Weigh The Heart: The Tale of Lily in the Duat

[Author's Note: This story is a spin off of my major fic, Loud Like Love! However, I will only recommend you read that fic first if you are over 18 as it contains sexual content, as well as other mature material like violence, and is not for those weak of heart or young of mind. This fic was made so I could share this story with people who are under 18, and as such should be rated K+ or possibly T later on if I add some more graphic violence than originally intended.

As such, you need some backstory before you understand fully what's happening here. 14 years after the events of the Loud House TV show, Lincoln and Lucy are living together in Oregon, having left Royal Oaks years ago, but Lucy only lives with him because she's not safe without her brother. Lucy is a witch, and 12 years before the events of this story, she cast a spell known as "The Grand Divination," which had the effect of putting both her and Lincoln in a coma, where they experienced a spiritual journey to the Palace of the Moon God, Thoth, an ancient Egyptian deity of the Mind and Knowledge and Written Word, and the Moon, and a bunch of other stuff. He blessed the whole of the Loud Family because of Lucy's spell, giving them protection from invisible, negative forces known only as the "Invisible Ones" that nobody really knows much about, even Thoth with his infinite wisdom.

One side effect of the Grand Divination is that Lucy now has the Book of Thoth, an ancient "artifact" what was said to give the user infinite knowledge of the Gods, only she found out it's not a book at all. Instead, it's a power she can call upon whenever to essentially search history, past or future, or glean information out of nowhere. Also, as a witch, she's had the ability since she was 8 to just show up randomly, which is why she always freaks people out, because she seemingly shows up without even opening doors and the like (which she doesn't use doors, because of her spell-like abilities). So in this scene, she just kind of shows up.

Another side effect of meeting Thoth in person and receiving his blessing, Lincoln finds that sometimes, when he learns something new, he also learns some weird bonus information that comes out of nowhere that he shouldn't have any reason he'd learned. For example, he has encyclopedic knowledge of giraffes. He doesn't even like giraffes.

Anyway, years ago, Lincoln found a cottage in the wood inside of which was a sorcerer, evil magic users similar in ability to Lucy however they're far more vicious and not bueno and the like. Their grandpa gave Lincoln a statue, a relic left over as a souvenir from the Vietnam War's Battle of Hue City, where he found it inside of the ancient Imperial Capital of Vietnam. The statuette is little more than a slightly humanoid figure with some strange writing on it. So anyway!

TL;DR: Egyptian lore turned out to be real, Lucy's a super powerful witch but it's a giant secret that only Lincoln's supposed to know about (although one other person knows this secret but it hasn't been revealed in the main story yet ;D ) and now Lily is being dragged into the fold of weird, strange events. HAVE FUN!]

Chapter One: Beginnings and Ends

The next morning, after searching the house for Lynn, and not finding her, Lincoln figured he'd best start his day and head over to his parent's house. Luckily it was just after Christmas so he was sure Lily wouldn't have school, it would benefit him because he didn't want to hang around an empty apartment. He made breakfast using some of Lynn's food, he was sure she wouldn't mind, and he went to his car for a change of clothes, since he had been wearing the same shirt for a couple days now. Once he was sorted and changed, he left, not needing to shower considering the night before.

His mind wandered to his youngest sister as he drove, he hadn't seen her in awhile either and by now she was fifteen, he was sure she was going to be an even more advanced version of the Lily he'd known for a few years before leaving Royal Oaks. He thought of her schooling, wondering what she might do after high school since she was already a sophomore. As he drove he pondered this, heading toward the new place his parents had moved into, much smaller, since they didn't need all the space for the large family anymore.

"Probably adventuring," said Lucy, and he was so surprised the whole car swerved as he jumped, and he straightened it out as best he could, before his head craned slowly to the side.

"Lucy, what did I say about doing that when I'm driving?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"You said not to do that or it could get us killed. But I know it won't." He groaned as the witch leaned against the car door, looking at her nails. She wasn't even wearing a seat belt.

"Could you at least pretend to do normal people things for awhile? Besides, aren't you supposed to be back home in Oregon?" He knew it was easy for her to simply appear around Royal Oaks or her family, since she was so in tune with the energies around anybody blessed by Thoth or any place she'd stayed long enough to perform binding rituals. She could be here and back in Oregon in an instant, but every time she surprised him with it, he wanted to smack her. He knew she did it because it was funny to her, even if she hardly ever laughed. Torturing siblings was a past time of the entire family, after all.

