He… felt like Meryt, warm and solid in my arms.
“Oh, my love,” the doll said, “how I’ve missed you.”
I hugged him tighter. “And I you. But is this… you?”
He released me and pulled back. “Of course, silly. Who else would I be? I am Meryt, the dusk to your dawn, and yours, my love, always.”
The spike of fury I had felt twisted into longing.
I wasn’t sure how to respond. He wasn’t right, but he was so very close.
“Exquisite, isn’t he?” Ptah joined us and tilted Meryt’s chin toward him. Meryt blinked at Ptah with equal devotion “Shall we show him, hm? How well you move?”
Meryt’s smile was an eerie, even curve. “Yes, my lord.”
The faintest music had been in the air all along, as if coming through the walls of the workshop. It grew louder, enough for me to take notice, as Meryt moved away from the worktable to a more open space and began to dance.
I stood fixed to where I was as I watched him. He looked more fluid than ever, sensual and enchanting in the motion of his hips, shuffling of his feet, arms dancing around him like flowing scarves. Just like him, it was almost too perfect, yet so similar to how the real Meryt danced.
Ptah moved to the daybed and sat upon it. An unnerving echo of last night began to replay before me. Meryt dancing toward the general, but now toward Ptah, god of all makers, with me left to watch. Every motion, every curve of his back and arch of his neck, lips parted and eyes heavy-lidded, spoke of sex and desire. I felt it deep inside me as my gut grew warm, that familiar want of him, just by watching.
As Meryt neared Ptah, the green god motioned him closer, and when his thighs were within reach, Ptah placed his hands upon them, slowly moving them upward with Meryt’s encouraging gyrations.
“Stop.” I was suddenly there, though I knew not when I had moved. I had slapped Ptah’s hands from Meryt. I had struck a god in my haste. “I-I… I am sorry, my lord.” I bowed my head.
“You protest?” Ptah asked, his voice as calm as ever. “You have shared yourselves with others many times.”
“Yes, but… this feels different.” I sneered at the Meryt doll as I stepped around him, effectively between him and Ptah. He had not stopped dancing and looked at me with undeterred contentment. “This is wrong. He is not able to act, or argue, or choose anything by his own impulses, because it isn’t really him.”
“You could choose before?”
“We could,” I snapped at Ptah, and then bowed my head again to calm my countenance. But no. I raised my chin, for I would not be cowed in this. “We might have faced punishment, banishment, or worse if we refused what was asked of us, but we still could have chosen to rebel, just as I am choosing to raise my voice to you now, come what may. For all the times we wondered what may have been if the gods had granted us a different life, welikedour life because we had each other, and so we chose to remain in it, again and again.” I glanced at the dancing doll, but a doll was all it was, wasn’t it?
“But you could have that again, almost exactly.Better.” Ptah took my hand nearest to him and placed it on Meryt’s stomach.
He arched into my touch and danced closer to me.
“Better because you would not have to continue this journey and its perilous trials.”
I moved my other hand to Meryt’s waist instinctively.
“You could have Meryt back without compromise. Without worry. Without obstacles. Go on, feel for yourself how real he is.”
As Meryt writhed beneath my touch, I felt further up the curves of his body like Ptah had, and the heat from his dark stare was almost right. I couldn’t not explore this beloved body when presented before me as mine, swaying in dance and starting to moan from my touch.
He danced closer, hips aligning with mine, and leaned in for a kiss.
“Oh Meryt…”
His tongue and its smooth, wet heat felt the same as always when it slid between my lips.
His hands spreading upon my stomach and then wrapping around my waist the way I held him felt the same too.
Even his grinding hips and the spring of his firm cock felt the same…
I kissed him deeper, desperately, deliriously even, and then pulled back to look him in the eyes. His eyes…
They were the right color. They looked at me with deep affection. But behind them…
