Caterina spent her whole life being underlooked and misunderstood.
Hatice spent her whole teenage years chasing a man who loved another.
But Hüsniye became more than a pawn. She became a queen. She conquered the heart of the Ottoman Sultan, the hear...
"Sultanım." Raziye's voice cracked like a whip as she rushed into my chambers. For months, she had been a shadow, moving through the palace like a ghost since Selim's death, but now her eyes burned, her face alive with urgency. "There is a man who wishes to see you."
I lifted my head slowly from the divan, my temples throbbing with grief. "See me?" My voice dripped with disdain. "That is forbidden. Tell him to join the other beggars and liars and invent whatever tale he likes. I will not hear it."
"Hüsniye..." She fell to her knees beside me. The sight startled me—Raziye never knelt. Never. Her voice dropped, ragged with disbelief. "He says he carries news of the şehzade's passing. He swears it is... crucial."
I stared at her. In her deep brown eyes, dulled for so long by guilt and mourning, there flickered something dangerous. Hope. It pierced me like a thorn.
"Do you believe this will give you closure?" I whispered.
Her lips trembled. "I do not know what I believe. Only that there is something about him... something wrong."
I exhaled sharply, bitterness twisting inside me. "Then we had better not face him alone. Call for guards."
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙
The air in the chamber was thick, rancid. He reeked of fish, sweat, and the damp rot of the docks. Even in the shadows of the curtain, I saw his filth—nails black with grime, clothes stiff with old stains.
Beside me, Raziye clutched the edge of her veil so hard I feared she might tear it. Her hands shook as if the very air around the man was poisonous.
This was not the first fool to claim knowledge of my son's death. They had crawled from the gutters with their venom, claiming Selim hanged himself, claiming he had soiled his honour with forbidden loves. Lies. Filth. All paid for with their blood. And still, they came. Still, they tried to stain his memory.
My Selim was good. Pure. My son was a lantern in a darkened world, the kindest soul Allah ever entrusted to me. They would not take that from me. They could never.
"Sultanım." The man's voice rasped, cracked like a dockyard rope about to snap.
Nico shifted, his eyes narrowing, his body tense as a drawn bow. His hand rested on his hilt. "If you wish to address the haseki, do so. But drop the dagger beneath your coat before you utter another word."
The man froze, then swore softly. Steel clattered against the tiles as the weapon fell. Nico's sharp nod told me the man carried no more.
I kept my voice cold, measured, though my pulse thundered in my ears. "You claim to know of Şehzade Selim's passing. Speak. But remember, one lie will cost you your tongue."
The man raised his eyes. They were hollow. Empty. "There is no easy way to say this, Your Highness. So I will say it plainly."
He paused, then: "I killed your son."
The chamber fell silent. I felt the world stop.
Raziye's gasp shattered the air. My own heart seemed to rupture.
Nico's blade hissed free. "Lies! Everyone knows it was an accident."
But the man smiled—a dry, brittle thing. "Yes. An accident. But I made it so. I spooked his horse. I struck him when he fell."
My vision blurred. Ice shot through my veins.
No one knew the truth. It was never revealed to the people.
I surged forward, forgetting protocol, trembling with fury. "Are you telling me the truth?" My voice was a razor's edge.
He looked at me, unflinching. "I swear it before God."
A scream clawed its way up my throat. My body shook as grief and rage collided in me like storms at sea. "Why?" My voice ripped from me, jagged, raw. "Why would you do this?!"
Raziye tried to steady me, but I flung her off like she was made of paper. This agony belonged to me.
His reply came flat, cruel. "Because I was paid to."
The words were a blade across my chest.
My voice dropped to a hiss. "By whom?"
He did not falter. "Şehzade Mehmed. And Hümaşah Sultan."
The names were poison. My knees weakened, but rage bolted me upright. Mehmed. My husband's son. My Selim's brother. He had ordered his own blood slain. And Hümaşah—the snake at his side.
Mehmed wanted Manisa. And he had taken it, bought it with Selim's blood.
My blood roared in my ears. My vision turned red.
"I beg your forgiveness, Your Highness," the man droned on, blind to the storm inside me. "I have recently converted. I confess my sins so that God may grant me mercy."
"Mercy?" The word tore from me, a snarl. My body moved before thought. My hand snatched the dagger from the tiles.
I lunged.
The blade drove into his chest with a sickening crack. His eyes widened in shock as hot blood gushed over my hand.
"God may forgive you," I screamed, spittle flying, "but I never will!"
He started mumbling something. Something close to plague, though it could be nonsense.
I stood over him, chest heaving, my hands slick with his life. My voice dropped to a whisper, deadly calm: "Rot in hell."
The silence afterwards was crushing. Raziye's sobs filled it, thin and broken. Nico stared at me, eyes wide, blade half-raised but useless.
And in that silence, I knew.
Selim's death was no accident. It was murder. And his murder would be avenged.
Even if it destroyed me.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It is ON
family tree:
Sultan Murad + Fülane Baş Kadın ⸺Hümaşah Sultan (16/05/1564) ⸺Şehzade Mehmed (8/07/1566) ⸺Şehzade Mahmud (22/01/1568) ⸺Ayşe Sultan (12/3/1575) ⸺Fatma Sultan (20/11/1576)
Sultan Murad + Fülane Hatun ⸺Rukiye Sultan (31/05/1566)
Sultan Murad + Haseki Hüsniye Sultan ⸺Mihrimah Sultan (29/10/1566) ⸺Şehzade Selim (29/10/1566—29/3/1581) ⸺Hanzade Sultan (15/1/1569) ⸺Şehzade Abdullah (17/12/1573) ⸺Şehzade Süleyman (17/12/1573) ⸺Nefise Sultan (12/8/1578) ⸺Neslihan Sultan (12/8/1578)
Sultan Murad + Şah Kadın ⸺Fahriye Sultan (8/1/1568) ⸺Şehzade Ahmed (1/8/1577)
Sultan Murad + Nazperver Kadın ⸺Şehzade Bayezid (28/11/1574) ⸺Hatice Sultan (18/5/1576)
Sultan Murad + Fakriye Hatun ⸺Beyhan Sultan (6/8/1575) ⸺Mihriban Sultan (15/6/1578)