"I thought I'd go with you to see Lily," she said, and reached into the glove box, producing the statuette that Pop Pop had given him.

"Grandpa Albert's Ushabti? Nice. She'll probably want this." She rolled the small figurine in her hand, and read the inscription. The language was strange, it didn't sound like Egyptian or Vietnamese, he wondered what it was. Of course, she figured she'd tell him as he thought that.

"It's cuneiform, ancient Sumerian stuff. This thing must be older than dirt." She held it up and examined it, and he pulled onto the highway to head back in to Royal Oaks. When they got away from the city and things started appearing more familiar to Lucy, she stopped fiddling with the Ushabti and set it on the dash, preferring to gaze around at all the changes. Even if she could go to and from this place on a whim, she rarely had in the last few years, as dangerous things lurked around her old stomping ground, looking for her. But since Lincoln was here, she figured it'd be far safer.

They ended up in a fair bit of morning traffic.

Eventually, Lucy began growing very impatient at this fact.

"I could teleport the car?" she offered after making a frustrated noise, and he sighed.

"Yeah, and let everyone in a ten mile radius know that magic is real? Totally brilliant idea, Lucy. No, you get to take a lesson in patience today. Not everybody gets to teleport or whatever it is you do."

"It's not teleportation, nerd," she said, crossing her arms, "It's disconnection. Disconnect there, reconnect here. You know, with the world strings." Oh, right, how could he forget that piece of obscure Egyptian mythology? He dragged his hand down his face as he bumper-to-bumpered forward.

"Yeah, well, Neith's not here right now so we're driving. Besides, Thoth knows you want to stop and get a burrito at Jean Juan's." Underneath her long bangs, Lucy's eyebrow arched. So he was getting better at it?

"You do that often?" she asked, and he chuckled.

"Not like he gives me a choice. He just sticks stuff in my brain and boom, I know it. It's pretty uncomfortable when I find a piece of random information I shouldn't know." He rolled his shoulders, trying to stop slouching in boredom, since it was making his muscles tense again and he'd rather enjoyed being so loose after his time with Lynn.

"Hm. Must've been a side effect of the Grand Divination, it's happening more around here, right?" She hadn't noticed him pulling random knowledge so much back at their home, else she might have tried to cast a spell on him to make it happen more frequently, but if it was naturally boosted by proximity to divine areas, she figured he wouldn't need an augmentation spell. Besides, he seemed to be almost annoyed by such an ability. She couldn't imagine anyone other than Lincoln complaining about having the blessing of the God of Knowledge.

"Still tempted to teleport the car," she said after a small time of silence, and Lincoln hit his head on the steering wheel.

"No, Lucy. Bad witch. If you're so bored, why'd you come into the car before the traffic? Didn't you know we'd be sitting in it?" She considered this for a moment, and shrugged again.

"I just wanted to annoy you," she deadpanned, and the twisting of his face into one of that exact annoyance brought the corners of her mouth up slightly.

"Yeah, like that," she said, and he tried to compose himself. It took them maybe fifteen more minutes until the jam started moving again, and they passed by an overturned car, Lucy attempting to get a glance at the body.

"Oh, dang," she said, he felt a rise in the energy of the car as she searched the Book.

"Well, that guy was a creep anyway, he deserved it." Always fun with Lucy Loud, Lincoln thought, and rolled his eyes. Her doom and gloom ways certainly were interesting considering the fact out of all his sisters she'd been the one he'd been stuck with living with him. But, he guessed, it was better than allowing her to be some place where she'd have to face any of the Invisible Ones alone. Lincoln couldn't sense them, but he was a great distraction for them, because of their family's latent magical bloodline.

He glanced at her though, as she eavesdropped on the lives of more of the people involved in the accident they'd just witnessed. He gave her a look.

"What? I don't look at everything, you know that." He couldn't tell if that was a lie or not, but he figured there were plenty of things she didn't tell him.

"Why not use your stupid powers to find us the best route to Mom's place?" he tried, and she stared his way.

