Luneshale Pass Mine and yours

The moon held high.

In her mouth, the feather that Rashepses gave. Greedily, she'd hogged it to herself, but eventually the night called and her duties bubbled forward. Tracking Senmut down took her time, and she did not howl to give indication of her coming. Instead, it was by ear, by the sound of his steps and breath, and by the smells she could manage to catch that she found him.

She approached @Senmut low, with a message to deliver for his ears.

the eve of the queen's arrival would draw near.

night falling, and from it a figure of poured jetstone approached — "legend," and he met her in a far chaster kiss than the ones before.

but a kiss all the same.

senmut traced the feather with his eyes. "what is this?"

Her head was quick to press to a kiss that came her way, strong and instant. In her mouth, the feather she still held onto. Hers! But hers was his.

Dropping it to the ground she was careful to keep the feathers soft along the ground.
"A gift."

Keeping a bowed head, she displayed duty and delivery. A message! She came with a message- but just for him. She'd been quiet for it to be. As it was meant to be.

"From Rashepses."

from rashepses. senmut grew more sober, though the good humour did not leave his eyes.

however, he did not touch the object.

"a gift." a curve to mouth. "for me or for you, nightbird?"

he could not fathom the proud, pretty prince sending anything for him.

"For you, my prince."

For all of her hogging, it was still a bewitching feather of an owl. Plush afterfeathers, and a vane of white stars and sandy rivers.
Whether or not it was an act of courtesy from Rashepses was not something for her to decide.

"He says he believes that you would like to look upon it."
Even if the curse behind its presence had been death. What an interesting gift that Rashepses had chosen for their Erpa-ha.

it felt as though the gift were a trap.

it was a fine thing, worth a small ransom of precious stones for its flawless nature.

"an owl is crafted by the sun. that is why owls can soar through the darkness with the power of Ra in their breast." now he turned it over in his paw.

"protector. guardian." the verdant eyes were solemn. "what do you think of him, legend?"

Oh-- A mind more distinct and polished than the gems across the royal chambers. He saw a flaring lights in a foul hell-land. What fun! What fun! Then, perhaps Rashepses knew the fine beauties that would perfect inside Senmut's eyes. Maybe that same countering clock dialing behind those eyes polished light upon her too.
Throaty bubbles pushed out in quiet, whiney laughs of noise as the imps tail beat side-to-side, low, fast, and quick before a stop.

"Rashepses is a royal man. Hungry eyes. Trational belongings and charisma that many find no argument with, in a Prince. For Pharaoh." Rashepses was almost a perfect image of a rising Pharaoh across many nations. "He will make himself fine competition, yes? For Prince Thutmose and you, my prince?"

"Oh-- But, you should take not my opinion, my prince! I am only mazoi." She turned her neck in submission.
And she hoped that one day she'd see the eyes of Senmut starved.

royal. hungry. charismatic. rashepses was everything a prince should be and everything senmut was not. for a priest who had devoted himself to divine lineage, the price was in the holding of such knowledge: that he was inferior.

"when you are with me, you are not only a mazoi," senmut pressed, a smile dazzling to life upon his mouth. "we are companions."

some pain, some pain to know that this too must bend beneath devotion to queen and country. "yes. he is my competition, as is thutmose. the final choice belongs to our divine ruler."

T I C K.

He smiled, as if there was not a timer upon his soul and title. She smiled back to him, riddled with fascination and revere. Something unspoken was in the air, as the seconds twirled and spun in spirals. A rumble- a chant, a roaring rally and war cry of men, over and over, under their feet. Their tribal word was faint, but their thunder a great fury building beneath the surface.

Her forehead soon clashed against his chest with an embrace of his fur, a greeting and welcome that she'd long given verbally, but one now that called physically. Acceptance. A call. Those chants, and that quiet, muffled words in the ground, in the cosmos, that she took embrace in him through to her the beating of his heart.

"Erpa-ha and mazoi. Companions!" A declaration.

In the night, her head lifted to see his eyes, an affectionate rub given of her lips against his. Feel. "Our Queen's choice with the God's will await the people of Akashingo. And should titles change or stagnate, together we are still companions, yes?"

