Lion Head Mesa everybody loves you, baby [m]

ONE LAST DDATE NITE

 

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Toula lay nestled against Rashepses, his strong arm stretching over her. they two lay together in a room that looked to be starkissed, the bioluminescence glowing in the dimdark they existed in. she had the fellahin prepare this space for them, furs she knew would be to his liking thrown artfully about for them to take their rest upon when they wished. she had asked that, in an hours time, their favorite foods to break their fast be delivered to them. they had already greeted Ra, and after that, one another.
she was very, very tired—but she existed in a state of bliss, of happiness. perhaps only her husband would know just how truly tired she was, in the ways he had become a true pillar of support. it is because they are waking up, Toula whispered to him one night with a smile.
the Pharaoh did not reveal her worries to him. nor to Tavina. she did not know what she would do, to be told by any healer that she could be dying. and she did not want to cause her husband undue fear—for her, he had and was doing so much! but if this was to be the end of her, then she would make every single moment count. and she would have done her duty—continued her Godly bloodline!
she confided in prayer to Tawaret, to Iset. it was They who said to her in the dreams she was surrounded by her children, do not fear! and strangely, she did not. she was content. 
turning carefully to face her husband now, she looked up at him with eyes that matched the makeshift starlight around them. her other arm moved to fling around him, the cuff he had gifted to her clinging to her wrist. a tighter fit, for now, but it fit nonetheless! do you remember when first we met? she whispered to him, nuzzling beneath his chin. an hour had already passed, and now the fellahin brought in gifts of food for her beloved… and for herself! had she remembered to ask for berries smothered in honey…? ah! her brain felt covered in a fog. but Rashepses and his touch anchored the tired Toula, and she withdrew only long enough to observe his reaction to the plates that came.

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: heavy suggestion

In her pregnancy, Toula had glowed and swelled like the bud of a rose, a transformation which Rashepses had scarcely before cared to observe. Now he found he did not tire of her fullness and the way he could no longer stretch his arms entirely about her belly. Their children had winded her, sapping too much of her strength, but with so little knowledge and the doctor's consistent reassurance, he had little reason to assume her pregnancy was anything other than exemplary. Still, he took care to handle her more tenderly.  When it became apparent that in her condition Toula could no longer brace his weight, her husband seized her hips and took equal pleasure in relieving her by other means.

“I had wanted to know your taste the moment I laid eyes on you,” his murmur was greedy to the inside of her thigh, a last lap as the fellahin with their sumptuous repast paraded into the room. He came up over his wife, pinning her with a grin aroused in the recollection.

“At first you tasted like berry wine and honey,” he whispered, more enlivened by the fact they would be overheard by their handmaidens. “The taste of you blazed with sweetness. Now I know your savour, you are like the first sip of morning, smooth and completely nourishing.” One arm held her waist while the other slid up and around the cuff, catching it in his palm to bring her wrist to his lips. His eyes turned about the room as he did so, to the various plated feasts.

“The loin and berries,” he commanded of a girl to bring the raw meats and fruits sweetened with syrups for his wife and children before returning his attention to Toula.

“But you had other suitors vying for you that day,” slitted eyes roved over the pure, supple beauty of her face. The man recalled the older military captain with a piteous laugh. “Were you not distracted?”

husband! she giggled at him, they will hear! voice whisperquiet, her eyes flit around them for the briefest of moments before returning to him, her lips lifted in a grin that revealed that she did not much mind if they did—let all know that his favored delicacy could not be replicated on any plate they ever delivered, even if they themselves wished to lay upon it. let them know that from the very moment she was within view of him, she had been his hearts desire! 
he thrilled her. made her feel bolder, more daring, more divine. beautiful, even in this new state in which she adjusted to. and she was silent as he recounted these things, smile widening as he repositioned himself. her desire for him stirred again as she remembered the first time he ever did taste her, where he took her to nirvana with only his mouth. it had been brilliant then, but now? 
they had loved one another, but in this way they had then been strangers. now with but one touch he could rouse her, and he knew the very place that was—the juncture between the apex of her shoulder and her throat—ah, but there was more than one, and he knew where they were, too! 
she scarcely heard him. her mind was on but an hour ago, when hi—loin, and berries? ah, that returned her to the present—but her appetite had once more sparked for him. he would see such when his gaze fell again upon her, in her smile—a cat caught with the families canary in its mouth. 
his question need not be mulled over. the minute I first saw you, she breathed, there was no one else. that is as true now as it was then, she caressed his face with a soft, uncalloused pink paw-pad, cupping it for a moment as a palm might. I did not know how I lived without you, for so long as I had. but I believe that all of my losses I was made to endure was perhaps because the Gods knew they needed to create within me enough space for the love I hold for you, for what we two have created, what we will continue to create together—for Akashingo, a tear came to her eye. you have brought me so much more purpose, Raemka, he who had made her Pharaoh, he who turned her into mother, he who had made all of her dreams of love come true! her eyes watered with the truth of it. ah! she wept so easily now! but the tears were happy, and she laughed as they freely fell.