"Tch, I'm not a GPS, Lincoln," she said, but then suddenly reached over and jerked the steering wheel as they went through an intersection. This caused the car to swerve rather violently, but as it did so, another car slammed it's breaks when they narrowly avoided the collision, if Lucy hadn't done that the guy would've hit them square in the driver's side door.

"Saved your life," Lucy said, and for the rest of the ride she was sitting there with a smug smile. It only took them a few more minutes before they pulled into the driveway of the small, quaint home that their parents and sister lived now. Pulling into the drive, he got out of the car with Lucy, and looked to her for what to do. Normally, he'd just walk up and knock on the door, but when you had someone who was more well informed nearby, it sometimes paid to let them do their thing.

"It'll wake Lily up, but ring the doorbell," she said, and so they approached the front door, and he pressed the doorbell, a chime sounding inside the building as he did so. After a few seconds he could hear movement, and Lynn, Sr. opened the door.

"Hey Dad!" the two said in unison, and he beamed down at them, his greying hair and bald spot were new, but otherwise he looked pretty good for his age. He leaned in for hugs, and took them inside.

"So what's new, son?" he asked excitedly, after all, he was a father and only had one son. Lincoln filled him in on his recent success with the comic, and after a terrible dad joke, he took a seat in the kitchen across the table from his father.

"Lily's sleeping, but I can get you guys something to eat or drink if you want." Lucy was already at the fridge, and pulled their leftover French Mex out, heating it in the microwave. Lincoln figured that was why she hadn't demanded they stop at Jean Juan's, she'd probably known it was there, and they both knew that Rita and Lynn never really finished their leftovers, since they'd always been used to giving them to their massive family.

"She'll be out in a bit, I'm sure," Lincoln said, and he could hear from the hall voices trailing in, one certainly belonged to Rita, and the other, Lily. From what he could tell, she sounded adorable. He couldn't wait to see her.

"So, how have you been, Lucy? Got anything going on yet? Lincoln told me you're staying with him to go to college." That was a lie, of course, somebody like her didn't need money, and so she faltered a bit. Shoot, he'd forgotten to tell her the story, and evidently she hadn't looked into it with her abilities.

"Oh, uh, yeah... I'm studying stage makeup... You know, making people look like monsters?" He guessed he was lucky she was so witty with Thoth's blessing about her, she'd nailed the ruse. He accepted that, said it was great that she'd decided to do something with her time other than poetry, complained about how poetry didn't pay bills, and then turned back to him. He could see behind his father as Lucy gave him a gesture of unhappiness, flipping him the bird. He rolled his eyes, they both knew that their father would tell their mother, and she'd demand to see some stage makeup, and now Lucy had to conjure a kit, summon the knowledge, and present a good enough lie. She'd be fine, though, she'd be able to pull that off with a false trip to the car or bathroom.

Rita came in to the room, her aging appearance still familiar to them both, and Lincoln smiled up at her.

"Oooh, look at you!" she squealed, and ran to hug him tightly, and he hugged her back.

"Hi, Mom," he said, and she moved to do the same for Lucy. She then opened the oven and pulled out a tray of cookies.

"I baked these for you guys, here, have one." Lucy stared at the cookies, causing an awkward pause for Rita as she held the tray toward her. Eventually, it became a bit too long of a pause, and so she moved on.

"Here, Lincoln, try one." He took a cookie from the tray and nibbled on it to appease the motherly instinct. She sat at the table.

"Lily, your sister's here too!" she shouted down the hall.

"Which one?!" came the obvious response, and Rita looked embarrassed for a second when she had the epiphany.

"Lucy!" she replied, and there was a high-pitched squeal of joy and loud thumping footsteps as she ran down the hall. She'd skipped getting dressed, he figured, when she came in wearing simply her nightgown.

But she'd grown so much!

Lily now stood just under five feet tall, sure it was a little short for her age but she'd grow a bit more, he was sure. Her blonde hair was long, and worn low in two pigtails, which draped over her shoulders. She wasn't wearing it, but normally she wore Lana's old hat, and he pictured her rosy cheeks underneath the red, and his heart welled up.

"So cuuuute," he said as he stood, and opened his arms.

"Big bro's here, yesss!" She practically leaped onto him, clamping her arms around his waist as they embraced.

"Man, you're getting heavy now," he said jokingly as he swung her in a circle. He put the girl down and she grinned up at him.

