“Did all my brethren ask you that?”
“Most, in one way or another.”
Thoth quirked an eyebrow as if amused by the thought. “Nakht, I am the god of secrets and knowledge.” He said it as if speaking to a child who really should know better. “Why would I ask you such a thing when I already know how this ends?”
I wasn’t sure if that was encouragement or a warning. Regardless, with a purring Pasht cradled against my chest, I nodded once more and moved forward into the light.
The following chapter contains:
Threesome+, Contortionism, Mirror Kink, and Hot Oil Play.
Chapter eight
The Many
MERYT
“Meryt, my darling, aren’t you a little too old to be sulking so stubbornly?”
I looked over my shoulder from where I lay huddled on my bed. I already shared my room with two others, but now, we would be four. I didn’t want another in my space, another chosen for his beauty to join the dancers. He had been a mere kitchen whelp, and now, he might vie for my destined position as Pharaoh’s favorite, like Mother was his favorite.
He would ruin everything.
Mother sat on the edge of my bed, unwilling to let me lie in silence, and so she pulled me into her lap and cradled me close.
“You cannot change this path, my child.”
I turned my head, hiding my face in the folds of her dress.
“It needn’t be a bad thing.”
“How could it not be?” I pouted. “He will steal my place. He will take what is rightfully mine!”
“Steal? Take?” She repeated my words with clipped consonants. “Oh that the gods do not hear you speak so. Such arrogance from my son to assume he deserves something he has yet to earn. If this new blood works harder and earns a place above you, he deserves it. If you believe you deserve it, you must prove so by working just as hard, harder than anyone else. Even then, only the gods decide where fate takes us.”
I buried my face deeper into her soft linen. “It’s not fair.” I sniffled, pitiful as I knew I sounded.
“Perhaps not, but consider how he must be feeling. He was not destined for his life, as far as he knew. He will be entering unfamiliar terrain and requires a friend to guide him.”
“Friend—” I spat, but Mother hushed me.
I looked up at her, ready to angrily spout more, but I couldn’t.
Had she always been so beautiful?
She tousled the coils of my hair. Hers was so similar, but long and lovely in perfect spirals. It was no wonder she was Pharaoh’s favorite. Her full lips, her sparkling dark eyes, her smooth and flawless dark skin…
It had all looked so dim and dull before she died, her beauty unfairly stolen with the onset of illness.
“Imagine how you would feel if your roles were reversed and you were the stranger entering a new home in this palace, with new peers, new challenges. If we make enemies of strangers instead of friends, we will see enemies everywhere, and ultimately only hurt ourselves.” She petted my hair again and then gently stroked my cheek.
How I missed her touch and kind wisdom, the perfect balance with how strictly she taught us.
I hadn’t yet known then—now,then—how important it was to cling to these moments, to remember her as she was, but there would come a day when she would be nothing but memories, soured by the loss of her and her last days spent withering in pain.
Perhaps I was the lucky one to have perished quickly.
“And this, young Nakht,” a voice reached us from my bedchamber door, “is one of the dancers’ quarters for those in training.”