 Fire..fire..fire..

companions.

for a moment they shared a breath of air between them, and it was the taste of first snow.

companions; and senmut's mouth stuttered against her own. he drew back with a breath more aptly called a sob, but controlled himself with a bronze rein.

feel

"i will always want you here. but i may never marry, legend, or — be devoted in a proper way. that choice no longer belongs to me. yes," he said, "i desire you outside of what the queen's choice will be. if i become pharaoh, if i only return to high priest, yes. but my life belongs to her, and you must know this first."

Pity the prince of the red seas and his harrowing binds. Pity the chains upon his soul and a core forever kept at bay. Pity those emerald eyes and woeful breaths. Pity what he has lost, gained and once held. There was sorrow.

But she felt none of it.

That was order.

Instead, burning eyes of the Sky God's were upon her. Senmut, a wild man! She pulled back with a domesticated smile, chained to the life of an empire and rank as a pet. As it had always been. "Of course!" No question, no denial nor woes. "The Queen holds all of our lives. She is prosperous, yeah? With colorful visions and blood! You belong to the Queen, erpa-ha. As do I." Her head came to a tilt, recounting their ways, their truths, but should Senmut want clarity, and should Senmut set their boundaries there, then he must know something else, too.

"As I belong to you."

Her head, below his. "And when the Pharaoh is throned, I belong to him first."

oh, legend! blessed shadow of Anubis Himself, crafted from night and from a devoted want so visceral that senmut felt the pull and heat of it even now, even only standing with her.

was this love? his mind searched nightly in desperation for an answer to this question, for it was so unlike the near-fear he had born for makono, the affection for isa, the boundless springtime feeling in his spirit for nazli —

i belonged to him first.

senmut kissed the head crowned in black silk, throat tight for a thousand reasons as his scarlet arms wended her harder against him. "i have never belonged to anyone," he said hoarsely, not a prince now, only a shy and wondering scribe, a godly man seeing the face of his fealty in the sheen of legend's eyes.

"No-one?" 

T I C K.

His arms became a warm, kindling embrace that held them together. With a thin paw lifted, she draped it over his neck after coming to a settled sit. Her eyes, riddled with fire of fascination, and the softness of Khonsu-the little flickers of stars! But there was also Senmut's fragility, and the way his lips touched her head.

The digits of her fingers tightened around his frame. 

"Only the Queen?" His words started to pick themselves away. Her smile, only softly pulling at the corners of her lips, her engagement unwavering. It was his air that kept it yearning to stay, even if only slight. She looked down once, then again to his pupils. He wanted her to be..comfortable. "Does it hurt?- To feel that? You must feel.." her voice trailed, only to continue and end with a feathers touch, "well, that must feel very lonely."

"at times, yes." 

a pause now, to kiss legend, to wind her close into the sinewy firmness of his body..

"but we all belong to her. she is our goddess. and if she asks form, flesh, or blood, we give it, and willingly so." that was what it meant to be truly devoted.

he was comfortable inside this hierarchy. are you not? his eyes asked of his lover, questioning, almost commanding.

Akashingo's tunnels ran deep. Unspoken grief. Devouring envy. Lashing tongues tucked behind sewn mouths and blinded eyes. Rich, burning needs and overindulged dopamine that nightly drank from a diamond cup. She was tucked in the coil of his skins embrace, a kiss her frame conformed to and dissolved in.

Her mouth faded its smile to an innocent rest of a listening disciples.

He declared that even in a spin of loneliness, they were bound to her. But when she looked to the prince in a scarlet cloak, with chilly emerald eyes that struck through her bones, she saw more. The lust for his home, this normalcy, that regardless of how he felt, he starved for it. Longed for it. Drank from their culture, their Queen and Gods, in every form. How twisted was it, how sick, to recite binds after muttering ache. Even in pain, he wanted it. In twisted guts, he would not trade it. His passion brewed as if even loneliness was a sacred gift of his people.
That was true devotion.

She loved it.
An infatuated grin rose across her lips, her eyes traveling from his chest, lips, then eyes. Only one word, which she craved he loved as much as she did his, and she meant it,
"Yes."

fade? they will have a new one! <3

he gave. she gave. their bodies bound eternal for a godhood they could never achieve, they found ways to burn as incense for the glory of their kingdom.

it was as things were made to be. they served a power greater than themselves, and in this found peace. satisfaction. he kissed her once softly, and then with more firmness; he gathered legend close in arms made strong by endless priesthood tasks and felt for a moment, a sense of completion that did not come entirely from his service to the queen.

the feather fell unbidden to the earth. 

legend infused all his reaching awarenesses, and senmut was glad to surrender.