Chapter 316 – Start of Negotiations

"Ready?" Elora asks, "This is the throne room."

"Let the ice bitch down, Ashmark bitch," I command, looking at the massive door. It looks just like the doors to all the temples, adorned in gold, flames, and jewels, drawing out some story.

Is that meant to be a phoenix above the door? Looks like some bird that's on fire, but I'm sure Shimmer would be rubbing it in Elora's face if the Phoenixes were the real masters over the Queendom.

"Yes, Mistress," the Ashmark bitch says, forcing Esiyae to crawl on the ground again.

"That should be everything," I say.

Elora pushes the door open, revealing the Queen and some of her harem sitting on the throne. A small group of women kneel below her. They all look back, finding our faces before finding the crawling bitches.

"Princess Alzi, Princess Elora, and Princess Shimmer and the harem," a maid announces, like everyone wasn't already looking at us.

A certain fucker gets a little red in the face from looking at Esiyae's massive belly scraping along the ground. And then, from looking at my beautiful dress. Stupid fucking Ice Queen. Don't worry, you won't have to deal with this forever. I just need to find a good way to free you from your torment.

I give the leashes a good tug and step forward, looking at my Queen. The Queen; I really shouldn't let her get over me again. That didn't work out well for me before.

Wait, what do we do when we reach the Queen? She should be kind to me, right? I am going to be her head wife eventually, so it would be stupid to piss me off.

Esiyae drags behind, trying to hide behind her Mistress. Idiot, I'm going to force your dear Mother to pet you. Maybe she'll even spank your stupid ass for being a failure.

I should just cut her open during her labor and let her die. Worst case, I can just use her stupid Mother as a broodmare. She'll make some strong kids.

Wait, why would I care about that? I already have plenty of women to give me strong kids. Let them all die, Alzi. They obviously can't produce nice, loving children.

"Welcome," the Queen says as we come and stop beside my future toys. I guess that would work to make me ok with having these shits marry me.

Elora gives a little bow that I match. "Sorry for being late," Elora says.

"Yes, our pet was a little slow," I say. "She was clearly poorly trained, and I'm sorry I was unable to fix her. I'll continue to train her so this doesn't happen again."

"Oh, no worries. I understand you gained a new daughter last night. That is reason enough to be late; a poorly trained pet is to be expected when they're from the north. I do have to thank you for letting Queen Edeozia see her daughter and wife. I was just saying that she may have to wait a few days to see her, but you are quite kind to bring her, even when she slowed you down. So I'm quite understanding."

"Thank you," I say. "I'm happy to show off my little pet, full of my litter. Aren't you happy I brought you out, pet?"

"Yes, Mistress," the ice bitch squeaks out.

"Thank you," the Edeozia Queen chokes out. I may have to thank the Queen for playing along. Though I think she's getting just as much enjoyment out of this as I am. "But I do not see my wife."

"What do you mean? This is Azula De Vil right here. Speak, bitch," I say, tugging on Azula's collar.

"She doesn't know what I look like," Azula says. "She's only seen my disguise... My Mistress."

"Well, that is interesting. Even a Queen couldn't see that you were a shifty bitch. Well, there you go," I say. "I brought out your true wife. Look at how kind I am."

"You couldn't even show me your true self? No wonder you always had the eyes of a traitor," the Bitch Queen says, but I see a spark of fear in those cold eyes before she moves them to my dress. "Is there a reason for your dress?"

"Hmm?" I say. I guess she doesn't want to think about my pets. "Oh, I just thought it would make you feel more at home. I own your dear daughter, and her life is in my hands with all these kids. And then this is your wife, right? She was thinking about taking over your harem. I thought it may be comforting to know that I'll accept taking over your barren Iceland. I've already taken so much from you, and I'm sure we'll take better care of it than you did."

Shimmer has to keep Elora from spitting blood at my little speech, giving her a little hug. I'm proud of it. I didn't think about it ahead of time, so I had to come up with something that sounded right.

The Queen loves my speech, giving me a small clap as her wives give a small chuckle. The Edeozia bitch doesn't, but her wives seem ready to accept everything, their eyes glued to Azula on the ground.

"That is very sweet of you, Princess Alzi," the Queen says. "Now, shall we move to a room and figure out what exactly we should do? Elenaril, you started this by sending your daughter to capture my Daughter and Princess Alzi. This is your doing. You'd best accept it, or you may walk away with less than you thought you would get."

"Fine," the Bitch Queen says, turning to face the Queen. Can I piss her off enough that the rest of her wives will offer me her head?

"This way. Elora, my daughter, you won the right to lead the talks," the Queen says, standing up from her grand golden throne. She motions over to a side room, between the massive decorated pillars.

The Queen leads us through the door, despite saying Elora will lead the talks. Most of the Queen's wives stay behind, all but Nesh, really. But inside, we see the breadth of the Queen's harem. Another group of women is waiting for us there. One is Keya, the Edeozia bitch Queen's old wife. I guess the others are also her old wives. They give us giant smiles and wave as we walk in.

