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It was a tense day in the palace, but I was still proud to grace its halls. There were whispers of unrest on the periphery of the kingdom, but that all seemed so distant here in the capital. Many statues of my ilk lined the fine marble corridors. It was always something of a joke among the palace guard. To see a jackal such as myself adorned in the same regalia as those cast in stone about the grounds was quite the novelty. My stance even mirrored theirs, by regulation, not by choice, but it still got the occasional double-take from even the most distinguished visitors. As part of the throne room guard I had little occasion to move from my post, so my reputation as a living statue was assured. Still I held my station with the dignity and reverence that it was due. I had worked hard to be trusted with such a responsibility, and I wouldn't let a quirk of fate or the odd tastes of some stonemasons centuries ago dampen my enthusiasm. Honestly I was proud that they had seen something in my image that was worth immortalizing in stone so many times over.

My liege was called 'the Lionheart,' a name that fell somewhat flat considering that he also had the arms, legs, head, and tail of a lion, but he had nonetheless earned the title through a lifetime of courageous service to his land. His masterful tactics as a young prince made him known far and wide, but his political dealings had made him into the larger-than-life colossus that he was. He was congenial, seldom one to oppose change by force, but when he gave a veto, not even the strongest of generals dared to oppose him. Even if he had not the military might to back up his every decision, the other kingdoms looked to him as a moral compass, a symbol of the grace and honor of the old regime. To cross him was to turn the world against you.

I was in the throne room at my post, sandy fur and gilded spear gleaming in the sunlight from the tall, ornate windows. I heard a small scraping noise from the other side of the door. It was slight, but I had learned to let no disturbance go ignored. I had only time to take a step before the doors burst open. In he strode, looking as if he'd crossed the full breadth of the underworld to arrive here. The imposing visage of a ruggedly built wolf met my gaze. Simply looking at him spoke volumes to my practiced eyes. I had taken the measure of many an important and powerful man in my time, but none could compare to this one's strength and dedication. His armor was cracked and worn, his clothes in tatters, but the expression on his face showed no sign of suffering the trials that his body had.

The fur at the bridge of his nose likely was a gleaming white when it wasn't caked with dirt and smeared with blood. The charcoal gray stripes that ran up either side his snout and down the length of his body would also have looked quite regal were they presented in better circumstances. That noble gray was prevalent enough in his body fur that tiny patches of untainted color could be seen in between the grime of hard travel and pitched combat. I saw beneath the surface another man, likely the man he had been before he had taken the grim oath that had brought him to our door today. Clean and pure, body and soul... but that was another life.

That life had been taken from him, and now a fated warrior stood before us, ready to take his charge to the grave and beyond. My ear twitched at a tiny pattering sound, magnified by my apprehension. A few drops of blood had fallen from his blade and scattered on the marble floor. In the silence they echoed like cannon shots. The bodies of the royal honor guard were splayed out just beyond the threshold, cut down hardly a few feet from their posts. They had either not the sense or not the time to raise the alarm.

He strode into the room at an easy pace, seemingly oblivious to the magnitude of the situation. He looked beyond exhaustion, but his voice held a determination that I could feel in my bones. No one, not even the King moved a muscle as he spoke.

"Injustice... cannot be allowed to stand. It is time for a change in the imperial order. I am here to be an instrument of that change."

The calm blue of his eyes dimmed as he lost focus. He appeared to be fading, will sapped by his injuries. He leaned heavily on his sword as his paws suddenly seemed insufficient to hold him up. I thought that I would sooner see a man rise from the dead than this one find the strength to lift his head and open his eyes again. Yet he did. His conviction became unnerving. I tensed up and brought my spear to bear.

"I come before you and announce myself because I am no assassin. I have always been a defender. And so I shall remain until I taste the bite of cold steel for the last time. As a reasonable man, I see fit to offer you options. You may fall on your knees in subservience, or on your back as a corpse. You have cut this land far too deep for the pain you have wrought to end this day, but tonight your reign shall."

He leveled his weapon towards the throne and bellowed a forceful demand.

"What say you tyrant? How do you greet a defender of the people come to see you from your throne?"

My King stood from His opulent throne, His fine robes gliding effortlessly over His knees as they straightened beneath Him. In that moment I knew. This 'defender of the people' was right. 'Tyrant' now aptly described the one I called Master. He had been a good man all His life, but power had changed Him. The virtue that had made Him the icon that He was had corroded with the weight of His office and the allure of power. The Lionheart that I knew had become lost to time. The transition had been gradual. All but those closest remained oblivious. I had remained ignorant by choice. I just couldn't bring myself to think ill of Him after all my years of faithful service.

