words to educate. khaemwaset opened his ears to them all, to their loving flow. you, pharaoh said at once when setemhotep had finished. it must be you, if you are to one day be named wr šdt nfrw nswt. Great Royal Nurse. he was smiling faintly, pulling to mind the vibrant images which had filled his head only moments ago. no one has held the title in my lifetime. but look how you ensure the learning already of satriya's youth, teased khaemwaset. i am comforted by all you have said.
it was easy to be ignorant in the man's presence, he found, for setemhotep did not essay any criticisms. indeed, the sesh spoke with such objectivity that Horus was comforted anew. ask audience with my sister and tell her all you have told me. she should trust you as i have come to do, if she is to rely upon your skill when the time comes.
trust. it felt almost slovenly to give over, and yet setemhotep had earned it with his willing ways, his advisement, his ability to fit any role put upon his shoulders. trust then, and for khaemwaset, this was synonymous with nearness to merneith.
one thing he had not heard in this lesson was that he was not without the power of fertility even now. this magick might strengthen in him, but pharaoh had taken from this that he already possessed its virility in some part. upon the notion he would dwell, now tempted by a more scientific desire to see what might grow from a sown field. the idea that there might be no conception did not register to him, for such things applied not to those divine. a eunuch, he said now, an unpleasant bleakness filling his baretooth grin, that of a rotted grandfather. a glimpse and thus gone. that is a man who has been forcibly deprived, yes? does it remove the desire as well? asked khaemwaset curiously, sickened by the notion and yet fascinated all the same. perhaps i shall instruct the mazoi that they may be promoted to eunuch should their eyes stray too close to the queen.
pharaoh liked the idea very much.