Chapter #5: The Mentors
Mara gave Tiye a hug as they exited the house, “Have fun at the academy today. I am going to see if Thoth knows how I am supposed to mentor with and start mentoring,” She advised as she held him by the shoulders.
“Why come to see me when I am going to see you right now,” Called out a voice in the distance.
Mara and Tiye glanced towards the source of the voice and saw the gray eyed Exarch approaching them in their human form, “Thoth!” Mara smiled and ran over, “You must have known I had about all I can stand of this vacation.”
Thoth embraced their daughter in a hug, “I had a feeling. I heard you visited one of the Celestial kingdoms the other day.”
“I hope that’s not a problem,” Mara blinked, “I didn’t think it would be.”
“No, but it made me wonder if you were going to relocate for a moment,” Thoth replied as they released their daughter from the warm embrace.
“See you later, Mara,” Tiye waved as he headed for the gates in the distance.
“Have fun, Tiye!” Mara called back then focused on the Exarch standing in front of her, “I wouldn’t relocate to any of the Celestial kingdoms. I wouldn’t see Anput again.”
“What about Tiye?” Thoth gave their daughter a wry smile, “You and her are consorts. It became that way on Earth lifetimes ago.”
“I am sure Tiye would follow me if I asked,” Mara mentioned in response, “But I know how Anput feels about the Celestial Kingdoms. I have enough problems with family members having strong emotions in that area, I don’t need to mix oil in the water there and light a match to see how things would turn out if I dragged her along.”
“That is very true,” Thoth nodded and chuckled as they started to lead their daughter to one of the stone gates in the distance, “I sense you are still out of balance, however, both mentally and physically.”
Mara cocked her head in confusion, “What do you mean?” She asked.
“Your body and mind aren’t in sync,” Thoth mentioned in response, “You are close, much closer than you were when you got here, but you need to come the rest of the way on your own.”
“I know the sarcophagus changed me back to being intersex, what is wrong with me identifying as female?” Mara questioned in response.
“You could have been changed to being fully female, but something within you changed that,” Thoth mentioned as they approached the gate that would take them to other places within the interdimensional city, “It is up to you with how you want to proceed.”
Mara cocked her head as they went through the portal, “I don’t know what you mean. I mean, I feel female.”
“You want to carry a child,” Thoth mentioned, “There is nothing wrong with that and where you came from females were the ones that gave birth to their young. Isis’s sarcophagus picked up on that and reset your body, so to speak, back to what it was defaulted to. You have the capacity to change that, but it means you will lose one of the things you wanted as an Exarch.”
“But I can still identify as female,” Mara shrugged as they crossed the threshold of the portal and appeared in a new area, “I mean Sekhmet is technically intersex, but she always identifies as female.”
“That’s true,” Thoth nodded, “but she also hasn’t lived the life you have. There are a lot of notions you will need to let go and a lot of things with yourself you will have to come to terms with.”
Realizing they had crossed the threshold into another part of Avalon, she looked around, “What is this place?” She questioned in response.
“The Ma’at,” Thoth noted, “One of your Mentors is here.” She glanced to the distance and saw a reptilian body with a thin tail and wings of an Exarch. It marked the person as a clear hybrid between the Exarchs and another race. One that most of the Exarchs hated. Despite that, the four red eyes and black reptilian skin made the person look sinister. But to Mara there was nothing sinister about the person, who had been one of the most helpful to spirits that passed through the veil into Avalon after dying, refreshing them with her liquid energy, something her unique form was suited to provide, “Is my mentor Kebechet?” She asked in response.
“Well, you know we like to keep things in house,” Thoth nodded.
The brief burst of conversation drew the attention of the reptilian Exarch. She turned around and saw the two standing there and a smile graced her lips. She ran forward with a slight giggle, “Cousin!” She replied. She stopped short when she saw that Mara was in her human construct form, “Oh, we are going with human forms!” Her appearance changed at that point from the reptilian form with a thin Exarch tail to a human. Gone were the wings, scaled skin, thin tail and extra set of eyes, though the human eyes she did grace them with were still red, it suited her human body much better.
“Kebechet!” Mara smiled and embraced the Exarch in a hug, “You are out of the academy already?”
