Amgyptapan

Chapter 12:Forced Obsession

Nothile still mourned his mate even a year after her death. His life at the palace had returned to the state it was before they had met. Everyone in Thebes missed her, all except for Ankhsetha. After Serina's execution, Pharaoh Amenemhet forbade Nothile from ending his own life.

The night Serina was executed, she was put to rest in her people's ways; being set ablaze on a pyre. The Pharaoh had suggested it with his High Priest. Nothile had agreed. His resentment about his wife's death was not towards her executioner, it was toward the one who had ordered her death.

The Queen had allowed three months to pass before attempting to seduce him. She had known that his heart belonged to his deceased mate, but she had felt that she had to try before resorting to tonics. The two had not really spoken to one another since she had expressed her wish for Serina to be put to death. Nothile did not outright ignore her, Ankhsetha was Queen after all, but he did not go out of his way to speak with her, either.

Nothile did not need his childhood friend to tell him that his grief was killing him. His body felt weaker every day. He cried himself to sleep every night. It was all that his priests could do to keep him from disobeying Pharaoh's private decree not to kill himself.

To help with what he lost when he went to sleep, his priests had changed his daily breakfast of stew to a soupy broth. Nothile had taken to drinking a goblet of wine before he got ready for his nightly torment of sleeping without Serina next to him. Almost immediately after her death, Nothile had discovered that he would have nightmares without it. His body was beginning to fail him.

Pharaoh Amenemhet, the priests, and, surprisingly, even the General were worried about what would happen if he continued this. If the High Priest remained in his grief-stricken state, he would soon die of a broken heart. Unfortunately, Nothile only wanted to be with Serina. Pharaoh Amenemhet did his best to keep Nothile busy so that he was not constantly thinking about his dearly departed mate.

Keeping the High Priest occupied was the only reason that he had survived so long. Otherwise, his friend would have followed Serina to the next life within days of her death. As much as the Pharaoh missed the demoness, he felt that Nothile had to move on. He would even allow his Queen to leave him if it meant that Nothile would live.

Queen Ankhsetha was trying to figure out how to trick Nothile into drinking a love potion. Logically, she could not try the same thing she had with Serina. The High Priest had never trusted her after the day the demoness had been killed. No, she would have to be smarter than ever to trick the depressed priest.

She could try to slip it into his daily soup. But wait, it would raise suspicions if Nothile found a soup bowl on his desk and his priests brought another in. Queen Ankhsetha knew for a fact that Nothile's soup was never left unattended for even a moment. Drugging his food was not an option.

However, the Queen could drug his wine. The High Priest did have a private wine vat in his bedchambers. It was left alone nearly all day. The only problem was that Nothile usually locked his bedchambers after he left in the morning.

Only eleven knew the combination; Nothile himself and all ten of his priests. Usually, if he was in a rush, Nothile tended to forget to lock up his private quarters. If Queen Ankhsetha could get Nothile to rush out in a panic, she could slip in and drug the vat. How though?

The only reason Nothile would panic and rush out of his room and forget to secure the door was if something had happened in the temple and needed his supervision to solve the problem. Not even being lied to that Pharaoh Amenemhet suddenly wanting to see him in the gardens would cause him to hurry out. He never rushed when being summoned by the Pharaoh. The only thing that would cause it was if there was a problem in the temple.