Entombed in His Desire

Chapter 35

(I do not own the images to these stories.)
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Amanda could hardly even fathom what she had just heard. Bassel, that name, it was so familiar to her. It was the name of the mysterious lover that she had been dreaming about for the past couple of months; the one with whom she could not see his face. Had he been her beloved cat this whole time? "Midnight?"

But the cat just ignored her and leaped upon the floor. As the cat stood on all fours, he began to change. She watched in disbelief as her beloved black house cat morphed into a massive panther; the exact same panther that had seduced her and protected her from the drunk driver. He had been with her for the past four years.

"Forgive me, master!" the panther growled. "But my love for her outweighs my loyalty to you. I lost her once because I had chosen to give her to you! I will not make that mistake again!"

Maashes roared in anger. "What are you talking about?"

At that moment, a flood of memories began to return. Even the name, Bassel started to make sense. She began to remember everything, everything except for what Bassel looked like. For some reason, that memory was still a big blur. Just as Mer Ek was the ancient Egyptian word for love, Bassel meant guardian. Amanda began to remember her past life. She got off of the stone table and stood behind the panther. Amanda then gave Maashes a cold stare. "I didn't kill myself because I thought you were dead. I knew that you had defeated Apep, and that you were still alive. I jumped to my death, because Bassel was going to deliver me to you. But it wasn't you that I loved, it was Bassel."

Maashes lifted his arms and clinched his fists. With great fury his left arm came down as he smashed the stone table. While doing so, Maashes roared in anger. "No! What a fool I have been! I should have known that having you castrated wasn't enough! The legends of her beauty had been true. Any man that gazed upon her would fall madly in love. But I needed someone to guard my Mer Ek. I thought if you had your manhood removed, you would not be capable of falling in love with her. But apparently, I was wrong."

"Yes, you were wrong." Bassel replied.  "And even though I wasn't able to physically love her at the time, the love within my heart for her was pure. Your love for her was superficial, just like everyone else."

"I have no idea what you are talking about!" Maashes exclaimed.

Tears came to Amanda's eyes as her heart began to flutter. "He loved me for who I truly was. But you only loved me for whom I eventually became."

"You see, master." Bassel began to explain. "The queen was hiding a dark secret from the pharaoh. It was a secret known only to her, and a few of her servants who helped take care of the princess. For you see, when she was born, Mer Ek was deformed. If the pharaoh had known the truth, he would have had his own daughter executed even though the princess had royal blood. He would not have tolerated a deformed heir. So the queen lied to her husband, and stated that the child's beauty was so great, that she needed to be hidden from the rest of the world. For any man who would gaze upon her would immediately fall in love. And so until her eighteenth birthday, she was to cover herself and hide her beauty from the rest of the world; even from the pharaoh himself.  The pharaoh even named her Mer Ek, and the stories of her beauty spread far and wide, even to the gods themselves. And when you heard about it master, you came to the pharaoh in person and asked for his daughter's hand."

"You are lying!" Maashes roared. "For the young woman who stands before me now is as beautiful as the woman I saw when I had laid my eyes upon her for the first time. Besides, the lie her mother told would have meant death by the gods themselves."

"Not long after the princess had been born, the queen had gone to your mother's, Bastet's temple and prayed to the goddess for forgiveness." Bassel continued to explain. "She hoped that the goddess of motherhood would understand that what she did was out of love for her daughter. Bastet agreed to protect the princess from facing the god's wrath and kept the queen's secret. But there was a price. The queen soon died after visiting the temple, and all of the love she felt for her daughter absorbed into the princess. And although her outer appearance had not changed, her inner beauty was unmatched by anyone."