Lion Head Mesa copper

set for tomorrow morning around 9am <3 tags for ref!

tavina would never have allowed @Crowfeather to leave the mesa, let alone without an escort. she had learned from belen that the day before, he had done so. but she had chosen not to harass the boy; he had come back after all, strained and drawn. but he had come back. pharaoh need not be informed.

at half past six she was up again, nourishing herself not upon sleep but upon the silence of morning before the rest awoke. she herself had slept deeply, and now she visited jawahir and the two babes with a meal. she bathed thereafter in the wellspring, humming lightly to herself.

and then she had gone to fetch belen from where she lay sprawled with a belly full of pine-wine, and roused the girl, sending her for a quick breakfast and a groom before ordering her off to help the queen that morning. tavina had gone to begin the prince's day, but found him no longer abed. her brow furrowed. she questioned @Gucci and then belen once more. she was not yet panicked; perhaps he had gone to restlessly explore the grounds without.

it had rained in the night. the red land was wet with it. a patrol did not turn up more than a scuffmark here or there. tavina then started to worry, and it was at that hour she went to wake the pharaoh.

"divine one," the sesh greeted, creeping into his bedchamber and averting her eyes from where he was tangled sleeping with kasmut. "the prince is gone. he seems to have simply left."

ramesses slept. he dreamed. and when he woke, the disappointment was still stark and apparent. and so he had called for the palepink beauty of kasmut, and she had comforted him, wringing out his body over and over until at last ramesses slept deeply, wooed by her and by the wine that the fellahin had shared with him.
he did not send her away; she lay lightly pressed to his bed by an outflung, sleeping arm.
it was with a splitting headache that he woke, wincing with a grimace of white teeth. sun sheeted down in great shafts of light. tavina was there, murmuring something he did not hear.
"tell me again," he commanded in a sharp, muzzy tone. he rolled to sit up, lifting a paw to his head. "bring me water, first."
tavina was dutiful. patient. the patina of the night cleared from his tongue.
"why would he leave?" ramesses demanded in a petulant tone.

"he has been restless a long time, divine one. he is not suited for these things." 

tavina had not expected ramesses to move quickly, but he was not moving at all. she hid her frustration. "the queen and your children are awake. perhaps you might allow me to handle this. bathe and go to her, perhaps, holiness." 

she kept the barb from her tongue. kasmut was stirring.

"at any rate, he is still quite injured. he will do more damage to his healing if he is allowed to get far."

tavina could not very well command the pharaoh. and so she tried to lead him to where he might go.

"oh, cease your croakings of doom, tavina!" ramesses snapped in a pettish tone. he jerked his head for more water and lay back again, rolling to caress kasmut awake. "the queen does not want to see me." he kissed one pale ear and then the other. "she has her children now. look how she leaves me alone in court and to my own devices."
ramesses grinned, but it was unpleasant. "that brings me to mind. i intend to have akhtar, qiao, kasmut, jawahir, maegi, and yourself in my roster for tutoring the royal children. as soon as they are weaned you will begin." he pulled reluctantly back from the fellahin warm against his own body.
pharaoh rolled his pale shoulders as he grew more to wakefulness. "and then i am sending siptah to mereo. he will either learn to act as a general or become one."
the lazuli eyes focused upon tavina now. "when you find the brat prince, you might inform him that i would have given him the creek to shape into his own land." an idle sigh. "but i am partly in mind to do nothing at all. if he does not want to be here, then we will not bring him back. he is lamed. he will die or be scavenged."

the pharaoh prattled. tavina bit her lip. each moment was one that crowfeather would lose in the mending of his leg. it did not matter where he had gone, or why; it mattered that he did not waste the months of effort poured into him.

ramesses grew conversational. "it would be an honor to mentor your children, divine one." she dipped her head in polite acknowledgement of the gratitude he wished her to show. 

the royal man in one breath suggested tavina's success, and then denied it in the next. the sesh was not sure how to respond, and so there was a pause while she decided.

"suppose i take a guard or even belen. i have seen them together. she seems to be good for him. we will at least speak with him, or perhaps even grant him an escort as far as mereo if he is determined to go."

her heart raced. she no longer meant to stay and yet she must, she must stay and listen to the inane babbling of this spoiled blueblood.

"not belen." ramesses' voice was pointed and final. "she is intended to be an emissary to the coastline. pray to the gods that jawahir and kasmut have prepared her well. it will be six months, and she must be resplendent before and during that time. she is not to leave so far. and do not tell her."
the discourse was exhausting. ramesses wanted to hear no more of it. "yes, do inform mereo. see that the message reaches germanicus himself, the rot-swilling roman." his head throbbed. the lapis eyes shut.
"you will take sihaya. and you will not be gone more than two days. if he has managed to escape farther than that, it is meant to be. let him be after that."
his tail lashed. it was not as if his own plans for crowfeather had succeeded.
his lips twitched with a cruel grin. but he did not voice that thought: that in retribution he might shatter things between the soldier and the prince once and for all.
ramesses, unknowing that this had already been done.
"keep the queen unaware of these happenings. she is determined to suckle those whelps herself. the least you could do is keep her milk from being poisoned by an unexpected emotional state."
had this not all gone on beneath tavina's watch? sihaya was outside the chambers. "go now. i will expect you back in two dawns."
for he himself, ramesses lay back again, pulling kasmut toward him and shuttering his gaze against the loathsome sunlight.

to hear that the girl was to be sent away was a surprise. perhaps it was best that crowfeather was not here. he would have lost two companions in this time after all. she bowed her head again at the pharaoh's instruction.

he spoke so churlishly of the queen for a moment that tavina found himself doubtful of his respect. she lay still healing from the birth of their babes and he had not seen them since that second day. 

but it was not her place to comment.

and tavina did not truly care.

"thank you, divine one. i will return."

turning quickly, before his mercurial mind shifted again, tavina left ramesses in the semi-dark with his lover and gestured sharply to sihaya. "you heard?" when a single nod came in the affirmative, she whirled again, marching up the hall. she would gather a small bag of herbs with bandages, and slip an otterskin over her head before she headed off into the misty grey, followed closely by the shifty-eyed mazoi.