*** Aurora ***
I do not know how hot Shimr wishes to make that bath that it is dangerous for . I am not as silly as Lady Isda as to just let the heat in. I guess she may just want to have my Lady alone for a bit, but the Princess will be mad about that. Leaving anyone alone with my Lady is just asking for a pregnancy to happen.
Being naked in a bath and cleaning her. I should suggest to Lady Isda to increase the size of the nursery.
I give Princess Elora's study a knock, ready to report about my pregnancy. I should ask my Lady to let know the count again. I think she likes more now.
"Co in."
I open the door and step into the study. The Princess is sitting at her dark oak table, and Sedriresa is standing in the corner with a watchful eye.
I give her a short bow. "Your Highness, Shimr is bathing with my Lady, so I thought I would report to you about your mission for ."
I stop just a foot from her large desk filled with paper.
"Please, do you really have sothing to report this fast? Yesterday you seed to think it was hopeless," she says back, placing a report she was reviewing down.
"Yes, it seems her sexual desires are out of her control. Just a little looser in the collar was enough to get her to want . I am pregnant. She did not give a count, but she did hint that it was more than Isda. I will work on seeing what I can learn, but I think it may have sothing to do with fire affinities, or soone besides the Queen would have found out by now. Fire affinity should limit the count enough that only the Queen knows about it. If you still wish for Shimr to wait on kids, I can try getting Calli into her bed; she is weak but has a fire affinity. I can work with her so to figure it out together," I say.
"Yes, that would be good. Make it so. Anything else?" the Princess asks.
"Why is my Lady not bedbound? I know the collars make them more agreeable to their owners, but she was basically out of it in the brothel and now just walking around putting up a token resistance to us."
"She has had that collar on for almost a decade. It knows how to smooth over her emotions well. Alzi has been through worse and gets right back up. Not getting to marry the people she wants isn't going to phase her much. As long as she doesn't have anything traumatic happen, she should be fine. Even then, it will just be a week till she is back on her feet," the Princess says. "I'm not happy that you left her in Shimr's care. My wives aren't happy about the kid situation. I have the most fertile seed in the world and they aren't bound by my word like Alzi is."
"Shimr did not give much of a choice unless I am to order Alzi out of the bath. I would advise against that; she has shown so anger that it would be best not to push if you want to be able to take the collar off her. So you will need to enforce the rules of the house or have Isda do it."
"Shimr better not get pregnant from this bath."
"I do not think my Lady wishes to get her pregnant. So it will be up to Shimr to seduce her."
"So if Shimr wants to get pregnant, she will."
"Yes, your Highness."
"Leave."
"Yes, your Highness," I say back with a bow. After leaving the room, I head over to the changing room to wait for my Lady, hoping Shimr decides to wait on kids. I do not need the Princess blocking from being a concubine over this.
*** Queen, Morning after sale ***
"Lotus, what are you doing here in the morning?" I ask my green wife, who dares invade my private study. She was sitting there in the corner waiting for in her proper red dress. A far cry from the outfit she last ca to in.
"Don't give that look. You've been avoiding our husband for too long now," Lotus says with a sharp look. "Stop it. Face him. I've already told him it was my fault. I didn't think that girl could pull off the miracle twice, let alone on both of us. I know you can hide yours for a while, but mine is going to start showing and I have no plans on leaving the details out."
"You will," I demand. Letting it stand in the air for a while. My eyes make sure she doesn't try to push past the statent. "You will lie about it or not talk about it. I will face our husband soon. But until I have to share my pregnancy, it will not be shared. The others haven't broken that, have they?"
"They know the rules, Yumanea," she says, her hand going over her flat stomach. Starting to show my ass. "I don't like the tone you're taking. I'm taking the brunt of our husband's ire for this. You'll get a sad speech, and then he'll go on moping about . Plus, you have more problems."
"Problems?"
"Yes. The daddy of our kids and Little Irlo is now married to Elora. Just last night, right under our noses. She even did it in the temple on the castle grounds," Lotus says with a knowing smile. "The girl you didn't want on the throne is partly the mother of a Princess. Soon to be three."
"What do you an?!" I shout out. "How the do you know this before ? I SHOULD'VE KNOWN ABOUT THIS BEFORE THE WEDDING EVEN HAPPENED!"
"I just happened to catch wind of it going through your little network," she says, keeping her calm smile. "Now, I told you about that tone. I may not be the first wife, but I still demand respect. Our little Elora wasn't perfect with keeping the information closed, but she did well enough not to have us know, it seems."
"What do you an?" I ask.
"Alzi had an assassination attempt, rember?"
"How did Elora keep it from and not from my daughters?"
"Rumors. Silly rumors that nobody would believe. A princess marrying a brothel whore? Never. But Adesala wasn't willing to take a chance. Your spies have more information, I'm sure. But, now you have a problem, don't you," she says with a twisted smile. "You have to hurry things along, or these babies will give Elora the throne; she's got enough nobles. Showing that she has a seed that can get even our old, dusty wombs pregnant will propel her forwards. But ending it early will force you to even the playing field, and Elora is strong enough to win that contest."
"Why are you enjoying this?" I ask, sinking down into my soft chair and feeling the nonexistent kicks of my troublemaker.
"Your wives weren't happy with how you've been trying to hand Lyrei the throne," she says. "We heard about you crashing her announcent. We are also happy to hear we may get so more children. Alzi seems easy to seduce, and we both know how fertile she is."
"You..."
