Two Eyes Cenote waiting on some holy favour

I have to work tomorrow so I won't have time to post this. Dated for the 20th! Welcome to the world @Aiesha! Open to @Tavina and @Eset and anyone else in Muat-Riya / Akashingo.

The room was spacious and the bed lined with fine furs, with an array of gifts along the nearby wall's ledge. There were herbs for treatment, morsels of easy to manage foods, and a deep shell filled with water. There were reeds soaked in oils, positioned by the crack in the wall that served as a window; this was done on Nazli's insistence, perfuming the space with an incense-like spice and bringing some calm to the priestess.

The pains had started the day before. They came and went at such irregular intervals; sweeping in like a tide, lingering long enough for Nazli's lilac figure to hunch as if she had swallowed a storm that wanted only to be free; and then out again, for a few hours of reprieve. Through the evening of the 18th in to the 19th the frequency of these pains increased.

Tavina was there to watch over her. To administer relief in whatever form she could. Sometimes Eset would drift by, or visit long enough to do the same — but always, always that storm grew inside of Nazli. It wasn't until the morning of the 20th that she felt a sense of release as a flood of warmth spoiled the bedclothes. It wasn't until this moment that she felt the real pain begin.

It was hard to ignore the sounds of struggle from within the birthing chamber. The hushed tones of the sesh with fellahin, or of the hebsut as they rushed to aid the young woman, drowned out by gasps and groans. To Nazli it felt like a lifetime; she grew accustomed to some of the pain, only for it to grow stronger with the next wave.

Try as it might, her body was too small to handle the work. The child was due; yet it was trapped inside of her, and no amount of pushing, or standing, or walking with her strained waddle along the wall, appeared to help in any way. Finally the afternoon tipped towards the evening and as the sun crossed the horizon line, and the sky ignited with the cool twilight purples, something slid from Nazli and touched wetly upon the floor.

Nazli was too dizzy to even look to the bundle, all tucked up as it was, and as she stood there swaying with Tavina at her side, she seemed to fall asleep where the stood. Her legs no longer needed to support her and gave out — and with some guidance from the sesh, she was lain upon the bed to rest.

!!!!

when nazli came to, she would meet the eyes of senmut, still drawn with shock and a deep reverent awe, their daughter tucked into the crook of his arm.

he had scarcely handed off his things to @Machiavelli before tavina had whisked him deeper into the palace. nazli, she explained in her direct fashion, had given birth to a single daughter some eight hours before his arrival.

when the priest had stopped in his very steps, rendered speechless and with a boyish wide fear to his eyes, the sesh had only scoffed a little to congratulate him on fatherhood.

the birth had been hard; he lingered anxiously in the threshold beyond her doorstep before tavina admitted him into its fragrant coolness.

though blood and soaked pelts had been removed, senmut could still scent its metallic presence, the sweetened smell of birthwater against the familiar perfume of her chambers.

how frail she was in her bedclothes, how diminished. in apology he touched her cheek for having not been here, and then his eyes fell to the child at her belly.

a daughter, a daughter who already — was that his crimson touch? already? his eyes blurred and he kissed nazli's brow, and settled into a nearby receiving-couch to watch her, to doze, and to at least, gently, gingerly, lift the tiny beautiful babe where he could look at her small perfect features, her closed eyes and sleeping ears. senmut stared at her, and without a prod of self-consciousness, he wept over her sacred, impossible slumber.

only when nazli stirred did senmut look up, adjusting their child in his arms.

cameo <3

Eset knew so little of childbirth, nor how it would progress. She understood some pains began faintly from an ordinary side cramp- but it was Nazli’s small size that made her nervous. She was so slight; the coy in her expanding in unnatural ways to carry Senmut’s wolf children.

Senmut. She could not imagine him without a stupid grin on her face stretching from ear-to-ear. She wanted to see him as a father- as a partner to his lover.

Then the birthing began. Eset endeavored to be useful, but she was not so effective without the steady presence of her doctor guiding, instructing; which herbs worked best for which pains, and at which point in time she should administer them. She’d been alive for more than two years and was still learning what a woman’s body was capable of. She remained close, attentive, at Tavina’s directive and Nazli’s beck and call.

She prayed to Bes, the goddess of childbirth, over and over again, and hoped she had the power to loosen a woman's womb long enough to carry children into the world.

In the end it was not children, but child. A sole child; a daughter.

Eset had brought replenishing mixtures for mother; revitalizing herbs for Tavina, and once she sensed her presence no longer needed, had slipped out into the hallways to act as a lady-in-waiting. She was met by the Erpa-ha on his way into the birthing chamber, her eyes trailing her friend in warm silence.

