Isis sighed softly as her maids painted her nails, the sun was just peaking over the edge of the earth casting lovely paints of pink, yellow, blue, and orange across Heaven's expanse. Dressed in nothing except a thigh high lace shift, Isis inhaled the early morning scents as they drifted threw her balcony window, as always the wild foreign textures from the market town far below the Summer palace; were so luxurious to the princess. Isis was the sixth Isis in the history of New Egypt, she was second in line to the thrown by birth, and was the eldest sister to a dozen or more siblings. Isis' older brother, Ra II was the future king of New Egypt, at only 23 years of age the young man had already had several victorious campeigns, and built numerous monuments to glorify his father- King Seti Ra.
New Egypt had been completely restored to what once was Ancient Egypt, Seti Ra's great grand father had resurected all of the major palaces of the ancient world back in 2014, Ciro had been destroyed and before anyone had achance to claim the old lands the land was taken over by Marcus Stills and his private army. Marcus Stills was the founder and creator of New Egypt, the layout, the funding, and the population of the city. He deemed himself the ruler of New Egypt and established the old ways of power and religion, changing his name to Seti Of New Egypt. He married a greek virgin, Cassi of Athens. The bloodline has been of greek and egyptian ever since then. Now the year of 2084, Seti Ra was in power, with four wives and over a hundred concubines.
Ra II and Isis' mother was Seti Ra's first wife, Atropos of New Egypt, her birth home was southern Greece. Alexandria, Seti Ra's second wife, bore him three daughters, Nephretiti, Cena, and Amunet I. Nephthys, the third wife had two boys, Amon and Heru. Finally Seti Ra's fourth wife Sacmis had two boys and a girl- Seth, Sekhet, and Thoth.
Any babies born to the concubines were merely there in case all of the royal childern perished, which was nearly unthinkable because the human life span was at most a hundred years or more.
Isis' given name was Isis Atropos Beset. It had been the House of Beset for over thirty years, and Isis was proud to carry such a title. She had two trusted maids that had been serving the princess since they were young girls, Ana and Nea. Isis glanced at her fingers, inspecting Ana's maticulus attention to detail.
"Ah Ana they are so lovely!" exclaimed Isis happily as she looked more closely at the gold paint that had tiny onyx flowers embossed on the tips.
"Thank you, your Highness." smiled Ana as she then began working on Isis' toes.
" I overheard Alexandria this morning your Highness." spoke Nea as she began combing out Isis' long brown curls.
"When Nea?" asked Isis softly.
"I was returning from my normal bathing time your Highness, and her Majesty was speaking in a hushed voice with some of the cook's servers." explained the girl.
"And what was she telling them?" Isis glanced back into her friend's worried gaze.
"She gave them some kind of potion for a drink, I believe, and she told them to wait until she told them to use it. The servers replied asking if it was for someone in particular... and Alexandria said that it was for Atropos' daughter!" whispered the servant. Isis grabbed Nea pulling her down to her level.
"Nea are you 100% positive of what you heard?" whispered the princess into her ear. Nea nodded.
Isis slumped back into her chair sighing heavily, she was so tired and sick of this woman's games of lies and envy. For years Alexandria had been jealous of Atropos and Isis, because Isis would be crowned Queen of New Egypt if anything happened to Ra II and the three daughters of Alexandria would never have a chance at power and fame, unless Isis were to die or be murdered; which is what the second wife had been trying to do since Isis had been born.
"Was I wrong to tell you so soon my Lady?" asked Nea.
" No no, you were right to tell me." answered Isis as she stood.
"Bring me Captain Andreas, he should be in the courtyard of the soldiers quarters." requested Isis.
The two servant girls' smirked to one another, as they bowed and did as they were asked. Captain Andreas was Isis' only lover, she called for him every morning and night, when he was available the two would always end their visit with a passionate lovemaking. Nea and Ana would always sneak in the secret door to Isis bed chamber to watch. Captain Andreas was of Spartan and Greek decent, and was a powerful man, a firm leader, and hardened soldier. He was honorable and trustworthy, Isis had known him since he was a boy, when his own father had been recruited by Seti Ra to command his vast armies.
Ra II did not like Andreas at all, but he could not do anything to touch him, because of Seti Ra's satisfaction with the Captain's loyalty to the royal family.
"Captain Andreas sir, her Highness Isis requests your presence." the two servants bowed to the Captain. He was on his Arabian stallion, inspecting his personal guard when Nea and Ana had shown up.
"Can it wait?" he murmured down to the girls.
"No sir." whispered Nea as softly as she could manage, they were all so close to the uniformed guards it was difficult to say anything with out them hearing it. The handsome Captain straightened his composer and then waved the girls away.
"Travis!" he called. From the first row stepped a soldier, he came swiftly to his captain.
"See that they practice as normal." directed the Captain.
"Yes Sir." Travis saluted then did as instructed.
Captain Andreas wheeled his stallion about and cantered towards the palace, he halted then dismounted handing the reins to the stable master. As he navigated the many grand halls and corridors, he knew it was no secret to the entire palace to where he was going. Finally reaching his lady's double doors he knocked gently.
"Come in." her voice replied.
Andreas entered then locked the doors behind him. Isis turned to him, wearing her golden silk robe, her face was radient, her eyes so lovely. Her pierced nipples and belly linked with a gold chain. Isis smiled as she took him all in. Andreas was wearing his uniform proudly, it had been designed by his father. Breathable, stretchy, sweat absorbing material was used for the leggings and the short sleeved u-neck. This white bottom layer was meant for cold dessert nights and served as padding between the body and the armor. The armor was a lightweight steel, dyed a maroon color, all of the armor was the same for each soldier, big sections covered the majority of a man's body, except at the joints were left tiny slats for movement and range of motion. Boots were secured tightly around the ankles, as were the soldiers' helments about their heads when going into battle. All of the battle horses were Arabians, carefully bred and selected for war, they wore a chainmail that covered the face, neck, chest, back, and sides. Andreas had developed a special bracelet clasp to go around the animal's four ankles right above it's hooves, that had six lethal spikes portruding from it. It was also his idea at the age of sixteen to start training the war horses how to rear, kick, and strike out at the enemy.
The idea was approved by Isis' father once he had seen how effective it was in a mock fight when Andreas had turned nineteen.
Over the past fifty years the world had taken yet another shift in how it ran it's economy and industry, the switch had come when there was a food shortage in over half of the United States population, as well as parts of China, India, Africa, and South America. Returning to it's former ways of life, before cars and radio, before television and electronic devices. Not all of the counturies returned to it's roots. There were sections in every continent that refused to give up the standard of convenience and luxury. Marcus Stills had been a rich man all his life, yet he much preferred to be in the libraries of Ciro, until the day that the famine hit all of Egypt and chaos broke out among the country, it was in a downward spiral untill there was nearly nothing left, and it had only taken two years! Marcus had fled to Europe until the demise of Egypt was morbidly decided.
