4/12/2026, 6:36 AM
cameo unless tagged!
senmut's weeks beside the flame had taken the rote aspects of fasting, of clearing one's mind, and of surrender. he felt purified as a new we'eb, as emptied of all emotion and conflict as he had been in those first days. as pharaoh, he had no throne. as a husband, he had only the loathing of his wife. as a father, he had the absence of his daughter's respect.
the gods had scorched senmut and left him humbled. there had been no place for him in the halls of divine right, and now he had lost every pinnacle of pride once achieved.
he had mentored this boy-king and his sister-queen; when her pale cowling took to flight, senmut grasped some frond from the inner halls and trailed her as if he had always belonged within a coterie of nameless priests. she had ramesses' gold, he saw, and toula's grace.
the party for which their Great Royal Wife had left the palace was one magnificent. even in his sense of far-removal, he was able to admire the quintet of those with royal admiration.
a pharaoh, once.
a servant, now.
in his teeth he held the long stem. in his voiceless approach, he reached to shade the face that was so familiar and was not, barring her in bands of light.
a priest stood forth, slender in the way of harried men, but in his eyes stood the same tribulation of truth which senmut had always fought. he wondered but did not ask.
the gods had scorched senmut and left him humbled. there had been no place for him in the halls of divine right, and now he had lost every pinnacle of pride once achieved.
he had mentored this boy-king and his sister-queen; when her pale cowling took to flight, senmut grasped some frond from the inner halls and trailed her as if he had always belonged within a coterie of nameless priests. she had ramesses' gold, he saw, and toula's grace.
the party for which their Great Royal Wife had left the palace was one magnificent. even in his sense of far-removal, he was able to admire the quintet of those with royal admiration.
a pharaoh, once.
a servant, now.
in his teeth he held the long stem. in his voiceless approach, he reached to shade the face that was so familiar and was not, barring her in bands of light.
a priest stood forth, slender in the way of harried men, but in his eyes stood the same tribulation of truth which senmut had always fought. he wondered but did not ask.
