Lion Head Mesa sem-priest

ramesses swam in powerful strokes among the waters of the serpent. fellahin waited on the bank, crouched against the cold. his swim too was frigid, but pharaoh kept himself hale and trim with such activities.
when he emerged, dripping, he let the servants move thick dry pelts over his wet fur. "go ahead and prepare a lunch for queen @Treva and i. tell her i desire her presence in my chambers."
not his throne room, but the space beyond. he wanted her, but more than that, the intimacy of that room would provide privacy for their words.
"my love." he kissed her when she came. "it is time to discuss the future of toula and sethnakht."

she arrived.

the white fur he had gifted her was upon her shoulders, sayf had been with her for further preparations, but she sent him away as the closed the distance to pharaoh's place. there was a comfort in being met among a room proper and not the royal court of the throne room.

a kiss, heavy and passionate no matter how brief.

the future of them is bright. she assured softly. her faith lied heaviest in toula, but she said no such things. nor how she suddenly wished for a million more daughters. all as promising and bright as her first.

and how she worried about more sons; especially those as coy and demure as sethnakht. how they might wither beneath the crown prince.

toula will flourish most when she sees the world. i know this. as the way all mothers knew things. i would like to send her somewhere new. beyond mereo.

"kvarsheim calls, though i think she would be more suited to basilica." there was not a thought in his mind that there she might be harmed. "before the year is finished, however, we should lay plans for her betrothal."
the line of succession was not kind to his second children as they might be new sons. ashikaga was slated as queen if something should happen to makono. and after her, toula, but only if makono did not beget a prince. should the hawk-in-the-nest bring forth her own fledgling heir, and of course ramesses expected them to be male, then he would follow his mother upon the Horus Throne.
it was all very convoluted, and as toula had become his favourite also, he wished to spare her the ramifications of these political gambits.
but he did not know if treva had pharaonic ambitions for her daughter as well.
"arrange a marriage with one of their sons to come. that way toula is free to expand her vision, beneath expectation of the future." he paused. "or marry her to sethnahkt, and send them both on excursion beyond these shores, to seek gods in other climes." he shrugged and drank red liquid once more.

there was hope in her heart that toula would stay forever.

here among akashingo, learning and blossoming. even if she knew her daughter would bloom further beyond! she had never sent children from the nest before. she did not wish to say how much she needed a holding hand on it, but perhaps it showed in the soft painting of her thoughtful features.

would you find it safer to pair them up and send them away? together? for sethnakht's future here would be unstable at best and toula would still be able to see the world that way.

she looked down, pensive upon the meal's spread.

ramesses sighed. he kissed her again, if only for himself, if only to delay the words. "sethnakht became the first intended when makono became the heir," he said softly. "she should have married siptah."
anger now, anger against Ma'at and one he could not kindle against makono.
"she should have been queen after you and he on the throne. now sethnakht must decide if he will bow to fate or seek to change it." his children, pitted against one another.
"so, i suppose i spoke in dreams, treva. they cannot marry." the line! thrown aside! how could they preserve it?

kisses, softening the blows of this whole ordeal.

perhaps it was cruel to set aside all else in favor of toula.

send toula to basilica if we must. the men know the might of us and i believe they might see a benefit in a daughter of ours among them. she will learn, she will bless them with her presence alone. a benefit. toula was more than that. treva knew it fiercely. she stirred stiffly with harsh thoughts in mind and heart.

if you wish for honesty, i do not see it in sethnakht to challenge.

and she thought of spring with a pensive look out among the room.

ramesses nodded. "nor do i."
he smiled gently upon treva. "you have not yet left these halls. shall we send her alone? or shall you accompany her for a small time, then leave her to learn?"
he was not tired of her company, only restless with all the ways things had become, and wanted to drown himself in a thousand hourly pleasures while she was away.

i will go with for a week.

she decided. enough time to breathe beyond akashingo, not so much time as to be forgotten.

i will see that she settles and begins to learn. they will know my face and my moods. how many of them? then i will come home to you — to our people. she reached out to him for a kiss.

"very good. i shall send the medjay with you and recall the crown prince for a time. take the man sayf as attendant."
later he would send also lady sokha with the queen, as both maidservant and noblewoman, telling treva quietly of her need for a husband and her opportunity, and duty, as shabti of akashingo to assess those in basilica for such a pairing.
and then he too would recline to his pleasures.