“Already?” Kebechet laughed, “I have been out of the academy since before you were reborn in the human reincarnation cycle! I thought I was going to have to drag you back here the next time you die. You love the humans too much to get back here through normal means.”
Mara chuckled, “I have the feeling that happened a few times already,” She mentioned in response.
“Well, there was a version of you, that you integrated with, that did return with the rest of us. But you are also the other part that defended that timeline from the Maldeveckian attack on Earth. Have you seen that Tangent you created?” She questioned in response.
Mara nodded, “Yeah, I have. It was a beautiful place and the technology there was quite advanced. Probably because it was never disrupted like it was in the timeline I came from.”
“You may suffer some blips as other versions of you return. It is common for Exarchs and humans that live here,” Kebechet mentioned, “Stick by me for a while and I will make sure you are taken care of.”
“Blips?” Mara cocked her head in confusion.
“It is that brief pause as another version of you reintegrates. You weren’t around me when you, the you I am talking to now, returned so I couldn’t use my spirit magic on you to ease the transition. That is one of the reasons why you needed to use the Sarcophagus, to restore you.”
“What about Anput?” Mara questioned in response, thinking of Iliana suddenly.
“Both of you passed out because the you that returned is so different than the one that returned with the rest of us,” Thoth mentioned, “It looks like you are in good hands with your cousin. I will return when it is time for you to meet your next Mentor.” With those words, Thoth disappeared.
Mara glowered and turned back to Kebechet, “I take it there are no portals here either?”
“This is an isolated part of Avalon,” Kebechet nodded, “Exarchs can move freely using their bonded paths. Like you can use the path of time. Of course, until you have control of that, you will return to the place you were the moment you left and that causes a lot of magic for the city to absorb so until you can sync the time you live in with the path of time, you are probably going to be shuttled to the isolated parts of Avalon with a chaperone.”
“Spirit is also one of my strengths,” Mara countered.
Kebechet nodded and swirled one hand over the other, slowly a shallow bowl of white quartz appeared. When the bowl was finished being created, she held her hand over it and said, “You remember the healing water I make,” She said as water started rain down from the middle of her hand filling the bowl, “In the next chamber we have souls waiting. We are going to give them healing water.”
Mara nodded. She held her right hand out and swirled Nwyfre around it with her other hand, focusing it to a point of Gwyar in the middle. Slowly particles of air collected dust, converting it and strengthening to build a matching bowl of rose quartz. Mara sighed, the process was taking longer than it did for Kebechet, “Sorry this is taking so long.”
“Believe it or not, I was expecting to make another bowl for you,” Kebechet mentioned, “It’s slower because you are using Shamanism to build up the bowl. When you learn arcane magic, you will be able to use Prime Materia to make the bowl faster. But the fact you can get by with your shamanism is a good sign.”
Mara smiled as she finished the bowl. She held her left hand over the completed bowl and focused Nwyfre right below it. She flowed red healing Nwyfre into a point of Callas and water started dripping down collecting in the basin. It collected at almost the same speed as it did when Kebechet demonstrated the healing water. When it was full, Mara stopped and handed the bowl to Kebechet, “I take it you need to verify if I made it correctly?”
Kebechet nodded and took the bowl with her free hand and took a sip. She smiled, “Perfect, just like when we were kids growing up on Earth together.”
She handed the bowl back to Mara and said, “Okay, time for our Guardian constructs.”
Mara cocked her head in confusion, “Pardon?”
Kebechet chuckled and her head changed, adopting a similar face to what she had seen before only with a cobra like shroud surrounding it, “Our Guardian forms. You have to remember the people showing up here still remember most of us with our animal faces.”
Mara nodded. She focused on summoning her guardian construct body. A moment later her face changed to that of a serval cat followed by her clothes changing into white robes. Kebechet nodded in approval, “I was wondering if you were going to stick with the Serval Cat face.”
“I just focused on my default guardian form. I don’t choose it,” Mara mentioned in response.
“Oh, so you could have been like Nephthys whose wings are her hallmark in her guardian construct?” Kebechet smirked in response.
“Little do most people know that we all have wings,” Mara smirked in response which looked a little goofy with the thin cat face she currently wore.
Kebechet nodded and motioned with her head to follow as she started to walk towards a stone gate, “Time for us to do our job.” She replied.
