fembuck: (Default)
fembuck ([personal profile] fembuck) wrote2008-06-29 11:20 pm

Fic: A Princess' Tale (Evie/Anuk Su Namun, The Mummy 2/2)

Title: A Princess' Tale
Author: Janine
Fandom: The Mummy
Pairing: Evie/Anuk Su Namun
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I don't own them.

I turned around to see my father approaching and put down my quill.

"Where is Anuk Su Namun?" he asked, looking around the room.

"She's gone to the market," I responded with a touch of amusement as he continued to look around the room as if he didn't believe me. Of course some of her things were scattered around the room, which may have given the impression that she was still or had recently been there, but the fact was that her things were always there, and had been for over a year. "You may check under the bed if you'd like," I offered. He looked at me and smiled.

"It isn't often that I find you alone these days," he responded, folding his arms behind his back. "The reason I asked is because the matter I wish to discuss with you concerns her."

"I see," was all I said as I tried to ignore the sudden tightness in my stomach. "Is there a problem?"

"She has not been sleeping in her chambers," he said, beginning to pace in front of my desk. "This was only recently brought to my attention, or I would have been to see you before this. I've been told that this has been the case for a…troubling amount of time, and that now she seems to have ceased to sleep there at all."

"There is no cause for concern," I responded in what I hoped was a casual tone though I was surprised that he would be so concerned with where it was that Anuk Su Namun slept that he should come to see me about it, that he had people reporting such matters to him. "She has been staying with me those nights."

"With you?" he asked, and to my relief, while sounding confused, he seemed pacified.

"Yes," I responded. "I did not realize that it would cause a problem. I have been helping her with her cuneiform, as you know, it sometimes keeps us late, and she is on the other side of the palace. I have more than enough space," I continued, watching him closely to see if he suspected any deception on my part.

"It seems an awful lot of time to have her here," he responded. I could not read him.

"She is my closest friend," I replied. "We do not get to spend as much time together now that her duties extend beyond merely being my playmate. It seemed the most…efficient solution to the problem, as I do enjoy her company, and she is not needed at night," I continued, willing my heartbeat to return to its normal cycle.

He smiled at me, one of the few genuine ones I have ever seen him wear. "That is pleasing to hear. That you two are getting along so well," he said, and I could tell that he was indeed very pleased with the situation. That worried me, as he had never before seemed interested in how I got along with anyone, anyone other than Anuk Su Namun that is. "I have been searching for the proper time to tell you this," he went on.

"Tell me what father?" I questioned gently.

"You were too young when she first came, and I didn't want to do anything that would cause friction between the two of you," he continued, puffing out his chest as he did when he was about to say something important. I looked at him with dread. I didn't know what he was going to say only that every fiber of my being was informing me that whatever it was I was most likely going to hate it. "You see, Anuk Su Namun is to be my wife, and I wanted nothing more than for her and my daughter to get along. The two people most important to me," he said, kissing me on the forehead happily. "I think now you'll understand why I've been so indulgent with your extravagances towards her, and why I was alarmed to learn that she had been gone at night."

"I do," I answered in a steady voice amazed at my ability to sound as if my world wasn't crashing down around me like a tidal wave. "This has been the arrangement since she came?" I asked. "She has known of it this the whole time?"

"Yes, yes, she was informed of her full responsibilities before she was taken from her village," he went on jovially. "I think she must have been very pleased to find out how well you two got along."

I nodded weakly.

"Well, I have matters to attend to. When Anuk Su Namun returns you will send her to me?" he asked.

"Yes father," I responded, returning my eyes to the papyrus I had been working on before he entered. As I heard the door shut the quill I had just picked up slid from my limp fingers clattering onto the tabletop as I stared blankly into the distance. A moment later I pushed the papyrus away and placed my head down on the top of the table. I didn't feel so well.


I felt lips at my neck and I leaned into the contact unconsciously a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Then I felt her lips moving against mine and I turned slightly to increase the contact. She moaned into my mouth and I could feel her lips curve playfully, before she deepened the kiss, one of her hands slipping inside my tunic as she continued to assault my lips. The taste of my favorite berry was upon her tongue and as I tasted it for the first time my eyes opened and I was dragged back to the present.

