Daughter of the Nile (a Percy Jackson AU)

The Burial

      ***Hazel***
     I was fifteen years old when my father died. He had been the pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt: Pharaoh Hades, or as he had liked to call himself, Death to the Hittites. Now, after his mummification had been completed, the whole of Egypt was mourning. I stood beside my brother and sister. They were both older than me and none of us looked alike, though we had the same father.
            Pharaoh Hades had taken Persephone to be his first Chief Wife, but after six successive stillbirths, she died of grief. I remembered that day, though I was only five. Her cries had been louder than the cries of the Egyptians when the lion goddess Sekhmet had killed thousands in her bloodlust. My father took Maria as his new Chief Wife after Persephone's death. She was the mother of Bianca and Nico, who were both older than me.
I looked very different from my siblings. They were both as pale as linen with dark hair, while I had warm skin and curly hair. While their mother had been the daughter of a general, my mother had been a Nubian princess. She had died in childbirth and everyday, I wondered about my mother and what she was like. My father said she was charming and as beautiful as the goddess Isis.
The young priest of Ra was leading the procession, his blonde hair as pale as the sand beneath my feet. We walked for miles and the hired women best at their chests and wept so loudly that the gods could surely here us. Ra's sun chariot was at its peak when we arrived in the burial chamber of my father.
Octavian entered first, his arms raised in prayer and the scent of his kyphi filling the air. I knew that his recipe was different than others, for it smelled sharply of cedar and pine, almost claw-like in its sharpness. My brother and sister followed me into the burial chamber.
It was beautiful. The walls were painted with pictures of my father riding chariots, battling with the Hittites, and praying to the gods. I caught my breathe as I saw others that I knew. I was there, with Nico and Bianca. We were sailing on the Nile alongside our father. There was Maria, her shiny black hair falling to her shoulders, as she was depicted praying to Amun-Ra. I saw Persephone, depicted at their wedding, where she was smiling.
Then, I saw a picture of my mother. I had seen statues of her before, but this was more lifelike than those. I saw that her features were similar to mine. We had the same pouty lips, delicate chin, short and sturdy bodies, soft noses, and large eyes, though mine were golden and her's were a warm shade of brown. "Your mother will be with father under the care of Osiris," Nico said, squeezing my hand.
I nodded and shed tears-not only for my father, but for the mother I never got to know. The ceremony was blur. I dimly remember Octavian presiding over it and blessing my father's ka, but what I remember most of all was staring at my mother's painting.
        After the ceremony, we walked back. I was tired by the end, but more so in mind then body. I cried myself to sleep, wishing that I had my mother and father with me. I even wished that I had Sammy, the funny boy who had stolen my heart. When he had died in a chariot accident, I had cried for weeks. It wasn't like anything would have happened between us, anyways. I was a princess and Egyptian princesses couldn't marry below their rank.
I was woken by my body servant, Piper. "Princess Hazel, your presence is required in the dining hall," she said.
"What for?" I said getting up and wondering how I could get there in time.
"A meeting," Piper said. "I'm afraid that it's bad news."
I nodded and she gave me a white linen dress to change into. Egyptian women wore the same kind of clothing regardless of our rank, only the fineness of the clothe and what we adorned ourselves in told us apart. I pulled in some golden bracelets and a delicate necklace after washing my face. Cleanliness is expected of every Egyptian, regardless of rank.
       When I arrived downstairs, there was a place at the table for me beside Bianca, who was playing with her food. When Nico arrived, looking pale and drawn with heavy eye bags underneath his eyes, she looked up. "Tell me it's not true," she said, her voice shaking. "You must be kidding, right?"
      "No, sister," Nico said, his voice terse. "I don't want to be pharaoh."
       "You're the only male child he had!" Bianca burst out.
        "I expect more from you, Nico," Maria said. "Your father named you as his heir."
          "I don't want to be pharaoh," Nico said stubbornly.
            "That's too bad," Maria said. "The gods decreed it. If you refuse to be pharaoh, then Ma'at will be unbalanced and chaos with reign. The Hittites will take over and Egypt will be no more."
           "I can't do it," Nico said, his voice cracking. "I-I j-just c-can't."
            "Why not?" I asked.
             I realized that he was crying as he answered and my heart twisted in my chest. "Pharaohs need to beget heirs," he said. "And I'm not into women."
        Maria gaped like a fish that hides amongst the reeds of the Nile. "Every pharaoh is expected to birth sons," she said. "Even if they have male lovers."
        Nico frowned. "I'm not doing that," he said and crossed his chest.
        The others at the table looked wary, but Octavian was smiling thinly. "I have had a dream from Ra," he said and everyone stared at him. "In it, he handed me the crook and the flail."
       One of the courtiers snorted. "Go sacrifice some other poor bull and stop making up stuff!" they said.
         "I'm not lying, Percy," Octavian said.
          "Nico is not the only child of Pharaoh Hades," General Jason pointed out.
            "I'm training to become a priestess is Tawaret," Bianca said. "I have no interest in holding the crook and flail."
              "That's leaves only one person that can be pharaoh," Jason said and everyone's gaze was fixed upon me.