Luneshale Pass Heavy as the weight in my chest, oh, this seldom dread

Paging @Senmut @Toula for visibility! Anyone is welcome

The valley held too many memories. Reverie didn't think she could stand to be there a moment longer, and so she lingered in the desert which reminded her so much of The Gilded Sea. She kept @Blossom close to her side, particularly when the scents of many others gathered in a single place reached her. A new claim, perhaps.
Reverie stood at the outskirts, and after a moment of hesitation, called for whoever had made their place here. She pulled Blossom close enough to touch, one arm draped over her shoulders protectively. There she waited for someone to answer the call, wondering what sort of wolves she might find here. No one like those who inhabited The Gilded Sea, she hoped.

small cameo!

He hadn't seen nothing like this before.
It was strange, this big, ugly swath of sand and sun. His eyes stung, his feet hurt from trudging — frankly, he hated it.
And he'd begun to learn Reverie never stayed in one place for longer than half of a night's sleep. And after — what happened — None of this was part of the plan. Did they have a plan? Shit, what was he doing?
And so he'd briefly told her that he would catch up with her again in the Sunspires before he set off, alone. Whatever this was, while he heard her voice echo through the drybrush in calling for people who weren't him, he wasn't dealing with it. Not today.

PPing khu and referencing at least one other mazoi!

there were no redstone fortifications here, no maze of rooms in which to hide a queen.

now she stood among her people, and though she was kept to their center, senmut found himself on high awareness. the desert lent itself well to his coat, and he kept his eyes black-lined against the glare of Ra each day.

a call. an ordering flick of red tail, emphatic as snapped fingers. the mazoi converged, circled.

senmut set his eyes on a wisplike woman of gold and a small child. "who are you?" he asked with quiet firmness. she was all but harmless beneath the hard gaze of khusobek, but stranger spies had been used.

Several wolves answered her call, but foremost among them was a man cloaked in red, a man with eyes that reminded her of spring; he was beautiful. Reverie turned shy, hesitant under the hard stares of the others, and her arm tightened over Blossom. Um, hi, She started, and immediately felt foolish. I'm Reverie.
Her gaze flitted around to the encircling wolves who had accompanied the man, then returned to him. I was just - curious, She explained, faltering a little as she realized how stupid it all sounded. This place reminds me of um, my old home. The Gilded Sea. So I thought... What had she thought? Reverie realized in the next instant that she hadn't been thinking at all, and now she regretted having parted from Boone, regretted calling for an audience, regretted all of this. She should have followed him when he'd left for the mountains. Well, I just wanted to see who lives around here. Reverie finished lamely, avoiding those pretty green eyes.

the waif spoke; a mother.

senmut recalled the guardians to his own flank.

the gilded sea.

"an ocean of flame beneath the eye of Ra," senmut said, turning appreciative eye on the sands, and then back to her. reverie. 

"this is an outpost for the kingdom of akashingo, led by queen toula, Divine Wife to the Gods, She of the Scarlet Road." her titles, innumerable; his devotion, clear.

"do you only seek passage?"

Reverie wasn't sure what he meant by that. Passage? She hadn't been looking to go through the area, only to see who lived here. But she nodded all the same, figuring that the interaction would pass more smoothly if she just agreed.
Ra? She questioned next, a little overwhelmed by all of the unknowns. A name she'd never heard, a queen with many titles, all of these protective wolves; she could hardly make sense of it. Still, Reverie was nothing if not curious. Her eyes were bright and free of judgment as she questioned him. She'd come here to learn, and that was what she would do. Even if it meant that Boone, too, would abandon her for the ways she could not seem to meet his expectations.

"one of our principal gods. we have many."

he paused. "i am senmut, high priest and prince to akashingo. our queen is kind, and well-studied in all of our deities. she is also fond of children," he added, thinking of how she had all but taken racharra and miho to her bosom, "and i extend you an invitation to join our camp as a guest, for a time."

senmut acted in this moment not with care, but with daring, an attempt to discover what pleased his ruler even if it would not be his first choice.

The man introduced himself as Senmut, and invited her to stay as a guest. Reverie took a moment to consider. Boone would be expecting her, no doubt. Yet he'd seemed so upset with her — she couldn't shake the feeling that he meant to abandon her. Surely there was no harm in staying a little while if that was the case. Whether she stayed or went, she felt that he did not want her anymore.
So she nodded. That - would be nice. Thank you, She said softly. I - I'd like to learn more about your gods, if that's okay. Reverie had not encountered religion since leaving The Gilded Sea. She was curious to see what form it might take beyond the teachings of her parents. Ra. She would have to remember that name.

"then we will teach you. first, the god Ra. He is First Light, and it is He who Moves the Sun Across the Heavens," senmut explained.

firstly; "water," he spoke to the crocodilian, who padded away at once and would bring soaked moss for the woman and child. "come. our queen rests from her journey, but i will secure you an audience straightaway."

the prince's steps were easy. "where is the gilded sea?"

