Let things befall as the gods decree.

Who am I that I should make myself a god and destroy a life that they have fashioned ?" So the boy Rames lived and throve, and Mermes and Asti, when they came to hear of these things, thanked Pharaoh and blessed him.
Now the house of Mermes, as Captain of the Guard, was within the wall of the great temple of Amen, near to the palace of the priestesses of Amen where the Princess Neter-Tua was nurtured.

Thus it came about that when the Queen Ahura died, the lady Asti was named as nurse to the Princess, since Pharaoh said that she should drink no milk save that of one in whose veins ran royal blood.

So Asti was Tua's foster mother, and night by night she slept in her arms together with her own son, Rames.
Afterwards, too, when they were weaned the babes were taught to walk and speak together, and later, as children, they became playmates.
Thus from the first these two loved each other, as brother and sister love when they are twins.

But although the boy was bold and brave, this little princess always had the mastery of him, not because she was a princess and heir to the throne of Egypt--for all the high titles they gave her fell idly on her ears, nor did she think anything of the bowings of courtiers and of priests--but from some strength within herself.