"Did you have to fight the foreign troops too?"

"Fortunately no. I was able to convincingly demonstrate to them the unlawfulness of the queen's takeover attempt, and they stood down."

"Oh, huh, I guess I didn't imagine that foreign troops brought in to back her would be invested in who was rightfully the heir."

"Well, we were very persuasive. And I think it helped we had the backing of most of the country, including the local wizards. But they from a group that views the importance of the law in ways that would not be entirely foreign to those who worship Abadar."

"And there was at the same time of all this also a plague?"

"Well, the beginnings of one, anyway. Luckily Naima is very well suited to helping out an end to them. I think that might be her goal in life." He laughs. "If someone told me she would go all the way to kill Urgathoa herself, I would not bet against it."

"That she'd try or that she'd succeed?"

"Both," he says with a thoughtful nod.

"Stranger things have happened," she allows. "Naima's very - I guess the word I want is cool except I'd like it to somehow also be a word that doesn't suggest she's very emulable? If one happens to find oneself being Naima one should go on ahead with that but I sort of worry that people who don't find themselves being Naima might try to imitate her in ways that wouldn't work out."

He nods. "She is a very unusual person. I'm glad she does what she does, especially for Osirion."

"Would you like to meet her sometime?" he asks, wondering how bad an idea this is.

"I would love to!"

"I think that can happen. She's a busy person, but even so doesn't spend all her time working" he says. "Maybe sometime I can introduce you if you're interested in seeing me again." There is the smallest hint of a hopeful question in his voice with that last bit.

"That sounds like a great idea."

"Yes it does," he says, immediately regretting ever suggesting it as he imagines Naima telling Nebetah of every failing he's had for the last three years.

"You'll have to let the palace know when she's going to be available so Aunt Maysoon and I can arrange to meet you before then. Probably she schedules her breaks very thoughtfully."

He nods. "Yes. We are all busy preparing for what's to come up north, her most of all." A cloud crosses his face. "Come summer, I could be gone for some time. My work, Abadar, they often call for me to be away for extended periods." He looks at her to see her reaction. "That's part of why I never made plans for... this sort of thing. I realize that could be difficult."

"I don't want to be the sort of wife who lives for the time when her husband isn't home but that doesn't mean I couldn't cope with it," Nebetah assures him.

He nods, reassured. "I think if I had something or someone to come home to, I would make a greater effort to be gone less."

"I wouldn't want to get in the way of anything like closing the House of Oblivion. Some things are more important than coming home every night."

"Some things are," he says slowly. "But not everything. And with the ability to teleport, sometimes even important things far away would not need to keep me from home."

"To be honest, I don't actually have a home, per se," he admits, slightly embarrassed. "There are some rooms I have here at the temple that are sufficient for an Inquisitor who travels often. But they're not suitable for a family. I suppose I would need to rectify that."

"You should definitely have a house," she says. "Have you given thought to whether you'd rather live in or out of the Dome?"

"I hadn't, really. Until recently, I was focused on other things." He shifts uneasily. "I think... not in the Dome. But I really don't know what the rules or options are here."

"The houses in the Dome are expensive, and it's laborious to get back in again after you go out, but it's safe and cool and - well, to me, it's familiar, but that's just me."

"Laborious to get back in again? How so?" She asks, someone surprised. "I could see it being difficult for some, but for the Pharaoh's sister? Really?"

"Until they check, I'm only probably the Pharaoh's sister! And only probably not enchanted, to boot."