“Too late for modesty, wife,” his eyes rippled over her flaring stomach, and just to see her blush deepen he brought his pawtips to brush over the pink rounding flesh. He grinned to watch her rise beneath the teasing as a maidservant served them haunches of goat and sweet meats. But his wife’s fragrance was more heady than their meal, a rousing which would be made plainly clear to any who glimpsed their king.

Rashepses shifted his wife’s hinds into the space of his hips. His eyes shone and grew darker as she became more and more enticing. It was Toula’s breathy voice which bid him to pause only so he could hear her admissions of love over his own ragged inhales.

Yes; Pharaoh was made to rid herself of the makeshift family; those blood kin who’d abandoned her and crumbled to the pressures of the throne. Now it was her husband who would fill every hollow and sate every desire; to show their sister the nature of true devotion.

“There is no one else,” the man groaned in riposte, heavy with the weight of his feeling and lacking the poetry of his wife’s avowals.  He nuzzled her tears, but just the thought of any other touching her in the same ways drove a red jealousy through him. “And there will never be another.”

He cared not who was in attendance, he pulled Toula back into himself and performed arcs of praise with his tongue along her shoulder. Let the mortals lay their marriage bed and bear witness to the act of love between Gods.

leave us, came her breathy demand, and she need not look to know the command was obeyed. she pulled her husband close, the blue of her gaze then more fire than water. it was difficult to contort herself to look at him in her condition, but she needed to say, no one else, not for him, not for her, not like this—an impossibility. they had made their vows in this life, in their last one. as he pressed against her, she knew they would do it again in their next. 
the noise that left her as he joined them while he kissed her shoulder, her neck, was one of ancient need. she quite enjoyed him taking her this way, and was soon lost only in the feeling of it. no one else! only divinity might look upon me in this way, she panted out, writhing against him. it was not shyness—it was that she reserved this part of herself for him, her God, her husband, her heart, 
there were other things said in their communion. but soon she was past speaking, past conscious or coherent thinking. again he brought stars against her eyes that pressed upon closed eyelids as she cried out in blissful rapture and felt the magnitude of her love explode out of her with such force she was made breathless. 
I love you, it was all she could think, all she could say, smiling and laughing when a new feeling seized her! it was a thing that raked its blunt claws against her flanks, and pressed. she held her breath, and when it came again some short time later Toula rose and looked to her husband. 
there was no fear left in her now. he had exhausted her in the best of ways, taking from her the things too heavy to hold and leaving her with only herself. we must go to the Sesh, she declared, I—ah! again that feeling, but this time, more intense. a sharp intake of breath steadied her, and as she looked into the gaze of her husband she felt grounded. they are ready to join us, she laughed!
and as they made way there, she asked, giddy, are you ready to be a father? for this next adventure with me?

They were alone again, and in several feral strokes they were undone. The man in his pleasure bit possessively at his wife’s ruff. No other. In much the same way Rashepses was dispelled of ire and cast in the buoyant mood of his woman’s breathy affection. Together they lay slaked in one embrace.

“I love you, my golden Goddess,” he grinned into her cheek, grooming the salt from Toula’s still-damp furs. But too soon she stole away from his arms, coming to stand over their marriage bed with an alien look shrouding her radiance.

“What is it?” Rashepses growled before she had an opportunity to give answer, taking her chin swiftly in his palm. Despite all their precautions, he was uneasy. Already he feared her exhaustion, that the consequences of their love for one another had harmed the children she was carrying. And then that smile broke from her lips and the man needed no further illumination.

“Now?” For he could scarcely fathom the magnitude of what was to come! The king’s suspense rekindled, even as Toula carried off labor with her usual aplomb. In all the time he had known her, Rashepses had never seen his wife so calm. He had barely a second to rise to his feet before he grunted for the waiting handmaids. “Go! Get @Tavina and @Izaiah!”

