Lion Head Mesa Nobody died (except me).
Ghost
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#1
All Welcome 
Presuming he's been recovering somewhere within Akashingo, with Tavina's and Nala's help, probably?

It had been a week since his discovery among the sedge of Akashingo's limits. He couldn't recall much of his care. His fever grew worse before it receded and once it did, Reyes found a semblance of awareness.

He knew he'd been rescued by the dark woman and that he had somehow incurred a large debt for the work put in to saving him. The leg had been tended to with costly supplies. Thankfully for everyone involved, Reyes had slept through most of the week and did not disturb the treatment at all, so that this one could take full effect.

The fur along his injured leg remained quite thin (it would likely never fully regrow); the wounds to his face were superficial at best, and now were thin scars or vanished completely. He was aware of the medicinal smell of all things, and the occasional conversation being held nearby to him, or out in the hall — but not specifics.

With a groan he tried to sit up. Genuine surprise flashed through Reyes when he found little pain in the effort.
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#2
a stranger in familiar space.

they had been healing for some time and nala found that did not bother her. they slept and slept. recovery vital for it.

only she had not been expected, as she walked into the room with cloths, to see him sitting up. a small sound hitched sharply in the back of her throat as she looked at him with wide, mismatched eyes.

o-oh! sir! please, let me get you what you need.
Muat-riya
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#3
tavina was shaken after her talk with nazli. it was a numb woman who entered the room, to checked over the man's bandages and breathed out a sigh.

"pharaoh has sent me to bring you." it was not an offer with the option of refusal. she moved to help the red wolf stand, thinking only and fiercely of the poor girl.
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#4
He saw the dappled girl first. It had to have been a girl — they were so small! Her voice held a mature lilt to it, and her eyes —! She was striking.

Before he could speak, Tavina entered the chamber and spoke with a deadpan authoritative tone, one which made the hairs on the back of Reyes' neck stand on-end.

Aye, he murmured as he tried to stand, and found Tavina there too, to aid him. He passed a brief glance upon the other girl, one which was indulgent as it lingered a little too long, and then he eyed the floor, to watch his own steps.
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#5
some part of her wilted beneath his gaze.

this was her first time under it! for she had only encountered him as a slumbering, injured man.

but tavina was there and her heart beat feverishly. something amiss. serious words in the air. please, let me help. she offered to the both of them.

gaze lingered long on tavina before she moved.

prepared to act as a second set of legs for their injured guest.
Muat-riya
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#6
tavina did not care for the way that reyes looked at nazli: with a man's eyes. with a man's hunger. "if you are interested in the fellahin, i have suggestions." but suppose he did not yet qualify to be entertained by them?

tavina supported the man down the corridor, along the walls, and to the throne-room which danced with scent and sound.
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#7
The dark caretaker said something about fellahin. Reyes quirked a look at her and murmured, huh? But he had become so focused on keeping to the path that he did not realize Tavina was being defensive.

They were soon standing before the door to the throne-room. Reyes could hear people moving around in the hallways adjacent. Someone whispered something. Claws skittered on stone.

There were servants inside too, as he was welcomed by at least one by the door. Perhaps it was a mazoi. This place had such strange names for things, he thought.
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#8
her ears smoothed against her skull, tail tucked carefully.

nala did not know what to so, or do, other than her job. she had not had to fend anything off so far!

but as they neared the room, she spared tavina a long silent look. wondering if she was needed in the court as well — or if she was to be dismissed.
Muat-riya
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#9
last tavi post till the end!

her heart leapt to see nala! her purple eyes warned the sanpin to stay.

pharaoh sat upon his throne and she helped reyes to stand before him. "i found him outside the palace. his name is —"
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#10
"i know who this man is."
ramesses leveled a cold look at the peasant he had not expected to see. "he is foul and rude. why should you suffer a moment longer alive in my court?"
the demand was for reyes. pharaoh flared with cold fire.
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#11
The dark woman tried to introduce him, but it was the pharaoh's tone that scythed through the air instead, to cut her off.

His words were leveled to Reyes now, and the man wished he had his usual fervor with which to fight back in some way. He couldn't, not now.

Reyes didn't know what to say, but at least he took the time to think before he said it, so that he didn't run his mouth.

I don't know. Maybe you shouldn't. Not the greatest opener, there.

