Chapter Text
For the Pharaoh his sleep was not so easy to come by. The God-King in human skin was stressed out and sleep deprived, unable to rest easy as troubles began to brew in the capital. For the last month he had been interviewing man after man that all might be his potential destined husband.
Which was a concept that, while he did not care about the gender of his partner, he felt uncomfortable as it made him feel like he was betraying his beloved wife. While it was not unusual and even encouraged for a pharaoh to have many partners, Cipher had been different. He had vowed to himself as a child that he would not be so open, wishing to dedicate himself to his betrothed, a noble daughter of a neighboring kingdom named Veronica. He had called her Pyronica for her lovely burn scars, something caused by a fire she had accidentally set as a young child and been disfigured by.
His father had been disgusted by her scarred, one eyed form after she had finally recovered from her wounds and had been about to reject her as his son’s betrothed but was stopped when Cipher had seen her. The young blonde child had run to her and hugged her, glad that she was alright while she clung to him, struggling to not cry before the Pharaoh. They had formed a strong bond with each other having been betrothed from birth so they spent much of their time together. Cipher had insisted to his father that he would still marry her, that he thought her scars made her even more beautiful. With great hesitation, the Pharaoh relented and allowed their betrothal to continue.
It had taken many years to convince his beloved that she was indeed beautiful and to be proud of her uniqueness. When they had been 16 (Pyronica) and 17 (Cipher), Cipher’s father was killed in battle with raiders to the north, leaving his only son to be crowned the new Pharaoh. Soon after their first daughter, Kamilah was born. About a year later, Sekhet followed. Both were dearly loved and cared for but Sekhet’s birth had been a difficult one and no matter what they did, the royal couple could not bear anymore children. While neither minded, comfortable with training Kamilah to become the next Pharaoh, there was some unrest among his council at the thought of a female Pharaoh.
While not as uncommon as many would be led to believe millennia later, it was still unusual and some completely disapproved of it. Cipher did not care, and continued to tutor his daughter for her future role. He was aware that they may attempt a coup upon his death, but he had taken careful measures to prevent that.
For awhile, the family was happy, content with life as the blonde led his people into a new age of prosperity with amazing new inventions and the construction and rebuilding of temples across his kingdom. But then his beloved Queen fell ill.
Her health had slowly been failing over the years but it had gone unnoticed by even her physician because of its gradual pace. She grew weak and feverish, her systems slowly shutting down as an unknown disease gripped her very core, lumps growing all over her body now as tumors overtook her. No matter how many prayers were made or how many healers they called, there was nothing they could do beside try to make her comfortable. One healer had told him that her illness had no cure, all that contracted it died painfully, and that had torn his heart in two. Eventually she gave her final living breath and after being mourned, she was mummified and sealed into a tomb beneath one of the great pyramids, where she would await the day Osiris returned to the overworld with the immortal dead to reunite with the living.
Cipher and their daughters grieved heavily for their loss, even though they knew they would someday be reunited with her, to lose her so young broke their hearts. Kamilah and Sekhet had only been 7 and 6 when their mother died, and now he was expected to marry a strange man because of a prophecy? He paced around in his private chambers, debating with himself in the late night hours as he tried to figure out how he was to tell his young daughters what was going on. He had kept the full truth from them, as he’d been unsure as to what their reactions would be. He was basically in an arranged marriage once more, but this time he had not the time to get to know his betrothed and fall in love with them as he had his beloved wife.
His daughters would be expected to treat his husband-to-be as their mother in all but blood, especially since this was a marriage arranged by Thoth himself. Such a holy marriage would give them no way to behave otherwise and he didn’t want them to feel like they had to forget their mother.
He was making another pass by the door when there was a quiet knock, making him pause. “... Enter.”
The large gilded doorway opened, revealing a messenger servant who bowed deeply before the Pharaoh. “My Pharaoh, life, health and strength be to you. I come with a message from the High Priestess of Thoth.”
“You may speak, messenger.” Oh Anubis what now? Was there another prophecy? Was this a huge waste of time and resources? He had borders that needed to be protected after all, he could not be wasting his men on some useless errand if this was all a waste!
“Yes my King. She wrote you this letter, but asked me to tell you myself that she received a sign that some of your men have found him, my King. He shall arrive in 3 weeks time and bears a constellation upon his skin.” He then reached into his satchel and pulled out a scroll of papyrus tied shut with string, a pendent of an ibis dangling from it. Cipher took it and examined the pendent before turning back to the still bowing messenger.
“Thank you for delivering the message and letter. You may go now and tell Key that you are to receive a week’s wage as reward.”
The messenger nearly balked at the more than generous gift but knew better than to refute the Pharaoh. Instead he bowed deeper and thanked him profusely for his kindness before backing away and letting the heavy door close with a small thud.
Once his footsteps were no longer heard, Cipher turned and lit a candle, untying the scroll and setting aside the string and pendent in favor of reading it. As he read its contents his heart sank. Some of his generals were unhappy with his announcement of the prophecy and that their Pharaoh must marry a man, knowing full well that he would remain devoted to him upon their marriage and as a result never bear a male heir. According to her visions, some of the generals would choose to betray him and attempt to kill his betrothed once they knew who it was.
“Oh great Ra... What did I ever do to deserve this? Have I not been a good pharaoh? This kingdom hasn’t seen such prosperity in centuries and yet they are upset because I am not sleazy boars like them?” His sadness began to shift and boil into rage as he read the message once more. He snarled with fury, tempted to call them all out of their homes and have them whipped until they confessed who was daring to betray him. But instead he took a deep, calming breath and promised himself that he would find out who the traitors were in time. He had 3 weeks to do so before his betrothed arrived, and if he couldn’t figure it out before then, then he would just have to keep his identity a secret and use him to lure them out.
It was underhanded he knew, but he couldn’t risk his kingdom’s safety over the stupidity of some of its generals. He also promised himself to try to keep this a secret from his betrothed, he wanted to give him time to adjust to life in the palace and it would be difficult enough without having to worry about the threat of death looming over his head. He was about to burn the scroll to hide its contents before something told him not to. Instead he rolled it back up and tied it off once more, tucking it away in some of his bookshelves for the time being.
Exhaustion finally took ahold of him as he blew out the candle and he sighed, resolving to talk to his daughters about what was going to happen in the morning. He needed to tell them now so they would have time to adjust, as loath he was to doing so.
He climbed into his soft cotton bed and curled up into a ball, slowly letting sleep take hold of him...