Chapter Text
Somewhere under the hot desert sun of the Land of Lower Setekh, a small child played in the sand while his parents rested in the shade of a nearby rock formation. The child was so preoccupied with his play that he didn’t notice the two men approaching him until he was grabbed and forcefully lifted off the ground. He let out a shriek and flailed in the man’s grasp. The other man walked up to where the child’s parents were resting and handed the father a large bag of mora. The mother was in tears but made no effort to try and take her child back. The second man quickly retreated to stand by the man holding up the child. He calls back to the child’s parents before walking off.
“This child is crucial to the resurrection of our Lord Hermanubis. The Temple of Silence thanks you for your sacrifice. May you be blessed by His glory when the time comes.”
The father nods solemnly and mother speaks up in a quivering voice.
“Please… take good care of him…”
The men don’t pay any mind to her and carry the child off into the desert. The child struggles to escape, but his small body is nowhere near strong enough to fight off the two men holding him. He reaches out to where parents remain under the rock formation.
“Help! Mama?”
The second man puts his hand over the child’s mouth to prevent him from screaming.
“Mama isn’t coming back for you. You belong to the Temple of Silence now. It is our Lord Hermanubis you should be calling for, not some mortal woman.”
The child doesn’t understand the man’s words. He doesn’t understand who Hermanubis is or why these men are taking him. All he knows is that he’s being taken away from his parents, his home, his entire lifestyle, and no one was going to help him.
The child was too focused on trying to get away from his captors to remember most of the journey. The men threw him onto the hard stone floor of wherever they had taken him. He scrambles to his feet only to find himself surrounded by countless people in strange robes and tunics. The child starts to back away, only to find the men still standing behind him. There’s no way he’d be able to escape from this place. There were far too many people surrounding him and he was especially weakened from his struggle on the way here.
After another look over the area, the child finds that the people gathered here were not paying attention to him, rather, they were fixated on another child. This child was crouching near what appeared to be a throne of sorts, tears streaming down his face and fear evident in his striking green eyes. His entire body was shaking and he was clutching a lock of his long brown hair as if his life depended on it. Some of the people in robes were surrounding this child, holding some sort of glowing object that the child appeared to be scared of. Sitting on the throne was an old man wearing a purple tunic. The old man seemed to be yelling at the people in robes who kept insisting on something. The first child didn’t get the chance to discern what was happening before the men were dragging him over to the scene.
“Another vessel; Lord Hermanubis has blessed us…”
The child didn’t know who was talking nor did he hear the rest of the statement as he was shoved towards the glowing object. He tried to back away but the men kept shoving him forward. He was forced to come in contact with the glowing object and felt a searing pain in his chest. He let out a cry only for one of the men to grab him, pressing his hand over his mouth to silence him once again. A little ways off in the distance, the other man grabbed the other child. That child locked eyes with the first child, and he knew from that moment on that he was the only person he could trust in this cruel world. Whoever this child was had been sentenced to the same fate as him, and the first child would need to stick with him if they planned to survive.
But that was a long time ago…
Cyno sat on the makeshift bed in his room at the Temple of Silence. He had a blanket thrown over his shoulders in an attempt to keep warm in the cold desert night and was mindlessly flipping through the pages of a book which he technically wasn’t supposed to have. To the Temple, he was nothing more than a vessel for the divine spirit of Hermanubis; a tool to be used for the resurrection of their Lord and thrown out once he was deemed unnecessary. When people looked at him, they didn’t see a person; they saw an object holding a fragment of their precious god that needed to be kept alive for the sake of preserving said fragment and nothing else. Sethos also held one of the Ba Fragments, but he was much more than a vessel to them. He was their beloved heir that was chosen by Bamoun himself to carry on the Temple’s sacred duties. When the time came for the Ba Fragments to be reunited, it was Sethos they would choose as their vessel. What would happen to Cyno when that time came? Would they kill him? Would they set him free? Would they force him to continue on with his life in the Temple?
Cyno was ripped out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps approaching his room. He quickly put out the oil lamp and threw the blanket over himself on the bed. If he pretended to be asleep, whoever was coming might turn back. He tensed as he heard the sound of the stone door opening and someone walking up to the bed. The Temple had been putting him and Sethos under trials recently to test their reactions to the Ba Fragments. He wished more than anything for them to drop the trials. He wished he wouldn’t be forced to suffer while Sethos sat on the side completely unbothered because Bamoun couldn’t possibly risk even the slightest discomfort to his precious grandson.
Whoever had approached Cyno put their hand on his shoulder and gently shook him. He tried ignoring them, but they shook him again; slightly harder this time,
“Cyno, you awake?”
Cyno hesitantly looked up at the person; he could just barely distinguish their green eyes in the low light. He slowly sat up, pulling the blanket over his shoulders again.
“Sethos? What are you doing?”
Sethos sat down on the bed next to Cyno, pulling more of the blanket over his back.
“Just wanted to check up on you. Your fever came back, hasn’t it?”
Cyno scooted away from Sethos. Even in the darkness he could feel his eyes piercing through him. His whole life, Cyno had experienced horrible headaches and fevers from time to time. The temple doctors claimed it was from the Ba Fragment held in his body and there was nothing they could do to ease his pain. He stopped visiting them when the symptoms came around. All they would do is send him to his room for the night and tell him to ‘embrace what Lord Hermanubis gives him’ and ‘accept the pain as a gift from his Lord’. When his fever started up again earlier that day, he had tried to hide it the best he could. He didn’t need to give the temple another chance to see how he was so weak and how Sethos was so clearly the better of the two.
