The Queen of Wands:
Extreme focus,
Fiery passion,
Courageous,
Individualistic,
May appear self-centered
Strength and Fire
XXXV
Hatshepsut's Sacrifice
Xiang—known to the Egyptian court as Senmut—had outlived every man who claimed to know him. He did not age. He did not linger. His presence moved through dynasties like a tolerated anomaly, explained away as favor, magic, or coincidence, depending on who needed the explanation.
Among the Amazons, he required none. They knew him as the son of Qblh and Isis, and that knowledge was sufficient. They escorted him when escort was required and withdrew when it was not.
At court, men watched him carefully and understood nothing.
Pharaoh Thutmoses understood even less. To him, Senmut was a foreigner whose influence exceeded its justification. He did not trust what he could not categorize, and he resented what he could not command. Rewards had been promised quietly for Senmut’s removal. Several men had accepted. None had returned.
Hatshepsut presided over the consequences with composure.
When executions were required, she carried them out herself. Not from cruelty, but from refusal to delegate what authority demanded. Thutmoses never remained in the chamber. He grew pale, unwell, and excused himself. Senmut did the same—for different reasons.
The court learned to fear days when Hatshepsut held trial without Senmut present. Those sessions tended to end decisively.
Today, Xiang returned from an assignment whose purpose was not recorded. His arrival unsettled the court more than his absence had. Attendance swelled without summons, drawn by rumor rather than protocol. Nefurer was conspicuously absent.
Thutmoses was present. He watched Xiang closely, his attention fixed with a mixture of resentment and calculation. To him, Xiang was a foreigner whose influence exceeded any lawful measure. Egypt, in Thutmoses’ view, had grown indulgent—too tolerant of outsiders, too slow to assert its dominance. He believed foreigners should either depart or submit. Conquest, he was certain, would restore what restraint had eroded. His stepmother’s reign had softened the population, dulling its appetite for expansion.
Xiang met Thutmoses’ stare with an untroubled smile.
Hatshepsut’s court borrowed selectively from older imperial forms, favoring order over spectacle. The ceremony was restrained by design. Xiang leaned close and spoke briefly to the Queen. She listened without interruption, frowned once, then nodded. At a second, quieter remark, her expression changed. She agreed.
Xiang stepped forward.
“The Queen will depart to consecrate her newly completed temple,” he said. “I will accompany her. During her absence, Lord Thutmoses will serve as regent until her return.”
He paused, allowing the implication to settle.
“If we do not return—an outcome we do not anticipate—then Lord Thutmoses will continue as Pharaoh.”
A murmur moved through the hall.
“The Queen has determined,” Xiang continued evenly, “that Isis requires appeasement. She has chosen to offer herself, and her daughter, for the stability of Egypt. Should we not return, understand this: the sacrifice will have been accepted, and Egypt will prosper.”
Silence followed.
“At that time,” Xiang concluded, “we will have gone where our ancestors walk.”
A priest broke the stillness with a brittle laugh.
“To the stars?” he said. “You speak as if the heavens admit visitors. Are we to believe you will return only if the sky refuses you"
"
“This is correct,” Xiang said. “Pharaoh Hatshepsut and her daughter, Queen of the Living, will ascend beyond this world. I will accompany them. We announce this in advance so that our absence does not invite disorder.”
A low ripple moved through the court.
“To the stars?” a senior priest said carefully. “My Queen, surely you do not allow such extravagant claims to govern state decisions.”
Another voice followed, sharper. “It is nonsense. If they depart at all, it will be to the Land of the Dead. Let them go in peace. This is only confirmation that a woman was never meant to rule Egypt.”
Xiang did not raise his voice.
“It is not nonsense,” he said. “We are taking the child—Nefurer as well. This is not a passage meant for all. You are not prepared for it, Thutmoses. I do not expect that you ever will be.”
Thutmoses laughed, softly at first, then openly. He inclined his head in a gesture that might have been respect, or might have been dismissal. Abdication disguised as ritual suited him well enough. He had already decided that they would not return. Quiet instructions formed in his mind—captains who would follow, not to protect, but to ensure finality.
Xiang continued, as if anticipating the future.
“Those who govern in the Queen’s absence should do so carefully. Sacrifice is not immunity. If Egypt prospers, it will be because order was maintained. If it does not, responsibility will rest with those who ruled while she was gone.”
The warning settled uneasily.
Xiang and Hatshepsut departed for the newly completed temple before the court could reorganize itself around suspicion. Their intention was not secrecy alone, but uncertainty—absence framed as mystery. Both understood that Thutmoses would soon declare the Queen dead and assume the throne openly.
The captains followed as far as custom allowed. Beyond the temple threshold, they were halted. No arms were permitted past the outer sanctum.
Inside, the priests accompanied Xiang and the Pharaoh toward the inner chamber. The captains were told that Hatshepsut would be joined in sacred marriage and ascend beyond the world. The priests accepted this explanation with relief and celebration. The captains did not. They expected escape—tunnels, concealment, deception.
They were not entirely wrong. Within the innermost chamber, Xiang summoned Genie’s power. The transfer was immediate. The Queen and her protector vanished from the temple, reappearing instead within the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid, there to wait for Jim.
Genie retrieved the signal and inserted a way-point into the Box’s flight plan. Jim would be notified once his current engagement concluded. In the interim, Genie activated a local manifold intersecting the King’s Chamber, stabilizing the environment for Xiang and Hatshepsut. The manifold employed spatial distortion—a controlled expansion characteristic of the Box’s internal architecture. The chamber became larger than its external dimensions permitted, furnished with conditions suitable for extended habitation.
Xiang demonstrated the effect without commentary. From within the manifold, Hatshepsut observed the confusion below. The captains had forced the priests to guide them inward after the rituals confirmed that ascent had occurred. They searched for passages, mechanisms, evidence of flight. None existed.
What disturbed Hatshepsut more than the pursuit was the speed of succession.
Thutmoses moved quickly. Those who did not acknowledge him as divine authority were reduced to labor. Declarations followed force. Hatshepsut understood the pattern. She had seen it before, repeated whenever power mistook legitimacy for inheritance. She did not understand why men accepted divinity so easily when it demanded nothing but obedience.
Previous pharaohs had at least claimed lineage. This one claimed entitlement.
He was not of the stellar line. His mother was human. The distinction mattered, though Egypt no longer recognized why. Hatshepsut had been expected to produce the next pharaoh, to authorize succession through blood and sacrifice. She had refused. She would not kill for continuity. She had promised Jim as much.
Isis had accepted that refusal. Rule without blood had been permitted—for a time. Xiang’s presence had been intended as instruction, not domination. The possibility of a different dynasty had existed.
Jim would terminate it.
He would remove Hatshepsut from the sequence entirely, returning her to Artemis and severing Egypt’s access to her legitimacy.
Jim’s meditations ended abruptly.
“Jim,” Idiot said, “Xiang has activated the beacon. He is prepared for extraction. Hatshepsut and your daughter are with him.”
“The Land of the Pharaohs, then,” Jim replied. “I may need to inform Antiope.”
“That will not be necessary,” Idiot said. “She is not cleared for the energy thresholds required.”
“What do you recommend?”
“A viable flight window is forming. Duration: five minutes.”
Jim exhaled. “I am unprepared. Could I—”
“No,” Idiot said. “The window will not wait.”
“Very well,” Jim said. “I will resume from this temporal position later.”
“Affirmative.”
“You are tracking these interruptions?”
“Continuously,” Idiot replied. “All variables remain within tolerance. Additional activity would be… beneficial."
The window opened.
Jim moved
