All the water Aloe had painfully recovered escaped through her eyes. The physician calmed her several times stating that it was only a chance, but that wasn’t enough to calm her. How had she gone from becoming rich in an instant to a deflowered and disabled mess in less than a day? Aloe didn’t know if to cry or laugh at that sick joke. The sick joke of life.
She did both.
Her clacking was broken, like the birdsong of a crow with a clipped wing. A simile that hit too close to home. If it wasn’t because her throat was sore, she would have probably screamed by now, but she didn’t have enough strength for that.
Time became meaningless as she drowned in agony, but at some point, someone knocked on the door.
“Stay put, I will take care.” The physician whispered, and even if the words were meant as soothing, the scribe cringed at the poor usage of them. Stay put? How am I supposed to move?
It had been unintentional, but the morbid cruelty of the choice of words took Aloe out of her misery. She looked at the door where a maid waited with a silver tray in her hands. Her ears still tingled and on top of that the two people at the door whispered, so Aloe didn’t get any of their words. A short exchange later, the physician picked up the tray and closed the door behind.
“Porridge,” the man explained after sitting down in a chair next to the bed. “I supposed you do not have much appetite, but you should eat. If not to recover strength, just to distract yourself.”
The scribe didn’t refute the words, she needed a distraction. The physician raised the bowl and put the spoon before her. He didn’t even let Aloe get close to the spoon, instead, he shoved the meal inside. Powerless to even fight against the treatment, Aloe ate the porridge. Unlike the awful name of the food, it tasted good. Or at least better than anything she could cook.
“Now, that you are calm,” he explained whilst putting more food in her mouth, “I want you to hear me. I am no stranger to wounds and fractures, sultanzade come to me with truly awful wounds, and whilst I cannot do anything to ease your pain or recovery, the chances of becoming paralytic from this fracture are small.”
Aloe grunted in understanding, too weak and strained to nod.
“Bone fractures are worse and take more time to heal than muscles, but with enough repose, you might be able to recover.” The hopeful optimism didn’t escape Aloe’s understanding. He was underestimating the damage and overestimating the recovery, she could tell it.
“And... how long will it take for me to recover?” Aloe asked after eating the last spoonful.
“It is hard to say.” The physician admitted. “Months at minimum, likely half a year, though I doubt it will be more.”
“And I will have to be in bed all this time?” The woman’s voice was weak, deflated.
“If possible, yes.” He nodded. “The less you exert yourself, the easier the recovery will be.”
“But what about my position?”
“Your position?” The physician’s visage sprouted with confusion.
“My job,” Aloe explained. “I am the scribe of commoners of Sadina.”
“Oh.” The bald man straightened his back in stupefaction. “I just thought you just were one of the girls she… though this would be a... No matter. Forget what I said.”
It was easy to tell that this wasn’t the first time the physician had found himself talking with a bedridden woman, a victim of a monster whose debauchery knew no limit. Aloe bit her lip, impotence, and hate blossoming in her eyes.
“Well, if that is the case, I should talk it with your emir.” The man stroked his white beard. “You are too weak to be moved through the desert right now, and you won’t be ready for a few days at minimum, but the conference is already over so I doubt she would want to stay in the palace for long...” The physician stood up, pushing his chair backward with the movement. “Lemme go ask her.”
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“Wait!” Aloe cried for his attention, wise enough to do so without moving her body. “Where will I be if I have to rest for so many days?”
“What do you mean, woman?” He snorted. “You are to rest here until you are healthy enough to trek back to Sadina.”
“Here...?” The young adult’s voice weakened.
“Yes.” The physician nodded and left the room.
His words were sensible, but Aloe was far from comfortable with the idea. The last place she wanted to be now was in the palace with that woman.
She felt bile coming up again.
----------------------------------------
“Quite bold you are.” Aaliyah squinted at Rani, her head resting on the back of her hand. “But this gives me more insight into your plans.”
