Nefertiti

Previously:-

Everyone in the room bowed down to their knees to show their respect for the pharaoh, including Jayden and Isobel.

"I am Tutankhamun and I will remove every trace of Akhenaten in my kingdom." he hollered into the room shocking everyone into silence.

~`~

Jayden quickly ushered everyone out of the room while Isobel tentatively sat next to an overly pissed off Tutankhamun, née Toutankhaton. Isobel wondered how she fell asleep last night on this slanted golden bed. The mattress, or what was supposed to be a mattress was not soft and she could feel the wood and the padding wool over it. She assumed it was just exhaustion. 

Jayden came next to her and sat on the other side of Tutankhamun as he was done with locking everything and making sure not a single word went out in the public. 

"Tut-" she started but got cut off.

"No! Ay said that I can be a better king. I want to be a better king! I want to remove everything my father brought here, he was a bad man. Please, Tey, support me! You told me when I was young that you are waiting for the day I'll become the king because my father is bad." Tutankhamun said as his eyes started watering.

Isobel ran her hand through his hair and he continued. "I will get rid of Atenism, revive the worship of the god Amun and restore Thebes as a religious centre. I will stop every useless war and bring peace," he said with surety. His voice was hard and it was enough to prove nothing could deter him.

"We are not asking you to change your mind Tut, it's a good thing. We would though want you to be mindful where you speak. You should not say these things in front of just anyone. Say things in front of only the people you trust." Jayden told him.

"Why not? I'm not scared of them."

"You should be, Tut," Isobel said. "You should be."

On the other side of the castle, the priest was walking as fast as his legs could take him without running. His apprentice was having to jog behind him to keep up with his pace.

"Hem-netjer-tepi(1), stop!" the apprentice whisper-yelled after him. "He told us not to utter a word."

"He told us not to say a word to the public." the priest spat and sped up.

"I think the meaning was fairly clear." he retorted dryly.

The priest stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around and glared at the shorter man. "Do not forget that I am Hem-netjer-tepi. You are not even a Wab(2) yet. Do not test me or I'll crush you under my foot." he threatened him in a cold and dark voice and started walking again. 

They reached a set of gates and asked the guard to knock on it. The guard unwillingly did so. Nefertiti had told him to only disturb her when there was Ay for her but the grave expression on the high priest's face looked important enough for him to disturb.

Nefertiti smiled to herself and went to the door herself instead of making the guard do it. She opened the door with a sweet smile which morphed into an irritated scowl as she saw that the person on her door wasn't Ay. it was the priest and his cowardly apprentice. 

The priest looked tense so she called them in. she had asked them to hurt Toutankhaton a bit in today's ceremony if he wasn't able to do it then she didn't care. There will be plenty of times more for them to do it. After all, he was just a disabled child. She could kill him herself but she didn't want to associate herself with something like this.

"What happened? Is it about the ritual? I sent you the slave." she asked.

"Great Royal Wife, the ritual didn't happen. Ay had declared that Tey and himself would watch over it himself." the priest said shame filling his voice.

Nefertiti snarled but nodded. She couldn't fault Ay, he was guarding the pharaoh that would be his vice while he ruled through him. She, though, didn't like Tey's presence and the fact Ay had spoken for her to be in the room.

"But we are here to tell you about what the pharaoh had said, once the ceremony ended." 

Nefertiti had a confused expression on her face. She didn't understand what the kid could have said that hit them so hard. "Well, are you going to say something?"

"Pardon,  ḥmt nswt wrt (3), the moment the ceremony ended the pharaoh said that he would remove every trace of Akhenaten. Ay warned not to let it slip to the public, for it may cause chaos."

Nefertiti was shocked and slightly scared. The bastard child wanted to remove the city her husband built for her. The bastard child wanted to take away her greatness, fade her into nothingness. She was angry, no, she was enraged. Her eyes darkened as she glared down the high priest and his apprentice. Anger was coming off her in waves. She was the most powerful Great Royal Wife, no one, and she meant no one could fade her into nothingness.

Though she understood Ay's reasoning to keep it out of the public's knowledge she just wanted to barge in there and slit Toutankhaton's throat. He dared to even think of it? That good for nothing, crippled bastard!

"Just not that," the priest said again. Nefertiti looked at him, what else now? "He changed his name. He said he no longer will be addressed as Toutankhaton." Nefertiti's eyes widened. "He said that he will be Tutankhamun. Th-"

"The living image of Amon." she completed. Her mouth was gaping. The moment Tut got the throne he had already renounced their religion. He was bringing back everything Akhenaten had changed on her words. He wasn't thinking of taking it away from her? Wait! He wasn't thinking of taking it away from her. He already was!

Her kohl adorned eyes glanced around the room. This will all be gone. They will move back to Thebes again. All her hard work will be lost.

Her entire body filled with fury. She was going to put him down. The rabid dog has lived too long.

~`~

(1) The high priest was called Hem-netjer-tepi

(2) There was a hierarchy of the priests. The bottom-most was called a Wab.

(3) The Great Royal Wife, the main wife of the Pharaoh was the one who took the throne after his death till the other pharaoh was seated on it. That is how the texts refer to the Great Royal wife as, ḥmt nswt wrt.