4 Exposition and Drinking Wine
Ílios POV
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now?" Spit out the cat lady, her voice full of venom. "Not only do you refuse to answer my question, but you dare think yourself worthy enough to bed me, and in the presence of the Pharaoh himself, I don't know whether to call you brave or stupid."
"Forgive me, fair lady, I meant no disrespect I was merely captivated by your beauty that I lost myself and forgot proper etiquette. " I say try to sound as charming and proper as possible hoping to deescalate the situation. It works somewhat as the scowl on her face lessens somewhat.
"Now if you could please lower your axe and allow me to introduce myself and explain my presence on your vessel, that would be great. " I ask her.
"Fine if my King permits it then I will allow it. " She says before turning to the other 2 passengers and addressing what appears to be a giant ram-headed man. "My King will you allow this peasant to speak or should I dispose of him swiftly. " She asks him.
"There is no need for any violence Sekhmet, though he is late and his means of arrival was quite surprising I have been expecting him. " Calmly spoke who I'm just going to refer to as Ram guy.
"This is the young godling you told me about? I was expecting more of someone that the creator himself asked his oldest creation to personally train, I have to say I'm greatly disappointed." Said the aardvark who I'm just gonna refer to as Arthur, with disbelief in his voice.
"Wait you mean to tell me that the Creator asked you to train this peasant? Why he doesn't seem to be anything special, he's already matured yet can barely handle his divinity, look at him he's exhausted just by travelling here, surely the Creator would not waste your time asking you to train this insect. " Asked the cat lady.
' Insect? I know I'm not up to par yet with some of the higher tier powers in this world but I don't think I'm an insect, if anything being able to access so much of my domain without having yet claimed it is very impressive if you consider that I'm not even a day old yet, in fact, I'm not even an hour old yet, I spent less than 5 minutes with my parents, less than 10 minutes to travel to the forge and talked with Khaos for 3 minutes tops, add in the travel time back to earth and the last minute talking to these 3 and I'm only half an hour old at most, I think what being able to access my unclaimed domains at my age is more impressive than anything she could possibly do at my age.' I think to myself.
"Half an hour old, impossible!!! You'd have to be someone of incredible potential to be able to access your powers at such a young age, I just assumed he was an unimportant minor son of Thoth, you mean to tell me he was just recently born, tell me he's jesting father. Surely I would have heard news of a promising new God being born." Sekhmet speaks out in shock.
'Wait how does she know how old I am, and what does the Arthur guy mean saying Ram guy's gonna train me I thought Khaos was sending me to Ra, I have no clue who this Ram guy is. ' I think to myself, more confused than ever.
"To answer your question first daughter no he is not jesting, he is in fact as of right now only 29 minutes old, as for you young one, yes you were correct about who your teacher was to be, I am Ra yet not Ra, I am also Khepri yet not Khepri, I am The Source of the Nile, The Evening Sun, The Ram of Night's Flock, The Divine Potter, I am Khnum God of Fertility and the Rivers of the Underworld, from this day on until you prove yourself to be worthy you are my student. " He said with power emanating in his voice and a serious expression on his face before a small smirk appeared and he spoke again. "And as to how Sekhmet knew of your age, that coincides with my first lesson, guarding your thoughts properly less you want your future teachers to know you refer to them as Ram Guy and Arthur, Where you came up with that name for Set I know not but father did tell me you were a unique individual. " he said with a small smile on his face.
It all made sense to me now, though my knowledge of Egyptian Gods isn't as great I do remember that Ra would cycle between 3 aspects in starting in the morning with the rising of the sun representing rebirth and renewal, at noon he was Ra representing life and growth, and with the sunset came the representation of death.
'I guess he's Ra's evening form, a representation of death in the cycle.' I think to myself. 'This is great, I wasn't wrong after all, not only will I be training Ra, but also his other aspects and gossip Set too, I know he used to help Ra battle against Apophis, so maybe I might get a chance at some real battle experience against the snake. "
"Don't get too ahead of yourself young one, You are nowhere near ready to even touch the Chaos Serpent, as you are now you would be less than an insect before him. No, we must start with the basics then move on to combat training." He said wisely.
"I understand, I am at your command, I am ready and eager to not only learn how to fight but also how to rule as a king. " I say to him slightly bowing my head as a sign of respect.
Sekhmet POV
'King? Why would he need to learn anything of kingship? There is only one King and there will only ever be one King, and that is my father. And even if my father were to ever abdicate from his throne does this young upstart really think himself more worthy them all the others claimants, does he believe worthier than Ra's most loyal lieutenant Set, or the Wise Osiris, or even their brother Horus a patron of human kings?' I think to myself.
