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Chapter 8: For Victory over death, transportation to and from Duat, and unbinding ones wrappings for movement from the tomb.

        Whosoever knows this chapter will be equipped with proper food & drink, fine clothing & furnishings, technology, and a home with pool near a waterfall (in Duat or Heaven). 

Another Day, Osiris

(From: Tales of the Kheri-Heb)

        Darkness flooded the earth in a limelight of shadows, palm trees, and tombs.  There was weeping, a sound like birds and frogs in a pit of snakes, all suffering together.  Women threw dust over their heads.  Men struck their fists over their hearts and refused to shave their beards.  Osiris, our Good King, was dead. King Seth had severed him into over a dozen pieces, in the chance that he would not return to life once again.  Isis, his sister-wife, hunted for the pieces of her dead husband, for forty nights across the Nile from Buto to Abydos.  Once the pieces were re-assembled, Isis started to chant.

        “Osiris, my brother, return, return to Geb! O Ka of Osiris, be victorious in the Duat, repel Apophis, and return here to me, O Osiris!”

        Lightning was seen overhead. The family inched away backwards and a bolt of electricity hit the bandaged corpse.  The lightning sprayed itself over evenly, lighting up his face, arms, legs, and torso.  Isis drew herself closer.  She kissed him on his lips and breathed the air of life into him.  He choked at first, then inhaled deeply.  Osiris was risen.

        The lamenting turned to laughter.  Women gathered around the bandaged body of their king.  Men started to play music on flutes and sistra.  Isis held a container of water up to his lips to drink.  Osiris sipped slowly the Nile water from the deep middle of the river.  He smiled.

        “Isis, my sister, you have found me once again.  Am I immortal?  Am I yet among the Neteru?” Osiris asked.

        “I do not know that, my brother.  Your son, Horus, has fought Seth for control of Egypt.  He has had many victories.” Isis washed his bloodstained face with a towel.

        Osiris stood up.  He started to walk.  “Isis, my legs! I feel like a puzzle of stone!  If I move will I fall apart?”

        “My bandages will keep you together, my Fair Bunny.”

        He walked some more.  Then he looked at his groin. “Isis, what happened to my---?”

        “A crab ate it.  I’m sorry.” Isis wrapped some bandages on a wooden staff.  Osiris seated himself on his outside throne, made from gilded ebony wood.

        Women and Men servants came forth and placed offerings of bread, wine, incense, fine linen tunics, and alabaster vessels of scented oils before the enthroned Osiris. He accepted them, smiling, while holding his scepters.  Nephthys, his sister that had married Seth, came forth and placed Osiris’s plumed white crown on his bandaged head. 

        Horus brought forth his Army of Light to Osiris.  They had spears and shield troops, archers and slinger troops, and light armed auxiliaries from Nubia.  “O my father, Osiris, I give you my army that I may be blessed by your presence.”

        “Horus, my champion!  You may still need to keep your army should Seth attack again, as I will not be leading them.”

        “But why, my father? You’re a good king, and all good kings need an army.” Horus approached tearfully.

        “I cannot lead them now.  I am tired of this world.  Prepare me a tomb, perhaps on that mountain over there in the Valley of Scorpions near Waset.  I shall rule the Duat and judge over the dead of Kemt.  Seth cannot live forever! Perhaps I will.  Write me a tablet of rebirth, and place it near a statue of me in the burial chamber.  Ask Isis for some amulets, and your aunt for some perfumed oils.  I am so tired of being dissected – what is Seth going to do to me next??”

        “I hear and will obey, Great One.  I will assemble my army and will wait for my uncle to attack, then I will restore Egypt its greatness.”

        Isis came forth and held her husband from behind the throne.

        Osiris waited for seventy days while the Egyptians built a pyramid of mud brick atop the mountain at Waset.  Inside were a pillared room and a treasury chamber for his offerings and possessions.  The pillared room had six wooden pillars, and a statue of Osiris on the back wall.  He was to be buried here in a sarcophagus of white limestone.  It was a rather crude tomb, but haste was necessary or else Seth would return and discover it.  Priests were burning incense and chanting hymns inside the vaulted chamber.  A High Priest installed the Lotus Tablet in a wall niche near the sarcophagus. 

