redfiona99

Title: A New Dawn, A New Day, A New Life
Author: Red Fiona
Fandom: Egyptian Mythology
Characters: Isis/Osiris
Ratings/Warnings/Etc: PG het fic. Mentions of canonical character death, but then again, also mentions of canonical character resurrection. ‘Feeling Good’ does not belong to me in anyway, just borrowing the lyrics for the title.
Summary: It’s love that drives and nourishes Isis on her quest.

The widow's weeds make slow work of her paddling, but Isis's papyrus boat moves steadily through the Nile waters. She would search every cubit of the Nile and its banks to find all of her husband's body.

Of the many terrible things that Set had done to his brother, this had to be the lowest. He had never recognised Osiris's claim to the throne, Osiris's by birthright, because Osiris had the outward appearance of a woman. Such nonsense should have been beneath a god, but Set stooped very low when he wanted something.

To kill a man was one thing, to dismember him to prevent him reaching the afterlife was another. That was the inevitable result of the violence Set had done to Osiris's body. Or it would have been had Isis not been a daughter of Geb. Her father controlled the earth, and the dead were of the earth which brought Osiris under his power. There was hope, if Isis could find all of Osiris.

It had been a slow journey, because Isis had to be thorough, lest some part of her husband that she missed fall to predation. She had found most of him. What she had collected, she carried with her in a box, only laying it out into the shape of a man in places of safety, for fear of wild dogs.

But she couldn't slow her pace. She wasn't just racing the scavengers, she was racing the inundation of the Nile, because who knew how far the floods would scatter the remaining parts.

~~~~

Having collected all fourteen parts of her husband's body, Isis bound the pieces together with linen cloth. A table would have been better, but there had been no room for one in her boat.

She wrapped him carefully, adding amulets between the layers to prepare Osiris for the ritual, and to protect him in case it went wrong.

Once he was prepared, Isis had to ready herself. The powers she was going call on were not her own, her father had allowed her their use for this one task, and who knew how well she would be able to control them.

She used her father's earth to cover the bound body, painted Osiris's face into the surface she has created, writing sacred words across his body. She made some alterations to his form, to give Osiris those external features that his ba had always had. Birth, the making of things, these came within her powers and she was sure that she could succeed in this part of her plan.

She sang the sacred songs her father taught her as the sun rose once more. The inundation is close, it is the time of new beginnings, and she must hope that this is theirs.

She collapsed, exhausted, only raising her head when she heard a falcon's cry. Osiris rested his fingers under her chin, lifting her face up to kiss her.

It worked, it worked and her husband was whole and safe in her arms.

End notes: This is another fic originally written for an lgbtfest prompt (Mythology - Egyptian, Wesir (Osiris), a queer version of Wesir's death and rebirth, and what it means to do that as a trans* god.) but again, I thought it didn't quite fit the spirit of the fest. I'd like to apologise to