Lion Head Mesa fortieth

for @Melody! other tags for reference! <3

judgements passed. violence contained. the queen's reign, upheld. information granted.

senmut was weary. he still sang the sun above to Ra each morning, but more and more of his duties had been passed to @Akhtar and @Medusa. she would be a fine high priestess, and — perhaps he should consider making his mentor the formal high priest.

but he was not yet ready to relinquish that title. he thought of the girl through whom makono had spoken, or might speak. how important a soothsayer, an astrologer, for the royal court! but before he could lapse more into his thinking, the prince's head lolled back upon the smooth stone shelf of the wellspring, and he fell asleep, water lapping gently at his chest.

nazli walked in his dreams.

<3

She'd done her best to avoid Senmut, but it seemed Melody would forever be cursed by a distinct lack of observational skills. She didn't notice him until it was far too late and she was far too close to where he had dozed off to simply turn around and leave. Well, it felt that way, at least. Melody froze. For a moment all she could do was stand and stare, a little caught off-guard by how different his expression seemed while he was sleeping.

In this moment she could see how tired he was — but peaceful, too. Whatever he was dreaming of, if he was dreaming at all, she thought it must be pleasant. Melody frowned and took a step back, then another. Finally she turned to leave, finding a sense of urgency once she was able to tear her eyes away from him, and in her haste she accidentally kicked a rock — a recurring theme in Senmut's presence. She winced at the sheer volume of the sound it created as it bounced off another, larger rock, and tried to flee a little more quickly.

<3

the prince wakened. his eyes narrowed upon the retreating figure with its flashes of gold. "melody."

the one who had tried to be a conduit for he and pharaoh makono.

his shoulders streamed as he drew himself from the wellspring, a servant moving at once to towel the rush of water which poured down his slender body.

"the queen needs an astrologer. i have decided that will be you."

The sound of her name stopped her in her tracks. Melody froze again, and turned very slowly, ears folding slightly as she reluctantly looked back to Senmut. Immediately she regretted this decision; she tried to look anywhere else and found herself caught in the way the water highlighted all that she found appealing about him. He was more than kind of hot.

And he was talking. Melody blinked, struggling to redirect her focus from his body to his words. An astrologer? Her heart was in her throat, and she eyed the Fellahin and wondered how they all kept their sanity. She could never!

Melody was determined that she would not look at Senmut again.

senmut saw melody's reaction only as one of surprise and awe in the position she had just been given. "yes. you will learn to choose auspicious days for the queen. if she wishes to journey out, it will be you whom she consults to know when her caravan might leave. or if she wishes to name a new member to her court, you will choose the hour for this as well."

he had stepped toward melody as he spoke, standing before her with fur slowly drying into dampened scarlet spikes. the fellahin moved at his heels, quick tongue-strokes settling his pelt into gleaming hairs until a lift of his paw dismissed their ministrations, and indeed them as well.

"foremost, you will work with myself and with akhtar to determine the proper days for her coronation, her engagement, and her marriage. those three things are greatly important to the wellbeing of her dynasty."

Melody kept her eyes fixed to the Fellahin as Senmut spoke, and slowly steadied her focus. It sounded like important work — and that was what she'd wanted, wasn't it? But she wasn't sure she was ready to be important to anyone at all, much less the ones who led them.

He wasn't asking her, though. He was telling her. So she nodded as she listened, eyes following the servant until suddenly there was no servant to look at, and her gaze turned helplessly back to Senmut. She would have to learn to tolerate his presence, she thought. They would be working together.

Okay, She paused. How will I choose? It didn't make much sense to her, choosing days, but she figured in time it would. She hoped, anyway.

"first you must learn all the stars and their names."

come, said the flash of his eyes, and he led her to the hall of priests and priestesses where she had become familiar, he hoped, with the painted walls, the murals of magick and mysterious divinity, the crush of fragrant pines and petals as incense.

"see this," and he pointed to a redstone wall daubed with black ink, here and there in points. "it is a map of the stars which can be seen each night. only the ones i have named and seen. learn them, learn the heavens. devote yourself to the star goddess Nwt as i do myself to Ra and His days, and you feel the knowledge come to you."

she was shy, hesitant, as nala had been. and he sighed a little to think of her. he missed the priestess of Hathor more than he would say, for there were no words to convey it. melody must learn her own power.

The stars. She followed, and thought on that as Senmut showed her a map of his own creation. A map of the night sky. Melody was a little surprised; for some reason she had a difficult time picturing Senmut studying the stars, but she reminded herself then that she didn't know him at all. He was so far above her in rank, she thought she might never truly know him.

But the stars were something she could come to know. I used to sing to the moon and the stars. Mostly the moon, The words slipped thoughtlessly from her as she studied the patterns of ink dots, and she blushed. She hoped Senmut would choose to ignore it. Her father had made her stop, told her it was dangerous to pretend they could hear her. Whatever that meant. She'd stopped singing around him after that. How long did this take you? Melody wondered aloud, to cover her awkwardness.

senmut studied melody, past her gilt features and evident beauty; he searched for something he did not yet see in her, nor know. it was as if she opened only beneath the duress of portal-work.

inscribing this to his mind, senmut lifted a reverent paw to place it upon the star-map. "ten months. but i have made them before, over and over."

to the hemet he looked now; his mouth curved in a small way.

"hail unto thee, O Messenger of the Gods!
Khonsu, the traveler of the night sky,
who traveleth through the heaven like Thoth.
Mut-Bast is thy mother
and Amen-Ra-Temu-Kephra is thy father,
Thou makest women fruitful,
And makest the spirit of life to grow
in thy mothers womb."

singing to the moon, to the stars; an act of worship.

She too touched the map, lightly as if afraid to ruin it. It was beautiful, really. Melody was lost in thought, lost in studying the details of it and pondering what it might be like to spend ten long months on such an endeavor. She didn't notice that Senmut was studying her, and only barely caught a glimpse of his faint smile when she glanced back to him.

Then he started to sing, and her eyes turned big and bright with some nameless emotion. Her breath caught in her throat; a single tear fled down her cheek; she only took a second to wonder what was wrong with her before she let go of such thoughts, and focused only on committing the words to memory. There was a simple beauty to this moment that she refused to ruin, with thoughts or with words.

there it was, the touch of the gods, the purity of reaction.

to be so moved and so humbled was the mark of priesthood, senmut felt, for in a young student's life it would happen many times before they achieved their role.

"sing again to the stars and the moon, hemet," he urged quietly. "arrange your own hymns. this too is a part of worship and learning."

Melody nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and wondered if he would dismiss her now. She half-hoped that he wouldn't. Senmut had better things to do, she knew that, but there was so much she could learn from him. There were questions she wanted to ask, and right now she could hardly remember the words she'd wanted to use.

She glanced back to the map, and her gaze lingered there. She would just have to ask him later. Melody could think of nothing but the stars in this moment, and that song, and how long it seemed it would be until the sun went down. Besides; Senmut had his coyote girl to get back to, didn't he? And his duties, and other things far beyond Melody. Eventually, she assumed, she would stop thinking about him; as she'd done with Pharaoh.

<3

in time, senmut excused himself. he would leave melody with the map, reading in the lines of her a great need for learning.

her studious nature pleased him. beneath the tutelage of the holy wolves within the palace, she would rise high, he felt.

and for naberius he considered melody also, for at a certain point, priests and priestesses could take lovers or spouses.

but senmut was still a man, and left the fact of melody's investment in him overlooked by sheer ignorance.