        Fourteen days later, the tomb and its pyramid were completed.  Osiris gathered together his immediate family and said his farewells.  Then a massive funeral ceremony commenced, and Osiris was carried up the mountain on a carrying chair.  Inside the tomb, Osiris laid himself on a linen mattress with a linen and wooden pillow, within the limestone sarcophagus.

        Isis chanted while priests wrapped Osiris and burnt incense over the statue in the far wall.  Isis made Osiris swallow a sedative, then waited for him to go to sleep.  Then the priests sealed the lid on the sarcophagus, and they all walked backward towards the entrance, and wiped away their footprints with a palm tree leaf. 

        The Ba of Osiris was seen as a glowing comet coming out of the top of the pyramid.  When they saw it, they knew he was on his way home.

        *              *              *

       

        The year was 2001 Common Era when an archaeologist decided to investigate that ‘artificial mountain’ above the so-called Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt.  It was rumored to have been at one time a tomb, but most think it was only a mountain shaped like a pyramid.  Unconvinced, the archaeologist walked up there with a team of peasant workers, some equipment, and an electric torch.

        Eight hours later the archaeologist hit ‘pay dirt’ – the entrance, still sealed even after 7,000 years.  “Aha! We’ve found it! The seal of the good king Unnefer Osiris, with a Seth animal below a Horus falcon.  We are definitely on to something.  This certainly tops Dr. Hawass’ Osiris cenotaph in Giza! Men, clear the workspace.  I want to enter this tomb by tonight.”

        The sound of frogs and locusts mirrored the sight of the sun hanging over the horizon like a sleeping bat.  The peasant workers, wrapped in white cotton turbans and robed tunics, sandals, and the scent of watered down tobacco, were standing by the entrance to the pyramid.  The archaeologist photographed the seal, then used a crowbar to smash open the plastered entry, allowing crumbling dust to fall.  A series of bats escaped suddenly, causing the men to gasp in terror.  The archaeologist assured them that it was nothing to worry about.  He lit his electric torch and entered.

        “Ahh… A hidden passage!  Come, bring in the equipment.”

        The passageway was descending towards the center of the pyramid, at about 50 meters down.  Then the passage stopped at a flight of stairs leading up.  The archaeologist saw a blocked passage at the stairs, so he smashed it with the crowbar, and the rocks fell, filling the passage with dust, stones, and dead scorpions.  He carefully took note of everything he witnessed.

        Walking inside he found the treasury – still filled with 7,000 year-old relics – and the burial vault itself with the sealed sarcophagus.  His men entered and started to photograph everything.  One man found a green stone in the wall niche.  He gave it to the archaeologist.

        “It’s a green stone tablet with early hieroglyphs, with a Lotus flower on the upper edge, and the name of – can it be? The name of Osiris Unnefer, the Lord of Life, and God of the Dead!” 

        “What does it say, Doctor?” asked a worker.

        “I can’t translate it.  It’s far too ancient for me.  I’ll go check the library for ancient languages. You stay here and post some guards.  I’ll return in the morning with a translation.”

        “Good luck and peace be with you, my friend!” the worker replied.

       

        The archaeologist fumbled through his library computer index system, looking for books on early Egyptian.  He found two – one was already checked out, but the other was a periodical and was still on the shelves.  He picked up his backpack containing the tablet and walked over to the far shelves in the rear of the second floor of the library.  On the top shelf, hidden by a book on Egyptian cuisine, was the periodical.  It was a thick book, not unlike those produced by the Egyptologist E.A.W. Budge.

        The archaeologist opened the book and read it for about an hour. Then he placed the tablet on the table and started deciphering it on a notepad. 

        “Hmm. Ancient hymns, an incantation, and the following verse – almost an original when compared to the Pyramid Texts.  Except this one does not identify with Osiris, but seems written for Osiris!  I wonder what would happen if I read it?  Surely I would need a ceremony or ritual. Hmm… I’ll copy it down and read it at the Temple of Amun at Luxor after dinner.”     

