Blue Rose

The wretched thing had bloomed again. Mumm-Ra studied the flower that had the audacity to grow at the eastern corner of his pyramid. Every autumnal equinox, for as long as his memory contained its image, the rose had bloomed in a day. Every season, he had to leave his tomb, and pluck it without any assistance from the Ancient Spirits of Evil. His plans for the destruction of the asira'savi had to wait. Every delay made the ooze that was his blood boil. Time grew short. The creature that had aided the Thunderans was ready to give them a city. He had to stop it.

"One day I will discover who planted that vile thing. Revenge will give me great pleasure!" The mummy howled, and threw a stone into the smooth waters of his cauldron. The image bubbled and disappeared into the froth of his reflected anger.

Mumm-Ra limped toward the exit of his pyramid, his undead joints screaming with every step. The gibbering of those he had locked away in special sectors of his fortress cheered him not. He had little time for torture. His fetid stench gave him no comfort from the torment of his physical being.

Words crackled from his dry lips. Stones in the pyramid vanished. A portal faced the east. The mummy shuffled into the midday sun. The harsh light made the bandages that wrapped his dry skin burn. The single flower had already opened on a plant that stood three feet tall. A blue rose. The thorns along its single cane screamed its challenge: Destroy us without shedding your blood if you can.

Mumm-Ra the Everliving sighed. Every season the plant bit, and he lost time. What it did to him during those hours fueled his drive for its destruction. He did not wish to remember. For a time after his return from oblivion, he did remember, and the suffering tore at his corrupted organs and soul until the words taught to him by the Ancient Spirits of Evil allowed him to forget what he had learned.

"Let's be done with this game," he hissed, and reached for the rose.

*****

Sunset along the Nile. No vision was more beautiful than the priestess of Isis who scattered flowers on the water from the deck of her barge. Meryt had the purity of flame. She was a star who walked among the pale lights known as humans, and shone when Ra did not. Seti hoped that one day he would ignite into equal brilliance in his priesthood. Although they shared the same age, she had advanced further in her religious pursuits, and like his brother, had outranked him in the hierarchy of priests.

A cool autumn breeze ruffled her dark tresses. Dressed in a thin linen sheath, she shivered delicately. An attendant brought her a cape made of shimmering material that reflected the dying light in red-gold beams that skipped over the gentle swells of the Nile.

Meryt glanced across the divide that separated their two vessels. His elder brother Shakaba, the High Priest of Anubis, nodded formally, and she returned the favor. However, her brown eyes then strayed to him, and flickered with the recognition of a soul that had acknowledged its twin.

Seti tilted his head slightly, the only signal he could politely give to indicate that he had received the honor that she had bestowed. Meryt made a motion with her hand, as if imitating the passage of a wave. To a single ocean of the heart did their separate currents race, but only beyond death might they find the completion of merging into one being. Life and its illusions were short. Their joining would come beyond eternity. He had merely to wait patiently as she did.

The constraints of their priesthood separated them in life. Yet each had accepted that burden because of their mutual respect and love for the road they had been destined to follow. The pleasures of the body were of no equal to those of the crystalline nature of combined religious devotion. A human could not withstand the power of both.

The sun vanished.

*****

They had found Meryt by the wharf. Dark bruises had blackened her creamy tan skin. The stench of blood and semen had spoilt her purity. What remained with Seti was the horror etched in her face. Those dark brown eyes pleading with an evil that delighted in her defilement and death.

Shakaba had looked upon her in disdain. A priestess of Isis had no business down by the skiffs that transported laborers along the Nile. What had befallen her was of her own doing. He had decreed that the elaborate funeral rites of the religious were not for her. That he would permit a simple mummification, and a placement in a rough tomb far from others of her rank, illustrated his generosity sufficiently. She would not be left for the jackals, and eternal oblivion.

Seti stroked Meryt's arm, a gestured he had not dared in life. Shakaba had left her interment to him. He courted his brother's wrath, for he planned to give Meryt her due. His position would be in jeopardy because of his disobedience to the High Priest.

