“What say you, Nakht?” Osiris asked.
Nakht glanced once more to me, then back at Osiris. “I was asked again and again what I would give, what I would do, what I most wanted, but Meryt was the one who died.” He turned fully to face me, speaking to the gods, yes, but also to me. “He gave up his life to spare mine. It is not my place to choose for us, even if the gods bid it. Dusk to my dawn, I will follow wherever you lead me, always, as I did when I followed you through the afterlife.
“What doyouchoose? And whatever the answer, I will be content so long as I am with you.”
As they had earlier, my eyes filled with tears, for there could never be someone I loved as much as I loved my dawn.
“Nowyou have proven worthy,” Osiris said.
“What?” we both sputtered as we spun to face him.
“Your real final trial was whether you would take choice from your beloved or leave it to him, for true love is selfless. True love would never take choice, but offer it. And in the end, you did.”
“Many times,” Anubis added.
We were both so paralyzed with wonder, we laughed.
Eventually, Nakht asked me again, “What do you choose, Meryt?”
I smiled. I knew which choice Nakht would make, and it was what I wanted too.
“We have read the answer of your heart, Meryt,” Horus said. “You are certain that is the path you wish to tread?”
I should have known they wouldn’t need me to speak it. “Yes, I believe so. It is.” I looked once more to Nakht, for I would never take choice from him either. “Let us see what a new life might bring us, shall we? But only if you agree.”
Nakht smiled just as widely back at me, then looked at the gods in a quick circle. “With Pasht too? I am fairly certain her being here was her way of saying she wishes to join us. Do the gods concur?”
“It seems we must,” Seth spoke at last, and with his voice filling the ethereal chamber, I noticed a slight turn of Horus’s head, as if drawn simply by the sound of him, when otherwise, the gods had all remained still.
“So say you then?” Osiris asked. “You accept your reward?”
Nakht wrapped an arm around me, kissed my cheek, and stroked Pasht’s soft head, as together we faced the gods and answered:
“We do.”
The following chapter contains:
Teasing and Simultaneous Hand Jobs that span across the ages.
The Reward
NERO
We persist.
We love.
We are.
“Hey, Nero?”
“Hm?” I looked up from my work on the outgoing Chinese collection that the museum would be passing on to its next destination, since our new exhibit was set to be finished with its installation tonight. It was my job as a conservator to ensure that every artifact that had been displayed left our museum in the same—or better—condition than how it arrived.
Some of the fabrications I had helped craft to enhance the old exhibit would be stored away for potential future use, some of it trashed, and some… well.
Some would end up in my apartment, and my fiancé, Merry, would simply have to put up with it. He always did. He might mock me incessantly over it, but only in play, never really like he minded my love of all things ancient that might have otherwise been forgotten if not preserved.
My papercraft clouds, inspired by Chinese paintings, might not be ancient themselves, but they still represented the cultures and times I loved. Plus, they would look super cool hanging from our living room ceiling.