This fool clearly thinks much too highly of himself. I should snuff his clearly inflated ego now less he does something foolish in the future like challenge father for his throne.
"King? Did I hear that right?" I speak up gaining his attention. "Why should my father waste time out to f his already busy schedule to educate you on the ways of kingship, surely you don't think you'll inherit the seat of Pharao? Preposterous, you should be glad that the Creator and my father have deemed you worthy of training, they must wish for you to one day join us on our nightly journeys through the Duat, but kingship is something out of your reach you upsta-" My father interrupts me before I can further berate the godling.
"Silence daughter!! Do not speak on matters you know not of, the young one has said nothing outrageous, I would be happy to teach him the ways of ruling, though I hope he will not forget his teacher when he one day becomes a king and maintain friendly relations, I wouldn't want a repeat of his deranged father's foolish war a millennia ago."
'His father's war?' I ask myself. I have no idea what father is speaking of there's never been a divine war between us gods in Egypt. The only divine war I can remember is against that mad titan Kron-
"He's a Greek??!!!!" I scream out cutting my train of thought. "Father please tell me I'm lying you know the laws, you and every other Chief Deity swore upon the Creator himself that there would no longer be any inter pantheon mingling, some minor meetings might be forgiven, but training who I'm also is the son of Kronos himself might be seen as us allying and gearing for war, the other pantheons will not allow this especially because it was you who asked all the other Chiefs to swore that oath, The Trimurti might let this be, and Lord Ahura is wise enough to stay out of it, but you know how much of a warmonger Odin is especially since he never got over his defeat by your hands in the war, and let's not forget the Mad Titan himself, I heard he's eaten all his older children for fear of being overthrown, how do you think he'll react if he finds out your training his son as a possible weapon against him, he will surely believe you mean to dethrone him and make yourself God of not only Egypt but also Greece. Father, I urge you to send this godling back to his homeland, now is not the time for war the world has become too chaotic since the last Divine War and the more chaos there is the more it affects your mind and strength, already I hear Osiris and that Whore wife of whisper words of you starting to become senile, We Egyptian Gods are only as strong as you father, the stronger you are the stronger we become the only exceptions being gods of chaos like Lord Set. If war were to start we would surely lose to the Trimurti, lose to the Titans, we might even lose to the Aesir if they manage to convince their Vanir cousins to join, I hear talks of unification between them after their last war. Father, I urge you to be rational and stop this please." I finish praying that he will follow my advice.
"Are you finished ranting daughter?" he says with a calm tone. "Relieve yourself of these worrying thoughts, war will not happen, since this was a request from Father himself he has agreed to mask the boy's presence from any being powerful enough to spy on us, as we are now not even the watchman Heimdall's gaze could see us, as for Kronos he thinks his son hiding out somewhere in the Greek underworld courtesy of queen Rhea, so calm yourself."
"Apologies Father, I spoke out of turn, I should have known not to doubt your judgment, if you believe the boy to be worthy of teaching than. I will support you fully" I say to him bowing down.
Ílios POV
As I stand in front of the 3 deities I ponder on what Khnum and Sekhmet just said. 'Divine War?' I never read about anything like this in any of the Riordan Verse books, this is probably something Khaos added to make things more interesting. 'I should ask him about it this seems like something too I'm ok not to know about.' I think to myself.
"Lord Khmum, if I may be so bold as to ask, could you tell me about this so called Divine War? I'd love to learn more about my History." I ask him.
"Of course child, but if you would first go into the cabin and grab a small table and a pitcher of wine and 4 cups and set it up, that would be greatly appreciated." He kindly asks me.
Though I don't like being ordered around so casually, there's nothing I can do about it seeing as how he's my teacher. I make my way into the cabin and grab a small table and another stool for myself and set it up on the deck before going back grabbing the wine pitcher and four cups. I walk out and set the cups on the table and pour a cup for the 3 elder deities and then one for myself before taking a seat across fro Khnum.
"Now we can begin our journey into the Duat while I tell you of this world's history, worry not of the Serpent he's too smart to come in his most powerful aspect early on in the journey, he always sends out weaker splinters of himself to weaken us first, before coming at us personally right before dawn. Though the splinters might be stronger today seeing as Apophis is at his strongest in millennia. But fear not my lieutenant Set and my daughter Sekhmet will handle them." He says to me calmly.
A portal opens up before us at the edge of the river and we slowly enter just as Khnum begins his story.
"If you wish to learn about the second Divine War which your father started you must also learn about the very first Divine war, and of this world's history."
