Chapter 122 – The Queen Talks about Her Daughter’s Husband

*** Aurora ***

I do not know how hot Shimmer wishes to make that bath that it is dangerous for me. 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 me know the count again. I think she likes me more now.

"Come 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, Shimmer is bathing with my Lady, so I thought I would report to you about your mission for me."

I stop just a foot from her large desk filled with paper.

"Please, do you really have something to report this fast? Yesterday you seemed 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 me. I am pregnant. She did not give me 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 something to do with fire affinities, or someone 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 Shimmer 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 some 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 Shimmer'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."

"Shimmer did not give me much of a choice unless I am to order Alzi out of the bath. I would advise against that; she has shown me some 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."

"Shimmer better not get pregnant from this bath."

"I do not think my Lady wishes to get her pregnant. So it will be up to Shimmer to seduce her."

"So if Shimmer 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 Shimmer decides to wait on kids. I do not need the Princess blocking me 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 me in her proper red dress. A far cry from the outfit she last came to me in.

"Don't give me 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 statement. "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 me. 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 mean?!" I shout out. "How the do you know this before me? 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 mean?" I ask.

"Alzi had an assassination attempt, remember?"

"How did Elora keep it from me 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 announcement. We are also happy to hear we may get some 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 me about everything. And yes, that is part of my smile. Getting back at you for making me 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 come 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 statement. Now, she feels a bit mocked at my request, but it gets her to stand; she just keeps walking to me and not out the door.

"Dear, I'm sorry for enjoying your suffering. Just the kid and anger and everything is a lot for me to take at once. To think I'm having a kid that Little Elora has parentage over is strange to me," Lotus says, trying to wrap me 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 moment; then, I'll leave your corner of the world."

I let her give me 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 me.

"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 and Yuki come to different parties with Duchess Fluvis," Irdru says. "Where she even asked them to marry her. A lot pointed to her trying to get the kitsunes 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 me. 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 time. 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—namely dragons," Irdru says, annoying me by not just spilling it all.

"Hurry up."

"Yes, Alzi may be a royal dragon."

"Impossible. They keep a tighter leash on the men than even we do."

"Your Highness, please forgive me 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 time 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 time 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 me again."

"What do you mean?"

"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 something 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 me 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 moment and we can keep Alzi trapped."

"I'll send out a watcher immediately."

"Good. Now let us get to the other items you have."