i will not seek to seduce you, setemhotep. you and i share another sort of intimacy.though even more she was intrigued by the carefully guarded hungers of his flesh, they did not run to her.
i am not insulted, though of course i will allow you to speak on my beauty at length.
the ironstone eyes glowed, and sitamun was off again in firm motions which cast her beneath the stream several times until she was winded. then, chest heaving, flushed with the exertions of good exercise, she returned and shook out her coat a second time, down from setemhotep. this time she was content to loll there beside him, eyes half-lidded, mouth tilted to the darkened heavens.
i learned to favor soldiers,sitamun said plainly, that same frankness which had so shaken their lady queen, at least in the servant's mind.
they are often simple men. not foolish, but not complicated by the demands of gods, as we have both come to know exist.
touching lightly to setemhotep as priest -- pulling away.
sitamun did not wish to be burned, understanding as she felt the two of them had become between one another.
sometime it is a conduit i am seeking, not the other way around. i do not know if you have ever sought that in any life -- it is,she mused,
as if i want to be free of that divine connection for the pain it causes. in simplicity i am free if only for a time. i am more unchained as a peasant than i ever was as a priestess.
oh, damnable agonies. she would not suddenly go to shattered pieces before setemhotep.
when i say i want more, when i ask of you -- i mean: did you ever want only to be a father? a husband? did you want only to know the fertile earth and be buried by your many children?her eyes seemed to blur and she set them back upon the water.
is it selfish to turn away from a calling? those things, setemhotep; those things occupy me and i feel shameful for harboring them.