        An hour and a half passed.  The archaeologist finished his dinner at a local restaurant, and walked over to the Temple of Amun after hours, and during a ‘sound and light show’ at its open-air museum.  He brought with him a stick of Frankincense with a resin holder, a bottle of imported beer, and a biscuit from the restaurant.  The tablet was still in his backpack.  Inside the Inner Sanctum of the Temple, he lit his electric torch.  He placed the tablet on the stone floor along with its translation, and struck a match, lighting the incense.  The offerings of beer and biscuit he placed near the tablet, for protection against the ‘mummy’s vengeance’.  The incense wafted up into the air and outside the Temple.  He commenced the reading.

        “Hail unto thee, O Osiris Unnefer, the Good God of Kemt.  Raise yourself up for I have brought you water, bread, and incense for your enjoyment.  Horus has vindicated you for the throne of Kemt, having destroyed Seth and vanquished the Evil Ones.  You are united, restored, and rejuvenated. Live, live, live O Osiris, Son of Ra and Nut. Be reborn like unto Ra everyday, and be free of your limbs; eat life, drink health, and live life once more, O Osiris Unnefer…”

        The archaeologist waited for the incense to finish burning then ate the offerings.  He gathered his backpack and the tablet, and walked back home to his apartment in Luxor. 

        *              *              *

        The Ba of Osiris received the incense and the Ka of the offerings from the Temple of Amun.  It awoke and decided to return to Earth, following the path to his tomb.  The mummy was by now in a glass case in the museum.

        The Ba found the mummy and entered.  Immediately Osiris sat up. Smash! The glass coffin shattered on his head.  He was in shock. Osiris pushed his arms forward, then unwrapped his eyes from their swathings.  Inside his bandages was a gold dagger.  He picked it up and started to cut the cords that had strapped his legs together so he could walk.  The brown linen wrappings stuck to him like spider silk on a tree.  He stood up, and walked over to the other exhibit.

        Some tourists saw a ‘mummy walking about’ and assumed it was an act. Then a woman looked at the mummy, then at the broken glass case it was in, and realized it was not an act, and so started to scream.  This alerted the security officers, who ran to the gallery with pistols drawn.  The tourists assumed it was a ‘terrorist attack’ and all headed towards the doors in a panic. Osiris walked to the room where his possessions were arranged in glass cases.  He picked up a chair and threw it against the glass, breaking the display case.  He found a copper dagger, linen tunics and kilts, a golden belt, leather sandals, and a golden bow with a quiver of gilt and copper arrows.  These he placed inside a series of bandages and tied them to his front.  He turned to the security officers and approached them. 

        “Halt! Thief!” the officers demanded. When Osiris didn’t yield, they started shooting.  The bullets hit him, but fell to the ground.  He continued on towards the exit, when he was shot in the back and had to stop a moment. He turned to the officers.

        “RAAAHHHGH!” he told the security, whom exchanged glances and took off in opposite directions. 

        Osiris opened the door and escaped.  Tourists were seen scrambling away from the museum, and Osiris was seen motioning towards the Temple of Amun, which was currently closed for maintenance. 

        An hour passed.  Osiris was in the Temple chapel, unwrapping himself with the copper dagger.  The gold dagger was in its sheath.  He dressed himself in his entombed clothing, and examined his still-working bow.  The bowstring was made of horse hair, which lasts a long time when blessed by a Neter.  He placed the bow and quiver across his shoulder.  He walked to the Temple’s pool, still filled with rainwater, and washed himself. 

       

        The archaeologist found Osiris sitting on a stone column in the shade of the Temple.  Osiris looked up.

        “So you must be the new Egyptologist re-enactor I’ve been looking for! Come, you must see this new exhibit about Osiris.”

        Osiris recognized his name among the barbarian gibberish.  He stood up and bowed.

        “Yes, yes, you are! Come, and I will show you what to do.” The archaeologist escorted Osiris to the Museum attraction.  Then they both entered from the front entrance.

        “What happened here?” he asked the front desk.

        “Vandals struck the Osiris exhibit and took some items.  And the mummy of Osiris is missing!”

        “Missing? How can that be? Well, where IS he?” demanded the archaeologist.

        Osiris walked about the museum.  He approached a computer that spoke a translation of Egyptian to English, from translated hieroglyphics.  As the archaeologist and the Museum staff were quarreling, Osiris learned the English language basics from the translation.  This took about two hours.

        The archaeologist dusted his hands from the empty display cases and returned to Osiris, who was reading a panel of inscription near a mummy case of a Prophet of Amun. 

