V.E.: Hello everyone! I'm back at school, feeling overwhelmed, and needing a place to vent out some frustration towards my classes right now! And Princess of Egypt is next on my update list.
Technically I have more planned out for Mummy Reborn, but at least I have something to work with when I do that next time.
Cecelia: If you don't like Kisara here that much, I suggest you stop reading this since it is her story. This is my interpretation of Kisara. I see her as quiet, shy, with insecurity, but possessing great maturity and wisdom for her age. For her, confidence will grow over time. Damsel in distress is hardly how I see her, but I see where you could make the connection. Also, free spirited and courageous? That's Mana.
Now without further ado, I am going to wing my writing sense to the wind! Strange on how I have some scenes planned out in great detail while others are shrouded in shadows and mystery. Reminds me of one of my favorite posts on tumblr. Speaking of which, hello any people that started reading because of the link from that site!
No disclaimer this chapter guys. Just enjoy.
Ps. No Mizucritc, I am not changing the name. I am probably not only person whose fic shares its title with several others. I swear, this was not intentional.
There was nothing like sitting in the gardens and relaxing with a good Egyptian story. It certainly was much more relaxing to Kisara as she relaxed, her back conforming to the fig tree perfectly as a calm breeze blew.
While her owner was reading, Neftis was doing her own idea of relaxation and had curled up to sleep in the warm sun. The white cat seemed to purr in her sleep in much the way Kisara had seen dogs snort for snores.
In fact, a nap seemed like a pretty good idea to the young princess as she put her scroll down on the soft grass. Her eyes flittered down slowly, taking in a deep breath that soothed her.
She had only closed her eyes for a few second before she felt something jump into her lap, her eyes shooting open to find Mana there with an expectant look on her face.
The apprentice magician giggled as Kisara mock groaned.
"Mana, I was about to take a nap."
"But you can't take a nap!"
Kisara gave a small yawn before she settled her back more comfortably into the tree.
"Just leave me to sleep."
Mana groaned theatrically as she put herself into the performance, turning around in the white haired princess' lap.
"You can't. The sky is awake, so I'm awake, and so we have to play!"
One of Kisara's eyes was open as she gently but still forcefully pushed the girl off of her lap.
"Go play by yourself! Or go find Atem to play with you."
As the young brunet girl hit the soft grass, her face had a slight put to being denied her wish.
It was then that said young prince came on the scene, looking at between the two girls in confusion.
"Umm, Kisara, Mana, what's going on?"
Mana turned her attention to the prince, to help convince Kisara.
"There you are Prince! Kisara doesn't want to play anymore."
Kisara replied without even opening her eyes.
"She wants to play, I want to sleep. Could you guys go off somewhere while get some rest?"
Mana tried her charm again.
"Oh come on, Kisara! It isn't as fun with just me and Atem."
No change in the peaceful sleeping expression was evident.
"Then go find Mahad."
Atem shot his sister a dry look, though she technically couldn't see it.
"Mahad is in court right now with Master Rashidi and you know that."
Mana turned to ask with interest.
"What's going on anyway? Mahad doesn't usually have lessons right now."
Atem was about to answer when Kisara chimed in.
"Nephthys is introducing her apprentice and niece Isis to the Inner Court. All of the apprentices are there so they can formally meet her for the first time."
The two turned to stare at her. She finally opened her eyes and sat up to continue.
"Nephthys told me about it. Because she wants to focus on Isis, I've been assigned to lessons with Vizier Shimon now."
Atem lit up with understanding.
"So that's why you were there with us this morning."
"Exactly."
Ana went over to pull the pale haired princess off the ground and onto her feet.
"See, you're up! So now you can't go back to sleep, okay?"
Kisara sighed with some drama as Mana began spinning her around, though began smiling.
"Mana, stop. You're making me dizzy! It's going to throw off my crown!"
"I do this to Prince a lot and he's fine!"
Kisara tried to keep herself from laughing, the dizziness really starting to get to her.
"Yes, well Atem has his crazy hair to keep his crown in place."
That got her brother's eyes to blaze indignantly.
"Hey!"
"You can't say I'm wrong, I should know better than anyone."
"Why, I ought to…."
Atem smirked as his mind came up with an idea and he tackled the two young girls to the soft grassy ground. The three of them broke out in laughter at the impact, just like predicted the silver blue snake crown fell off to the side. They had gotten a little dirtied from the fall, but nothing that couldn't be fixed and for the moment they weren't really caring at all.
And then that moment ended.
"Prince Atem? Princess kisara?"
Kisara froze, slowly followed by Atem though Mana not as much. She slowly turned her ehead up to find that the trio ad an audience that saw all those antics.
