Barrier Gulch [m] Asp

While there is still commotion—confusion—chaos—Eset raises, and his eyes are rapt upon her. Blood, pooled from where she lay and rivulets continued down the slope of a gentle limb. He ached to hold her—and yet politics surrounded her and still he saw her in perfect clarity in this moment. This was why she had stolen away from the creek—the facade she put before them now had been pressed aside during their stolen moments together—but now, she was in the court of opinion and control—a pawn in Akashingo’s game.

His lover ordered him to be released—the sharp-eyed woman seethed—demanding to know more of him not for any other reason more than control once more—as if Eset was not her own being. And, perhaps in this woman’s eyes, she wasn’t.

Eset attempted to soothe him—as if the words she spoke were a comfort to him. His jaw tensed—the blood still heavy in the air. This was a moment for her—this was a moment for them.

Not for the peanut gallery that swarmed.

He casts a stony look to the woman barking orders—standing now, and moving to the direction of the mossball. “No, I won’t be. Ask me whatever questions you want—or your Pharoah, Toula may, if she deems it necessary. Send Senmut, if you wish. But I will be going with Eset. Whether that is to her home—whether she stays here to rest and heal. Or whether she decides to return with me to the valley.”

Eset speaks to him, his focus shifting to her—softening. “I would like us to talk,” he murmurs to her, but first, he sweeps up the mossball, intent now to put aside the drama Toula’s court placed upon them and to look after the one who should have been nurtured from the very beginning of it all.