A Tale Of Queens

The Letter

Dedicated to AlphaKelly

The door to her room was flung open and Sa-Alti did not need to look up from her book to know who it was.

"Motherrr ," she groaned. Her voice was exasperated. It was the tone of one who was tired of reprimanding another for something they had formed the habit of doing. From the time when she was a child, her mother had always ignored the concept of boundaries and privacy.

It had caused many arguments with Vileytna and it was the main reason why she'd moved out a year ago after her marriage to Qasahn.

"Read this," Alti said immediately, handing her a letter and completely ignoring her complaint.

Sa-Alti stared at the letter in her hands, dumbfounded. She read its contents a good number of times, hoping to find the punchline for what she assumed to be a joke.

She did not.

"Are you done?" It was the sneering, impatient voice of her mother.

Only then did Sa-Alti notice her presence again.

"What do we do?"

Alti sighed, sitting beside her.

Three months had not even passed after Phelon's death and a crisis was already brewing. The people of Geleu had crowned a new emperor, one with different ideologies from his predecessor. He found the food crops to iron exchange between Khelet and his empire to be unfairly disproportionate and now that the former king was dead, he threatened battle if his requests for a greater supply were not met.

Firstly, the Geleu empire already received almost half of the farm produce from Khelet. What the Emperor was asking for was greedy and unachievable. It meant that people would starve and most likely lose their means of livelihood. More so, the people of Khelet had not gone to battle in over four decades. They had no weapons nor  even the skills to use them.

The iron they got from Geleu was mainly for the purpose of carriages and tools for farming. They were at an obvious disadvantage and this was perhaps, what gave the new emperor the courage to challenge them.

"We are by no means ready for battle of any kind, Sa-Alti."

"Shall we call for a council meeting?"

"And risk this leaking for the people to panic? Never."

"I don't understand. What do we do then."

"Leave it to me. I will think of something."

Sa-Alti was a bit alarmed. Whenever her mother thought of something , strange things tended to happen.

********

They sat in the private garden alone, sipping wine.

Vileytna had come to see her unexpectedly as always. It was her first visit since their father's funeral and Sa-Alti was glad to see her again.

How strange, she thought as she observed Vileytna play with her son, watched her younger sister be a mother.

To her, Vileytna would always be the annoying toddler that followed her about with stars in her eyes, latching onto her, never quite knowing how to properly pronounce her name.

Sati, play with me. Sati, do my hair. Sati, where are you going?

The name finally stuck and eventually, everyone close to Sa-Alti called her 'Sati' with the exception of her mother. Alti despised that nickname. She called it a 'corruption.' Her father would always roll his eyes at his wife's disdain but zipped his mouth. He'd named their daughter after all and he thought the nickname precious, a way for his two girls to bond.