in the red stone of the throne room did ramesses sit alone. his lazuli eyes were fixed on the far wall. he had sent away the priests and servants and guards; if the protectors of the Horus Throne stood without he did not know.
but it was expected.
today pharaoh had gone from foul humour to pensiveness upon the growing power of the young hawk. she had been to mereo. now she trained with the medjay, and though ramesses felt the silent triumph of having taken @Nazli away, there was still the healthy trepidation of a man who had lost his first queen to poison.
in the days that passed, pharaoh grew more intemperate, shouting at the fellahin, keeping counsel only with @Treva. he did not summon the crown prince so often, relegating her to the steppes with the medjay @Bayek and the mereo soldier @Reyson. he expected her in court only once every five days, the rest spent day and night in the furthest nomes of their kingdom. likewise, @Isana and sokha were denied his bed though he might ask for one or both of them to come to him, to fill his rooms with song and dance and worship, while he paced and roamed and burned with his own prayers to Amun. he took only sayf to his chambers, forsaking even jawahir.
he sent little @Toula often to the priests, commanding that she devote most of her time to worship, and with the priestess nala. tavina was sent away to prepare prince sethnakht for his own voyage. 
@Charles would be treated differently; ramesses called for the prince at all hours, and if the man did come he would find pharaoh in a rage, cursing at shadows and the unseen spies of his heir.
to most eyes ramesses remained much the same: charming, humoured, sweetened, inevitable. only the quick new burning in his lazuli eyes belied a fevered mind swift to deny alliances.
in these days he thought hotly of @Lilitu. suppose treva only granted him princesses in the year to come? he knew he was wrong to doubt her, as she had produced a prince, but sethnakht' reticence and siptah's absence weighed and tore heavily at ramesses now.
the princess of brecheliant, wife to prince charles, was not his to recall. but it had been ramesses who freed her, and who felt that he was owed a debt of gratitude.
he devised a message and sent the sesh to brecheliant.
new princes reared away from akashingo were insurance against an heir corrupted by romans, as he had come to believe. who knew what makono and germanicus had spoken of upon her tour? and if lilitu denied him, he would reach again, this time to basilica, beyond if he must.
his little fledgling lacked his statesmanship, and so long as she was kept from court she might never cultivate it.
reyes was set to carving a new pylon, helped by servants. the shapes were to commemorate pharaoh's victory in the canyon. the man would be worked hard days in the cold, near the valley of queens. a fitting punishment.
ramesses continued to retreat into himself.