The two women looked at Naika like she was crazy. She was so bold. She is a devout worshipper of Hathor. I should've guessed that she was a lover of men. Asenath and Salma looked at each other. They both wanted to say something. Asenath was the one who broke the silence. "Are you crazy? We just met. What if you are some sort of crazy person? We should get to know you first. Then we will decide. Besides, Nazhotep can be with whoever he wants. The right to reject any woman approaching is not a right. It's a privilege given to us by him. A privilege he could revoke whenever he wanted. Nazhotep wants to have a good life and do right by everyone. His dearest wish is to have his heart lighter than a feather. That includes being proactive in preventing drama. He gave us the right to reject any woman approaching him, not just because he loves us dearly, but also to utilize our help for a peaceful life. He is smart."
Naika looked at me. She understood that I was not a boy toy she could play with. She smiled. "Fine by me. The reason I was so forward is that it's good for my priestly ascension to eternity to please men because I am a conduit to Hathor."
Salma and Asenath were satisfied with her answer. I needed to interject before the girls got hot and bothered with the love talk.
"Whatever we are going to do, it needs to wait. Poison is still in my system, and your faces morph into weird shapes all the time. I'm not in a position to get freaky with any of you. Frankly, I'm freaking out. I feel like it takes me all I have to not die."
Asenath and Salma became a bit worried.
"What are you waiting for? Sit down and relax until you are healthy. We don't have to hurry. We can spare some days until we leave for the capital."
Naika interjected.
"Let me help. I'm experienced with this poison. I suffered through it when I consumed the dancer lion. We absolutely must not cleanse his body of toxins until his transformation is complete. He is to eat a diet of easy-to-digest food and rest. Milk and yogurt are forbidden because of their anti-poison properties. He would be good to travel in three to five days. and he will be able to change his diet back to normal once his traits are manifested."
Asenath and Salma nodded. They concluded that they should listen to Naika. She sounded like she knew what she was saying.
We bought ourselves a room on the outskirts of the town. Naika was right. I'm in no position to travel. Every time I try to sleep, Apep appears in my dreams and shines upon me like a great sun made of hate. It calls me a thief who stole the blessings of its children. Does it consider those disgusting creatures its children?
Why does it love them? It breaks my heart that I have to deal with this asshole when there are perfectly fine gods in the pantheon. It shows up every night to taunt me and make me miserable. On the third night, I answered. Even though Apep is despicable, it's still a god. I was sleepless and desperate, and I uttered sacrilegious words to it.
"I stole your babies and devoured them. I burned them and maimed them. I would do it again. They are disgusting little creatures, and you should be ashamed for creating them. If I were in the same situation again, I would steal again. I hate you. I hate the HEART out of you."
Apep smiled and shone. It was giving me its dark blessings willingly. I felt a cold permeate throughout my body. "That's more like it, boy. Hate me, hate everything. Let the dark flames of hate consume everything. Hate will set you free. You are worthy."
I woke up in a cold sweat. My skin felt itchy all over. Every bit of my skin was burning. I called for Naika.
"Naika, what's happening to me? My skin itches all over."
Naika looked at me, worried.
"I have no idea. But it's probably your entire skin that has been affected. It's changing, Nazhotep. You need to tough it out."
The itch is maddening.
"Try to focus, Nazhotep,"
she said softly, her voice a soothing balm against his frayed nerves.
"This is just a phase of the transformation. It will pass, but you must endure it. The physical changes are part of the process."
Asenath and Salma were not standing idly. They fished and sold them on the market. The maddening itch was made better by the fruits they served me and the vegetables they cooked. They ate the fish in front of me, knowing full well that I couldn't eat it. Cruel. Salma saw me salivating after her smoked fish sandwich. She leaned in and pecked my cheeks with her sweet lips.
"Be patient; I will cook you the best fish once you are cured."
Salma is a sweet girl. She knows how to melt my heart. I pulled out my rag and wiped away the oil she smeared on my face. You shouldn't kiss people while eating something.
I'm sleep-deprived. The itch wakes me up often, and I could sleep an hour at a time at most. The sleep-deprived state I'm in right now clouded my reason and made me irritable. Combined with the itch, I snapped at my caretakers more than once. I apologized afterward, but it's not ideal. Lately, my stomach has become irritable too.
If what Naika said is anything to go by, my stomach is changing too. I've shed a lot of weight. The diet and sickness are affecting me. We moved out of the inn and established our tent outside of the town. Of course, Naika stayed at her home. Her mother didn't want us in her house because she didn't know us. She is right. The priest's house is full of riches he has accumulated in his immense lifetime. Which could be far longer than the average human being. More importantly, his golden sands might be there. If someone stole his golden sands, they would weaken the old priest considerably.
We moved out and used our tent because we had started to eat into our essential traveling expenses. The itch has gone down considerably, and the changes have started to show themselves.
Naika squealed excitedly when she learned I could change the color of my skin now. "Can you change the color of your skin in this pattern?"
I obliged her to see where she was going with this. She compared the motif in her hand to the motif I made appear on my skin. She held me and said,
"Do you know what this means? As long as you know the glyph, you can cast the corresponding spell without preparing and choosing what you would likely need beforehand."
She is excited. I reckon it's a great thing that I've acquired this ability.
***
Since the itch is mostly gone, we are ready to depart. I don't know what happened to my stomach, but the discomfort in my stomach went away too. Naika has her camel too. Otherwise, one of us would have to walk, slowing our march.
The world is beautiful. The setting sun over the river paints the sky a thousand shades of red, orange, and yellow. It is made a hundred times more beautiful by its beholder surviving such a harrowing ordeal.
Naika, every evening and night, accumulates energy from the sand she has been keeping around her skin. The sun reenergizes the sands she controls, and she reabsorbs them, gaining a net energy profit. That's what she told me.
She didn't want to teach me because she didn't know if what she knew about energy absorption had negative effects on someone who is a conduit to Apep. I intend to trust her on that one. When we were traveling, people coming from the opposite direction warned us about crocodiles.
"Up there is crocodile territory. Don't take water from up there if you don't want to get snatched up into the waters."
We thanked them and filled our leather sacks accordingly. At times like this, I'm reminded that for every Quraysh raider, twenty good people have my back in different ways. Salma, Asenath, and Naika took care of me when I was sick. I feel deep gratitude toward these three. They are riding in front of me and are unaware of the fact that I'm looking at the backs of their heads lovingly. We walked past crocodiles and made our camp a day's travel away from the capital. Salma and Asenath were sitting around the fire and having a pleasant conversation with each other. Naika crouched near them, with begging puppy dog eyes:
"Can I flirt with him now?"
The women smiled. Naika had proven her mettle. She was not a crazy person. They smiled and nodded.