Lion Head Mesa noctilucent

there was a tension between them. nazli felt it in the set of her teeth, which would have ground together if she dared to move. she barely breathed, waiting, hoping the darkness could obscure the dejected way she held herself, or the empty stare she employed while in the presence of someone so divine; she knew makono as something more than that! she knew her friend as someone real, who had once run with her in the mountains and who needed her help to pick the dirt from her coat. as someone who would gossip like any girl, and plot in the gamine way for boys, and yet that had all slipped away that night when ramesses had gone. it was as if her girlhood had been tied to her father - the same, but different also, in how nazli's had been. one had transformed in to a ruler, the other - nazli had no word for what she had become.

come with me, the pharaoh ordered. it need not have been phrased in such a direct way, or wielded with care, for any word spoken by a pharaoh was by virtue of its existence, a command. nazli knew this. she was well taught and dutiful; she had served makono's father in every way commanded, and now she would find a willing servant for whatever desires sparked to life here.

when makono began to move - if she did, wherever she did - nazli would follow, keeping pace as best she was able given her weight and awkwardness, and the terrain in the dark. she found her eyes tracing the golden fleece along the pharaoh's muscled shoulders, witnessing the way the light played upon every inch, with a familiar spark of fondness that flickered like a dying ember.