They funneled into the halls with a solid stream of fellahin, turbulent as the serpent in spate. Rashepses doted at the side of his mate, gaze fastened on the belly from which their miracles would in short time emerge, and bracing her each time she was seized by an overpowering convulsion.

When she asked of his readiness, he hesitated, searching her earnest eyes like a man suddenly bereft of senses. “Yes,” came instinctively. He was ready to be their father; for every trial and thrill that came with parenthood. Because he was doing this with Toula.

As they turned the corner for the Pharaoh's quarters there was not a soul in Akashingo who had not heard the call of Rashepses’ voice and eagerly awaited the birth of their princes and princesses.

Semer-wati remained a truss of nerves at the side of his Pharaoh. Damned if he’d be parted from her for even a single breath.

she knew it was true, but she loved to hear it, to see it, to feel it; he did each of those things, and as he held her, worried for her, Toula was glad to bring him peace in the simplest of answers. she swallowed more laughter, to see him fall into action so swiftly as he came to know what she did. thank the Gods that he did, as now her mind was occupied by her bodies newest and most unfamiliar of demands! we are ready, she soothed him as he roared through the hallways, calling the doctors as a general would call his warriors to arms.
he was ready, he had said, and she could hear it in the way he made his summons, his proclamations. already he loved them, already he would have all know of his pride—Toula was tall with her joy, with her love, and any time she staggered as another contraction clawed at her there he was to keep her upright. we are ready, we are ready, she comforted. himself, herself.
thank the Gods, her chambers! it was only due to Rashepses that she did not stumble, and it was then a particularly strong contraction tore through her. she could not swallow it, could not bite it back—
she screamed! Toula could not hear herself, but she was present, she was there. still unafraid, and the waters came. our little Gods are strong! came her voice, and now her eyes searched for Tavina in earnest. 
her breathing became much more labored. Tawaret, Iset, she breathed, be with me!

toula.

rashepses' voice echoed hard against the redstone walls, and as tavina turned, she was near flattened by the rush of attendants which swept pharaoh and consort into the royal chambers.

toula's scream echoed thinly as tavina elbowed her way forward, throwing her pack aside and moving to cradle the girl she had always considered daughter. "there now, i am here. do not worry, Divine One. you will come through this as easily as your mother bore you."

a purpled wink, and then the loud voice of the sesh began to bark orders: "unpack the bag. i want three bowls of water brought immediately. you, go to my examination chamber here in the palace. bring me all the dried stuffs to the right, along the faded silver shelf. and you, have calf's liver prepared, dried, and crushed to powder. do it fast. it will be needed tomorrow."

she set out neat stacks of peltcloths and tiny twists of painkilling herbs which must be carefully and sparingly used. toula received her focus entire as she helped the young laboring woman into the bed of pharaoh, saw her lie wan and girlish and paled against the fine coverlets, the exotic pelts which heaped the stone frame.

until this point tavina had said nothing to rashepses, murmuring only to the servants, clucking her tongue above toula; now the sunset stare found him thoughtfully. tavina would rather he was not here at all, that he would take a father's place in the hall beyond. but one glance at toula suggested this tradition might not be kept.

"there, Highness. the other side of the bed, if you will." support, yes, and out from under her own feet.

water and herbs; tavina lay a cool cloth over toula's forehead, began to mix her greeneries, and prepared for another gush of fluids and blood as she snaked a fine scraped sheepskin under the straining hips. "not long, not long. when the urge comes to push, pharaoh, do it. you're not alone."

she heard @Akhtar's voice in the corridor, carried by the nightsilver of @Medusa's own, both threads solemn and rich as hem and hemet warded away the dog's-head of death from pharaoh's door.

Her rending screams stab like needles through his blasted heart, each one tearing the hull of his own body.

“Is there nothing that can be done?!” Impatient growls aimed for the doctor as she took up command. He looked on helplessly at the women who prepared ointments and readied their tools. The wife’s man gripped her tightly in his arms, bristling as if in no other woman in the history of the world had ever birthed an infant. With wildfire eyes he interrogated them all, hot as coal on a coppersmith’s forge, resistant to trust her with any other than her doctor. But they had been over this, as Semer-wati had conceived a temporary interest in the subject of pregnancy which rivaled even his obsession with his wife. If he were to stay for the birth he could not impede the order of parturition. So he relented with a grunt, releasing his hold to grab Toula's hand.

“We are ready,” he echoed, doing as Tavina bid, shifting to a firm place at the bedside. “I’ll not go anywhere," he told his wife, for in the preeminence of godhood they were one in the same. "You are so strong, my love,” he whispered and pressed a kiss to her tired cheek.

