Chapter 2
Khonshu walked through the dark portal into a cozy living room. The floors are a deep cherry wood with a large throw rug providing warmth for little feet. An overstuffed couch was pushed against the far wall, opposite an overflowing bookshelf with two massive nest-like arm chairs on either side of it. A doorway led to a shadowed kitchen while another led to a hallway.
Hathor was sitting on the couch next to a tan skinned woman with shoulder length black hair. She wore a red night dress; it was midnight here. When the woman caught sight of Khonshu and his precious burden, she rose. “Khonshu, he’s adorable.”
The god chuckled, and preened a little. Yes, he knew his moon was quite the little heart breaker. He would be chasing maidens away from him before he even knew it.
“Hathor says that you will raise him. But I need to know, do you swear to do right by him, upon your bond to Hathor?”
Hathor looked startled at Khonshu’s comment. What he was asking was seldom done, not these days. When an avatar made a vow to another god, and swore upon their bond to their patron god, the vow was sealed into their soul. Should the avatar violate the vow, their bond to their patron god would shatter. It left a hole in the avatar’s heart. It was also considered a great shame to the patron god. The last god whose avatar had taken and failed such a bond was Ammit’s.
“Yatzil, before you agree, you do know the ramifications of the vow, correct?” the concerned goddess asked her avatar. Her avatar smiled at her and nodded.
“Selim has the journals of some of Osiris’s past avatars. He shared them with us so that we could learn. Osiris’s avatar from the 1600’s took the vow and wrote an extensive account of it.” Yatzil reassured her goddess before turning to face Khonshu.
“I vow upon my sacred bond to Hathor, Goddess of music, love, beauty, dancing, fertility, and pleasure that I, Yatzil Maria Vasco, will love and cherish the avatar of Khonshu. I will take him as my own, and name him as my son. So mote it be.” A spark of pure white light rose from Khonshu and floated to Yatzil. The spark landed above her heart, and sunk into her chest, signifying that the vow had been completed. The vow gave Yatzil a warm, buzzing feeling through her body. Thankfully, it was only momentarily.
“I set up my guest room for him. The bed is all made up, and there is a chair for you Khonshu. I thought it might be best if you stayed the night, so that when he woke up there would be a familiar…face, to say. I texted the others, they are going to come over tomorrow to help me get some things sorted out.” Yatzil talked to the gods as she led them to her guest room.
Her guest room was small and plain at the moment. Only a full sized bed with white sheets, a dresser, night table, and an arm chair in the corner. The closet was empty save for a few spare blankets, and there was no art on the walls. However, it was across the hall from her room, and had its own bathroom. It was a room that could grow with the boys, and the fact that it was plain at the moment just meant that they could make it their own.
Khonshu walked up to the bed and, after Hathor pulled the sheets back, he settled his avatar down. The little boy was still fast asleep, and had a death grip on Khonshu’s cloak. He would not be getting that back tonight. Yatzil slipped in between the two gods and tucked the boy in, ensuring that he was thoroughly covered. She then beckoned the gods to the chair, where she sat down.
“Selim is working with some of his contacts to draw up adoption papers for me. We will have to change his name, if only slightly. I’ll talk to him in the morning, but at the least I think that giving him my last name would be a good idea. It would work with the cover story that he is my orphaned cousin that I took in. Oh, and Selim said that he would set up paperwork for all three of them, birth certificates, NHS cards, and the works. That way, when they are older, it will be easier for each of them to function in the world.
“Hana and Maya have gone shopping. I told them to try to restrain themselves, we shall see how well that works out. But they will be getting him some clothes and other necessities. Declan has been baking. Only Osiris and Horus will be coming from the divine grouping. I asked if Isis and Tefnut could hang back, no need to overwhelm the poor boy. But Osiris is, as Declan says ‘the chauffeur’ and I asked I asked Declan if he and Horus would give the little one a thorough look over.”
Khonshu bristled at this. Did she think him incapable of healing his own avatar?
“Not that I doubt your abilities, but we don’t know his medical history. No clue if he’s had his vaccines, or if he’s got any lasting damage. Better safe than sorry, better to ask for forgiveness than permission. His health is more important than ego, you know? I started a list of stuff we probably need, placed a quick order with Amazon, but there will probably be some things that come up as we go along.”
Well then. Hathor’s avatar had put quite a bit of thought into the care of his little avatar. He was impressed with how much she had thought of in such a short span of time. If he didn’t know any better, he would have said that the two of them had planned this from the start.
Yatzil stood up and walked to the door. She paused, and walked back to the bed, bent down, and pressed a gentle kiss to the boy’s forehead. “Sleep tight” she whispered to the sleeping form. She then turned to the two gods.
“I’m going to go to bed. Khonshu, why don’t you stay the night with him. Don’t want him waking up all alone in a strange place. Hathor, you are welcome to stay or go. I assume that I will see you tomorrow either way.”
Khonshu said nothing, and sat in the chair Yatzil had vacated. Hathor chuckled at the avian god’s antics, and walked to her avatar. “I will stay the night. I believe I will head to your music room, listen to some music. I’ll be sure to wear the headphones, my dear.” The goddess walked past Yatzil and opened the last door in the halfway, closing it behind her.
Yatzil walked across the hallway, and paused in front of her door. “Good night Khonshu. Don’t hesitate to wake me if you or the boys need anything.” She then slid into her room, leaving the door ever so slightly a jar.
Khonshu was left alone with his slumbering avatar. The house was quiet, and dark. The only light in the room was from a small night light plugged into the wall. Khonshu wondered if that had always been there or if Yatzil had placed it there for his little moon. She truly seemed dedicated to caring for the child, and making sure that his, that their life was the best it possibly could be. She had already ropped the other avatars into assisting her. Khonshu had no doubt that the child would have no shortage of aunts and uncles in their life.
