Going Under

(If I look deep enough)

Chapter Summary: The Land of Punt was an ancient kingdom, trading partner of Egypt that was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory and wild animals.

Chapter Warnings: Light depictions of domestic violence. Nothing too graphic or detailed, but it is there. if you think that might tigger you somehow, please skip the scene that starts with "We´re traveling to the Lands of Punt".

ABYDOS

Contrary to what she might have thought, Massika found herself falling into a routine rather easily. And against whatever prediction she might have entertained, she did not see her husband a lot of the time during the day. In fact, there were also nights where she was alone in their quarters, with her husband who knows where doing gods knew what.

Not that she really minded.

The man was attractive, she must concede and when he was not being a total creep, he could be a really good conversation partner. The problem were those creepy moments. They could sneak on her at any time, being during their rather awkward sex, during serious conversations regarding the kingdom, while eating or even when they were doing nothing.

Sometimes there was a lascivious gaze that made her uncomfortable, or the tone of his voice while saying something, making it sound aggressive and demeaning even if the content of the sentence had nothing of the sort. It could be the way he said a certain pet name or even the way he acted around her when they were with other people.

So she decided to stay away from the man as much as she could, only interacting with him when absolutely necessary. Which, seemed to annoy the council to no end.

She knew that they were aiming to manipulate the Pharaoh through her, and they were not subtle about it in the least.

The first days of her stay at the main palace in Thebes, she got a visit from several of them, telling her that they would be there for anything she might need, and to not hesitate if there was something she did not understand. Soon, they visited her to talk about things related to the kingdom, though they usually came to her with the guise of asking for her advice in a completely different matter.

Lately though, they were coming to her with gifts, that she could easily label as bribes. For some reason, they seemed to think that she was still oblivious to their machinations, that she was just an air headed, basic girl and that they could use her to achieve whatever they wanted with the pharaoh.

So she turned that belief against them, feigning to be an idiot and sometimes forgetting what she was supposed to tell her husband or simply telling him things that were complete opposites to what they wanted.

One of those suggestions was the move to the palace of Abydos, which she justified as her wanting to spend more time it their green areas, as they were prettier and bigger than the ones in Thebes. In reality, there was a dispute between Linen traders that was getting out of control and that the Council was eager to hide from their king.

The council was livid, but were unable to prevent the move without being suspicious.

Obviously, Ahmose noticed the minute they set foot in the city. Which then led to a screaming match that could be heard all the way to the royal gardens… even if they were on the other side of the palace.

"My my… but just what happened there… I haven't heard the man this mad in ages!"

Leaning back on a nearby tree was Thot, again disguised as the scribe Seker. He seemed to be paying close attention to what could be heard of the screaming match and had a rather amused smile on his face. He turned his attention back to her, expecting an answer to his question, which Massika readily provided.

"Well, those idiots thought that I was just a poor damsel that they could use to manipulate the Pharaoh. I just proved them wrong while not disproving their beliefs…"

"Just as expected, I knew I liked you for a reason."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that you're as clever as I imagined… and as he described you."

A loud crash of something breaking interrupted their conversation, making them turn to see if there would be something flying over their heads or if they should cover themselves. Satisfied that there were no flying objects heading in their direction, they resumed their conversation.

"So, what are you doing here? I highly doubt you came all this way to praise me."

"Oh, I didn't. In fact, I came looking for your dear husband, in regards of the robbery of sacred items form several temples along the Nile."

There was another crash followed by absolute silence. And then loud stomping steps could be heard coming their way. Three councilors passed by, not even sparing them a glance before leaving the place altogether.

"Well, that seems to be my cue, take care, dear!" And with that, Thoth moved towards the palace, whistling a song while playing with a scroll in his hands and leaving a confused Massika behind.

It had been a mistake. A huge miscalculation of their part.

When they decided that they needed to force a marriage on the Pharaoh, they thought that they could control every aspect of it and in turn control him. So they schemed, and they planned. They hand picked a bride that would fit their needs and standards. One that had already caught the eye of the man. They thought that nothing could go wrong and that they would soon be the real power behind the throne.

They made a mistake. The girl turned out to be useless to their purposes, being either too stupid or too clever to go along with what they subtly and not so subtly suggested her.

Yes, they made a mistake and now were paying dearly because of it.

They needed to get rid of her, but it needed to be in which their involvement would be minimal, or they would lose everything they had gained.

They called their best spies and their best investigators to gather every scrap of information about her. They knew that there should be something they could use against her, they just needed to find it.

They just needed to wait.

And find it they did. It was not an easy endeavor, nor a quick one. Even their best spies could not find something against the girl which made the councilors rather desperate since with every day that the girl was still there, their goals went further and further away. Until one day, one of them found a scrap of information.

Before the engagement, the girl used to have another lover, a priest of the temple where she used to live. Said lover participated in the negotiation of the engagement and subsequent marriage. And was the one to accompany her to Thebes for the wedding.

There were no records of the man going back to Hardai afterwards, nor of him actually leaving Thebes in the first place. It could be that he simply took another route or that he was still living near them somewhere.

It was a stretch, and it could possibly be a lie but they used that idea to plant the seed of doubt in the Pharaoh's mind.

They started with little things, like asking Ahmose about the girl, and how she was adapting. Then, they started to make small comments questioning her activities and who she spent her free time with. The comments about the sheer loneliness that she should be experiencing were next, implying that it was strange that, even if she did not have a lot of friendly faces around, she was always happy.

With every step, there was a great deal of denial from the pharaoh, but every time they asked in any way, they could see the seed of doubt growing inside of him.

They were just a flimsy gossip away to make his doubts go haywire. They just needed a well placed word at the right moment.

