Bes

Bes (also spelled as Bisu or Aha) is the Egyptian god of dwarves, fortunes, fertility and the arts.

## Bes

### Aliases

God of Dwarves, Fortunes, Fertility, and the Arts

## Appearances

### Appears in

The Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire, The Kane Chronicles: The Serpent's Shadow

## History

Bes, unlike many Egyptian gods, was not banished to the Duat by the House of Life. He still in the current day was honored by many people and could easily ask for favors.

### Mythology

Bes was an Egyptian deity worshiped in the later periods of dynastic history as a protector of households and in particular mothers and children. In time he would be regarded as the defender of everything good, and the enemy of all that is bad.

## The Kane Chronicles

### The Throne of Fire

When Bast goes into the Duat to check on Apophis, she tells Carter Kane and Sadie Kane that she had gotten a friend to act as their guardian for the meantime, which is actually Bes.

Later, Sadie, Liz, and Emma are on the run in London when Sadie’s parents were possessed by Nekhbet and Babi. Bes comes to the rescue and takes the three in his limo, and introduces himself, as the god of dwarves. Liz asks him if he should use a more polite term for dwarves, like “vertically challenged”, but Bes says he won’t be the god of vertically challenged people. Bes stops the car and tells the girls to get out while he puts on his ugly suit, which is his dwarf pride speedo. Bes saves Sadie and scares Nekhbet and Babi out of Gran and Gramps. After he finishes, Sadie asks him to put on clothes, and Bes says he can see why Bast likes her.

Bes takes Sadie away after she says goodbye to her family and friends, and ushers her in the limo to take her to St. Petersburg. The two find Carter and Walt Stone and they are introduced to Bes, and learn that he is an ally. Bes takes them to the Crystal Palace to find a portal and tells Walt that he has to leave, confusing the Kane siblings. Bes asks why Walt hadn’t told them his secret, confusing them even more. Sadie asks him what it was, but he says it isn’t his place to explain.

They make it to Russia from a staircase, and Bes tells them about how Russians can see magic, and to be careful. Bes takes them to the Hermitage, but says he cannot go in due to alarms going off when a god enters, and gives them winter gear by snapping is fingers. Bes tells them about all of the Russian monument series excitedly, and when Sadie asks him if he spent a lot of time there, Bes tells them about how he got captured by Vladimir Menshikov’s grandfather at a ball he threw for Peter the Great. Bes decides to meet them at a Chocolate shop.

Sadie, Carter, and Set meet him at the shop, and Bes freaks out upon seeing Set, trying to scare him away. Sadie tells him about Menshikov, and Bes tells her he got her a chocolate head of Lenin. Bes reluctantly trusts Set when he says he will give them the location of the scroll. Bes ushers Carter and Sadie in the limo and drives them away while being chased by magicians, and they go through a portal into the Mediterranean Sea, almost drowning, but Bes rescues them and took them to a hotel in Alexandria, getting them to a penthouse suite due to people recognizing him, and nursing Sadie back to health. Bes decides to take Carter to Makan al-Hamrah to find Zia Rashid while Sadie and Walt find the third scroll.

Bes and Carter travel to the tomb with the Bedouins, who revered Bes. The Bedouin’s made Camp for the night after a few hours, and used one of their trucks to continue their journey. Bes tells Carter that he thinks Zia’s capture was a trap, and how he stayed out of the Duat for 2,000 years. They arrive there, and they scope the area until they are attacked by water demons. Bes scares some of the demons away and is drowned under water, but is saved by Carter. They make it to the tomb and they free her, and take her to the Nile while she rejects Nephthys. Bes greets the goddess and Nephthys apologizes for using Zia as a host.

Zia wakes up, and is furious that Bes is there, to his annoyance. Bes wonders why brevet rescued her and tried to tell her that she was hosting Nephthys and shouldn’t have Carter be executed, but she disagrees, and Bes asks Carter if he can punch her. Bes tries to get her to leave with them but stops when Michel Desjardins and Menshikov arrive. Menshikov insults Bes, saying how he wants to torture him in disgust. He locked Bes in a cage as he fought Carter, but is freed by Sadie and Walt when they arrive, and hauls them out of a whirlpool, and scares Menshikov and Desjardins back to the First Nome. Bes made a deal with the Bedouins to drive him and his friends to Cairo.

When Carter wakes up the next day, and finds Bes playing Senet with Sadie, Walt, and Zia, gambling for Vlad Menshikov’s glasses. Bes and the others tell Carter what happened and tells him that he will take Walt and Zia to Brooklyn House, and then meet Carter and Sadie in the Duat. Bes then gets angry when Sadie beats him in Senet. They then walk through a mob to get to the Great Pyramid and see them off.