The child looked so peaceful curled up in the bed. It was hard to believe that mere hours ago they had been laying in a pool of their own blood, dying from the actions of their kin. Now they had a fresh start, with a new family, a new mother, a new life. They were a whole continent away, and with people who could understand them. They could grow up happy.
Khonshu sat there for the better part of two hours, watching his avatar. He was so lost in thought that he did not initially notice when he was joined by another. An eight foot tall man, with the head of a jackal and short black fur covering his entire body stood to the left of Khonshu. Anubis, the god of the dead and one of Khonshu’s best friends, had come to see what his friend was up to. He softly cleared his throat, in an attempt to get his friend’s attention without startling him too badly.
Khonshu, upon hearing the sound, snapped his skull over to the source. The Jackal god grinned at his friend. “Khonshu, my friend, so it is true. You have a little avatar of three.”
If he could have, Khonshu would have rolled his eyes. “Who told you? It hasn’t even been a full day yet. And so what if my avatar is a triple aspect and a little on the young side. He’s my avatar, it’s my choice. You once had an avatar who wrote stories about animating the dead and lived in an abandoned cemetery.”
“Really? Bringing up Victor again, will you ever let him go? I know that he was a little odd, but he was a good avatar. I am merely commenting that it is rare to have an avatar so young, and even rarer to have an avatar with aspects. Both at once? You have become quite the gossip topic in the Overvoid. Taweret, Anput, Isis, Tefnut, and Sekhmet have been talking for hours. I should warn you they are planning a party, a baby shower of sorts I do believe”
Great. The five greatest gossips of the overvoid have banded together and their entire focus was on him and his avatar. There was no way that the news of his avatar had not been heard by the entirety of the overvoid by now. And those gossips wanted to throw a party for him. He knew he would have to allow it. Sekhmet would take his head off, and Taweret would stomp him into the dust. That hippo really did have a mean streak in her.
“Just wonderful. Do you think your wife will be able to control the others even a little?”
Anubis laughed. “I do not think she has been this excited since she found out we were expecting Kebechet. At least you will not find yourself drowning in baby gifts. We got ten goats and three cows. And we had no need for them, Anput nursed and did not need goat or cow milk. I ended up butchering the cows and goats. You will likely only receive items that a child of eight can use, clothes, books, toys, the likes. It’s likely more of an excuse to have a party, socialize with everyone. You do know how the others love a good party. You probably won’t even have to bring the little one, even the women understand that too much would overwhelm the little one.”
Khonshu remembers the baby shower that had been thrown for his friend’s wife. He also remembers how his so-called friend had dragged him to the party and forced him to stay for the entire thing. He had to sit through hours of Anput opening gifts, dozens of blankets, goats, cows, rattles, and reed baskets. Each gift carefully inspected and cooed at by the hoard of women. It had been torture. And now the women were going to throw such a party for him. His friend’s reassurance that this party would be different did little to ease the apprehension he felt.
Khonshu noticed his friend shifting from his spot next to him. The jackal god walked over to the slumbering child, and rested a paw on his head. His actions caused Khonshu to emit a sound that was a cross between a growl and a squawk, warning his friend.
“Calm yourself. I will not harm him. He has grown since I last saw him, I never would have imagined the path that his life would take.” He reassured his worried friend as he studied the child. He had been surprised to see such a familiar set of souls when he saw his friend’s newest avatar. What were the chances that he would already have meet the souls his friend chose?
Khonshu was concerned with Anubis’s words. He had met his avatar before, but how? The only way that Anubis could meet a mortal was if they were an avatar, or if they entered the Duat. Surely his avatar had never been there, he had saved them before their souls could cross over.
“Anubis, when did you meet him?”
“Years ago my friend. It was before he was a true triple aspect, only a third of his soul was awake. There had been an accident. His younger brother and he became trapped in a flooded cave. They were pulled out, but their souls had already crossed into my realm. It was not the little aspect’s time to join me. It was painful to watch. His brother was guided onto the ship by Taweret while I Held him back. He cried. He did not stay long with me before his soul was pulled back into its body. It was this journey that awoke his slumbering souls, and allowed him to become a true triple aspect.”
Oh, his poor avatar. They had had so much suffering in such a short life. He was glad that his friend had been there for his boys when he couldn’t. He couldn’t imagine the pain that they must have felt, watching their brother board the boat, knowing that they couldn’t go with him. His boys would never have to go through such pain again, not if he could prevent it. He was also sure that Yatzil would do everything in her power to keep the little moon from such pain again. The other gods and avatars had also expressed quite the interest in keeping the little moon safe and happy. Khonshu realized that his little moon had a great deal of protectors in their corner now.
“Thank you my friend. Thank you for protecting him when I could not. The thought of him hurting like that, and not being able to do anything about it, I feel this pain, unlike anything I have ever felt before. I want to rip someone apart, and wrap my little moon up in blankets and never let him out again.”
Anubis let a bark like laugh. This was rich, his friend had teased him for his feelings and actions when Kebechet was but a godling, and here he was having the exact same feelings. He also found it hysterical that his friend had not yet had the realization that he was not just the child’s patron god, he was now their father.
Anubis walked over to his friend and clasped his shoulder. “Welcome to fatherhood my friend. How's it feeling now that the sandal’s on the other foot? I expect that Anput and I will be godparents?”
Khonshu gaped at his friend, beak parted, and nodded.That sneaky jackal was right. He had become their father. And, wait, did he just agree that Anubis and Anput were the godparents? His life was never going to be the same again.