        “There you are! Oh, I forgot your name again.  What was it?” asked the archaeologist.

        “Oh it’s Omar al-Asis, son of Anwar and Anissa.  And you?” asked Osiris.

        “Glad to meet you, Omar. I’m—” The archaeologist was interrupted by the presence of another.

        “Doctor, you must see this!” said the custodian.

        “I guess we’ll be seeing one another again, Omar. Until then,” the archaeologist departed.

        Osiris went to the bookstore in the Museum.  He found a book on ‘Learning Ancient Egyptian – an English Translation’ and pocketed it.

Osiris left the bookstore and returned to the exhibit.  He found a vial of Lotus oil left by a staff member and then discovered the rebirth Tablet in a glass case, which he opened.  He picked it up and left the museum.

        Osiris walked over to an empty Nile ferryboat and borrowed it, paddling across the river to the west side.  Then he marched up to the closest tomb that was being repainted, and found a sleeping bag and a box lunch.  He entered the tomb, down the slightly wet hallways, and into the crypt, where he intended to spend the night.  By the light of an electric torch in the room, he read the book until exhausted, and went to sleep under the painted constellation of Nut.

       

        The next morning Osiris exited the tomb wearing civilian clothing he found among the equipment of the next group of restoration workers nearby.  One of them had some Egyptian Pound banknotes rolled up in a sock.  The Egyptian clothing he placed on a table near the entrance.  He carried the Tablet and the Lotus oil in a beige briefcase.

        He climbed up the Valley of the Kings western slope, and then to the Tomb of Hatshepsut.  The way was clear of tourists and scientists alike.  He placed the Tablet on a stone altar and read the incantation while pouring Lotus oil on the Lotus flower engraving.  A few minutes passed. Then he anointed himself on the forehead, neck, chest, arms, and legs with the oil.

        He felt a slight sensation of psychic power envelop his body, and he levitated above the ground a few feet for a minute, then landed.  His body was rejuvenated.  All the bullet wounds were gone, and all his scars were, too.  He placed the Tablet in a wall niche in the tomb, and covered it with a cloth.  The oil vial was empty.

        On his way outside he overheard some chanting.  Bewildered, he spun around with renewed energy and searched the cliffs for the noise.  In the distance near the Valley tombs of the Nobles, a column of incense was in the air.  He noticed a small group of people clustered about a statue.  Osiris climbed down from the tomb and investigated.

        The group was a New Age order of the cult of Ra.  One member wore a mock nemes headdress, another with a silver solar disk with cobra snakes on the edges.  The incense was Sandalwood scent, and it was lit in a bronze cauldron on a small fire pit.  He called out to them in Egyptian, then English.

        One woman looked back to Osiris, no longer in a psychic trance. The others continued the ritual.  

        Osiris approached the woman.  She looked at him and then frowned.

        “Who are you and why do you defile our temple?” she asked.

        “I am called Omar.  I am an Egyptologist investigating these tombs.  Who are you?” he asked.

        “I am Melinda, the reincarnation of the goddess Isis, and cult leader of this group.  I am dedicated to the preservation and practice of the Old Ways of this country.”  

        “Isis?” He looked her over.  She had caramel brown hair, fair skin, and radiant green eyes amid dark blue eye paint.  She was robed in light green silk, with golden sandals made of silk and rubber.  There was blue nail polish on both fingers and toes, and some body piercings, Egyptian tattoos, and red jade hair rings in her hair. “Are you really Isis?”

        “Yes, but don’t tell my publishing agent.  He might not accept my next book of poetry if he thinks I am a spook,” she replied.

        “I’m Osiris, your husband!” Osiris remarked.

        “Of course you are.  And what do you want from our group? Inspiration, perhaps?”

        “No – really, I am. Here, I can prove it.  Follow me up to the Tomb of Hatshepsut and I’ll show you.” Osiris said.

        “Oh, I don’t feel like walking up all those stairs.  Maybe next time?”

         “Or perhaps the museum in Luxor.  The new exhibit there—“

        “Look, I don’t have time to talk right now.  If you leave me your email address or cell phone number, I’ll talk to you later.” Isis turned.

        “What’s a cell phone?” Osiris grabbed her wrist, and she turned.

