Nu reached through the water and found Naunet’s hand.

He could not see her. He had never seen anything. Water pressed against him from every side, without a bank to break upon or a bottom where he might set his feet. When he moved, it closed behind him. When he stopped, nothing marked the place where he had been.

Her fingers tightened around his.

“Here,” she said.

A movement passed through the depths. Nu felt it along his arms: others approaching, drawing the dark water with them. Heh came with Hauhet, and the distance behind them had no end. Kek and Kauket moved through a darkness that lay close against their faces. Then Amun and Amaunet were there also, hidden even among the hidden gods; Nu knew their coming only when the water stirred beside him.

Eight. Four pairs, with no ground beneath them and no light above.

Nu stretched out his free hand. Another hand met it.

They drew together.

The water moved with their bodies, folding into itself between them. Nu felt the movement pass from one pair to the next, through the dark where none could see another’s face. There was no first or last among their joined hands. Naunet’s fingers lay against his palm; beyond her were the others, close now, all present in the same deep place.

Between them, something touched the surface.

Nu felt its passage before he knew its shape. A stem brushed his wrist. He turned his hand and found it smooth and slender, rising through the water. Above it was a closed bud.

He followed its curve with one finger. The tip was firm. Beneath it, folded petals lay tightly against one another.

“What is it?” Naunet asked.

Nu had no answer. He could feel where the bud began and where it ended. His finger could travel around it and return to the same place.

He withdrew his hand carefully.

The lotus swayed between the Eight. Their coming together had brought forth a life within it, but the petals still concealed the god they had made. Nu kept close enough to feel the stem move against the water. Beside him, Naunet was still.

Then the bud grew warm.

The warmth reached his face. He lifted his head toward it, and a fine line appeared in the darkness.

Nu blinked.

The line remained. It ran down the edge of a petal, narrow and bright. Water clung there, trembling. For the first time he saw a drop instead of merely feeling its weight.

A petal loosened.

Light spilled through the opening and struck his outstretched hand. He turned it slowly. One side shone; the other remained dark. The line between them moved as he moved.

“Nu.”

He turned toward Naunet’s voice and saw her.

A gleam lay along her serpent’s head. Her face was lifted toward the flower, and its brightness caught in her eyes. Beyond her, Heh’s broad frog face emerged from shadow, with Hauhet beside him. Farther around the lotus, Kek and Kauket appeared, then Amun and Amaunet. The Eight stood revealed to one another in the light coming from between them.

Another petal opened. Then another.

Blue spread outward where there had been only darkness. The petals bent back, carrying drops of water along their edges, and at the heart of the flower sat a child.

His knees were drawn close to his body. His small hands rested against the golden center of the lotus. He raised his head, and Nu felt the warmth deepen across his face and shoulders.

“Ra,” Nu said.

The child opened his eyes.

Light ran over the waters. The nearest ripples flashed first; beyond them, others caught it, farther and farther away. Nu watched the brightness travel where no eye had looked before. The great water was still there, reaching beyond his sight, but its surface had become a multitude of moving edges.

Ra lifted one hand from the flower.

Naunet’s fingers slipped from Nu’s as both turned toward him. The Eight gathered around the open petals. None stood between the young god and the water he illuminated.

The light rose with him.

Nu looked up. The lotus lay open beneath Ra, its blue petals spread wide, and the sun shone above the primordial sea.

On the tip of the lowest petal, a single drop hung bright and round. It stretched, fell, and broke the shining water.