She kept my lower lip ensnared between her teeth, tugging it mischievously before releasing me and smiling wickedly, an impish energy surrounding her, making her glow. "Look what I got," she said as she dangled the vine in front of my face. "It wasn't easy either," she went on, moving to sit on me so that she was straddling my lap. "But don't believe what Phaiki tells you. I only threatened the male members of his family," she went on, bending down to kiss me on the tip of my nose. "Tiri?" she asked when I didn't respond or try to steal the fruits from her hand as I usually did before finally bribing her with promises of honey and sensual pleasures. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice rising with concern. "Why were you sitting like that?"

"We need to talk," I said, pushing on her thighs to make her move off of me. She looked at me questioningly when I made this motion; I had never before refused any of her physical advances. "Now," I said when she failed to move. Silently she placed her gift on the table and stood up be it reluctantly. I soon followed.


I spun around to face her, my hands clenched tightly at my sides. Her eyes were downcast, her shoulders slumped. She looked utterly miserable and for just a moment I was glad for it.

"You could have told me!" I accused. "All these years, I didn't even suspect. I should have seen it, the way he looked at you, the way…" I trailed off as I spoke, an idea forming in my mind. "Have you…"

"No!" she said forcefully grasping me about the shoulders. "By all the gods no, and I don't want to. I never wanted too, Nefertiri," she said her head dropping down. "My family was starving and Pharaoh offered to provide for them if I … if I agreed to his conditions. What else could I do, we were dying. You should have seen my brother, he was like a skeleton and sick all the time," she went on her voice getting softer as she spoke. "I had to agree, and … and I was going to be sold sooner or later so why not to a Pharaoh who could feed my family?" she said letting go of me. "I was settled to the idea, and your father was nice, in our first meetings he barely touched me, a hand on the shoulder here or there, but nothing more. I would get worse going to the market. And then there was you, I thought that it wouldn't be so bad to have a friend, to get to act like my age for a while," she went on, shaking her head. "And you were so…so, you," she continued, her voice cracking. "I never thought I would fall in love with you, I never wanted to, but I couldn't help it."

I remember walking over to her, my intentions pure and platonic, but as soon as I came within her sphere I drew her into my arms and held her as her body shuddered with tears, stroking her hair as her head rested on my shoulder. I finally understood what she was talking about that night, why she had asked for forgiveness before we made love that first time. She knew from the beginning that what we had would have to end, and still she loved me, so well, so completely.

"We'll run away," I told her as she began to calm. "There's an island off the coast of Greece." She smiled at me sweetly as I said this, though her eyes were sad. I knew as I said it that it could never happen, and she knew it too.

"He would hunt us to the ends of the earth," she said softly, grasping my hands.

"We could tell him that you're infertile," I offered, getting rather desperate now.

"He'd want to make sure," she responded, looking away as she said it. I too lowered my gaze as I realized how he'd go about wanting to test the claim. An image I wish that I could permanently remove from my brain, but that seems to be stuck there for the long run.

"Did you see any pretty girls at the market?" I asked, thinking that maybe if we could find him someone else he would leave her to me.

"No," she responded. "You weren't there." I smiled at that and hugged her to me, as close as it was possible for us to get.

"We should have a picnic in the valley," I said, releasing her from my desperate hold. "We've already got fruit," I said, looking at the table where she had left the berries.

"I have to go see your father," she responded, looking at the berries longingly.

"Then see him, and come back to me," I told her. "We are women," I went on, "our lives are ones of compromise. You may be contracted to him, but you are mine," I finished before bringing our lips together, kissing her with a bruising intensity.

"If anyone ever finds out about us now," she said when we parted. "You're his daughter and before you knew about the arrangement he would have only gone after me…but now…"

"He would kill us both, I know," I told her. "And I don't care. I would rather die with you than live without you."

"Let us hope it never comes to that," she responded, kissing me gently before reluctantly pulling away and heading towards the door.


I was standing on my balcony looking out into the courtyard when I heard the door to my bedchambers open. I knew that it was Anuk Su Namun for she was the only person presumptuous enough to enter my room uninvited. So I continued to stand at the balcony the breeze blowing across my face as I waited for her. I heard her footsteps stop shortly before she reached the balcony and when she did not continue any further I turned around.

