Egyptian Timewave

Chapter 41

Sitting on the ground, Anippe sets her kohl down beside the strip of papyrus detailing what to write. "So where do you want me to place the marks?"

Abayomi frowns for a moment, looking down at her arms. Those are covered so while it would be easy to notice smearing there, the cloth would also be doing the smearing and it would be hard to write as she would have to pull the sleeves up or actually extricate herself from the dress.

"What about my neck?"

Anippe nods. "Okay, we can try that."

They both adjust their positioning, so Anippe is directly behind her. Abayomi shivers when Anippe touches her neck to lift up her hair, fingertips brushing over the baby hairs at the nape of Abayomi's neck. The princess pauses in her movement.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, it just tickles."

"Ah. Can you hold this for me?"

Anippe has flipped up Abayomi's hair so it rests on top of Abayomi's head, but it could easily slip if there is any movement from her. Abayomi places a hand on top of the mass of hair to hold it in place. Something slightly wet touches Abayomi's skin and moves across it, presumably leaving a dark trail of kohl in its path.

Anippe moves slowly, pausing every so often to presumable check that she's writing the correct thing. When she at last pulls away after several minutes of this slow process, Abayomi moves to lower her hair back down, arms sore at having been held up like that. Anippe quickly stops her.

"Give it a moment to dry."

"But my arms hurt."

A sigh. "Fine. Let me hold the hair then."

They're quick to trade places, and Abayomi rubs her arms to try and ease the pain. They already feel better now that they've been lowered. By the time that the pain has fully eased, Anippe has lowered the hair back down to brush over Abayomi's shoulders. Abayomi turns, reaching for the slip of papyrus to see what is now upon her neck. She squints at the indiscipherable hieroglyphs.

"Anippe?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know what this says?"

Anippe frowns at the paper. "I don't, I expect it works in a similar way to the rest of the spell scroll. We don't need to know what it says either way, do we?"

"I suppose not."

Abayomi leans back against the floor, spreading her arms wide. It's a nice patch of sunlight there, very warm. She feels like a cat with how much she wants to bask in it. She doesn't know how long she lies there for, just basking in the light, but it's certainly been long enough that the angle of the sun shifted enough to beam right into her eyes. She winces at the light spearing into her head and sits up, her head now in a more shaded spot. Anippe giggles.

"Was that a nice catnap?"

"It was, until the sun decided to stab my eyes."

Anippe laughs again. "What do you wish to do now? I'm not busy until the banquet later."

Abayomi shrugs. "Well, we got interrupted during our nai session, didn't we? Why don't we continue it."

Anippe beams. "That sounds like a plan."

She pushes herself to her feet before offering a hand to Abayomi, who takes it gratefully. The nai is still sitting where the left it in the other room, the wood cool to the touch compared to the sun-warmed stone Abayomi had been lying on. Abayomi offers the instrument to the princess, but Anippe waves it away.

"You play first, I want to hear what you had been about to try before we were interrupted."

With a light shrug, Abayomi raises the instrument to her lips and slowly starts to play the scale. A few of the higher notes come out more as a whine, but she this is her first day trying the instrument so she actually feels pretty good about herself. A few more days of practice and she might not be getting that whine at all anymore, though she'll still probably be slow.

She hasn't tried really stretching notes out or cutting them short yet either, for all she knows that could add some difficulty. Still, she's made good progress, and Anippe also seems to think so with the way the other girl is clapping, a proud smile on her face. Abayomi's returning smile is a bit bashful.

She goes through the scale a couple more times, with each one growing steadier and she finds herself more confident. When the whine is almost entirely gone from the highest notes, Anippe beckons for the instrument. Abayomi passes it over after she wipes off the mouthpiece on her sleeve.

Anippe plays a light, short melody, and Abayomi can feel her mouth drop in awe at it. It looks simple, she wasn't really paying attention to Anippe's fingers but she doesn't think they were moving very much, but it sounds so nice regardless of how few notes it contains.

"Pay attention to my fingerings, okay?" Anippe plays the melody again at a slower pace, making her motions more pronounced. "Did you catch them?"

Abayomi nods slowly. "I think so."

"Good. You try it now."

Anippe hands Abayomi the instrument and the girl looks down at the nai, frowning slightly. "I'm not sure I can-"

"Just try. I think you'll be surprised."

With a shrug, Abayomi raises the instrument. It won't hurt to try and if Anippe thinks she can do it, well, the princess is the teacher, after all.

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Do you think that was a good place to put the spell? What do you think of the nai lesson so far? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out