Starglow Basin fifty-second

Akhtar looked to the boy, a surrogate son were he a man worthy of such titles. But Senmut was no longer a boy, he internally chided, but a man. A royal should Toula choose to make him such.

Akhtar slung a paw around the back of the young man’s neck and pulled him close.

It would be my greatest honor. In a voice thick with tears he could not allow to spill. He had a reputation to uphold, after all, and sobbing onto Senmut would ruin it all.