"I know. I know," Lotus says. "I won't share a damn thing. Right now, I am pregnant. But you have to make the decision soon, or you may just hand Elora the throne. We are here to support you. But we would prefer the power to transfer to the next generation correctly. Whether that is Lyrei, Elora, or even Adesala, we don't care. Just make sure to run it fairly and talk to our husband. I'm tired of having him complain to about everything. And yes, that is part of my smile. Getting back at you for making the only release for his anger while adding to it. He'll calm down a lot when you talk to him."
"I will. Don't co in here again. Any of you. Our children and a few maids are all that are allowed back here."
Her normal smile returns at that statent. Now, she feels a bit mocked at my request, but it gets her to stand; she just keeps walking to and not out the door.
"Dear, I'm sorry for enjoying your suffering. Just the kid and anger and everything is a lot for to take at once. To think I'm having a kid that Little Elora has parentage over is strange to ," Lotus says, trying to wrap in a hug. "Stop being a kid. I'm sorry, dear. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear. Let your pregnant wife hug you for a mont; then, I'll leave your corner of the world."
I let her give a hug and maybe pull her into my lap for a few seconds, then send the dryad out of my study.
I turn to the mirror and get ready to hear how my spies failed .
"Hello, your Majesty. I know Lady Lotus has told you, so I'll skip right to what you want to know," the dark elf says under my stare. "We didn't know. It was silly rumors until it wasn't. We were more focused on priestesses saying Alzi may be a champion."
"I don't believe you."
"We have Elora going to the brothel, but she had Nakuma co to a party for her with Duchess Fluvis," Irdru says. "There, she even asked Nakuma to marry her. A lot pointed to her trying to get Nakuma to marry her over buying a brothel slave. It would be a massive gamble, we thought, for her to pick up a commoner turned breeding slave. She must be thinking that she is a champion and hoping that will propel her into the throne."
"I want to see if we can null the marriage. I don't want a champion giving a daughter the throne. Much less a slave champion." I say. "I will give Elora a fair chance, even helping her find a new husband if needed. If Alzi is a champion, which is likely, we need to find a way to get her to lose the collar and find out what her Goddess wishes for her. I doubt they are happy about her being a slave. I really let that stupid collar and having a kid blind . Any leads on the Goddess?"
"Yes and no," Irdru says. "She has two signs of being a champion which is also throwing doubt on the idea. One is the light, and the second is the rainbow. Rainbows are brought up here and there, but they are part of the destroyed texts, so it may belong to a number of different Goddesses that have been thrown out through the years. The light has never been seen before. It could be a new Goddess, one that has never had a champion, or one that had their champion's details lost to ti. That is if you believe the Goddesses both choose a random commoner for their champion."
"That wouldn't happen," I say. Why did my predecessors think destroying sacred text was a good idea?
"It may when the girl is special."
"How is she special? Futa are rare but hardly special," I say.
"Royalty. Elves and humans may not have a special group of royals, but others do—naly dragons," Irdru says, annoying by not just spilling it all.
"Hurry up."
"Yes, Alzi may be a royal dragon."
"Impossible. They keep a tighter leash on the n than even we do."
"Your Highness, please forgive for this, but you are currently carrying a bastard, and a Princess aiming for the throne is most definitely not related to the king. A tighter leash leaves more than enough leeway for one child when we have a village of dragons less than a day away," the dark elf says with worry filling her face. I stay silent, making sure she keeps talking for fear of my words. "We hosted the royal dragons, man included, at the right ti for Alzi to be his offspring. No man in the village is related to her. As you said, a tighter leash on a dragon leads to them lashing out even more."
"So Elora may have a claim to their throne?"
"No, Your Highness."
"Shit, you're right. Alzi has a claim. Fuck, was I right to sabotage Elora? Make her give up and throw Alzi into their succesion fight? Having Elora..."
"Your Highness, Elora would likely be thrown out of the harem entirely for daring to own a royal dragon. That would be the best case, really. No, the best case is Elora gets the throne then Alzi is brought out for the dragons to find. Just let Elora know that if she wants the throne, Alzi has to lose the collar if we can confirm Alzi is a royal dragon."
"I just promised to make it a fair fight. I can't switch and hand it to Elora now."
"Elora can win it fairly; you have a reason to leave it to a fight between harems. Do it. Give Elora a bit of ti to build up her stance. Then, say your pregnancy will make it so you can't rule due to the stress and age. It'll be up to chance, but you'll still be so much stronger than Lyrei that you'll be able to keep Elora and her family safe, and she'll see that keeping Alzi is good. Maybe fold Elora's family into the royal family, and everything will be as we need it."
"Hmm, fine. I don't want you to lie to again."
"What do you an?"
"You planned for this to happen. You knew about the marriage and made sure I didn't do anything stupid to ruin it."
"I had the theory, but I didn't really think Elora would marry a brothel whore. I was working on finding which Goddess is her patron and how to fold her into the royal family," Irdru says, going into a deep bow. "I wouldn't keep sothing like that from you. I promise, your Highness. I live to serve."
"Fine. Keep an eye on them. I want to know more about Alzi and what I need to keep her under our royal control."
"She got her mother pregnant."
"One of those kids. Elora won't let force a commoner without an affinity into her marriage, so just keep track of her. We can't have anything happen to those kids or the mother. A simple push at the right mont and we can keep Alzi trapped."
"I'll send out a watcher imdiately."
"Good. Now let us get to the other items you have."
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