Today, 1:54 AM
setemhotep might have found himself surprised at what breadth of coldness sitamun felt existed within her. a plateau swept of snow and scoured by wind which carried ice in its teeth all the same. she was not a figure standing there; she was the rock and earth and wintertime itself, in moments that came to the fellahin with horrid clarity.
but sitamun did not want to turn away any notion of herself as purer than she was. it felt selfishly good for the sesh to be trying out his compliments upon her again, and she welcomed them with a coy tilt of her streamwet head.
what mattered was what she understood, at last, that unless he ever felt himself deserving again, he would not take it and she must not press.
her heartbeat ran then with a zeal she had not felt for a long while; it struck about her heart, surprised her with its intensity.
she wished to place her paw softly in the crook of his arm, not for any purpose at all save to know if he too felt the current which thrummed through her flesh like the soft eddies of water beneath a coming storm.
and yet, sitamun dared not, and she knew too, somehow, that setemhotep would still understand.
but sitamun did not want to turn away any notion of herself as purer than she was. it felt selfishly good for the sesh to be trying out his compliments upon her again, and she welcomed them with a coy tilt of her streamwet head.
you know that i think you should keep it,she said, becoming not quite solemn but still. she remembered all too keenly how a shift in his tone had affected her as would the sting of a flywhisk; sitamun did not wish to invite that again. and yet! the priestess and servant felt as if she had some duty to her companion, to encourage him beyond doubt in the place the gods had given.
what mattered was what she understood, at last, that unless he ever felt himself deserving again, he would not take it and she must not press.
but i believe, setemhotep, that in any place, in any position, that goodness would flow forth from you, for you have seen the counterbalance of its lack.
her heartbeat ran then with a zeal she had not felt for a long while; it struck about her heart, surprised her with its intensity.
you say we must accept where the gods place us; they placed you once as as Greatest of the Seers and myself as an acolyte of promise. now i am a servant and you are a physician. yet we have not forgotten our first selves. perhaps we are meant to unite them, and thus unbind in truth.
she wished to place her paw softly in the crook of his arm, not for any purpose at all save to know if he too felt the current which thrummed through her flesh like the soft eddies of water beneath a coming storm.
and yet, sitamun dared not, and she knew too, somehow, that setemhotep would still understand.
