#it's almost

His hands are darkly stained, too dark now for blood for blood is red. He does not deal in blood any longer. He dips into the shadows, dredges the very depths of the shadow worlds for the agonies that lay there. Deep beneath the palace, screams echo without end. They resound in his ears, those shouts and curses that condemn him.

He knows that when his heart is weighed, it will be too heavy for the scales to bear. Ammit will gorge herself on the pitch darkness of his heart, and he will wander the earth forever. He will achieve a restless, chaotic immortality, forever yearning for completion.

But it is worth it for these halcyon days.

It is worth this pain, these curses, to know that his king can smile, and can look out upon his people with pride.

Within his heart twin demons writhe. He can keep them in check, like so many of his fellow priests, because of what he has seen. He can keep them in check because of his pharaoh.

How many souls has he already condemned in pursuit of this perfect peace? How many bodies now lay twisted and contorted, scarred beyond recognition by the torturer’s brand or the soldier’s spear? 

He does not do this because it brings him pleasure. No, if he were concerned with pleasure, he would spend all his days beside his beloved pharaoh, worshipping at the very feet of divinity, proscribing the rule of law and order as his predecessors have done for generations.

But there is no law without punishment.

There is no peace without pain.

Just as Ma’at will one day find him wanting, sluicing his meager remnants into the turbulence of chaos, he too finds others wanting. There are so many who envy the pristine beauty of the kingdom. So many hungry jackals baying at the den of the lion.

He works so that those desperate teeth and claws might not rend his pharaoh’s flesh.

If he can keep them from his pharaoh’s heels for one day longer, it will be enough.

He will keep his pharaoh’s hands clean, prevent his king from having to bear these screams and curses, and he will carry that burden willingly until the gods remove him from this earth.

Seto removes his head from the cool stone, inhaling the deep scent of sand and earth and water close by. His pharaoh will need him again soon. Another day dawns.