Before I reached the forge, I could already see bright lights flickering through the windows—yellow, lightning-like flashes. I knocked on the door.
"Who's there?" asked a voice that sounded like an old man.
"A wanderer," I replied, without any emotion in my voice.
The door opened, and an old yet tall man stood before me. Beside him floated a golden staff that gleamed softly. When he noticed the blood on my robe, he flinched, though he tried to hide it.
"So you're the guardian god?" I laughed at him. He looked anything but qualified to bear such a title—thin arms, advanced age, everything about him contradicted the name he carried.
"Yes. I am a chosen one of God."A chosen one of God. And where were his proofs—
Suddenly it hit me. The place where my senses had spiraled out of control. I remembered. The sensation of complete disorientation surged through my body once more as I clutched my head in pain. I forced my eyes wide open, trying to see anything at all, but nothing worked. I tried to hear, to smell, to feel—yet my humanity slipped from my body, just like when I found the sleeping man beside the ruin.
When I came to, I was lying on the floor. Slowly, I stood up and wiped a liquid from my mouth. The guardian god was nowhere to be found. Had he run away? What a waste of a title. As I looked around the forge, I noticed a letter. A letter from the guardian god. I opened the envelope and began to read.
"Tefnut, Shu, Seth, Ra, Osiris, Nuit, Nephthys, Montu, Isis, Horus, Geb, Atum, Anubis, Anput, and I are the guardian gods of the land of Atum. Imperfection itself selected us for this task. Thus, we are neither gods nor demigods, but we are chosen."
I didn't understand any of it, but I kept reading.
"Please grant us more territories of the new earthly kingdom, so that we may receive more money. Especially me, Ptah. I have always worked diligently for you and, with my craftsmanship, provided you with many goods. Furthermore, I keep my village firmly under control so that no one would ever learn anything about the government of Atum."
I noticed the guardian god's staff lying on the ground and picked it up.
Confused and without any sense of hunger, I made my way back to Aydin's house.