The Valide Sultan Mourns Her Child's Loss with a Call for Justice

Valerr entered the harem's Palace Throne Hall dressed in a simple, flowing gray gown. Her hair was covered with a matching silk veil, held in place by her headdress. Some of the veil covered the bottom half of her face. Her jewelry had been swapped for more modest pieces of duller stone quality.

All the attending demon female nobles, and Lyon's pledged concubines in red-silver trimmed sari dresses and head veils, nodded with respect for her show of mourning. A mother had just lost her daughter to evil machinations. In their eyes, Valerr was naturally facing a time of terrible loss.

The women made way for her to take to her throne at the hall's end.

Valerr stepped up the dais and eased onto a simpler version of the prince's blue meteorite throne.

The noble and concubine women stood to attention, gave her a royal bow, and lowered themselves on their knees with their heads toward the stone floor.

Two burly men in white robes with the royal emblem tattooed on their bald heads, and saw blades belted at their waists, stepped up to the dais and prostrated themselves before the dais.

Valerr sighed: exaggerated her expression of grief and weariness, which stirred whispers of support and care from her audience.

"Aiya, my Leela was murdered at the hands of that alien." She wailed, which stirred murmurs of sympathetic anger within the crowd.

"She was Our Demon King's favored daughter. Destined to be the first woman bestowed the title of Honorary Phoenix of the Knight's Isle!" Valerr continued to put on a grand show of mourning. "And now that destiny is gone."

The crowd's murmur grew louder as women whispered for justice: not just for Leela but for the sake of all honorable demon women.

"That's right! Our Demon Prince favors those beastkind too much! They're not real women, but creatures that came from monsters!" a noble whispered to a concubine who was nodding heartily.

"I heard, he even let a centurion commoner be a noble. That should be against God's laws!" a concubine said to another.

Valerr suppressed her smirk as she let her audience murmur their discontent and rising calls for demon women's justice. When she felt their motivations were escalating to her favor, she called them back to her attention.

"And now an alien has taken the life of my daughter. Is there any place safe for demon women in this palace?"

The murmurs for justice increased until one noble requested permission to speak. Valerr gave them the stand.

"Alicish-hanim thanks Valide Sultan. If I may ask, how should we handle this injustice?" The noble had her hand to her heart and head bowed.

"Handle? Alas, it is in our Demon Prince's jurisdiction."

"But our fair countess was a member of this Harem, shouldn't we have the right to demand trial and punishment on our terms?"

Valerr's lips twitched with a smile. "How would that happen?"

The noble's eyes darted to her colleagues who were giving her encouragement from the floor. She took a deep breath and bravely stated a proposition.

The noble painted a picture of Kairo being a murderous and cunning alien, who was infiltrating the palace to take control and turn the prince against them. Many nobles were being blinded by this ruse because of the support Genie and beastkind gave him.

"So we can't rely on our prince's court for fair justice."

The women raised their voices in favor of the palace harem taking justice for Leela. A meek concubine timidly raised her hand. Valerr gave her permission to speak.

"Concubine-aleena thanks our Valide Sultan. I was working the shift in the palace kitchens when I overheard one of the visor's mention to another about having the alien tamper with records in the archives. I think this visor was paying the alien to do this."

"Oh? Do you have anyone to back your claim?" Valerr piped up.

Another two concubines raised their hands to validate the claim. Saying they were also on duty in the area, and heard the same thing.

It gave Valerr reason to probe the matter further. "How would that be possible? He wouldn't even know the archives well enough."

The concubine looked brave when she said that the visor had said he had given the alien instructions to tamper with one of the noble's records and make their lineage fraudulent. 

"To tamper with god validated records is a god-crime." A noble gasped with shock.

Valerr rose to show her austerity toward the matter. "Are you sure?"

The girl bowed her head and nodded, "yes".

Valerr's expression eased, she waved to one of the capons. He stood to attention. "Give these three concubines silver rings."

"Valide Sultan! This is too much." The three girls bowed on all fours before their queen.

The other nobles whispered their encouragement and approval of the girls' court machinations, which earned them a promotion in the harem.

"Do we know the noble who gave this order?"

One of the girls nodded and said it was Court Visor Jan who was talking with the Chief of Security.

Valerr smiled, feeling her justice about to descend upon her enemies in one fell swoop. Her carefully orchestrated show with her concubines and loyal nobles had effectively stirred harem support in her favor.

At the end of the address, many pieces of truth and lies united her harem and nobility around one solid conviction: Kairo was an imminent danger to their society, and corrupting the core of Demon Prince Lyon's court.

The harem's desired outcome for Kairo was to see him eliminated in a way that proved his evil deeds to all members of the prince's court. Should a majority of visors acknowledge this truth, Lyon would have to publicly execute the alien. It would be a fair justice, according to them.

Valerr dismissed her court, savoring her win in a private chamber.

She felt uplifted by this promising movement. Her people would rise up against Lyon and do a lot of work for her. "But there is one beast woman who needs to pay a price. And she'll pay ten times the amount."

She called for a capon to send a message for Lady Foster's audience.

The capon nodded and went to do her bidding.