Bes meets the two at the fourth house, Sunny Acres Assisted-Living Community, in a new Hawaiian shirt and only a speedo, and tells them that Menshikov is on to them. They enter the house and he ducks under a desk in order to not see Tawaret. Tawaret finds him hiding behind a hibiscus plant and happily greets him, and they hug awkwardly, causing Sadie to ask if they used to date. They tell her about awakening Ra, and Tawaret perks up when Bes tells the siblings they can trust her. As they find Ra, Bes tells Carter and Sadie about how he was obsessed with Bast and how Tawaret rescued him from the palace, and how he still likes her. They find Ra and they leave after losing three hours, heading to the House of Rest. Tawaret apologizes to Bes for it, but Bes tells her it was never her fault, holding her hand.

They go back on the sun boat and Sadie angered Bes for making fun of a senile Ra, making Bes storm off in anger. Dragon monsters tried attacking the boat, but Bes scared them away with a boo. They arrive at the house, and Bes puts Ra at the head of the table as they eat dinner with Julius Kane/Osiris and Ruby Kane. Khonsu arrives, and Carter and Sadie agree to a game of Senet against him to get three hours of time back, with the risk of their ren being erased. Bes decides to play with them, and tells them that they made him feel wanted again and to tell Tawaret that he tried. Bes loses on purpose to save them, and tells them to kick Menshikov in the knee for him. His memories are erased and so is his physical form.

Bast, Carter, and Sadie later visit him at Sunny Acres being cared by a sobbing Tawaret, water dribbling down his chin, not remembering anything.

### The Serpent's Shadow

Sadie went to The House of Rest/ Sunny Acres and talked to Tawaret. Then she went to see Bes and she promises that she will find his shadow and return him to his former state. Sadie went on a quest with Walt to do so and the two succeed in finding his shadow. After Walt binds it to a shabti, Sadie returns it to Bes by using the reverse of an execration spell, returning him to normal. Later when Sadie, Zia, and Carter are in the Land of Demons, Bes took them out from the battle of the senile gods and demons by driving them away from the demons and the Sea of Chaos. At the beginning of the battle with Apophis, he's one of the first gods who battles the Serpent, along with Sobek, Bast and Ra. Later, when Sadie and Carter are casting the execration spell on the shabti that has the Serpent's Shadow, he's one of the gods along with Bast that keeps Apophis distracted. While most of the gods fall out of either despair or Apophis' power, Bes keeps up the fight until the end, helping to restore Carter's confidence and holding Apophis off until he's destroyed, even landing a blow that rattles Apophis' eyes in his head, one of the few blows that actually affected him. At the end of the battle, Bes is sent to the Duat. At the end of the book, Sadie and Carter visit him, and he said Tawaret and I are going to build a home on the lake side. I've been gotten to this view and he puts that maybe he'll get some little dwarf hippo babies to look after!. Bes also tells them that if they ever need him, they can call on him, saying that he always had an easier time traveling to the mortal world than other gods.

## Personality

Bes is said to have an 'attitude'. He is friendly until someone bothers him. If you bother him enough he could yell "BOO" at you. Sadie says that she can't think of him as small because of his gigantic personality. He scares demons away.

## Appearance

Bes is said to be so ugly that he can use his ugliness as a weapon. He wears a "dwarf pride" speedo and lives in his limo. He is about four feet tall, hairy, has a mono-brow, and has skin covered in ugly red welts.

## Abilities

Bes has the ability to scare almost everything away by saying "BOO!" It is said that sometimes when Bes yells "BOO!" his face swells to the size of a melon and his eyes to the size of grapefruits. This can be quite literal as this is shown to be able to banish gods back to the Duat and sent Desjardins and Vlad back to the First Nome just by doing it. This apparently doesn't work on Set, though it's unknown if it was because Bes had chocolate all over his face, or because Set is simply too powerful to be even fazed. Zia was also able to withstand it. Incidentally, he can also summon his Mercedes in the same way and when in proximity to sustained magical effects they turn back to normal, which he uses to turn Carter back to human when he was turned in to a snake. He also was able to swat away weak flames shown when Zia Rashid attacked him with fire elemental magic after being freed from her imprisonment in The Throne of Fire. He has been shown to be adept at summoning portals and seems to have a great knowledge of their locations. He is able to find an alternate location to open a portal that the magicians from the House of Life doesn't know about and that wasn't exhausted already and knew that the Alexandria portal would be underwater. He also knew that Bahariya was cursed to prevent portals being opened there (though Ptah showed the ability to as a god) and that Alexandria was apparently the closest portal. Bes also claimed to be able to travel to the mortal world even when the gods exiled themselves, claiming that he always had an easier time traveling to it than the other gods.