They walked through the portal and were transported into a different part of the Ma’at. There were the forty-two Exarchs that sat in judgement of the spirits that were in the hallway. Mara saw one column of spirits that seemed to span into eternity. A lot more than she would have thought probable considering that where she came from the religion that would have directly led them here was a dead religion. Kebechet looked back and saw the bewildered face on her cousin’s cat head. She chuckled, “You look weird. What’s up?”
“I’m confused,” Mara replied as they slowly walked. She noticed there were Acolytes on two sides offering water to the spirits that were waiting. The water seemed to refresh the patterns of each of the spirts as they waited.
“What’s confusing you? I thought you knew about the Ma’at and the judging?” Kebechet questioned in response.
“There are a lot of spirits here,” She mentioned in response.
“Oh,” Realization flashed across Kebechet’s reptilian face as they walked, “Your world isn’t the only universe in your multiverse. There are plenty of others. Plus, when an Agnostic ascends, they have to go somewhere. Usually that somewhere is random, but we do catch a lot of people who were very spiritual in their lives but doubted enough about the religion they were brought up in to direct their spirit to their paradise. The Forty-two usually know where to put them and how to measure them if the Ma’at feather is lighter than the contents of their soul.”
They got closer to the line and Mara nodded, “Where do we start? I noticed you had acolytes looking after them.”
“Start of the line,” Kebechet mentioned, “I refresh one while you refresh the next one in line, and we will leapfrog over each other as we go.”
Kebechet went to the first one in line and offered them her basin while Mara went to the one behind the one that Kebechet tended and offered her rose quartz basin to that spirit. Even though they had already been refreshed by one of the acolytes some time ago, the spiritual healing water still refreshed them, causing each spirit to grow brighter. After they refreshed the spirit of one, they held their hands over the basin refilling it with the Nwyfre infused water.
* * *
Mara and Kebechet reached the end of the line, the acolytes they followed were now at the start of the line giving refreshing healing water to those at the front. They silently walked up to the front of the line where Anubis was on a dais with a scale. He would reach into the center of the spirit’s chest and pull out a fragment of energy and place it on one end of the scale. The scale had a Ma’at feather on the other side. Putting on the fragment of spiritual energy adjusted the scale, usually to the point where the scale and the Ma’at feather would rise. Sometimes, as Mara saw when she peered back as she gave spirits some of her own healing water, the Ma’at feather would still weigh more than the energy at the other end of it. In those cases, the energy was returned to the spirit, and they were accompanied by Anubis through a door. In other cases, the feather was balanced with the energy, causing the forty other Exarchs to debate where they should be sent. About half the time Mara gazed back the energy weighed more than the feather and the Exarchs assembled debated the cause by taking the fragment of energy and dividing it between themselves and looking over the memories of the assembled spirit.
She looked past the scale which was offset with the scale above the plate of the spirit container and the Exarchs were debating what to do with the person who triggered the scales to weigh in that fashion. Mara and Kebechet were heading to a door that revealed the field of reeds, the same one spirits went through when their spirit fragment was lighter than the Ma’at feather. Also, the same door that those deemed worthy by the assembled Exarchs went through. The field of reeds led to the Arcadia gardens. Kebechet glanced back and Saw Mara gazing at the process, “You have questions about the weighing?”
“What exactly is Anubis measuring?” Mara questioned in response.
“You must have an idea, the Egyptians did a good job of covering it,” Kebechet mentioned as they crossed through the door.
Mara shrugged, now that she was passed the door she slipped into her human construct form, the white robes and Serval head were replaced with her human face and civilian clothes, “They did cover at least some of it. The mythos has Anubis weighing the heart of the soul against the Ma’at feather to measure the guilt in their heart.”
“That’s exactly right. The only thing the Egyptians got wrong is Anubis doesn’t pull a heart out and weigh it. He only grabs from the center mass of the spirit and painlessly pulls out a sample which contains all the memories of the soul,” Kebechet answered.
“But what kind of guilt does he measure?” Mara questioned in response as they walked through the field of reeds.
“I don’t understand the question,” the cobra headed woman replied.
“There are all sorts of things you can be guilty of, but that guilt can be unwarranted or undeserved,” Mara mentioned, “Is it taking that into account?”
