Ennead

Raziel jolted awake after having experienced yet another nightmare. He looked around his cluttered yet organized, falling-apart New York apartment, leaning up in bed and rubbing his eyes before sitting on the side of his bed.

Almost immediately, he reached over to his nightstand and grabbed a bottle of medication before taking two pills and swallowing them alongside some water he left by his bedside. The purpose of this medication was to keep Kain quiet and to make sure no incident like what happened at the bar was to ever happen again.

Thanks to Kain's street smarts, combined with Raziel's book smarts, the two of them were able to devise a plan to escape from Canada and move to the United States in hopes that they could evade Canadian law enforcement. Kain also made sure to wipe all surveillance and files on them at the police station they were held at. Of course, this was all before Raziel silenced Kain with the medication.

From then on, Raziel went by the alias of Miles Stevens, while continuing to keep a low profile. Due to living in a city with so much going on and changing his appearance a bit by cutting off his ethnic, curly hair and shaving his beard, he was unrecognizable to anyone, nor did they even notice him.

Raziel got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom to take a shower. He stood in there for a while, thinking about life, his past, and Kain. Finally getting out of his own head, Raziel finished up and dried himself off before standing in front of the mirror to brush his teeth.

As he brushed, he noticed that Kain was not standing behind him through his reflection as he usually was. 'Weird, guess he's still asleep. Good.' he thought to himself. Sometimes, Kain or Raziel could control the body while the other 'slept' inside their collective mind so Raziel figured that must be why Kain wasn't bothering him in the mirror for once.

While continuing to brush, he thought about that beautiful woman from his dream and how he saved her from those thugs. He thought about Khonshu and how ridiculous it was that Kain simply waltzed into a club and took it over for himself in his dream.

As he walked to his destination, he walked with a hat on with his head down, just to make sure no one would recognize him. He was already in the clear, in fact, if he would search for his name on the internet, nothing would come up. That video of him still existed, but there were hardly any views on it and the quality was so low that no one could tell it was him.

He was only caught because he turned himself in.

Eventually, Raziel found himself standing in front of a library, smiling brightly before walking inside. As soon as he entered, the smell of coffee and old books entered his nostrils, prompting him to take a deep breath. He loved books and libraries more than anything else in the world. He loved learning new things, new words, and new ideas. Books were the key to fulfilling that.

Raziel was considered neurodivergent, meaning many places weren't very interested in hiring him because of his 'disabilities'. He hated that term, it made it feel as if he were broken and needed to be fixed. His life was a little more difficult than neurotypicals, but he deserved just as much of a chance as they did. Luckily for him, working at the library was not hindered by his uniqueness. In fact, it helped him work the job at times.

Raziel was in charge of making sure that the library was in perfect order at all times. He made sure every single book was alphabetized, and in the right place, and that the covers were in perfect condition. If they had even the smallest of issues, he would be there to fix them. He'd put them back in order, he'd put them back on the right shelf, or he'd fix the book covers by hand, a skill he learned in middle school from the librarian there.

"Good morning, Miles!" The head librarian, an older man with grey hair and glasses greeted his employee. Miles was his favorite employee. He was never late and was always eager to work. When there was downtime, he and Raziel would discuss their favorite books or piece of poetry. It really did help the workday pass by sooner.

"Good morning, Mr. Brooks. How's your morning?" Raziel liked the older man just as much. They'd only known each other for about half a year, but Mr. Brooks felt like the father Raziel never had.

"Fantastic as always. How about yourself, Miles?"

"I'm doing great. Any out-of-order books?" Raziel asked, looking around for the cart that usually had the books on them that were away from their proper homes.

"Yeah, the cart is right over there where you left it." Mr. Brooks said, pointing to the cart that was perfectly at Raziel's slot.

Raziel walked over to the cart, seeing that it was completely filled with books, more than the usual amount. "Must be studying time for the high school kids, huh?" Raziel said, grabbing the cart before pushing it toward the shelves. The library had just opened, so it was just the two of them inside. They were free to speak loudly.

