Lion Head Mesa everybody loves you, baby [m]

toula.

rashepses' voice echoed hard against the redstone walls, and as tavina turned, she was near flattened by the rush of attendants which swept pharaoh and consort into the royal chambers.

toula's scream echoed thinly as tavina elbowed her way forward, throwing her pack aside and moving to cradle the girl she had always considered daughter. "there now, i am here. do not worry, Divine One. you will come through this as easily as your mother bore you."

a purpled wink, and then the loud voice of the sesh began to bark orders: "unpack the bag. i want three bowls of water brought immediately. you, go to my examination chamber here in the palace. bring me all the dried stuffs to the right, along the faded silver shelf. and you, have calf's liver prepared, dried, and crushed to powder. do it fast. it will be needed tomorrow."

she set out neat stacks of peltcloths and tiny twists of painkilling herbs which must be carefully and sparingly used. toula received her focus entire as she helped the young laboring woman into the bed of pharaoh, saw her lie wan and girlish and paled against the fine coverlets, the exotic pelts which heaped the stone frame.

until this point tavina had said nothing to rashepses, murmuring only to the servants, clucking her tongue above toula; now the sunset stare found him thoughtfully. tavina would rather he was not here at all, that he would take a father's place in the hall beyond. but one glance at toula suggested this tradition might not be kept.

"there, Highness. the other side of the bed, if you will." support, yes, and out from under her own feet.

water and herbs; tavina lay a cool cloth over toula's forehead, began to mix her greeneries, and prepared for another gush of fluids and blood as she snaked a fine scraped sheepskin under the straining hips. "not long, not long. when the urge comes to push, pharaoh, do it. you're not alone."

she heard @Akhtar's voice in the corridor, carried by the nightsilver of @Medusa's own, both threads solemn and rich as hem and hemet warded away the dog's-head of death from pharaoh's door.