Chapter 49: Occlusion
The Nile was the first aspect of the world to respond to the calamitous passing, as the waters swelled and then flooded onto the fertile plains surrounding that valley. The moon was not supposed to be so far out of alignment, and it even affected the tidal pull of the river, as it passed overhead; drawing a large assortment of meltwater with it north, as it passed overhead.
Then, there was a chill in the air, as the light from the sun slowly eased off on its nourishing power. The sky remained perplexingly bright even as it covered more than half of the light from the solar body, so the citizens of that world could only wonder why the temperature of the air suddenly began to fall.
It was as if that gift of Ra was being suddenly denied despite his obvious presence. That is when things began to grow more and more conspicuous. The horizon in every direction bled in scales of teals and greens, and then yellows and oranges, before finally settling on a fiery palate of pinks and reds on all sides—like an endless sunset within every front, as far as the eye can see.
Then, winds blew in to announce that the chill was not coincidental, and confirm that it would only grow more pronounced with time. All the life in Egypt knew that a powerful hex had been cast—and they trembled, for they knew not what terrors were yet in store to come.—and all the shadows upon the earth grew strange and emaciated shapes.
The darkness reflected the shape of the obstructing force that was destined to blot out their only source of sustenance; in the reflections on the rising waters, one could see the shape of the heretofore globular spawn turning into a crescent, and then a sickle, and then only the slightest iota of sun remained visible in the sky—ballooning blindingly against the paper thin semicircular line of highlight on the moon's surface like a truly disproportionate diamond adorning the edge of a golden ring.
Then, there was stagnation. The wind suddenly halted as if it, too, feared being caught unawares in this historic moment. The whole world held its breath as that final hint of heavenly glory was snuffed, and the true shape of the so-called circle was unveiled in all its shame. Naked before the eyes of every servant and god, Neter and apostate, akh and demon; was the wiry, wispy arms of the sun as they waved so delicately around its circumference.
The stars were again unveiled, in the middle of the day; shining behind the formerly uncontested ardor of that celestial burning fire, they knew it was their time to shine. The constellations grinned down on the sordid denizens as they watched in horror. It was only a matter of time until such permanent darkness bade all the forces of the underworld to rejoin their living brethren on the surface; as the fear of light was the only thing that could truly keep them from manifesting, in all their strength.
The moon itself was in a form that had never been seen before, in truth, as this face ever faced away from the sun—its illuminated face was ever more potent, in the nighttime sky. Yet, here was a face that was dark, and then even further beyond the blackness of the word. This was a darkness so severe, so crisp and powerful that it appeared almost like a hole in the middle of space. The wiry, hair-like strands dancing hauntingly in the air surrounding its disk of nondescript solitude seeming almost like a portal to another world, now... and a portal it was.
Apophis, that great, loathsome and dreadful beast—who so eagerly sought to consume the sun each night and prevent its light from ever returning out of the womb of Nut, who has full authority over the domain of the sky, and only that authority specifically—grinned, as his monstrous, titanic head peaked out from the hole Thoth had so elegantly hewn in the middle of space.
Now unfettered by the constant hunt to extinguish that light, he hissed exuberantly as he had all the time in the world to set about consuming all the lights from the surface of the earth. He descended out of the gap in space like a meteoric impact. His head of flint sparked brightly against the burning force of the reentry friction. His body was unnaturally long for a snake, even with a head three yards wide—capable of swallowing two men laid side by side whole, without either of them touching the scales of his maw.—Still, his body serpentined for fathoms beyond that, in unnatural, harrowing protraction. It appeared that all of the Nile could be swallowed up within that impossible girth.
So it was that all of Egypt cried out in horror and woe as he crashed into Akhmim, and began his gleeful pilgrimage across the entire land; consuming any and all that happened upon his path. The gods were powerless to defend against the accursed creature. Ra, who was most powerful of all the gods by far, could only defeat him for a time; and he would reappear wholly unscathed by the next morning. Yet, Thoth had taken special care to prevent his return, as every time he attempted to maneuver the boat to bring it closer to the earth, the Moon kept in eager step with him—forcing him to evade, or risk crashing into the surface.
He then circled around to Min's temple, which was the largest, most extravagant tabernacle in all of Egypt at the time; and there was a great cry in the land, as the roof was torn off from that supposedly sacred site, and Min himself—The god of Fertility, and the harvest—was torn from his throne. The inhabitants of the world watched, in anguish, as the snake swallowed his first member of the pantheon, and knew that they all would fall; one by one.
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