"Let’s head back to Imentet; there’s no point in continuing the search today," announced Isis, brushing off her robe. "We need to secure the heart anyway. We’ll see what to do next tomorrow."

Anubis nodded in agreement with his mother. Anaïs also approved of the plan, as she could certainly use a few hours to recover from everything that had happened. She was no longer in pain, and her body seemed to have miraculously healed, although she could feel a slight tugging sensation, like a scar, near her heart. However, her nerves had been severely tested between her death, judgment, and reincarnation. The new energy coursing through her body balanced out her mental exhaustion, but she clearly didn’t feel ready to discover new things or flee or fight.

"I’m unsure if I should come with you or return to my husband..." Nephthys hesitated, visibly agitated.

"Seth will kill you this time if you go back," Isis reasoned with her.

"But I won’t be safe in our villa either," she continued, nervously fidgeting with her fingers. "He’ll be able to monitor my every move."

"I have plenty of spare rooms in my home," Isis offered in a gentle voice. "That goes for you too, Anaïs."

"No, thank you," the young human declined without even thinking. "I really liked the room I slept in last night."

Isis’s wide eyes indicated that this wasn’t the response she had expected, but the goddess chose not to comment and accepted her choice, despite her disapproving look. When Anaïs turned to Anubis, she saw him stifling a laugh, only to stop abruptly with a grimace, one hand clutching the spot where a bloodstain marked his shirt, near his lower back. So it was indeed his blood staining his clothes, which meant he was injured. His mother’s sharp eyes didn’t miss the gesture either, and she hurried them along toward the portal, concerned for her son.

The journey through the Necropolis to the city of Imentet passed in almost oppressive silence, especially for Anaïs, who felt particularly scrutinized. Only Nephthys seemed oblivious to her presence, completely lost in thought as she followed the other two deities absentmindedly. Anaïs could feel Isis’s gaze on her from time to time, watching her movements and reactions, as if assessing her.

To make matters worse, Anubis kept glancing at her, to which she responded by staring at the spot of his injury. What exactly was his mother worried about? The jackal-headed god didn’t seem like the type to get distracted from his task, let alone chase after a girl.

As for Anaïs... She couldn’t deny that she tended to be forward, but she fully understood that the fate of Egypt now rested on her shoulders as well. Anubis was no longer just a handsome man or an intriguing deity; he had literally become her teammate, her quest partner. Nevertheless, it was only natural for a friendship to develop between the pair, given the amount of time they would be spending together in the coming days.

"Come have dinner at my home tonight," Isis invited in a tone that was firm but relatively gentle as they entered the city. "We’ll decide on the next steps for the search."

"Seven o'clock?" Anubis asked, accepting the invitation.

"Yes."

A few minutes later, they finally parted ways, leaving Anaïs and Anubis alone. A sigh of relief escaped the young woman’s lips as she was finally free from the goddess’s inquisitive gaze. Her mental fatigue was too advanced to face her all day. Spending a few hours in her presence for tonight’s dinner seemed sufficient. Maybe she would allow herself a short nap in the afternoon to recharge.

"What are you waiting for to treat your wound?" she finally asked as they made their way to the villa.

"I bandaged the wound before the weighing, but it needs stitches. It wasn’t urgent, a servant will take care of it once we arrive."

"What happened with Seth?"

No one had yet told her in detail how the encounter had unfolded after she had lost consciousness. The two women hadn’t been injured, but Anubis had, which meant he had fought the evil god or at least his guards.

"He let us go when he saw that the amulet was broken and that we had killed some of his guards. He figured that was enough not to dirty his hands. He doesn’t know that the amulet’s magical properties have transferred to your body, and that’s for the best. It gives us a significant advantage."

Anaïs had become the trump card for the two gods, their little secret weapon. She hadn’t yet been able to experiment with the amulet’s powers, but she was eager to see what she was capable of. Some might have felt crushed by these new responsibilities, but Anaïs wasn’t the type to be weighed down by such concerns. On the contrary, she might even be accused of not taking the situation seriously enough. Her adventure-thirsty mind didn’t fully grasp that other lives were at stake, including her own. If the mission went smoothly and without hitches, there was no reason to worry, right? It wasn’t like their quest had already started to face unforeseen challenges, like her death, for example. No, that was just a detail.

She could have sworn the two statues guarding the entrance to the jackal god’s property were watching her. Perhaps they weren’t just inanimate objects. Perhaps they were guards in disguise, keeping a close eye on the estate. Or maybe she was just becoming paranoid, which was also a possibility after everything that had happened recently.

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Anubis headed straight to the living room and sat down on the couch, visibly relieved to be able to sit. He snapped his fingers to summon a servant, even though they were alone in the villa. She couldn’t fathom how these beings, who seemed barely alive, could move around the space. She was starting to believe they were just magical manifestations, not sentient beings.

Anaïs approached the deity as he was removing his shirt to tend to his wound. Her gaze lingered for a moment on his well-defined and slightly muscular chest, a direct testament to his ability to fight, before sliding down to the injury.

"You call that ‘bandaged’? You just used a piece of cloth to press on it. No wonder it still hurts," she remarked as she watched him remove his makeshift bandage with a grimace.

At that moment, a servant dressed in a simple loincloth and bearing the head of a jackal appeared at the entrance of the living room, carrying a tray with a bowl of warm water, clean towels, a needle, and materials for a proper bandage. Before he could even set the tools down, Anaïs grabbed a towel, dipped it into the water, and knelt beside Anubis, determined to handle this part of the care herself. The servant did not protest and remained still a few feet behind her, holding the tray. Anubis, initially surprised by her gesture, eventually allowed her to proceed, placing his hands on the couch behind him to position his wound in a way that made it easier for his impromptu nurse to work.