I may get lucky and have this bitch die of anger before I have to marry her.

Maybe I can kill her the same way I'm going to kill her daughter? She likely has the same desire to have a bunch of kids, so perhaps I can lead her into asking me to kill her with kids.

"Hello, dear," Keya says. "It has been a while since we've been together in a room to talk."

"Hello, Keya," the Bitch Queen says. "It is nice not having to fight you anymore. All of you. Sorry for being on this side of the table again."

"Well, it is getting to move us to the same side of the world, I hope," Keya says. The Queen moves to the same table as the old wives. Elora takes one in the middle, and Bitch Queen sits across from her. Her few wives join her, and I sit beside Elora with Shimmer, Yuki, Geta, and my Mommy. Victoria comes in and sits down at the edge of the table, having to pull over a chair.

"Well," Elora says, side eyeing Victoria. "Time to start. The Edeozia Queendom started this war by violently kidnapping, raping, and abusing my wife and me, and then forcing her to carry a child of a Princess of the Edeozia Queendom and to impregnate the Princess. After Duchess Fluvis saved us and captured the Princess and her wife, instead of calling an end to your schemes to steal children from my wife, you continued to use violence to hurt everyone. You went so far as to kidnap a healer from her tent to steal a kid. And for that, we destroyed the opposing army in retaliation and promptly routed the rest of your women. Despite your constant prodding, the war ended in a complete loss for you. And now, you come here in a position of needing our mercy, something your family hardly considered throughout any of these events. Tell me, why should we show you mercy?"

"You act like we are monsters. Are we that different from you and your Queendom? How many nobles in this Queendom have her child in their womb or house? We just continued what you started. Mercy? Having a true phoenix come down to this realm for a single sweep on a retreating force is hardly merciful. My child is crawling along the floor, waiting for her womb to burst, and if she manages to make it to labor, she'll die there instead, cut open to have her children hopefully live. Is getting a single one of my grandchildren really an issue? Don't act all high and mighty. You are no better. Hell, we would offer Alzi a chance to live with her child with no need to do anything else. The Goddess of Fertility is quite happy that we freed Alzi. Who are we to say the Goddess was wrong to be happy? Should we have gone against the Goddess's wishes? You're just as much to blame for Alzi's treatment."

"That isn't true. I did not rape Alzi. I did not abuse her. I tried to keep her safe, despite your spies and traitors hurting Alzi throughout her life. I did fail to keep her safe, but if you weren't so dead-set on hurting her, then this would've never happened. You are the cause, breaking well-established rules just for a kid. Yes, before that, our Queendom failed her. I have no excuse for that. We failed and are working to do what we can to make it up to her. It won't fix anything, and we know that. But to say you were just following our lead is hardly a reason for me to show you mercy. I have plenty of reasons to take your head."

Esiyae's collar shakes a bit at that last word. Did she think Elora would ignore my wish? I guess she is right; it is surprising that Elora would actually bring that up. Will I really get my wish?

"Do you think my Queendom will follow you if you take my head?"

"You lost thousands of women in a war for a single child. They'll be happy to have you gone. To see that the stupid royals can pay for all the lives they lost for nothing."

"Who would take over? You killed my strongest daughter."

"One of Alzi's pets said she wished to take over for her failure of a wife. She can take over and provide a new royal family under our careful watch so your lands don't start up yet another war again."

I tug on Azula's fucking collar to get her stupid face up over the table. I need to help my stupid wife.

"Like she could do that," the Bitch Queen says. "She's just a lowly exile. How could she ever rule?"

"She thought she could," I say. "I think it would be fun to see if she could do better than you did. Of course, we would need to come up with a higher bar to tell if she's doing well. You've already lost some of your wives, so I think it makes sense that a mistake this big will cost you more than just some wives. Right? You didn't even get my kid after all the women you lost. And I do have a number of Goddesses that love me, so don't you think you should appease them?"

"My family has always ruled the Queendom. What would the Goddess of Royalty say?"

"She'll live," Elora says. "Alzi has helped your daughter so she will live to her labor. Azula De Vil can handle your Queendom until your granddaughters are ready to take over and restart your lineage. Royalty will be fine with that. I'll be behind Azula De Vil, and your harem will be hers. Hardly a change. All your Queendom loses is your head. One wife is ready for that. Would the rest find that agreeable? The other option leaves you being forced into our harem, letting me rule directly with your name behind me. Who knows what would happen to you all then? Alzi is very sneaky with the kids. Wives, would you like to have Alzi as your headwife? Think for a while before giving your answer. Alzi, can we have your pet walk over for them to pet while they decide?"

"That's a good idea," I say. "Bitch, go let them pet you. Let them feel all the kids in that womb of yours as they figure out what they want to do."