Lion Head Mesa [m] signet

when she was languid and soothed, some inner tension at last ebbed away. ramesses felt it dissipate, as surely as he had sensed her ease with him since the senet game.
the motions and cleansing went on for some time.
at length pharaoh smiled and stirred in the water as if to wake her from the sensations. "come," and rising to his feet, ramesses drew up from the wellspring and drew her with him, took up a soft drying-cloth of fine hairs and pressed the moisture and the droplets from her ears and throat and neck, he having taken her role for a moment.
streaming from the bath, he stilled and lazuli eyes sought to find her own. "tomorrow i will not call for you," conversational, waiting to absorb nazli's reaction. "you choose when you will come to me again."
with that ramesses stepped back and seemed to become his marble-hewn self once more, regal despite the water puddling around him upon the tilestones.