Set was annoyed. As the god of violence, he should have enjoyed the mess Apophis was making, but he didn’t. There was such a thing as too much violence, and they’d reached that point a while back.

It wasn’t just violence and chaos anymore. It was death and pain, a struggle for power, and an annoyance. Why hadn’t Apophis stayed in the underworld? Set didn’t understand why he wanted to take over the human world so badly.

Humans could be ingenious, and some of them had an eye for art, but most humans were annoying. They always bothered Set when they found out who he was, and they kept bowing at him and currying for favors. That was why he spent most of his time either in his suite at the palace shared by the gods of his pantheon or in the apartments he had all over the world.

Well, the ones he had left.

Set scowled at the TV. He didn’t enjoy watching it and thought it was stupid, but it was the best way to stay informed about what Apophis was up to. At last count, he’d already destroyed two of Set’s apartments, and Set didn’t like that. He’d selected the places he’d purchased carefully, and he was losing them one by one because Apophis was throwing a temper tantrum.

The human realm was a bother, but it was a bother Set didn’t want to lose. As annoying as humans could be, it would be inconvenient to lose the ability to buy their designer suits and delicious alcohol. That meant he’d need to save humanity from Apophis.

Which was why he was expected at a meeting in half an hour. He sighed and got to his feet. He could stay here, but Ra would look for him, so he might as well go. Set’s grandfather could be as annoying as the humans he was trying to save, especially since he’d met his partner. 

Set found it hilarious that Ra, of all gods, had chosen to be with a god who belonged to another pantheon, but he loved watching how the others reacted to that. None of them would ever say anything to Ra, considering he was the main god in their pantheon, but Set found the deep disappointment and scorn they visibly felt amusing. It was one of the main reasons he liked Frey.

His presence bothered people that Set didn’t like.

Set kept the TV on as he went to his bedroom to change. He enjoyed black suits, so he selected one before heading to the bathroom to shower quickly. He wasn’t happy about being stuck in the palace with all the other gods. He enjoyed his apartments in the human realm because there, he was alone and didn’t have to deal with everyone else. Unfortunately, it wasn’t safe to leave the palace until they got rid of Apophis.

Which meant Set had to do so as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, Apophis was powerful. Set wouldn’t be able to take him on his own, no matter how much he wished he could. Ra hadn’t been able to do so the first time around, either. As annoying as it was, they would have to fight Apophis together.

It didn’t take Set long to get ready, and once he was, he turned the TV off and headed out. They were meeting in Ra’s rooms, and Set wondered who would be there. They still didn’t know who the spy was, which made having meetings to talk about their next steps inconvenient. If the spy was one of them, they would go to Apophis and tell him everything that had been said. That was why they kept their meetings as small as possible, but they’d need all the help they could get to defeat Apophis, which meant involving everyone available.

Set had never trusted anyone but himself, and he had no intention of starting anytime soon. He’d work with Ra and the others because he had to if he wanted to get rid of Apophis, but that was where it ended. He wanted nothing else to do with them.

Most of the people had already arrived when he reached Ra’s room. He sat on one of the chairs, leaning back as he looked around. This meeting seemed to be among the gods Ra trusted the most, but there were a few humans present, too. Not all of them were alive, which wasn’t a surprise since Osiris was here. He and Thoth had fallen in love with two dead humans, and both of them were here today.

“Have you seen what Apophis has done?” Ra asked as he looked around the room.

Set sighed. He’d hoped something new would come out of this meeting, but he could already tell that wouldn’t happen. It made him wonder why they were even meeting. There was nothing new to talk about except what Apophis was doing, and they didn’t need to talk about that. They all knew he was destroying the human realm. He wanted full power over humans, and if they refused to bow down to him, he killed them. To him, it was as simple as that.

“Do we really have to make a list of everything Apophis has destroyed since the last time we met?” he drawled.

The conversation stopped, and everyone turned to look at him. 

He wasn’t bothered by the attention. He’d come all the way here to find a solution to the Apophis problem, not to wail about the people Apophis was killing.

“Don’t you want to know what he’s been up to?” Sekhmet asked.

“Not particularly. I want to know where he is so we can get rid of him permanently, but I don’t need to know what he’s been up to.”

Sekhmet snorted. “Why are you even here? It’s clear you don’t care about any of this.”

“I do care. I don’t want the human realm to be destroyed. It would be annoying.”