Chapter 8 - A long Day

Elaina and I stood up. "Where do we put the plates?" I asked pointing at the chaos that we left behind. "Just leave it the servants will take care of it." I sighted and at least stacked them up. Then followed her and the servant who had started to guide us. He walked with a painful straight back and long striding steeps without any haste. His uniform was a simple but elegant black shirt a white cloth belt and a pair of black trousers. So he looked like all the other servants that walked through the corridors of the palace. Only some of them wore long elegant black skirts.

We walked back to the main building and after a short walk reached a closed door with two royal guards standing Infront. They nodded to the captain and opened the door before we even reached it. Behind it was a comfortable decorated room that harbored a round table which had chairs for at max 8 people. It was oblivious a room for private contracts and not as public as the hall where I meet the royals yesterday. The king and queen where there today as well. Together with the queen mother and my aunt chatting happily away. I was amazed how comfortable my aunt appeared to be around the Royal family and them with her.

"Welcome Mi-Mi I was just telling the king about your adventures in the desert." My aunt greeted me. I sighed and did rolled my eyes. Great now everybody would think i am some kind of warrior but I guess thats what aunts do. Then I hesitated. "Ad ... Adventures Aunty?" I said with a worried voice. "Yes how you managed to go through there for more then 10 times."

I shock my head. "I was lucky aunty you know that. I mean a guy was almost bitten in half just half a meter away from me. The sandworm could have easily target me too." She chuckled and I got a bit paler. "I meant your other adventures with the " I got bright red. "Aunty! Thats hardly something that should be shared with respectable company." The king and queen did tried to hide their giggle but failed to do so. The queen mother meanwhile didn't even try.

I knew exactly what she was talking about, but I would be dammed if I would listen to it. "I bet your new wives would love to listen to your exploits in that area." I hid behind my hand for a moment. "Yes aunty. And they will learn about it no secret between Miran right?" She smiled to me proudly she really had no shame. "So you do know about that idea?" she nodded.

"I agree with the reasoning and the expected effect. It will strengthen the foothold of the tribes in the city. And will make clear that we are here to stay. We will leave you 10 of our fighters as protection however well as soon as we can get them here. Maybe you can teach them some of these new ideas you told me yesterday about." I sighed "Yes aunty." The king decided that now would be a good time to intervene. "Did captain Halabi tell you about our newest discovery."

"About who his original target was?" he nodded grimly. "Yes and for the first time I must say I am glad that it was me he took. If anything would have happened to her ... a lot of people on both sides would have needlessly died. All for the greed of one man." I could see relieve in his eye that I saw I that way.

"The ambassador has thankfully agreed to keep it only between us and the elders, I hope you dont mind." I shook my head. "I am currently thinking about living in this city. A war would seriously lower the appeal of this area. Additionally, I quite like some of the humans living here." He smiled and relaxed a bit.

"Well here is how things will go at least as currently planned." He started with a clam voice. "First we will call in the council and explain to them why one of their leaders has been arrested." He hesitated for a moment. "Well at least those council members who haven't been arrested in the other scandal currently unraveling itself." He shook his head. "Anyway then we will have to defuse some of the hot political fires before getting to the whole judgement thing. The duke is at the moment in the prison, most likely wondering which of his many ploys caused this. His wives are currently under house arrest even though they hardly leave the Harmen anyway."

I could see his displeasure about the Harmen part. "I talked with your aunt about the whole mirage contract transfer thing and she agreed to it, as the highest representative of the tribes in this area, but you will have to uphold three conditions." All eyes were on me during the last sentence I smirked.

In all likelihood I had agreed to marry some old cranky wives but if we did not get along I would simple move them somewhere far away. There was always a solution that would not require for them to be in a prison or out on the street or even worse.

"One you will live with them for one year. If after a year they want out of the contract, they can without repercussion and will receive a pension from you high enough to live a healthy life. Two you will allow them to continue their normal religious customs and when the year is up married them again Infront of the gods as well as by the traditions of the tribes. And three the one who is of young age will not become your wife but you will adopt her instead as your own."

I could sense my aunts influence in all three of these conditions. "Umm yeah no problem there but ... how many wives did the old duke have and how old are they?" I asked carefully. He smiled. "He had five, Lisbeth is fifteen they just married a year ago." He investigated his documents. "Her being so young caused some commotion but in the end, we dont interfere into religious matter if it is consensual usually and its the head wifes duty in their religion to make certain that nothing inappropriate for that age happens to early." You could hear the distaste about the practice.

