To poke and prod indeed! A physician aware of ailment, with some idea of the symptoms, now intent upon narrowing cause.

She didn't wait for answers, though he considered privately how to account for himself. In truth he wished to test. To learn; it would have been enough achieving insight into her mind and tactics. Recompense could not be earned by any biting word, and an unwilling heart would only wound itself further pretending at penitence.

Her heresy he was confident now in the ability to suppress. But to cure it...? What was a Priest, if not one who looked after the health of things Divine. A task he failed with Akhenaten.

Hotep wondered at himself and his own boldness. Did he seek to right past wrongs with new trials? Perhaps it was so.

Eyes softened, and he watched Satkhetem sweep herself away into distant memory.

He was not so naive as to offer her pieces of himself, the life he had lived. In her state of wrath she would only attempt to needle, he thought, and it would not achieve the desired outcome for anyone.

I am afraid the chief complaint of my cohorts regards my lack of playfulness. He laughed a little. Once.

Still he considered. Time lost to memory, siblings raised apart from her, and parents gone — and that there had been tragedy in Akashingo before the raising of Satriya. No, he could not overlook the venom she aimed without regard, or the callousness toward holy things which disagreed with her. But he had also learned that to scold a man for screaming when his leg had snapped in two was not generally an effective or useful method for curing the break.

He lamented further that to cause a wound was far easier than to mend one.

It is plain we have reason to mistrust one another. But I am a healer, Satakhetem. I will endeavor to heal, unless I am given no other choice. This was earnest, though whether she would believe him was consigned to the paws of Ra.

And conceded, because it was also the truth, even if their opinions of the cause did not align, I see that the division between you and your siblings sows chaos. There has been injury — and this does indeed concern the gods.

He offered a palm, outstretched in invitational gesture, But I think it must be approached with a different tact than the one you have thus far employed. Will you consult with me? You are short of friends, and could do worse than the Greatest of Seers.