It had been a very interesting lecture.

Thoth would have liked to have interjected a few time with some questioned, however, he did not want to interrupt the flow of the speaker. Nor did he wish to intimidate the others that chose to pose their own queries at the end of the lecture by asking something that might have thrown the lecturer for enough of a loop to end the question and answer portion of the program. It was better to allow all that were present to experience this and learn as much as they possibly could from the material presented. Then, with any luck, they would take that information and think on it until they reached their own thought-out conclusions.

One could only hope. It was not always the case. He knew that. A sad truth, but it was all he could do was hope that in time ( things would turn toward a desire for higher knowledge again.  )

This, then, was what it came down to. This room. It was always this room. Seshat sighed as she stood outside the doors, wondering why it was like this every year. Spring cleaning should take no more than three days, a week at the most. But here it was, nearly summer, and this room was still not taken care of to her satisfaction. Though she couldn't really blame the servants. It wasn't their fault. ( It was her husband's. )

The Salisbury Plain. Thoth had to admit it that had a certain mystical quality to it, he supposed. Especially when the sun rose or set over the monumental landmark that distinguished the Plain from others and became to many a definite stop when visiting southern England. The logical part of Thoth's brain knew that it had something to do with the latitude, the way the barometric pressure tended to be and the fact that the henge stones were massive and created just a sense of wonder and awe in the mortal onlookers. That was the easy answer. The rest... not so much.

It was magical and mystical and it was definitely a curious wonder all in itself. Firstly, how and when it was built. For hundreds of years Thoth visited Stonehenge hoping to figure out the answers to his questions. It had always been thought, and the Greeks still tended to think it, that the Celts were a young people. At least in comparison to Egypt, Sumer and Greece, but that couldn't be so. ( At least not to the degree many believed. )

The office was dark, only a faint desk lamp lighting a small portion of the enormous redwood desk. The walls were blood red, the carpet black. Everything else in the room was shiny chrome and steel, hard, cold, unforgiving. Just like the man that sat at the desk with his red Tony Lama rattlesnake skin boots propped on one corner, the Cuban cigar sticking out of one corner of his mouth. In this world he was known as Seth Richards. But in the Duat and the realm of the gods, he was simply known as Set.

“What do you mean you can’t motherfuckin’ get the well to work?” Set growled in a deep bass voice. He took the cigar from his mouth, tucking it between the forefinger and middle finger of his right hand and pointed to the man before him. “I am not payin’ you to tell me the well won’t work. I’m payin’ you to fix it. Now get the hell outta my office!” He watched as the man rushed to the door, reminding Set of a rat scurrying. In annoyance, Set flicked his finger towards the man and smiled coldly as the thin, hairless tail appeared.

It had been a long week and winter in Dallas was not one of Set’s favorite times of year. He yearned for the sand of Egypt, wished Naqada was still on the map. That was where he longed to be. ( Maybe it was time for a vacation. He would’ve considered Vegas, except the city actually had snow. Snow! In Vegas! What was up with that? )

It was rare this time of year that he was able to sit down and put his feet up on the tasseled hassock in his study. Which was why, as he settled into the cushy plumpness of his red velvet chair, Santa began mentally reviewing his to-do list for today. Did he really have time to enjoy his peppermint hot cocoa, or had he forgotten something that would require his attention?

( The List )

(Note: Because Thoth likes everybody, anybody that he'd collected on his way out of the party would be welcome in his London home, along with Bast.)




There was light.

Why was there light?

There should not be light. Of any kind. Anywhere. Ever again.

Bast tried to pull one of her pillows over her head to block out the offending brightness, but her questing fingers found nothing to grasp. Despite her loathing of the light, she cracked one eyelid just enough to look for what was missing. There were no pillows in front of her, like there should be. Actually, the sheets were the wrong color too. And why had her bed been turned sideways so that it was in the path of the sunlight coming through that window?

( Wait. )

There was no knowing if he would ever actually see Loki again. Bes liked to think that the guy would take him up on his offer. Sure he'd been a little flip about it, but the dude was bound to be more than a bit lost in this modern world. Bes had no idea how long he'd actually been in the cave, but the Northman had said "ages and ages". That sounded like a damned long time.

Nope, he'd see him again. He just had a hunch about it.

But before he saw him again, Bes wanted some sort of idea what he was getting into. Not from a standpoint of worrying about what kind of guy Loki was- Bes never doubted his own instincts in such things. It was more a matter of knowing more about him so he knew what things to avoid talking about.

( And why Loki wished he'd known him ages ago. )

Thoth was fond of Berkeley. The campus was attractive, the students were generally pretty intelligent and overall it had a nice, relaxed, homey feel to it. He enjoyed just listening to students postulate on things, come to various and usually incorrect conclusions without piecing together their arguments properly. ( It was what happened when young minds thought they were right on the basis of no one ever having had proven them wrong. )

Sometimes, when things seemed particularly quiet, Ahti got an impulse to see her homeland. Recently, it had been a hotbed of chaos, and she was pleased and proud of her part in bringing that about. The last year had been a very entertaining time as she wound her way through the land of her birth, adding her influence to the already tense situation. Now, as things there were once again calming down, at least relative to where they had been, she felt that odd desire to see those she remembered from her earlier days when the land was new. Somehow, being here in Egypt made her somewhat nostalgic.

There weren't many friends to chose from. Few deities, to her mind, still accepted her, and even less without conditions. Thoth was at the top of the list of those that did. The God of Wisdom understood Ahti, at least to the point that he knew where she was coming from, and that her influence was necessary. Sometimes, she even felt like he actually "got" her. She couldn't say that about very many.

( So it was that she decided to head to London. )

After putting the back on her second earring, Isis stood back and surveyed her reflection with pleasure. The simple red cocktail dress suited her skin tone, and red had always been her color. She'd left her hair down for a more relaxed look, and the gold earrings were the only adornment she chose for the evening. It was an elegant yet less rigid look than normal. She wanted to look her best. This was an important night for her, though many might look on it as something quite ordinary, boring even. Yet there were too few nights like this, and they seemed to grow more and more infrequent through the years.

( Her family was coming to dinner. )