Two Eyes Cenote netsedjer

high priest had arrived the night before, laden with gifts from akashingo: a bundle of hawks-down, red hickory bark which might be soaked for a dye, salt scraped from stones beside the serpent river, snakeskins glittering in iridescent purple, these and sundry more items he had carried half-alone.

he had bid a servant bring these to @Eset, not seeking his bed but the dawn's first light, and through it he sang.

now he carried his gift for nazli to her temple: a round flake of abalone brought from the sea, and he had put upon it the mark of the Apis, a pendant.

he sang to her, and set down the gift where it lay wrapped in fine goat-skin upon a crush of lavender flowers. he saw her there upon her perch and sang again as the eyes turned toward her.