Life From Your Lips (Ruby Rose fanfic)

NINE (Iselen POV)

"I'm sorry..."

"You've already said that... a thousand of times," Ruby answers bitterly.

"Well, I can say it again... I'm sorry, I should've told you the truth earlier and shouldn't have accused you of... wanting to keep my silver jewels in exchange of... you know." The princess nods but remains silent and I tap on the table with my fingertips nervously, the noise echoes against the walls while we look at each other awkwardly.

We're both ready to go to the Beautiful Festival of the Valley parade, I'm even wearing the wig Tiaa gave me and didn't complain, and we're waiting till it's time to go pick up the pharaoh along with some loyal soldiers to escort him to the palace entrance staircase where some priests will be waiting for him. Atet helped us to get dressed and did our makeup quietly but efficiently, finishing before we expected, and has left the room under the pretext of giving new instructions to the servants; I guess she was trying to escape from the tension in the atmosphere. Ruby has been angry at me for a couple of days, saying a few words only when it was necessary, although she never asked me to go back to my room and lied in bed next to me every night. She was hugging my body when we woke up but never said anything about it and she just asked the servants to bring us breakfast.

At least, she listened to me and asked her father to be careful and not leave his rooms unless he was with his trusted soldiers, she talked to her older brother and he promised her to watch the conspirators discreetly while two concubines that are Ruby's allies are keeping an eye on Tiyi. Pentawer is hard to follow since he usually moves all over the palace and the army headquarters doing his job and his soldiers are loyal to the young prince but I'm not worried about him, he didn't kill the king according to the papyrus, he let the officials do the dirty job and was waiting for his mother to hand him the crown: she was the true mastermind behind the plot.

"Tell me about your future world..." I blink surprised, staring at her cautiously, I was expecting her to keep her obstinate silence for a little longer but it seems to me that the priestess is as tired of this situation as me and has decided to declare a truce.

"What do you want to know?"

"Do you have anyone?"

"No!" Ruby moves away slightly, taken aback by my vehement tone, and I take a deep breath trying to calm down. "I'm not married, I don't have a fiancée or a girlfriend... I would've never got in your bed if I'd had a partner. I know you don't believe me but I'm a loyal person and never cheat on my girlfriends..."

"All right," the princess nods and looks relieved while leaning her hands on the table again. "Where are you from? You're not Egyptian..."

"I come from the other end of Uat-Ur, the Mediterranean Sea, sailing west. My family still lives there and I traveled to Thebes to complete my studies about..." I look at the ceiling, pensively, trying to find the words that Ruby can understand. "I'm interested in your language, the way it evolved, the way you write and how hieroglyphs can represent individual syllables or a complex concept, you can create more complex concepts by adding more symbols. I think it's fascinating... This is why I study funerary inscriptions and because they give me a lot of information about people, what they did, where they lived, if they had a family..."

"Sometimes I also read old inscriptions in temples I visit, they talk about pharaohs, army generals, princes or priestesses we've forgotten," Ruby admits reluctantly. "I like to remember them, bringing them back to life somehow, finding out why they wrote the inscription or why it was important for them to donate money or lands to that temple or god particularly. Sometimes they explain small details about their lives, their families or jobs that make me smile... You're right, it's fascinating... How did you get to my kingdom?"