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She came to His hall – no, not His hall, the hall he had abdicated in favor of His father – that night. The fire of Her eye was muted, the fire of Her blood ran slowly, and though She walked with all Her presence and dignity firmly wrapped around Her, He could tell that Her strength was still waning.
"You do not often come here, to watch me work." Anubis turned from Himself, leaving Himself behind to watch the scales, and crossed to Her.
"I am in a foul temper tonight," Bast said, and for a moment Her eye flared with the strength and fire of Their father, and then it was gone.
"We are all in a foul temper tonight," Anubis said. "Your Father does His longest battle with the Serpent tonight. Who does He take with Him?"
"Your half-brother, and the Scarlet Lady, my other Self," She answered, the flesh of Her lips pulling back over Her teeth in what would be a snarl on any other night but this one.
"Ah, so that is why you are in a foul temper," Anubis said. "He takes the Scarlet Lady but not His Eye. And He takes my father's son, but not His daughter, on the longest of battles." Bast's lips curled further away from Her teeth, and once more Her eye flared with light and fire, and for a moment Anubis could see the shadow of Her other self, the lioness, over Her own form. He reached out, His hand falling just short of gripping the nape of Her neck, and She turned her sun-bright gaze into His eyes.
"Is that what you believe I come here for, when I come to you?" She laid back both ears and hissed, Her form rippling into that of a wild desert cat.
"What more have you led me to believe?" He asked Her, His own hackles beginning to rise. He had not lied when He said They were all in a foul temper on this night, the longest night. He could feel Her blood begin to race again, and Her scent of spice and perfume was strong in His nose.
"I have been fighting the serpent since before your mother grew dissatisfied with Her husband," Bast said. The dawn was close, and though Her glow continued to dim, He could feel Her anticipation of the turning of the tide. "If I would lie with anyone on this night, puppy, I would choose one older, stronger."
He snarled then, and His hand struck quickly, locking on Her nape. Her angry yowl echoed through His father's hall, and Her hand struck at His chest, scoring across it rents of scarlet. He bore Her against the wall, the strength of His grip baring Her throat to His teeth, and He tasted the fire of Her blood across his tongue when He marked Her.
They felt it come, the dawn, as Their coupling grew more violent and bright on the floor of His father's hall. Her eye burned with the fierceness only a child of Ra could contain, and Her body scorched him with its brightness. He burned with the darkness behind the stars, a howl of black majesty torn from him as Her jaws found His throat instead, His blood spilling over Her muzzle in the cold grey light of morning. She made no sound as She shuddered against him, but the sun of Her eye receded, until She no longer burned to touch.
"He has won," Anubis said, as if He needed to. Bast arched Herself, Her form flickering again to that of the lioness of Her other Self, and released Him from Her thighs, sated and calmed with His blood and His seed.
"He always wins," Bast said, soothing the rents She had made in His chest with Her sand-rough tongue. She stood, and He followed, licking the last of Her blood from His jaws before He rejoined Himself at the scales.
She yawned, the glow of Her body playing across the walls of His father's hall, and watched the weighing of hearts for a time, His scarlet blood still splashed across her mouth.