Lion Head Mesa Just need someone to hold me, even though you don't even know me

If you have time! For one of the BWP prompts (Your character discovers fairy circles in an unlikely place.)

Melody was torn. She could not decide if she truly wanted to seek Khusobek again, if that was really a good idea. It had seemed like it at the time, but as more time passed, she began to regret her decision to sleep with a near-stranger. There was just something very lonely about it.

In the end she decided to look for @Senmut instead, but she underestimated her own exhaustion. At some point she stopped and curled up, and found herself fast asleep within moments. If anyone passed by, she was unaware.

When she woke, she was lying in a circle of mushrooms like nothing she'd seen before.

the benefit or curse of palatial life was that all your moves were known.

in whispers, in rumours; nothing left to chance or to fate.

melody had lain with the mazoi. it was her right, senmut supposed, though he had taken her for someone who would prefer a more docile treat, a softer one.

he began to clear his throat, then stopped, staring at the ring of hallowed magick in which she slept.

Melody woke rather slowly, failing to notice Senmut at first. What she did notice was the mushrooms. She stretched out to inspect them, forelegs sliding between them delicately to rest around one that was bent slightly to the side. The Hemet studied it, brought her nose close.

Then she noticed Senmut, and her ears went up and she pulled away from the mushroom as if she'd been caught doing something terrible. She took in a sharp breath. Hi, Melody said after a moment, waiting for her racing heart to steady itself. She glanced at the mushrooms. They weren't there when I - ah, earlier. That's weird, isn't it?

"indeed, there have been a number of odd things happening as of late."

the prince's eyes were on the priestess. he saw her with the discernment that he had used upon all holy men and women inside these halls.

"did you dream?"

was it imagination, or did khusobek's scent linger here?

Melody blushed, though not so much as she had with Eset. Did he know? How could he? She was still naive to many things about life in Akashingo — but she had learned enough to know that she was still afraid of Senmut's gaze on her, still afraid that he would look at her and see her lacking.

There was no lack of ambition in her, or awe, or even belief — but true devotion to Akashingo's gods remained elusive to her, and Melody felt its absence keenly. She did not think herself incapable. It was only that something was missing, something had not yet — happened, or clicked, maybe. She feared that Senmut would not understand, and so she tried to hide it.

But his eyes were on her now, and she felt he surely must see it. He questioned her. Melody, who had never paid much attention to her dreams, struggled for a moment to recall if she had. I did, She said thoughtfully. I dreamed about... water. A lot of water. Here. Flooding the halls, sweeping them all away. Utter nonsense, Melody thought.

it was this reticence and disconnection that the priest perceived in her. an unsettlement. and yet images came to her mind, and senmut would never forget that makono too had spoken words unknown.

but he would not forsake her.

"water? in the palace?" a thoughtful look came to him, and he set his eyes upon her. "have you spent much time beside the serpent?" the body of wide cerulean fed all of akashingo, surely even the wellspring below.

More water than I've ever seen, Melody confirmed quietly, then shook her head to his question. I don't spend much time near water.

And she never would, if she had it her way. Water was a rarity in The Gilded Sea, especially in such abundance. It was precious. So of course a younger Melody would have been thrilled to find a whole pond full of it, teeming with life that couldn't be found elsewhere in the dry place she'd grown up in. Now that memory was the beginning of all her nightmares. She preferred not to think of it.

"water is the life of all things. Osiris was taken from it. Iset was made part of it. there is no earth nor breath without water."

senmut found this detail about melody curious but unacceptable. "you will spend three days beside the serpent, in meditation and revelation."

it might curb her mind, he hoped.

Melody nodded, eager to part Senmut's company. Increasingly she understood her place here, and increasingly she resented it. Hemet or no, in Pharaoh's absence she was just another face in the crowd; just another tool to be used, nothing special, nothing worth thinking about.

She rose, not waiting for dismissal. I'll go now, Melody said quietly. She stepped from the circle of mushrooms and wondered if Makono would have tried to make an astrologer of her. She wondered how quickly Senmut would find someone to fill the role if she simply left.

It was tempting.

no other had heard the message sent surely by pharaoh; no one had learned to stand and hear.

priestess; akashingo must have one. must have a counterpart to akhtar.

senmut sat silent for some time after melody had gone, asking Amun to guide the young woman even as there existed so much that he did not comprehend about her own thoughts.