Nabirye was there, a look of calm composure though her eyes brows were raised in surprise in what had just occurred. Ain, Bahiti (the one who spoke), and Yaminah's looks of surprise were much more prevalent and bordered on somewhat horrified, Kisara had made it a point not to give exact details of her relationship with Atem along with Atem and Mana.
It took a split second for Kisara to realize there was a fifth girl standing there.
Slowly getting up to her feet, she assessed her as she stood in the middle of the group. She was around Kisara's height and her age range, she blended with the girls much more than Kisara could as well as dressing in a similar white dress and goden bracelets with matching necklace. The unnamed girl was pure Egyptian, from her perfectly tanned skin without blemish, thick natural black hair with two strands bound up in gold. Nile blue eyes rimmed with golden kohl were a color similar to Kisara's own, but not the same.
But her face struck her as familiar as she realized exactly who she reminded her off and realized who exactly this girl was.
Nabirye took charge.
"We were just talking about you, actually."
Kisara looked at the calculating girl skeptically.
"Really now?"
Bahiti nodded eagerly to vouch that story.
"Yeah, we were just telling Isis all about…"
Nabirye interrupted her friend, turning to the girl of honor.
"We should probably be getting back to where Lady Nephthys is before she realizes we left the hall. Isn't that right Isis?"
Isis flinched as the attention was brought back on her, before answering.
"Yes."
Nabriye turned back to Kisara for a final speak.
"See you later, Princess."
The young girl turned as the group followed her back to where they had been, Isis' gaze lingering on the Kisara and the other two.
Once they had rounded the corner and were out of sight, both Atem and Mana slowly got up on their own feet. Mana was the first to comment.
"What was that about? Kisara, do you know them?"
Kisara answered curtly.
"Yes, I do."
Atem looked after where the girls had left.
"That sounded like a threat."
Kisara nodded, feeling a headache coming on.
"Probably. And it looks like my hunch on Nabirye was correct, I'm going to need to keep an eye on her."
The two younger children stared at the deep thinking elder as her thoughts took on a darker turn, as she leaned down to pick up her crown from the grass.
I was supposed to meet Isis and introduce her to them. It seems like Nephthys was right about me learning to play games at court.
Kisara flinched as she felt the tell-tale yank from a portion of her hair, reflected in her mirror.
Kiya also cringed as she asked.
"Too much."
"Yes."
Kiya went back to combing the moon white hair, the light coming in signaling an afternoon time.
"Sorry, after all this time, I'm still not the best when it comes to your hair."
Kisara turned around (effectively stopping the hair care session) and smiled at the mouse like servant girl.
"Kiya, you're not with me because you're the best at hair and jewelry. It's because you are able to help keep me sane here."
Kiya relaxed at and Kisara turned back around, submitting back again to the hair care.
"Sounds like you need some sanity right now. Still, has Lady Nephthys come to talk to you about anything? She does know everything that goes on here befre everyone else does."
Kisara's eyes narrowed at that.
"No and I doubt she will."
Kiya looked a bit taken back at that.
"What? But Lady Nephthys has always been so supportive of you! Why wouldn't she help you now?"
Kisara's mind was turning, starting to see the pieces come together as she guessed her teacher's mind.
"She's too busy teaching Isis the same things she started teaching me almost two years ago. Also, I think this is another test of hers to show that I can manage this court on my own. And that means being able to deal with any kind of obstacles, including Nabirye."
Kiya commented, showing some rather rare insight.
"What about Lady Isis? Maybe she could help."
Kisara shook her head to that.
"I don't know. I have yet to have a real conversation with her and I have no idea what she is like."
Kiya seemed exasperated.
"I will never understand court. Why does everyone have to be one thing one moment and then another the next?"
Kisara thought about that before she answered her friend.
"Well, I guess that's because people are never what they seem to be."
There was a pleasant silence to contemplate those words before being interrupted by a knock at the door.
The two glanced at each other at that. Kiya put down the brush and went to go open the door to the visitor. She started with a creak then opened it widely to let them through.
Lady Nephthys walked into the room with ease, her niece Isis not too far behind her. She bowed her head as Kisara stood up to greet her teacher.
"My apologies, Princess, I should have sent notice I would be coming here now."
"Not all. What is this about?"
Nephthys gestured to her side, where Isis now stood waiting.
"Forgive me for not having us meet you earlier, I would like to introduce my apprentice and my niece Isis. Isis, this is Princess Kisara."
Kisara's eyes met Isis', eyes that seemed to be pleading not to say anything. At that cue, she simply smiled.
"I've heard a lot about you, the resemblance is uncanny though I guess you've heard that a lot."
Nephthys smiled at hat before focusing her attention.