"You know it, check out these guns!" She cocked an arm and slid back her sleeve. Lynn would be proud, but he was sure she'd been over plenty of times to teach Lily what she knew.

"Lynn give you those?" he questioned, and she nodded.

"Yep, she's teaching me to sword fight!" She made a few motions, mocking her fencing style in the air. He was impressed, really, he didn't think she'd want to learn something like that. But then again, Lily loved learning, a trait she'd inherited the same as Lisa had. Her enthusiasm, though, that was all her own, despite the amalgamation of her sister's traits.

"And I know a bunch of judo!" She went to show him, but he placed a hand on her head and kept her at arm's length. There'd be none of that! But to his surprise, she wrapped her arm around his forearm and twisted it, forcing the limb to turn and with it, his shoulder, spinning him backward relatively quickly.

"Ow," he said, "hey!" She let him go and laughed, and he smiled sheepishly as he watched her. Her laugh was as pretty as he remembered it. She really was growing up to be the best their family had to offer.

"Hey, Lucy!" she chimed next, and bounced over to the gloomy girl, whom had been watching with no real amusement on her face at her sibling's antics.

"Hey, squirt," she said flatly, sipping at the juice she'd poured herself. The microwave beeped, and she pulled her food out to cool.

"I thought you were in Oregon?" Lily asked, giving her a hug, which was half-returned.

"Figured I'd come see my favorite sister," she offered, and gave her the signature tiny smile. Lily leaned in, placing a hand near her mouth.

"Shhh, don't tell nobody, but you're my favorite too," she said, which Lincoln barely caught, but he knew she said that to all of her sisters. Still, it made Lucy happy, he could tell by the way her weight shifted from one foot to another.

"Mm. That so?" she said back, and ruffled Lily's hair.

"Yep!" She stole a bite of her burrito, and laughed and fled from Lucy's wrath as she gave brief chase. She hid behind Lincoln, and he reached behind him to tickle her, which had the effect of dislodging her from him.

"You guys are jerks, don't team up on me!" Their parents laughed.

"Lily, sit down, it's time for breakfast. You hungry, Lincoln?" He shook his head as she poured some cereal for Lily, whom had sat down, but was still kicking her legs, a bundle of energy.

"So, Lily, learn anything new lately, besides fencing?" Lincoln asked, and she nodded.

"Oh, yeah, lots of stuff. I'm in high school, remember? Duh. I'm taking chemistry this year... I asked Lisa how to make napalm."

"Don't remind me," Lynn, Sr. stated, and pointed a thumb over his shoulder.

"She nearly burned down the backyard. That stuff burns for a long time, you know."

"Well it's not like I meant to break the jar," she said, obviously lying. Lincoln randomly knew she'd smashed it against the tree in the back. Lana would be proud.

"History is pretty boring, but it's not all that bad... Mister Kaiser is teaching us all sorts of stuff about ancient cultures." He felt rather than saw Lucy bristle slightly, her form going rigid at the mention. Why it affected her like that, he wasn't sure, but he was sure it had to do with what she knew.

"Personally I think the Greeks and Romans could've done better," Lily stated, "I mean, just look at the Chinese. Oh, and the Egyptians." Lucy gasped slightly and he looked over his shoulder at her. She played it off like her burrito had burned her. He smiled to his youngest sister.

"Yeah, those Egyptians did lots of crazy stuff..."

"Speaking of ancient cultures," Lucy said, moving her food to the table and sitting next to Lily. She produced the Ushabti from her pocket, and handed it to Lily.

"That's from Grandpa Albert. Pop Pop said he found it in an ancient palace in Vietnam, and he wanted you to have it." She'd practically fabricated that, but he knew better than to ask how she'd known where he'd found it. Lily took the small thing, and examined it.

"What's it say?" she asked after awhile, "I've never seen this kind of writing before."

"It's Sumerian cuneiform," Lincoln said, and Lucy took the statue back to read it to her.

"It says: May the Gods allow you passage, may the clouds part before you, and may your journey come to an end. It's a burial Ushabti. Many cultures believed being buried with an Ushabti would allow it to come to life as a servant for you in the afterlife." Lincoln raised his eyebrow. Why would Lily need one of those? She was barely fifteen, he doubted she'd be dying any time soon.