        “If you don’t let me go, I’ll karate chop your deluded head. Now go!”

        Melinda returned to her group and Osiris stood his ground and watched.  He waited a few minutes, then walked down to the water’s edge.  Depressing thoughts bounced off his mind.  He sat himself by the river.  Osiris looked up at a passing bird and called out a name.  The bird screamed in Egyptian a forgotten name, then chirped, and flew away.  Hours passed. Melinda was done with her group, and so walked down to see Osiris sitting by the river alone.  She felt some compassion for the man, and slowly walked down to see him.

        “Omar? I’m sorry I said that back there.  Do you want to go to a café, perhaps? We can talk there,” Melinda comforted him.

        “If you are truly Isis, then what was the Lotus Tablet you made for Osiris?” he asked.

        “What ‘Lotus Tablet’?”

        “The one that restores to life the god Osiris.  It was in the new Osiris exhibit at the Museum.”

        “I don’t get out much. Museums are so stuffy and I have a problem with crowds, especially tourists,” Melinda said.

        “That’s okay.  I borrowed a photograph of it.  Here,” he showed her a copy of the Tablet.  Her eyes bulged and her mouth dropped an inch.

        “Oh my God!” she gasped.  Then her eyes stared across the river and a vision appeared before her.  Three minutes later she turned back to Osiris, and studied him, and then smiled.  “You, you can’t be. You’re –”

        A fireball hit a hotel across the riverbed from the sky.  An explosion near the museum and an earthquake followed this.  Melinda woke up from her stare and told him, “It’s another terrorist attack.  Come let’s find shelter.  We could be hurt by those fundamentalists-” she started.

        Osiris looked at the sky again. “I don’t think its terrorists.”

        “Well whatever, let’s leave.”

        Osiris and Melinda stood up and ran towards the hills, across the way as people flocked towards the city.  Once on a hilltop, Osiris looked down to a clearing.  He saw a man dressed in a black cloak, holding a book that was sending fireballs into the city.  He was a sorcerer.  The man looked up.  Melinda took Osiris’ arm and pulled him aside just as a fireball hit the ground. 

        “Thank you, Melinda,” replied.

        Melinda looked down.  “Who was that Omar?”

        “I don’t know yet, but his fireballs are not terrorist bombs.”

        Melinda and Osiris waited for an hour as the fireballs fell on the Temple of Amun.  Then a loud voice ran out: “Surrender in the name of Sutekh, Guardian of Destruction, and Lord of all Upper Kemt!”

        “That voice! Sutekh, hmm, it means—” Osiris said.

        The Temple of Amun was made of stone, so it did not burn.  The man in the cloak left the area as policemen fired tear gas into the region, and secured the people from the false terror alarm.

        Osiris and Melinda returned to the city.  They went to a café and ordered lunch and iced tea.  The café was not crowded, as most people were outside or at the marketplace.  He told her everything that happened to him since his resurrection.  She listening keenly and told him about her cult of Ra, and her memories of being Isis.  Then they talked about the Lotus Tablet, and its ability to heal him when oil is applied. 

        “So you actually levitated?  That’s so awesome. I could never do that.”

        “I don’t know what I’ll be doing for a job around here.  I suppose I could translate hieroglyphs or interpret curses,” Osiris said.

        “But you’re immortal! You could be a superhero or something.”

        “I don’t watch television or read comic books.”

        “So, what does Sutekh mean, Omar?”

        “It means…”

        “Seth!” said a man standing behind their booth.

        “Exactly! How did you know, mister?”

        Osiris and Melinda turned to meet a tall stranger with a Vandyke beard and sleek, black cloak.  He was of fair complexion with piercing cobalt blue eyes, fixed on her gaze.  He smiled slightly.  The room darkened. 

        “Because, you fool, I AM.”

        Osiris immediately took to his feet aside Melinda.  She stood up and gestured in a martial arts fashion.

        “I wondered how long it would take to find you, Osiris.  But ever since that new exhibit in the Luxor Museum, I just couldn’t resist.  So I watched and waited for an eternity, then heard the incantation from the Temple of Amun the other day, and felt its energies.”

        “Go away from us you demon!” she shouted.

        “You must be Isis.”

        She motioned a kick in his direction, but he caught it with his free hands.  “You’re still quite the amateur, aren’t you?”  Set said.