The father had done all he could. Now there was little else but to cradle his beautiful wife’s head in his paw and smooth the dampened furs upon her brow as the doctor coached her through each contraction.

first two babies Can post whenever! Just going to keep the flow going for the next two to be born after Tav/Rash

the pain became so great it was deafening, and near-blinding. she felt she floated to the place she was guided to, and whatever was done then, she could not fully recall. she regained her breath, saw with relief her husband there. and a woman,
stars in her watering eyes as she asked, mother? dark-furred, beautiful, 
the Pharaoh bore down. the words heard, understood, echoed like a mantra in her head in a voice that became Tawaret. Akhtar’s chanting in the backdrop, Toula pushing fiercely with all of her might,
thinking of the magic of her mother. thinking of her power. remembering the gemstone she could procure than make disappear, remembering that at one point, that magic woman had been her whole world. knowing that even though she had gone, she still remained such an important piece of it. let her now embody her fierceness, in a woman’s mightiest battle, let her mother see, 
TAWARET! TAWARET! she summoned, screaming her name as her body stretched and she looked to the Heavens, and it was not protect me! any longer, not as she roared and brought forth only the first piece of Akashingo’s future (@Den). no, it was protect my child, keep him alive, keep him safe, and Toula turned to look, following Tawaret’s guidance, Who compelled her to clean, and thinking, what could be more magical than this?
bliss, bliss that took away all pain as she looked to her husband, letting out a happy cry! she could not yet speak to say, look at what we made! as she turned to look to @Treva—
but it was then purple eyes came into view. there was no time to correct herself then, and would she have? Tavina, who had taught her most all that she knew. Tavina, who was by her side now—who had always been there, when she was needed. a moments peace, but Toula knew it was not yet over. she would still accept this small blessing, and waited to hear what might be said of their firstborn! 
but the secondborn would not have it. the pains of labor began anew, and Toula, feeling perhaps more prepared this time, obeyed the whims of Tawaret, of Tavina, letting out a series of pained groans. it was then she heard the voice of her father fill her mind, and she pushed all the harder upon hearing it! the Gods are with us, watching, she breathed to her husband when the contractions seemed to pause for but a moment! her voice was hoarse from the shouting she had not known she had been doing. They keep me safe, and our children strong, her voice was tired, but she was quite awake! we are ready, she repeats again. 
another shout comes from her! and soon, another being emerges. this time, it is @Khaemwaset who is freed from her, and again, she rises to clean this one! she notes the blonde of the first ones nape, and the darkness of this one and cannot help but smile. Gods, this sort of love was different than anything else she had ever known in her lifetime! they were herself, and her first and most beloved in two perfect forms. 
she was fatigued, but the pains lingered. and Tawaret told her, she was not yet done! she reached for Rashepses, and looked to Tavina. are they…? healthy? alright? sons, or daughters?

The laborious breaths of Toula had given life to the young figure that emerged from her swollen body.

Gleaming and moist, like a glint of golden treasure, like light through a stained-glass window. The world seemed to hold still, hold its breath, and waited as the child squirmed and his mother’s kisses washed him clean. Only darkness was known to him. Only darkness and that familiar bond of family.

Instinct pushed his tiny paws in circles. The effort of attempting to move, feeling the freedom of the world without the touch of his siblings or the confines of his mother’s womb.

Den was alive.

Den was well.

The newborn was tucked close to Toula. He buried his snout into her plush coat, seeking sustenance with parted lips.

is he ready?

he is, Divine One.

kohled eyes, the first beheld. a honeyed laugh with a serpent’s bite behind it. a golden voice. how splendid he is, this spirit of many bloods.

Osiris. You will let him go?

i will let him go. amusement filled the tones of the Dead King.

the laughter again, the adder’s humour. good!

send him to Ra.

***

the light was blinding! golden!

look well, o Akashingo! look well!

