Chapter 8
The first time Yelena met another avatar, she had only been operating as White Knight for a year. She was sixteen, still baby-faced and unsure of her place in the world when she was called forth by the other gods.
Immediately upon meeting her first avatar, Hathor’s avatar named Yatzil, Yelena is interrogated about her age. Yelena finds herself swarmed by avatars concerned that Khonshu was taking advantage of her and her supposed naivety and innocence.
Yelena’s overwhelmed. Too many people and too many questions were coming at her all at once. She really doesn’t mean it when she tells everyone to piss off in Russian.
Okay, so maybe she meant it a little and Khonshu’s low chuckle in her ear tells her that she shouldn’t drop to her knees to beg for forgiveness.
Yelena may be wild but she is not stupid. These avatars have gods attached to them just as she did. One wrong move and Yelena could end up dead. Still, her foul mouth gets them to back off of her.
They ask for her story.
So Yelena, casual as ever as she sticks her hands into her pockets in the picture of nonchalance, tells them. “I died.”
Khonshu finally tells her to knock off her attitude in much fancier terms and Yelena decides to listen to him.
The Egyptian gods learn about the Red Room through their avatars, and how Yelena was raised along with her untimely death. Yelena tells them how Khonshu had been looking out for her and protecting her, mainly just to get back at them for being so sure that Khonshu had hurt her in some way.
Khonshu was nagging and a little bit of an asshole but he kept her safe, and alive, and gave her more freedom than the Red Room ever did, even if he could loosely be called her master.
“I know you,” Selim, Osiris’s avatar spoke, his voice lower and louder than usual. It doesn’t long for Yelena to realize she was speaking directly to Osiris. “Yelena Belova, deceased at age fifteen, cause of death was puncture to the liver.”
“Yeah, well,” Yelena gestures to herself. “I got better.” She grins up at him, ignoring the way Khonshu grabs her shoulder to reel her in.
“Let me speak,” Khonshu tells her. Yelena glances up at him in surprise because he had only taken control of her body twice. The first time he did it, he did it without any warning and Yelena screamed and destroyed the safehouse she was staying at when she had control of her body again, telling Khonshu to never do that without her permission again or she’d chuck herself off the nearest building and make him find a new avatar. Khonshu knew she wasn’t joking so he agreed.
Yelena nods slightly, readying herself before she feels Khonshu step into her body. It was like wearing a coat in a way, wrapped up in something that wasn’t quite herself. She watches as her hands move and her mouth opens.
Khonshu tells them how he came about acquiring Yelena. The longer Khonshu monologues in her body, the more Yelena needs him to stop. It’s too much like the Red Room and she needs to feel control immediately.
Khonshu, connected with her body, abruptly stops and then peels away like a wet layer of clothing, leaving Yelena to stumble forward on unsteady legs as she regains control. She bumps into Tefnut’s avatar, who steadies her with a small frown.
“Are you alright?” Yatzil questioned and Yelena shakily nods her head.
She’s vulnerable here in front of them. She’s staring gods in the face, open and exposed as her story is shared.
They pity her. They think her a child. They do not agree with her age or what Khonshu has her do.
They do not understand. Not in the way that Khonshu does.
She can see the looks on their faces. They do not think she will last.
When Yelena finally leaves, her shaking hands stuffed into her pockets, she glances up at the shadowy figure looming over her.
The other gods do not understand.
Khonshu is not her master. She is not his puppet.
Khonshu is her protector. She is his ‘child’.
She is tied to Khonshu and will kill anyone who tries to take him from her.
She knows Khonshu will do the same.