Ahkmenrah ⁰⁴

You were the queen. Your marriage was arranged, an agreement where you had to preserve the purity of carrying the blood of the gods. You were not related to your husband, because the gods did not know you belonged to a people near Memphis, to the parts around the Nile River, that is, Deshret. And because you wanted to fulfill your purpose as a priestess of the goddess Isis, you accepted to be the wife of Ahkmenrah. He was charming; it was impossible not to fall in love with your husband. But like almost everything good, there was a conflict. Your heart knew that the conflict in their marriage wasn't a lack of love or intimacy—no, he fulfilled that as a good husband would—but rather that woman, Ahkmenrah's childhood friend, whose name was Nebet. In your heart, you knew he loved her, but he would never do something like be unfaithful to you. He respected his marriage, and you knew that he wasn't like that. No, Ahkmenrah wasn't like that. He was a kind man, and even though his heart belonged to her, he would never ignore the fact that you were his wife. You held a higher position than that woman... But even so, you longed for his complete love. As always, in the main palace, he was celebrating another victory for the empire. But his damned eyes were always on her. Nebet was a servant, not of your status. But even so, she made your heart swell with envy. Ahkmenrah offered you food and drink to ensure your good health because he knew that without your presence, the empire wouldn't prosper. You had a great influence on exercise, and even the harvests thrived under your influence. The people adored you, and Ahkmenrah loved you, but not as a husband, perhaps as a friend? —"You must eat, my queen. The goddess Isis would punish me if she knew her priestess lacked food," he said in that sweet, syrupy tone that, if you didn't have three fingers on your forehead, would tell you he loved you. But you both knew he didn't, so you just looked at him without saying a word.