Lion Head Mesa [m] signet

When he drew her from the bath, she followed doe-eyed and accepting.
It was her duty to please him; this is what she had been born to, trained for, and there would be no denying it, no avoiding it. Nazli thought that her moment was coming as soon as he began to touch her again - but it was with the care of a father rather than the subtle wants of a lover, and then they locked gazes.
It would be her choice. It would happen but by her own timeline, her own desire. So the god decreed! It went against what Nazli anticipated and yet she was glad, and humbled further, and even awed by a new, strengthened respect for her pharaoh.
He became like dripping marble and Nazli was at a loss for what to do next. Clearly he meant to dismiss her, but - she could not leave him in such a state. As he became marble, she bowed her head and gathered furs for drying him, and worked, until Ramesses was perfect. The dots of water darkened the floor beneath him.
With some thought she lingered, arranging things, tidying, and then stopped. Her eyes lingered on the stone. You could, if you wanted. If that was your desire. They both knew that. She did not want to go against his wishes, or ignore the charity he bestowed by giving her the choice: but what if this was her choice?
I could stay with you now.

nazli did not cease in her toil.
ramesses was coming to appreciate the jeweled look of what makono had seen in her always, the carefully chosen words, the care with which she whisked the wellspring from him with a dedication to her work always apparent.
nazli looked for a moment as if she would speak, and then the fellahin did so. he saw the work of Thoth's thinking in the way she arranged her words, as if they were lines upon a papyrus.
the gemstone glory of his eyes flickered; darkened. did she mean to be forward? pharaoh did not believe so.
but a servant said what their lord wished to hear;
"you could." a tiny mist of water as one ear flicked sideways. "i could order it. you come to me whenever i call you. and i enjoy that very much."
the noble mouth was caught by humour.
"but," ramesses exhaled in divine patience and affection, "i give this to you. a choice, in honor of your lifelong service to this palace." did she now see?
speak, his eyes bid her.

This time when she felt his eyes upon her, she did not hide away from them. She met them with her own - dark as obsidian, but shining and warm. This was her choice.
He honored her. He honored her work, which was of utmost importance to her; he saw this, he knew this, and he used it. Nazli did not see the darkness there, the knowledge he had gathered from her, or from Makono about her. She saw only what Sokha and Sayf had trained her to see: a benevolent ruler and god.
I choose this. The girl answers.
The lessons had prepared her. She knew all she could know without proper experience. As well as this, Nazli understood fully that he meant to show her kindness. In acting now, in sharing with him the pleasure that he sought, the act would not only please him but show her devotion to Akashingo, to her teachers, to him. It would prove she belonged here.
I give myself to you, in her voice was a strength of conviction taught to her by her many teachers.

so let it be written.
ramesses heard her resoluteness and met it with a welcoming expression. the thin distance between them paled to nothing as he came forward. pharaoh did not question her.
in her was none of the guile that he had employed, and for what purposes beyond the both of them, beyond akashingo even.
pharaoh and lord of all, magnanimous — gentle; cupping her face in one softened paw that still thrummed with his own sinewed strength, as he had done with the gift of bahiti left for him inside the realm of his red kingdom.
power, in this, not in conquering as crueler men wished to employ against those who served. his own cartouche as such pressed into the wax of an eloquent want.
and once expressed — breath to her cheek and ear and the curve of her shoulder. and then he was turning, striding away, and nazli to follow.
through the throne room into the domelike space beyond, filled with his own precious things which glinted in the light shafting down through three ceiling-windows, pouring the light of early evening across the single plinth piled with the finery of pelts down that of a bobcat, thrown carelessly across the plush indolence of the entire space.
ramesses caught nazli with a laugh and set her atop the lush bounty, demanded in tribute by might of himself and his name, the both of them still well-wet and tousled; a quiet moment; a slow twirling of sage-scent, a worship even the highest and most holy priest could never know.