Luneshale Pass fifty-fourth

senmut wiped his mouth from retching. "why do you test me, Life-giver?"

in shame did he cover the mess with sand, slumping down some feet away.

Amun said nothing. 

senmut did not think that he would.

softly he sang akhtar's hymn in the night air, willing Khonshu to show His brilliant face in guidance for the lost priest who knew himself too weak to be pharaoh.

Finally she sought the Erpa-ha, and found him surrounded by the scent of vomit, lost in song.

Her resentment faded into concern. Melody approached in silence. She did not interrupt his song but let it finish, let it fade as her anger had.

When she finished, she looked to him with a hesitant expectancy; what would he say to her now? Senmut, She greeted cautiously, half in anticipation of his anger. Perhaps she would deserve it.

But she could not regret her decision. Her heart had found its home.

there was no anger forthcoming; he was too exhausted for it, seized by the idea that he must commit himself before the queen and asked that she choose only between rashepses and thutmose.

"hemet." the priest coughed gently, wiped his mouth a second time. "it seems the fare of the desert is less than agreeable. my gut has become spoiled by the palace."

the joke fell flat.

Melody had no taste for humor. Instead she regarded Senmut with an expression bordering on sadness.

I thought I would find Makono, She admitted after a moment, eyes finding the sky as they often did. I hoped I would. But the Gods led me to Ashikaga instead. And now...

She didn't know. Melody trailed off, letting the words she could not speak hang in the air between them. Her loyalty had once been to Makono; now it felt she had nowhere to place it but in Ashikaga, whose blue eyes she felt on her always, even now.

"perhaps it was her voice you heard in your vision."

senmut had not forgotten. his eyes trained briefly toward the skies.

"perhaps you were not meant to be a queen's astrologer."

he did not recognize the princess as pharaoh, but nor did he reinforce her place only as princess.

He had meant to comfort her, perhaps.

Melody found only despair in his words; a growing feeling of isolation, of having alienated Senmut and by extension the Queen herself. She looked back to him, her expression startled for a moment, lips parting as if she meant to speak. But she found that she could not.

Instead, silently, she started to cry.

forward movement, a gentle smile that washed away for a moment all that had occurred before.

"it is not for us to decide where the gods place us, melody." this true, despite his mortal annoyance and surprise at her actions. "and it is overwhelming to at last see their face."