white.” There was a look in Amos Kane’s eyes that told Castiel he was speaking from experience.
But before they could ask more, the door to the room swung open loudly. A girl stood in the doorway, wearing a maroon tank top and green cargo pants. Her red-gold hair fell around her shoulders in a way that looked intentionally messy.
“Who the hell are you?”