He listens as dutifully as he speaks, ears full front and eyes never faltering - even as he bends to look at her while he speaks of harder things than perhaps she was wont to endure. It surprises him that she does not realize - per her reaction - that they had been amorous out where the sound could echo through the dunes. That he could have seen for himself the results of that coupling even if he had not been nearest of the brothers and therefore able to hear their pleasure gasped to Nut by the breath of Shu - Geb beneath their feet to soak in the sweat of their lovemaking.

It had been done as Antares had always prayed, breathless in his tale of Old Rites so that Rigel had always hoped it to be fulfilled for him. The same as Sayyida had spoken her own vows of marriage and rejoiced that he had returned it - their coupling beneath Nut amidst Shu over Geb had been the same of Antares. “You turn in embarrassment, so let me leave this to you-- The Dunes are vast, but their waves and dips carry sound farther than you must have had a mind to remember. I hope it reassures you that I am the only brother who might have done any hearing - and no others reside even half as close as they.”

But he readjusted as they fell into their repose and he focused back on those things that she had spoken with such an earnestness that made him sure there were vast mistakes made in her interpretation of their ‘barbaric’ belief - or at least had it colored by a much harsher child-faith.

“We may share our words, at times, but your description of First Wife is precisely what I and my brother feared. It is true, you are his every drop of trust and faith. You were this even when he had his crown to prove his ability to guarantee you a life beyond destitution.” He nods, huffing a small snort, “But that alone would not have afforded you the title of First Wife, nor have made him mark you at your withers already as he did. First, for us, is not a number - not always, though sometimes it is applicable too. First is because to be Soul Sewn makes you all but his equal, save that he was given the Rites that named him chosen Among Gods. It means that if you are done ill, they do ill to him as if it was his own mind, body, or soul. To displease you is to displease him.”

He looks at his folded forelegs at the knee and tries to better describe the power that provides her. “You might say to a man ‘defend me’ and it would be as the King speaking thus. You might say to a woman ‘do this for my pleasure’ and it would be as his own voice commanding it.” He smiles, shaking his head, “You will have his own private confidence, speak to him outside the hardship that comes from being scrutinized for his judgements. You will possess the power to sway him with words and deeds - in a way no other creature will ever be able to claim.”

He totters his head in a strange tilt to tilt, swaying as he tries to point out the basis of the difference their cultures seemed to stem from at the core of the sexes. “You will be set apart, in some ways, from all women. You may not possess the exact example of a man’s power - but you will never be able to say that you have less either. In some ways you will only be a step behind myself as advisor, Atair as general, and Aldebaran as Harbinger… and even then there are things you will have power to affect that we cannot.” He looks up, recounting more of what she had detailed out. “Ah yes, I did learn of that in my time teaching you and learning from your holy men.”

“You will bear the Crown Heirs, just as your People believe, certainly. We too value the office performed by women in bringing the future into the present. We also believe in the sacred duty of woman to man, that you should endeavor to pleasure your Husband, that there is value in his position of protection and guidance. We also believe that to be First Wife of the King is to be included in matters of state, we believe similarly that women possess a view we might never think of or understand enough to implement without one present. That, true, makes us quite similar. Similar enough that it is no wonder that, combined with your people’s belief in our barbarism, colored you more envious than perhaps you need be.”

His sigh comes as he fixes his gaze out into the world beyond them, eyes seeming to glaze as he pictures the women he must be speaking of from their histories, “But while we value your ability to bear children - there is power in your sex to move and motivate, to disturb and disrupt, the very core of a man. You have power through your Husband because a wise Man will always incline an ear to the wisdom of a Woman of even temperament and sound judgement.” He does find it hard to articulate to someone the importance of this, if only because he feels her lack of ability till now to perform as any woman had the right to had calloused her against such freedom a little. “We do not have one singular god of male sex. We have many - some of the most powerful of those being goddesses. The mark on my brother's body is bestowed by two warrior women, Sekhmet and Menhit, alone! The god Osiris fell to his brother Set and it was Isis, the goddess, that brought him back from death as no other god had ever even thought to attempt.”

