Lion Head Mesa A visit

“They will come soon, the doctors tell me.” Though more time and nourishment was needed to breed godhead over mortality. From he and Toula’s divine blood the babes would have special graces– their mother’s beauty or their father’s endurance– a sacred alloy of their creators.

Rarely did cool composure slip from the riverking’s face but in the briefest of moments a flicker of vulnerability shone within his sharpened eyes. He looked upon Mesen-ka with the same hesitance he had shared with his brother in childhood. No one had ever planted him so firmly in his own skin as Toula before, and still in the recesses of his mind he was a man who feared a monotonous life over death.

He nodded his head for the kingsguard, lips hiking into a stiff smile. “Return to the lake. Guard your wife. But come home soon, with my nephews.”

After which, the lake could burn. The ogre children would only be leaving the desert for the banners of Mereo.