Wheeling Gull Isle embrace of the scarab

pharaoh drew upon the last reserves of his strength for a prideful entry into the lands indicated by the queenly figure. the sea was a place that he understood, but not the cold lash of the water here, with ice gathered atop the waves — ice, something ramesses hardly comprehended.
there were different gods here, then, but he clung to the sight of Ra's barge traversing the heavens behind the grey clouds. silence gripped him as he at last paused, hiding the tremble of his overtraveled body to survey the island claim with a hot, shrouded expression of judgement.

She had offered him somewhere away from the wind, upon her island. Now that they arrived upon its shores, he looked out across it; she glanced to his countenance, but could not penetrate his thoughts, and was left to wonder. When the sun showed its face fully, it might be warmer out here- but for now, she thought it would be better to find cover from the wind within the forest ahead of them. Come, She requested after giving him a moment, shivering as a breeze seemed to go right through her bones. We will be warmer in there, for now. She paused, and then scampered over to the nearest cache, glancing back before pulling out a fish. She wondered if he'd eaten any before. The empress returned to the stranger's side, but carried the fish in her jaw for now without eating, meaning to give it to him once they found better cover, so that he would not have to bear its weight himself. If he followed, she would lead them ahead into the foliage.

she commanded him. ramesses snapped attention to her for a cursory moment, lapis eyes narrowing. who was she to give him an order? and yet he reined back the pretention of his being for a moment. he was a stranger within a strange land; she had offered him shelter.
ramesses did not have a reason to deny such. the falling white threatened too greatly a man who had been gilded in sun all his days. and so he followed, nostrils flaring at the briny scent of the fish she carried.
"i am usermaatra-setepenra ramessu-meryamen. i am pharaoh in the valley of kings. ramesses the great," he shortened for the benefit of the noblewoman. for now he did not know what role within the island she took, though he suspected with a growing irritation that she ranked above the simple name of royal lady.

edit: omg I guess u get my 1k hehehe

His eyes narrowed. She frowned ever so slightly, wondering what reason he had for making that face- of course, she knew nothing of his past- all she knew was that she was the empress here, trying to serve a guest. 

Back home, names were never longer than two or three syllables: Jiang Huā-zhen. Wang Ri-luo. Jiang Ying-yue. The tonguetwister he gave her caused her brows to furrow slightly, and she was prepared to ask how about a nickname, for my sake? But a simpler introduction came at least, and she nodded briefly. He had called himself a pharoah, but not knowing its meaning, she focused on the next part more. Ramesses the Great, She repeated, with a slight widening of her eyes. That title would seem so pompous for someone to gift himself without reason, and so she wondered to herself if he had earned the name somehow, if there were some great feats in his past. If he was a king in that valley of kings.

Huā led them to a small clearing among the thick of the coniferous trees, somewhere the wind did not wail so loudly and they found the littlest bit of refuge from the cold. The lady set down the fish first, and then sat on her haunches beside it. For you, She offered, gesturing to it with her dark muzzle, and continued into her own introduction. Ramesses... the Great, I am Huāzhēn Jiāng. The empress of this island on which my people live, Yuèlóng.

So... how do you find your way to here?

AHH CONGRATS I AM HONORED

mollified that she had said one of his titles, pharaoh neverthless kept himself upon guard, and one that sharpened to hear the flowing water of her name — and her position. "empress," he remarked aloud. "huāzhēn jiāng." it would not be an easy name to say, but the man had been trained in classical matters, and that included languages different from his own.
"i give thanks," he grunted toward her hospitality, treating himself to a controlled bite of the creature. not prepared with fine herbs, nor tasting of the nile; his throat rebelled against the cold salt but he forced it down all the same. "my sister believes she is queen," ramesses said in the low roll of his tonality, darkened gaze shifting back to the delicate features of empress huāzhēn. "i am here because she cannot see reason." pharaoh grew still and frozen as the wind overhead, and presently he began to stare with an icy impassivity at the foreign trees and their odd needle branches.