It must have been only seconds that I grappled with the thought, but it felt like my entire being was on trial. When my liege gave the order to attack, I hesitated. The cost of my negligence became clear in a flash of bloodstained steel. My last breath came as a strained gasp. My fingers loosened around my spear and it slipped from them. I couldn't even hear it clatter to the floor. I could smell the blood, sweat and death that hung about the man as he leaned close. His nose just brushed my ear as he removed his blade from my chest.

A chiding whisper accompanied the enveloping darkness.

"Hmph. Picked the wrong time to flinch."

---

"Anubis. I'm guessing this isn't a social call, then."

"No. You entered my realm the same way all souls eventually do."

"So that's it then." I recalled my hands clutching reflexively around the sword sticking out of my chest. I knew now that it was no nightmare. "It's the... the end."

"Perhaps," he said with a cryptic smile.

"What? I was never given the impression that these things were negotiable."

"You stand before a literal god, young one." He paced about as he explained. "Many things are possible if I will it."

"But, why me?"

"How did you come to stand before me, noble king's guard?"

"... Hesitation."

"Hah! Very true. Many have seen this tiny flaw become their undoing. Though far more are done in by acting_too_ swiftly. Bit of a wash, I suppose."

"So what distinguishes me from them?"

He reached the edge of the lit circle we were standing in, vanishing into the infinite darkness beyond. There was a terrible emptiness in the brief silence that ensued, but I dared not follow him. When next his voice rang out, it came from all around me.

"It wasn't easy, you know..." I heard the gentle, thready sound of a few small chains and some metal platters. "Weighing a heart that had been cleft in two by a sword."

I reached to my chest. There was no mark, but I could sense an emptiness there. It was as if my hand hovered over a deep chasm within me.

"But I was, worth your time then?"

"Well, that remains to be seen."

Anubis materialized and placed his scale on the stone slab before me. Swinging back and forth upon it were a glittering feather, and the two rent halves of my heart. The scale tipped gently a few times, a dull creeping chill consuming me as I saw the scale settling with my heart on the lower end.

"It's heavier," I whispered. Surprised I could still speak.

"A bit, yes. But close enough that I could convince Ma'at to spare you this time."

"Spared? So, I get to go on to Aaru?"

"HAH!" The laugh rang with such force I was surprised I was not knocked backwards. "I'm flattered you think that I have such a miraculous silver tongue."

"Well, are you an unreasonable person to expect miracles from?"

"Tread carefully. My opinion of you is all that keeps Ammit away from this meal that you have so helpfully cut up for him." He narrowed his eyes sharply, only the wide grin snaking along his muzzle telling me that I had not just sealed my fate with that remark. "It has been some time since someone has told me to put up or shut up. I'd imagine my scale would dip far lower if I were to place your stones on it instead of your heart."

I stiffened a little bit at the remark. "Thanks, but I'd much rather my stones stay where they are."

"Oh really? And if I said that they were the price for not having your soul devoured?"

"Well, would that truly be living?"

"A fair point," he said, seeming pleased with the response. "But you had best get used to acquiescing to my unreasonable demands if you hope to see me perform one of those vaunted miracles."

I could think of a few things to say to that, but I could tell that butting heads with Anubis wasn't going to help, even if he did seem to grudgingly respect my resolve. He nodded during the lengthy pause.

"I see you've discovered the secret to making this go more smoothly," he said, his sly grin returning. Those menacing fangs glinting in sharp contrast to the darkness that surrounded them. "Perhaps I shall answer your question, then."

He gave me a sidelong glance, daring me to respond. I had the sense not to take him up on it.

"That little flinch, that second or two that cost you everything. You would call this a failure, yes?"

"I would. It cost me my life, and- oh no..."

"King Altos?" sneered Anubis knowingly.

"He, he can't-"

"He arrived in my realm shortly after you did. You were among many to valiantly sacrifice themselves in his defense." Anubis held up his hand to interrupt my question. "It's too late. I couldn't fight for him and I had no desire to. The same blade cleft his heart in two, and just half of it was far heavier than yours."

"So it's true. He... He was never worth fighting for."

"I wouldn't say 'never', but it's been awhile. The revolution that you and your contemporaries died trying to prevent was a long time coming."

"So that's it then? I was one of the bad guys and now it's time to face the music?"

"Many would say that the morbidity is what makes this job so difficult, but a lot of the time that is not the case. For many, death is for welcome relief, and for the best of you it is a new beginning. I find that it is far more times like this one that make my lot in life more burdensome. There are so many good people who have fought for the wrong side, through no fault of their own. Many of the fallen from the 'Lionheart's' palace had a place waiting for them in Aaru. They had no reason to doubt the cause they fought for."

"So that's it? Because I wasn't as easy to fool as them, because I knew the faults of my king I get held hostage by the god of death?"

"Hostage? And here I thought I was being a gracious host."

"Oh yeah, it's great. I love what you've done with the place." I gestured around at the featureless darkness.

