ID: 221

Outcome: Narrow Victory

Open After Story: Yes

Manual Prompt: Yes

Text:

You overthrew the last Sultan, making you a hero to those who hated him, and a vile usurper to those who loved him, or loved the privileges his rule bestowed.



So you needed to gild your actions with plausible excuses, needed a "Sultan" more palatable to traditionalist nobles than yourself appeared... and thus you thought of Zazie.



The favored concubine seemed to have expected your visit. Adorned in the lavish attire of a noblewoman with child, she deliberately concealed her still-flat belly, likely padding her robes with cotton to feign pregnancy.



"The child I carry is the next Sultan. This is beyond dispute," she said lazily. "And you may certainly serve as Regent. After all, look how diligently you've cleared my child's path to the throne... But alas, we are not ungrateful. We merely require... assurances."



She suddenly grew fascinated with her long, gold-dripped nails.



After a weighted silence, you pledged to return power when the boy came of age. Promised the Queen Mother luxuries and diversions, the young Sultan an education fit for rulers.



Zazie smiled, satisfied, and dismissively bade you leave. But you knew obedience now would make reclaiming authority harder later. So you straightened, clasped your hands behind your back, and smirked back with equal arrogance.



Another silence. Zazie weighed your capabilities, influence, allies, methods, deeds... placed them on one scale, against her own skills, her child, her supporters on the other. Finally, reluctantly, she rose and curtsied, thanking you for your visit.



The exchange left you both weary, a fatigue that would persist through the coming years of rule. Your faction lacked strength to openly challenge the old-blood nobility, so Zazie would keep testing you, again and again and again...



Your soul, your flesh, your dreams, all imprisoned. You couldn't flee the palace, for abandoning power meant death at Zazie's leisure. Nor could you crush the opposition that constrained your reach, denying you full authority...



In this struggle, you even forgot why you'd fought initially, forgotten overthrowing a Sultan was meant to build a better realm. Sometimes you missed the old tyrant. Perhaps his madness and cruelty had been attempts to break this same cage? Perhaps he too had chafed as you did now. Perhaps you should take after him, should fill a few more baskets with heads...



The damned court life endured. Weary, you dragged yourself toward the throne room once more.

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