Two Eyes Cenote her infinite variety: other women cloy

“Only an utter fool would tire of you, divine one!” Eset’s laughter is bold as she leans over the side of the spring to pull a cyperus comb through Toula’s damp tresses. But weren’t men so often fools? She holds little more than speculation in her eyes for Toula's newly crowned consort. Time would reveal if he was a true match for her beloved Pharaoh.

Yet at the present, to see Toula well and happy brings peace to the hebsut's own heart. Eset would always worry- it would not be love if she didn't.

The fragrant smell of sweet violet and burning frankincense fills the air of the domed thermae. Eset lathers the comb in lily oil and continues her gentle strokes across the royal shoulders. Always she treasured these intimate moments alone with Toula, but now they are numbered as the days of spring fall away in the blink of an eye. Their time together as Queen and fellahin had come to an end. Soon her Pharaoh would make the return journey to Akashingo- and they would live apart.

“I wish you wouldn’t worry about such things,” the hebsut continues, clearing her throat to fend off some bluer, pained emotion. “Semer-wati is the most blessed man on the continent- and I am certain he knows it.”

She leans forward to see into Toula’s clear turquoise eyes, clearing the foam from one gilded cheek as she does so. “Is he treating you right, my Pharaoh?”

Then with a coy curl to her lips she adds, “Is he pleasing you right?”