"Woah, cool," Lily said and took it back, looking over the strange markings. She'd heard about the Sumerians, they were one of the very first civilizations, and had always been mentioned in history books since she was pretty young.

They talked and caught up, and after awhile, Lily demanded to spend time with her siblings doing some of the things she enjoyed. She got dressed, and they of course obliged her, Lucy showed her some poetry, Lincoln read comics with her, she insisted she have a fencing match with Lincoln, which ended in him having a few red marks where she'd hit or poked him with the thin, dull blade. She was really good at it, honestly, he didn't stand a chance. But he wasn't really much of a fighter to begin with, he preferred to solve his problems with his brain.

They played some games, and explored the woods a bit, but when the sun was nearly at the horizon, they were called inside. They ate dinner together, and watched a movie, and at the end of the movie, Lily was told to get ready for bed. She protested this, of course, as she didn't get to see her family that often.

"No exceptions, Lily, now get to bed. Break ends tomorrow! We're not having you tired on your first day of school because you wanted to play. Now get!" She was shooed to her room, pouting and angry, and when her door was closed behind her by her mother, she stomped her foot.

"NO FAIR!" she shouted at the door, and was ignored. She never got to stay up, they were always so strict with her bed time. She wasn't a little kid anymore! She paced, steaming. She'd been having so much fun with Lincoln and Lucy, why did it have to end now? She didn't want to be cooped up in her room for the rest of the night, and she wasn't even tired! Eventually, her rebellious nature got the better of her, and she decided to have some fun of her own. That would show them!

Rather than getting ready for bed, she got ready to take a hike, packing a bag with a jacket, some snacks she'd stashed in her desk, a bottle of water, and the compass Lisa had given her for her birthday. As an afterthought, as she stood at her window, she went back to where she'd left the Ushabti on her desk, and packed that too, for good luck. She grabbed her flashlight, and put her training foil at her hip. She'd show them. It was time for an adventure! The teen went to her window, the building only had one story unlike the larger Loud House, so slipping out was easy enough. She closed it behind her, since she knew it was unlocked, and stepped off into the night.

There was something that was always so freeing when she did this, which was pretty frequently, and she headed off into the woods in the opposite direction of the way they'd gone before, when Lincoln and Lucy were with her. The small patch of trees didn't last long, and she broke out the other side onto a suburban street, which she followed until it breached back into the greater forest at the edge of town. She went passed the trees, the darkness swallowing the young girl as she jumped over logs, ducked branches, and had herself a good look around. She was following a small trail, probably made by woodland creatures, glad she'd worn jeans when she brushed passed a small amount of poison ivy on the side of the path.

She walked for what seemed like an hour, just happy to be free. This forest was getting more dense as she went, but undeterred, she pressed on, until something in the distance through the trees caught her eye. It looked to be a flame, a fire burning somewhere far beyond, and she moved toward it, her curious nature leading her to see what it was so far out. It was dark enough at this point she'd needed her flashlight, so it was pretty evident that, without any other source of light around, this was probably a man-made source.

In about fifteen minutes, she would come across a small cabin in the woods.

The fire was coming from a pit out front of the cabin, which was dug about a couple feet into the ground, and burning. The smell was terrible, she covered her nose with her shirt as she walked to the edge of the pit and looked inside.

The burning bodies of dozens of dead animals filled the pit, and her face twisted in disgust as she looked upon them. Squirrels, rabbits, a few deer... Around the pit were littered dead plants, dry and lifeless, and even the edge of the clearing, some of the bushes were starting to die. What was this place? She looked to the cabin, which sat imposing and dark before her. As the beam of her flashlight wandered over it's form, she noticed markings along the wood that looked familiar to her. Hieroglyphs?

Suddenly, the door burst open, and a person with a lantern, clad in a dark robe, stepped out.

"Who goes there?!" he shouted at her, and she gasped in surprise as the cloaked individual looked right at her. She couldn't make out the features of his face, but his eyes glinted in the darkness. They weren't normal, even from this distance she could tell...

His pupils were slits, not round.

"Vile fiend! Stop right there!" he cried, and started moving toward her. She wasted no time, and immediately bolted, running toward the nearest block of bushes she could get behind. He continued to shout for her to stop, but she didn't listen, running through the forest for only about three minutes or so before she breached the trees again, and looked around.

