Lion Head Mesa narcissus

they had come to an unalienable truth, and one that ramesses had seen fit to delay until her first year had passed.
he looked at her, deeply so. makono was ageless even in her youth.
"she is ambitious. and she may not understand the price."

she did not shy from his gaze now.

then she has a right to hear the price, to know it.

it was a game of court between them now. she felt every bit the ambassador she had become in mereo. poised, even in the face of things that might spell ill.

but she was still outmatched by a pharaoh, only playing the chords she had learned from him.

evenly matched.
pharaoh prepared the bitter truth with no honey.
"you must marry a pharaoh to become queen. and when you have borne the next pharaoh, you will be dowager queen, your power unbridled and unrelenting."
only divinity begat divinity.

marry a pharaoh to become queen.

words not entirely foreign but they held more weight now.

she wondered if her agemate sister had ever heard these words, ever wondered what it would take. perhaps not if she had fallen so dark in the wake of their mother's death.

she pulled at a strip of meat.

which pharaoh?

the lands were lacking.

"whomsoever follows me."
for now it appeared to be siptah. but many a crown prince had not made it to his day of coronation. "your marriage, nekubi makono, must have the same auspice as any other. you are divine, which means you must have an equal match."
it was unheard of here, but it had been the way of those royal in the land of the sun.
"else you will be my eternal emissary, speaking in the tongue of your gods and your land forever."

heavier, sharper her lapis gaze.

i see. she settled on in a following, lingering silence.

thoughtful. heavy. she should have pressed germanicus for details of empresses and regina. but those were not titles of akashingo. her father could not name her what was not here.

for a long moment, she found little desire for words.

the first in a very long time.

over and done.
his sunflower was pensive. "it is not a choice that needs to be made now," ramesses said grandly. "go, makono. bathe. rest."
pharaoh was quiet. "i will summon you again."

i owe you many words of my trip still.

her greed had derailed them greatly, but she had regrets.

but she rose with the intent to be gone. to visit the wellspring and be laid to rest upon finer things.

mereo had not been harsh to her, but there was no denying the softer kinder touch of akashingo. despite the ugly politics she cherished so much.

ramesses folded his forelegs. "and i have given you much more to consider."
his voice was warm. "give me the rest of your report tomorrow, daughter of the red sands."
pharaoh would see her off with a tilt of his muzzle, then he too might seek a nap, a time unburdened by makono's worrying, fantastic, and early aptitude for politics.