“How did you know?”
Sethos moved closer and gently pressed his hand against Cyno’s head. Cyno tensed at the sudden action but didn’t try to push Sethos away.
“You haven’t talked to me all day and hardly ate anything at dinner.”
Sethos removed his hand from Cyno’s forehead and ran his fingers through his tangled white hair.
“You know you can tell me these things, right? I’ll always be there if you need to talk to someone. I’ve gone through these things myself, you know.”
Cyno sighed heavily, refusing to look in Sethos’ general direction. He had a point, after all. Sethos always tried to make time for Cyno and never invalidated his symptoms or told him to just suck it up and accept it as a part of being Hermanubis’ vessel. It was always Sethos that ensured he stayed well hydrated and fed. If it weren’t for Sethos, the temple would’ve probably forgotten about Cyno and left him to perish in one of the temple’s unused rooms. As for his fevers, Sethos never experienced the mind numbing pain and sleepless nights like Cyno did. Sure, Sethos had symptoms, but they were never severe to begin with, and the doctors were more than willing to throw whatever medication they had at him to rid him of his mild discomfort. Sethos never had symptoms anymore. If Cyno were to ask the doctors about it, they’d probably say it’s because Sethos is so much stronger than him or that Hermanubis has chosen Sethos over him.
“You should let me style your hair some day.”
Cyno jolted at the sound of Sethos’ voice. He would’ve probably forgotten he was here if it wasn’t for the way he was still messing with his hair. He turned around to face him and could faintly make out his silhouette on the bed next to him. Before he could respond, Sethos stood up and made his way to the small table beside the bed. He lit the oil lamp and Cyno covered his eyes in response to the bright light. When he looked up, Sethos was holding the book he had snuck in there earlier. The light cast a golden glow over his skin as eyes scanned over the back of the book.
“Sethos…”
Cyno was unable to complete his statement as he was suddenly hit with a bout of coughing. Sethos put the book down on the table and sat down next to Cyno again. He grabbed his chin, forcing Cyno to look up at him.
“Hey hey hey, just breathe; you’ll be okay. Here, drink some water.”
Sethos handed Cyno his waterskin and he hesitantly took a sip from it. The water was clean, unlike the water in the temple he was used to that always had this strange green tint to it. Sethos took back his waterskin and shot Cyno a curious look.
“I didn’t know you were so interested in the Mausoleum of King Deshret.”
Cyno stared back for a moment, confused, before he realized Sethos was referring to the book he had taken.
“Oh… I just took the first book I could get my hands on without anyone noticing.”
“Without anyone noticing? Why would it matter if someone noticed?”
Cyno looked down at his feet. Of course Sethos was allowed to read whatever books he wanted. The temple wanted Sethos to learn so he could become a knowledgeable and well educated leader some day. As for Cyno, they probably wanted him to stay ignorant so he was less likely to cause trouble.
“It doesn’t matter. I was hoping to find out more about Hermanubis.”
Sethos picked the book up again and read the text on the back.
“This is a study published by a Vahumana researcher. It mainly focuses on the ruins found at the Mausoleum of King Deshret and potential connections to other ruins found in the desert. There’s a note here that says the researcher was later expelled from the Akademiya for her research on the Court of Desolation. It’s one of several banned books over the topic we have here at the Temple of Silence. I’ve read a few of them before and I doubt you’d find much about Hermanubis in it.”
Cyno stared back at Sethos with a blank expression. He didn’t understand half of what he just said.
“Erm… what I’m trying to say is, you won’t find anything about Hermanubis in this book or any of the books in that section, really.”
Cyno sighed, glancing over at the book in Sethos’ hands.
“I’m not allowed to read the books.”
Sethos cocked his head to the side, confusion evident on his face.
“You’re not allowed to read the books? How are you going to learn anything? Besides, you have this book, don’t you?”
“The temple doesn’t allow me to have books. I’m technically not supposed to have that one, either.”
Sethos stared down at the book in his hands.
“I’ll talk to Grandfather about that…”
Cyno shook his head. He wanted to tell Sethos not to bring this up when he felt a wave of nausea wash over him. His face must have given it away, because Sethos’ entire demeanor changed when he looked back up at him. He put the book down and helped pull the blankets over Cyno’s shoulders.
“Cyno? Are you feeling okay? Do you need me to get the doctors?”
Cyno cringed at the thought of the doctors coming over to check on him, especially at this hour. He coughed and shoved Sethos away.
“No… don’t get the doctors. I’m fine. Just… tired.”
Sethos stood up and Cyno laid down on the bed, clutching the blanket tightly. He felt Sethos place his hand on his shoulder but didn’t bother to look up.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Your whole body is shaking. I can still get the doctors. They’ll come if I say it’s urgent.”
Cyno flinched as Sethos’ grip on his shoulder tightened.
“No! Don’t get the doctors! It’s just the Ba Fragment acting up again. The doctors won’t help me.”
“No no no, they’ll help you. They always helped with my fevers, they can help with yours too.”
Cyno pushed himself up to look at Sethos. He was incredibly dizzy and it was hard for him to focus in the harsh light cast by the oil lamp. This was not something he wanted Sethos to get involved with.
“Sethos, leave!”
Sethos stared back at Cyno for a moment. It was obvious how worried he was. He hesitantly put out the oil lamp and left the room.