Train tracks.

She stood on the tracks for a train, in one direction she saw only darkness, and in the other, faint lights. She was trying to avoid some crazy person, so her immediate idea was to head towards the lights, assuming there were people in that direction... Maybe she could find a policeman and get a ride home? From the direction of the house, she could hear the man searching for her, and she turned off her flash light, walking at a brisk pace down the tracks, already winded from her flight. She went towards the light, the long tracks taking some time to fall behind her. She checked the compass, she was heading north, away from Royal Oaks, but she was sure she was already a few hour's walk from home anyway.

She walked for what seemed like more hours, but was more realistically minutes, before she slipped, and caught herself with her hands before she could face plant. The tracks were wet, as if by rain, but it hadn't rained around here in a week. She got to her feet, and kept going, but for some reason she had a nagging feeling something wasn't quite right...

A few more feet, and the world flipped.

Now, it didn't literally upturn itself, but that's what it FELT like it did, for a moment, Lily's vision spun and the horizon was no longer apparent, when it stopped, she had the strange sensation of feeling like she were both upside down and standing normally, her hair blew with a gentle breeze, and everything was somehow... Different. The first thing she noticed was the curve of the tracks. It had been sloping gently to the right, but now sloped gently to the left. The bushes at the side of the tracks were discolored slightly; they seemed like they were just a bit more blue than they had been.

But perhaps the strangest thing was the sudden flash of light that came from the horizon through the forest. Curious by nature, she climbed the tallest tree nearby, and with the help of her ample muscles, was able to get near the top.

Out over a sea of discolored trees, the sun was rising, but from the west, not the east, and hours, hours too early. The weirdest part was that the sun seemed tiny. It was half the size of the sun she was used to, and something was FOLLOWING it.

Tendrils of light trailed from the thing as it moved ever so slowly, and behind it, a massive beetle, a scarab, she recalled, seemed to be pushing the sun forward at a snail's grandmother's pace. It's limbs moved so slowly, in fact, she almost thought for a moment it was standing still, until she'd watched long enough to realize his legs were indeed moving.

"What the hell?!" she exclaimed to herself as she looked at such a sight, and she rubbed her eyes with one hand, clinging to the tree branches with the other. No, her eyes weren't fooling her, a giant beetle was rolling the sun like a dung ball. She returned to the ground, and looked around. Back the way she'd came, everything just looked like more of the same, so she ran down the tracks on the path she'd just traveled, running until her breath would take her no further. It didn't change back. The tracks were still wet.

At a loss for any other course of action, Lily checked her compass. It now pointed south as though that were north, the needle unsure of even itself as it wobbled unsteadily off course, and she frowned and put it away. It would be mostly useless to her like that.

Without anything better to do, she started walking the tracks as she had been before, her mind reeling with this strange place and it's attributes.

She grew afraid, then, wondering if this place was really so unfamiliar, and when she finally breached the oddly-colored forest, there were no suburbs in sight. Before her was a vast and open plain, golden grains blowing in the steady breeze. There were no fields like this near Royal Oaks, she thought, as she stepped into it. In the middle of the plains before her, she could see a structure, and walked toward it. As she neared it's white stone, she noticed there was more to the structure, the part she'd seen was an obelisk jutting from the roof of a small building. She stepped inside, the hissing of the grain in the wind dying away as her foot met the stone floor.

Inside of the small, square building, there was an altar.

Atop the altar sat various offerings of plants, she assumed they were some kinds of herbs, and sticks of incense. One of them still burned, filling the place with an odd odor she didn't recognize.

"I wish I knew what this place was," Lily said idly to herself, and nearly jumped when something behind her spoke.

"I'm glad you asked," came the voice, and she wheeled around. Before her stood a jackal, sitting on it's hind quarters, and looking up at her. She looked passed it, surely it couldn't have been the source of the voice? But there was nobody else, and she looked back to the jackal.

"...Where am I?" she tried, and he turned his snout toward the altar.

"That is the Altar of Anubis," came the voice, though the jackal's mouth didn't move. She realized she seemed to be hearing it inside of her own head, which gave her goosebumps.

"Anubis... As in, the Egyptian God?"