"What is that?" I breathed out in a horrified tone as I walked towards her.

"Body paint," she responded calmly. I looked up at her; it was never good when she was this calm.

"I can see that. Why are you covered in it?" I asked, walking around her. I stretched out my hand to touch her only to have her step out of reach.

"Do not touch it," she said, remaining still now that I could not touch her. "It is security. No one can touch me without your father being able to tell," she continued, her words laced with an anger that would have been undetectable to anyone who had not spent as much time around her as I.

I stood there routed in my spot, unable to move. I think that I was in something similar to shock. It was too much for me; this day had been too much for me. Five hours ago, she had been mine and I had been hers and the world was a glorious place if for no other reason than that, than our love. And now, now I could not even touch her for fear of my father. A sob emerged from somewhere deep inside of me and I raised my hand to my mouth, covering it as I turned around, away from her.

She said nothing as I walked away from her back to my balcony, and she remained silent still as I braced my hands on the ledge leaning on it for support. As my body shook with the effort to suppress tears I heard her take a step closer only to stop. What was she to do? She couldn't ruin her makeup by touching me, by hugging me. And as I thought this, I was seized by an anger of an intensity I had never felt before, and I spun around to face her.

"We love each other," I said fiercely, finding her in the position if not the same spot that I had left her in.

"We do," she responded her gaze level with mine, her eyes calm.

"What else is there?" I asked, I don't know if I expected a real answer from her or not, only that I did not like what she returned with.

"Life," she replied as if reading my mind. She knew what I was planning to do and was trying to make me think, but I had thought, and I knew what had to be done.

I grasped her face between my hands and I kissed her, I drew my hands down along her arms smudging the gold and black paint as I went along and I stepped back my face and hands covered in the golden colour of her skin. When I looked at her, she grinned at me, that grin I loved so much then she shook her head.

"What have you done?" she asked picking up a discarded towel and walking over to me cleaning the paint off of my face.

"Stay here," I told her backing away when she went to clean my hands. "I'm going to see my father."

"Nefertiri," she said warningly. "One day you will push him too far, you may be his daughter but he is still Pharaoh."

"Then let us pray today is not that day," I said, sweeping towards the door. "Let no one in," I told the guards as I left the room.


"What is this!?!" I raged at my father as I burst into the war room. He looked up at me surprised, more surprised than his advisors if that was at all possible. "What is this!?!" I asked again waving my golden hands in front of him. His eyes were wide, I had never talked to him a tone like this before, I had never even raised my voice to him. I had more sense than that, before. But now that voice, the one that whispers decorum, and tact and appropriate behavior in your ear during difficult times had left me, no doubt still on my balcony shaking with sorrow.

"Leave us," my father said to the men gathered around him. "Now," he said standing and they made their exit. "How dare you speak to me in this fashion," he boomed his eyes wide now with anger as he advanced on me. Yet I saw not the danger in the situation, I saw nothing but red.

"What is she, your cat? A precious book that you can lock away like gold!?! How could you do this to her? She's a spectacle, you've told everybody she's a whore!" I yelled, stepping towards him. "Is she to be made to live like a leper, to have no contact with anyone? Not even me?" I asked my voice fading and faltering as I went on. I turned away from him, not wishing for him to see anymore in my face that I had not already given away with my words. I began to pace, they were having a bad effect on me.

"She is to be my wife," he said in a softer tone than the one he used before my diatribe began. It always pacified him to see me cry. "I must make sure that she remains faithful to me until our wedding."

"You question her virtue," I accused, the hypocrisy of the statement not at all lost on me. I was trying to convince him to trust that she would be faithful to him so that I could have her back in my bed. Yes, I recognized the hypocrisy of it all, I just didn't care.

