it was an ungodly hour to summon the we'eb, but she could not sleep.
perhaps it was the cold. perhaps it was the continued mist that swept over and through the mesa. she had not seen fall before. she had not seen winter before.
but it was not the seasons that kept her awake.
an unfortunate fellahin stuck with the insomnia-fitted amiirad was sent off to bring @Senmut.
senmut had just fallen asleep when her summons came. bleary-eyed and stumbling, he rolled from his bed at once and followed the fellahin.
"great one, may your name live forever," the priest said in a voice husky with sleep, and prostrated himself before her until she bid him rise.
and then senmut took up his usual position: slightly to her left, straight-spined, ready to receive and record her words.
may it.
she figured it would long be etched into the earth, no matter how the coming months and years turned. for Ma'at had changed for none other then her.
i am crown prince now.
he knew. of course he did! he had been in the room and now the absence of siptah was a slow trickle.
i am to return to the place of my first emissary trip. this time for the training of a soldier.
she looked to him, warm and long, awaiting his words.
senmut smiled and dipped his heavy head.
"do you know how long you will be in mereo, great one?" how the palace would suffer her absence! and how in majesty she would return.
a woman as pharaoh. he was somber and reverent.
how long was the persistent question.
it plagued her, it plagued those around her. so much work to do. how could it be shoved into some timeframe?
i do not know.
she was honest before him. i will have a great deal of things to learn and prepare for.
her gaze casted warm waves across him.
what do you know of soldiers and the greatest there were of them?
"your father fought in kadesh. but surely you know this." senmut smiled and settled into thoughtfulness.
"there are many ways to fight, great one. there is force. and there is cunning. which do you prefer?" he did not mean to toy with her, only discern the exact part of her question.
she had no more desire to hear of her father's tales.
she did not discredit him in these grand ways. she only knew she must reach her knowledge beyond him, beyond the stories that befell his lips and those who worshipped beneath him.
tell me first of force.
"force is a contingent of heavy soldiers. calvary. runners. it can perhaps be a group of fighters rather than an army, an elite guard which swears itself to one leader."
he eyed her breathlessly, more awake than he had been.
did he speak treason?
"it requires — time to build such a group. but when they are made, they can unmake kingdoms."
an elite guard sworn to one.
she thought of a man. she did not know where he laid and she turned the thought of him aside.
so they can,
she breathed out in a warm, low note. and the cunning?
she had planned to learn from the once nebet maegi. now departed from this realm. she slumped upon a fur with these thoughts, eyes perched upon the slope of senmut's shoulders.
"spies." his voice fell to hoarseness. "assassins. not so close; you do not know their names. you will not see their faces, often. you pay them and say who is to fall. whole courses of time and dynasty can be changed through deaths that were provoked."
somehow he thought the ignobility of that would not appeal to the princess. but still he waited.
of course she thought of her mother.
how could she not?
so for a long moment she was hushed. pensive. breathed in long, deep patterns.
mereo is led by a roman. i believe them to be more of force than of cunning — and as such i expect to learn force upon the mountain.
how much did he know of the mountain soldiers, she wondered.
a roman. senmut felt at once the disdain bred into him for that lot.
did makono mean to consort with this man? to make him an ally behind pharaoh's back?
he could not ask. and yet he was beset with a dangerous curiosity. "and where do you mean to learn cunning?"
if i tell you i haven't an answer for that yet?
her lips pulled into a smirk. so often she had answers and plans and —!
here she did not, but such did not bother her in the face of senmut.
i was meant to learn beneath a nebet once here. she has passed now, though. well before i learned anything from her.
the princess smiled and so did her pet priest.
"what were you meant to learn? perhaps — another teacher can be found." he was not suited for more than worship, but he wished for makono to have her wanted lessons.
the art of cunning, senmut.
his name sprawled with humor across her tongue.
spying, but i have only been a diplomat.
do you have one in your eyes who can teach?
an arch of a pale brow over lapis eyes.
he hummed to himself. "noble gucci, perhaps." the little man could be quite boisterous but perhaps that was the point of it. by being so seen he was unseen.
"or akhtar." his master was not patient but the high priest had much to impart.
akhtar!
she wondered if the man would entertain her presence at all after the ordeal with her wayward brother.
i should descend upon gucci first, i think. he is close to my father.
so certainly there was some skill in that tiny body.
thank you, we'eb.
senmut wondered what she meant by this, but all at once she was thanking him. and he sensed he was being sent away.
he lowered himself. he kissed the floor beside her foot. "may Amun keep you, divine one."
when she sent him away, senmut would go. but he would not sleep.