Naaghai Lowlands fiftieth

somewhere beneath pass and cenote! <3

@Melody was returned, found in the lowlands.

he had sent her to the serpent and she had disappeared.

there were small rough rooms cut into the side of the pass. senmut strode into the chambers where they had placed melody to rest. 

"did the gods lead you away?" senmut was skeptical but poised, allowing melody her moment of truth or a spiritual lie.

she had once almost been vessel for the voice of a pharaoh who could very well be dead.

this wayward priestess could be more than she was.

(also he walked in like this LOL)

Thank you for starting <3 love the gif LOL

Senmut.

Melody had run to be away from him, away from the whispered truth through the halls of Akashingo that he had taken notice of another. It had been a betrayal, in a way; in Pharaoh's absence, was he not their ruler? Oh, Toula was their Queen, but Melody saw the truth of it in her bearing, and in Senmut's. He ruled, as Makono once had.

And Melody would have given him what she had given Makono. She could have! She'd needed it, once, but no more.

Her eyes were solemn as the Erpa-ha addressed her. She shook her head. No, Melody admitted, voice low. But they found me out there, under the stars. I almost died. She paused. I've been recovering here. I started - well, I started a map. Of the stars. It was far from finished, but here Melody stopped herself, uncertain how Senmut would receive this. It was foolish and presumptuous of her, surely, to think she could do what he had done, and yet —

<3!!

the stars.

the stars; his blood simmered to cinnamon wine, only gently; for it was in that glowing he had found legend. not sun nor moon, Ra nor Khonsu.

another.

and those stars too had found her.

"i know now it is the stars that call your craft. but you knew before i. it needed only be shown to you by someone more than a priest." a hint of a smile, if only in his eyes.

"now that this secret has been unlocked, will you serve again?"

She was aglow with a warmth of her own; not for Senmut but for what she had found alone and dying under starlight, for the touch of her Gods in that moment of suffering. Never had she known true pain until that moment, but neither had she known what it was to find solace. And this — it was untouchable, it could never be taken from her, by Pharaoh nor Queen nor Prince.

Yes, Melody breathed, but her answer was already in her eyes. She was thinking of the basin now; I found a place... you can see the stars perfectly there. Can I show you? Who else to share such a discovery with but a priest? Who else would understand? Her expression turned hopeful, if a little far-away; some part of her had returned again to that night she'd almost died.

the luminescent touch of the gods.

yes; he knew it well, and was enthralled to see it fall across her face.

heightened by melody's brightening, senmut nodded silently and stepped forward. for this she would be priestess, and he was happy to be we'eb, learning a new truth of their celestials.

If Senmut took any notice of her now, Melody was willfully blind to it; she did not want whatever leftover scraps of emotion he might toss to her, bits and pieces from what he had given another. What she had wanted was to be chosen, to be seen in her own right as Makono had seen her.

Any less was an insult she would not suffer, and besides, she no longer wanted anything from the Erpa-ha. That time had passed. The Hemet led him dutifully beyond the reach of Akashingo's claim, on to the basin where she had nearly died. She led him in silence.

Night was beginning to fall by the time they reached the place. There, the Gods saw her. And she knew in some intuitive way that someone would again see her the way Makono had. Melody would not beg for the attention of one whose eyes were always upon another. She would wait; she could be patient.

Her own eyes found the sky, only briefly drifting to Senmut to see what he made of it. He was her teacher, after all. Nothing more. That much, he had made clear.

melody had changed.

it was the lot of any heavenly scholar. they studied, they were unsure. one day the gods showed their face to one worthy, and their eyes remained forevermore fixed upon the heavens.

one turned inward. one turned away.

it was the price paid to touch the divine source.

senmut honored it with a lowering of his muzzle. 

"what is your favorite story among the stars, hemet?"