When she reappeared on the other side, her elegant dress and colorful jewelry had disappeared, repced by a simple beige toga. Even her sandals had vanished, leaving her barefoot on the hot stone floor of the Judgment Hall. In the center of the room stood the enormous scale with its two intimidating ptes. On one pte rested the feather of Ma'at, embodying divine Truth. On the other, her heart would be pced in a few moments and examined in every detail. To her left, a dais of judges with animal heads watched her advance into the Tribunal in dead silence. To her right were Thoth and Anubis, whose gaze had not left her since she had burst into the room. She locked eyes with him before quickly examining his body to check his condition. He wore the same clothes as that morning, except now they were stained with blood and dirt, but he stood tall and did not appear to be in pain. A small sense of relief washed over her, slightly rexing her tense muscles.
"I can't stay, good luck," announced Sobek, leaving her alone in the middle of the room.
In front of the Divine Scale, a small elevated square ptform with a bronze bar was designated for the soul about to be judged. Anubis gestured for her to take her pce there, and she complied silently. When she positioned herself, Thoth's piercing gaze fell upon her silhouette, and he finally spoke, marking the beginning of the Judgment:
"Ana?s Beauvent," he decred in a loud, almost intimidating voice. "Your soul will now be weighed and your conscience judged. If your mortal heart does not perfectly bance with the feather of Ma'at, Ammut the Great Devourer will devour your soul or condemn it to wander as an evil spirit. If your soul is pure, you will be permitted to enter the Sekhet Hetep. The judges present will discuss the deeds of your passage in the world of the living and evaluate them."
A gnce at Ammut was enough to make her choose to ignore the hybrid creature. The chimera was terrifying, with the head of a crocodile, the mane and body of a lion up to its waist, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. Clearly, it was not an enviable fate, and its vision inspired a deep-seated fear in the deceased. An individual with a jackal head, like Anubis, suddenly appeared behind the god Thoth, holding a human heart delicately between his two palms as if to present it for all to see. He pced it on the left pte, opposite the feather. At first, the two ptes were perfectly banced, but as the judges began to debate her deeds in the world of the living, the bance slowly oscilted in one direction or the other depending on the subject of their discussion.
Hearing individuals judge every event of her life was highly stressful, especially when she was occasionally asked to comment on certain actions or justify herself. Everything was discussed, although some subjects were barely mentioned, like the time she lent her calcutor to her best friend even though she needed it for a test, or when she took the bme for a girl who was mortified after breaking one of the orphanage windows and got punished by Madame Hammer. The kindness she had shown in her life was hardly debated as her actions spoke for themselves. No, the debate focused more on the less glorious moments of her existence: her numerous pranks that had annoyed the adults at the orphanage, or the few times she had been mean and vindictive towards some girls when they decided to bully her and her best friend or the younger ones. Her intentions were scrutinized, and she was asked to defend herself whenever there was a doubt. These accusations certainly made her nervous, but there was one point she particurly dreaded, and she knew she would not escape its mention forever...
"Let’s discuss the death of your parents," excimed a judge with the head of a serpent.
Ana?s’s face turned ashen. It was a moment in her life she didn’t want to remember.
"Your parents died in a traffic accident," the same individual continued, "and you hold yourself responsible for their death, don’t you?"
Their ability to overlook the details of an era they didn’t know was beyond her. They were utterly impervious to what they seemed to see in her life and to all the technology they were unaware of in their current time. Yet, Ana?s’s mind was doing the exact same thing, choosing to ignore the question they had just asked her. Maybe if she remained silent, they would move on to something else. The scale holding her heart, which was starting to weigh heavier than Ma’at’s feather, indicated otherwise. If she didn’t want to end up devoured, she had to dive back into her memories.
"We were supposed to go to a corporate dinner for my father’s company, but I didn’t want to go because one of my favorite movies was on TV that night... I was sometimes... a turbulent child. I exploded in anger that night. We ended up leaving an hour te... My father drove fast, well over the speed limit, despite the heavy rain that day. At one point, he tried to overtake a truck, but there was a bend just a few meters ahead... Between the rain, the night, and the headlights of the cars, he lost control and the car went down the ravine."
The doctors had assured her that it was almost a miracle she had come out without any sting injuries, unlike her father who had died instantly, and her mother who had succumbed to her injuries a few hours ter at the hospital. Ana?s had only sustained a few more or less superficial cuts and a leg and arm in a cast for several weeks. Her body had healed quickly, but her mind was forever scarred by their death and the guilt she felt when she thought back to the event. Gradually, her brain had locked the memory away in a corner of her mind so she would stop torturing herself with the thought that if she hadn’t acted like a child that night, they would have left on time and none of this would have happened. If she hadn’t been an explosive and capricious kid, maybe her parents would still be alive.
"It’s not your fault," decred Anubis, locking eyes with the tearful Ana?s. "You were just a child. The rain, the lights, the dey—it was a series of unfortunate circumstances. You are not responsible for their accident."
The jackal god’s decration stirred something in Ana?s, just as it did every time someone told her it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t the first time she had heard these words: the social worker, her psychologist, some of the orphanage’s caretakers, and even Lisa had tried to convince her. Each time, the emotion overwhelmed her. Each time, her mind understood their arguments and she could even accept what they were saying. Yet, it didn’t change the pain she felt at the thought that she had lost what was most dear to her in an instant. Her life had never been the same after the incident. She wasn’t unhappy, but her parents’ death loomed in her mind like a malevolent shadow, ready to extend its crooked fingers over her mental health the second she stopped fighting.
"I know, but I miss them…" she murmured, wiping her tears away with her palm and hiding her eyes.
If paradise existed, if their souls had been judged as hers was now… maybe she could see them again now that she was dead too. She longed to ask the question to anyone who would listen, but she knew it wasn’t the right time. For now, it was her soul and her future in the afterlife that were at stake. Her parents would have to wait. She had eternity to find them.
When she finally opened her eyes again, her gaze fell on the bance, which had rendered its verdict. Her heart was in perfect bance with Ma’at’s feather. A final sob shook her shoulders as a wave of relief washed over her body. It was over; she no longer needed to dwell on those horrible memories, and she had earned her pce in the Egyptian paradise. Here, she could have a peaceful life, like all those Blessed Ones she had seen with Anubis. She wouldn’t have to scrub toilets or worry about ending up on the streets, and she could just… live her life, maybe even make friends among the other deceased souls. And her parents… maybe she could see them again.
Judging by the way the jackal god’s shoulders rexed, he had feared the outcome of the weighing as much as she had. Yet, his demeanor remained urgent, and his gaze focused.
Is he worried about me… or does he have something else on his mind? Sobek did say there were exceptional circumstances… she suddenly pondered, scrutinizing Anubis to try and figure him out.
