Miavel

Talyn’s mouth shut instantly as I stood to face this man and his lack of sharp intelligence. It was like he didn’t see Talyn escorting me in. It was as if he hadn’t read the laws of Thera.

Men’s council.

What a ridiculous notion.

There would be more women present if the men wouldn’t block them or remove heirship from them. This man seemed to think men entirely above women.

I didn’t like him one bit.

“Let me answer your questions, Lord…?” I trailed off purposefully, needing to hear the name behind the old-fashioned ideas.

“Lord Malin, Your Majesty. Ah, soon to be Duke? I’ve submitted my application as my lands are quite prosperous.”

I no longer needed any extra energy to hold my expression into a smile. Of course. It would be of great service to be rid of him in his entirety. It was my honor to give him a false sense of security for the time being. I was merely smiling now, at the thought of how devastating it might be for him later, to be crushed by me, rather than by Talyn.

“Ah, yes! I do recall seeing your application. Simply… astounding.” At how horrible it was. Horribly astounding. “Truly.”

When he beamed and chuckled a bit, nodding his head bashfully, my smile only grew.

“Yes, yes, I know. I’ve done quite well–”

I cut him off quickly. I wanted to hear none of those rehearsed lies. I’d give him one of my own to chew on. Maybe I wouldn't outright attack him for his misdeeds just yet, but an example needed to be made regardless. One glance at the other members told me as much.

I would not be shoved aside here. 

“Lord Malin. I sat in on councils in the Kingdom of Cita. His Majesty here has approved that I be allowed presence at these meetings. Is there a problem with His Majesty’s orders?” I asked him, feigning concern and curiosity. “Or…” I dropped every remnant of smile that I had on and stared at him, and gave him a once-over just to make him uncomfortable. “Do you have a problem with me, your Queen?”

For several seconds, I saw more of the whites in Lord Malin’s eyes than anyone had ever seen before. He bowed to cover his mistake and hurried to apologize to me.

“No! No problem, Your Majesty. I was simply curious. Of course you can be here! I’d love that! It’s simply fantastic you’re here beside our King for, uh, for our… meeting! I – well, I didn’t realize that Cita allowed women on their council, Your Majesty. It’s my mistake.”

Cita didn’t.

But he’d only assumed it. If he’d have known for certain, like the gentleman in the back who had a raised eyebrow as if he’d called my bluff, he might’ve responded differently.

“I do recall reading a book just a short while ago that Thera has no laws preventing women from being on the council either, so I believed my presence would be welcomed, as you’d gain another member, and a new opinion.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” He continued to bow before us, backing up to his seat, to which he sat in quickly, trying to end the embarrassment as fast as possible.

I sat back down and smiled to the other members quietly. In my head, I replayed Lord Malin, scurrying back to his seat like a terrified mouse. I thought of his people, who were suffering and chuckled a bit to myself at the greedy mouse to took far too much cheese.

Talyn leaned a bit closer to me. I didn’t move from my spot, just allowed him into my space. His voice was light and quiet, too hushed for the others to hear

“You handled him well.”

“Didn’t I?” I whispered back at him.

“Yes. You did.”

He chuckled a bit under his breath before sitting back up straight and calling the meeting to order.

I listened and observed intently as issues were brought forth and discussed. Talyn was mostly just asking a few questions here and there or making a few remarks of his opinion on the topic, but otherwise letting them debate about solutions or budgets. Things that were put at the bottom of the last council’s minutes, as things that weren’t able to be discussed in time, came first in this meeting. Despite the relatively smooth transitions between topics, some coming to definite conclusions with everyone in agreement and others left up in the air without any clear answer, I began to understand Rogers’s words.

Lord Malin was a menace. I noticed several of the other members silently give each other looks when he went on a tirade about the downsides of sharing too much land with Amasan, our neighboring ally… against what Talyn had just said about the situation.

But, as per rules of the council, he had to actually weigh the man’s words as important, instead of just silencing him outright. A rule, which in most situations was a true blessing, now seemed like a literal curse in the presence of Lord Malin. I held myself together from externally groaning, but inside my head, I was rolling on the floor, crying with my hands over my ears. I had already made a declaration to myself that I wouldn’t say anything this time, but it was hard.

Eventually, he had to stop his rant in order to drink some water and breathe, so we moved on to a new topic. This one was rather interesting to hear about, as there was a nearly even split between the members.

I noticed right away, after bring it up, Talyn didn’t utter a word, just stayed still in his seat. It was odd.

“Kairi Dawsey should not be granted that piece of land, no matter what!” one of the men nearly shrieked, his face turning red in the process.

“Mr. Dawsey worked with us on several occasions, a small piece of land is nothing for the return of what he’s done for us,” the man across from him calmly stated.

A couple of others snorted at the statement, disagreeing.

“Even though he fought side by side with our King, it doesn’t give him the right to declare what is and isn’t his! He has no right to choose which land ends up as his!”

“But, then again,” another countered immediately, shaking a finger in the air, “he did fight side by side with His Majesty more than once. He greatly helped us win those wars.”

“That’s true. He deserves a bit of leeway for his heroic deeds,” a voice piped up from the far end of the table.