        Osiris whipped out his golden dagger.  He plunged it into Set’s arm, which released Melinda’s leg.  Set’s black gloved hands slapped Osiris away, and ripped the dagger from his arm, but during that time Osiris and Melinda headed for the exit. 

        Osiris chanted some hymns to Amun and Horus while Seth was walking towards them.  Then, suddenly, the ceiling lights in the café detached and fell on Seth.  He crumpled under the weight.  This bought them some time.

        “Melinda, come!”  Osiris shouted.

        Melinda and Osiris fled the café.  They ran towards the Museum. Seth regained his magic book and started sending fireballs from the sky, as rain.

        “Inside! Quick!” Melinda shouted.

        “Just one moment,” Osiris cautioned. Osiris chanted some earth magic, and the ground surrounding Seth cracked and opened up, encircling him.  Then as Seth sneered in his pompous defiance, the opened earth was set on fire as spears of ice rained down, surrounding the firewall.  Seth was trapped, for the moment. 

        The couple went inside the museum.  Melinda barricaded the doors.  Osiris entered the Magic Room – where the magical equipment of Ancient Egypt was located.  He found his bow there, left behind previously, with his quiver.  He quickly dressed himself in his old armor and bow. 

        Seth was freed.  His chants echoed across the old library near the museum.  Melinda searched for Osiris.  The doors to the museum flung open, despite the blocking as the tables and chairs were magically moved away.  Melinda yelled to Osiris, but Seth found her first.

        “So, Lady Isis, it ends here,” Seth boasted while raising his arms.

        A golden arrow pierced Seth’s hand. Seth screamed in pain. Melinda walked up to Seth and kicked his ankles, stomach, and head.  He fell down for a moment, then sent an ice column at her.  She was knocked from her feet.  Seth jumped to a stand.  His magic book was drawn out, and he flipped through the pages.  Melinda walked back to Osiris. 

        Seth spoke some archaic words and the arrow disappeared and his wound was healed.  Then he looked up from the book, his eyes glowing.

        “I think we better leave, Osiris.”  Melinda stood behind him.

        Osiris fired another arrow.  The magic book was struck from Seth’s hands.  “No matter, Lord Osiris, my brother.  I no longer have need of that.”

        Seth quoted from memory a series of words of power.  All the statues in the Magic Room glistened with radiant light.  Then their arms and legs were detached and started to move. They moved towards the couple.

        Osiris fired at the statues, hitting them in the head and legs, until his supply of arrows was gone.  Seth’s voice rang out and Melinda pulled Osiris by the arm and they escaped through an open window.

       

        Melinda and Osiris returned to her cult of Ra group across the Nile River.  She assumed she was safe there.  Osiris briefly returned to the tomb of Hatshepsut to recover the Lotus Tablet, and while this was occurring the sky darkened.  The cult of Ra immediately started a Light ritual to reveal the Sun from the clouds.  Osiris returned to Melinda’s cult.

        “Lord Osiris, we’ve prepared the cult of Ra for battle against Darkness,” the group’s deputy said.

          “I will need more arrows.”

        “Here,” Melinda replied as she handed him an automatic rifle from their cult’s armory.  “This has more punch,” she smiled.

        “Thank you, my sister Isis.  Have you prepared the spells as well?”

        “We don’t use those methods, Osiris,” she said pointing to the cluster of armed cult members. 

        “Oh…”

        “He’s still a man, magic or not.” Melinda showed him how to use the rifle.  Then she strapped on her Kevlar bulletproof vest.

        “How will Seth arrive?” asked a cult member.

        “There!” pointed another.  Seth had divided the waters of the Nile into two parts, and was walking on the dry riverbed.  “He thinks he’s Moses.”

        “Who is Moses?” asked Osiris.

        “Another priest of Ancient Egypt,” Melinda replied.

        The cult members started to stand in position and fired at Seth.  The earth piled up as a wall in the riverbed, protecting Seth from the gunfire.

        Osiris noticed an ankh hand mirror lying on a chair, so he picked it up. It was polished bronze in the shape of a Hathor cow head.  He placed it on his belt.

        Melinda ran towards the river and started firing at Seth.

        “DIE YOU BASTARD!!” she echoed.