They just needed him to overhear a conversation.

He could not believe that his marriage was falling apart so soon. He refused to believe what his council was trying to tell him in a veiled way, but after hearing those servants talking about the mysterious man that was seen talking to the queen the other day…

He still refused to believe, but…

He reminded himself, that he had more important matters to attend, like the fact that they might finally be able to get back the stolen goods from all those temples but for that, he needed to move forward with his trip to the Land of Punt.

In fact, he could take her with him and try to reconnect with her if there was really a separation issue, or to get closer to her if there wasn't one to begin with.

He decided he would be talking to her that night before sleep.

"We're traveling to the Lands of Punt."

There was no preamble, nor real context behind the sudden announcement or even a reason why her husband was telling her that, which left Massika understandably confused.

Still, she did not make a big deal of it, thinking it was just another of his husband's whims and thinking she could get away from accompanying him. She resumed her grooming while asking for the reason behind the sudden need to travel to foreign lands, and the apparent urgency of leaving their lands behind.

Massika could see him taking a deep breath, as if trying to calm himself before answering. He told her in a clipped tone about the stolen goods and the incidents behind each of the thefts, something that she already knew. "My investigators finally managed to trace and secure them, but since they are currently in the hands of the rulers of Punt, I need to go there and pay my respects, then we can take home the missing items."

"But you don't really need me there and I don't really want to travel."

It seemed like the wrong thing to say, because Massika instantly saw him clench his jaw and tense his body as if physically restraining himself before almost shouting "Why? So you can stay behind and run around with your lover?"

His tone so full of disgust and betrayal it made Massika really pay attention to what was happening before her. Her husband was red with anger and his eyes were reflecting just as much of the hurt and betrayal that his earlier statement conveyed. A hurt and betrayal she did not understand where it had come from.

"What are you talking about? I don't have any lover!?"

"Don't lie to me, Massika. I heard some servants recounting how the queen seemed to spend a lot of time with a mysterious man! How she giggles a lot and how she seemed to be very familiar with him!"

It dawned of Massika that he must be misinterpreting things, because the only person that fit that description was Seker, and she was definitely not in a relationship with that particular man/god. Still, her silence served as an apparent confirmation of her guilt to Ahmose, who promptly started to shout profanities against her and this mystery man. Until he shouted something he should not have.

"Is that priest you were always with, isn't it!?" His screams were now bordering on insanity, while he also looked for something to use as a relief of his anger. He took a vase that was nearby,threw it to the nearest wall and watched it shatter as it fell to the floor. He turned to confront Massika again, but her frightened eyes seemed to tell him what he wanted to know. "He is still around here isn't he? I'll kill him! I'll find him and I'll kill him!"

"You will not do no such thing!" Massika shouted too, in part because she knew that Khaba was no longer in Egypt and because even if he were, there was no way Ahmose could kill an actual god. Deep inside, and even if she felt no real love for her husband, she was worried he would end in a really bad position if he confronted the god.

But Ahmose was not aware of any of that, his mind completely clouded with the doubts slowly planted there by the council and by Massika's apparent acceptance of the situation.

So he slapped her. He slapped her so hard that she fell to the floor, clutching her abused cheek. He stood above her, his eyes ablaze with fury, and his posture ready to pound. For a moment, Massika though that he would try to beat her into submission.

Instead, he just left her there, turning around to leave their quarters. He stood by the door, and without turning to look at her, he told her in a voice filled with contempt "I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to the Land of Punt. You better tell that lover of yours to not flee and confront me as a man, because if I come back and cannot find him, I'll look for him all over Kemet, starting with your city which I'll raze to the ground until there is nowhere left for him to hide."

Though the original forecast for the day included clear skies and calm winds, that would be ideal for navigation, when dawn broke, heavy dark clouds were tainting the horizon, the winds were displaying a strange shiftiness on their direction, that while still considered friendly, could turn out to be quite dangerous and deceiving. Even the waters of the Nile felt strange, sometimes feeling too heavy for navigation and other times feeling too aggressive to even get near.

It was the morning Ahmose was supposed to part to the Land of Punt, and even if the master navigators told him to wait a few hours to see if things changed for the better, he refused to listen.

He had spent the night revisiting his harem, a place he thought he would not be using for a really long time, but after his fight with Massika, there was the only place where he thought he could find some solace. Now… now he was regretting his life choices. He knew that he overreacted with Massika, and looking back to their confrontation he could see how she was more scared than defiant, how she never accepted his accusations and how her actions were more placating than offending. He was just too clouded with anger and his mind was too filled with the doubtful comments from the councilors.

He should have investigated more before confronting her, and he should have trusted her more. He could have managed the traveling situation in a better way, so she would be more open to accompany him on this trip.

Instead he was to part from her in bad terms, with no hope of reconciliation in the near future and instead ot the memory of her sweet smiles, he just had the memory of her frightened eyes burning the back of his mind.

And when he went looking for her in their quarters, he found that she had already left to one of the temples. He decided to leave her a small scroll with an apology and the promise of talking things in a civil way when he came back. He promised to hear her out before accusing her of anything again. He knew it was not enough, but he hoped that It would suffice for the time being.

He swore that, once he came back from Punt, he would devote his life to make the girl happy. But he needed to go now if he wanted to be back as soon as possible,

So he ignored all recommendations to wait some more and sailed away to Punt.

Later, much later, when his ship was about to sink because of a sudden storm near the Waterfalls, he thought that maybe he should have waited some more… and that now he would never be able to make it up for Massika again.

And even when he was about to drown in the bottom of the Nile, the memory of his wife made dying hurt just a little less.