My daughter, he started, and let his eyes drop to the floor, away from the godhead. I only want to get home to her. She's everything to me. I'll do anything to get home to her — and I know I must owe a great debt to you and your people. It felt like grovelling. It felt like weakness, standing here and speaking this way before this particular man.

Reyes went silent, expecting the worst.
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#12
skippable for now!

the tension in the air felt like a pulse upon her brain, her ears. the pharaoh's voice did not leave room for anything light.

she fell into a silence, gaze averted.

the image of servitude.
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#13
he asked for judgement. ramesses would mete it.
"i have three daughters and they have taught me mercy." his nostrils flared; he thought of how this might inflame tensions between akashingo and brecheliant. 
"you will stay here as sanpin. give three months of service. i will send a message to your daughter, so that she might come here."
it was a fine compromise. ramesses would make no other.
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#14
This was what he called mercy?

Reyes did not know what a sanpin was; but he had to presume given all he had seen of Akashingo, it could not be good. It would be a long stay. He almost wanted to refuse it, and yet he knew he could not.

I'll do anything. He'd baited himself in to this trap.

The mention of his daughter coming here made him bristle and lurch forward, almost toppling from Tavina's hold.

Please don't. He couldn't fathom the shame of having Sorana here, witnessing her father as some kind of slave, and especially did not want Ramesses' eye to turn upon her. I... I'll do four months, if it means you'll leave her be.
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#15
mercy. ramesses curled his lip but made no other sign.
"four months."
his eyes flickered coolly to the dog-woman, the former saint. "@Nala. you are relinquished of sanpin. join tavina as second sesh." if she wished to change it again, her lover need only ask.
"your first act of duty is to assign the sanpin his first task. nothing is too low." and he would expect something harsh of her, as evidenced by the set of his jaw.
"so you will stay through winter, fen-wolf. and then you will be released to brecheliant. fleeing the palace before that time means scorn and shame brought to your pack. your hard work determines how much of this time remains unsaid."
ramesses was malicious, levering the man's name against his own fate.
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#16
Some things were explained in the way Ramesses shifted them about.

Reyes dared not look anywhere but the ground. He was made this sanpin and then it was the attendants with him, the black wolf and the pretty one, which would concoct his first punishment.

The more Ramesses spoke the more Reyes wished he could do something, anything, to redeem himself and be gone from this place; but he had four long months of servitude ahead, with his daughter as the reward.

He could live with that, he told himself, and would tell himself repeatedly come nightfall. I'll be home soon, he would pledge. For now, Reyes would have to endure.
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#17
ramesses was finished. reyes accepted his punishment, and the godhead was pleased that he had been given the chance to grant such. surely Amun saw his mercy. surely he would have fate mark that to Ma'at.
his coolwater eyes shifted now to nala. pharaoh expected gratitude, from she and her lover.
an odd pairing. there was a sense of jealousy, that nala had been his own but he had not enjoyed her charms. he shook it away, for months were long and spring was due to arrive.
Muat-riya
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#18
it was a terrible pronouncement and yet during it was nala freed of her own servitude.

when she saw that pharaoh had finished, tavina bowed low before him.

it was nala's turn to speak, and all she wanted was to take her lover from this cold room.
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#19
there was a quiver at her hocks as the attention all turned upon her at once.

freed of sanpin! now assigned as sesh but — a command? how could she instruct the still mending man to do anything? her heart was not the pharaoh's.

she did not know if it was harsh work for their kind, but it had been hard for her.

the bottom of the wellspring must be cleaned deeply. freed of any dangers and debris. it would involve diving and shuffling through the water blind! the water cold now! and despite the difficultly (she felt) it might keep him off that leg for a while longer.

but now she deeply wished to retreat with her love.
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#20
His first order, from the little mottled wolf, was to clean some kind of pond, or something. Reyes wasn't sure what to make of that. He had not seen it yet, and did not know what it would entail. Water seemed like the worst thing for his injuries, and aside from that the very idea of water brought a certain anxiety to the ex-pirate. But he could do nothing, say nothing. This was the arrangement.

He tried to stand and began to leave, only to have Tavina there to help support him. Reyes didn't know if he needed to be dismissed or not, and had moved before he realized that perhaps he should have stayed there, to await dismissal.

As he was led from the room by the two sesh, Reyes considered what he'd just signed up for, and knew it would be the longest four months of his life.