I have it my way, I’ll never see Leria again. There are more important things in my life I want to focus on, and she’s…not allowing me to do that.”
“Skies, Seanev, she’s your wife…You’ve loved her for a long time.” Alchan was trying to rationalize, but it sounded hollow coming from him. He didn’t want to see Seanev alone, but excusing an abusive female fell flat.
“For a thousand years, we did wonderfully, but she…she refused to apologize or make any attempt to speak to me about Mave after…after that came out,” Seanev said softly.
“She’s scared,” Alchan decided, nodding at his own judgment of the female. “She’s had power alone for so long with no one over her. If I produce a female heir, she’ll have someone who can relate to her better than me and a bunch of other males ever could.”
“She’s done nothing illegal, and she’s been good to our people for centuries.” Seanev sounded a little bitter. “She’s the perfect mativa to everyone.”
“She hasn’t been good to all her people,” Alchan pointed out. “She hasn’t been good to you or Lilliana, or Yenni, who is now shacking up with my mativa. No one realizes I know that story. You’re right, though. Leria is a good mativa to most. However, it’s the ones she’s failed who tell the better tale.” Alchan reached out and touched his friend’s shoulder. “And even if she was good to everyone, she hasn’t been good to you. And for that? Leave her. You are welcome to stay in this village until you are ready to tell her. I’ll find some excuse for you to stay. Did you leave a good commander with the rest of your forces up north?”
“I did,” Seanev said, nodding. “And I told him this was a possibility. Not the personal reason, only that I might be needed down here to fight for you until this is over. I was a respected commander in the first war and have been hoping to return to that and uphold my own reputation better than I have.”
“Good.” Alchan felt the need to correct this. In the end, many of these situations were brought about by the unusual circumstances of their times. Normally, there would be no king they had to force to breed. Normally, a male would have a network to lean on if his wife was abusing her power and position, especially if she was a mativa. There was supposed to be balance, where the mativas kept each other in line and prevented them from falling into the trap of being dominant. There were lines they couldn’t cross to prevent from becoming cruel, and they had to help each other deal with those.
There was supposed to be a queen who could boast the power of the goddess Lariana, who forced the mativas into line, not that the mativas knew about the power. That queen would be answerable to the goddess herself.
“Would you mind if we move onto a different topic?” Alchan asked softly, not wanting to overrun his vulnerable old friend, who had just opened up about something hard.
“If you mean our next meeting, certainly. I was hoping to talk to you about it before it happened as well.” Seanev didn’t miss a beat. “I’m not here to ruin your life or day, Alchan. Please remember that.”
“I’m not worried about my life or day, right now. I’m worried about yours and how you’ve been able to live it,” Alchan grumbled. “But we’ll put it aside. You set up a meeting with a female and her family, but I don’t recognize their names, and they weren’t any of the nobles you wanted me to speak to and recognize.”
“Well, I wanted this done while I was here,” Seanev said softly. “Not even Leria knew about them before I left. I certainly didn’t until they approached me on the caravan, having packed their own things and brought their own horses. Alchan, I need you to understand, I had no idea who they were, but once the female told me, there was no way I could deny them an audience.”
“And you felt this female and her family deserved one with me.”
“That’s for you to decide, but she is a noble who is asking to be recognized. She didn’t want to write it in a letter. She wanted to say it to you.”
“Do you think I’ll give her what she wants?” Alchan didn’t appreciate mysteries. He preferred when everything was laid out in front of him, and he