Lion Head Mesa [m] clan of the cave bear

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: sexual themes. :o

minor edit. ;)

Perhaps she should have wondered about the state of Qiao, but Diantha did not. She didn't know the priestess, and she had perhaps the least interesting status. Besides, it was unlikely she would be very useful with her head all smashed in like that, even if she did survive.

Instead, Diantha primarily hid herself away in her quarters, wondering when she might meet @Charles. She did not know what he looked like, nor what he would think of her. Had the pharaoh already told him of his mother-in-waiting? If he did not arrive soon, he would miss this year's chance of the heirs she was meant to conceive.

Diantha kicked a red stone, watching it skitter and tumble across the ground.

ramesses had no knowledge of khaba nor qiao, for he had been ruminating upon nazli's state.
he had not seen his queen in a long while, and now she had all but faded from his addled mind. now the lilac girl took her place in his contemplation.
would akashingo have its heirs after all? he thought how mighty a blow it would be, makono replaced by a son she had not expected.
the thought gave him much delight; he emerged from his chambers to eat and be washed.
on a selfish whim, ramesses went to the apartments of diantha, not bothering to announce himself as his lapis eyes found her with curiosity.

Today was the sixth since she had awoken to find herself in an agitated state. Diantha knew what such things meant, and so she had kept herself here, waiting for Charles. But he had not come.

And now, the pharaoh at her doorway. She had been instructed not to bother him with the injured coyote. This would be easy, as her mind was elsewhere.

You said I must give him heirs, she said, but he has not come to my chambers. To bed a prince was one thing, but to bed the king himself? That played into her own selfish desires.

ramesses attended her fragrances with a welcoming grin. knowingness burned in his dilated lazuli gaze. "a shame to turn one's face from such a delectable embrace."
i am pharaoh.
"will you wait for him, then, lady diantha?" the snowfurred serpent purred, curling closer.

Only if you command it, she replied. He reeked of status, of power, of things she wished for herself. If it was advantageous, Diantha would let their true father be known. If not, she would pin their parentage on Charles. There was no reason to believe she would let anybody else apart from her betrothed into her chambers during this feverish week.

But she would let the pharaoh think it was his choice, his secret if he wished it to be one.

his eyes were rife with a primal hunger. possessing nazli had reminded the man beyond all scope that all in akashingo belonged to him.
why not the promised consort of his brat prince?
his teeth glittered in a smile. ramesses came to stand above her, muzzle lowering without hesitation to trace the bulb of one ear. "and what is it you would command?"

It is not my place to command the pharaoh. Diantha smiled, her eyes glimmering in the darkness of her chambers. I wish only to please him. If he had already taken a wife or a lover, Diantha did not care. All of Akashingo was his to do with as he pleased, as far as she could gather. It suited her interests to give children to Charles, no matter how it got done. This was merely a good opportunity, a way to ensure her own safety.

ramesses gleamed dangerously.
"my queen, i believe she will not return to me."
he could not know that this would be the truth!
"akashingo will need some semblance of a future."
he slighted the heir in this.

He would claim them as his own? Diantha reveled in the thought. Perhaps a new queen is in order, she purred, thinking of the words given to her by the coyote. But she brushed them aside. To be seen alongside the pharaoh was to be protected, was it not?

Will you take what is rightfully yours? she asked, pressing herself close to him now, any semblance of holding back dissolving at the thought of power, of strength, of protection. She knew nothing of his current heir, nothing of the undercurrents she would swiftly be pulled into. She knew only what he and she desired here in this moment.

she played the harlot skillfully, whetting him with each word and movement of her sinuous body.
ramesses' hungers came fully realized as she referred to herself as being his. 
but he said nothing of a new queen. the process of royal ascension was not upon his mind; diantha filled it.
pharaoh meant to push her gently to the sleeping-furs of her richly appointed chamber. "say i am wanted," he commanded, a flare of want in his lazuli stare.

They fed off each other, each egging the other one on. She acquiesced to his every handling of her, moving easily to the furs she had thought she would share with Charles. "His loss," she thought wryly.

More—she moved her mouth close to his ear, breath warm—you are needed. How much longer would he continue to draw this out, she wondered, eager for his touch.

needed.
pharaoh laughed softly and pillared diantha between the strength of his alabaster forelegs.
to be wanted, to be needed; she regarded him as if he were a fine golden vintage and she only a goblet ready for his pour.
his teeth caught softly at her throat, breath dragonlike unfurling into her fur. "then i will answer your need."
a grin; a glinting; ramesses caught her close with intention to make the halls reverberate with their voices.

feel free to archive here! <3
i'm glad they got to thread one last time, and this is gonna be some Wild plot development for her.

He received what was wanted, and Diantha what she needed in order to make this place her own. As Charles could not provide, she would let his pharaoh do so on his behalf. Or perhaps for his own; that she could not yet discern. Whatever became of this, Diantha could not begin to imagine the turmoil that Akashingo would be thrown into mere days from now.