"Anubis as in the God of this place," he corrected, and stepped toward the altar, "Where you come from they might only have worshiped him thousands of years ago, but that is their loss. He was never an Egyptian God, as you put it, he is only a God. The Egyptians were just smart."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. But the walls were lined with hieroglyphs, many of them featuring the visage of a jackal-headed man, and prominently, on a mural behind the altar, there featured a scene. Anubis knelt by a set of scales, and on one of the scales floated a feather, on the other, a human heart. Seeing that particular detail made a shiver run up her spine.

"What is this place?" she asked, rephrasing the question.

"You are standing in the Duat," the jackal replied.

"Do-aht...?"

"You'd call it the Egyptian Underworld. We just call it the Underworld." He tilted his head curiously regarding her as she set down her backpack and ran a hand into her hair, processing all of this.

"I'm in the Underworld...? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" She kicked at the floor, and pulled at her hair, trying to wrap her mind around the fact she was technically standing in the afterlife.

"Afraid not," the jackal said, adding, "You must be dead. Lots of people die. You're no exception, I suppose." He curled up on the floor as he watched her, his eyes locked and unblinking.

"I can't be dead, I was just walking! That's it! That's all I did! I walked here!" After her initial shock cleared, she looked around the place once more. She was definitely here, and she'd definitely not died. Or did she die? She didn't know the answer to that.

"Denial isn't good for the fur," the jackal said, and she glared at him.

"Who are you, anyway?" she asked, voice poisonous and sour.

"I am one of Anubis's consorts, as you'd say. Here we call him Anpu... You may call me Anth, I believe that is how humans would say my name." She tested the name on her tongue, and found it to be easy enough despite the strange inflection.

"Well, Anth... What are you doing here, then? Consort of Anu... Anpu aside." He got up from his place on the floor and circled her a few times, as if excited.

"Why, I'm here to assist you of course! You carried an Ushabti here, did you not? The price was paid for one servant, and one servant you shall have. Me!" He stopped in front of her now, and sat on his hindquarters.

"Great... So now a talking dog is going to follow me around... Let's hope you're worth the trouble," she said, and his ears flattened in distaste.

"I am not a dog. I am a proud canid, thank you very much." He took a stuffy pose with her, and she frowned at him.

"I don't care what you are. If you're here to help, then you can help by telling me how I'm supposed to get home."

He seemed to think about it for a moment, and turned his nose upward toward the entrance to the small temple.

"Well, there's only one way out of the Duat," he said, motioning for her to come closer with a wave of his snout. She gazed out of the entrance in the direction he pointed. Extremely far off in the distance there was a towering city, sitting atop a mountain, shining in the bright light of the early sun.

"That is where you must go. That is the throne of the Gods, the shining jewel of the Duat, the city of ivory, the Palace of the Heart. There, you will find all of the greatest. In your language, they are Thoth, Horus, Ma'at, Atum, Set, Bastet, and Neith. Any other deities you may come across have chosen other domiciles... Although many of those Gods are currently busy bringing your people the sun." He stepped outside and turned his face up toward the beetle as it rolled along, it had made a small amount of progress, Lily noted, as she stepped out ahead. Behind the beetle, whom had fully emerged from the horizon, there was a small boat, or what looked to be small and boat-like though she was sure with how far away it was it was a rather massive ark. It trailed along behind the scarab, just as slowly.

"They are making the journey through the sky of the Duat, great Khepri is busy preparing your sun for it's rise again by collecting the energy which souls leave behind as they pass through the Duat." Lily wouldn't have believed what she was hearing if the things weren't right before her. Khepri still moved slow, his huge form casting a shadow over entire mountains.

"This is insane," she muttered to herself, but Anth didn't seem to believe so as he spun a quick circle as if chasing his tail.

"I assure you, madame, that you are not experiencing any defunct mental faculty. You will find the insanity lies further toward the Palace," he said, and she blinked. What insanity? Did she even want to know at this point?

Thinking it over, she figured that going to this palace was the best bet. If that giant beetle thing was a deity, and she really was in the Underworld, not that she doubted that what with the talking canid, then maybe it was those very Gods whom could assist her in returning to her home.

She went inside and fetched her bag, had a sip of water, and shouldered it. Returning to Anth, she took in a deep breath, and looking out over the too-golden field of grain before her, she took her first step.