"I wished not to speak of these matters with you, but it is obvious that you need to hear this," he said, walking back over to his chair and sitting down. "Anuk Su Namun is a woman now, and as girls grow into womanhood they change, they need certain things they did not need before. Physical intimacy is what I am talking about. It becomes like a fire raging in their bellies until they can see nothing, feel nothing but it. Sometimes it can cause the most virtuous of woman to…act against her nature." My expression must have been as incredulous as the emotions I was feeling for he smiled patronizingly at me and continued. "You have not yet reached this point, but soon you will and precautions will have to be taken then as well." I turned to glare at him, precautions indeed. "I know it will be hard for you, with you two having grown so close, but Anuk Su Namun has grown beyond the comfort that you can provide her with and she must stay…alone until the time comes that I can comfort her."

As he finished I let out a shuddering breath and turned away from him barely resisting the urge to place my hands over my ears in an attempt to purge his speech from my memory.

"Surely," I said, turning towards him, "surely she maybe be allowed to be in her natural state some…"

"Nefertiri, I know that this is difficult, but I must insist that you respect my decision. I have been more than generous with your demands over the years, but not with this. The only time that Anuk Su Namun will not be made up is while she sleeps, trains and bathes, no more, no less. This you must come to accept as she has," he interrupted, bracing his hands on the table. "Go now and clean yourself up, then call Tedric to reapply her paint." With that he returned to the map he had been looking at previous to my entry into the room.


I watched the sundial closely. Finally deciding it was time I burst into the outer room of the bath chamber Anuk Su Namun was bathed in demanding entry.

"Highness, it is occupied," the attendant tried to tell me, but I moved around him.

"Than it shall be occupied by one more," I told him. "I have an appointment with the Delian priestess that I must keep and my chambers are broken. I can't use my father's, and I will hardly use a common one. Step aside, now." And he did and I entered to see Anuk Su Namun about to enter the tub. She turned to see what the commotion was and upon seeing me looked slightly surprised before replacing her mask of indifference. I turned to the attendant.

"I must bath in here today, your services won't be necessary," I told her, walking across the room, leaving the outer door open so that she could leave through it. She looked as if she was about to protest and I looked at her commandingly. "You will NOT see the royal body unclothed," I told her then turned towards the door expectantly.

Once the door was closed I turned to see Anuk Su Namun trying rather unsuccessfully to smother her laughter. "You will not see the royal body unclothed?" she mouthed to me before breaking down again. I smiled, it had been a long time since I had seen her this relaxed, and even longer since I had seen her laugh. The last time was when she brought me those berries, that was a month before.

"Am I not to see the royal body unclothed either?" she asked, looking at me coyly through her eye lashes when I failed to join her in the water. I smiled in response and shrugged off my dressing gown. As I crossed the floor to join her, her eyes remained trained on my body and as soon as I lowered myself into the water her body was beside mine her lips crushing against mine desperately as her hands roamed my body, drawing me closer to her. I sighed and leaned into her, burying my face into her neck as she continued to caress me. Finally, I could breath again.

I lay her down on the tile by the tub, her gasp as her back hit the cold floor warming me inside. It moments like this, when we managed to be together we knew that our time was fleeting and spared with any pretense of romance. I covered her body with mine, bringing my lips to hers as one of my hands found her breast and the other traveled south to the site of one of her other treasures.

I placed my mouth over hers, swallowing her moan as my fingers moved in and out of her at an increasing pace and her hips drove upwards as she desperately tried to keep contact with my fingers at all times. As I took a nipple into my mouth I reached up with my thumb stroking her clit as she bore down on my fingers, a strangled cry tore loose from her lips before she bit down on her lower lip in an attempt to stay quiet. I could hear her breath coming in desperate gasps now, her mouth open and her eyes closed as her body undulated frantically under my touch until her hips rose one last time and she flooded my fingers with her pleasure.

"I have to go," I told her, rising out of the water, the cooling water droplets on my skin and thought of having to leave her again causing me to shiver. She nodded, her eyes downcast before she turned away from me and submerged herself under the water before rising and smoothing her hair back, ignoring me as I put my dressing gown on. The first time she reacted this way I felt as if I would break down into tears, but I know now that it was the way she had to deal with our separation, that it would've hurt her too much to watch me leave again and again. As I reached the door I heard – like always – a whispered, barely audible 'I love you' before I had to open the doors and leave once more, trying to contain my sorrow until I was safely behind closed doors once again and could weep freely.


