Cold. It was cold. And not in the way which the desert became cold at nights and allowed for easy hunting across the still warm sands. It was still quite chilly during daylight hours, when the sun should be scorching the skies and pressing heat into dark back. As it were, the sun had not come. At least, it could not, though it tried. The blue sky could not be seen. A sheen of cloud covered it completely, bring darkness to the day.

Was another week of darkness and blood moon to come? Was it the same clouds she had encountered before? So strange, that the lands had once been so fiercely on fire, they could not walk them and now, even in midday, the phoenix walked with a chill in her bones.

The egyptians had returned southeast into their desert, armed now with plentiful reserves and forged into structure beneath her brother’s crown of the upper palace and lower delta. But this Satriya is not the same as the one they had left.

The queen ascends a loamy slope to where Phoenix Rising gleams against the lowering gray sky like a jet black jewel thrown from the gods’ hand. Their breaths billow thickly, fanning against this unnatural freeze. The eternal flame dances below with Ra’s red force. Neith takes in a breath. It concerns her, the unknown responsibility. What to do with this power they have. If it should fall into the wrong hands…

“What do you see, Hemet-Netjer?” She pulls at scents in the air.

skill: soothsayer

The elegance of her royal golden figure slips almost soundlessly to the desert sands, so much so that the pheonix did not take note of her presence until it was announced. Transfixed on the skies, Pheonix would jolt nearly out of her skin at the royal blood's words. Instinctive hackles raised, when she spins around it is with laughter and a bow down of her head to Meredith. A sheepish smile to her features as her tail waves low behind her.

Divine Queen! You nearly gave me a start-! She would gather herself to move into a proper bow now and after which would pass her gaze from the sky once more and back to her Queen. Ra's flame will protect us in this gloom, but I do not know how long it will last. A test, perhaps? Meant to cull the weak? Or, maybe... If a chill touched her here, she imagined life in all the miles and miles north. Maybe this was meant to bring those into the Egyptian pantheon, to save their souls from this world's heinous false gods.

Phoenix herself is a pleasing sight, and the queen is elated at last to have their people gathered beneath a single point. She nods her head, releasing the hemet from her bow, and tries to read of the sky what prophecies the pantheon might hold for their people.

But there is only a darkness churning, underlit by ruby flames. It is terrible, and powerful all the same—its mysteries exhumed by the pious word of Phoenix Rising.

The queen cuts her gaze sharply.

“What must we do?”

skill: soothsayer

We wait out the storm, Divine Queen… A murmur on her breath as she than turns back to the Queen who looks to her for answer. Pheonix does not reveal all. Hesitant if only because she does not know if Pharoah has spoken about this sensitive topic to her. They walked the halls of the obelisk and called it now their own, but no sacrifice had been made …

This flame is made to protect us. Ra lets us know he has not left us in complete. There is great evil in this land that needs purged. I feel the darkness and growing cold is meant to do that. Those who survive and come south, south to us, may they find redemption under the light of our gods.

It would not be easy. This was but the bitter, calm darkness before the storm but instead she says, It is darkest before the dawn, Divine Queen.

Wait! Must they always be forced to wait?

When will they be free to build their kingdom beneath a blue sky, to bathe in the river delta, and greet Ra in his early light?

It has been so long since the normalcy of childhood in Akashingo that Neith cannot help but wonder if that future is ever permitted within this world of hardness.

Her eyes threaten to gloss but she holds herself still. It helps that Phoenix is relatively calm, suggesting that she has seen similar afflictions before.

“An altar for Ra will be the first erected. I will see it filled day and night with alms and prayers from our people.”

She looks into the hemet's eyes, and there the question percolates. Will it be enough?

skill: Soothsayer

Though the priestess held an air of certainty before her people, inside her heart was pounding, panic rising. For the Pheonix had never actually seen such things before. This world she had been reborn to was at the very beginning of this ‘board wide plot’, where she awoke shadowed by the magnitude of the obelisk. The first thing she had laid eyes on in this new life. When the first scrawlings had been found and since then she had found a number of different runes in different lands and found the broken horn and orb artifact. She had been teleported to different lands, found eternal flames, plunged into eternal darkness, fell ill to plague sickness twice and still was pressed to keep going….

Life in the Land of Sun and Sand had been far more pleasant. Happy, safe, a place of worship to Hathor filled with pleasure, promise and purpose. Would they ever find peace here?

This would be a wonderful start, my Queen. She dips her head to this, knowing that she would be there every step of the way in witnessing its making. But as the Divine Queen wondered, so did the priestess: Will it be enough?

A start, yet nevertheless a charge upon which to fix her mind beneath these gray storming clouds. Beside Pheonix Rising she stares out into the roilings. Behind, their palace’s golden caplet has gone dark.

“The great gods bless you, High Priestess. This life challenges us, but we will continue to thrive on its trials.”

This binds them alike, to stand sure where certainty crumbles.