"Says who, the pharaoh?"

"I told him I'd stop."

"Oh, honey." She hugs her. "Well, now you don't have to see him so it's a great time to start again."

She stares at her blanket.

Sigh. "Korva, lots of people have been in this situation. You can talk to them, you don't have to try to figure it all out from scratch."

She nods even though she actually has no idea what the relevant parts of this situation are.

She sighs and leaves her be.

Eventually she goes back to sleep.

She kind of still expects her husband to show up shortly. It seems pretty implausible that he'd actually leave her alone for six months.

He is kind of annoyed that her doctors seem to think she needs bedrest for six months but she has been really sick lately, and it's reassuring to have some advice even if it's really inconvenient advice. He asks Fazil for a second opinion. Fazil thinks that probably the doctors know best.

He wants to write her letters. It seems like a good supportive thing to do. But they'll be misspelled and the thought makes him feel sick and miserable. 

He has some presents sent.

What kind of presents?

Flowers. History books. Expensive jewelry.

He'd probably want her to read the books, so she will try to do that, even though her eyes keep slipping from line to line and losing track of what's being said. He probably wants her to wear the jewelry, too, even though it's not very comfortable and a pain to sleep in and a pain to put on and take off, so she does that, too.

The flowers are okay.

She spends about one week getting gloriously adequate amounts of sleep. And then, the next week, she has what appears to be an abnormally heavy period.

She doesn't cry about it. She does notify Zakiya. She spends a lot of time staring at the blood.

 - hug?

Sure.

"Should tell the pharaoh."

"Yeah. Do you want to or do you want someone else to?"

"...I don't know."

"The way I see it, he is reasonably likely to be mad, and that'd be hurtful to deal with, so it makes sense to get someone else to tell him. It is probably a little bit dangerous for them. But -" Shrug. "Axis is nicer anyway."

She stares at her blanket.

She can't make her brain figure out what he would want.

"...I can tell him."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm never very sure of anything."

"Okay."

"I can tell him but I don't actually know how to - see him about things. If I'm not being called to dinner."

"I can ask about his schedule."

"Okay."

She does that. Tells Korva that she can see him after his meetings for the day.