Lion Head Mesa The winged sun

Before long, Semer-wati found himself staring at the stone battlements of the mesa, blushing red in the light of the rising sun. The valley flattened into shadow but the lion’s head presided over all.

Within, he anticipated hearing his girls’ laughter and the grunts of his sons playfighting. He would not wait for the fellahin’s formal announcements, calling for his children and @Senmut whilst shrugging off the stag pelt which had kept him warm and insulated on the journey between palaces.

"semer-wati." 

senmut's greeting was hushed; his bow low unto the redstone floors of akashingo. only when he raised did he dare to search the leonine face for any age, any wound. "the children are just finishing a lesson on the Life Spark."

their prince put his gaze respectfully aside. "what news, Divine One?" he inquired, gentle paw raising to melt away the servants for this conversation. why had he come alone?

“Erpa-ha,” he flung his stag coats at a fellahin and took a long stretch towards the red man, “don’t you look well.” Eyes slithered low for no other reason than to belabor his mastership. 

“I wont stay long. When Pharaoh is ready to return, the princes and I are journeying South. Khaemwaset and @Den will attend combat training with the Wedjat until Summer.” The king’s shoulders rolled, missing the great worry in Senmut’s face.

“I will look in on the children.” A boisterous few steps moved him eagerly towards their class.

surprise flickered upon the face of the high priest, but he recovered himself long enough to step gingerly before the Consort with lowered head.

progress arrested, the greenstone eyes raised to those of the catlike prince and his obsidian power. yes; yes; senmut remembered, remembered well. and perhaps now was a moment to make himself soft. pliant, if only to persuade rashepses' greater favor.

"Divine One. i have reason to believe there are — compromises inside akashingo." vague. "will you come with me? i would not keep you from the royal heirs otherwise."

Mid-step, he paused to cast a look once more over the priest-prince– a man so tightly wound he was compelled to see him unravelled, again. 

“Lead on, Senmut,” Semer-wati’s voice lacked no impatience, but now it promised a tempestuous end should this matter only squander the precious moments he could have spent with his children.

Akashingo was quiet. It could be quick.

swift their steps through the redstone halls, moving with more ease as the populace of akashingo moved to accommodate their royal.

paths darkening, winnowed to the unexplored catacombs beyond. here in the gloom senmut stopped, turning ear against the bleak. it was there, faintly; the gnawing of an unholy hunger.

listen.

He did so. And with an ear pressed to their foundation generations threatened to slip by. He heard a wild groan. He heard the wax and wane of old Pharaohs. 

Caution had an iron grip on the mind. Thoughts ran half-mad with fear. For a long moment his own lips stayed firmly shut. The catacombs rolled and shuddered around them.

“Well? What can this mean?” Semer-wati tossed his head. He would show no such panic. The role of King was to be fearless.

"it means the gods are displeased, semer-wati."

senmut knew he did not need to elaborate. "a cleansing ceremony must be held." with all of them, he believed, though he held this for the elaborate abilities of rashepses' own mind.

“My children have all turned from what i thought was Ma'at's way.”

Redstone bowels growled in riposte, not the grind of old rock but a primordial testament. Silence again fell and the jaw of the king clutched firmly. Erpa-ha would know the ways to appease capricious deities.

But it was Semer-wati who knew the truth: someone was attempting to break Akashingo. “If the Gods are displeased— it is we who have displeased them.”

A paw came to brush against the wall, almost affectionately, yellow eyes flashing. A low, rumbling growl scourged again from deep within the earth. Louder this time, closer; a heavy, ponderous rasp.

"You must guide her back to the righteous path, consort."

"it is the season of things that are sown," senmut said softly. "we will hold the festival of Nehebkau," senmut murmured, and now his eyes moved with quiet worry over rashepses.

hushed; the power in the line of that jaw, as if the stone itself had limned for a moment this son of the gilden lord.

"Nehebkau: the Beginning of Eternity."

to each altar would their royal family pay homage. beside the tomb of queen satsu they would keen. inscribed into their hearts for the season this history.

"we will lift our voices to the gods."

“Yes. A festival,” the black crown nodded, then paused. “And the cleansing,” from wall to priest the eyes slithered. “Akashingo must cleanse itself of those who threaten divinity, Erpa-ha.”

For all the piety Senmut displayed in public—his prayers, his fasts, his rituals– it was time to see how such devotion would hold. Gods before men, or the priest’s faith was a threadbare cloak, fragile and easily rent.

“I have a name. Tavina Aelstromm.”

"what has she done?"

through the shock upon his own face and the fury of rashepses' reined voice, senmut heard a grave danger and obeyed, falling back behind the mien of scribe and conduit.

"tell me how she has turned against the gods, Semer-wati."

tavina? tavina! who had nursed all manner of wounds and scrapes? tavina who had helped to deliver pharaoh herself? senmut sensed a great darkness crowding around he and the divine man, and Amun pressed beyond the bleak haze to stand at his shoulder in silence. 

would rashepses sense the unseen presence of the god?

They two were not alone this hour. The priest-prince would find himself encompassed by the intangible and their scents; ichor and nectar, and excellences bursting from pinpointed gazes, wrought from the very stone which proved their destruction in each long moan. Rashepses opened his mouth to ash and smoke from the fires waiting to be brought down upon the unruly heads.

A hand shot forward. Claws curled against the taught skin of that red shoulder. “She lifts her voice against her God. His commands are violated; respect is shunned! In muat-riya, order and tradition has been ejected, while chaos is the council chamber. The affairs of the Gods are confounded, their will neglected! The land is suffering, the people in mourning, and all alike are subjected to wrongdoing.”

The head pulled high and arrogant. This was not the burden he would leave to his sons, no. They would be the beginning of a return to heritage.

“Changes are happening, Senmut. It is not like last year. Let us end it here, before Their wrath is brought down upon Akashingo, too. Make an example of the sesh, Erpa-ha.”

in anger the immolation. in destruction the decree. there was disobedience in the desert, and senmut did not know what to think. but such things were not for him to conceptualize; he was mouthpiece only, and through him spoke Amun.

"bring forth muat-riya to akashingo, Divine One," said the red priest with almost airiness, a detached nature to modulated voice. "deliver the sesh to me."

indeed. rage was wrought against akashingo, but it would be the will of the gods whose blood was spilled.

he raised his own paw against the zealous heartbeat in the black chest. "here, in this chamber, we will right the sin of our people."

At once the grip loosened, but did not lift. “You will give your voice to these things, Erpa-ha. A heart which is touched cannot be silent. Tell my children I will return with Pharaoh.”

In a long plume of smoke Semer-wati turned down the darkened corridor. He would cloak himself and gather his mazoi.

The king anticipated resistance.