"I thought you would hate me after being responsible for your death," he said, watching her clean the skin around the wound.

"Why would I hate you for the best thing that’s ever happened in my life?"

"This isn’t a game, you know," he replied calmly, not wanting her to be flippant about his comment.

"I know, I know," she complained dramatically, "with great power comes great responsibility."

Anubis raised an eyebrow, impressed though he maintained a skeptical expression.

"What? Are my wise words surprising you?" she laughed.

"A little," he admitted with a smile.

If only he knew where that phrase came from… He’d never take me seriously again, she thought, chuckling.

"If you feel guilty, you can make it up to me by answering a question," she continued, feeling that the moment was finally right to broach the topic.

"Of course, I’m listening."

"Where are my parents’ souls? Will I be able to see them now that I have powers?" she asked, her eyes shining with hope.

An optimism that Anubis quickly dashed with a regretful look.

"I don’t know, but unless they deliberately chose the Duat as their final resting place, they aren’t here. Based on what you’ve told me, that seems unlikely. Even if you knew which paradise they chose, you still wouldn’t have the right to go there. We don’t intermingle with the gods of other pantheons. I’m sorry."

A sigh escaped her lips in response. She was disappointed, of course, but she had expected this type of answer. It would have been too good to be true otherwise. And it wasn’t as if she had already resigned herself to never seeing them again. She had held onto a sliver of hope for a brief moment, but it wasn’t meant to be. She would bury it alongside her memories.

Accepting her fate, she stood up to grab another towel, dipping it into the warm water to finish cleaning the god’s wound. It was still bleeding slightly, but she had at least managed to clean the area around it. Modern medicine would say this wasn’t enough to prevent an infection, but her patient was a deity, after all. Perhaps he wasn’t susceptible to such inconveniences.

Anubis spent the next few seconds silently watching Anaïs as she carefully tended to his wound. The closer she got to the injury, the gentler her movements became, trying not to cause him any pain. Once she deemed the wound clean enough, she stepped aside to let the servant take over and stitch up his master’s skin.

At that moment, Sobek made a grand entrance into the living room, his eyes sparkling with amusement as he observed the pair. It was clear to Anaïs that he hadn’t missed the intimate moment between them. His almost arrogant smirk suggested that he knew exactly what might happen in the not-so-distant future. She rolled her eyes, mimicking his smile, completely unbothered by his assumptions. Anubis, oblivious to the exchange, only noticed his friend’s presence when Sobek greeted them loudly.

"You’re not leaving before tomorrow morning, I assume?" Sobek called out as he settled onto a nearby couch. Anubis nodded to confirm his guess. "Then it’s the perfect chance to show Anaïs the Dakhleh Oasis, isn’t it? I suspect you won’t be spending much time in Imentet if I’ve understood the situation correctly."

"Why not," Anubis agreed after a moment’s thought, "but I need to clean up first, and we should eat something before we go."

"Perfect, that’ll give Anaïs a chance to tell me how her elevation to Akh went."

As Sobek shared an amusing story about one of his past parties, the servant finished suturing Anubis’s wound. Unsurprisingly, the god of the Nile’s tales of nighttime revelry weren’t all that different from modern times when alcohol was involved. When the stitches were done, Anubis stood up, instructing the servant to bring bandages and ointment to the bathroom so he could finish cleaning up. As soon as Anubis left the room, Anaïs took his place on the couch with a sigh, ready to recount the events from her death to her resurrection. Sobek listened intently as if he were watching a dramatic TV show, seeming to enjoy the unfolding drama in the lives of the two companions a bit too much.

"I wonder what kind of magic I’m capable of now... I can feel it’s a part of me, but I don’t know how to use this energy."

"When you need it, your body will handle it instinctively. Magic is like an extension of yourself. You’ll know how to use it," Sobek reassured her.

"It’s just a shame that I’m not free to move as I please," she concluded before Anubis returned.

Though she technically had the right to move between the two worlds, the fact that her body now housed the amulet’s detection properties meant she couldn’t escape the watchful eyes of Osiris’s followers. She had traded her freedom for a magical status. In her eyes, it was a fair exchange, especially since they would leave her alone once all the pieces were in their possession, right? And after all, there were worse fates than spending time in the company of a mysterious and handsome man. And his somewhat overprotective mother.

"I asked the servants to grill some meat and vegetables before I cleaned up," Anubis announced as he sat down with them. "The meal should be ready soon."

Indeed, a few minutes later, two more servants with jackal heads appeared from the hallway, placing dishes of fire-grilled food, plates, and gold-plated cutlery on the chest serving as a coffee table. The vegetables were tender and grilled to perfection, and the meat, which she assumed was beef, was melt-in-your-mouth tender—a true delight for Anaïs, who hadn’t had a hot meal in nearly two days. The hearty food provided as much energy as it did fatigue, as her stomach filled and her muscles relaxed significantly. After sampling a bit of everything, she decided to stop eating to avoid succumbing too soon to the call of a nap, especially since they would be leaving shortly for the Dakhleh Oasis.

Wait, am I going to have to swim in this simple white dress? Did Sobek plan this so they could sneak a peek? Anaïs suddenly thought, narrowing her eyes at the crocodile god, who completely ignored her accusatory glare. Suspicious.