Lion Head Mesa seventeenth

this is meant to be set after allll @Makono's threads for the day, late night <3 all other tags for ref and to keep everyone updated!

if @Toula had wailed for her father, senmut did not know it. if she had demanded entry, he had forbidden it. the mesa's roof was barred from those who were not holy.

and if @Sethnakht railed, the priest had closed his ears. he sent the royal children into the arms of the fellahin and issued orders that they be kept in their chambers as best was able.

all would be explained in time.

@Gucci, too, must submit himself before the new pharaoh, along with @Medusa.

a day ago ramesses had inhabited these spaces. now senmut bowed himself into the domed red room that belonged to the throne of makono, prostrating himself in silence and exhaustion.

she was exhausted. yet it felt impossible for her to be able to sleep. she was laid upon furs that smelled like him. like the liquor and the treasures he had collected. smelled like @Nazli too. makono found herself yearning for the lilac most of all, perhaps.

it was senmut who darkened the dusty frame of her new doorway. she need not look to know it. he had truly become an extension of her in these last hours.

hours. gods, it had felt like days already.

come. a paw tapped at the furs. she meant to invite him into her bed. ah! but not like that.

referencing box's characters, which u can remove <3

senmut did not even think of it! he tumbled into the richness of the pharaoh's bed and almost slept then as his head landed near her own upon the coverlet.

"i questioned bayek's loyalty. i told him to stand as your guard. he will do your bidding, but he will not raise his hand against your sisters or brother."

eyes closed, repeating the events of the day.

"qiao, nala, and i embalmed him today. he lies in state beneath the eye of Ra."

"anaelle follows the former queen. she was her counsellor. bahiti has — they were a gift and they have returned to their people. akhtar —" and this was the hardest of all, "akhtar has gone. a scorpion sting opened his mind to a dream. perhaps he will return."

to lose so many in a day, but to whet the loyalty of those who stayed. the vacuum of a high priest lurked in the palace like a pulsing sore.

he exhaled. 

and then the meeting they had attended together, a roman soldier come to live among them

scarcely a day she had been pharaoh. "what of your own hours, divine one?"

she watched him with a tired gaze as he spoke. at some moment it felt like her mind reach elsewhere, hearing the list of names. the only one that felt it mattered most was akhtar. yet he seemed much more like a bitter old man when faced with her.

she shifted to lay partially across him and seek comfort. warmth.

they were long and winding and — she exhaled softly. held onto him for a silent moment. treva is gone and bayek will see to it that she leaves come dawn. she did not bother to tell senmut that she had struck. she had already been told by the medjay that an angrier pharaoh might have killed the woman. makono felt no such way anymore.

the roman boy. i am sure his father will be thrilled to hear he has settled under my reign, hm? a low, tired chuckle of humor. word will need to be sent to the imperator that i have succeeded, you know. to multiple places, truthfully. but it was a task for another day. for now they could lay in the dark together.

but you know...there was one haunting conversation. the hemet, qiao...

senmut put his arms around her again. it was almost rote, she divine and he only a peasant from a far-off place.

and yet it was to him the pharaoh returned for comfort.

pharaoh makono — her name was a balm to his spirit.

in the half-dark, he saw a mark upon her cheek. but he did not ask. the queen was gone, and he breathed in relief to know it.

the imperator's son! "i will draft a message," senmut said.

he wanted to speak of who the queen might be, to ask if makono wished a formal coronation. but the mention of qiao stilled his tongue.

the silence stretched.

"while you were away, qiao was sent to summon you, by ramesses. i instructed khaba to detain her." he had not ordered what happened but it was upon his head all the same. "i will seek him tomorrow. but in his stead i should bear his punishment, divine one."

to detain her! she wanted to balk, to laugh. instead she breathed in the desert scent of senmut. the holy scents that clung to him from rituals.

qiao might have a say in what punishment is, for she bears a great mark now, hem. her voice was soft against his throat. i am inclined to hear her words on a price.

but she reached for him delicately now.

i think she will be good to be kept close still.

"i did not know her. i do not know her. i only knew she stood with ramesses. and i did not want her to tell him that you had gone."

senmut had few regrets.

the fine furs reeked far too much of the previous inhabitant. he wanted them thrown out.

"i will accept whatever you decide is best, divine one."

"make her your vizier," he said sleepily, exhausted despite the severity he faced. "make your sister toula shabti. make sethnakht her Royal Consort when he is of age. this way you bind all of akashingo to you, great pharaoh."

his voice ebbed. he fought the slumber fast descending upon him.

he yawned, he reached for slumber. she reached for him. devoured utterly by the inability to sleep. for when she closed her eyes it was the face of a father there to greet her.

i thought you were to be my vizier. her voice teetered on a tease. it mattered not what title senmut claimed for himself as long as he was with her.

but toula should be shabti. sethnakht could be a consort to her sister. perhaps. she did not know.

she knew he was tired, slipping into slumber. still she wished for more words between them! what of...me? when i have wants for company? she supposed she just followed her father in that was well? fellahin on call and —

she exhaled wearily and stirred upright. moving to stand.

senmut outstretched his arm for her then, drawing makono back if she did not resist into the piled plush of her deceased father's bed.

"i will be whatever you wish, divine one," he said in soft reverence.

"but even pharaoh must sleep. and i shall be your company while you do."

senmut knew he must stay awake, if only to see her exhausted lashes close for a handful of hours.

she wanted to say not like that, but her voice halted in her throat. too ashamed maybe that she did not even know what she asked for.

instead she reclined in an icy silence, falling back into the embrace of a dead man's bed and finding that he haunted her here too. she thought of him with nazli or how he called upon any! now she sat in this place and wondered if she might do the same.

could she? would she?

she stared at the ceiling and found herself wishing that he could read minds as she laid awake next to him.

pharaoh was still, eyes staring.

senmut inhaled the scent of the furs, of ramesses, of nazli, of her. of her.

"Great Lady Whom Makes the Sky, Whose divine body arches in the heavens,"
"bring peace to pharaoh, Goddess Nwt,"
"place Your hand of peace and starlight upon her heart,"
"she, your divine child."

senmut sang softly, voice moving in the night, a talisman for makono to carry in her ears.

she tucked herself against him. realized it might be the only way she slept tonight. forced her eyes closed as she listened to him. thinking that, just maybe, if she pretended she was asleep she eventually would slumber.

only it was dreams of familiar faces that awaited her on the other side.

she dreamed of @Khaba by her side. and then she dreamed of her father. the sting of his lapis gaze upon her and her court. haunting! horrifying! but senmut was there too and the once jodai. watchful over her in a guarding way. no room for a spirit in her heart.

eventually she was lost to the waking world at last. even if only until the early hours of dawn.

<3

on and on senmut sang, on and on until pharaoh at last slept.

and then the hem too was dead to the world, the divine lord of akashingo crumpled and slumbering in the crook of his arm.

senmut did not dream of more than black rivers, racing along the sides of akashingo.