Interregnum Year 10-11 Results
Ma'atneferure smiles brightly as you finish the dance of felicitations of spring. It was one of the more difficult rites you had practiced, and you finally pulled it off without flaw. She praises you again and observes that you have reached the two goals of her training. Your bearing and posture are regal enough for the court while your body is flexible enough for the demands of hard exertion. From now on, she says, her instruction will take the form of learning what you need to manage the court. You have stewards to manage your accounts, and soldiers to drill your armies, and spies to keep you abreast of your enemies, and priests to pray and scholars to learn. But you, she says, must know who to trust. The women of the court share the burdens of your sex and do not have the same drive for office and honors as the men of the court, and so she says that they are your natural allies. From the currency of palace relationships, which is to say gossip, you can glean on to situations that are cause for alarm and which would otherwise pass by your notice.
Your studies with Meryawy continue to be productive, though his lessons are drier and more formal as you age. The metaphor of the self-creation of the gods by the primordial god Atum and his feminine principle becomes a frustrating trip into some very abstract theology that lasts for a good week before you can satisfy him. You're glad to finally move on to the relationships between the various gods and their holy days and symbols, even if it is repetitive memorization. Literature is more interesting, as Meryawy introduces you to the epic Tale of Sinuhe and to the devotional poetry and hymns of Payankh. You become conversant in the beliefs of the Kanaanites, Mitari, and Babel-Ur as well so as to be able to understand the missives of foreign rulers and treat with them appropriately. Meryawy is less comfortable with that material but you make fair progress over the year. You also meet with scholars at the Garden of Ptah for the first time for instruction in advanced mathematics.
You also have the privilege of more time with the Queen Dowager as the preparations for the expedition to Upper Kemet are completed. On one evening she speaks to you of your father, Ameneheb, as Ma'atneferure plays the reed flute from a chair beside her bed.
"Ameneheb, my brother-husband, was the clear star leading on to
Duat," she began, breaking from a recital of poetry. She strokes your cheek kindly. "He was beloved of me, and I of him. There is some of him in your features, little Meritamun. More than I thought. You have his eyes, and a bit of his nose. You are not all a product of…"
She pauses, and seems both angry and sad at the same moment. Ma'atneferure puts the flute aside to rush to her side, taking her hand into her hands and soothing her with whispered words. After a moment the Dowager Queen smiles sadly and bids her handmaiden to start playing again.
"You are truly the last of our line. Even if Hathor and Isis should bless you with the fertility they have denied me, your husband will not be of the blood of the gods. And your children shall be his children. Our dynasty has ruled Kemet for fourteen generations. It will not falter before the fifteenth. You will prove a great Queen, won't you, Meritamun?"
You promise her you will. You wind up resting your head on her lap as she recites for you the very first poem your father addressed her.
+1 Martial, +1 Stewardship, +2 Intrigue, +1 Learning, +1 Piety
Gain Trait "Fit" +1 Martial
A Trip to the Bazaar
1D100 => 60
After some hesitation you elect for the game board. The foreign merchant's command of the language of Kemet was surprisingly good, and he explained the nature of the game to you. The handsome rosewood board was grooved into a series of grids, upon which two players would place markers made of ivory and black onyx with the goal of encompassing as much of the board as possible. "Capturing" pieces was possible by enveloping them with your own. You played a game against the merchant just long enough for him to demonstrate the rules of the game before packing it all up and heading back to the palace to try it out against your friends.
Over the next few weeks you compete against Bakenptah and Paneferer to master the rules of the foreign game. It soon becomes clear that the simplicity of the rules hides a marvelously complex set of interactions. Your two friends take wildly different approaches to the challenges of the game. Paneferer moves aggressively to capture as much of the board as possible as quickly as he can, making countering him a matter of keeping up and checking his impetuous strategies. Bakenptah by contrast is absolutely methodical in his approach, coolly looking ahead several moves to plot out surprises. Having to adapt to the two very different opponents is a challenge, but you relish it and win a lot more often than you lose.
Tayuheret is bored by the game and the boys get frustrated at losing so after several weeks of play you set it aside and bring it out only every so often. You patch up the breach with Tayuheret with girl-talk and gossip picked up from Ma'atneferure, while Bakenptah and Paneferer find playing warrior and barbarian more to their liking. But you do remember some lessons about adaptation from the game, and it makes you a more systematic thinker.
+1 Martial
War? What is it good for?
1D100+16 => 102
1D100 => 75
You decide to visit the troops being mustered in the barracks and drilling yard of the city and to meet with their commander, the officer Khui. Ma'atneferure and a detachment of the Guard of Horus accompany you as an escort.
"Khui has a reputation as a capable captain," your governess tells you in the litter beforehand. "And he is quite handsome, which you will appreciate more in a few years. He had the hearts of many of the handmaidens when he served in the Guard. Although they say it was a eunuch who had
his heart."
She laughs at your uncertain response. "Your Majesty, such are the details that you must listen for. Indulge in, if you will. Such talk is how we women build friendships and alliances. And you can look and if it is true, that is something you may find useful to know."
"Okay, governess," you nod dutifully. "But what about the soldiers?"
