Redsand Canyon eagle

the legatus had sent her down a patrol path.

the scent of @Germanicus was what she sought now. questions for the imperator danced along her mind that late morning. the air crisp along the mountain range.

she moved with grace along the redsand.

"princeps."

he had been investigating a tangled tuft of grass for lynx scent but found none.

the yellowpaint eyes reached for the young face now, wondering why she had sought him out.

reference

imperator,

head dipped, but still she stood tall.

ad meridianam terras sunt vacua. she gazed upon him. her training had all but just begun! and yet still she saw a challenge where one laid.

dura.

her latin was improving. and she gave in those words a report. her first report."sunt plures liberos en mereo."

surely she had seen their growing figures. they were hardly younger than herself. "cum pervenerint, eos in expeditionem mittam."

his heart suddenly ached. he did not think he would see cornelius or alivia again.

or ruenna.

i potest ambulare coram illis.

but the choice was not hers to make.

this she knew, in the way her lapis eyes softened against his daffodil ones.

the ache of the imperator was lost upon her for now. still she had not seen what made the man somber.

"tu heres akashingo."

he was somber. "tu ut dux vel socius ambulas?"

what she suggested was preposterous. and yet he saw why makono had said it. but ceding control of the south to this girl meant handing mereo's land to pharaoh.

she was not yet that.

her gaze shifted.

diplomatic, mindful.

prevail upon him came the voice of her father, on hot winds of the south.

ego heres akashingo. she echoed back to him.

]spero fore ut utrumque me visurus sim, sed ut me socium primum vocetis — she strained around the heavy string of latin, but she would push. before i am pharaoh.]— antequam ego sum pharaoh

she could not make the roman nor any soldier bow before her, if germanicus could not believe her first.

her voice faltered around his language but she prevailed.

for a long minute germanicus said nothing. but his eyes were upon the young face. by all rights she should know none of this. she should be a child, playing with her siblings! makono should still be singing songs with her sisters.

had she ever been so young? had she been born with knowledge?

"tu vis patris tui praecepta derumpere?"

the eagle was direct. had makono come here to seek the beginnings of treason? such things were natural for an heir which must wait for her father to die before she assumed the throne.

did she mean to?

she wondered how she had stumbled here. crown prince, sōzokujin. nothing she had done (from dethroning a brother to bloody sacrifices) had been an accident.

she had broken hearts.

she had created bonds.

this was not the first time someone had spoken of treason to her. this was not the first time somebody had suggested things which might bring down everything she loved and worked for. but when she prayed in the darkest hours of night, when she surrounded herself with those she bonded to, it was Ma'at that guided her hand.

she steadied herself.

it was Ma'at who guided her hand now, the Apis Bull who lent her its strength.

dico ad coniungere nostram futuram.

her voice emphasized around them.

she could bind herself to the roman in the ways her father could not.

germanicus was surprised. it showed only momentarily in the set of his jaw. but his eyes did not divert from her own expression.

she spoke with a self-possession that belonged to both ramesses and satsu. he saw hope in it. and danger. there was no part of the tactician which trusted a soul of akashingo.

and yet speaking of the future reminded germanicus that his had changed so greatly.

"futura creantur. non dedit."

how? the imperator silently asked, for her ambitions seemed only to expand in those moments. and he would not let mereo fall to them.

pretium mereo non pereunt mei.

she told him this too with a confidence and ease.

if mereo did not hold any worth, she would not be here. not as diplomat, as crown prince, as soldier. did the imperator not see such?

her father may have moved upon them, if there was no worth.

non tibi contumeliam petendo pretium.

did he understand?

if he had said it could not be given, she would not make him state a price.

she would move in other ways.

makono lapsed behind the formality already her birthright.

but germanicus waved it away in the brusque way of a soldier. "how?" and now he asked aloud in common tongue. "you want alliance. and you want something that is different than the dealings that your father has had with mereo."

his yellowpaint eyes were attentive.

"speak freely, crown prince." utter what she wished.

speak freely!

but every ears could be listening, turned upon them. a shared tongue between the two could already draw enough attention.

but the canyon was empty here.

i wish for bodies in mereo, imperator. she admitted freely. my reign is not set for a certain season or year, she explained, the wind ruffled her nape. tender from the spars. but i wish to give you nobles from akashingo.

how crass that sounded!

plebians for the support of your legions. commoners. or wives if they are fitting mereo soldiers and akashingo soldiers who might befitting wives of mereo.

none of this a demand, all of it spoken as if she was holding a court with him.

speak freely in turn. give me your logic, imperator.

was she the image of her father or her mother?

she suddenly felt far from either.

it was not until the utterance of wives did germanicus' countenance close. but still he listened and admired the way in which makono had laid this plan.

it was certainly more than pharaoh had ever given.

it was more of a step toward alliance than had been proffered yet.

and he wondered who had shaped her. or if he did makono a disservice by denying her intellect as learned statecraft. 

perhaps it was both.

"what is the immediate benefit to you, princeps?" he watched makono. "it sounds as though you wish to spend your next years building alongside mereo." it seemed as though she wished true allies, not a vassal state. but who knew how akashingo could skew one for power?

is the immediate benefit to me not you, imperator?

her brow arched, good nature in her lapis gaze now that they stood beyond offerings.

if i build with you, i go home a stronger soldier and diplomat than any body within the palace of akashingo. her gaze turned along the path to look upon mereo. mereo was my first emissary trip. now i train alongside the bodies of it as crown prince and soldier.

her gaze would come back to him, as it always would in his presence.

tell me what isn't an immediate benefit to me, imperator.

she smiled and in that rare moment it reached her eyes.

germanicus would have not questioned her use of you.

makono expanded it to mereo, and he saw how realistic she had been in the building of it. he saw little of ramesses in her at this moment. she was calmer than the man and without pharaoh's demand for fealty lurking in each tone.

there passed several moments. "mars mihi permittat videre diem coronationis tuae, princeps."

his voice was dry but it was a true prayer.

if there was a deep brewing of emotions in her eyes, she did not speak to it.

was it treason? if she tied the roman to herself and not to lord pharaoh?

but the words of germanicus could leave her to believe that the roman might play court. that she could keep him and her father pleased with her diplomacy until the day came.

the roman would see it.

in a harsh roar of her blood in her ears, she swore he would see it.

videam faciem tuam illo die.

perhaps she should go, but she found she could not depart from him now.

her eyes shifted but her mien remained composed.

she pledged to him and said it before the gods that he would be there.

and so he saw the arrows in her proverbial quiver: that she was determined first to be pharaoh and second that her work in mereo be seen through.

and those two things could not be rectified without blood one day. she had spoken of price. did makono understand that this was often such a demand?

he inclined his head to her and led on. they would finish their patrol now. and both holding a hundred thoughts.

closing and going to immediately pester u for another <3

they moved.

as one, she felt. even if they were not fully sealed to another, there was a strength here that had not been there before.

one that had not been present when she saw his face in akashingo.

nails on stone. the only sound they would make in their patrol.