Incident in the Halls of the Dead Anubis grows dog-tired of weighing hearts of watching the Devourer gulp some down. Its slobbering and chewing makes him frown. He feels disgust and kicks the beast. It starts
to whimper, then it snaps its vicious jaws around his leg. He hits it with a rod. The pain reminds him, though he is a god, that he is bound by many of the laws
that limit mortal lives, that pain is good and teaches us to keep our temper. He bends down, tickles its jaw. It chewed his knee but hardly broke his skin. He knows he should
but cannot love the brute. Souls in a queue have seen this. He's in pain. Embarrassed too.
The peasants who raise crops, the men who pull great blocks of stone down ramps, the tavern whore all these have their small lives, but they want more. To have eternity. Great Amun's bull,
the god Osiris, Isis who is blessed, these are their gods as well. The haughty rich may ride them down, shove them into a ditch. But will not get to keep eternal rest
from them. When poor folk die, they wait and go in crowds through the dark kingdom's silent way so many they scare lions and snakes away without the spells that wealthy people know
and fill Anubis' hall. He nods them through. Poor hearts weigh less than evil rich folks' do.
Their plan succeeds although it takes them years, and though it costs them everything. They send a poppy blight to China, and they spend gold sending steam-guns to the mutineers
in India. Black airships in the night swoop down to rescue all escaping slaves, take them to Canada, and men this saves are then recruited to the bloody fight
that follows, saves the peoples of the Sioux, who keep the Black Hills. When the red flags fly in London, and they are condemned to die, they kiss upon the scaffold, and stay true
and only are unmasked once they are dead. Albert the Good, Victoria the Red.
Set kills Osiris. Slices him apart, and throws his penis to a crocodile feeds owls his brain, and centipedes his heart and sniggers, sings a cheerful death song while
he works. When mother Isis wanders by and asks him where her husband has got to Set looks quite innocent, and tells a lie. He doesn't know, he's making barbecue
for all the beasts. She guesses. Goes around. Gets all the bits except his genitals. Stitches and wraps and brings him back all sound save for his ivory cock, his new jade balls.
Lost happiness can be brought back complete. To do it though, you may well have to cheat.
