Lion Head Mesa ho[m]e

by all rights should senmut have gone to pharaoh first, but she and her consort had gone to heated bed. he would not disturb their sovereigns, even as he began to believe that the shadow of rashepses had entered all the world.

instead he made his way among the throng, slipping through sideways red halls until he entered silently the room where his child slept, and brushed her with a kiss. over bedside he whispered a prayer, lingering until he assured himself all was well.

nazli was not so difficult to find; he saw her twilit form and stood watching as she moved through the trees gone to wintertide. his approach was quiet, but it was not a priest who took her into his arms for a long kiss, it was a man long starved of heart's-desire.

there was no other who inhabited that starlight place save for nazli herself.