Two Eyes Cenote calling the scarlet sands

As Senmut paced the night before so too did Eset lay restlessly upon her furs and trace all possible scenarios of the evening into the ceiling of her bedchamber. She’d risen before dawn to make an impression, bathing and plying the insides of her wrists and throat with perfume distilled from the petals of wild violet; enunciating the fire of her eyes with charcoal. If all in the kingdom served as specimens of Toula’s vision, her handmaiden would, too.

In the precincts of the temple for Muat-Riya there stirred the presence of something that had never, in the long history of these domed cenotes, been there before. A murmuring amongst guests swept like a breeze from the serpent moves through papyrus beds. The fellahin moved beneath the Erpa-ha's directive, escorting guests to where they would stand in view of the raised tribune before laying the path of ascension in sacred lotus. The air bloomed. The girl stepped off to one side. Whispers abated, and Senmut was first to appear.

Handsome, she thought him, caressed as he was by filtered light rays and decorated in ceremonial ways. Akhtar following, all willowy elegance in his holy mien to take his place beside. And then her eyes looked down the aisle for Toula.

Through the crowd she emerged. The fellahin- even having a hand in the dressing- was enthralled in her presence, so much so she had to fight averting her eyes over the intensity of such power. Instead they clung softly to every detail; the brush of fine powder that lined the arch of her collarbone and the drapes that accentuated the length of her pale legs. The vined amulets that adorned her forearms and neck. The malachite she’d dusted cunningly to the upper eye. The way she moved confidently under the weight of her honors. Even the striking man at her side, tall and alluring in his polished obsidian.

With power like that, Toula could uproot the world in the blink of an eye. But she chose to wield it for the good of all her people.

Mistress no longer- Pharaoh, and Goddess in eternal life.

As the birth of a god played out before her, and Senmut’s hymn came to a close, Eset felt the beginnings of something long withheld;

Peace.