Lion Head Mesa a final inundation

here it is: the departure of akashingo. my enduring love & light to all those who have written this story with me to its very end. our palace, our kingdom, belongs as much to you as to its founders <3 for all those following, this is set for midnight dec 31st. incredibly bittersweet but i know our legends are not finished :) as of this thread, it can be assumed senmut, khaemwaset, khusobek, and tavina are missing/dead </3 @Toula @Rashepses Satakhetem @Khaemwaset Neith Senmut Khusobek @Eset @Legend @Athamas @Nazli @Safiya Tavina @Machiavelli @Racharra @Briar Cayde @Mesen-ka Ibrahim Taliba @Nokht Tiye (also a tag for @Nasima in case u want to close her story here)

IMMERSION

in the void beneath akashingo, those great rivulets rose, offshoots of the serpent river beside which they had so often worshipped. senmut heard the whispers of the living dark, the groaning of pressed red stone; he bowed his head beneath this seeming insistence of the gods. "i obey."

and when he straightened, it was with the gilding of steel to his green eyes. "tell them that the High Priest calls for akashingo to witness the judgement of the unworthy. all must come."

and as guards moved in the gloom to acquiesce, as servants fluttered up from the yawning catacombs, senmut stood paralyzed, a redstone conduit for a power he had never understood.

BREAKING

they gathered. Amun was silent behind his shoulder. peace. peace. senmut's breathing found the steadiness of worship, and his eyes moved from one figure to the next. "i am told that there is one among us who has spoken against the Divine of akashingo. that a voice is lifted against the gods. that command is violated. that order and tradition have been ejected, and chaos stands at the door. that the affairs of the deities have been confounded."

as he spoke in muted monotone, senmut pulled each one of those words from memory. "i have been called upon to right what has displeased the gods. my station is blessed. my role is ascension."

"here in this place, open your ears to listen." listen to the grinding of fel stone, the vibration of long-held lake. "hear the sounds of displeasure. know that only purification will save akashingo: that of blood."

POWER

strength.

he felt the tremour of the ground beneath. dust fell from the cavernhold down onto the assembly, staining even he in brief grey. "hear! heed! the gods call for unholy flesh to be condemned! they demand that pious expectation be excised!"

nausea swam. he did not dare seize for the eye of nazli nor their child; he kept himself in cold parting from them all, his gaze moving to tavina.

pulse, galloping; horrendous. fear and horror bedfellows inside a mind which could hardly form words.

"we condemn!"

INSCRIPTION

voices, erupting! senmut stood glaring into the face of the handsome, accursed Consort who had wrought a power which was not his to use. only ramesses' lineage burned here. only the blood of seti which ran in toula's veins might give life! might bestow divinity.

"so let it be written! condemnation lies with —!" he cried, just as the great red stone walls of akashingo sounded a last agonized cry and the far-off rumbling of the lake could be heard.

and then, a crushing, horrendous rush, and suddenly cries of fear began to sound in that catacombed chamber as water moved stone and stone began to fall first as dusted rocks, and then in shuddering slabs.

"go!" he shouted in desperation, reduced to only a man once more! "go!"

but where might such a throng rush?

indent]the scarlet tunnels beneath the mesa ran high with water and into its flood collapsed first one wall and then another, narrowly missing him as he rushed frantically toward nazli.

condemnation lies within akashingo.

FOREVER

screaming.

panic in those tunnels.

the mesa ground down history and crushed it wholesale. its outward face was unchanged, an obelisk to a final jubilee of death. and the lake flowed up from akashingo like blood, silting closed the valley of kings, sundering to silence the royal tombs in an eager rush to join mother serpent.

thrones shattered, paintings washed away. storerooms of wealth sealed by stone, courtyards crumbled. the wellspring's perimeter was broken, and it too rushed into quarters of fellahin and mazoi alike, seeking death for those who had not fled. exits fell to ruin and entrances were stopped for eternity by piles of rubble.

as if akashingo itself were a sarcophagus of old, its proverbial stone lid closed for a last time, encapsulating the elements of godhead wolves inside

by the morning, the surface of mesaland and the red sands would be unchanged, a final silken epitaph as the spirits of those lost were carried to the Land of Reeds.

farewell, the unheard whisper from the pale ghost of a dead pharaoh, flanked by a queen clad in shimmering gold. it seemed ramesses and satsu watched, gazing down until they could no longer, and lifted up into the atmosphere of a cold morning like so many shimmering lights.

thus ended the earthly reign of  Muat-riya Isetnofret toula, Goddess of the Red Serpent, Wife to the Gods, Consort of Amun, The Morning and the Evening Star, Userma’atre’setepenre, Keeper of Harmony and Balance, Strong in Right, Elect of Ra; Per-en-ma'at nesu-bity, Pharaoh In Two Lands, She Who Has Achieved Ma’at.

thus ended the earthly companionship of her Semer-wati, of Ta-senet, Raemka Rashepses, Divine Consort, God of the Red Serpent, Asar Em Ta "powerful in land," Menkheperre "he of the sedge and bee, enduring of form is Re," Lover of Isetnofret and Blessed of the Two Lands.