A Tale Of Queens

The Midwife

TW: Mentions of violence, rape.

At the request of her son-in-law, Ifika's mother began to look for a reliable midwife that could attend to her for the rest of her pregnancy.

She was quite worried for her daughter's safety but the King assured her that things were under control. News had spread throughout Khelet of Ifika's return and her pregnancy and she knew for a fact that the people frowned at this. In their minds, Ifika was a snake. First, she'd rejected the proposal of the King but now that her sister was married to him, she'd suddenly materialized from thin air.

Phelon himself was not spared their judgement. They thought him fickle, a philandering man. What saved him face was that he was a kind, accommodating ruler so he was not completely written off.

These opinions bothered her thoroughly. But what could she do? She could defend neither their decisions nor their actions but could only offer her daughter support. She knew some good midwives around but the problem was whether or not she could trust them at all. Alti was popular with the people because she took their grievances into account whenever she kept court and found welcome solutions to their problems.

They would not think twice about harming Ifika if it meant that they would be taking revenge on behalf of their Queen.

Fortunately, her worries were alleviated once Uja approached her to help. Uja was one of the best midwives in Khelet. She was also the mother of one of Ifika's childhood friends, Dyeta. Dyeta sadly died a few years earlier, leaving her already widowed mother in a seemingly endless state of grief. However, she had since recovered. Now that she was personally offering to take care of Ifika, her mother relaxed. Uja had watched Ifika grow up and obviously harboured goodwill towards her notwithstanding the circumstances.

Surely, she could be trusted.

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The events surrounding Dyeta's death were truly despicable.

A year after Alti's coronation as Queen, Dyeta started seeing a young man. Ifika, her closest friend had run away without telling her and she was depressed for a while. Uja, who had never really liked Ifika tried to cheer her daughter up to no avail. She was worried. Dyeta was the light of her life, her source of joy after the death of her husband.

All of a sudden, her daughter began to laugh and smile again. Uja was both relieved and curious. She probed the girl, itching to know her source of happiness.

Dyeta was coy for weeks, evading her questions until she finally brought the man home. He seemed responsible enough, the son of respected former War General. He was unbelievably handsome, charming and kind. He treated Uja with respect and most importantly, he made Dyeta happy. In hindsight, she would always regret ever welcoming this person into her home but how was Uja to know at the time that monstrousity took shelter in the heart and not on the face?

A few months after she'd first introduced her lover to her mother, Dyeta went missing. Friends and relatives helped Uja search for her. At first, she was not worried. She knew that her daughter liked to go on lone outings to explore the city periodically but she was usually back in three days. Besides, Khelet was a relatively safe place so she just assumed Dyeta was just late or even lost.

How wrong she was.

On the second day of searching, they found her in an open space in an otherwise dense bush. She had been murdered, brutally. Her clothes were torn to pieces and her legs were broken. Her assailant had ensured that she could not escape in the worst way possible. The blood around her thighs was proof of a vicious rape and finger marks around her neck indicated strangulation.

Uja went ballistic.

The men around held her and dragged her away, refusing to let her see more of the violated body of her child. No mother should ever be subjected to such torture.

Only on the next day, when Dyeta had been cleaned up to the best of their ability was Uja allowed to say a proper goodbye.

What was strange was that throughout this episode, this general's son was no where to be found. His parents were repeatedly questioned about his whereabouts but they maintained that they knew nothing.

Uja's suspicions were confirmed.

That beast had a hand in the death of her Dyeta.

In the weeks following the funeral, Uja was turned away repeatedly from the palace. All that could be done to prevent her from seeing the King was done. The former general was well connected after all. It seemed like all hope was lost, that her cries for justice would never be heard. However, one of her friends encouraged her to meet with Alti. She had grown up around Dyeta after all. She may be able to relate to her on a personal level.

After successfully bribing a servant, a message was finally sent to Alti and she quickly invited Uja to the palace. Not to see her husband but to talk in her own room.

On her arrival, Alti sympathized with her and even shed a few tears of her own. Dyeta had been her favorite of Ifika's friends and for her to have died in such a manner pained her. She assured Uja that she would deal with it.

When she asked how she would do it, Alti smiled an enigmatic smile and told her to go home and not worry about it. She also sent some servants with her to take care of her and keep her company.

Uja left with tears of gratitude, waiting for the King's summon. Surely, Alti herself would be able to bring the case to his attention.

Only a week passed when shocking news got to Khelet. The general's son had been found dead in Noyn, a neighboring kingdom. His body was found by the bank of a river where he had presumably drowned.

His shell-shocked parents refused to believe this. After all, their son had always been a prolific swimmer. However, empty bottles of strong wine were seen around the bank so it was probable that while drunk, he jumped into the river and lost control. Few people consoled them as it was quite obvious that he had been responsible for the murder of Dyeta.

His death was taken as karmic justice and that was that.

Uja was both shocked and incredibly grateful.

She was more than eager to pay her debt to Alti.

This would explain why there was no hesitation on her part when Alti asked her to serve as Ifika's midwife.