Are you religious?

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 a gaze gently disapproving flicked up in purple relief from where tavina sat upon the bank, sorting desert mallowflower into a gradient of medicinal hues. khusobek had led a hunt to kill something known as oryx, and it was a strip of that odd pale skin upon which she made her small pastel piles.

 hearing of exploits was welcome. hearing the particulars of a man's rough bed was not in her wheelhouse of interest. "no," tavina gave in brusque answer. "i've yet to try a man, and there were several others i would have chosen first, if i enjoyed them." blue. pink. yellow. "there is nothing a man can give me that a woman does not grant a hundredfold."

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 “Oh? Yuh can do better?” Her smile glints provokingly. A summons; the one Tavina knew remained open to her. She swam in little circles and let her tail splish; a pretty advertisement meant for the purple eyes.
 “Poor things,” Nuri moved to collect the discarded petals with her nose. She glanced out over her shoulder before paddling closer. “Why? Wont their children be…well... damaged?” She asked the doctor sincerely.

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 she was flustered and a blush crept her face now, unseemly and castigating. "i would say any woman can surpass a man," the sesh declared. "the difference is in attraction. some, such as our very own high priest, prefer both. others women. others men."
 at the inquiry, her lips thinned into a hard line. "i suppose we'll see. and i suppose it will be me who handles such tragedies."
 "it's not always like that. there's simply a much higher risk." she toyed idly with the flowers now, glancing up toward nuri. i thought about leaving.
 but tavina did not say this.

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 Tavina says, but can she know? Nuri found she didn’t much care in that moment, not when the sesh wore a deep shade of pink on her cheeks. There was something too endearing there to confront.
 “All evidence to the contrary,” she grinned still, body sore from the jodai. Every weakened kick was a pleasurable reminder that he had been there, occupying Nuri in her entirety. But Tavina had acquired a far-off look. The coyote squinted, paddling just under her nose.
 “Yuh not saying all of it. What’re yuh not tellin' me?”

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 beautiful nuri. perfect nuri. she would have the eye of rashepses, and this entire was why tavina chose to keep her silence. close as they were becoming — her days were marked by the fellahin's humoring companionship — she had learned not to trust. what a lesson. but it was one each woman learned. tavina's careful avoidance of men had not prevented them from leaving their stamp upon her life.
 "i whelped those kids myself. well. helped." her wrists were bathed studiously as she tried not to look into the pierce of nuri's gaze. "it's odd to have them grown enough to leave."
 ah — she was stumbling into the open again. "i don't quite think of myself as their mother. but i am very much their aunt," and tavina marveled that she did not need wine to say so openly that her heart yearned for familial routine and love.

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 But it was Tavina who in this moment captivated all of the courtesan as she surfaced like a sea-nymph to bask in the sunlight near busied paws.
 “Yuh a dahling,” if the sesh forbade a look, Nuri insisted on it, legs pulling damply from the waters. “Can’t imagine those whelps knowin’ a bettah aunt.” A tender paw snuck its way over the Sesh’s own. A slight touch; fleeting; yet in its caress all the invitation the coyote meant to impart— all the affection of such a move.
 “Yuh gonna tell them about… the risks?” She asked— maybe more for her own morbid curiosity but her nose tilted to Tavina’s all the same.

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 "i should, shouldn't i?" but nuri hadn't been around long enough to understand what constituted treason, and suggesting that the grandchildren of rashepses would be anything less than perfect certainly qualified. her toes twitched beneath the touch; at last she touched their palms together and allowed herself the pleasantry of that connection.
 but she found an excuse to break it, pretending there was still dirt lodged beneath her claws, and perhaps there was. "i think the princess will come to me at least. i am tasked with their medical learning; they may come to such conclusions themselves." it was, in a word, beyond her.

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 She smiled, eddying that same paw through the water, mesmerized by crowds of bubbles that followed its wake. “Maybe it’s bettuh to keep yuh nose out. Just being a friend to those children is enough.” Nuri certainly didn’t want her companion finding trouble by the rationale of a courtesan’s tongue.
 She sank back beneath the surface, body cleansed by the deepest green and becoming a weightless raft. “I can’t wait till we have a palace, with dining chambers and cool rooms to sleep in.” The woman daydreamed. Anything to get out from this oppressive heat.

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 it was for the best, but this discourse with nuri has reminded tavina again of her place. she stayed for eset; only in hopes her beloved would return. but with each day that passed, such hopes began to erode. what then held her in the oasis?
 "you would have adored muat-riya. halls of blue, polished like shining glass. indoor gardens, purest water from the cenote." the sesh sighed. "and i do miss having an examination room. i had two, actually. one in akashingo and a second in muat-riya. if anyone can build our wealth again, it is pharaoh toula and her Consort."
 a soft look as she tried to remain present.

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 When she imagined what Tavina spoke of, her mind danced fancifully away, like a river-fish who would not be caught. And if such a place as Muat-riya could be real, then the new palace would exceed her most extravagant hopes.
 “I wanna bedroom just like that,” she envisions while sprawling her shimmering body across the shallows. “Painted walls with my own collection of sparkly jewels, and the most sumptuous furs to lay in.” She drew a wet paw against her cheek, imagining, and smiled up at the sesh. “Course, I’ll miss ouh conversations when yuh stuffed away in a room all day. You’ll come to see me, right?”
 The naiad wrenched herself closer then, just under her dear doctor’s nose, neck arched high and voice lowered in a conspiratorial manner, “what’s up with the pharaoh, anyway? She’s got the whole sweet-virgin-mothuh-teresa act down pat.”

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 oasis water beaded upon nuri and her perfect pelt. tavina was indeed entranced for a dangerous moment, eyes roving down to the fellahin's mouth before they returned to the twilit gaze.
 tavina recovered herself again by looking away. "of course i shall, if you will also come to help me with the rousing business of categorizing herbs."
 to toula; "her father was cruel, her sister ambitious, her brothers not devoted. her tactic is simple: avoid acting as any of them did. she's genuinely kind and her warmth is true." but tempered by rashepses, who could know how long this might hold?

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 Tavina might have shuffled away, but Nuri could see the bud of desire in her gaze as she allowed them the privilege to dip lower than her eyes. Sweet woman. The coyote could only smile up at her angular face framed in the golden light, lips slightly parted in a half-formed kiss. She pressed it damply upon the dark cheek, “deal.”
 “Suppose I should go meet this Pharaoh of ouhs,” Nuri leaned into a stretch, fluttering her furs. Good to know the wives whose husbands she intended to sleep with.
 “See yuh round, love.”

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love the new art <3

---

 "see you," tavina muttered from where she had bent very far over — nothing at all.
 her lonely heart tripped a sympathetic rhythm. why did it feel like a betrayal to eset? she did not even think eset would see it as such, to take nuri to bed.
 but it did, and so she squandered the idea of unloneliness upon the traditional altar of hard work, and set herself many hard tasks for the day.

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