The council room was filled with the low murmur of voices, maps and scrolls scattered across the grand table. Orhan sat at the head, his gaze wandering over the various documents laid out before him. His thoughts, however, were far from the trade routes and military strategies being discussed.
Denmark-Norway. It was the next step in expanding the empire's reach across Europe, a plan that had been forming in his mind for months. Yet, despite the clear importance of these negotiations, something inside him was unsettled, a tension that had been growing since the trial and execution of Rifat Sultan.
He couldn't shake the feeling of discontent.
Rifat's absence, while necessary, left a strange emptiness in the palace. It wasn't that he missed her—no, not in the way one would miss a trusted companion—but she had been an unexpected force in his life. Her sharp mind, her beauty, her ability to draw him into her orbit—it had all been so consuming, so... dangerous.
And now she was gone. The accusations of witchcraft had sealed her fate, and Orhan had allowed it, though the decision weighed on him. It had to be done, he reminded himself. The accusations had been overwhelming, and the whispers of her malevolent influence could no longer be ignored. But it wasn't Rifat who plagued his thoughts the most.
His favorite before Rifat, Sophia Hatun had been a presence in his life he couldn't fully explain. Her gentle nature, her quiet resolve, her refusal to play the same power games that had consumed so many of the other women in the harem—she had been different. She still was.
And yet, he had let the distance grow between them. Rifat had distracted him, pulled him away into a storm of desire and intrigue that left Sophia out in the cold. Now, the memory of Sophia lingered in his mind, particularly the last time he thought he had seen her.
The day of the birth of his son Ahmed, as he rushed down the corridor to see Rifat, he thought he had seen Sophia out of the corner of his eye, just a flash of her face, her limp familiar to him as a shadow. But when he turned to look, she wasn't there.
✧ "Your Majesty, what are your thoughts on the Danish route?"
Orhan blinked, pulled from his reverie by one of his councilmen. He straightened in his seat, his eyes refocusing on the table of maps.
"The Danish route will be our gateway to northern Europe," Orhan replied, his voice measured. "We need to secure the trade agreement first. Once we have their resources, we can negotiate further control over the seas."
His words came out with precision, but his heart wasn't fully in the conversation. He knew his empire's future depended on these deals, yet the restlessness within him grew. The harem—the politics there—would not stay quiet forever. And Sophia, where did she stand now? He had been distant from her for too long.
"Perhaps after this," Orhan thought, "I should make amends."
As the council continued to deliberate on the finer points of the Danish deal, Orhan's mind slipped back to his most recent encounters with Sophia. She had always been different from the others—her heart seemed more genuine, untouched by the fierce ambition that drove so many of the women in his court. And when she had told him her secret—the truth about her accident, her fears about not being able to have children—it had been like a knife in his chest.
The honesty she had shown him that night still weighed heavily on him, and in the months since Rifat's fall, it gnawed at him even more.
He hadn't forgotten. The council adjourned, and the men began filing out of the room, bowing their heads as they passed him. Orhan remained seated, staring at the map of northern Europe that had been placed before him. The seas, the routes, the potential for conquest—it was all there, just as it had been planned. But his mind wandered far beyond the maps.
✧ Sophia Hatun. ✧
As the doors closed and the room emptied, Orhan leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment. He could feel the weight of the empire on his shoulders, the constant demands of power and conquest pulling at him. But the thoughts of Sophia—her kindness, her resilience—remained a constant in the back of his mind, pulling him in a different direction.
Perhaps, he thought, it was time to seek her out. Time to finally address what had been left unsaid between them for so long.
YOU ARE READING
A-Game ✔
FanficSultan Orhan who got on the throne at the age of 17, has a lot to contend with. His mother, Ayşe Neslişah, has a really bad disease from whom she has been suffering for years. the Sultan loves a lot his mother and he will fulfill every wish of hers...