"Yeah..." Mr. Brooks could've sworn that the two of them discussed this the last time they spoke, but he brushed it off.

"Some kids respect the ways of old, I guess." Raziel placed a book on a shelf, removed it, placed it back in, removed it, and then placed it back in. He then grabbed another book and looked at it for a second before taking it over to where it needed to go.

Raziel continued placing the books in order, keeping a few of the books in the cart that was far too worn for his liking. As he placed a book on a shelf, he could hear the door to the library chime as it hit the bell from above it. "Welcome in!" Raziel greeted the guest, looking around the shelf before finding himself dumbfounded.

It was Layla, that girl from his dream that he saved when he transformed into Moon Knight. "Hey, Miles!" she said, waving to him with that charming smile on her face.

"Uh- what?" Raziel muttered, looking at Layla with wide eyes and his mouth slightly open.

"What's wrong?" Layla was starting to feel just as confused as Raziel at that point. He was a little strange, she knew that, but that was part of his charm to her. "Did you forget about me already?" she teased, compelling Raziel to fix his face and speak faster than he normally would. "What? No, how could I ever forget about you, Layla?"

'So it wasn't a dream after all?' Raziel thought to himself. His suspicions would be confirmed upon seeing Khonshu sitting on top of one of the bookshelves, looking directly at Raziel. Raziel's eyes widened, prompting Layla to turn around and look up at where he was looking. Though Khonshu was still there, Layla could not see it.

"What are you looking at, Miles?" she asked him, turning back around after seeing that there was nothing there.

"Oh- I noticed an out-of-order book I missed on the second floor. I'll get it done later." he told her, brushing off the fact that a god was staring right at him.

"How can you tell that from down here?" Layla raised a skeptical brow.

"Oh, I just memorized all the books... What brings you here? More books? Coffee? I can get the coffee for you right now if you'd like." Raziel was clearly flustered and overwhelmed due to everything happening all at once.

Layla was clearly puzzled, furrowing her eyebrows and tilting her head as if she were studying him. "You... literally said to come by today. Last night. At my house?" as she said this, Mr. Brooks raised a brow. 'Miles, you dog.' he thought, taking things out of context.

"I did say that, huh?" Raziel could barely remember the night before. Whenever he and Kain switched who was in control, his memories would become a bit hazy. "I'll be honest, I didn't think you'd want to see me again after last night." again, Mr. Brooks raised a brow upon hearing more of the conversation without context.

"What, just because you came and went so quickly? I don't mind, it happens." After Layla said this Mr. Brooks was going crazy at this point, speculating about what these two youngsters were talking about. He let out a stifled chuckle, causing both of them to look at him.

Layla quickly realized what was so funny and immediately felt embarrassed. Raziel, however, didn't get what was funny. "My lunch break is in about thirty minutes. How about we grab some lunch? Only if that's okay with you, I mean."

"Yeah, that'll be great! I'll read something while I wait for you." Layla told him before walking over to the history section to look for something to read.

Raziel exhaled before being jolted by Khonshu's voice. "Well, that was rather cute." the god teased. Raziel said nothing and grabbed his cart of books to take them upstairs using the employee elevator. As soon as the doors closed, Raziel started speaking to the god.

"What do you want?" Raziel muttered. He was clearly annoyed.

"May I not speak to you for my own pleasure, Raziel Zabu?" Khonshu spoke sarcastically, causing the librarian to roll his eyes.

"Don't you have a bunch of aunts and uncles to talk to? Talk to them." the elevator door opened and Raziel started pushing the cart around the second floor.

"That's precisely what I wanted to talk to you about. You know of the Ennead, yes?"

Raziel knew of this well due to all of his research on Egyptian mythology. "Of course. The nine gods worshiped at Heliopolis. There's Atum, also known as Ra, Anubis, Bast, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Seth, Ammit, and you."

