Let Go

After Zorc's defeat, Priest Set is made pharaoh…

My love sits at the foot of the obelisks in the rubbled temple of Ra, staring across the night at the distant bonfires that keep his people warm after a hard day's work resurrecting their city. On the floor beside him rests the pharaoh's headdress and his summoning disk. His face is worn with the burdens of the last few days and his skin burnt and chapped from hours of lifting rocks in the scorching sun.

"Why did you have to go?" he asks aloud, his subdued eyes still looking forward.

I feel a lump rise in my throat, if that can even be said for a spirit.

"Why did you save me?" his voice cracks.

I bite my lip and try to restrain the tears welling up in my eyes. "Because you had to live," I whisper, though I know he cannot hear me.

He raises a hand to his eyes and covers them, his shoulders trembling violently in choked sobs. I kneel to the floor and wrap my arms around his head and shoulders, though I know I cannot touch him…

-o-

Sometimes, in the night when the rest of the palace is asleep, he walks in his garden and talks to me. Sometimes, he tells me how his day has been or describes a spectacle that he thinks I would like. And sometimes, he sits listening to the trees sway overhead, not saying a word.

My Set has been a good and attentive pharaoh. He sustains his country and defends it from invaders. We've seen many battles, he and I. And each time, to say goodbye, he places his hand upon my head. These are the instances when I could feel the warmth from his body before fading back into the spirit world.

-o-

The years passed and I waited for him to find a wife and start a family. I had hoped that, even though we were not so lucky, he could find happiness in another. I'd watched him cry one too many times when he was alone.

I wished for him to move on and forget me, if only to spare his heart of the hurt and guilt because I could not mend it.

-o-

"Kisara," he calls to me.

His voice is no longer clear but raspy with the fever that has overtaken him. His hair is no longer the brilliant burnt sienna it was once but graying and dull. His face is no longer the image of youth and health, but one of a man who has stayed awake far too long and yearned for sleep.

"I'm here," I tell him.

"I know you're here," he breaths, his eyes staring ahead into space. "Let…go." I kiss his forehead, comprehending the meaning behind his words. He closes his eyes and issues a last sigh, "And come back to me."

A/N: After re-watching the subbed-anime and seeing the devotion between Priest Set and Kisara (which is virtually non-existent in the American dubbed version), I just had to write the remainder of Set's life seen through his guardian's eyes. If you haven't seen it before either, rewatch—rewatch! The end credits of The Giver soundtrack by Marco Beltrami was the perfect backdrop for my brainstorm. Props to the anonymous artist whose icon I found on Google.