“Heroic?!” the red-faced man shouted again. “Have you met the man?!”

The person next to him, added on to his words, spitting them out with fury written all over his face. “He did all of that just to be able to claim that piece of land! It’s likely got a mine full of treasures!”

“Are you going to tell him he gets nothing for the recognition of his efforts? It matters not what his goal was if it helped us reach ours.”

“Mr. Dawsey can get plenty of recognition. He can have a whole other piece of land to himself. We just want to know what is there that he’s preventing us from getting to!”

As they continued to banter, I got an idea about who this Kairi Dawsey person was. A man, born with magic, he came from overseas, where the Magic Tower is. As an intermediary between the Magic Tower and the Temple, he held a high position. However, he took a piece of the land Thera conquered in one of the wars, and erected a magical barrier around it. Nobody could see through the barrier or enter past it.

The councilmen were speculating about what could be there, as there were rumors of there being ruins of an ancient castle there, before the barrier was made. A castle, which could hold tremendous value.

Despite some of their efforts to appease Dawsey, they all came up short. He wasn’t swayed by normal means of money or land. Threats and bargains never happened in his presence. Well, they might've been tried, but it seems he just walked out of the conversations without another word.

A man who can’t be swayed, takes a bit of land before anyone else can say no to him. And then he hops back home to the Magic Tower? Something seemed off to me. And looking at Talyn, I saw slight changes in his expression as the conversation flowed in and out of Dawsey’s favor.

“Kairi Dawsey is a reckless immature fool!” one of the men shouted suddenly.

Talyn’s brow twitched. Down.

So, Talyn is in favor of Dawsey, but something is preventing him from ending this debate. Maybe…

I mulled over the issue of Dawsey for the remainder of the meeting.

When it ended, I rose from my seat and told Talyn I’d have Rogers escort me back. I saw him waiting, with grin and a stack of papers I’d asked him to collect, by the door. Talyn nodded. I made my way to the door when I stumbled upon a quite interesting conversation happening between Lord Malin and what I’d internally dubbed as ‘the group of loud rude men who don’t have well-backed reasonings for their arguments’.

“New opinions? She didn’t even speak once!” one of them sneered.

“Right! This is why women shouldn’t be present! If she’s got nothing to say, why show up?!”

I heard the chatter in the room die down as I approached the men. Several of the surrounding groups had certainly heard the comments, just as I did.

“I assumed the councils would function differently, as we have different laws, so I decided to observe for today to take note of differences,” I spoke calmly, proud at the even tone I’d managed to maintain.

The men spun around, mostly in horror, but I made sure to control my expression, lest I burst out laughing at their ridiculous faces.

“Your Maj–”

“Even so, I suppose you would be criticizing me no matter if I spoke or not, isn’t that right?”

Some stunned eyes grew wider while others narrowed in anger. I pretended not to notice.

“Ah,” I said as I stepped past them, “when it comes time for me to share my opinions, I’ll make sure you hear them, loud and clear. I hope you’ll offer the same courtesy to me as I’ve given to you, and shut up while I’m speaking.”

I walked away without another word to them, hearing a few frustrated grunts as they itched to reply to me. There were a few snorts and laughs here and there as well, making me smile a bit as I strode out the door.

Exactly two moments later, I wanted to bang my head against a wall. What was I even doing? Did I want to get kicked out so soon?

Talyn

Several of the councilmen stared in admiration as Miavel walked out of the room, head held high. Some of those I made eye contact with gave me thumbs up secretly, avoiding the gazes of the three men who had been bashing Mia. A few others were sharing grins and giggling to each other.

I smoothed out my face before they could see the beginnings of a smile there.

When the three men left, furious, not sticking around to socialize, the room seemed to become vibrantly filled with the excited chatter of the others.

“I have a brilliant daughter. She’d do well on the council, I think.”

“Really?”

“You know the idea I shared for disaster relief to the south?”

“Of course! That plan has brought about near miracles!”

The man chuckled, and bashfully admitted, “That was my daughter’s idea.”

Exclamations rose up at that.

I turned my head to focus on some of the others.

“I go to my wife for advice on everything. Sometimes, women do see things differently – in a good way, of course!”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind women on the council. They’re pretty to look at. Seeing men all day drains the life out of me,” the youngest councilman, one of several who remained unmarried, added in. He’d taken over as Lord when his father became too ill to rise from bed, and that was just a year ago.

The young man, nearly twenty, ducked as the older men moved to ruffle his hair, joking all the while.

“Look at you, thinking of women in all sorts of ways. And here I thought you were still a baby!”

“Spritely young thing you are! You should get a wife!”

“Ah! No, he’s too young for that! I was twenty-nine before I married!”

“His Majesty is three years shy of thirty! Live out your youngster twenties as long as you can little one!”

Silently, I thanked Miavel.

This kind of chaos was good.

I wanted so badly to tell her in person, to her face, how well she’d done today. My hand curled into a fist on my leg.

Our relationship wasn’t like that. Who knew if she’d even take it as a compliment?

So, I congratulated her silently.

Well done, Miavel

Well done.