"You're almost correct. Bast, my sibling, no longer associates with the Ennead."

"Is that because of her becoming the Panther God of Wakanda?" Raziel asked, pushing his cart and speaking quietly so no one else could hear.

"Something like that, yes. As for my father, Ra, he long abandoned us. Ammit has been exiled from the Ennead, sealed away for all eternity." Khonshu sat on top of Raziel's cart as he pushed it, though he was weightless due to not having a physical form.

"Okay, why are you bringing them up? There's a reason you're talking to me and not Kain about it, right?"

"Precisely. Remember when I spoke of you having your own uses? You see, you and Kain are both assigned to the same mission, just in different aspects. Both of you are in search of Seth."

As Khonsu spoke, Raziel placed a book on the shelf. He turned to Khonshu as he placed the book in and out of its rightful slot and looked at the god with a curious expression. So you mean, Seth is on Earth right now?"

"Not quite. Seth has an avatar on Earth, just like you. As for what his avatar is doing here, well, that's for you to find out." Khonsu appeared and began peering over the balcony, looking down at Layla from down below.

"Quiet the fate you and that girl have. To think my previous Moon Knight's daughter would come into contact with my current one." as Khonshu looked at her with blank eyes, Raziel looked at him with a cold scowl.

"Leave her out of this. I said I'd help you already." hearing Raziel put on his tough guy voice did nothing but trigger Khonshu to laugh.

"Oh, but she is far too important for me to ignore. See if she knows anything about the other avatars. Her father did a lot of research behind my back."

"I thought you said that you were always watching, Mr. Claus." Raziel placed another book on the shelf, speaking without looking back.

"I am always watching... though sometimes my attention may be elsewhere. Ask her what she knows Raziel. I will contact you again soon." Khonshu lept from the balcony with his cape flowing behind him and disappeared beneath it, leaving Raziel by himself.

Raziel sighed. "Sounds easy enough."

"Luckily, you have me with you to make sure you aren't a nervous wreck." Kain spoke from inside Raziel's mind, jolting just as Khonshu did. They weren't sure exactly how it worked, but both personalities needed to sleep. While one slept, the other could be awake and control the body. Both could sleep at the same time and both could be awake at the same time as well. Kain was up all night, he figured that he might as well get what needed to be done as Raziel slept.

"Huh? How are you speaking? My meds don't wear off for another few hours."

"Oh, you mean those sugar pills? Yeah, I replaced them last night when you were asleep."

Raziel looked to the side as if he were staring at an invisible camera. "... Why didn't you just throw the whole bottle away?"

"I found it quite humorous." Kain spoke as if he were holding back his laughter. Though he was the more serious one of the two, he'd still sometimes mess with Raziel as if they were siblings.

"Just stay quiet, please. I don't need advice from you of all people."

"Oh? Will your years of experience consuming romance novels help you instead?"

"Maybe."

"You realize fiction and reality are two different things?"

"Shut up."

"I'll be here when you need me. You will need me."

"Please shut up, Kain."

Kain and Raziel continued to bicker with each other as Raziel put away all of the misplaced books from his cart that belonged on the second floor of the library. In his own head, he rehearsed exactly what he would say to Layla and how he would say it. He needed to come across as interested in her knowledge of the subject, but not in a way that showed her that he may be involved in it in any way.

After thirty minutes had passed, it was time for Raziel's lunch break. As he began walking toward the reading area, Mr. Brooks stopped him. "I'll give you an extra half hour on your break." Mr. Brooks had this sly smile on his face. It seemed he really wanted to help Raziel out with this girl who was becoming a regular at his establishment.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, of course. I can handle things while you're gone. Go ahead."

"Thank you, Mr. Brooks. I'll be back not a moment later." Mr. Brooks nodded and Raziel continued on toward Layla until he found her reading some biography of an archeologist. She didn't notice him until he said something due to her being so focused on the book.

"Hey, Layla. Shall we?" he asked her, excited, yet nervous, for what may or may not be considered a date.