Mahnu, An Immortal's Journey

Chapter 11

All the while, King Richard finished his work late and he called for Mahnu while he continued to drink and had bathed. She didn't come, and he was out of the bathing chambers sooner, because of being annoyed. He went to his bed chamber balcony, calling for her again, when there was a knock on the door.

It was the Queen...

She smiled attentively and asked him if he could be with her. When he politely refuses, she asks about the rumour that he had kissed someone.

The King sighs at the haste of the rumour getting around the palace and confirms it openly.

He doesn't want to play games, thinking the Queen close enough to understand. Afterall, there were Kings that had more than just the Queen...It was perhaps abnormal for him to not have them, yet now...He felt like he had just become one of those Kings with more than one woman.

Just one more, he thought, Mahnu and no one else.

...Besides...It wasn't like he and the Queen had more of a relationship, and he doubted that could ever be fixed. She had deceived him once and he was not looking at trusting her again anytime in the future. As it was...She shouldn't be in his bed chambers, as the rule of her being unable to enter it was still currently in place!

The Queen stumbles on words, asking who 'she' is.

The King looks at her and respectfully asks her to leave, so that he can go to sleep as he was tired. He knew that he would have to talk to her about Mahnu soon but now wasn't the time. As it was...It seemed that it was a secret and...That secret seemed to please him for now. Of course, if Mahnu became known, it might be better, but in a case, it might also be worse.

He would obviously go and see her often, wherever she may stay, but...Wasn't she able to be nearby now, whereas if she were stuck in a building in the palace...

Yes, now wasn't the time to tell the Queen about Mahnu...Especially when he didn't know yet how Mahnu felt about him. Which did worry him a lot!

...The sad question was...Would Mahnu want to be with him...

For some unexplained reason, he felt like he never had any right to force her into anything...

With knowing her talent of appearing and disappearing as she does, he was afraid that if pushed her into a position of consort, she might just leave and never return!

He couldn't have that!

Finally, the Queen leaves his Majesty's bed chambers angrily. Her father in her head again about keeping the King's attention.

'I don't want to see conflict for the throne!' His words were now, once again, drumming into her ears...

Mahnu had heard this past thought from the Queen and it did remind her of some incidents regarding the throne in the past...

Jealousy played a part within the past royal lines, as well as power.

For centuries woman had tried to control more then what they could handle and most of the time they would die with regrets or feel unjustified...

The suffering didn't stop at the commoners or some of the nobles...It continued into the royals and even they themselves felt great pain, just like everyone else...Mahnu knew it quite well...

As for this current Queen, she was selfish and wanted control. Yet, she was like that because she was forced to be like that, due to her father's upbringing. But even though she was like this, it felt like she wasn't all that smart, so she was relatively lucky that she had nothing to worry about when it comes to the King having other women...