Lion Head Mesa heartfelt

he's under no obligation to respond! <3

the palace practically vibrated!

nala, though, felt content to keep her head down. to ignore those who whispered or scurried down halls or seemed to play court in all places but the court!

she had tucked herself into halls of worship. it was there she attempted to move, to dance. she lived in the world of a good future. a future where she danced before the queen at her winter feast to come. a future where she would bloom with children for tavina.

a future where maybe they did not live in red sand palace, even if the red sand kept a hold among them.

so tell her, for all she did to avoid the man's gaze and the politics that swirled, that she went straight to the source! to @Ramesses himself! as if she might somehow silence the palace if she tended to the heart of it.

her voice trembled softly.

oh, may you...announce me? is he free? she whispered her questions in that quivered songbird voice.

the night that tavina had come to him, ramesses himself had gone to summon @Nazli back to his side.
he had scarcely allowed her to leave despite the fact that madness wreathed in akashingo and in himself, and dulled his flesh except for sparse moments of inner fire.
he had even sent @Charles away, and now it was only the lilac fellahin who bore witness to the changes of ramesses first from pharaoh and then into a man who only raved of a sister and a land she had never seen.
senet and laughter and joking, eating, for the rest of it; he had her there to playact as though nothing was keeping pharaoh from devouring his own mind very slowly. 
he had just been ready to ask nazli what she wanted most from the storerooms when the priestess of Hathor herself called upon him, all delicate loveliness beneath her godly sheen.
"holy one," ramesses said in a low voice. "to what do i owe the pleasure of your visit?"
another loyalist to makono? the palace was riddled with them.

she did not know she burned with a radiance of her new beliefs, yet it was that alone that kept her spine solid in the face of pharaoh.

to witness a dance,

she dared to hold a warmth to her. dared to think she might suffice whatever had overcome the palace!

a blessing from Hathor. it is the season, no?

a dance.
pharaoh softened visibly.
his eyes lay with fascination upon the hemet.
"you honor me," voice hoarse with a new interest.

she may have had as many things against pharaoh as she did for pharaoh —

i was sanpin and raised to hemet — she meant to softly sidestep and take the floor. to dance her sweeping motions upon the clearing of his place. as if she was sage, cleansing the room of the sickly air.

you honor me, no?

but she wished to talk no more! it was here she found confidence. a certainty in gliding steps.

"dance, then!" he laughed with reverent life! "show me how Hathor has blessed the gift i have given her."
the lapis eyes leapt!

and so she danced!

feathery motions, enhanced by the wisp of her fur. her tail was like a banner when it raised or dipped to sweep the earth below her. she moved in circular motions.

by the end, she had come to bow before him.

splendor. radiance. divinity.
ramesses found himself spinning through the blessings that she granted.
"you do Her a great service," ramesses said, and rose to touch her bowed head with a smooth paw.
"and Her beauty too, is your own."

She gives me plenty!

and she laughed, warm and honeyed. radiant through Her doing! nala did not yet see for herself just how well she filled in her own role.

does it bring you happiness to see these things? she dared to ask as her tail quivered softly behind her.

ramesses nodded and closed his royal eyes. "come. walk with me, hemet. dance Ra down from the skies."
it was an order, an invitation, a challenge.
he stood and moved with confidence toward the entrance of his throne room.

in that moment, she recalled a story.

well, certainly he did not mean...that did he? yet nala found spine enough to tempt him with the tale she had been told of Hathor and Ra! so while she moved after him with feathery steps, she fixed a warm gaze upon him.

it was Hathor who raised Ra after his insult from Babi, you know...

the lazuli eyes lit.
ramesses' laughter floated through the halls, the room, the air.
"tell me, priestess."
his gaze worshipped her with a true reverence.

fade? ;o;

well...it is not whispered what Babi said to upset Ra so! only that he felt so greatly that he went to lay upon the world.

for theatrics she swept with a bow, lowering herself for a moment before she stood.

he laid and laid there until Hathor would have no more! her face broke with a wide beam now. so she came to him and uttered for him to rise. when he did not do so she then —!

now she leaned closer as if such a detail was too scandalous to say aloud.

she showed him her —! she pulled away now! breathless and dizzy, mismatched eyes fixed upon the pharaoh. prepared to charm and dazzle him with each story and song senmut had taught her!

anything to temporarily hush the heavy heart in the palace.