third

prayer.

 a prayer for rain.

 a prayer for nazli

 senmut no longer sensed her, and this crushed him in such a torment, wildflower petals beneath a pestle, and grief the holding mortar. he hung his head.

 but aiesha he had, and raised his head to look for her once more, to welcome their daughter into the night of eternal prayers for the soul of a mother who the Gods had held back.

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she drifted in this place. there was a disconnect, but wasn't there always? she was jealous sometimes, of her sister. jealous of her ability to hear, to connect to others by way of speech and conversation. it wasn't something that kamaria had ever known, but instead something she dreamed about.

dreams. she remembered the dream she had of the girl in the bed of flowers. the one that she could hear and understand.

tears welled in her eyes. a small sniffle.

kamaria bit her tongue, a slight and awkward movement. iron washed over her taste buds. tears bitten back successfully, the honey-wolf lingered near the waters, sniffing at it gently. she was aware of the other wolf, of course, but didn't want to bother him.
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thanks for joining! <3

---

senmut entered the sacred spring and sent his head beneath the surface.

 he shut his eyes. it was not the serpent. these waters he did not know.

 and yet from grieving priest such dust was washed, and senmut broke up above the crystal with a gasp, shaking water from bright green eyes which widened first in surprise and then in chagrin.

 "my apologies if i have splashed you," said the red prince, retreating somewhat as feet felt for the edge below.

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ofc! happy to write with you!

---

what had been a smooth, glassy surface was suddenly broken; the girl startled, jumping almost out of her skin, four paws clearing the ground before they found it again. hackles raised, eyes wide, teeth bared, kamaria stared at the water, expecting some sort of monster and finding instead a red-cloaked man with eyes like grass.

the honeywolf settled once more.

his mouth moved and her head shook even before he stopped, ears laying back against her head as if to signal to him that she could not hear him. she could never hear him. head tilting slightly, she looked from the man to the waters he stood in, trying to see what he was doing. jaw worked, opening and closing, head tilting to the other side as she tried to question him.

was he fishing?
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 she did not speak, and furthermore she indicated that this was not an ability possessed. senmut took the moment to shake water from his scarlet pelt before greenstone eyes regarded her more closely. "i am akashingo's high priest and hereditary prince," he told her quietly. "for my rituals before the gods do i bathe."

 how he missed the wellspring with its scented waters and attendants readied, arms filled with sheepskin towels. "i am senmut. you are new to us." he smoothed the last from his shoulders. "do you belong to the court of the queen or the Consort? one nod for the first, two for the second," genteel offering from a man who had always been a servant.

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he shook himself of the water that weighed down his pelt and then began moving his mouth more; kamaria could only assume that he was speaking again. sitting back on her haunches, kamaria tilted her head and looked at him with quiet eyes that held no acknowledgement or understanding. how could she have either when she could not hear him?

maybe... she should try something different...

standing again, the honeywolf moved closer to him, hesitant at first but still closer. when the distance between them was almost nothing, kamaria stretched her neck so that her nose could brush his ear before looking at him in the eyes and shaking her head. would he understand her this time?
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 oh — "you do not hear," he muttered to himself, feeling quite foolish indeed. again senmut opened his mouth to speak, then firmly shut it. at a loss, he racked his mind, then gestured to his chest. "senmut." if she did not hear, did she read lips? in the absence of this, he truly did not know what to do.

 motioning at her felt wrong, more imperious than he wished. but he would revert to it if need be, no matter how he felt in its employment. what had toula seen? surely much; he searched for it now in her, eyes appeased with gentle green light.

