The New Princess of Egypt

Part 7

I blink a couple times, taking it all in. The room is huge, two parallel lines of thick and robust columns stand opposing each other with a long rectangular table in the middle. At the table, there sat over a dozen male priests, viziers and warlords along with my father at the far end of the table. They all turn to look at us, I notice that most wear tunics of red or white and that just under a third of them are young. Most of them are weathered, wrinkled and bear vicious battle scars, only a select few are actually still in some way attractive. Both my mother and me bow low to them as a sign of respect. 

"Rise, my lovely wife and precious daughter. You are welcome here. Princess Azizi, I believe it's your first time here. May you meet the most important of us." My father says with an affectionate smile as he rises to his feet, carrying on to introduce a few members of the war council. 

"This is Jabari, your cousin and betrothed." He points to a man who appears to be even younger than me, his hair is shaved at the sides and the rest sits in a short ponytail. He breaks his stoic expression to grin at me for a second, my stomach lurches at the thought of marrying him. 

"My highest vizier, Akil." My father gestures to a wiry, shady-looking man with a white linen cloth wrapped around his hips and his dark hair slicked back. Through the slightly sagging skin of his torso, you could clearly see his protruding ribs. He looks old and frail, though I'd bet that his looks are deceiving. 

"My most powerful warlord, Tau, and his son, Madu, a budding young warrior and man-of-the-people himself." Lastly, my father motions to a large and muscled man who stands with an arm looped around the shoulders of what looks like a younger version of himself. They both have glowing amber eyes and chocolate brown hair, though Tau's is flecked with grey. Both look extremely charming in whole. I watch Madu shrink away from Tau's hold in a while and my father seats himself again. 

Mother Maat gestures for me to sit at my father's right, on his armrest. I do as I'm told for the sake of appearances. I glance at her and see her sitting down on Father Horus' left armrest, before setting my sights back on the war council. I hold my head high, if a pharaoh's family is strong then so shall he be. My father goes back to discussing battle plans as he was before we interrupted, I listen carefully too. 

They plan to take back control of a small but flowering kingdom that had previously been one of our most profitable provinces, though rebels and raiders now hog these resources to themselves and their so-called 'refugees' as Madu calls them. He disagrees with the movement to kill all of the humans there, but Akil insists upon it and ranking rules all so my father decides to attack without mercy. Madu storms out, furious with the unnecessary lives that were going to be taken. Personally, I agree with him as myself but as Princess Azizi I have to support my father, though in all of this I never speak a word. 

Agreeing with Madu might just be due to bias because I grew up surrounded by rebels and was raised by a family of three raiders who were good to me, though I don't care much about that. Innocent people don't deserve nor need to die to achieve such goals. Soon, the war council comes to a decision, that it's best to move quickly and send out troops with orders to kill immediately, and they all vacate the room. From by my father's side, I can hear the echoes of their steps bouncing around through the corridors.