𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲- [Magnificent Century]

CHAPTER 2

  It took them around a week to reach Topkapi palace, Mera had visited it a few times before, when she accompanied Suleiman and the valide, but she was always welcomed as a guest, she was the owner of the palace now.

Well, almost, considering the palace is Suleiman's and his mother's as well, they are all higher ranked than Mera's, and we should not forget Mahidevran Sultan, the mother of the oldest son of the sultan.

The Ottoman empire have different succession rules than the western empires, any son could be a candidate to rule, and all of the shehzades are heirs to the throne, no matter their age, there was no crown prince, something that Mera was very grateful for, for she can make sure one of her sons ascend the throne and protect the other brother, but it also made her blood run cold most of the time, fratricide was legal and expected of the new sultan, Suleiman thankfully had no alive brothers, so he has no brothers' death warrants to write, but shehzade Mustafa was older than Osman and Murad, he disliked them and considered by plenty of being the son that will inherit after his father's reign.

Topkapi palace looked magnificent, the sultan might be dead, but no one was overall mourning the man, not even his wife, now the valide sultan, the city was celebrating, with fireworks and free food, Mera had made sure for her faithful agha Sumbul, who was now the chief eunuch of the palace, to go out in town and see the market and tell her if there were any Jewish people there and of course to buy a house, a normal house that will not rise suspicions, where she would hide her money and treasures, and all of her belongings that she would not want any man or woman in the palace to come upon, and the house could always be used as an escape house, the sultana already had a few scattered around the country, but as she was a slave, she named them in her sons and daughter's names equally.

Sumbul agha was a faithful servant to the imperial family, and while he was serving everyone equally and tried not to take sides in Manisa, he was always the closest to Mera Sultan, not only she was his friend, who took care of him and gave him the most genuine treatment out of all the consorts, she was also a smart, shrewd woman, and Sumbul knew her to be able to achieve the position of Valide Sultan, and he had no intention of being on the losing side, already with her support, he was promoted to being the chief eunuch of Topkapi palace, and was one of the few people taken to the capital from Manisa's staff, Mera had chosen them carefully and she had made sure to leave some of her friends at Manisa, for them to do her bidding and carry her orders in case she needs something of them, if, god forbid, Mustafa was to be the prince governing Manisa.

The first thing that Mera and her kids did was join the Valide in her chambers to greet her and for her to give them her blessing, then she went to visit Suleiman with their children, after she had settled in her big chambers, she joined the sultan in his chambers for the night, umbkewoist to her, it would be the last peaceful night she would enjoy in the sultan's company for a while.

Mahidevran came the next day, acting as if she was the owner of the palace while she was not even the highest-ranking sultana or consort of his majesty. Her son was still acting as spoiled as ever and refused to take his lessons as he was going to become the next sultan, something that the valide was mad about when she heard, even the sultan was angry when he heard it, as Ibrahim had told her, but he made no move to change his mind, something that Mera was angry at the sultan for, but she knew she had to tread carefully.

The valide sultan preferred Mahidevran to Mera but she was nonetheless glad to have a woman as calm and respectful to the rules of the harem as she was, she just hated her background, and she had a feeling that she could have had a way worse woman as her son's main consort. The valide didn't know it yet, but Mera sultan was anything but calm, peaceful or adept at rules, she just knew when to hide her true self and when not, and when she should attack and when not. Something that will serve her well in the upcoming years of her life at the imperial harem.

Emine Hatun had told her of the new girls that were bought from the Tatars, they came from the lands of the Rus' and the Polish, and they were pretty, one, Alexandra was her name, was even bold enough to call the sultan by his name and faint in his arms, a trick Mera knew all too well, so she had ordered Emine and Fulane to open their ears and eyes to anything happening and be careful, for the tides were changing and the game of thrones beginning.

[EDITED]

Another chapter, I must say that I'm actually writing a lot of chapters lately as long as I am not blocked and have enough creativity and energy to do it.

This is also a small filler chapter with no dialogue but trust me, the real game begins in the next chapter of this book, and we will possibly the first interaction between Mera and Hurrem or Mera with Mahidevran, also do you have any suggestions/ideas? I would love to read yall's feedback!