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👑 N I K O L A I 👑
Genya usually called for an additional meeting during the day if bad something was up. Nikolai had asked her for the extra meeting to talk about the Kheru-situation but their agenda seemed have changed for the worse when she pulled the others out of their first task of the day. That always meant it was not only urgent but technically had to be done yesterday in order to prevent a catastrophe.
Nikolai arrived with Tamar and Tolya, the three of them had gone over some orders for the upcoming week. Genya was setting up her usual place and Zoya sat down on her chair with a deep sigh. The Zhabin siblings were quietly discussing something at the table with Leoni that seemed to be important.
"Where is my wife?"
"She mentioned something about a meeting," Zoya said, sorting through the papers in front of her without looking up. "She said she will join us shortly."
Nikolai frowned. "What kind of meeting?"
"No idea."
She never mentioned anything towards me this morning ... "And you didn't ask?"
The queen raised her eyebrows at him. "I didn't snoop, it is her business and she doesn't need to share everything with us."
"Indeed," Nikolai agreed. "I'm just curious."
"Apologies!" The door opened and Aneela rushed into Zoya's meeting room. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting for long."
"Not at all," Zoya gestured over to the table. "We just came in as well."
Aneela sat down at the chair next to Nikolai and shot him a greeting smile as she put her hand on his knee. He smiled back at her and placed his hand on hers.
"Where were you?"
She winked at him. "I'll tell you when the time is right."
Nikolai kept his smile but frowned slightly. What is she planning? And why isn't she telling me? Aneela brushed her thumb over the side of his little finger and turned her attention to Genya across from her who cleared her throat.
"Usually, I like to start off our meetings with good news but this week ... I don't have any." The tailor gave the round an excusing smile. "On the contrary, we didn't receive bad news, we received horrible news. We got word from the Shu Han boarder. Their troops returned and it looks like they are planning an attack."
"Again?" Nikolai frowned.
Genya pulled a letter from a folder and handed it to Zoya, who sat to her right to give it around the table. "We received a letter this morning. Our spies around Ahmrat Jem state that Ximen is still fuming about everything and Kheru refused to tell him any secrets about Ravka which made him explode. He wanted to use it against us, so Novyi Zem would cut his ties with us and sign a closer trading contract with Shu Han. When she refused to give up valuable information, he said he would collect them himself."
