Lion Head Mesa henti

PPing ashikaga & siptah as present for the duration of this thread <3

it had been many days since he had called the princess makono to him. ramesses saw her at work and with her chosen servant, but he did not summon her. he felt she must need time to consider their last talk.
but matters did not stop because their words had.
in early evening he ordered that the oldest royal children be brought to his throne room. first ashikaga, sitting prettily before him, and siptah at her side. @Makono would come last, he expected. 
"today i am going to teach you the genealogy of your blood," he said when they had all come.

her sister.

her brother.

but her eyes were for father pharaoh. lapis gaze they shared meeting his. she was not late, but she was last. it may as well have been the same thing.

his words announced this call as one of a lesson.

she settled in silence, with upright ears and focused eyes.

the look that passed between them was filled with many things.
with ramesses he had a pawful of polished stones. "you know three names. mine, ramesses." he set a stone. "my father, seti the first." a second stone. "and his father, thothmes the bull."
three pebbles in a row.
ramesses set a fourth.
"my great-grandfather, ramesses khamenteru."
a fifth.
"his father, merneptah."
"each of these names accomplished some great feat in their lifetime. i led the first strike at kadesh. seti smote the hettite uprising upon the southern border. thothmes revenged the death of his mother with the blood of two dozen assassins. khamenteru forged peace between the swords and the teeth, clans in the desert. merneptah decreed that priests and priestesses should be paid for their labour."
ashikaga shifted. siptah remained stoic. ramesses looked to makono.

the names spilled forth.

each held a grand task assigned to it. all of them meaningful, all of them having accomplished something of great feats.

all of them men.

this did not outright sour her. she had no reason to disregard the men of her history. she had only imagined they might hear more about both sides. that he might discuss the men and turn to the women next to them. that a grandmother's name might come after a grandfather.

not a continuous chain.

thothmes perhaps meant the most at the moment, seeing what the children and father in the room had been through.

khamenteru intrigued her for the clear diplomatic work of his actions.

her lips drew together, thin and thoughtful. she did not yet see a reason to speak or raise questions for her father's ears. after all, neither sibling did, why should she need to be the one to always provoke?

all she offered was a nod of understanding.

no one spoke, and it was just as well. these lessons of history did not invite so many words. "seti married tuya. thothmes married meritamun. khamenteru married sitre. and merneptah married bintanath."
to each of the current pebbles he set a red one beside, denoting the queens of egypt and akashingo. 
ramesses looked at his three again. he would not mention his sister; he would not mention her exile of him or that she ruled alone now. hatshepsuun had defied tradition.
"the accomplishments of a queen can be many things, but foremost her delivery of a new crown prince marks her as queen regent. in the absence of a pharaoh, it is she who takes the throne."

something sour, in her mouth.

something dour, in her features.

but in her spot behind her siblings, neither would gaze upon her. only the pharaoh would be given view of her features. tumbling and churning like a thunderstorm.

"...but foremost her delivery of a new crown prince marks her as queen regent."

so why did the words of the imperator grip her now? what of the latin queens? did they depend upon birthing sons to be pharaohs?

did they need to wait for a man to be gone to take control?

makono could not stop the confusing tumble of her thoughts. a crushing teenage coming of age moment, perhaps.

the absence? death and no sons?

she would not surprised if her siblings turned their gazes to her now.

"no sons. death of the current pharaoh. suppose sethnakht and siptah had not been born and only you and your sisters remained. it would be the current queen who assumed the rank of divine ruler."
ramesses grew somber. "such a reign would be endlessly challenged and her death would be swift. that is why lineage travels through sons who begat sons."
he knew makono would not like this. "there was one queen who ruled alone. the regent neferu-net. it is said she took a vow of celibacy and became a priestess. if she did not lay with a man who was not divine, she could not birth a false pharaoh. because her reputation was unimpeachable, her reign was not so troubled."

her face leveled, even if her graze grew stormy.

regent neferu-net.

what was to stop her from becoming that? why did her father not tell her such a story when they had first discussed this?

what was to stop makono from doing so too?

her father, her brothers, she supposed. but...elsewhere? could she not be queen of an extension of akashingo? was that not what her father constantly sent trusted figures to do? examples were out there. mereo, the vale. extensions of one another.

briefly she turned her mind towards the priest-in-training and head priest. would it secure a chance at a queenly future anymore if she jumped onto religion in-between her emissary tasks?

perhaps the silence that followed the story of regent neferu-net would be more telling to her father than it should be.

she was angry. ashikaga fiddled. siptah's face was stony and yet golden with knowing. ramesses took strength in him, even as the spirit of thothmes growled that it was makono who should also have been born a son.
and so she could not be pharaoh. he would not have akashingo sundered by that sort of ambition. a queen had great power, more than she understood. she must only step into that role to see it.
"go. think upon what i have said. in a week's time i will expect to hear both recitation of names."

she turned at once.

not a thought given to brother or sister.

she was drenched in her own venom, and would find the night to come long and restless. turning with great ambition and exhaustion.

she would seek her father out sooner than a week's time.

the next morning, it would not be only Ra's face that glowed over akashingo.