Sean, Celesty and Atila were in the dining room eating breakfast. Only the sound of the cup hitting the saucer could be heard.
"I still don't understand why you two seem so... moody." Celesty commented, unable to bear the silence, and placed her hand on Atila's across the table.
Sean looked disapprovingly at the contact. Celesty still owed her loyalty to him, and being with a man other than the Pharaoh was a crime punishable by death, but although he frowned, he said nothing.
Atila dropped his coffee cup on the table with a thud and glared at Sean.
"What did you do to Yuki?" He asked accusingly.
Sean looked down at the cup that had cracked in Atila's hand.
"This cup has belonged to my mother's family for seven generations..." He complained.
"Fuck your mother's cup, Durin! Do you know what will happen if you dare to hurt Yuki?" Attila's voice was now menacing.
Sean looked at him, feigning innocence.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Tykar." He stressed the name chosen by Atila's mother.
"I noticed that you changed your habit yesterday, and that you slept in Yuki's room tonight..."
"That's normal. She's Farida, my wife."
"...And she didn't come down to have breakfast with us." Atila continued as if he hadn't been interrupted.
Sean shook his shoulders and Atila stood up angrily.
"I'll go down there and if you've hurt her... Well... I think the Ice People will find an ally..." Atila interrupted himself when he saw Yuki entering the dining room with swollen, red eyes. She had been crying.
Atila hurried over and pulled the chair out for her.
"Thank you." She said as soon as she sat down and Atila sat next to her with a worried look on her face.
"Yuki... What did Sean do to you?"
Yuki looked at Pharaoh, who was concentrating on breaking Atila's cup, and shook her head.
"Nothing." She answered and poured herself a cup of coffee.
"Yuki... Our laws protect you. Pharaoh can't hurt you physically. He can't even refuse to do your bidding. You don't need to be afraid. Tell me what he's done and I'll free you from his hands."
"He's an idiot, Tykar, but really, he didn't do anything."
"Did he make you lie with him?"
"What are you talking about, Attila?" Celesty asked debauchedly. "Since when does the Great Pharaoh need to 'force' a woman to stay with him? It's much more likely that she seduced Sean. It's more likely that she begged him to..." She left the sentence full of double meanings hanging in the air.
Sean looked gratefully at Celesty.
"Yuki keeps a lot of secrets, Celesty. And I think one of those secrets is her constant visits to Atila's room." Sean said and turned to Attila. "Perhaps, you should remind your mistress that betrayal here is punishable by death." He said and stood up, looking at Celesty. "You, Celesty, have always been the only right choice. And I made a mistake when I didn't take the chance to have a woman I knew like you by my side as my Farida. But we can be whatever we want within the walls of my room. From today, you will leave the harem and sleep in my room, with me. If you accept, of course. I don't want to 'force' you in any way." He said and left.
Celesty looked at Yuki with a victorious smile.
"I think you've started to lose this game."
"Not if Durin finds out that you're the one who frequents Tykar's room. You call yourself so clever and you didn't know what the sentence was for your crime?" Yuki replied venomously.
Celesty stood up with a happy smile on her face.
"You can hand me over to him, Farida. You can go there and tell him what Attila told you about the two of us and you can even start a war, but you can never give Sean what I'm going to give him now. And I think you've lost all credibility with Pharaoh." She said and bowed. "I beg your pardon. I'm going to take my clothes to our... husband's room. husband's room." She said and left without waiting for an answer.
...
Yuki smiled contentedly as soon as she was alone with Atila, but her eyes were troubled when she turned to him.
"Selytha's doctor told me tonight that she's ready to go home."
Atila looked puzzled at Yuki.
"Why doesn't that seem to be the news you've been looking forward to?"
"Home, Atila. I have nowhere to take my daughter."
He looked away.
"Sean is angry. This isn't a good time for you to tell him your secret."
"I don't have a choice."
Attila got up and helped her to do the same and together they went for a walk in the garden.
When the sun was gently beating down on Atila's face, he spoke again.
"Sean can't know about Selytha." Atila repeated.
"He won't sacrifice my daughter, Tykar. She's only three years old."
"You don't understand, do you? There's a strong reason why all of Pharaoh's heirs are only those born in bed with Farida."
Yuki felt a tightness in her chest. She imagined the reason, but never dared to speak it out loud.
"Was there never a daughter born to the Pharaohs?"
"Yes. You're following the right path of reasoning."
"My God! You kill the child if the firstborn is a girl!"
"Yes. Girls are offered as offerings. I don't know if they're killed in sacrifices or if... A fate that I consider worse, they are taken to the house of the Gumis, to serve them. The Gumis can't marry. They need to live for the people and some idiot Pharaoh determined that princesses should be assigned to them so that they wouldn't feel the need to get involved... Maritally with one of the people."
"That's disgusting."
"I agree."
"Tykar, you need to help me. One day you told me that you could bring her in as if she were an adopted orphan..."
He shook his head.
"That was when Sean was Durin. Now he can remake laws, Yuki. And he's not going to abandon his pride to satisfy a woman who refuses to be more than a title in his life." Atila's voice turned cold. "Did he force you to give yourself up to him?"
"No. Durin's not like that. He tried to, but gave up at the last minute..." Yuki remembered the dread she had felt that morning, but she didn't want to talk about it with Atila. "Can he repeal the law that protects me from his violence?"
Atila smiled bitterly.
"I think you have little chance of getting him to lie with you as a man, Yuki. Celesty will put bad ideas into his head and he'll turn against you. And when his desire is stronger than his character, he'll lie with you like an animal, and even if he doesn't repeal the law that protects you from his violence, he can forbid anyone from writing down your complaints."
Yuki looked terrified at Atila.
"Why do I feel like this has already been discussed?"
"I really like your wit. Yes. While you didn't show up for breakfast, Celesty regaled Sean with more than half an hour's worth of macabre ideas and ninety percent of them concerned you."
"I'm going to run away, Attila."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going back to Chicago with my daughter."
He looked away again.
"There's something you need to know, Yuki. Leaving Mahagah is not an option."
"I think it is."
"I can't let you take Selytha away. I've already explained to you that her good health is directly linked to this country."
"That's what you say. Following your interests."
"It's the truth. And I can't let you find out the hard way that Selytha can't live long away from here."
"From what you're saying, she won't live long either if she stays here."
"I can take her to my quarters and raise her there, but you can't come into my wing."
"Why not?"
"Sean has set up surveillance everywhere. The guards will be watching your every move from now on. Look around you."
Yuki glanced around and realized with annoyance that there were some guards following them discreetly.
"That's absurd!"
"Yes. This is the realm of a man wounded by jealousy."
"He has no reason to be jealous of me. I love him and you don't have the authority to tell me what I can and can't do when it comes to decisions about my daughter. I understand that you feel a doctor's affection for her, as I believe you've been following her treatment since Michigan, but that doesn't give you the right to decide for her."
Atila was silent for a while and Yuki caught another glimpse of the blue-clothed people coming out of the forest, but she was tired of these meaningless visions and shook her head in the hope that the vision would fade and she would be able to ignore it.