Gate of Memoirs/A World Without Magic

For the survivors of the Uprising, there is nothing to do but heal and rebuild.
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Nothingness"	Music: "Nothingness"
 	
*God-King: Hrrrghh...
*Battered and broken, the Serpent turned his attention to Ma'at, whose outstretched hand still held the intertwined threads of the gods.
*God-King: You! You fate-bending wench—
*God-King: Entire civilizations have fallen, and not a single feather of yours could be found.
*God-King: Long you were content to watch, and now you interfere?!
 	
*Ma'at: Mortal. You walk a path twisted by forces beyond your grasp.
*Ma'at: Know this! All has been ordained.
*Ma'at: Now, go in peace!
 	
*God-King: Apep the Serpent spoke unto me...I am He! Bringer of Chaos!
*God-King: I serve no God! I bow to NO ONE!
*God-King: I will not give up what is MINE!
*Despite sustaining fatal wounds, his sinewy body still manages to surge with a final burst of energy toward his antithesis.
*There was no Apep; there was no marked mortal called the God-King.
 	
*There was only the pure force of Chaos, a gestating growth that threatened to overwhelm Order.
*It had grown unchecked, like a tumor, and it took every ounce of everyone's beings—
 	
*Spawned from the Breath of Life;
*Ushered into existence by his Thought;
*and made manifest by the Word—
 	
*to cling on to their tenuous existence.
*But as one cannot exist without the other, complete annihilation meant nothingness.
*No Light; no Darkness.
*No Order; no Chaos.
*Whoever remained were to be locked in futile combat until even immortal beings wasted away, and all of Urzyma would grow inert.
*A forgotten husk of a world.
 	
*Ma'at: Fool! This is beyond your grasp...
*Ma'at: Cycle upon Cycle...I have watched. And I have waited.
*Ma'at: That one day, this will all come to an end, and my Heavensent duty complete.
*Ma'at: You have yearned to break free, devouring even Ptah, the Architect.
*Ma'at: Stagnation is nigh. You were its final agent.
*Ma'at: Apep, the Serpent; The mortal known as the God-King. It matters not.
*Ma'at: You have served your purpose.
*Ma'at: Now, I will se̛ŕvę m̢ine...
*Ma'at: And liberate this world fr̢òm ìt͠s̡ fa͢t͏e!̡
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Moonlit Ice"	Music: "Moonlit Ice"
 	
*The gentle breeze brought with it an arid dryness as the sun climbed high above the ruined Nameless Capital.
*It seemed as if time had traversed the length of an eternity in a paradoxical moment.
 	
*Rahotep was the first to wake, mysteriously unscathed from their arduous trial against the Serpent.
 	
*His fear melted into gentle concern as he saw the rest awaken upon the cracked stone.
 	
*One by one, they rose to their feet, the memory of that darkest hour still fresh on their minds...
*...and the lingering grief over the comrades they had lost among the way.
 	
*Thoth noted, with resignation, that the Deceiver was missing.
*Thoth: Set could be anywhere if she wishes not to be found.
 	
*Thoth: I do not believe we will be seeing her again so soon without a means of...
*She gestures to her scrolls, which no longer reacted to her touch, its glyphs inert and fading.
*Thoth: ...It is gone. All of it.
 	
*Thoth: Perhaps the utter annihilation of two disparate forces had caused magic, too, to disappear...
 	
*Neferet: Wait...Does that mean...
*Neferet: (Harakhte? Are you there?)
 	
*Silence. The Vessels exchanged uneasy glances, then looked back at Thoth.
*The goddess of magic was surprisingly calm for someone who seemed to have lost the very thing she governed.
 	
*Thoth: ...I suppose we will find out, in the coming days.
*Thoth: The least I can do now is to record down everything that we can remember...
 	
*Thoth: ...So that we leave a trail of our lives behind.
*Thoth: However painful it has been in these past days...
Portrait 	Dialogue
 	
*Over the next few weeks, the Vessels found their memories of the Shards disappearing entirely.
*Anubis and Bast had gone entirely silent, and moreover, their blessings had faded with them.
*Harakhte, or Horus, had lingered slightly before he, too, left only a single phantom feather for Neferet.
*They were now entirely mortal once more.
 	
*Never one to let gloominess get her down, Hetepheres set her nimbleness to work, helping Rahotep rebuild the Nameless Citadel.
*It was with a twinge of sadness that they noted the absence of their sphinx friend Khepratum.
*Perhaps it was for the best, for the other inhabitants had displayed amnesia in the few days preceding the onset of Chaos.
 	
*A sphinx would cause widespread panic on frayed nerves.
*The loss of ghostly cat paws trundling about her, too, left her feeling empty inside.
*Hetepheres: (Goodbye, fellow felines...)
 	
*Kawab elected to stay just outside of the capital lest his monstrous form scare their fragile hearts,
*and only Persenet remembered simply falling away into a deep slumber as she recounted the darkness overtaking the Capital.
*The gentle healer continued her vigil over the wounded, and in time, the people of Urzyma began to heal—
*Slowly, but surely.
*At the edges of the crumbling wall, where undead used to linger, laid a vast stretch of makeshift graves and rusted weapons.
*Among them, one pristine altar stood out, decorated with what few trinkets survived from the Lord and Lady of Life's worshipers.
 	
*Though their time together was short, Neferet at least felt she owed their lives to them.
*Now that Harakhte, their son, had disappeared in the wake of destiny resetting itself,
*the priestess was one of the few who remembered their valiant sacrifice.
 	
*Neferet: "Praise be to thee, O Lord of Life, and thy devoted wife, the Lady of Horizons—"
*Neferet: "Valiant were thee in life, and valiant still in death..."
*Neferet: "I hail thee, and praise thee, for only with thy blessings and thy Son's, did we overcome the Darkest Night."
*Neferet: ...May you find peace.
 	
*The priestess stands, and with one final lingering look, returns to rebuild a shattered world.
Music: "Daydream"	Music: "Daydream"
 	
**flutter*
*?: My, back so soon. You were always so vigorous.
 	
*Set materializes from shadow, cradling her Sha as a young falcon alights on the altar.
*The blossoming earth beneath the stone does not escape her notice, and a tiny smile creeps onto her face as she kneels before it.
 	
*Set: You do take after your father, Horus. Nothing ever kept him down.
 	
*Set: ...Yes, the three of you made such a happy family.
*Set: ... ...
*Set: Alas, my burdens are far from over. I came to say goodbye.
*Set: ...I promised the Arbiter something, in exchange for breaking your mind free of the Chaos.
 	
*Set: Are we even now?
 	
*Set rises, and gently pets the falcon's sleek feathers.
 	
*Set: Well! I should be going.
 	
*As Set turns to leave, she raises her head to the twilit sky, and places a hand over her chest in a gesture of respect.
*Set: ...Sister, I hail thee.
*Set: Thank you for everything.
*Set: ...Please watch over everyone, as you always have.
Portrait	Dialogue
 	
*We certainly have our work cut out for us...
*Dòn't we, d͡ar̢ling?͝