"Since she isnt with a child well so far at least, nothing seemed to be happening additionally the reports indicate her being in good health and everything." Next page. "The next Neile is twenty-one and has been with him for four years now." Flips to another page. "Viola is twenty-three she has been with him for six years now. Hmm and her older sister Gabrielle who has been with him for six years as well she is twenty-nine." And then there is the head of the household. "Suha. She is thirty-one and has been with him for over fourteen years."

"There are too two daughters Sabiha and Madiha who are both daughters of Shua and are 5 and 3 years old. It seems she is the true ruler of the house, but you will learn more about that from her." I gulped a bit they were all way younger then I expected. Only Shua was at my age of thirty-three but I will see how they feel about all of this. "Do ... they know about this?" My aunt smirked. "We wish we could tell them beforehand. But we risk that somebody on his family finding out and well if you are dead then that part of the sentence isnt possible anymore. If they find it out after the judgment ... it is a lot harder to get a judgment revoked."

My head nodded mechanically it still was all a bit overwhelming especially if you considered that I was just in prison only a day ago. "Um ... I guess I just would like to meet them as soon as I can if the judgment is really going to be as planned". He nodded. "I know but it will have to wait till afterwards. And well if things dont work out you will have to just stay the year together." He chuckled and seemed to enjoy the thought a bit. "The duke has already taken the bargain. He will be in prison for the 10 years and then be exiled to seek his own fortune outside of our lands, instead of being executed after a long trail. He knows already that he will lose all his contracts and possessions to you and did not protest against that. I bet he is already plotting how he can get it back. But he did not considere that the mirage contracts would be included."

"His friends and family will have most likely petition me to free him before that time. So it might be that he will be released a bit earlier. But if that is the case, I will first discuss it with you since you where the original victim of his biggest known crime." The queen put her hand on his and squeezed his gently. While continue her quite chat with my aunt.

I bit my lips. So I really was going to be married to 4 wives and get 3 daughters just like that? I took a deep breath. Well then. I hesitated then asked carefully. "So why is it only a week?" he smirked. "While I could judge him now, we need the highest-ranking officials to be present, so they know that he admits guilt. Of course, there will be a written account, but nothing is as convincing as having the man himself say that he did these things."

"Thankfully they are all in the city because of the lords council that currently is being hold. So a week should be enough time. I bet they will expect that all his possessions and titles are spit among the lords so you will get some enemys because of that, but you will get enemys regardless." He chuckled and continued.

"You will have to wait till then before I announce you as the new Duchess or should it be Duke of Laris. Until then I suggest to relax and learn a bit about the general duties of a duke as well as the trial. The captain should be able to help you out with both. But basically, all that is required from you at the trial is to be there and nod along."

"She can guide you to the library later but first we have to prepare you for the ceremony that will happen after the Judgment when you will become the new Duke of Laris." He said and I gulped knowing that the people of Turgal loved a good ceremony.

Two dreadful hours later with my head full with details of the ceremony I was finally released. There was a lot of things to keep track but most of them where harmless. My main task was to stand and listen to certain cues. The cues however where so simple that even without the two hour prep time I would have been able to do this.

"Well then ... that should be all for now unless there is something else to be discussed?" the queen finished her last explanation. I was amazed how well the two did play together. They had perfectly helped each other with small hints or took over when the other was hesitating. In fact, they had interacted like they were married to each other for 40 years. "Umm ... will this takeover not cause a lot of problems especially in the dutchy of Laris?" The king smirked.

"Most definitely ... the nobles that want to harm my regency as well as some enterprising ones from Laris. But dont worry we have already started to prepare for that. It helps a lot that this country does not have a single dominant religion and the big four are keeping themselves in check so from that side we should be mostly safe. The dislike of your people has reduced as well but this might harm that relationship short term. Long term It will depend mainly on your behavior but according to your friends and aunt I shouldnt be worried about that either." He chuckled and shrugged.

The queen rested her head on his shoulder. "It is a gamble without question, but I do believe it is worth it to right some wrongs that have been present in this country for a long time. There is one question I am curious about. How do you feel about slaves?" She looked straight into my eyes when she asked that.

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The names of the wifes and daugthers . so much time went into that. Marie and Johanna were easy but these? They are from differnt cultures of the Kingdom and were such a pain xD One of the reasons why i took me ages to editit it all ^^ I wanted to have it out last week. Well onwards to the next one^^