Kebechet shrugged, “Instances of abuse being perpetuated on a soul that weighs on the soul are factored into it but usually that isn’t a reason for us to deny entry. The forty-two doesn’t deny entry to into Avalon or any Exa-verse realm for things that aren’t your fault. We look for the guilt you have from actions you committed as well as any actions you committed that caused pain to someone else which weighs on you. We look to see if there was some way you could have avoided the situation or if it could have gone differently.”
“So, an abused person who lives a life free of causing people pain can be let in here?” Mara questioned in response.
“Yes,” Kebechet nodded as they spotted a familiar figure off in the distance, “It’s causing pain and selfish actions that make us reject entry. If those actions could have been avoided, of course.”
“What happens to those that are rejected? Do you seriously destroy them?” She questioned in response.
“No,” Kebechet shook her head, “Behind one of those three doors, the ones that rejected individuals go through, get their memories of this place and how they got here are erased. Either Wepwawet or one of his Acolytes take the spirit back to their multiverse or into one that is more suited for them to get a better chance of coming back. It all depends on how much of their guilt was influenced by spirits they commonly travel through life with.”
“Do they all travel straight from their multiverse to end up here?” Mara asked in response.
“Some do,” Kebechet shrugged, “Some also travel through Mega-Verses and Giga-Verses to get here. They usually follow a path that seems natural to them so when they get to the Exa-Verse they don’t usually have a lot of surprises waiting for them.”
“Is there a realm here that matches what people of Egyptian faith believe in that is elsewhere in the Exa-Verse?” Mara asked.
The figure in the distance started walking towards them, noticing Kebechet and Mara had stopped walking and conversed amongst themselves. Mara had initially noticed the figure, but the conversation was now taking up her whole focus.
“Yes, there is,” Kebechet nodded in response, “A lot of Exarchs who live there have taken our names.”
The comment jogged Mara’s memory of recent events and prompted another question from her, so much so she didn’t realize that the person in the distance was approaching, “Are there Exarchs based on the Abrahamic religions living here?” She questioned in response.
“Is my child giving you trouble?” A surprisingly neutral voice echoed from next to them. Mara jumped before she realized that Thoth had come up to them while they had paused.
“No, just asking about things that she doesn’t know about, like a true student,” Kebechet shook her head and answered.
“What of your student’s field of study that you are in charge of?” Thoth questioned in response, “Does your student match your prowess?”
Kebechet shrugged, “We didn’t have a chance to do a lot of spirit magic but from what I have seen she has mastered the channeling components of her Spirit magic. Might need some work on the Arcane side but she is good otherwise.”
Thoth hummed in thought a moment before answering, “That would make sense since she didn’t have a lot of exposure to Arcane magic studies in the world.”
“But Prima didn’t die until after I completed the academy,” Kebechet cocked her head in response.”
“True but long before you were born Mara joined the human Reincarnation cycle,” Thoth mentioned. The elder Exarch turned to Mara and asked, “Do you remember why you made that choice?”
The memory was fairly recent in Mara’s mind, from a memory access standpoint. She was very familiar with her reasoning for it, “It was around the same time as I received my Spectra—”
“Something that shouldn’t have happened until after you graduated from the academy,” Kebechet interrupted.
“Mind your manners, my child,” Thoth cautioned, “Mara is working on bringing the memory out.”
“It was because in order for Anput to be accepted by the Exarchs she had to marry an Exarch,” Mara commented a moment later, “She had said something to me during the deliberations by the other families on what to do with her; she said that us Exarchs don’t truly understand what it’s like to be alive unless we leave our construct bodies behind and joined a reincarnation cycle.”
“There is more to it than that,” Thoth mentioned, “But that is the core of the memory.”
“What else is there?” Mara cocked her head in confusion, “That was the facts that led to my decision.”
“You left out the fact that you were one of three Exarchs that threw your hat in to marry her,” Thoth corrected, “Do you remember why you weren’t allowed?”
“I remember it ended up being her choosing between Horus and Anubis,” Mara nodded in response, “I also remember her lamenting that she didn’t want to be married to either one of them.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Thoth mentioned.
“Right, I wasn’t considered an adult because I never went through the academy and didn’t have a Spectra at that point,” Mara answered.
“You may think that you two sneaking around on Earth and in space during that time was missed by most, but it wasn’t missed by me. I know you loved her, and you thought, at the time, that the other Exarchs were being harsh on you, but it was the law at the time. She can also have more than one consort, but you were too young to make that choice.” Thoth mentioned in response.