“You are freer than your Mira-- your Mother. You will be asked to accompany, not simply told or beholden to attending. He may take refuge in you - or perhaps even beg you to act as his excuse to leave if he fears there will be no reason to give himself respite from the demands of his courtiers and their desires. You will be free to find your leisure if you do not see fit, free to decide your own purpose in a day. It is sometimes that such attendance speaks to those who come to court your Husband of their whims and wills. Then too there are those who would design to come to you in the guise of asking after your health - and then will entreat you to go in to your Husband and try to sway him in their stead in a world less formal than the dais of his power. There will be those who will see you at his side and curb their worse natures in the fear of inciting his rage for offending you in something they say. By now you must know that my brother is prone to feeling and thinking with his soul-- which now, i remind you, belongs to you --and that he is loathe to betray what he believes it speaks to him. He will be in danger of letting you rule entirely, not in danger of ignoring whatever advice you deign to give him.”

He takes a breath, nosing at the earth as he tries to pause his wisdoms for her to absorb the change in her perceived status and power. “Now I must speak to that which your jealousy has made plain as the greatest pain to your happiness - and I know now why he was so beset with anxiety when he came to me wishing me to sit and speak with you on the matters of what it means to be a First Wife.” For this now he looks directly into her eyes, the wistful and teacher-like expression of his face softening to that of a brother in truth, an entreating look that is full of hope and reassurance. “I will say nothing you speak in confidence, but I am here to try and expose to you the difference of your People and ours.”

“Husbands take nothing that is not sworn to be theirs. There is no concubine brought into the Harem at all save for those mares that are captive or beholden to a barren Wife who will bear children in her name. And even sworn as you are to him, you are not bid to cleave mindlessly - for what greatness is there in taking the body when there is no heart and pleasure to quicken the womb with honorable children.” He seems a little embarrassed himself speaking of the matters of a woman’s body with one who was not his Wife or the Priestess of Min. “His greatest pleasure is to take of you what you give him - as the act of cleaving to him is a victory that speaks of more than his physical force but instead proclaims his worthiness as lover and companion and provider and protector. My brother is a warrior - what is it to him (who has put down to the Afterlife plenty of foes who challenged him in hubris and hatred) to force his body on an untrained woman?”

Now he feels he is coming to a crossroads, a choice to discuss with her the real benefits she might find in other women who would come to the harem of her Husband or to perhaps give her room to respond to what he had said already. Give her room to ruminate or to reply… a conundrum. “You will not cleave to another - but in the same way, he will not bare his soul to anyone but you. It is why he ran. If he simply could take you for First Wife and then forego you for the sake of some other -- what purpose would he have had not to take you, earn a great and vast kingdom to bring into the fold of his own, and then shun you as you imply is done within the realm of your People.” His eyebrows are risen, asking her to think about the folly of what he just said in the grand scheme.

“He pays the ones who come to him as Lesser Wives in the crumbs from your table, my lady. You are fed the feast, not the others. You are the first he will come to when the heat is upon his household. You are the one who will decide if he is allowed to come in to you, if he is allowed to come to you again, or you might bid him find your favor through boons and acts of devotion should he have displeased you. You are the heart of his heart, flesh of his flesh, soul of his soul. His desire for you was so great that this is what he promised you - risking chains and shackles because you meant that much to his whole being. Being Soul Sewn was such a pressing need, its import was greater than his own loyalty to his People or pledge to you as the Unknown Betrothed of his Kingdom’s future. He would never have sold all of that for a single night promised. He values much in the Old Gods, Sayyida, my sister now under the sight of both your Allah and our Ra… He has told them that you are their equal in his worship on this earth.”

He rolls himself to better face her, to relax his tone of importance to something more conversational again. “I ask you this… did your Mother ever have the power to halt your father going in to another Wife or concubine in his hungering season? Do your First Wives get to bar their wombs for proof of their Husbands love? Do your First Wives have a Rite to bar all but themselves for an entire season? Do your First Wives, if refused that Rite, have the gods own permission to issue the opposing Claim of Set - forcing her Husband to fight a champion of her choosing if he wishes to overturn that Rite?”