"Indeed. Oh Kiya, can I take a moment of your time? Apparently, one of the cats has run off with something of Femi's that she really would like to get back."
The servant turned to the princess who gave her a wave of dismissal.
"Go ahead, I'm sure I can manage without you for a little while."
Kiya stepped back with some unease at the situation she was leaving her mistress/friend in.
"Okay…."
She turned to follow as Nephthys lead her out of the room, but not before she turned back at glanced between the two girls. She seemed to send a silent message to both of them.
Talk to each other, make this work.
With that look of confidence, the Egyptian priest turned back to her path, the Millennium Necklace gleaming as always as the two exited the royal bedroom.
For the longest time, it was completely and utterly silent between the two girls, well Kisara was playing with her hands (a habit she had thought she had cured, but apparently hadn't) as Isis ha dmade her way to a nearby chair and was staring at her.
Finally, she had to say something.
"Could you please stop staring at me?"
Isis cringed as she acknowledged what she was doing.
"Sorry. Aunt Nephthys told me about you, but she….didn't do you justice."
"What coincidence. I've heard a lot about you during the time she's been teaching me."
Isis' blue eyes brightened up at that.
"Really?"
Kisara nodded, a little surprised.
"Yeah, she's been wanting to teach you for a while now."
Isis groaned at that.
"Thank the gods my father finally relented. He and Aunt Nephthys don't really get along that well, particularly because…well…."
As the awkward silence came up once again, Kisara got the impression that was a difficult subject and would have to be breached on another day. She quickly changed the subject.
"How has court been for you so far?"
Isis jumped on the change in subject.
"Great, by the way thanks for not saying anything to my aunt."
Kisara waved off her concerns.
"No need, I understand how Lady Nephthys is. It took me a couple of months before I was able to go past my old room and her room. I was shepherded everywhere, I understand wanting to explore."
"Well, Nabirye and the others wanted to show me the garden and…then we ran into you and the prince. Who was that other girl?"
"Mana, she's a friend of both me and Atem, though he's known her longer. That was…not how I you first see me."
Isis perked up in interest.
"What did you expect?"
Kisara had to shrug as she came with the image in her mind.
"Nephthys probably bringing you in during one of the beauty sessions with the girls. Best time for everyone to meet you and make nice."
Isis looked a little skeptical at that.
"Make nice? I know they're not the nicest girls I've ever met, but I'm sure they're…"
Kisara had to interrupt her on what she was saying.
"First thing you're going to have to learn about court is to never truly be honest and never count on anyone being completely honest with you. Most of the time, you just make peace with people and watch your back."
Isis shook her head in surprise.
"I can't believe that, I mean my aunt…"
"You aunt is very hard to figure out, kind of like Nabirye. Just, keep in mind what you say and do around from here on out especially around her."
Isis was ready to open her mouth and ask something, but the room was once again interrupted by a knock on the door though this time it was louder.
Kisara called to the knocker.
"Come in!"
The doors swung to find Mahad fast walking in there in a hurry before stopping in surprise at the two there, nodding in a small formal bow towards Isis.
"We have a BIG….oh, Lady Isis."
Isis also bowed her head shortly.
"Mahad."
Kisara glanced between the two, not sure what to put what just happened into words.
"Mahad, is something wrong?"
That seemed to snap Mahad out of what just happened as eh turned sharply towards her, an exasperated look on his face.
"Yes, they're on the roof."
Kisara got up out of her chair.
"AGAIN?"
Mahad seemed to be holding back his frustration at that.
"I know, you think they would have learned what happened last time."
"Figures. Who are they pranking this time?"
Mahad shrugged to that.
"I don't know. You take your brother, I take Mana?"
Kisara nodded.
"Let's hope we knock some sense into them this time."
She was ready to get over by Mahad and walk out the door to chew out Atem before remembering she had a guest. She turned back to Isis with a sorry look.
"I'm sorry, I really need to do this. Maybe we can talk again soon."
Isis smiled understandingly and a little wincingly.
"Its fine, go."
Kisara shot her a grateful look.
"Thank you!"
She hurried jolted over towards Mahad who she began to follow in a haste, the two slamming the door behind them.
Isis watched the door long after the sound of the shut disappeared.
V.E.: Great to get this finally done.
Yes, there was a reference to Frozen in that dialogue with Mana and Kisara.
Now Isis may seem a little out of character what I normally write for her. Reason? She's younger and much less experienced than her older self though there will still be aspects of her older character. It's her first time and court and she's nowhere near as wise at the game as Kisara is now.
Now, next time; Lesson with Atem and Talk with Mahad. Will be better than that summary. Now I have to go back to The Mummy.
Review!