“This is not about me,” Rani replied, slightly shuddering at being mentioned.
“On the contrary, child.” The sultanah shifted her position, growing taller with the gesture. The implications were as subtle as a campfire in the middle of the night in the desert. “You were not asking me how I impregnated a woman, but the how.”
Aaliyah smiled and Rani took a step backward. Same words, different meanings.
“You would be a greater leader if you were not such a coward. You lack guts, you lack hate, you lack determination. If you run from the pain and danger, you are going to squander your future. Such a potent charm and brilliant mind yet limited by fear. You are going to make me laugh.”
The sultanah’s last words sent a shiver down Rani’s spine. People thought that the sultanah of Ydaz didn’t pay attention to her children, Rani herself was guilty of that, but seeing how ruthlessly she had played her, that couldn’t be further from the truth. How could she know from a few words her plans and motivations? Aaliyah did have eyes and ears everywhere, but not in Sadina, or at least no undetected ones. All of this information she had extracted directly from her.
Aaliyah was the strongest weapon in the lands, but her favorite battlefield wasn’t the one of war, but that of subtlety. She was a woman of uncanny tricks and sharp knowledge. The martial sultanzade had no chance, but that didn’t mean the diplomatic and intellectual ones had it better. The sultanah started as a scholar and it showed. Her shrewdness scared Rani, but even more the punishment she could afflict.
Rani took a deep breath – not without trembling first – to gain the determination to talk back.
“So you do not deny it.” The emir replied with a strong tone.
The sultanah smiled. “And why should I tell you anything?”
“Because you deflowered one of my personal scribes and confidant,” Rani stood her ground.
“Confidant?” Aaliyah laughed. The cacophony of her laughter was so powerful that the room shook, the emir’s earlobes threatening to pop. “You are not fooling anyone. You did not tell that girl anything at all. I spoke at length with her yesternight, and she knew nothing. Not about Nurture, not about Enlightenment. And I suspect you do not even know about her. Admit it, you are just strangers, met by chance, and so happened to work for your plans. I can tell it easily from the first time you mentioned her.”
The confidence that Aaliyah spoke with scared her. How could she get this much information with minimal clues? Rani tried to hide any spasm or twitch that could give information away, but it was always against her.
“You wanted a new toy, not a sexual one, you have a lot of those, but that would have likely changed with time. No, everything started as a way to amuse yourself, but then you noticed how could she be something else. That she could work for a placeholder or a straight substitute.” The sultanah abandoned her lazy posture, making Rani backpedal more. “All because you fear pain.”
For the first time in ages, since she was a child, Rani wanted to cry. Other people wouldn’t fear crying before her mothers, but the person before her wasn’t a mother, but an enemy. An enemy that was condescending to her. Rightfully so.
“Yes. All you said is true.” Rani admitted with a knot in her throat. “But that does not erase the fact that you stole from me.” Her amethyst eyes shone with power and hate. Showing weakness was lethal, only strength mattered.
“I stole from you?” For the first time, Aaliyah seemed amused.
“If you had not intervened, both the virginity and vitality of Aloe – yes, I have noticed she had slightly less vitality than yesterday – would have been mine.” The emir put her first on her chest. “Rightfully mine.”
“Ah, but that was just a tiny prick, just a few reapings~” Aaliyah sang melodiously, casually admitting to reaping the scribe more than once in a session. An act that would be extremely painful if not outright lethal to some people. “What that girl lacks in tits and ass, she makes up for it in food. Ah yes, she was delicious~”
“You may have eaten from the feast, but you still have taken one-of-a-kind treasure, never to be recovered.” Rani didn’t allow herself to be intimidated. “I should be rewarded for this transgression, my liege.”
She couldn’t act emotionally. The best course of action was to respond as an outraged vassal that had been stolen from their overlord, which was true, rather than a child throwing a tantrum.
“I will bite.” Aaliyah stood up. “Now, let us talk about the intricacies of Nurture.”