The Feast (Part 1)

Good King Razz always threw good feasts. Everyone would come, from the nobles to the local beggars. Refugees were not welcome, but it had been some time since any had gotten far enough into the realm to even see the palace gates. 

King Razzasbel had 100 villages in his realm, and that was after razing several near the palace to extend the royal grounds. They said so many villages didn't need to be leveled but that the King had liked the symbolism of 100.

About a third of the villages had come through his marriage to Ryheza, the homely daughter of a neighboring chieftain. 

His biological mother Crisa, who King Razzasbel kept on as a governess for the harem, had found Ryheza for the King and negotiated the marriage with the chieftain, Lek.  She brought three other of his female relatives into the royal harem, taking a large load off the chieftain's shoulders. 

Relieved of the burden of managing the villages under his rule, their families and his own, Lek built himself a big house at the outskirts of the farthest village he had once protected. 

The other villages came under the rule of King Razzasbel through conquest. From two of these he found popular warriors to marry his two sisters and pacify the new subjects. 

His oldest sister had given birth to her first son, naming him after their father, Sudinnabo, and it was for the occasion of his first birthday that King Razz was throwing the latest feast. Despite the mother's small size and infirmity, the infant was normal for now. 

The King had his own son, Prince Razzasbel, who was already twelve and progressing well in the King's eyes, but he welcomed the birth of Prince Sudinnabo. It was good to have a spare heir, though Crisa insisted his daughter, who was just a year younger than the Prince, was even brighter and already provided the King with a spare heir. 

The King didn't see it that way. Having a mother who didn't speak to him through his entire childhood, and watching it slowly waste his father away, left him with a peculiar view of the other sex. And his older sisters were so frail, so he had to protect them from a young age too.

The infant Prince Sudinnabo's mother's husband the King was also preparing to send to administer a number of the outskirt villages, including the one he'd come from. 

Having his son back in the palace would give him the motivation to stay loyal and return when needed. The villages had been restless and the crown needed a local hand to make administration effective.

King Razzasbel hadn't told his sister yet about the plan, nor Crisa. He wanted the feast to be properly big to properly honor his sister so that she could remember it. The young prince was too young to remember anything after all.