***

Ra’s glow was a blinding anguish which burnt the boy into existence and enveloped him with the bustling chaos of his mother’s bedchamber.

and his scream was pure rage, wrath incarnate, the sickle-sword which promised to raze a thousand enemies. he struck at his brother, at the curving tongue of his mother which cleaned birth from his starless pelt.

khaemwaset roared. he would not be comforted by milk nor by soothing, nor by the voice of divine pharaoh. only the taste of blood in his mouth quieted this prince, who curled only in sullen silence when the copper tang had dissolved.

the Lord of Illusions breathed life at pharaoh’s side.

tavina flicked her eyes sharply toward rashepses. "the head of your first will soon crown. administering poppy would slow the heartbeats of the children she carries. no, semer-wati. she has to do this part by herself."

toula was insensate with pain, beyond the reach of the sesh's voice now. tavina kept her voice a murmur, consistent, encouraging. her screams still rent at the woman's soul, and tavina fought the instinctual rage of defense. there was nothing to fight here. toula was alone on this field of battle.

the first child, lightfurred and well-formed, was born on the end of such cries. tavina gathered the small slick body into a cloth, noted that he was male, and cleaned the mucus from his jaws. tribulation took toula again, swiftly, and her flesh entire was clasped with anguish.

a second boy, dark as his father, with a lusty cry to rival any she had heard before. tavina chuckled, cleaned his eyes, and set the sons of akashingo at their mother's side, between toula and rashepses. "two boys, great one. two little princes for your kingdom."

it was not over; toula was young and her body would gather for another trial, but in this moment, her eyes were only filled with pride and with love.

The black jackal showed his teeth, afraid for the pain when his wife was not! His growls would deepen if a woman got too close. He was in a rumbustious mood and didn’t need much more encouragement to lash out.

Heqet, hasten the birth! A wordless prayer coarsened as the air around them burned. It was with desperate invocations he lathered Toula’s damp forehead, watching uncontrollably as her expression abstracted. She called out for her mother.

“Not Treva,” the man crooned, “Tavina,” and he fastened his arm tighter about the shoulders, glancing furiously to the sesh. He found a new worry in himself– that Toula might die as her skin leapt apart and pink fluid flowed from her. That she would leave him.

Again she was seized by a contorting spasm, but this time it was unlike the others. The crown of a head appeared as her cries grew higher and louder and possessed him in a dreaming sense of unreality. He dreaded that the child might be stillborn but what he saw was a thick flaxen pelt writhing gently in the doctor’s embrace.

Love came so suddenly it was as instinctive as breathing. They looked like their mother and he prized them all the more for it. The child was laid in their mother’s arms and latched onto her swollen nipple like a hunter the throat of his deer. Rashepses stared in awe, for every little movement was the first enactment of a God.

The second-born entombed any doubts of survival– the child’s voice resounded over the tender cries of their mother before they'd cleared the womb! Semer-wati was taken unawares when the cub was surmounted by a shock of black curls that would later gleam with streaks of gold when the sun shone upon it. They waved their arms and kicked out so strongly that the father could not speak. His eyes burned with tears of disbelief as their birth cry rang out, angry and hot with a tempestuous temper– a perfect mirror of their father.

“Two boys?!” Two boys! Two sons! Two Princes! Two inheritors of the double crown! Rashepses could hear the voices of the nursemaids as they hailed the royal princes of Akashingo! He leaned forward intently, muzzling each child, feeling all his love and devotion crystallize into that of his wife and their two perfect forms.

Toula’s gaze was raw and tired but she glistened divinely with beaded moisture upon her brow. “You have made me a proud husband,” the man lulled to her as they stared down at them, the physical proofs of their love before another shock thrawn her belly.

what words could properly convey the feeling that came upon her then? there were none that existed. but her mind worked to try, to make tangible what was not. and it seemed the Gods would not give her enough time to know anything but for brief relief, and insurmountable joy, before again Toula let out a low groan.
no time for her to celebrate the first two yet, but after, after! yes—there would be an after. between breaths, between unheard roars, Toula would look to Rashepses. I am alright! she hoped he would know, hoped he would see. 
and then her gaze sought Tavina. she wondered if Tavina could feel the love within her that extended also to her. Tavina, the woman that had been there for her since she was born. mother, Tavina might see. the Gods had guided her tongue, she supposed. Toula did not believe for a moment They would allow her to misspeak this day of all days! 
Toula strained against her husband once more. if she screamed, she did not know it—then came @Neith! Toula again followed Her Gods bidding, not knowing how she could live with this much love in her! ah! 
no time to think on that, either! the fourth would not wait. the voice of @Satsu filled her mind, and Toula laughed before she gasped and bore down one final time. @Satakhetem came quick, and blessedly easy, and Toula was quick to do as she had done thrice before now! and perhaps it was the adrenaline, or something else, but Toula did not yet yield to her exhaustion. 
another beautiful blonde, and a brilliant brunette, too! Toula smiled down upon them, leaning forward to breathe in the sweet scent of them, and as she withdrew she looked again to Tavina to announce to the room what she had brought into this world. her husband was proud, and she looked to him with that same pride. look at the little Gods we have made, she whispered. 
she felt powerful. she had done what no Queen nor Pharaoh had done here. two sons had occupied her womb and came healthy and hale into this world. and two others Tavina would reveal besides! thank the Gods, she breathed. kissing each of their crowns, Toula only then sagged against her husband. her eyes shifted from him, to their children—her world entire—and as sleep came, she did not know who last was within view so tired she was! 

