Lion Head Mesa her heart

attn @Zaahira MY HEART. I’m sry it’s been too long I tried to stop myself

Toula had heard that there were no failures made by her Jodai. of course there were not—it was why Toula had named her as such! but the absence of her sister, the timing of her return… 
she confided in her Jodai as they made way toward the prisoner. if you think them guilty of the death of our Hemet, I am inclined to believe you, for she trusted her Jodai perhaps more than any. but… my sister… I think she perhaps may have left, of her own accord. once she saw she could not be Pharaoh here, Toula imagined she might have sought her fortune elsewhere. why should her wayward sister trust who now stood as Pharaoh? 
but her heart ached for the thought that Ashikaga might not have trusted her. for a brief moment, Ashikaga had been the last thing she knew that breathed that had shared with her one of her first loves—their father. and now she was gone, and with her, Toula’s faith in her.

U READ MY MIND i was literally just about to make a thread for these two i have missed them <33333

time had brought age to both of their faces, and yet toula's heart was just as golden as it had been three seasons ago when zaahira first arrived. she listens in quiet commiseration, pleased to be alone beside her pharaoh; just the two of them, sisters in arms, as it was meant to be.
i do not think the coyote-girl is who killed our hemet, the jodai admits, a twitch knotting her tense brows. but it is something. some form of a lead. and no matter what, i will find out who it was.
no matter how long it took — nothing got past her within akashingo's halls.
it was suspicious of her to only return so close to your coronation, she refers to ashikaga with a hard kernel of bitterness in her sandstone-accented tongue. and i heard rumor that hemet melody was... strangely close with her. but, of course, you know her better than i.

ME TOO!!!! I love them so much, I couldn't resist anymore!

 

if she did not think so, Toula took her word for it. what reason did her Jodai have to lie? it was a comfort, regardless, to have anything. perhaps the captive would be able to inform them of something of use. she was no master interrogator, though. it was a matter in which she would need to trust her heart, and perhaps her instinct as well. her heart had yet to lead her astray, and if the Gods trusted the weight of it to determine where one would spend the afterlife, so too would she with the living. 
the words Zaahira spoke on her sister inspired a long line of thinking, and for a time, they traveled in silence. at last, Toula said, the attack might have been meant for Ashikaga. perhaps the command for it may have come from within. someone detested her mother enough to kill her, she remembered. who had been around for both? she must confer with @Senmut on this! she had been so young, then. it all felt like some old story one was told—and it had been why, to this day, her food was always tested! an order of Ramesses that outlived even him. 
as for the last part, Toula sighed. I do not know if that is true anymore—she had been gone for so long, to a place that I have neither seen nor heard of. we were just girls when we saw one another last. but I loved her. I... want to trust her, she breathed. and it may be wrong, but I still do. no fang turned toward me, no meal left myself or my fellahin ill. many would wish for sister to turn against sister, she acknowledged, but we are most powerful united, I think, an unknown, now—Ashikaga was gone.

alarmed by the tale of a former queen's demise, zaahira's eyes widen in shock. do you think anyone who would do such a thing lingers in our halls? she asks then, lips tight with concern. perhaps i will have to conduct interviews from within.
perhaps it was ashikaga that killed the priestess; perhaps there was no more use for her once toula's coronation was finalized. there were so many ideas, so many possibilities, and it felt as if the jodai's head was fit to explode.
she listens, still, to the lamenting of her golden queen; watches her expression intently, humming along with her. she is your family. it is only natural for you to want to trust her, malakti, she extends a strong arm to reach around her delicate shoulder. sometimes i think you forget how powerful you truly are. you sit upon the most sought after throne in the entire land! it can be enough to turn anyone's heart to stone, that lust for power.
but your heart is good and pure, the warrior's eyes soften in a way that was reserved only for her friend. and that is why i think the Gods chose you. there must be a reason you are not united with her in power, yes? it was simply not meant to be.