Lion Head Mesa twelfth

the moon hung full and cold when senmut came in full rainment to the chambers of tavina and @Nala. "come, hemet," he said softly, adorned in the sacred golden leaves and white furs of his station.

time now for her mark.

"have you meditated upon the Goddess, holy one?" he asked gently. the corridors were all but empty. they moved to a small space, near the wellspring, dominated only by a simple wide slab of red stone and illuminated by moonlight.

at once she found herself shy. pressing only a quick kiss to tavina before she followed after the priest.

o-oh, yes but i...not with anyone else.

she felt some sense of shame! yet she could not explain why. only that she slunk after him, near his flank. wondering and waiting.

"that is good. Hathor welcomes the solitary homage." he smiled gently at nala, and then motioned to the small stone dais.

"lie there, please. face up, to the moon."

even beneath the mesa, the silver glow reached down to bathe the plinth. 

"Her eyes watch through Nwt." senmut gingerly came closer, heart thudding. "as i said, this will hurt, hemet. but i have a cooling unguent for after. it is worthwhile." his eyes searched her own as he waited for the priestess to bid him begin.

she followed each instruction.

she lied down upon the stone, her head tilted back as she stared up at the moon. wondering, waiting. mortified and amazed in equal turns. her breath felt like it had settled in her stomach.

it would hurt.

Nwt watched them.

when her eyes closed she imagined the expanse of tavina, close and coddling. love endless. one day there would be children in that bundle of dark fur. asking questions of their mother. blessed children, part of this would bless them too, wouldn't it?

i am ready. please.

her voice a soft whisper as mismatched eyes stared out to the sky.

endless as her love.

senmut bent his head apologetically and in reverence.

close at paw was a small pool of ink, silt dredged and dried and mixed again until it was near black.

nala breathed.

the priest, and he was that in this moment, made the first incision, in the flesh over the priestess' womb as he had said. blood trickled through the short fur. he did not hesitate, afraid that if he did, he would lose the moment's magick.

a rough whorl, as close as wolf-teeth could make it.

senmut wiped ink to the bleeding marks, once, twice. he looked up toward her face.

and she was crying.

tears ran down a marbled face, wondering how it looked. if it looked as horrible as it felt in those moments. yet she stayed silent. muffled at most.

unwilling to make this moment last any longer or mess up the work the priest did.

she expected the cooling unguent any moment now — or rather she silently begged for it. a beat, two.

then a whimper of a sound.

please.

the priest heard the pain in her voice. "one moment. the ink must settle."

and it did, caking the red droplets to blackened trickles, and then nothing.

senmut smoothed the ointment over the wound twice, cooling the tormented skin. his cheeks were scorched to be so close and so intimate. "breathe now." the relief would be immediate.

it burned and she wondered for a moment if this would be her life now. this moment, this pain.

the way her flesh seared beneath moonlight.

then they burned with a coldness, amplified by the cold air. she found herself unable to be worried about senmut so close to her, so close to the wound.

only that she loosened a gentle prayer out between her lips, buried and muffled behind clenched teeth.

perhaps now would be the time to move but she found herself unable to.

what's...next?

now that she wore a mark, now that pharaoh had demands, now that she was priestess beneath the moon.

"now you pray to Hathor until the pain subsides."

senmut's voice was quiet but his eyes were filled with worship.

"you are now a true hemet. your power will come to you. feel it now, great one," he urged.

till the pain subsided!

all at once she imagined she'd be here the whole night. perhaps it would not be so terrible, to stay in the halls of worship so that tavina did not see her weep over the pain of the new mark.

she could not bid her voice to rise over a whisper.

she mumbled a prayer, stumbled over words in her pained state and started it again.

until eventually a question came to her.

pharaoh wanted to see me dance in snow.

it had originally been meant to be a question. now it fell away into an empty void of the space between them, and her uncertainty met confusion.

"in snow." senmut pulled away and nodded. "he must mean to have a feast. midwinter. perhaps for allies."

he paused.

"it would be your debut, hemet. and all who look upon you will be favoured. you are even due offerings and gifts of your own."

a debut.

she tried to imagine it like this. as she wept and prayed and stung in the cold night air upon a fresh mark. she tried to picture, being given offerings and gifts.

somehow in that image she was splayed like this too. vulnerable.

w-why? i mean...to me? why.

she thought of rolling over for the sake of herself, but the ache and sting kept her on her back still.

senmut smiled. "because you will be the Living Incarnation of Hathor, holy one."

did not nala see even now how she had absorbed the glow of the night? even in her repose, even with blood staining and dried upon her belly, she had inherited some small spark of divinity.

she would come to know it.

a living incarnation!

oh. she had not think that it meant...that. she had thought she might spend her days in worship, secluded save for her lover. only called upon for moments that required worship.

she had not thought she'd be the earthly side of Hathor.

will you tell me a story of Hathor? sniffled out words.

so that she no longer had to think of herself, or what her days would become with this mark upon her womb.

senmut nodded. he settled himself against the altar where the priestess lay and closed his eyes.

"once Ra was insulted by the god Babi. Babi was the first-born son of Osiris. it is not known what was said, at least i do not know, but Ra was so incensed He lay out upon the top of the world."

"he lay there a long while, until Hathor came to find him. 'get up,' She said, and flashed him Her —!"

senmut was red! "but Ra was not upset. He laughed, and She with him. arm in arm, They returned to the world of gods, and She was given leave to move between realms."

whatever story there may have been, she had not anticipated that! she laughed through the break of her tears. exhausted from the sudden burst of physical tonight.

She is so bold to —!

nala felt no such thing, even as she laid here among the alter. perhaps it was time to try to move. although she would offer a tentative look to senmut first, wondering if it was safe to do so.

she liked to think he held the warmth of Ra within him in these exposed moments.

the young training-priest laughed softly.

"Hathor is bold and strong. you will share this with Her, holy one."

he paused. "ahktar is my superior. but you and i, we stand together. we will learn together, nala."

fade? <3

she felt a bloom of something soft for senmut in that moment, their shared status now. the only one she had ever felt she had stood together with was...well, tavina, of course. gucci a close second but even he seemed so far above and so well fitted to akashingo!

thank you, senmut.

and she meant it. deeply.

prepared to offer him a bit of a stiff-legged bow before possibly waddling her way back to her wife-to-be.