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You have pleased me, sesh.

Hotep felt as if the sun itself had turned to shine just on him, and he was glad for the darkened fur about his cheeks to hide the heat rising there.

He was not, of course, blind to the meaning of this appointment. As servant in the shadow of Pharaoh on this great march North, Hotep knew much of the comings and goings of his royal benefactors.

Yes. He knew of their affections for one another: not only in soul, in heart, but in body as well. Which was all to say — he knew what changes might arise, given time. And if Pharaoh was set upon the comfort of heirs, this seemed a better fixation than sowing wildly among foreign fields in hope something germinated.

Risk was not entirely absent. The royal pair were young, still.

But Hotep believed there was time before such worries became necessary. For now, they only practiced, and this was suitable in sesh's eyes.

He thought again, though briefly, of Azalea, and her lost child. He recalled her plea to warn other girls of what heat could do to a mind and body, both. Surely Pharaoh and Queen had been taught this already...?

Sesh bowed.

I will inform you with the very same breath that draws in certainty. He replied. But I humbly urge patience in this regard, also, Divine King.

Next a calculated, but cautious glance up, to gauge whatever reaction followed: I beg you not begrudge my plainness, for it is better there be no mistaking. More than that, I am a physician, and there is nothing which can embarrass me regarding the natural cycles of the body. Did your tutors or kin tell you of the changes that a woman's body makes, when it is prepared to conceive? Or the effects this change may have upon men who enter her presence?