In the ancient days of the Two Lands, when the gods still walked among the reeds of the Nile and the shadows of the pyramids were young, the goddess Isis found herself in a state of great peril. The treacherous god Set had murdered her husband Osiris and sought to extinguish the life of her infant son, Horus, the rightful heir to the throne. To protect the child, Isis fled into the thick, humid marshes of the Nile Delta, a place where the papyrus grew tall enough to hide a goddess and the mud was thick enough to swallow a pharaoh's army. Knowing the dangers of the wild, the goddess Serqet, the lady of the scorpion and the healer of stings, sent seven of her most loyal and powerful scorpions to act as a vanguard for the Queen of Heaven. Their names were Tefen, Befen, Mestet, Mestetef, Petet, Thetet, and Matet. These were not mere insects but spirits of divine protection, their carapaces gleaming like polished obsidian and their tails held high with the weight of celestial venom.
As the sun began to sink below the horizon, casting long, bloody streaks across the waters of the Delta, Isis approached a village known as the Town of the Two Sisters. She was weary, her feet were caked with the silt of the river, and her divine radiance was hidden beneath the tattered robes of a common beggar. In her arms, she cradled the infant Horus, whose cries were muffled by her shawl. The seven scorpions followed closely behind her, their many legs clicking rhythmically against the sun-baked earth. Tefen and Befen led the way, while Mestet, Mestetef, and Petet guarded the flanks, and Thetet and Matet watched the rear. They came upon the grandest house in the village, a sprawling manor of white limestone with doorposts of cedar and lintels painted in vibrant lapis lazuli. This was the home of a wealthy noblewoman named Usert, a woman whose heart had grown as hard as the stones of the desert through years of hoarding her gold and looking down upon the less fortunate.
Isis knocked gently upon the heavy wooden door, hoping for a modest corner to rest and a cup of water for her child. When the door creaked open, Usert stood there, draped in fine linen and smelling of expensive myrrh. She looked down at the dusty traveler and her crying babe with a sneer of utter contempt. Behind Isis, the seven scorpions grew still, their tails quivering with indignation at the lack of respect shown to the Great Enchantress. Usert, seeing the strange and frightening creatures lingering in the shadows of the woman's robes, did not feel fear but rather a surge of elitist anger. She slammed the door shut with a resounding thud, shouting that she had no room for beggars or their vermin. The rejection stung Isis more than any physical blow, for she was the mother of the land, yet her own people had turned her away in her hour of need. The seven scorpions, however, felt more than just sadness; they felt a burning desire for justice. They whispered to one another in a language of clicks and vibrations, their primitive but divine minds reaching a consensus that the insult to the goddess could not go unpunished.
Moving further into the village, Isis found a much humbler dwelling—a small, sagging hut made of river mud and papyrus mats. This was the home of a poor fisherwoman who had barely enough to feed herself. Yet, when she saw the exhausted mother at her door, she did not hesitate. She welcomed Isis inside, offered her a seat on her only mat, and shared the meager portion of bread and dried fish she had prepared for her own supper. The scorpions remained outside, curling themselves into the shadows of the hut’s walls, their anger at the rich woman still simmering like the heat of the noon sun. While Isis rested, the seven scorpions held a council in the darkness. Tefen, the boldest and strongest of the guardians, proposed a plan. He instructed the other six to surrender a portion of their venom to him. One by one, Befen, Mestet, Mestetef, Petet, Thetet, and Matet touched their stingers to Tefen’s, concentrating the divine poison into a single, lethal dose. With his tail swollen with the combined power of seven celestial beings, Tefen crept back toward the mansion of the wealthy Usert.