“Right,” Khasekhemwy replied nervously when Danny latched on to his suggestion, looking like he wished he’d come up with another idea. A safer idea An idea which didn’t involve trekking across (gulp) countryside to go and find a temple where (oh dear) a deranged, violent god whose favourite pastime was picking on him lived. He hadn’t thought of that when he’d suggested it. Khase’s knees almost buckled.
‘Get a grip,’ the macho voice in his head said fiercely. ‘You’re The Man! You can handle anything that loser throws at you.’
When Danny asked about Tsi, Khase thought he might cry. Tsi was usually nice to him, and even remembered he existed sometimes. It was horrible to think about Tsi’s current state of mind, which was… not at the best it had ever been. Still, compared to how Tsi used to be, thousands of years ago, he was a lot less scary now. Even now that he was… well… nuts.
“He’s, um, awake,” he muttered, wringing his hands anxiously as he tried to work out how much to say. The deities were trying to keep Tsi, Lorraine and Mallos’ conditions quiet. “He’s, um, a bit ill still. No visitors.” That was the same that everyone said of Lorraine and Mallos… not that anyone would want to visit Lorraine.
Mostly to try and avoid more questions about Tsi, Khase stood up and scuttled out of the door, expecting to be followed. He negotiated the hallway with a speed which implied experience, pushed the front door open and waited for his young student to catch up. Once Danny was out, Khasekhemwy hesitated, deliberating over his options. If they took one of the main paths out of the woods, then there was a chance they might run into other people, including (eek) Allianah… but if they went off the beaten-track to avoid others, that meant having to contend with (ahh) nature. Seriously. Why would anyone want to live in a grove? What was wrong with good old concrete?!
After a minute or two, Khase decided that nature was less scary than Allianah, and he elected to lead Danny on a more direct route to the pantheon. They didn’t run into anything more frightening than a few low-hanging branches, but he still felt like crying by the time they got there. Everything was just… muddy or insecty or thorny, or ALL THREE. Nature should be criminalised. The sight of the gleaming white temple did little to calm his racing heart, since he knew that somewhere inside was Rhaegar.
“Let’s start with the hypostyle hall,” he suggested, mainly because Gar was unlikely to be there. “The pantheon resembles Greek architecture to the untrained eye, and that was indeed one of its influences, but it has taken inspiration from all different periods. The hypostyle hall is reminiscent of Graeco-Egypt.”
khasekhemwy
patron deity of palestine
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