Nakht: Oaths Of Death|MLM

This story is not intended to offend or disrespect any culture or civilization. Everything written and mentioned here is purely fictional and should not be considered a historical or scientific reference for any civilization’s mythology. Please refer to reliable and trustworthy sources for accurate information about these mythologies.

The sun’s rays stretched across the small temple located in the heart of Kemet, very close to the king’s palace.

It was a useful temple, not only for prayer and worship, but also a place where the priests gathered to discuss various matters. It was also where the high-ranking officials, nobles, members of the upper class, kings, and princes were embalmed.

Every corpse or body that entered that room belonged to someone who had lived a life different from that of the common people. By that, I may mean a life of luxury.

But death does not distinguish between a prince and a farmer.

In that dark room, there were no windows, yet it was cold, filled with winds mingled with the scent of incense. They believed that this coldness came from the presence of the gods, for the room was never like this under normal circumstances, when no embalming was taking place.

But at that moment, the body of someone lay upon the wooden table.

He slowly moved his hand, squeezing the cloth he held into the bowl of water until it was completely soaked. Then he slowly approached and began gently wiping the corpse’s neck, his gaze fixed intently on how close death was to him, trapped among the gods of death because of his work.

He took the deceased’s hand and began carefully cleaning the body with the cloth.

He may not be able to see them, but he could feel their presence clearly.

After he finished the thorough cleaning, he took a clay container filled with cedar oil mixed with myrrh and began wiping the cloth over the entire body.

Meanwhile, those who would be helping him entered. There were two priests and a servant. The servant carried two large Konbia vessels, while each of the priests carried one. They placed them on a nearby table, where the servant opened them. Each vessel bore its own unique design.

“Are you finished?” the priest asked.

The man who was cleaning the body nodded, and the priest handed him some tools.“Do not make a small opening and stretch the skin. Make an opening only large enough for what you need to remove.”

The other man nodded, took a knife, and began working on the skin surrounding the digestive system. Meanwhile, the servant approached with large, wide dishes . As he slowly reached toward the body, he took a deep breath.

He carefully placed the stomach into the dishes, his eyes moving from his hands to the dishes itself. Next came the liver, the lungs, and then the intestines.

It might have seemed easy to the priests, but for him, a young man still at the beginning of his life, handling human organs was certainly not an easy thing.

The other priest moved on to the embalming of the organs that had been placed in the dishes .

He then began inserting clean linen into the empty spaces left by the removed organs, preparing the body for external embalming. The final stages of the embalming process were less physically demanding, but more difficult and more stressful.

This was not even supposed to be part of his duties, but he was training under the most skilled priests. They trusted him, and he was the most accomplished among them.

With the priests’ help, he began wrapping the body in linen. This was the last task he had to perform.

The priest looked at him with a smile as he leaned down and used a small knife to cut the part covering the mouth.“Excellent work.”

The young man nodded gratefully at the praise. The priest calmly continued,“Your work here is finished. May the god Atum bless you.”

He left the temple after receiving the praise he usually received following the embalming process.

He stepped out through the temple doors and took a deep breath, gazing up at the clear sky. He walked slowly, calmly looking around at the people.

The farmers were striking their hoes into the earth in the fields near the banks of the Nile, working tirelessly. He moved a little closer to the edge of the crops. The rice crop would normally be submerged in water, and its proximity to the Nile was a great advantage for irrigation.

But when he focused his gaze on the water covering the rice field, there was something strange.

He stepped away from the rice fields and approached the bank of the Nile, gazing down at the water. Something was certainly not right. Its color had taken on a dark, murky gray, and it seemed as though all life had vanished from the Nile.

He crouched down, reaching his hand toward the water. Just before his fingertip touched it, when it was only a hair’s breadth away, he heard a deep, eerily calm voice.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t touch that.”

He quickly turned toward the voice, though he did not stand yet. He looked at the pale, bare feet, and when he raised his eyes to the figure, he saw a pale man with a well-proportioned build, wearing a shendyt that reached his knees. It was white with black edges.

“Good heavens!”The words escaped him as he sat frozen on the ground, his eyes taking in the man before him: a pitch-black jackal mask, its eyes carrying the darkness of the entire world. He held the Ankh scepter in his hands.“I must have fallen into the Nile and died!”

“You are not dead yet, Nekht,” the pale man said.

He then extended his hand to help the man who had fallen onto the ground from shock. Nekht hesitated, unsure whether he should take his hand or not. By all the gods, the god Anubis himself was offering his hand to help him stand.

“Do not be afraid,” Anubis said. “I am not here to take your soul yet.”Anubis looked at him through the eyes of his mask.“I am always around you while you work. I never imagined this would be your reaction to seeing me.”

As Nekht steadied himself on his feet, he looked up at the taller figure before him. There was something imposing and powerful about his stance, befitting his form as the god of death and embalming.

“I apologize, my lord. It’s just…”He fell silent for a few seconds, searching for the right word for the situation.“Unbelievable.”

“Can you see the Nile?” Anubis asked as he approached the riverbank, looking at its lifeless color.

“Yes. What happened to the water?” Nekht curiously said, tilting his head toward the water.“Can the others see this? Or even see you? Because I don’t see any of the farmers looking frightened except me.”

“You’re the only one who can see this. That’s why I revealed myself to you. I saw you about to touch the water, so I had to call out to you before you got a one-way ticket to the Duat,” Anubis said.

“Damn!”Nekht stared at him in shock, his eyes widening.“But even so… this looks terrifying. It’s as if… life itself is disappearing.”

Anubis nodded as he looked at Nekht.“Something is wrong in the Duat as well. It feels as though the Duat itself is trembling, so I came here to inspect the area. And it seems the Nile is unstable too.”

Nekht had already stood up and moved closer to Anubis. He seemed more curious about Anubis than the Nile or the disturbance affecting the realm of the dead.

Nekht inhaled more deeply than necessary. He wanted to know what Anubis smelled like.

Anubis noticed. “You do know that things don’t work that way with gods, right?” Anubis said.

Nekht cleared his throat awkwardly. “Sorry.”

Nekht looked around him before saying calmly,“People would probably think I was crazy if no one else could see you.”

Anubis hummed in agreement as he reached toward the water after approaching and crouching down by the riverbank. The water in the palm of his hand was clear and clean, but the river itself was not.“Looks like the problem is deeper inside.”

“What about…”

“Khnum?” Anubis calmly interrupted Nekht. “We don’t know. We don’t know how to reach him, nor Hapi, or any other god of the river. All the channels of life and communication in the Nile have been cut off.”

“Is the Nile dead, then?” Nekht asked, a hint of confusion and fear in his voice, his eyes shifting toward the farmers somewhere ahead of him.

“Is it dangerous for them to continue farming with this water?”Anubis looked at Nekht for a long moment before speaking calmly, as though a faint sigh had escaped through his mask.“I don’t know. No one knows yet. But we will find out.”

Nekht suddenly smiled, a hint of excitement hidden in his voice.“So… can I see the others?”