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it was always interesting to see the moment someone else realized. some reacted with disappointment. some, with irritation or frustration. others — like this man — reacted with something akin to confusion. as if he did not know what to do.

she watched his paw meet his chest, then his mouth move; this time, however, the movements of his speech were exaggerated. slower. normally, kamaria could not parse what was being said but... but now...

her eyes brightened, her ears perked -- her body's instinct. besides when she was around @Saira, this was the first time kamaria had felt anything positive since their arrival to this world. she gestured with one paw, a circular motion, as if asking again?
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 there — there. some hope. glinting white teeth conveyed his pleasure in their brief attempt. slowly; again he said his name, only the first. it was right. despite all the titles he might have amassed, senmut was the one beneath which he had been born and the one bey which he was known to the gods.

 they would not call for the High Priest nor the erpa-ha when the end had come.

 his paw, outstretched but politely without touching; "your name?" and he kept his eyes trained between her own and mouth, watching perhaps too intently.

 it was a new way of communicating; he was piqued for it as any scribe might be.

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That, she would not do. Only saira had the misfortune of hearing her… “speak”. It was something the honeywolf was terribly self conscious of, and not something that she would do in the presence of other. The woman and her companion had been an exception, something done out of desperation. She hadn’t been able to find her sister, so Kamaria had done what was necessary; good thing she had, too, as they had been reunited shortly after.

Her head shook in answer to him, and instead she looked to the water again, then back. His pelt was drying a bit under the warm sun, but why had he been so submerged in the first place?
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 no. no because she could not or because she would not? quickly was the woman becoming a mixture of intrigue and frustration to senmut, a welcome and distracting face which now asked after the water. he began to answer, then paused to think of how best it might be done. "priest," he said, twice, motioning to himself. "cleanse. ritual."

 the finer points of godhood were not something he could communicate in such a manner. another must be found. he thought longingly of the acetic but elegant quarters of the priests within the red palace, of his mattings and his paints. "you are a priestess?" senmut guessed slowly.

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sorry for the wait! my brain's been not having it with being at the computer haha

---

reest. ears forward, kamaria gave him a puzzled look. but then another word he said — ritual — assisted shifting the puzzle piece into place. priest, not reest. it made more sense, and she gave the indication that she was following along. stepping forward, closer to the water, kamaria lowered her head to sniff at the water.

"no," she replied with a shake of her head. not a priestess. kamaria was not sure she believed in benevoletn gods, for why would they forsake her and make it so that she could not hear, so that she could not speak? why did they look down upon her so? visage shifted from peaceful curiosity to somber, downtrodden, dragged back into the bleak darkness of her own mind.

looking to the man again, kamaria motioned to him and then to the water, then herself. show?
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no worries at all! <3 sorry for mine lol

---

 she heard. she listened. but senmut was not sure she comprehended.

 quietly he watched, but when the woman suggested she make the ablutions herself, senmut hesitated. his rite had been one of gentle power, but it was a priest's purview all the same.

 "come." akashingo's red priest stepped back into the water, gesturing her forward. "i am praying for rain." and for nazli.

 his voice took up a low chant once more, arms dripping with the oasis as he lifted them, one and then the other, in time with his hymn.

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slowly, carefully, she mimicked him. kamaria knew that religion was sacred to some, though she had never learned such reverence herself. the honeywolf did wonder if rituals such as the one she was learning helped. would it truly bring rain? or was it a gesture that was more to make ones' self feel like they did something useful?

still, she appreciated him showing her, teaching her, making her feel less... outside. her fur dripping, blue eyes glued to his form, kamaria continued to second his motions, save for the movement of his lips. distantly, she wondered if she looked silly or out of place, even if she didn't quite feel like it.
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 her silence brought a great deal of ability to senmut, who drew up the quiet motions for his own power. it seemed a soft energy began to rise between he and she.

 louder grew the hymn, more dramatic the priest's movements until it felt the god Amun moved, and he fell silent, breathing hard;

 jaws parted, eyes closed;

 "Your servants listen, Divine One."

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There was a sort of peace in these movements, a lifting of the weight from her shoulders that allowed the girl to breathe easier, deeper. Here, in the water, she could smell the life around her, smell the wet/dry musk of the man at her side, whose actions she mimicked closely. She could feel small currents around her ankles from fish that darted around the two of them, feel the sun beating down on her fur to warm her.