I turned my head to the side when I heard my door open, my heart skipping a beat. It had been months since the person walking through it at this hour had been Anuk Su Namun but somewhere inside I kept hoping that it would be her. It wasn't though it was Phaiki come to watch over me as she had started to do since my depression began. It was ritual that we had had before Anuk Su Namun came to the palace, and one that we fell back into effortless when she was taken away. Every night Phaiki would come and comb out my hair, telling me about her day. She used to ask me about mine, when I was a child I used to regale her with stories of things that had seemed important at the time, but she had learned now that I did not want to speak.

"Normally," she began hesitatingly, "I would not bring up the subject, but considering your affection for her I thought that you might want to know something I learned today," Phaiki said as she brushed my hair.

"This is about Anuk Su Namun I suppose," I responded, playing idly with a hair clip that had been resting on the dresser.

"Yes. I heard your father talking with Imhotep," she began.

"Imhotep," I said more to myself than Phaiki. "I don't like him," I said, shaking my head. "What were they talking about?"

"Anuk Su Namun," Phaiki responded. "Your father has noticed that she has become increasingly despondent. Her responses to him have been polite, adequate, but the warmth he had come to associate with her over the years has faded." I merely nodded, encouraging her to continue. "He was asking Imhotep to cast a spell."

"A spell?" I asked looking back at her in surprise. "Surely he wouldn't be so foolish."

"I heard quite plainly. He asked Imhotep to make her love him," Phaiki responded.

"A love spell," I whispered under my breath. "The only…it is forbidden, the darkest magic is…" I said, trailing off. "When?"

"Tonight, it was already arranged. Your father was providing him with a sample of her hair," Phaiki told me sadly.

I stood up suddenly, causing Phaiki to take a startled step backwards. A love spell, I couldn't believe it. How could he be so foolish, so desperate? And Imhotep, to trust him with something so precious, so important. I knew that my father liked the man, but there was something about him that put me on guard. He was too shrewd, to calculating for my likes. He was a powerful man who believed he was destined for more than what he had and he was in a position where he could move no further without removing someone else. This made him a dangerous man.

"Where?" I asked, turning around to face her. "Never mind," I said, cutting off the reply she was about to make. "I know where." Imhotep's underground lair, it was where he conducted all of his rituals. I had only been there once, but I knew that I could find it again.

As I reached the last of the darkened steps there was a blinding flash of light. When the light faded I looked into the room just in time to see Anuk Su Namun crumble and fall to the floor, her body folding bonelessly as it hit the dirt covered ground.

"What have you done to her!?!" I demanded, entering into the chamber. He looked up at me, seemingly surprised at first then smug, a smile stretching across his birdlike features.

"He is not worthy of her," Imhotep said calmly, his lips curving in distaste. My father was ten times the man he was, and in any other case I would have told him where to shove it, but he was right. Anuk Su Namun was too good, even for my father.

"No shit, Socrates, that still doesn't explain what you've done to her," I responded, advancing on him.

"She has a strong spirit, endless, beautiful," he said, gazing down at her prone body softly. "She deserves someone who can show her eternity…and beyond. Someone who can love her throughout the ages." I stared at him as he spoke. I recognized the gaze he wore as he looked at her for I had seen a version of it on my face as I gazed at her in a mirror and also in my father's. But it looked different on him, twisted. His love was sinister, something I could never say of my father's love for her even though it killed me inside.

My eyes drifted to the side, my eyes catching a pale piece of cloth. Focusing on it, I saw that it was not a cloth at all, but a doll, a doll of Imhotep and beside it laid her comb. The comb I had given her for her birthday her second year with us.

"You've cursed her," I said, walking over to her body and kneeling down.

"I've liberated her," he responded, looking down at me with contempt. "I've mated our souls."

I looked up at him as he said this in a state of shock and horror.

"You sick, twisted, demented little bastard," I ground out, looking at him. "When I tell…" but I was distracted from threatening him as I heard Anuk Su Namun moan in my arms and I looked down at her gently stroking her hair.

"Su?" I said softly. "Are you alright?"

"A bit fuzzy around the edges," she said with a weak smile. "But other than that," she said sitting up her gaze traveling past me towards Imhotep, "I'm perfect," she continued, her smile growing as she stood up. I remained crouched on the floor as I watched her stand up walk into his open arms, my stomach churning as I watched them grin at me faces pressed together, cheek to cheek.

