Lion Head Mesa a final inundation

she shook as it came that the priest had asked for them all. bustled by mazoi, she heard herself pray to gods in which she did not believe.

and now she stood among them in a throng and listened to senmut speak, a growing sense of dread threatening her belly.

the shouting! the shouting! her brain hurt and she looked frantically around for anything on which to set her frayed nerves, her —

she saw senmut burning toward rashepses and for a moment hope caught in her throat;

and then true terror began.

"nazli!" she cried, a mother's shriek in a darkening corridor; she surged toward the priestess and her child as stones fell around them, as water swirled around her ankles.

disbelieving doctor, whelpmistress of royal children, dry friend to priests. lover of a single hebsut; memories dizzied as they spun through her mind.

the sesh was slammed to blackness as red boulders swept her feet from beneath her body, her final thought eset's smiling face framed by flowers.

if these gods are merciful, i will see you again.