The village square had transformed in the span of an hour from quiet morning chores to a buzzing knot of people. Word of the crocodile incident spread faster than fire in dry papyrus—carried on the lips of fishermen who had seen the beast submerge, on the tear-streaked face of Amenemhat's mother, on the awed murmurs of children who had peeked from behind doorways. By the time Kael-Ankh walked back from the riverbank, still dripping Nile water and bruised along his left arm, a small crowd had gathered near Merit's compound.
They parted for him like reeds before a boat's prow. Eyes wide, voices hushed. Some made quick protective gestures—fingers tracing the ankh over their hearts, others touching small amulets of Taweret or Bes hung around their necks.
Amenemhat's mother—Neith, a sturdy woman with callused hands from weaving fishing nets—stepped forward first. She carried her son on one hip; the boy's face was still pale, but his eyes shone with something fiercer than fear now: hero-worship.
She bowed low, deeper than custom required for a stranger.
"Kael-Ankh," she said, voice thick. "You stood between my child and Sobek's jaws. The Nile itself witnessed it. We have nothing grand to give, but please—take this."
She pressed a small bundle into his hands: a finely woven reed basket containing fresh-baked flatbread still warm from the oven, a cluster of ripe dates glistening with dew, a small jar of honey beer, and—most precious—a tiny faience amulet shaped like a lotus blossom, blue-green and polished to a soft glow.
Kael accepted it with both hands, bowing in return.
"Your son is safe. That is enough."
Neith's eyes filled again. "The gods sent you. I know it in my bones."
As she stepped back, others pressed forward. An old fisherman offered a bronze fish-hook etched with protective signs. A young girl shyly placed a single lotus flower behind his ear. Merit appeared at his side, arms crossed, but her expression was soft—proud, almost maternal.
The scarab at Kael's belt warmed steadily, drinking in the ambient belief like parched earth after rain.
System Notification – Belief Harvest Activated
Source: Collective Village Gratitude (15+ witnesses)
Mythos Energy Influx Detected
Passive Absorption Rate: +1.8× (boosted by direct life-saving act)
Heka Capacity: 44/112 → 62/112 (+18 from raw belief threads)
Resonance Bonus Applied: Scarab of Khepri → 38% → 51% (threshold crossed)
Mythos Fragment Evolution Notification
Scarab of Khepri – Renewal & Protection
• Resonance Level: 51% (Awakened)
• New Secondary Active Ability Unlocked: Dawn Renewal
• Effect: Regenerate 5% of maximum physical health over 60 seconds when activated in direct sunlight
• Cost: 12 Heka
• Cooldown: 300 seconds
• Flavor Text (Inner Voice): As Khepri rolls the sun-disk across the horizon, so too does the Ka renew the weary flesh.
• Passive Upgrade: Protective aura increased to 8% damage reduction (daylight hours)
Kael felt the change as a warm tide rising in his chest—subtle, golden, like sunlight filtering through closed eyelids. His bruised arm throbbed less sharply; the purple welts began to fade at the edges, edges softening as though time itself had been persuaded to hurry.
He looked down at Amenemhat, who had wriggled free from his mother's arms and now stood clutching Kael's kilt hem.
"You were brave too," Kael said quietly. "You didn't run. You tried to get back to shore."
The boy puffed out his chest. "I'm gonna be a fisherman like my father. Fishermen don't run from crocodiles."
A ripple of soft laughter moved through the crowd. Tension eased.
But beneath the gratitude lingered something heavier. Kael sensed it in the sidelong glances toward the river, in the way hands tightened on amulets when the water rippled.
Sobek.
The name hung unspoken but present, like the scent of river mud after rain. In the myths Kael had studied, Sobek was no mere animal spirit—he was the living Nile's ferocity made divine: lord of waters, protector of pharaohs, bringer of fertility through inundation, yet devourer of the unworthy. Temples in the Faiyum and at Kom Ombo showed him as a man with crocodile head, armored hide, feathered crown, sometimes holding ankh and was-scepter, sometimes simply the beast itself emerging from papyrus marshes.
Today's crocodile had not been Sobek in full aspect—no divine aura, no crown of sun-disk and plumes—but it carried his echo. A proxy. A warning.
Kael felt the river watching back.
As the crowd began to disperse—promising to bring more offerings later, whispering his name like a growing chant—Merit drew him inside the courtyard.
"You're shaking," she observed.
"Adrenaline crash," he muttered, then caught himself. "The rush of battle leaving the body."
She nodded, not questioning the foreign word.
"Sit. Drink the beer Neith gave you. And tell me true—did you feel him?"
Kael lowered himself onto a low stool. "Sobek?"
Merit poured a little of the honey beer into two cups. "The Nile is his blood. Crocodiles are his teeth. When one strikes without reason, it means attention. You pushed back. That draws eyes."
Kael drank. The beer was sweet, thick, warming. "I didn't kill it. Just made it retreat."
"Enough to sting pride," Merit said. "Sobek does not forget a challenge. But he also respects strength. You may have earned wary respect instead of enmity."
She paused.
"Still… be careful near water for a while."
Kael touched the scarab. It pulsed in quiet agreement.
Later, as the sun climbed higher and the village returned to its rhythms, Kael slipped away to the small family shrine in Merit's courtyard. Taweret's wooden statue regarded him with calm, pregnant bulk; Bes grinned grotesquely from his niche.
He knelt, placed the lotus amulet from Neith before the figures, and closed his eyes.
A faint shadow moved at the edge of his awareness—not hostile, but watchful. Black-furred, long-eared, eyes like polished obsidian.
Anubis.
The jackal-god of embalming, guide of souls, weigher of hearts. Guardian of the dead who ensured the Ka could return to the body.
Kael felt a cool breeze brush his neck, carrying the faint scent of natron and myrrh.
A small, dark shape materialized in his inner vision—not a full manifestation, but a fragment: a black jackal's paw print etched in shadow on glowing papyrus, edged with faint silver.
System Notification – Mythos Fragment Acquisition
New Fragment Acquired: Anubis's Silent Vigil
Type: Guardian & Transition
Grade: Rare (Latent – Awakened through near-death proximity & belief echo)
Source: Passive resonance from life-saving act near river (Sobek proxy encounter triggered threshold)
Effects (Initial):
• Passive: +10% resistance to fear-based effects & death-curses
• Passive: Enhanced perception of liminal spaces (thresholds, doorways, twilight zones)
• Active Invocation Unlock (requires naming): Anubis's Weighing Glance
• Cost: 18 Heka
• Effect: Briefly reveal hidden weaknesses in living targets (health/mana/vital points) or detect undead/spirits within 10 cubits
• Duration: 10 seconds
• Flavor Text (Inner Voice): The jackal watches. The heart speaks truth or is devoured. Resonance Level: 12% (grows through acts of protection, burial rites, or guiding lost souls)
Heka Capacity Overflow Bonus: +8 (fragment integration) → 70/112
Kael opened his eyes. The paw print faded, but a cool certainty remained: he was no longer unmarked. Two gods had taken notice—one fierce and watery, the other silent and inevitable.
He rose, bruised arm now almost painless thanks to Dawn Renewal ticking quietly in the sunlight.
The whispers had begun.
His name on lips.
Fragments binding to his Ka.
Eyes—divine and mortal—turning toward him.
Kael-Ankh stepped back into the daylight, lotus flower still tucked behind his ear, ready for whatever came next.