Stepping away from her for a moment, he stepped towards me, bending down so that his mouth was next to my ear. I shuddered in aversion at his close proximity but could not seem to move away from him. "You won't do anything," he said to me softly, "if you ever want your…Su," he smiled at this, "back. Return to your chambers Nefertiri, there's nothing here for you now."

"My father," I started weakly.

"Your father will not believe you, Anuk Su Namun knows that when something must be done, you do it," he said, leaning back so that he could fully enjoy the pain etched across my features. "She will play her part."

Wrenching my eyes away from him, I turned to look at her, to look into those eyes I had come to know so well, but when I meet them I didn't recognize what I saw. It was like looking at a stranger.

"Go to sleep little girl," she whispered in a hard, mocking tone, her lips curving up so that she appeared to be almost snarling. "Playtime's over."


I've know her since I was child, and she has always been and remains the most beautiful entity I have ever been blessed enough to lay eyes on. I stare up at her, lips pointed yellow her breath slightly uneven as she looks at me with those deep, dark eyes, her lips curving slightly giving the impression of a smile. She is feeling pleased with herself, and I suppose she should be for I still love her, and she can now break my heart as easily as she breathes. She is not the woman I once knew, the woman I wish I could know again, but despite that, despite that fact that she now stands over my aching body smirking at me smugly, teasing me softly as the entire court watches me, I love her. I love her so much that I can feel it consuming me, engulfing me like the fires of Hades. And as I hear her voice, her low, soft voice and look into eyes that used to love me, I swear that I can see some affection in them, a shadow of our love. She smiles because she has won more than this exhibition, she smiles because she knows that whether or not I have her she will always have me. I grasp her now outstretched hand, my lips' parting slightly as our skin makes contact and I allow her to pull me to my feet. Gods, she's beautiful.

I feel the wind whipping in my face and am shocked into blinking. It's dark out where I am, yet the last thing I remember is being in a golden court looking into her gorgeous, cold eyes, and longing to kiss those delicately painted perfectly shaped lips. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around sharply, still feeling terribly displaced.

"Another dream?" Rick asks his hand resting on my shoulder. It feels large and cumbersome to me now, coming from the place I just been and from the viewpoint of the woman I just was.

"Not dreams, memories," I murmur, my eyes drifting about to look at the clouds behind the confines of our balloon. "At least now I know why I was looking at Meela's chest when I was tied to the fiery platform," I thought to myself, or at least I thought I had thought to myself.

"What?" Rick asked, craning his neck around so that he could see my face.

"I said, at least now I know why I recognized Meela when I was tied to the fiery platform," I responded. "What did you hear?" I asked him, trying not to think about how my heart had started thundering in my chest as I saw her walk across the room that night in the museum, her dress lovingly hugging her body, her skin lit up beautifully in the firelight. I tried not to think about how thinking of her now I can feel a faint aching in my chest and a tingling somewhere lower.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head and kissing me on the cheek. "The altitude and…Jonathon!" he yelled, turning around and stalking after my brother. "Let go! Let go right now, Mister!" Rick said testily as he wrestled with Jonathon for the golden scepter snuggled in his arms. "If you don't let go by the count of three, I swear to God that when I get this rod outta your hands I'm gonna shove it so far up your ass that…"

"Alright, alright," Jonathon responded, letting go the scepter with a sigh. "Evie, can't you control this beast?" he asked, turning to look at me pleadingly before glowering in Rick's direction.

"If I wanted to I suppose," I responded, grinning at him, my smile growing as I saw him 'humph' and turn away.

"Rick?" I called as he made his why to the cockpit - or whatever it is that you call it in an air balloon.

"Yes, Honey?" he responded dutifully. He really could be a gentleman when he wanted to be.

"Let's make sure he stays dead this time," I called back to him as the low tones of Nefertiri and Anuk Su Namun's laughter played in my mind like a haunting melody and Nefertiri's memories teased my senses. "There's a soul he's got that needs to be returned," I continued softly, looking up at the moon, and noting that at least it hadn't changed in two thousand years.

The End


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