Two Eyes Cenote Kingsnake

Senmut; his poetry, and his flower. His hallowed allegiance to their gods. His vulnerability, and the care for the wealth of Akashingo- from fellahin to neb. His love for Toula. In all respects, Eset found him to be a King uncrowned.

And yet, it was @Rashepses who’d enamored himself to her Queen. The mazoi had warned. Now she felt the press of sickening unease.

Through the halls she passes with faint steps and into the threshold of his chamber, the one she’d previously draped in an excess of luxuries. In the midst, outshining all the beauty, sits Rashepses. He is deeper than the darkest shadow so the anointed sunlight of his eyes seem lit from within. She feels that gaze, hot as gusts from a fire and her nose falls to the floor in a cooling bow.

“Prince Rashepses,” she greets in even tones.

There was great bustle about the blue palace as it prepared for the coronation and royal wedding. It pleased the prince to see Muat-Riya settle into routine. He loved the laughter of courtiers swelling in the hallways and the quick work of Akashingo’s servants.

“Come in, Eset,” He gestured for the one who’d appeared now. He set aside the marrowbone he’d been tasting and reclined upon his feasting couch with an elegant cross of limb. 

His eyes skimmed the fellahin as she entered. Her ears were rounded, her frame was slight. Coyote in this one. It was the wolf’s natural instinct to establish dominion over their pliant cousin.

“I’ll have a gift arranged for my bride to be presented on the day of her coronation. I require your assistance with this.”

She moves into the room. He watches her opaquely. She has the distinct feeling of being reduced to components. Her eyes are devoid of this knowledge, her lips grow a gracious smile.

“Of course, Sphinx Rashepses, how thoughtful. Please let me know how I can most be of use,” she offers with a composed tilt of her head. 

“How are the accommodations, my Prince?” She’d had his room especially designed in shades of gold with turquoise accents; the same color of Toula’s eyes- perhaps only for her own subconscious satisfaction that Pharaoh was always watching.

“Comfortable. Though I intend to make this chamber a war room once Toula and I are wed. Please see that it is fitted with more hides.” The need for a command center grew following the murder on their own soil.

The prince had wanted to gift his bride with another girl. He’d seen that she was sweet on her maids. But he’d shuttered their doors to coyotes until a point in time when a killer was brought to justice.

“I’ve a necklace arriving from Ta-Senet,” he continued, “I’ll need it delivered here to my chambers. Please also send the mazoi out to hunt. I’m looking to acquire the rare black coat of a mountain lioness.”

Melanistic, with fine spotting; something owned by no others on the cenote nor mesa, that would protect his wife against the oncoming winter. He wanted to see his color over her slender pale shoulders.

He awaited the fellahin's response.

“At once, Prince Rashepses,” she swallows over a tightness in her throat but steadies her face.

The request to follow should not have surprised her. By now she was growing accustomed to fulfilling seemingly impossible demands. Still her eyes widened- even if she sent their most skilled trackers into the Northern ranges there was no guarantee of finding such an animal.

“Have you ever seen a black lioness, divine one?” She asked of him, lips rigid, a small sort of beseech on behalf of the mazoi.

“In murals,” he grinned. “They are said to be the rarest of big cats,” and so he would accept the pelt of no other for his goddess.

He regarded the dark beauty of the servant from upon his couch, reflecting on the coming duties of the fellahin in Springtime. He would have taken multiple wives and concubines to marriage in Ta-senet, ensuring a male pup was dropped into his harem.

Neither Eset nor Tuna would not give him noble children as Inji would, but from a practical standpoint it too was important to produce more fellahin; pups to be brought up with his and Toula’s godlings in the same way Mesen-ka had been reared alongside him, forging an undying loyalty and an insured protection of their bloodline.

"Will it be done?" He was roused from his thoughts and looked at her pointedly once more.

“Of course, holy one, the mazoi will be informed.” If she could align the timing of this hunt with the excursion to the coast perhaps it would not delay their schedule for the coronation.

“I will have the pelts brought up from the repository,” she adds, glancing about the chamber which would offer ample seating room, she imagined. For weeks the hunters had been priming a variety of new furs for the wedding party; sheep, jackrabbits, gazelle, and wildcat.

“Is there anything else I can have arranged for you, Sphinx Rashepses?”

“All for now, Eset,” he dismissed the maid, golden eyes following her retreat with a lazy smile before settling back upon his layered pelts. As so often it did, his mind turned to Toula and the sons she would soon bear him. Muat-riya would give him sons.