Redsand Canyon lioness

if the assumption isn't ok lemme know! it seems like he's been avoiding his once shared space?

word needed to be sent back to akashingo.

already it had been too long without a scout being sent.

but it was not the morning light she moved in, nor even the evening sun. the darkness had swallowed around them and she could not sleep.

she would be surprised to find that the place she had once met lady ruenna was not where @Germanicus scent would be freshest. not yet did she realize it also lacked the lady.

had he taken a night patrol?

he is! <3

he was in the forum, etching quiet plans to himself. it was across mereo, almost the furthest point from the space he had once shared with ruenna.

he had a great mind to simply offer the space to lady aquene. it was a fine two rooms, austere as they were. and he could live among his soldiers.

he wondered if that would be odd.

either way, he was too far from that den to notice the crown prince searching for him. he was bent over the small marks in the red sand, trying to force them to absorb his mind so thoughts of his wife could not pervade.

the place was empty.

hollow. a husk. she had seen something similar once before. when nebet maegi had passed on, the way her rooms grew stale over time save for the gloomy mazoi.

her lips pressed together tightly.

she moved at once onward. as if she had seen a scene not meant for her.

it would be some time before she crossed his path truly. nearly missing him in the darkness of the night, his coat slivers of the moon itself. she the sun.

imperator,

her voice was softer now.

the forum was a structure of four redstone pillars, open on all sides save for one, with no roof. illuminated by starlight, the silver man looked up at the heir's tread.

"crown prince."

his voice was equally formal. 

"what brings you into the night?"

i come asking for a scout,

he might understand, but still she would lay it all before him. he deserved such.

word must be sent back to akashingo of my arrival, my status.

she did not speak of the empty room she had seen.

"very well. i will send glaukos. do you recall him? he will carry your message."

germanicus straightened. 

"relay it to me."

he was not yet ready to share his night. he was not ready to relinquish this space. there was little in him of the conversationalist he had been in their earlier talk.

tell lord pharaoh his crown prince has found mereo safely. that a soldier's training has begun and will continue for at least a month.

there was hardly much more that she could impart upon the ears of a scout of mereo.

but still she lingered despite having given her message.

the look upon her face said there were more words, but not words for her father.

her words were concise. germanicus appreciated this. he would seek the man out when the sun had begun to pale the sky.

but still makono lingered. the imperator forced himself to be hospitable.

"does something trouble you, divine one?"

divine one, he called her.

she noted this and yet her heart tonight was mortal. faltering at the empty space she had seen, the way germanicus stood alone in the night.

did she ask outright? did she dance around the topic?

i do not ask for the details, she started with. a breath out that smoked the air. but do you grieve, imperator?

she could think of no other reason why his redsand lady did not stand by his side.

some part of her stilled harshly, prepared for the snapping words of a man.

a soldier.

a grieving soul.

she would receive the same marble that had gripped him when she spoke of marriages between her world and his own.

"you remember that lady ruenna was in a great deal of pain. she lived with it for many years. our skill was not enough. she went to live in a place of healing and with her, two of our four children have gone. alivia and cornelius."

but he kept his voice reined. his eyes said nothing. "i grieve. but there remains always work to be done. it is why i am here tonight."

it was not a death, like her mother.

she wondered if that would have made it all easier or harder. but to have lost a wife and two children while they lived?

she had lost a brother, in a far different manner, but still he lived. she wrote him off entirely.

all of germanicus' situation was far removed from her. still she wished to be a kind, diplomatic face in these times. even if he would remain a slab of marble before her.

my condolences, her voice felt unusually small before him now. some part of her dared to think that he should have brought her to akashingo.

she knew he would never.

she would not rub salt in his wounds.

will you allow me to join you in your work?

he did not want them.

and he was unsure he should tell her the true nature of what he was doing.

he was not ready to share ruenna and nor was he ready to trust makono.

"it is only doodling, really." he showed her the idle map of the sparring arena.

a swipe of his paw cleared the marks. "sketch what you have learned of mereo, crown prince."

doodling.

it was not a word she would have ever paired to the imperator. but she was instructed to sketch what she had learned. his marks of the sparring arena lost to the spread dirt.

her sketch was a crude map, hardly as detailed as one who may have lived here.

she placed the oasis.

the forum, the punishing grounds, the spar pit. the multitude of housing.

she did not place the house of the once married leading couple.

the prince already saw much. germanicus wondered what she would relay to pharaoh upon her return.

he looked at the marks for a long moment and then grunted with approval.

"can you map the way home from mereo?" that would not be so hard, he thought. she had traveled the route there and back again four times in total.

he was grateful for the opportunity to teach.

once more, she made a crude map.

makeshift mountain range. the river below was nestled by a meadow and woods.

then the crowning jewel of akashingo.

she used one nail to trace a line from the palace, through the meadow and up the mountain. right to the canyon.

this is the work of tacticians. she mused mindlessly.

"i once was chief royal tactician in the palace, great one."

it was his mastery. he watched it imparted to her now in deft strokes.

her mind saw as many details as his own. he knew the places outside akashingo which she had also included.

to her map he added a second path which diverged from the main artery which carried a traveler to mereo: he marked the vale. "this is epoch. if you wish to ever have relations with them, you will never go there. your father dealt wrongly with them."

and he had followed in stead when it came to belen.

the vale.

she thought of her disowned brother. nothing more than competition now. a threat — if he ever returned, refusing to bow or be consort.

there was a dark swell in her gaze.

for a very long moment she did not speak. only staring at the map between them.

siptah — his very name thick like coagulating venom on her tongue. was meant to have his first trip as emissary as there.

she was a brewing storm, but she discussed it all the same. it hardly mattered now, did it? the plan tossed aside by his betrayal.

i was to lead him in it.

had the imperator ever properly met the former heir?

makono's anger was kindled. it was a different thing than he had seen in her before.

siptah. 

had he heard the name before? he pieced together what he knew and what he assumed. this must have been ramesses' firstborn son. and now he was gone.

but it was not grief held by the heir before him. 

"why were you directed to go there?" germanicus saw only for mereo in this moment, though his curiosity was genuine.

her head stood tall at his question.

i suppose for siptah to prove his supposed prowess, no?

bitter, jaded. fractured sharply but still she did not speak on it directly. only let it bleed into her very words of him.

she returned to the map. staring at the makeshift mountain range drawn upon the sands. without much thought she attempted to expand upon it all. places they had crossed but not stayed. places she had heard tales of or caught glimpses of upon high points.

she pored over her map.

germanicus was silent.

"inviso." his voice was hushed as he tilted his head skyward to the lights burning far above them.

"orion." he pointed out the three stars which made the warrior's belt.

"the north star." and here he marked both on her map.

"the night guides when our memories do not."

and so it was for this brother of hers he would not mention again.

orion.

north star.

for as often as she looked upon the skies, she did not name stars. but now these would be named.

he marked them upon her map.

her head felt as if it spun around it all. what she spoke next did not follow his words of the stars, but perhaps it was still fitting.

i appreciate when you speak freely to me, imperator.

her gaze left him at once.

there was no changing in him.

only a shift of energy, imperceptible on its own.

"it is good when i have ears to hear me speak that way."

there was a comfortable silence. the eagle broke it first. "return to your rest, princeps." he studied her. "we will speak again tomorrow."

she moved, prepared to move away in a silent fashion.

only she paused. a head over a narrow gold capped shoulder as she looked back at him.

lapis gaze like murky water in the night light.

find rest too, imperator. it was all she would say before she continued her departure. prepared to settle back down between the bodies of akashingo within mereo.