        Seth appeared on the bank of the river, and threw a fireball at her.  She fell down, with some burn marks on her chest.  Osiris picked up a vial of Lotus oil from the cult’s ceremony and anointed her with it.

        Osiris read the Tablet’s inscription again, and she was healed.

        “Thanks,” she replied.

        As Osiris was kneeling on the ground, Seth was approaching.  The cult was firing at him until a tornado forced them to take shelter.  Then Seth walked up to Melinda.  As Seth was raising his arm to kill her, Osiris shot Seth. The bullets grazed his shoulder.  Seth flung his belt against the gun, and snatched it, and then caught the rifle.  He turned to Osiris and fired.

        “No!” Melinda shouted.  The bullets hit Osiris in twenty places.  Osiris landed backwards.  Melinda, grieving, turned and spiral kicked Seth across his face, knocking him down.  She went to Osiris’ side.  Her tears fell on his blood-soaked shirt.  Staring at his lifeless face, she grimaced and cried. 

        Seth stood up and picked up a large stone, hovering over Melinda.  She saw his shadow hanging over her body. She immediately saw Osiris’ golden dagger on his belt, took it, and turned to Seth, stabbing him in his leg.  He cried out, and dropped the stone behind him.  She stood up and struck Seth in his throat and kidneys with a karate chop.  He fell down.  She stood her right foot on his neck and applied pressure.

        “You’re going to die for this, Seth!”

        Seth grabbed her foot and twisted it, causing her to lose balance.  Then he bent forward and summoned a lightning ball and was about to hit her with it. Then he looked at the body of Osiris. The bullets melted into flesh, and the blood stopped spurting from its wounds. His eyes blinked.  Seth returned glances with Melinda, who was tearful with her mouth open.

        Osiris’ leg tripped the unwary Seth, and then Osiris rose from the ground. He approached the Lotus Tablet and anointed his injuries again with Lotus oil.  As he was levitating, Seth and Melinda were both standing in awe. 

        “The Lotus Tablet – it heals you! So that’s your secret,” Seth said.

        Osiris turned.  Seth ran towards him, tackling him to the ground and seized the Tablet. Then he ran up the hill and taunted Melinda.

        “Ha! You won’t be needing this in Aset Neferu, O Isis!” Seth said as he broke the Lotus Tablet against his kneecaps.  The power rushed from the Tablet and into Osiris’ body, then dissipated.  Seth turned to Melinda. She was holding the rifle at Seth, and pulled its trigger.

        “Neither will you, Sutekh!” Melinda said while pumping Seth full of bullets.  Seth threw the pieces of the Tablet at Melinda, knocking the gun from her hands. Then he jumped on her, and wrestled her on the ground while bleeding.

        Osiris faced Seth and Melinda. “Seth! Coward! Stand and fight.”

        Seth turned while Melinda struggled to freedom.  He stood up and raised his arm to the sky.  “I call on Apophis to strike you down, Osiris!”

        Osiris pointed at the sky.  “Look! It’s Horus, the falcon!” A bird whisked past the Sun.  As Seth was looking at the distraction, Osiris withdrew the ankh mirror and aimed it at Seth.

        “Ha! Only a bird!” Then he hurled a lightning burst from the sky. It came down and Osiris deflected it onto Seth. 

        Melinda picked up Seth’s magic book and read the last page backwards.  A blue gate of light appeared in the air and opened, sucking Seth into it.  His scream was heard throughout Luxor.

        Melinda dropped the book and appealed to Osiris, hugging him. 

       

        That evening Melinda held Osiris in her arms under the stars of Orion in front of the Valley of the Kings. 

        She asked him, “Now that the Lotus Tablet is broken, how will I heal you? Will you still be immortal?”

        Osiris took out the photograph of the Tablet. “I still have this.”

        She smiled.  Osiris touched her face with some Lotus oil.  “Enough of that.  I still have you, my lost love.”

        “Where is Horus, O Melinda?” he asked as he was searching the skies. 

        “He’s in here,” she told him, placing her palm over his heart, and then hers.  Then he read the incantation on the photograph.  “What does that do?”

        “It’s a spell for eternal wealth.”  A small blue portal opened above them and showered them with gold disks.  They laughed, and then embraced.  “Now let’s decide how to spend eternal life.”