bulllordem:

For frail and flighty is royal solitude.

Coming from the corridors leading to the bedchambers, the King recognizes the voice of his best loved counselor. Though the good man actually whispers, as he goes around inspecting the guards. The King has counted three of them, the elite only, on such a night. They must have performed their ablutions before duty, tonight, according to precise instructions of the High Priestess. 

Like the King himself has, according to her recommendation. Scrubbed and rubbed with the finest aromatic oils, his body burns with expectancy.

And it doesn’t take long for our man to hear the distinctive slither of skin and scales on fur and stone. As the redblackwhite serpent appears on the terrace, the King feels the tingle of his own snake starting to awaken between his thighs.