A vein in your forehead throbbed which heralded the onset of a headache. While massaging your temple, you realized you needed a touchstone, something mundane, before you were swept up more than you already had. Deciphering telepathic messages, interrogating monarchs, and uncovering magical mysteries could be left for tomorrow. You raised your cup to Sanura. She had promised an eternal paradise so haste should be the least of your worries. But your friend must be confused if they didn’t hear your Pharaoh’s speech. And talking things through could be what you needed.
The celebration landed on its feet and taken off with a sprint. Light migraine or not, seeing everyone enjoying themselves did brighten your mood. With children around the atmosphere was restrained, though you could feel it bubbling underneath the surface.
Slithering like a serpent with a feminine sway to your hips as you walked around the crowds, more than once were you mistaken as a woman. First you tried to correct them but soon enough you played along. Every time a man, and occasional woman, flirted then you’d smile and let them caress and admire the emerald scales decorating your ebony skin before finding a way to whisper your secret into their ear before things went further. The surprised reactions were amusing. Yet when they didn’t pull away that made your heart skip and beat faster – and it felt like you would melt into their embrace from the thrill you felt when they then didn’t correct their mistake.
You still identified as a man. But that pretense especially when everyone knew and maintained the illusion or skirted around it by calling you a sissy or femboy turned you on. It stunned you just exactly how much. Your twin cocks throbbing partially erect ended the fun you had. It became too obvious what the constant adjustments for your long skirt was for, instead there was time to reflect and take in the breathtaking scenery of New Thebes.
Much of the Central Park had naturally been taken up by the pyramid, and the inner city garden had expanded its width a few blocks outward. Even changed, there was still a logic to the city and as a native found your feet easily carrying you down the streets past the Nektusiris Amphitheater, replacing the area around Carnegie Hall. A whisper of worry did set when you reached the sandstone temple where St. Bartholomew should’ve been and the necropolis with vast tomb complexes and gardens surrounding it. The jackal-headed Anubis was the only deity you vaguely recognized among the statues standing guard, but among them was a woman, a chimera, and a winged serpent.
For a city of the dead, it was lively. You greeted a middle-aged djinn and mummy couple sitting on a bench enjoying the clean air and warmth before approaching them. “Hey. Do you guys know an Isaac Palmer? He’s supposed to live here. Can’t exactly call him on phone and still finding my bearings.” You were luck as the djinn nodded.
“Guy, early-twenties, has a pet snake?” Sounded exactly like him. “He’s in that tomb over there flanked by statues of Maat.” The mummy then chimed in, “Sounds worse than it is. Read and follow the hieroglyphs and you’ll have no issue finding his... apartment. Never knew him to be the dating type to busy with his games to find a girlfriend.”
Biting your lip you did all you could to not reflexively tell them you weren’t dating or that you weren’t a woman. Containing that shudder made you appear sheepish and shy rather than someone trying to hold back a moan. “Guys aren’t the only ones with computers. Were, anyway. It’s Amun...et. Amunet. Fits better than Alex.” At first you thought it was a spur of the moment thing, but after talking a little more the two had also taken new names for themselves.
Seeing pictures of ruined Egyptian graves did not do these justices. Smokeless braziers lit hall and corridors decorated and covered in art. Funerary spices and ointments hung thick and fragrant in the air. While reading the pictograms had that same new-old feeling or having felt like you’ve done it forever despite being the first time, you did find an ‘Imhotep’ with Isaac carved in the margins of the stone plate.