Chapter 11: The Isolationist Empire Part II
Although the night isn't cold, Zarda can't seem to get warm. Something she was keenly aware of the irony of, considering how mere hours ago she had been complaining of the African mid day heat. She chalked up her inability to properly warm up to the highly regulated climate of Wakanda itself.
Due to the fact that most of city was beneath an incredibly dense cloaking shield, most of the atmosphere within the nation itself was manufactured artificially. Fresh breathable air was pumped in through massive hidden vents. Sunlight was filtered down to a more tolerable level and even rainfall was simulated and timed perfectly.
Bashenga had tried to explain how the machineries which did this worked, but Zarda stubbornly continued to refer to it as magic of some kind.
And while admittedly the regulated climate was preferable to scorching heat, the sheer precision and perfection of the whole thing felt too unnatural and caused it's own set of discomfort for Zarda. So much so that she decided to try out this "shower" contraption that Bashenga recommended she try.
In door plumbing was still a difficult concept for her to wrap her head around, but she at least grasped the basic steps needed to let the water flow.
She stepped into the shower and turned the water up to full blast, allowing the pressurized liquid to pelt her exposed form. She sighed at the familiar feel of water and began to slowly scrub herself down. She had spent close to two hours "swimming" beneath the Earth as Bashenga tried in vain to sort things out. And despite the fact she could comfortably survive doing so for much longer, she was still eager to get out of the cloying darkness of the Earth.
Zarda still wasn't clear on the exact string of events leading up to Wakanda's sudden leadership change but she understood the general gist. Bashenga was out. And this new avatar of Khonshu guy was in. Also the goddess Bast herself was missing for some reason.
Zarda really didn't care about all of that, but recognized it definitely made things difficult in acquiring an army.
The new ruler, Amon, had pushed Wakanda's isolationist tendencies to a whole new level. Wakanda might have been isolationist but they still used to interact with the outside world in the form of trade from time to time. They exclusively traded in spices, clothing and food products. Never weapons of any kind and certainly nothing made of vibranium. But at least they interacted with outside world somewhat. But now, all that had stopped.
Which meant convincing them to send an army to travel half way around the world to team up with other unfamiliar forces would be nigh impossible.
Zarda eventually begrudgingly sighed and turned of the water. She had lost track of how much time had passed whiles in this shower contraption. But it couldn't have been more than an hour she figured. Without taking a moment to towel off or even throw on clothes she strolled out of the bathroom and into the large guest room she secretly shared with Bashenga.
Despite the fraught first meeting between Bashenga and Amon, Bashenga had been graciously given a large guest room and assured that he would be treated with respect for as long as he planned on staying. However, neither Zarda and Bashenga trusted Amon enough to reveal Zarda's existence yet. So they were forced to share his quarters in secret.
Zarda padded into the well furnished bedroom with African tribal masks adorning the wall, humming a tune as she went.
Bashenga sat atop a large sleeping mat deeply engrossed with a reading a scroll. He raised his head up to look at her when he heard her enter, but immediately looked away flustered when he realized she was naked.
Bashenga's face quickly heated up, and he silently thanked the gods his dark skin tone made it hard to detect he was blushing. He coughed awkwardly and cleared his throat before saying "You know there are fur towels in the shower room you could have used to dry yourself off with. Or at least used to cover up". He said all the while staring pointedly away from her.
"I noticed, but I prefer to dry off naturally" Zarda replied breezily.
"So where are we at now?" she asked confidently as she plopped onto the center of the sleeping mat, right beside Bashenga. Bashenga quickly scooted a few centimeters away from her. And continued to stare intently at an adjacent wall like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Erm well, I've been trying to catch up with all the stuff I missed whiles I've been gone. Which isn't much to be fair. Aside from my disappearance followed by Bast's mysterious disappearance as well. And then Amon's abrupt take over as religious leader for Wakanda. Everything seems like normal. But Amon and Khonshu , his moon god, have made it clear they have no intention of seceding control back to me." Bashenga explained.
"Any clue's as to what happened to Bast?"
"None. Even with my capture, Bast should have had no problem finding a new avatar to takeover in my stead"
"So what do we do about the army?"
Bashenga sighed and rubbed the back of his neck in a clear sign of exhaustion and frustration, "I don't know. Only the religious leader of Wakanda can declare war and muster a united army of the five tribes. And Amon has already said no. Right now I just don't know what we should do"
"Hmm...maybe you need to take you mind of things" Zarda said as she suddenly began to seductively crawl over to the corner Bashenga had tried to sequester himself to.
"What...what did you have in mind?" Bashenga asked dumbly as he tried to scot even further away from her. Only to bump into a wall effectively stopping his retreat.
Zarda chuckled knowingly and continued drawing nearer to him. While she found Bashenga's shyness endearing and cute, she was tired of the games. She liked him. And he obviously liked her. So why not speed things along.
As she drew nearer for a kiss, Bashenga began to speak, finally looking directly at Zarda only to be entranced by her beauty. Despite this he began to say something in an dazed voice "Zarda... before things go any further, I think I should mention something I probably should have said earlier. I'm.."
But before Bashenga could finish his sentence there was a bright flash of gold light that engulfed the entire blinding everyone room. And when it faded away, appearing out of nowhere, was a beautiful armor clad giantess, with rich dark skin skin, black hair plaited I'm dreadlocks. And gold accessories all over.
"Cease thy lecherous advance on my husband, wench" boomed the mysterious woman.
Taken aback, Zarda pulled away from Bashenga quickly and questioned "Husband? You're married?"
Bashenga, looking very flustered looked between the two women and awkwardly said "Yes...kind of... sort of. That's what I was trying to tell you a second ago. Erm Zarda...meet, the patron goddess of Wakanda, and mistress of felines. Bast... my erm ..wife"
