Chapter One

World: Wadi

Sun: Ra

Empire: New Egypt

15th revolution of the reign of Pharaoh Kekhmet, 12th day of the third month of summer (1st season), ½ Cycle of the hour of Hathor (1 hour from mid-day) (Kekhmet 19.12.3/1 Hathor):

Beautiful music flowed through the palace as Princess Kiya sang in the ancient language and played the lute. The song foretold of the story of the ancients and the sadness of leaving the old world, but the joy of coming to this world and becoming their own empire, something that they would never have been allowed in the old world that was only known now as Deshret, the desert lands, though they knew that it was hardly a desert world, but one that was a desert to the people, consuming them into slavery.

From that beautiful ocean world of Deshret they came to the also beautiful forest world of Wadi, also known to the barbarians as Gizan, the capital world of the New Egypt. It was then that the beginnings of New Egypt were formed and after the first world, Wadi, there then came others, some which circled the stars of Thoth, Anubis, and all the other god-named stars until the Egyptian Empire had consumed many solar systems in practically all of the galaxy.

So many beautiful things came then; an entire bounty came to the people of New Egypt, so many things that could never have come to them on Deshret and those old empires that consumed the world. And Egypt prospered even when the new Empires emerged and the old ones of Deshret crumbled. Those new Empires threatened New Egypt, taking one-third of Egypt's territory for their own. The Romans, the Vikings, the Greeks, the Chinese, and the other barbarian nations took what they wanted from New Egypt until the Great Pharaohs of Wadi stopped them.

For the graces of the barbarian peoples Egypt did not crush the new Empires, but let them flourish as the Gods had let New Egypt flourish, but they were never to be as powerful as the first Empire, as the Egyptians. And it was this tale that Kiya now sung with her beautiful voice and played with her long, delicate fingers.

When the song had been finished in the dialect of the first Egyptians her father, who had heard her beautiful song and come to listen to her and watch her play, clapped and said, "That was very lovely, daughter." Kiya beamed at her loving father. "Thank you, father," she said politely to her Pharaoh, Kekhmet, and father. "You are welcome Mau. Can you sing another song? Your voice soothes me and I need to be soothed right at the moment," he asked, using her favorite nick name, and took a seat opposite to her.

"Is it the Romans again, father? Or is it something else?" she asked, concerned. It wasn't good for her father to be so stressed all the time. "Yes, it is the Romans, Mau. But it is nothing that should concern you, not yet anyway. Please, sing," he said and waited patiently for her to begin. "Yes, of course father. Anything you want," she smiled and picked up the lute. After thinking of a good song for his mood, she played as skillfully as she could and her father soon relaxed.

"Mmm, this is almost better than getting a massage or breathing in the herbal candles that the healer gave me," he murmured as she hung out the last notes. Kiya smiled. "Oh, father, you kid," she said modestly, blushing slightly. "No, your voice always sooths me Mau. Your voice is so lovely, just like your mother's," he insisted and her blush deepened.

"You should take a walk in the garden, father. It will help distract you from the Kingdom. Maybe you should take a voyage down the river as well. You know how it distracts you from everything, boating down the Nile. You haven't done it in so long, it's time that you start again," Kiya suggested. "That would be nice, Mau, but I'm not sure I can take so much time as to go boating. The treaty with the Romans is getting shaky and I shouldn't do as such…" Pharaoh Kekhmet said.

"Please father. You need such a break, for the good of the Kingdom. You can go this afternoon, I'll take care of everything, and then you can get back to the treaty in the morning. It will be a good time for us to bond. I haven't spent the afternoon with you for a long time and this will be perfect. Please, father. Let me do this for you," Kiya begged in her own way. Kekhmet chuckled. "Very well, Mau. I shall spend the afternoon with you on the Nile," he finally wielded. "Thank you father. The boat shall be ready by the third hour from mid-day," Kiya said happily and kissed her father on the cheek.

"I shall set to it immediately father. See you on the boat by then," said Kiya with her usual enthusiasm and left her father in the music room, just smiling to himself about his little girl. She was growing up and soon he would have to teach her about ruling the throne of New Egypt. She was his only legal heir and already in her 13th year of the Deshret dating system, the 10th revolution of the Wadi dating system, and the 70th cycle of the Universal dating system, she was quite ready to begin her learning in the area of ruling. Soon he would teach her. Perhaps when she was 10 revolutions and 71 cycles he would begin, which was coming up in a few more days. But for now he would enjoy his leisure time with her.

He looked quite forward to this little boating expedition, actually. He missed spending time with her. Now that her mother was gone and her half-sister off traveling the other Kingdoms as a diplomat, Kiya was all by herself with only the servants as companions, if that, and he was worried for her. She needed a companion to keep her company.

The servants were all right but he thought it would be better for someone more of her own class. As for himself, he was Pharaoh and could not be there most of the time for her. He had managed to find all the time he could when she was very young, sometimes letting her play in the room while he debated with the diplomats and dictated all that needed to be done to the messengers. But it was harder now for him to do so.

But he would fix that soon enough. She would be with him almost all day, learning from his example, and after that he would make sure she had a suitable husband before she took the throne from him and he made his way to the afterlife. Yes, very soon things would change for the better and his time in this life would be over, his duties as Pharaoh gone, and only his acceptance with the Gods his only purpose, joining Ra, Osiris, Anubis, and Horus in the divine afterlife.

Soon she would be Pharaoh and Queen of all Egypt.