Eye of Ra (29 page)

Anubis nodded as he rose to his feet and moved closer to him. It was a calm weirdness. Anyone watching from afar would have believed they were the oldest of friends. Laurence felt sentimental, like a gentle part of him that he had pushed down long ago was surfacing.

“I realized that my anger …was not toward you,” Anubis looked up at the sky. “It was over the fact that my father molded me into who I am …and he never got the chance to see his masterpiece. To gaze upon me with pride and marvel over what he forged.”

“I couldn’t remember my mother,” Laurence looked up at the sky with him. “She died before I could even remember her face. My father used to tell me how she held and sang to me every night until the strength to hold me left her due to illness. Sometimes when I was alone, especially when I was at my lowest. I could feel her arms holding me. I never remembered this, but for some reason, I can see her face now. I can remember her holding me, and every kiss she gave me.”

Both men turned to one another with eyes of glass.

“Your father is with my mother,” Laurence smiled as his tears ran. “He has seen his great work in the great man you have become, just as my mother sees the man I am fighting to become once again.”

 Anubis nodded in agreement as he wiped tears from his own eyes.

“May I ask why you did not end my existence on this plane?” Anubis inquired. “If it was the other way around, I would have shown you no quarter.”

“All great houses originally fall under the House of Geb, which is the first House,” answered Laurence locking eyes with him, “which makes us family. You fight and argue with family, you don’t kill them.”

His answer brought a grunting chuckle out of Anubis, as he nodded again in agreement, satisfied with Laurence’s answer.

“That charging and ramming technique you used to best me,” Anubis changed the subject. “What is the name of it? The speed and power you deployed was unbelievable, I could barely keep up much less defend myself from your hits.”

“I actually learned that from a game,” Laurence cleared his throat, while scanning the ground.

“A game?” Anubis narrowed his eyes bewildered.

“Yeah, we call it football on Earth,” he smirked.

“So you charge and knock each other down in this game?”

“Actually, the objective is to run a ball from one side of a field to the other which is your opponent’s territory,” Laurence tried to explain, “Your opponent then tries to “tackle,” or knock you down, so you don’t make it to the other end and score a point.”

Laurence stood there unsure if the weird look on Anubis’ face read that he understood, or if he was further confusing him.

“And this is entertainment on Earth?”

“Not the entire planet,” Laurence shrugged, “But it’s the official national pastime of the U.S.”

“Since my father’s death, I cared not to know anything about your species and planet,” Anubis nodded. “But, I would like to know more about of this ‘football’”.

“Happy to teach you,” Laurence smiled while looking up once again at the starry sky of Anu, marveling at how completely at ease he felt for the first time since his college football days had destroyed his life. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” responded Anubis.

“If only Amun-Ra, Set, and Osiris stepped foot on Earth, how did the likes of you, Ma’at, Isis, and so many others become known as the legendary gods of Egypt?”

“We often communicated by hologram with family and loved ones when they were far away,” he smirked. “Many humans back then got glimpses and views of various members of the royal family, including me. They then formed their own interpretation of who we were.”

“So how did you get the name ‘God of the Dead’?”

His innocent question put a scowl of the Annunaki’s face enhanced by a disgusted eye flutter.

“You know by now of the Infusion Right, correct?”

“When an Eye or Head of House gets his or her armor and familiar infused for the first time with Awakening Energy,” Laurence answered. “It’s kind of a birthright.”

“My father being on Earth was not able to take part in the construction of my armor or familiar,” he lowered his head. “But he promised he would return home in time for the Infusion Right. He contacted me every day to see how the creation of my familiars and armor was proceeding. On the day my armor was finished, I revealed it to him with much pride, unbeknownst to us that a human funeral procession was headed our way. The primitives at the time believed that my father had given “birth” to me to oversee the dead once they crossed over. When he learned of their misunderstanding, my father laughed until he could barely stand. Upon getting wind of the tale, my siblings and friends used to trudge around groaning and begging me to take them into the damned afterlife. I have never been so perturbed.”

Laurence turned away praying that he did not see him swallowing his giggles. Until a low rumble came from Anubis as he emitted his own chuckles.

“It is still one of my fondest memories,” he raised his head. “Because it was the last time I saw my father laugh.”

Laurence joined in the laughter, as god and man stood side by side at peace with one another.

“So …um, what was your punishment for disobeying your mother?” Laurence blurted out.

Anubis embarrassingly shook his head before dropping it.

“Chamber maid duty …for six of your human months,” he muttered.

Laurence could no longer contain his laughter, cracking up before the son of Set. Anubis scowled at him for laughing at his misfortune, but then erupted into laughter, finding humor in his predicament as well.

The two would not leave each other’s company until the early morning light.

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The next day after making peace with Anubis, he attended the official burial and entombment of his father Set and Osiris. The passing of centuries did not ease the pain of losing a father or a mate. Watching the sorrow it brought made him become emotional as he thought about his own father back home. But as the day brought forth mourning, the night gave birth to celebration.

Anubis, Tefnut and Bastet invited a reluctant Laurence to drink with them. He was pulled into a meeting of the Eyes as he met Atum’s eldest son Shu, the Eye of Nu, and Khnum’s eldest daughter Serket, the Eye of Khnum. He was introduced to star nectar, which even his upgraded physiology was no match for. It had him buzzed after half a cup. Before the night’s end he participated in songs, dances, and challenges of strength, especially a form of standing one-arm wrestling which was very popular on Anu.