he is born!

what of the girl? the khet is prepared —

the voice of Anqet calls, let me have her!

and Hathor in competition, she is mine! mine, or to shuyet!

the darkness encroached, it clustered around the shape of her ka until it felt like it would be snuffed out; and in that last moment, the immaterial flashed with a sharp blue, like an eye made of the summer sky.

the goddesses together gasped, and it was like the stars moaned, as outside of everything, a storm-cloud came to sweep over the stars.

then, there was light.

---

the light was red. it was all she could see, all she could sense. red.

the caul was pulled free of her long face, so sharp and so angular that the babe could be mistaken for a fawn. black, though, and fanged. and as she was free she gave a cry that twinned a chorus with her brother, as he warred against the living world.

she kicked with long legs. her punches touched only the night sky, her skin only felt the cold of the air as it cooled the new, wet vessel that had been brought forth. the cries slowed as she became numb, bordering on the land of shadow — finding solace among the children of a goddess.

and there, nesting upon the pharaoh and among her siblings, the girl's cries became a goading laughter.

Satriya Merneith is born calm.

In fact, so uncommonly serene is the first girl that she may have been mistaken as ill if not for the concentric circles she paints with tiny, rose-petal fists. Air inhabits her lungs, a slow widening of full lips to show even, pink gums, then the slow effortless closing. The humming of voices from behind her bound infantile ears, which throughout development had filled her with a sense of security, now become nearer. Sweet little coos toll in answer.

Some are born with no love at all, but their's is ubiquitous. Already it burst its dam, seeped into her legs, pooled into her heart. There is no fear nor fury, only a confident little yawn as she is nestled beside her bloodkin. 

Neith had sat static for so long in that warm silence. The world held secrets waiting for her to unlock.

I am ready!

tavina truly was enveloped by toula's adoration, and put out her paw for the young mother to clutch as tightly as she was needed. "well done, Great One, well done. again, now," and her voice went on in such a manner.

a tiny white-gold girl with wildflower hands was birthed from the royal pharaoh, calm as a gilded idol. tavina checked thrice to see that she breathed before she cleaned the girl and set her down beside the pair of brothers.

a dark girl, a last child, oddly laughing already. she smoothed the birth from the nightfall fur and laid this, the fourth divine baby, among the first three.

"two healthy princesses for the red palace," she murmured to the radiant couple, basking in their joy for a moment before she turned to her tasks.

toula would be given one draught of wine tinged in poppy and several offerings of water. tavina retreated to the foot of the bed, clearing ruined cloths, directing how far from the palace they should be taken and buried. goose fat was brought as a first meal, and the next morning would be the powdered liver she had ordered as the labor began.

she would not be left alone for two weeks, after which tavina felt she would be outside the threshold of sudden death. bedrest until then, was the order, though she planned for the most sumptuous fare to be brought after those first days of broth and fat!

she stepped into the hall to breathe, refused to think of nala, and returned only to say for pharaoh, "you were named eight days after birth." it was toula's choice; the sesh only passed on this tradition and settled herself on a makeshift pallet in the corner.

The last two slipped quickly from their mother with strong bones and healthy forms. One resembling gold, one as deep as true obsidian. Two princesses to accompany his two princes. Rashepses felt his heart expand for his daughters. Never would they brace the title of Pharaoh, as was their mother’s right before them, but they had their parts to play in the kingdom to come. He plied twin heads with tender kisses as he had done for his sons, and laid spellbound with his wife, analyzing each little body intently as they nursed from her side. They were a miracle, a direct gift from Horus, and each child cooperated handsomely.

He scarcely acknowledged the presence of others in this room, but a fleeting nod was given to the Sesh as she rose. No prince could inherit the crown unless his birth had been witnessed, and it was Tavina who would formally attest to this.

“Heru mesut noufer (happy day of birth), children of Egypt,” he smiled serenely at his suckling brood, and took to grooming Toula’s forehead as she slept. He would not rest until he was assured all five were well.

“Ever ours,” he would whisper into blonde tresses. Ever mine.

He was all of them, and they were all of him.

There was no love like theirs.