"Charming, I know. Now, you're here not because you had that doubt, but because you never allowed what you knew to affect your actions. You never acted on your understanding of the situation. Until the end, that is."

"And that end isn't enough to buy my ticket to paradise."

"Indeed. But it did get my attention."

Another pause, but this one felt like a trap too.

"So many warriors live for battle and blood. They revel in it and think nothing of the lives they are destroying, or more importantly, why they do so. When it came time for you to do your duty, you finally asked yourself if your cause was worth killing for. Many who question that don't become warriors. And many warriors go to their graves before they ever think to question it. As such, you're a rare one. Someone that I could make use of."

"What do I have to do, Anubis?"

"Well, you can start by calling me 'master'."

"Alright..." my chest tightened, highlighting the sickening emptiness within it. I knew I had no choice. "As you wish, master."

"Hah!" His sudden exclamation shattered the solemn air. "Oh wow, what a rush that is! No wonder the others like doing it so much. But seriously though stop that, I'd never be able to take you seriously, simpering all the time and so forth."

"So, what do I call you?"

"You won't need to call me anything. I cannot speak to you in the overworld, nor you to me. But we will work something out. We gods have our ways, of course."

"I'm going back?"

"Should you accept the mission I mean to charge you with."

Yet another trap pause.

"Why yes, I am going to tell you about it, thanks for asking." I was amazed at how quickly he changed gears after that, the grave seriousness returned to his voice as he gazed at me intently. "The living could use someone like you. Someone to make them question what is worth killing for, what is worth dying for. The value of a life varies greatly depending on who you ask. With what you have learned, and my generous backing, you could spare many from pointless, unnecessary ends like the one you have suffered."

"How will I do that? People fighting to the death aren't terribly easy to sway."

"You will find a way. Your _life_depends on it."

My sneer was not lost on him.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist. And I needed to make sure you were clear on the terms of our arrangement." He sighed and relented a bit. "If they truly can be saved, if they are truly worth saving, then they won't be impossible to convince. It can be done. It will be arduous, but then that's why I have you doing the groundwork."

"I wouldn't even know where to begin. But if some good could come of this, if I could prevent this from happening to even one person, it would be worth expending a whole other lifetime of effort."

"That's what I wanted to hear," he said, reaching out to my heart on the scale. "There was a flash of golden light, and then it was whole again, a gold seam running through the middle of it where my heart had been reforged."

"Wow, that was quick," was all that came from my mouth.

"Or so it may have appeared. In this place, you experience time subjectively, as I do. My delay in getting through the queue to arrive at your case, and this lovely conversation of ours, they expended a few months or so each on the overworld. However you have seen only moments here."

"Months? That's insane. I can't even imagine talking to someone for months."

"It's a bit easier when your body isn't so high maintenance, but yes, subjective time is likely something that your mortal mind would struggle with. Were I not omnipresent as well, taking arbitrarily long amounts of time with each soul to come across my desk would be a tremendous inconvenience."

"Oh, so you're judging other souls right now as we speak? And here I thought what we had was so special."

"Oh you'll always have a place in my heart. As I shall always have a place in yours." He held up my mended heart and traced a claw along it. "How about right here?"

I felt a searing pain tear through me as he raked his claw through the flesh of my heart. Everything else fell away and the blinding agony became my whole existence until he lifted his claw again.

"Ah yes, dilating your perception of a certain event can be a bitch, can't it?"

My body shook from the trauma, or at least it would have if I had been in my body at the time. What I saw below me was only my sense of self, as my spirit saw it. As it was my awareness returned rather quickly, the emotions of the soul being rather fleeting. I saw that a seared image had appeared on the side of my heart. It was the Eye of Horus design that Anubis himself wore.

"Wait, hold on I- but if it's been months, you know, how can I go back? I'll have been mummified by now! At best. Far more likely I was left to rot in the desert."

"In fact you _were_mummified."

"What?"

"Did you expect me not to know? A disciple of mine presided over the procedure, as is only proper. A passable job, overall. Those wraps were a bit thread bare; likely they'd been sitting around for a while. But then what is age to the dead? Could've let you dry under the natron treatment a little longer but then again I suppose-"

"No, no it's not that I didn't think you would know about it I- well it's surprising that I was mummified at all. Being a failure belonging to a fallen regime I expected that I'd be just... discarded like some nobody."

"You were afforded due honors for someone of your station. You share a tomb with more than your fair share of nobodies, but it seems that these scrappy revolutionaries have at least a cursory measure of respect for the fallen."

"That's... surprising. Wait, if I'm in a tomb, how will I get out to go... spare people from needless deaths or whatever?"

"Do give me some credit," he said, approaching quickly and looming over me. Befitting someone of his station. "Did you really think that I could restore you to life but be stymied as to how to give you a little nudge out of a tomb? It will be taken care of."