That he was able to escape with his precious burden he had attributed as a sign of favor from Anubis. Although he had violated customary funeral practices and his brother's wishes, he had not violated the higher laws of the Guardian of the Dead. It was as if he had walked unseen. It had been a simple matter to put sleeping draughts into the cups of his fellow priests also charged with assisting in the meager preparations for the priestess. He had broken the seals of a door that had long been sealed for reasons lost to time. Carrying the one who had commanded his heart, he had followed the strange corridor dotted with alien writing. After many hours, he had emerged beyond the city, and had entered the road of the dead.

Seti's studies into lost paths had lead him to a secret. Under the sheltering rock far west of the city rested an ancient hall dedicated to Anubis. There he had taken Meryt, leaving behind his life and his honor. Under the gaze of his Lord, he had prepared the dead using magical incantations long forgotten from books not yet gone to dust.

The priest spoke the words that ensured Meryt's place in eternity. Her naked form disappeared under a shroud of gold. With a sigh and a gesture, he levitated her wrapped body. He placed her in a simple tomb. With his own hands, he positioned the heavy stone that blocked its entrance. What remained was for him to discover who had committed the vile act that had slain her.

"I will see to your honor," Seti whispered to his lost love. The priest touched the cool stone, and recited words of destruction for anyone who would dare disturb it.

Seti departed the hidden chamber and the many corridors that snaked through the rock. The desert winds cooled the moonless night. He waked for hours in the direction of the rising sun. The priest stopped to adjust the linen pack which held his precious tomes. He heard the arrow only a second before it struck him in the shoulder. The barrage continued. Seti struggled to stay on his feet. To die at the hand of bandits would defeat his goal of one day joining Meryt in the afterlife. He fell in agony, his blood staining the sand.

"He will burn for his offense." The icy command belonged to his brother.

"No, Shakaba." That he spoke at all amazed him. "She deserved...." His voice vanished.

His brother addressed his fading consciousness. "You disobeyed the command of the High Priest of Anubis, but far worse, you opened a door for Evil. There is only one punishment for your offense."

*****

It was the rising winds and the stinging sands that had revived him. His brother's slaves had worked swiftly. He had no strength left to topple the unstable wooden post to which they had bound him. He could no longer speak the name of Anubis. They had already taken his tongue, and bound his mouth with sand. Shakaba lit the wood beneath his feet.

Why had Anubis permitted his capture? It was his law that he had preserved, not defiled: to guard the sanctity of the dead. The flames licked his body, and he coiled in pain as they ate through his flesh and his chance of an afterlife.

Sibilant sounds rose in his tormented brain. *It was your brother. Anubis did not stop him.*

*Deliver me!* Seti cried with his mind. *And I will be yours forever!*

*Let your hatred sustain you.*

Light poured from the sands and rose in a column that consumed Seti and the fire. The young man roared in transformation as his flesh reformed, "Ancient Set, King of the Universe, in your many names, I strike my enemies!" Lightning bolts flew from his hands until all had became ash.

*****

Seti watched the east with concern. His skin had begun to turn blue in the predawn light.

He sought refuge back in the rocks he had deserted. A rush of wind blocked the opening to the hall. Standing before it was a tall figure with the head of a jackal.

"Begone false god!" Seti thundered.

"I never expected you to fail the ultimate test, my son. Your brother did not kill Meryt; Set, the Betrayer, slew her in order to gain you. It was he that put you on paths that you would not have found on your own. Your ignorance permitted Evil to rise.

"Shakaba followed the ways of the people of Kemet in order to protect them from harm. Had you called on me with your heart to save you, redemption would have been yours. The flames would have purified you into a higher state for your suffering and your sacrifice, and removed your sins caused by weakness, but you lacked the wisdom to trust me, and the knowledge to understand that what the gods reveal to man is incomplete."

As Ra's light touched the stone, Anubis disappeared.

Seti howled.

*****

Mumm-Ra crushed the rose in his hand. Seti, and all he had believed and dreamt, was long dead. Every season he told himself the same lie.