In the middle of the celebration an Annunaki female accosted him, pinning him up against a column. She was four inches shorter than him. Her skin was a milk chocolate brown, while her large green doe eyes were enough to make him a statue as she examined him up and down. A part of him wanted to touch her long thinly braided silky raven hair, adorned with gold and crystal colored beads. Dazed from star nectar, he glanced down at her sheer green and gold top held together with just a round red glowing jewel encased in gold. He wanted to touch what it barely covered, but he stayed his hand due to still being oblivious to Annunaki culture and customs. He feared his advance might come off as some kind of insult, and she’d break his hand off during mid-reach. He let his imagination run wild visioning their softness, as his eyes continued down to her skirt which was made of the same material as the top, revealing much hip and thigh from the high slit. It too was also only held together by a similar yet larger glowing red jewel. Laurence didn’t know what transfixed him more, how sweetly she smelled, or how beautiful she looked in her outfit.

Without a word she reached under his skirt and grabbed him where the sun didn’t shine. The extremely violating gesture bulged out his eyes while he stood on the tips of his toes as her hand roughly fondled his jewels and stick as if giving him an examination. Before he could process the blatant sexual assault, she released him and moved closer, leaving him only two inches of personal space. She then pressed two of her fingers against his forehead, and ran then down to the ridge of his nose. He closed his eyes expecting a kiss next, but she walked away leaving him dumbfounded and flustered.

He stood there unsure how to react as she glanced over her shoulder, giving him a sensual smile before heading back to a flock of other females who smiled in his direction. In the midst of her walking away, he realized she had been the one in the cat styled armor who had retrieved his staff the day of his arrival on Anu.

A laughing and inebriated Anubis who had seen the entire ordeal stumbled over, congratulating and informing him that her gesture marked him as a potential mate of good stock. It was both a warning and challenge to other females to keep their distance.

Her name was Neith, a Secondary High Guard Captain of the House of Set, and daughter of Sobek.

Remembering who Sobek was and how much he intimidated him, as well as memories of his time with and feelings for Rosemary, left him drowning in a well of emotions.

By the end of the night, a drunk and belligerent Anubis carried Laurence back to the House of Ra over his shoulder the two of them still singing.

A waiting Ma’at did not find their arrival amusing and gave them both a couple of good smacks. The last thing Laurence would remember was Anubis throwing him down on the softest bed he ever felt, and calling him “Ao herumfobo” which in Annunaki meant “my brother”.

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Days turned into weeks since Laurence stepped foot on Anu. Laurence fell off the track of time as he became a sponge, humbly drinking from the well of knowledge that his new Annunaki family were more than happy to share with him. Every day he along with his reunited familiar ventured to various teaching halls and sat in on classes that were far superior to the ones back home. Identified as the Eye of Ra and a member of the House of Ra, he was shown the reverence that came with being royalty. His genuine respect and humility won him love and respect in turn.

Humility was easy for him, considering he still felt that he had not yet earned his title.

As promised, he introduced Anubis and the Annunaki to the sport of football. During the many skirmishes that occurred while teaching them, he learned that they caught on very quickly, were extremely fast and powerful, and dangerously competitive.

In turn, Anubis taught Laurence how to be a proper Annunaki warrior. He learned the martial arts of Anu, such as how to control his armor mentally and wield his familiar in staff mode more effectively. He even mastered how to use the scorpion tail function of his armor as well as manipulate and channel Awakening energy directly from his armor to create solid photon constructs.

He also learned that his victory over Anubis on Corazal had been a definite fluke. During their sparring sessions, Laurence was no match for a focused Anubis, who wiped the floor with him over and over again. Even with his enhanced and growing strength, he was no match for the battle-honed Eye of Set.

Anubis became a taskmaster at hammering and shaping Laurence into a warrior who could one day fight on par with him. Laurence’s strong work ethic made it easy for Anubis to teach and strengthened his respect for him.

Along with the son of Set, his martial arts teachers included Seshat, Tefnut, Bastet, and even Ma’at, who showed him first hand that she was more than just a governing official. Even though she was the youngest of the ruling Elders, her physical prowess was greater than that of Anubis without the aid of her armor. She could predict attackers’ movements before they executed them.

Geb had pursued and mastered the mystical sciences in order to remain unchallenged as the ruler of Anu. This entailed increasing his mental abilities, which allowed him to reach the astral plane, read minds, and perceive things before they happened. He was able to wield and manipulate psionic energy, granting him an array of abilities such as limited flight, crushing or tearing through the strongest materials with a thought, and punching a hole through an object with a focused psionic blast.

Near the end of his life, he mentally imprinted each of his sons with the techniques he had developed in order to train and hone their own abilities. He never gave it a name, but his sons called it the “Geb Ascension”.

They then imprinted their mates who became the Second Heads of House, so that they could hone their own skills and to pass down the technique to the next Elders should they be unable to for some reason. Because Amun-Ra had never returned to Anu to imprint her, Ma’at received her imprint from Isis.

Training in the “Geb Ascension”, was a lifetime commitment to both keep and increase one’s abilities. From what Laurence could tell, the harder the practitioner trained, they not only became stronger but unlocked more abilities. By Ma’at’s account, Atum was said to be the most skilled, while Khnum was known to be the most destructive, although Nephthys had on many occasions given him a run for his money during the remote training sessions they partook in.

With the power of her familiar Elder armor, which was named Nefertiti, Ma’at became as close as one could to being god-like. What enthralled Laurence about her and the rest of the Elders was their mountainous humility. Despite possibly being some of the most powerful individuals in the universe, they viewed themselves as equal in worth to each of their subjects.