LIGHTS: Red Earth colors. HORUS enters, carrying the red fire of SET's TESTICLE in a TORCH. The God of Love theme MUSIC begins, first on individual woodwinds, as HORUS reaches the entrance to the Underworld. As all the lines HORUS speaks while he is alone are his inner dialogue, he does not speak the words physically, and his next lines are recorded, and designated "Record: OFF". As HORUS enters the dark passage, the red light of the TORCH turns more ghastly. PUNGENT aroma of thyme and red clover.

HORUS:

(Record OFF:) Leave this behind, and Set finds it. Take it with me, and the smell gets me. (HORUS retraces his steps to the cave mouth and speaks:) HORUS: I call upon the lady Nephthys. Mighty keeper of secrets, hear me.

NEPHTHYS KHU vanishes. BLACKOUT as HORUS re-enters the CAVE. At first we hear only his breath and his feet sliding on the muddy cave floor. Begin faint SFX of animal roars and cries, human screams, crashes, metallic clangs and other fearsome sounds that grow louder as HORUS speaks.

HORUS: (Record: OFF:)

The cries! Sadder than anything up there. Dear father, abundant sweet mother, how such misery here, in this black root syrup of hot Earth? I am not afraid! (Pause.) Yes you are. No I'm not. I am Horus! I do not fear anything! My wings mark the sky. My eye sees all things under the Sun! I am the Falcon, the Lord of Light! (Pause.) Yes. We know.

You are also, at the moment, just another cave bug creeping in the dark. No! Then why don't you move? I'll move whenever I--as soon as I-- I lose heart and run back to day. I say thank you for the mirror. It is all my own fear. And to you, Set, I say, Thank you for coming. And goodbye. (SFX intensify and get louder.) I apologize for any lack of respect toward you. You do not need to send your energy after me into the cave. (SFX volume down, continue:) Thank you, Set, for the priceless life lessons you have brought me. Thank you for showing me the voices of my own fear. It is now time for you to hurry up home to Red Earth. Do not follow here. Beware, this place is holy. I bless you and release you now, and liberate you to ascend into frequencies of love. Do you want me to send some love at you? Thank you! Bless you!

I wonder which is worse. The noise of my fear, or this endless silence? I feel like I've been here for days. What are days here? Boring. As long as my steps go easily down, I'm going toward the center of the Earth, toward Osiris. But what other tunnels branch off from this one? I could be weeks going the wrong way until my forehead hits some slime rock, and--Ow!

HORUS:

Thank you. And now to find the right one again. (Pause.)

ANUBIS:

Why thank you. It's kind of you to show me the way.

HORUS:

And you're the one who guides the souls here.

ANUBIS:

Only the dead ones. Would you like to be dead and join the stream? Be still. Listen. Look. What do you see?

HORUS:

A blackness deeper than the groin of night.

They enter the Weighing of the Heart. OSIRIS sits on a throne across the Space from HORUS.  Before HORUS may approach OSIRIS, he receives from MA'AT and her KHU the feather of Truth, which he uses to scoop his breast and pull out a glowing HEART of LIGHT which he places in one pan of the scales. The feather and the HEART of LIGHT balance perfectly, and THOTH, holding a tablet and stylus, writes the result. HORUS transmutes into his KHU in Boy form, and sits behind the monster AM-MIT, who still lurks ready to devour any heart weighed to heaviness by lies. OSIRIS gestures with his crook, and AM-MIT vanishes. Exit all NETERs except OSIRIS and HORUS. From now on HORUS' voice is Live.

OSIRIS:

Yes, certainly, as I miss the touch and the fragrance of my beloved Isis. I see her here every day. It is not the same as love up in the Main Air. There's no sadness here. I don't grieve. If there were such a thing as time here, I wouldn't have time for grief. This is the root ball of the Earth, the power trunk. Any move I make bends the surge of life. You've seen in the market the juggler who keeps five balls or plates in the air at once? (HORUS nods.) Imagine that I'm juggling five billion times five billion billion more of plants that green the Earth. My reach is everywhere. My tendrils curl, my figs and melons pop out wherever they find air and light. So please forgive me if I don't rise to embrace you. If I can't give you my undivided attention, please don't feel that I'm not ablaze with love and admiration for you.

HORUS:

I long to embrace you.

OSIRIS:

Then do it.

HORUS climbs the steps and embraces OSIRIS, who does not rise or otherwise move.

HORUS:

You are as handsome as they said. You designed your own face.

OSIRIS:

Yes. Everyone does.

HORUS:

Even Set? (OSIRIS smiles.) How do I defeat him?

OSIRIS:

You don't. He doesn't defeat you either.

HORUS:

I don't want to accept that. Set is for agony and screaming. Why shouldn't he be destroyed, so that the whole Earth can erupt again in sap and flowers?

OSIRIS:

And the golden River of Life bring all people, animals and swelling vines to fulness, bliss and peace. We wish it could be so. But it's too late. You know this realm. Hard forces hit one another here and push until something goes up. Rocks push up into mountains, human souls tear the heart and fly out the crown. Things fall down or fly up. Why, after we've played this story so many times, is Set still invincible? You have chosen the right weapon of Love. Nothing is more powerful. So what is missing?

HORUS:

That is what baffles me. I had the aid of five other Neters, and we still could not overpower him.

OSIRIS:

Are there any other resources of love in the area?

HORUS:

Only the hu--(Looks at CELEBRANTS, slumps, shakes his head.) Oh. Father, I've done it again.

OSIRIS:

Done what?

HORUS:

We don't have the word for it yet. Spiritism? Neterism? Thinking, feeling that the humans are inferior to Neters? Believing that if the humans were brighter and braver, they could liberate us all from this play? So when are they going to get to it and do it? (To CELEBRANTS:) I see the uglineness of this thought, everyone, yet it occurs in me anyway. As you can see, I am the most observant of all the Neters, except for when I'm completely blind. I apologize for my impatience. (To OSIRIS:) I am appalled, Father. Please forgive me. I look forward to lighter exchanges.

OSIRIS:

I can forgive anything. (To CELEBRANTS:) Can all of you?

HORUS:

(To CELEBRANTS:) Can you? Why should you?

OSIRIS:

All right. So we all know now that you humans are not merely a pool of low-grade love compared to the Neters. The people are the key. Whoever gets their love wins

HORUS:

Little chance of that after I've insulted you all again. Set's never done that. He's encouraged you to your own best possibilities, your longing for adventure, and I keep forgetting that you're even there. (To OSIRIS:) Father--

OSIRIS:

Don't talk to me, talk to them. (To CELEBRANTS:) Good evening, everyone, and my apologies for talking about you in third person rather than talking right to you until now. This play is endless, isn't it? Believe it or not, we're within an hour of the end. I hope you're enjoying the story. I certainly am. My role is not nearly as dull as this posture would suggest. (To HORUS:) Horus, the hearts of the Neters are hard. They were scoured granite smooth from eons ago, when we first did this story. Our human friends still have supple hearts, even brave, spongy hearts. (To CELEBRANTS:) That is your glory. In the love of your hearts, you rule us. We only play the starry, booming roles you give us. Mine is a plum. Thank you. Do you like the wine?

OSIRIS' THRONE moves backward and He exits as Chamber darkens, leaving HORUS alone. As he moves the Space goes BLACK again. RIGHT EYE of HORUS appears faintly, growing brighter until HORUS reaches the way out of the Cave.

HORUS:

This means Set is whole again.