"And then when I get there-"

"You figure something out. Leaving the particulars up to you is the advantage of delegating."

"But-"

"My time is infinite, but my patience is not." He extended his right hand, the one not clutching my heart. "It's time for you to go. Where you go is entirely your choice. I'd highly recommend returning to the overworld as opposed to Ammit eating you. So, will you accept my offer?"

"Might be the only second chance I'll ever get," I said, grasping his hand. "Yeah, let's do it."

The room heated rapidly, it took me a moment to notice that the energy was coming from within, searing bolts of raw power shooting into me from my contact with the god before me. I tried to scream but I couldn't move, not even to open my mouth. He squeezed me too tightly for me to let go in shock.

"Welcome to the family, my new steward."

The darkness in the chamber collapsed in on me with a thunderous crash as Anubis thrust my heart back into my chest. Sensation returned to me. It had been gone so long that it was confusing to feel these things again. I still couldn't see or hear anything. There was oppressive pressure all around me. Even on my eyelids and on my nose and mouth. I needed to breathe! My outstretched hand tried to clutch at my chest as the burning sensation there spiked. My fingers met hot sand and I realized that my outstretched hand was the only part of me not buried. I clawed the sand desperately away from my chest, flailing and heaving to throw myself out of the sand. I heaved myself upwards, ripping the sand-caked bandages from my face. Light painfully assaulted my eyes, but the bleary sight of sand and skies confirmed that I had come back to my body. I ripped off more bandages, exposing my arms and chest. I felt the place where the sword had run me through. There was a bare spot there, and the fur around it felt finer and shorter, like it was new. There were black smudges along the bottom of my viewfield that I had assumed were artifacts of my eyes being overwhelmed, but as my sight cleared I realized that I was seeing myself. My fur was solid black all the way down my body. My legs were more difficult to pull from the sand, as they had been bound together by my wrappings. I cursed as I struggled.

"He can send my body through a solid stone wall but can't give me a little nudge upwards?"

After a frantic struggle I stood upon the sand, finding that I was that same deep, unnatural black all the way down to my toes. The hand that had struck my bargain with Anubis now sported golden claws, testament to the power that had run through them. I saw a glint of gold in the other spot Anubis had touched me. No wound remained on my chest, but surrounding the bare spot where I had been impaled, a pattern of gold fur spider-webbed out vertically in both directions. As I cleared the sand from my face, I noticed that the fur around my right eye felt similarly soft and new. Likely I had the Eye of Horus there as well as on my heart.

"How kind of him to give me such an inconspicuous appearance. I'm sure I'll have no trouble blending in. Speaking of being conspicuous..."

I regretted the haste and ferocity with which I had torn off my wrappings when I realized that I had nothing else to cover myself with. Though it was a relief to find that my stones were right where I left them, I could see this as causing something of a disturbance if anyone saw me like this. Maybe I could check my residence of these past few months. At least one of us in that tomb had probably been buried with a change of clothes. I looked over to the nearby stone slab that formed the top of the tomb. There was no other part of the structure above the sand. They had already sealed it and filled in the steps to the entrance. Recent events must've filled it to capacity, and they were anxious to cover it over and move on with their lives.

"I guess it's better to be out here and a bit dressed down than buried... alive? Is that what I am?"

I had just been dead but... it was difficult for me to describe what it was like. It was dark and quiet. There wasn't even the sound of me breathing. I never felt anything unless it was terrifying or painful. Now, the sand getting entrained further and further up my sinuses let me know that I'd been breathing quite a bit. My bones stood out far more than they did before, but as I felt them through my pelt they were warm with the fire of life. I could feel my mended heart doing its job as well. I saw plenty of light and I could feel the heat from the sand under my paws and the sun hitting my body. A lot of heat from the sun, actually. This was a strikingly impractical color in the desert. My wrappings were starting to blow away, trailing off through the sand. I grasped a linen strip still hanging from my shoulders and ran it through my fingers. I felt the threads and the sand, my golden claws catching occasionally in the fabric.

Near as I could tell, I felt alive. And that life was conditional. I wasn't going to get a start on my vaguely defined mission by standing here crisping in the sun. What I actually_was_ going to do wasn't terribly clear though. Then again, the best way to start on an impossible task is by breaking it down into some smaller, possible ones.

"Finding clothes is a good start," I mused as I walked through the sand towards town. "That'll be fun considering I have no money or proof of who I am. But before that I have to try to find someone who wouldn't be freaked out to see a mummy that looks like the literal avatar of death. Damn, that sounds pretty hard too. And after that all I have to do is travel the countryside convincing people to give up on a cause that they're willing to die for. Yeah, at least one of these missions is going to have to involve an ocean of mead."