"They are a detachment of the Division of Set. They are… not a prestigious unit anymore. But your Regent the Dowager Queen, blessed be her name, can only spare so much to deal with these bandit troubles."
Once at the barracks you're nearly overwhelmed by the activity. The drill yard outside the plain stone structures housing the troops is partitioned off into groups which are exercising and training. A force of spearmen wearing the longer cotton robes of desert travel practice thrusts, while on the other side of the road a party of bowmen shoots at targets. You climb out of the litter feet-first, in the dignified manner that Ma'atneferure expected.
The visit is derailed from the moment you step out and, overwhelmed with curiosity, elect to speak with the bowmen. The men prostrate themselves, but you bid them stand and tell you about their bows. The ox-horn and gazelle sinew construction makes them powerful enough to pierce into a man's torso, and they shoot for nearly three hundred feet. As you watch a bowman show off your regal detachment drops into earnest interest. To your surprise another of the men notices and laughs at how you remind him of his own daughter; and he offers to let you try a training bow.
The breach of protocol upsets your guards, but Ma'atneferure persuades them that the offer was meant fairly. You accept, and with a little instruction you take well to the smaller bow. When you hit the center of the target on your fourth try the men raise up a shout, and it draws over more soldiers. You speak with them as well, and show your interest in their condition and their families and home villages. In turn they too take up the clamor and shout of "Hathor!" as you demonstrate with the training bow. The men seemed energized by the encounter and Ma'atneferure looked on thoughtfully as you charmed them.
You gather an escort among the bowmen of the Division of Set afterward, when you set out for the command tent of Captain Khui. He is standing nearby, wearing the bronze skullcap and bearing the mace of an officer, observing the situation with the eyes of a hawk. He looks like a perfect example of a soldier of Kemet and dismisses the soldiers with a mere glance.
"Your Majesty," he says, and kneels to the knee.
You bid him rise, and he invites you all into his tent. The canvass covers an area almost as large as your room in the palace and is nearly arranged around a table piled with scrolls. His simple wood-framed cot lies off in a corner, and plus seating pillows are in place to provide an audience with hospitality. He has you sit and shows every courtesy, though you perceive him somewhat annoyed with your presence.
Keeping Ma'atneferure's advice in mind, you ask him of his career and life. In turn he tells you dutifully of his parents; his father is a middling rank priest of Horus in a village in Delta Province who married an estate merchant's daughter. He is not even a decade older than yourself, though as with Ma'atneferure that seems like an impossible gap between childhood and adult. As the chat goes on he orders refreshments of fresh water and a plate of dried figs.
Finally, you reach a point to get to business. "So what are you plans to deal with the bandits?"
"The Queen Dowager has given me adequate forces," Khui reported. "I will lay traps for the bandits and aggressively patrol the roads they have struck. After the first battles they will seek to group themselves to strike at me. So I will then feign weakness and retreat to the villages and the city of Swenett, and then strike as they are emboldened."
That seemed like a good plan, but there was something missing. "What of… gossip? Rumors? Would the bandits not find out you have a large force and then scatter?"
Khui was taken off-guard by the question and drank from his goblet of water to regain his thoughts. "Yes, your Majesty. I will bring only part of my force into Swenett when I arrive at the frontier. We know the bandits have spies in the city because of how they have known to hit the most valuable caravans. I will find these spies and kill some, and others will be made to serve. They will tell the bandits what I want them to hear, and will approach them by a more difficult path to avoid their scouts."
You nod. It seems like a sound plan.
You discuss what to do with captured bandits with Khui, but the evening approaches and you have had an eventful day. Your guards wish to return to the palace well before night. Ma'atneferure begs Khui pardon for suggesting they leave, but he nods. He gives you a final glance clearly impressed with a prodigy; though there was something more there. You're not sure what it is.
+2 Martial, +1 Diplomacy
Division of Set Morale raised to High, Loyalty increased.
For better or worse
1D100 => 41
The night after your visit to see Khui, your Mother visits you in your chambers. She appears cloaked with shadow as always, and looks pleased. "You are growing well, my precious daughter. And you have yet to come into the fullness of your power. Know that I am proud of you, and always will be."
You preen with pride and discuss your impressions of Khui and the others. "He's strong, mother. And I think he can destroy the bandits. But he seemed…"
You can't articulate exactly what concerned you. But your mother smiled.
"You see it too. Khui is an ambitious man." Her eyes narrow. "He will do for a while. But if he turns against you, my precious daughter, he will beg for death. This too is part of being a Queen."
You're not entirely sure what she means, but pass on it. And talk about the bowmen, and then on to events in the palace. You discuss your friends and your tutors, and your mother asks you further about your time with the Dowager Queen. You talk about it, and bring up what she had to say about your father. You ask her why the Dowager Queen is the way she is toward you.
"She resents you and she loves you," your Mother answered, her eyes narrowing again. "She could not bear an heir to your father. I could. She simply hates me. But you are something different. Do not trust her, though. She would control you if she could, and she is as weak as her husband was. As a Queen you must safeguard your true feelings, for everyone has another agenda. Even your family. Listen well, my precious daughter…"
Gain trait Deceitful (+2 Intrigue, -1 Diplomacy)
