(As AMNERIS exits offstage, the set changes to the Nubian camp. AIDA stands in the middle of the stage as MEREB approaches her.)
[Mereb:]
Aida, there you are. Will you come with me?
[Aida:]
Where?
[Mereb:]
The Nubian camp. Look, everybody knows that I'm the one who can get things. And our people… They've have asked me to bring them… you.
[Aida:]
Why? So they can see a reckless fool dressed as a servant? No that is what I am, Mereb. My father told me not to leave the boundaries of our village, but I could not be so constrained. I took Nehebka and the other women up the river. I had to see the countryside. And that's where the Egyptians captured us. I deserve this. And our people deserve a leader who thinks of them. Not of her own selfish pleasures.
[Mereb:]
Aida, the Nubians want their princess.