tysm<3

He repeated her title in the same way. Huā is fine, too, She murmured after him. He thanked her, and began eating; she turned her eyes away to the forest out of politeness. At his words, she looked back to him again, listening attentively. And though she was a sort of... feminist, now, in that she did not believe so strongly in those roles for either gender, and she'd met so many strong female leaders who held her respect... still, she was raised with the belief that a man was to be emperor before his sister ever would. Her parents' teachings, in contrast with her present opinions.. she could feel they were warring. You were a prince? She asked first, sort of rhetorical unless the sister was just a crazy who thought she was royalty. Why does she think this? Were you born first...? Has she studied war and nature further? Huā inquired; these were the sorts of things that decided a good emperor back home, beyond gender. She heard herself then, Ah, forgive my... all my question. It is only to know you well, She explained, flattening her ears a bit shyly to her dark crown.

such a simple word. she was an empress, so she claimed. why would she tolerate being called by her natal glyph? "i am pharaoh," ramesses corrected with a roll of his gold-kissed shoulders. "she knows nothing. our father wished us" — here he lied, seeing no reason to include the truthful shame of it, that seti had chosen hatshepsuun as his successor — "to rule together after his death. but she took the throne herself."
"a lesson to be taught when her captains have already begun to defect and the high priest who oversaw our birth resigned his post in disgust. any child that is not of my loins born to her will be unrecognized in our line." a breath, and he turned his head to where the sea lay cold and black beneath the snow. ramesses did not mind speaking of such, not when he could mold the story in a more sympathetic way for new ears.
"but these are things she must learn herself, empress huā. she will call for me when she understands a queen has no counterpart but pharaoh, and she will be humbled in her ignorance."

Pharaoh. That word again; she wondered the meaning of it exactly, but was too afraid to interrupt him to ask. Ramesses the Great said his sister knew nothing. Huā had no good reason to assume he was lying, and instead furrowed her brow in an automatic imitation of his frustration, on a much smaller scale. Sympathy.

Any child that is not of my loins born to her will be unrecognized in our line. Here she wondered if she had misunderstood, and tried to piece the words apart and back together, but only came to the same conclusion... 乱伦. A term that, in her language, combined the words for "chaos" and "relationship". Was he serious? Perhaps if they were distant cousins, but... if he really meant to father his sister's children, she quietly gulped down a mild wave of disgust.

But he seemed confident his sister would learn. Yes, I am sure she would see her mistake as your nobles quit their places... high priest leaving is no light thing, where I come from. Huā murmured with a small shake of her head. He said a queen had no counterpart but a pharaoh. She assumed, then, that this word was equal to king. A breath, a thought to defend that a woman could lead with no counterpart at all- but she had not taken the throne justly anyways, and the empress wished to fit in... and so she recited the ideas she had learned as a young girl. Right, a queen will only be so strong without a strong father. I am unmarried... but hope once I find an emperor, Yuèlóng will be more wealthy and well-protected. 

You say, She gulped, and continued, That only you should father her children... would you still marry her- I mean, um, if you would marry her... despite how foolishly she has acted?

no need to match, just getting into him :D

ramesses chose to recline at last, sliding his belly to the ground as he took upon the recumbent pose of a sphinx. the empress spoke vaguely of her own lands, and pharaoh was pleased to hear that they had such similarity. but there was no sense of command about the delicate little lotus. she wore clear elegance in her breeding, the fine-spun lines of her pretty figure, the lilt to her tongue, and the expression in the polished sea-gem of her eyes — altogether beautiful, but not made from the cold blood that had spat out the bitch hatshepsuun.
his sacred sister had worshipped the bull amun, same as he, but with the fierce devotion of a priest. in fact, she had petitioned their father to make of her a high priest. she had been laughed away of course, by the convention of them. but not by seti. never by seti, who encouraged her in all things. it was the old windbag's fault that hatshepsuun had become a monster.
"she will be put to death for her sin," the sunmade ruler growled. "i expect that when i return, she will have been made a brood-sow for the son of the king's sister." osarsiph. "i will not abide this. i must restore my father's kingdom to the way it was before she decided against the gods that a woman could be pharaoh."
ramesses fell into a grim silence as he contemplated the words of empress huā. "unmarried?" he inquired skeptically, for surely she had some form of guard around her. had not hatsepsuun begged seti to post osarsiph outside her door as a guardian? and their father, being unseeing at all times of her feminine treachery, had made it so. between the two of them their sour blood would mingle and be used to burn away the legacy of their father.
"what made you decide to rule with no husband?" the hotlander asked sharply. "you are beautiful. send word to the neighboring kingdoms that you will put one of their sons upon your throne in exchange for tribute." simplistic. what hindered the sea-queen from doing so?
for some time they spoke, and ramesses came away with a deeper appreciation for the empress.