The sun. Reverie could not deny her fascination; she thought of Father Fire then, but before she could make mention of it, someone was bringing water. She blinked, a little caught off guard by how easily Senmut commanded the others. A priest-prince and a queen — these were things she'd dreamed of, once, but the reality felt like an ugly thing. Servitude.
She pushed the feeling away and accepted the water gratefully, allowing Blossom to drink first. Thank you, Reverie murmured, and followed along with a subdued look to her. The Gilded Sea is - west of here, far west. I traveled for months to get here. And if you keep going west from The Gilded Sea, maybe for another week, then you'll find the edge of the world. Endless water.
But there isn't much water in The Gilded Sea, She glanced at Senmut briefly as she went on. It's a place of fire. We - we worshiped the rain. I was a raindancer when I lived there, but we had flamesingers too, to keep the fire away. Does Ra like music, too?

a farflung place of endless water and and true fire. 

senmut saw reverie; transformed; a delicate mystic beneath the veil of motherhood, which only enhanced her mystery.

not priestess. not sorcerer. something between; a pretty viper.

and did reverie know this of herself?

"raindancer. flamesinger. you have lived a life of beautiful and striking things, have you not?" senmut asked. "all our gods rejoice in music. i myself sing Ra into his barge each morning." his eyes were warm upon her.

A life of beautiful and striking things; yes, it was true, though Reverie had never thought of it as such. Always she remembered first those sleepless nights, those fearful glances over her shoulder, hushed voices and stifled laughter. Still, it was odd to see it now through new eyes, and perhaps that oddity was not the worst thing.
There was a new appreciation in her own gaze as she met Senmut's, filled with wonder as he spoke of singing to Ra. A man who worshiped the sun, then. She felt that he must know, in some way, what it felt like to burn; the way it seemed so much as if that must be what it meant to feel truly alive.
Oh, Reverie breathed, awestruck. Do you think - well, maybe you could teach me the song? If - if you don't mind. And she turned a little shy with those last words, feeling a touch more intimate in the request than it truly was.

he was surprised, but pleasantly so, and it showed in his face.

"it is a song best sung at dawn," senmut said softly, but stepped back and tilted his head skyward. 

at once the world began to fall aside from him, from the gilded energies expanding within himself as he parted jaws to sing the opening stanza for reverie, letting voice hang in sistrum wavers as it carried across the desert.

He could have been a flamesinger. That was Reverie's first thought as Senmut heeded her request; she felt the sun lighting his voice, the heat in shimmering rising waves that reminded her so much of The Gilded Sea. A song best sung at dawn, yet she felt the dawn in the golden threads of his voice spreading out across the desert.
Her gilded gaze found the sky briefly, half in anticipation that the sun itself might come down to answer this call. Then her eyes were only for him, for Senmut, scarlet man of the sun. And for a moment, somehow, she felt that they were the same; flickering red and dancing gold, artists drawn in devotion to always follow the light. She watched him in reverence, and did not dare to reach out to touch him though the desire filled her; afraid that her touch would burn, that his touch would burn, that they might both be set alight into a flame that would never die.
And when he had finished, she lifted her own voice in echoing song for the first time since the day it had been decided that she would be a dancer. It had been so long that Reverie had been uncertain she would remember, yet she did. The song in her had been long stifled but never killed. She had almost been a singer, almost, but fire had always frightened her far too much.
She wasn't afraid anymore.

a mother with a child who sang to Ra as though she might have been born in akashingo.

the song came so easily to reverie that the priest found himself watching her hold the last notes. his lips tipped with a smile; as not to pressure, he glanced up and away.

"come back when the queen is to be married," came his quiet invitation. "i would like you to sing again. perhaps an arrangement from your Gilded Sea, noble one."

Reverie was surprised by his invitation, by him; Senmut seemed to see in her something she was uncertain she saw in herself, something that perhaps no one had seen before now. Noble one, he called her. Heat crept over her ears, her cheeks. I would love to, She said softly, then glanced briefly in the direction Boone had gone.

But, um - when will that be happening? I'm supposed to go to the mountains with my - Reverie hesitated, stumbling a little over what she ought to call Boone. What were they? My companion. He - doesn't like the desert, I don't think. And we're going to claim a place of our own somewhere in the mountains. But if I can come, I will. It just depends on the timing, I guess.

To sing for a queen! Reverie desperately wanted this, but knew that she would not endanger her future with Boone for it. Still, it was tempting; had anyone ever looked at her and seen nobility?

In spite of herself, she wondered what it might be like to stay.

"only the gods may know. but before the year's end," he assured.

her companion.

"we can offer you lodgings here in the interim, noble one. however, if you will still travel, rest assured akashingo has its hand in the mountains as well."

through mereo, which was no more, and yet it had established a map of the sunspire then discussed.

Fading <3

Oh - thank you, Reverie breathed softly, glancing down at Blossom. She would follow wherever the priest led, thoroughly enchanted by him for now. And she would stay for a time — at least long enough to get acquainted with Akashingo, to see this feast, to pretend for a moment that she was a part of it.

But then she would return to Boone. There was no other option, really. Not for her.