## Relationships

### Love Interests

#### Bast

Bes used to have a “not so secret” crush on Bast, worshipped being together at festivals. Bast was not oblivious to his feelings and played with his emotions, but thought of him as her little brother. In The Throne of Fire, Bast called on Bes to watch over Carter and Sadie for her, and told him that he likes them. At Sunny Acres Assisted-Living Community, Bes expresses regret over his obsession with Bast, knowing he could’ve ended up with Tawaret. When Carter and Sadie saw his memories, they saw him and Bast together at a festival.

In The Serpent's Shadow, Bast apologizes to Bes for playing with his emotions, and Bes forgives her, saying that she thinks that she is the center of the universe, and Bast says that she is the center of the universe.

#### Tawaret

Bes and Tawaret used to date in the past, and everyone wanted them to be together. However, Bes did not reciprocate her feelings due to his obsession with Bast, and thinking that she was too nice. While dating, Tawaret saw his shadow at Sais. However, one day, Bes was captured and tortured by Alexander Menshikov at a ball, and Tawaret rescued him and saw him at his worst. Bes was so embarassed that he never spoke to her again.

In The Throne of Fire, Bes sees Tawaret again at Sunny Acres Assisted-Living Community and tries not to talk to her, but Tawaret finds him and they talk. Tawaret flirts with Bes and is overjoyed when Bes tells Carter and Sadie that he trusts her. Bes tells the siblings about his history with her, and regrets his actions, knowing that he could’ve ended up with her. Later, Tawaret apologizes to him for costing them time, but Bes holds her hand, telling her not to apologize. When Carter and Sadie see his memories, they see him and Tawaret.

Tawaret was heartbroken over Bes’s shadow being taken away, taking care of him while crying and yelling at Bast in anger.

In The Serpent's Shadow, Bes and Tawaret start dating, and Bes called Tawaret affectionate nicknames. Later, Bes tells Carter and Sadie not to call him too much, as he has much catching up to do with Tawaret. Bes plans to get a nice house on the lakeside with her, and maybe have children’s with her.

### Friends

#### Carter and Sadie Kane

Bes met Carter and Sadie in The Throne of Fire and they thought he was ugly, but immediately trusted him. Bes liked them, and took care of them, saving them from drowning, helping Carter heal, and getting Sadie a souvenir of Vladimir Lenin’s head. Bes also helped Carter go rescue Zia, even while thinking it was a trap. Bes also confided to them about Bast, Tawaret, and Alexander Menshikov. Later, at Aaru, Bes told them that they were the real deal and made him feel needed for the first time in centuries, and sacrificed his ren and memories for them, his last memory them looking at him with love and admiration. The heroes were furious at Khonsu for what he did to him, and were saddened by it. In The Serpent's Shadow, Sadie visited Bes once a week at Sunny Acres, even though he was practically a vegetable. The siblings were overjoyed when he was brought back and helped bring him back. Later, Bes told them to call him whenever they needed him, but not too much, because he needed to catch up with Tawaret.

#### Zia Rashid

Carter and Bes rescued her from the sarcophagus in The Throne of Fire. Bes didn’t want to rescue her at first, thinking it was a trap, but doing it because Carter wanted to. Zia was initially furious at him, calling him a thing. Bes didn’t like her much either, trying to reason with her, but also asking Carter if he can punch her. Bes is later impressed with her after withstanding a full frontal boo. The two later warm up to each other, playing Senet together and gambling for Vlad Menshikov’s glasses and taking her back to Brooklyn House. In The Serpent's Shadow, Bes is happy to see her and asks her for a hug, but Zia declines.

#### Walt Stone

Though Walt and Bes never had a one on one conversation, the two are close, with Bes knowing about Walt’s curse and trying to protect him from it. Bes also respected Walt’s privacy, not telling Carter or Sadie his secret. The two later play Senet and gamble for Vlad Menshikov’s glasses, and Bes takes Walt back to Brooklyn House. The last thing Walt did before dying was capturing Bes’s shadow, saving his life. Bes never acknowledged Walt about this, however, since they didn’t interact in The Serpent's Shadow.

## Trivia

* Bes was shown fighting demons in World War 2, a conflict that was started between the Greek Olympian gods. It is unknown why demons were present or what role Egypt played in the conflict.
* Bes was never shown to have a host.
* His Greco-Roman counterpart (in terms of attribute) is Tyche/Fortuna.
* He is similar to the Norse goddess Freya on the parts of Fertility and connection with dwarves.
* Although he is the Egyptian God of Dwarves, he has no connection to the Dwarves from Norse Mythology.
* While Bes mostly relies on his "BOO!" to do his fighting for him, he is shown to be a very capable fighter, fighting Apophis until the very end of the battle even where most other gods have fallen. In this battle, he is shown using a club as a weapon and is even able to land one of the few blows that has an effect on Apophis.