upheaval.
she watched as mereo seemed to shift around her. the imperator @Germanicus took loss and loss again. she admired it. she loathed it. he turned the other cheek so seamlessly. could she say she would manage to do the same if such a thing happened to her?
there were words of coyotes.
the canyon seemed hushed in the daylight.
her path all at once cut towards the forum.
"princeps." his tone was coolly formal as he looked up toward the akashingo heir.
"i was going to seek you out. your next assignment is to learn to climb. a soldier should understand all terrain."
germanicus looked down toward the marks in the sand and wiped them clear as he stood.
good thing i am in mereo then.
her voice lacked humor. genuine compliment. the land changed here plenty. canyon walls, forests, water.
is it the training of a warrior or a tactician to know my terrain?
she had already become something of a soldier beneath his wings.
she was prepared to follow him wherever she may climb.
"both. knowing how to navigate those places is a form of tactics. understanding how to fight upon a dangerous ledge is warriorship."
he stepped past makono and slipped into a marching trot that carried them toward the quarters he had formerly shared with ruenna. his heart paled to see them again but he indicated a wall not far off, one of redstone and footholds.
"you may begin."
i should know both.
she thought of her brother.
quickly she began to climb the wall. heart heavy and thudding, blood roared in her ears. louder the higher she went.
there was something divine about the height. as if she might climb high enough to worship at the very feet of Ra.
she did not realize how slim the footholds became.
germanicus followed. he was familiar with the wall and so makono went ahead of him.
if she slipped he would be present to catch her.
and as they moved higher, their pace would slow as it took more time to seek a safe path. the wind raked at his spine and he gave himself fully over to the focus of the moment.
a once quick pace slowed.
the wind pressed her against stone. she grew bold enough to glance down. she would not fall, but she could not help but think of it all the same.
she thought of the horse, sacrificed before akashingo and beyond.
her gut lurched and she halted for a long moment. a trained eye might see the nerves that threatened her hackles and tensed her hips.
"hold," he ordered makono. he saw her tautness. "do not look down."
this was a normal experience and it would happen the first few times that she ascended. after that, the footholds would be more familiar. germanicus moved closer. "above you is a wider ledge. climb to it and then we will take some minutes to rest."
his word may as well have been physical.
at once she snapped her head back up. gaze turned skyward. her pace became a crawl as they progressed closer and closer the ledge.
raised hackles shifted with the winds up here.
when the ledge was within reach, she quickly climbed up upon it.
they sat together. the wind was vicious here. germanicus found the thoughts approaching once more, snaking toward him in an unwanted way.
he turned his gaze toward the heir. "you have been to the top of the mesa. we are not so high. what are the differences?"
you said it is important to know the terrain.
this spoken with a grace that had been lacking on her climb. easier to be refined when she did not fear a fall.
they are alike, but i was not born beneath the red sands of the canyon. i could traverse the mesa with eyes closed. the canyon walls are different steps, new ones.
even upon this precarious perch she was poised.
she was a young horus after all. germanicus supposed she had been born to it.
"you will always have that bond with akashingo. but you must forge a new one with this stone." he gave her a warm look and then gestured that they should continue to the top of the wall.
some fifteen feet above them.
you said it would be six months in earnest.
she began the climb. slow and steady. she refused to look down, no matter what drew attention.
for a proper soldier training. did you not?
the wind grew harsher they higher they scaled. her sights set upon stone and sky.
his biceps were rounded. he did not answer until he was able to relax some of the tension.
he stood to a goat's-hold on the mountain. the wind threatened to fling their words to nothing.
"six months to a year. do you mean to extend your time, princeps?"
i do not know.
and she meant it genuinely. pressed against the wall, she thought of where she would be six months from now.
a year from now.
i wish to consider it at the end of the month. i had hopes of returning home a proper soldier.
there was an edge of humor in her growing voice but she knew not if he might even catch it.
germanicus flashed her a wan smile. "sometimes it feels as though it should be so quick."
he moved higher and paused their conversation another handful of moments, another and new hold upon the redrock.
"and what becomes of your kingdom while you spend six months here, crown prince?"
isn't that the question?
she barked with laughter, for perhaps the first time. but it was not the joyous sound of a child's laughter. it was the laughter of royals. her father. her mother.
she did not remember her mother's laugh, if she ever did.
i cannot stomach the thought of being away from akashingo so long. yet mereo has offered so much to teach me.
a small version of pharaoh stood with him now.
germanicus wondered if makono knew how much of her father she exhibited even in her quiet moments.
she must grow into herself, he felt. "mereo will be here to teach you more. and i am sending reyson with you. he will complete his months's tour when you return to the palace. he wishes to join me in leadership and this is a requirement."
reyson would come with her.
she had seen the way the man had shriveled in akashingo. how she had lured him away from the crowd so he need not flounder among social interactions.
she wondered if akashingo would eat him whole in that month.
it is hard to picture any leadership to the soldiers besides you.
this she admitted to him with a sparing lapis gaze.
a thought churned within her and she did not speak upon it yet.
even if her gaze gave way to her brewing.
she was thinking of many things. germanicus had come in infancy to soldierdom. she had come in the same age to the foot of the throne.
"all places must have a balance. there is much work. i will be happy to share it with a good man such as him."
will you visit more, with somebody else to take your work?
she leaned against warm stone, eyes ate up the sight of mereo.
she hungered for it. the lands, the soldiers, the might of it all. but she knew better.
for now.
"if i visit too often, your father may believe me a spy."
there was humour high on the cool dark planes of his face. "yes. but not as often as you yourself might desire, prince."
it was truth and it curled in her stomach. ugly and gnarled.
and if i visit too often will you think me a spy?
humor filled her voice, but she called upon a string of trust now. to hear his truth how he saw it. she must know the answer.
"yes." his voice was equal parts teasing and true.
"i might wonder what you seek here in mereo that is not in akashingo. and what you might do to keep it."
she had her aspirations. it was to these things he alluded now.
there seemed to be plenty of things that mereo could offer her.
there would be plenty of things she would do to keep mereo.
tell me what you think i would do, imperator.