“Not too young to make the decision to join the reincarnation cycle,” Mara pointed out.
“That was your choice and since we were on Earth back then, we couldn’t have stopped you. Avalon couldn’t have stopped you.” Thoth placed a hand on the younger Exarch’s shoulder, “I gave you the spectra so you wouldn’t have to take the human path back to Avalon and be judged by the Ma’at and the forty-two. You could access your preferred magical pathways to get yourself back here. You did better than we thought.”
“I knew you loved mom; I didn’t know that started before I was born,” Kebechet blinked in surprise.
“You are one of the few exarchs born out of a union between an exarch and a non-exarch,” Thoth pointed out, “That is why your Exarch form has the features of a Maldeveckian as well as Exarch features. You were born while Anput still had a Maldeveckian body.”
“I thought Exarchs needed three to breed; a male, a female, and an intersex?” Kebechet cocked her head in confusion.
“We usually do,” Thoth nodded in response, “But we don’t always pair like that. We pair usually in primary couples with an intersex person joining in long enough to conceive a child. The Triad that birthed Mara here was a temporary coupling.”
“Forever marking me as your cousin,” Mara nodded.
“You say that as if it were a barrier to something,” Kebechet mentioned, “The mixing of magic isn’t the same as human genetics. Heck, most of the religions in the human world you came from are full of brothers, sisters, cousins, and other close relations breeding.”
“You have to remember I lived longer as a human than I did as an Exarch,” Mara mentioned in response, “It will take some time for those taboos to be untaught.”
“It is time for you to see your next tutor,” Thoth mentioned, breaking the flow of the conversation, “You already know her, but now you will have a chance to learn magic from her, assuming your magical knowledge has eroded with your time with the humans all those eons.” They replied as they wrapped their arm around Mara’s shoulders.
Mara waved back to Kebechet, “Bye, we will hang out again when we both are free.”
Kebechet gave Mara a smile as they walked away, it was a slightly tarnished smile that conveyed a sense of disappointment with how the conversation with Thoth turned out, “If I knew that time with you was guaranteed through raining, I would have found something that you were lacking in during our time there. No matter, we will hang out again.”
“It’s a guarantee,” Mara nodded. She walked silently with Thoth until they were away from the field of reeds and in front of a portal, “From here we will visit Bastet.”
“Mom?” Mara’s face lit up in delight, “Mom will be tutoring me?”
They crossed through the portal and ended up at another stone building in a different part of the Arcadia gardens. Gone were the golden and green crystalline reed structures and back were the white grass and blue trees with red leaves. The scent of flowers carried on the gentle cool breeze. It felt vaguely familiar to Mara, “I have been here before.” She mentioned.
Thoth chuckled, “Of course you were here before. You were raised here as a youngling before we left for Earth all those Eons ago.”
Memories of her playing with a little dragon with thick wings and a thin tail, but thicker than an Exarch tale, flooded her mind, “I met Anput here,” Mara mentioned.
Thoth nodded, “I am glad to see your memories are starting to return. Yes, you did meet Atropia here all those years ago. The mystery of how she got here has never officially been solved. Originally, we were just going to take her back to her multiverse and universal world line.”
“But,” Mara continued, “We discovered on our way that there were three inhabited planets in the system at that time. Each one used a different thaumaturgy to advance their civilizations. The Humans used Physics, the Elves and other beings on what is now Earth used Shamanism, and the Maldeveckians used Arcane Thaumaturgy.” She looked at Thoth, “It was an interesting mystery that you needed to investigate.”
“It’s not unusual to have multiple species in different star systems close to each other to use different thaumaturgies, but it was interesting to see it set up in one solar system,” Thoth nodded as they led Mara to the door and knocked on it.
The door opened and an Exarch glowing orange with cool green eyes, four in all, answered the door. The moment the Exarch spotted Mara in her human form, she shifted into a human construct body. But it didn’t matter, Mara recognized the exarch straight away, “Mom!” Mara mentioned and hugged the exarch.
Bastet laughed, “It’s nice to see you again, my child.”
“I will be back later to check on your progress, child,” Thoth mentioned then walked away, fading into nothing as they walked.
