----

"My lord?"

Isis spoke softly, lest she startle him. She'd never seen him so deep in thought. He had removed his headdress, and it lay seemingly forgotten next to him. His head was bent down, dark hair obscuring his piercing eyes from her view.

"You needn't be so formal with me. We're not at court."

He responded so late that it took Isis a brief moment to realize he was responding to her earlier address.

"It wouldn't be proper, considering that you are now Pharaoh of all Egypt."

She sat down on the bench, a polite distance away from him. Siamun had personally asked her to find him, but there was no way that she could ask him to return to the palace in this state. Something was wrong; she could feel it.

"Why have you come here?"

His tone was low and hoarse, almost a whisper.

"Why are you here, sitting alone?" she countered softly.

At that, he finally straightened and sat back. Isis glanced at him, startled to find that his typically stoic face was a mask of grief.

"She's gone, and I am to blame for her death."

"…Death?"

He opened his mouth multiple times as if to say something, but stopped himself each time. Isis folded her hands in her lap and waited.

"…She was the only light in my life…a life that is eternally damned now that she has left me." He paused. The silence was so long that Isis began to wonder if he was finished, but finally he continued, "I never realized how much her light…how much she meant to me…until now, until after she was killed.

"My father...no, Akunadin," he corrected himself, "killed her so that I may have a power that rivals that of the Egyptian Gods. He wanted me to become King of the Shadows.

"But she…she saved me, she saved my soul. She told me to look towards the light, to live in it."

Now he looked at her, and said, almost imploringly, "What am I supposed to do now, Isis? How can I look towards the light when the only light in my life has been extinguished forever?"

Isis turned away from his pleading eyes, and instead looked down at her lap. She could still feel his eyes, searching her face for some glimmer of hope, some solace—some way for her to return.

But there was…

She swallowed and absently brushed her fingers against the Eye of her Tauk.

"The only thing you can do is live your life the way that she wanted you to. You haven't lost her forever. She's still watching over you, protecting you. The least you can do for her is live and rule with compassion and justice."

Isis met his intent gaze. "You still have her light. It's there, within your heart. Your memories of her keep her alive within you."

She took her hand and gently placed it on his cold, pale one.

"If you feel that you have no one to live for, then live for her."

His azure eyes flashed with comprehension.

"Isis, I…"

Shaking her head, Isis squeezed his hand reassuringly. "There is nothing that you need to say. Only understand that, should you need me, I am always here."

Isis stood and quietly began walking back to the palace. She had taken no more than a couple of steps when a hand gently caught her fingers and whirled her back around. When she had caught her balance, she looked up. In an attempt to conceal her astonishment, Isis averted her gaze to the ground.

His lips touched her forehead.

"My…my lord…"

"Seth," he corrected gently, before stepping past her and walking away, replacing the headdress as he did so.

Isis felt herself smile as she watched him walk away. She took a moment to send off a prayer for the well-being of her new King and the soul of his protector before following him back inside.

----

They did it not only for themselves, but also for each other...because for them, amidst the turmoil and uncertainty plaguing their lives, there was only room for joint commiseration...sometimes unspoken...but always understood.