She understood then that no amount of preparation would ever be enough. How could it?

cameo!

somehow, tavina had managed to become a mother without so much as the pull of a newborn's demands on her own body. 

it was a mother's agony in attendance for nazli's three days of tribulation. she brought whatever the girl wanted, treats, food, meals of any kind; she set up in the corner of the room and tried to distract the young woman, for a time.

when the pains began in earnest, tavina paced the room with nazli, offering sips of water and a wet cloth for her heated brow. 

it quickly became clear that the labor would be hard. she hated to hear nazli's cries and perhaps even cursed senmut a time or two as she outwardly put on a show of courage and hope for the soon-to--be mother.

she and eset kept their work smooth: bedclothes replaced, fresh water brought, tinctures to ease the muscles and offer some respite to such anguish.

on the third day, when tavina had felt her worry grow horrendously, when she knew this must be the day to end it, to ask nazli what should be done, it was indeed done itself.

a baby girl, at last. tavina pulled the caul from the scarlet head, and looked down seriously at the youngster in search for anything wrong. 

some hours later, after nazli had been bathed and settled in fresh pelts, when she had experienced the first aching pierce of nursing pain, tavina left mother and daughter to sleep and joined eset in the hall.

another daughter. another child. and her mind was suffused with bitter thoughts of nala that the sesh chased away at once. not tonight. 

a weary smile for the hebsut, a squeeze of their obsidian hands together, and then she was moving to the store-rooms, wanting a meal and some time from the beautiful cloying reminder of loss, time to move beyond this sensation and dwell upon her genuine happiness for nazli. but she would return posthaste.

i am sorry, i am super busy today so its choppy but imma do some editing on this in a few hrs<33

Aiesha was born,

And in the embrace of her loving father she laid as the blessing brought upon the earth by the Holy Spirit. Her tiny body was so peaceful, it was almost worrying. Held by those loving her utterly and more than their heart could take.

It was a shock. Once her lungs filled with air and a poor whine left her hopeful for touch, she requested her mother to be held by. Her mother was a good woman at heart; strong enough to conceive and deliver a miracle, but now laid out of breath and unable to thrive.

A tear landed on Aiesha’s belly and stained it wet; it was her daddy, crying and thankful. Overwhelmed. “Daddy, don’t cry! Save your tears!” Her future self wished to say, pulling him into her embrace to secure.

The other voices and faces around she knew, but didn’t search for. It was the daddy’s touch and mommy’s kiss she desired in the welcoming world full of surprises the most. She needed milk. Her tiny body squirmed and huddled up against a chest, searching for some she wouldn’t be able to find. So pacific, pure, and well-mannered. Quiet also, unlike other newborns.

Protected, utter and sticky, she was observed. Unable to recognize the value of life granted to her yet.

she wanted to be there for the birth of the two people that had so blessed her and @Rashepses. but she also wanted to be there for the lilac—Nazli, who had always served the kingdom and her family. who she had elevated for all of that service. Nazli, the last tangible thing left she had of @Makono, who she envied for the times they two had spent together on their travels for the time she herself had lost with her. 
she was a reminder of her, a beautiful living one. and Toula would make sure that she was happy, that she was fulfilled, that the Gods would hear her wishes as well as Toula’s own! and this woman was the one who Senmut most loved, and as she saw him there and remembered their courting and his letters to her and felt relief to know that she had been able to love him in return in granting him this freedom to embrace this piece of his heart! 
and to his ear, before he entered the chambers, she said: you will marry her, the decision made with a smile, but with the addendum of: if you wish. it would please the Gods, I think, and left unsaid: it would please me!
holy matrimony. yes, the Gods would be thrilled by it! Toula heard nothing of the labors, but provided materials from Akashingo and held a gift to be provided to the cub once the birth was finished. she only waited then to be granted entrance!

She rested among the furs, feeling exhausted in a way she had never experienced before - even during her extended sickness which had taken her away from her home. This was a new kind of full-body emptiness and weariness, where it was a struggle to take deep breaths or to allow for any movement of her body. It felt like any motion at all would be wrong.

Nazli slept deeply and for many hours. She did not wake to see Senmut there; if she felt his kiss upon her brow she did not wake to show it, and barely moved except for the steady rhythm of her sleep. There came other visitors — Eset, Tavina, even the Divine One, none of which did she see or sense. The sleep prevailed.

The child was held by her father. All was well; all was as it should be, with the gift of the gods alive now and already so beloved.

last for me!

marry her!

it had not been done before. did their pharaoh mean to bend divinity? and now senmut saw toula's own power, not in physical might but in the realm of the spiritual.

this he had seen, he had known, but he had not comprehended.

and so senmut only bowed his head beneath this, and to her blessing he held out the tiny being, the swaddled aiesha.