Here, her movements broke from her delayed matching of his own and instead, Kamaria tilted her head up, nose to the sky, eyes slipping closed as she soaked all of it in. So rarely was the girl at peace that this singular moment was beautiful, in a way. It made her eyes prickle with heat, her lashes wet with tears unshed as she relished in a soft second of normalcy. There was no self-made hate in her heart then, no pitying stares of others, no shameful croak of her voice.

Right now, right here, Kamaria found solace in the heat of the sun, in the company of the priest, in the cool soaking of water around them. What se wouldn't give to feel this weightless all the time.
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 in some did the gods move first, and in some did the gods move secondly. as senmut went on, shifting to a call for Nwt to guide down her darkness, for Sobek to guard the oasis; as he did so, the priest watched kamaria surreptitiously.

 he found that she fell into the secondmost of these organizings.

 voice wavered at last to a final note; senmut held it, not quite looking at the face he felt had been transfixed by the power of akashingo's gods.

 he was still in the water as a honeyed exhaustion set over his corporeal form.

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when the world fell dark and silent, would anyone be able to tell time? would they be able to know how it passed, how many times the moon revolved around them, or how many times the sun rose and fell? would they have even cared?

kamaria did not. with her eyes closed, scent and touch and taste were her only senses and the world felt so much more alive for it.

standing here in the cool waters, she could feel the wind rustle the fur upon her cheeks, the sun warm her coat. she could smell the dryness of the Oasis, and the musk of the man next to her. the sand upon her tongue, the taste of clean air that tickled the back of her tongue each time she breathed...

in this moment, kamaria found peace, and thankfulness that he had helped her find it.

eyes open, she looked to him, and startled; she had not been expecting his attention to be upon her. so quickly did her form tense back up, shrinking back down into herself. a tiny nod was made, a thank you for his instruction.
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 senmut smiled down toward the water.

 "if the gods move again in you, please tell me." he still did not know her name, and despite his rank, the prince of these gilt sands would not press one upon her. she was for now unknowable, a priestess of silvering silence. and perhaps it was as those above meant it to be.

 "you may always come here. you may always worship them. these waters are sacred."

 senmut moved toward the shore now, grasping sheepskins from the bank, offering to set one around her shoulders. 

 and the desert was quiet.

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out of the water, the girl followed him; while she would never know what words he spoke, the sentiment he shared with her was conveyed in ways that did not need words. with a sense of calm that always seemed so elusive, kamaria watched in curiosity as he grabbed the pelt and showed her a kind of caring that so few others did. pity, yes. help, always. but the two always seemed to go hand in hand. this felt more...

crystalline eyes followed him as she settled herself upon the shore beneath the warmth he had bestowed upon her. with one paw, kamaria patted the ground next to her, inviting him to stay with her if he so wished. if not, she was happy enough to dry off in solitude.
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would u like to have a new thread? <3

---

 once a fellahin, always. an act of service pleased senmut as nothing else did save for his own piety in rite. he decided she was striking shrouded in the white wool and left it alone at that. heartache; now for nazli, for aiesha, for the sundering of the red land and the lotus palace.

 but here he would rather remain than die a slow death of a thousand slices.

 the oasis sprawled interminable. senmut pantomimed an eating motion and turned shy brightgreen eyes upon his companion. would she care to share a meal with him? scarlet prince knew he might enjoy the solitude, though he joked to himself that he had no way of promising her that he would stop his ceaseless talk.

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I would love one <3

---

a meal. at the mere thought, her stomach rumbled, eyes widening at the realization that she had not eaten in some time. a moment's hesitation, wondering if she should unburden him from her company, but... for once, kamaria would indulge herself. his presence was comforting and she wished to remain with him for a time.

and so, she nodded, rising to her feet when he indicated that he was ready.
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