The 14th Concubine of a Harem King

A New Life

"Yalise!" I embrace her as soon as the door closes.
"Larora! Your highness, did it go alright?"
I nod and bury my face in her shoulder. "It wasn't that bad but I missed you," I must still have some wine in my system because I am rarely this affectionate.
"Your pond is all ready and they prepared 5 different colored carps for you," she says.
I brighten up. "Do they have names yet?"
"No, you can name them," she says smiling.
"Okay, give me a moment, I need to get dressed and then we will go see them! Where's my bedroom?"
I stumble around in my new, much larger than expected house. There's a sitting room, a dining room, Yalise's room, another useless bedroom just there for no reason. A changing room, 2 bathing rooms, another sitting room, a sun room, a kitchen, and finally, at the very back of it, a giant bedroom big enough to fit 3 of me's. Perhaps they expected me to be a large woman to fit such a large house. It seems like a terrible waste of space. I wonder how big my garden is.
"Yalise!" I exclaim. "I have decided that being the 14th concubine of a harem king is not as bad as it sounds."
I collapse on my giant bed and Yalise follows me.
"Your father will be happy to hear they are treating you well. I myself was happy to see they spared no expense at your welcome."
I nod, sitting up.
"Was....was he good to you?" She says hesitantly.
"Oh that part?" I say. "It wasn't bad. He has lots of experience taking women's virginities so he knew what he was doing to make it as painless of an ordeal as he could."
Yalise blinks a few times. "Do you... have any feelings regarding him now, as a man?"
I shake my head. "He made it pretty clear he doesn't consider me sexually after last night. He probably likes the prettier women in his harem."
"You aren't put off by that?" She asks.
I laugh. "Yalise, this is me we're talking about. If I wanted to seduce a king I'd find one much older and dimsighted."
"You aren't as plain as you think, your highness..." she says softly.
"Perhaps," I reply. "But I'm not as fair as my peers and competition."
Silence.
"So what are my wedding gifts? Did I get any?" I roll over on the bed and sit up.
Yalise smiles, she seems relieved. She might have expected a different woman coming out than who went in but I am the same. Virginity or no virginity I'm still her little Lorora.

We unwrap a giant mountain of gifts. Most of them being dresses and jewelry. "I'll sell some of these to start a fund in case the local farmers have any crop failures," I say. "Please make a note of where all of these came from so I can thank them."

The only interesting gift of the hundreds I opened was a singular golden game piece with the design of a fish on the one side. It's used for a betting game I used to play with my father when I was young. I smile. "Who is this from?"
"It's from another concubine in the kings harem, they each gave you gifts to welcome you. This one has a note," replies Yalise.
"The other concubines are oddly friendly here," I say. "What does the note say?"
"To Princess Larora, 4th princess of Aryalia. Please accept this token both as a gift and an offer of friendship as we welcome you into our sisterhood of Ardan. Join us, tomorrow night, at my quarters for a game of Qawell. All of the king's concubines will be there, along with myself as we are all anxious to meet you."
I sigh. "So it begins already."

Yalise frowns. "They seem welcoming."
"That's what I'm supposed to think," I stare up at the roof. It's a pretty roof with paintings of forests and wild animals quietly grazing. "It's shame the token had a fish on it. She must have done her research on me. She's probably the head concubine and is threatened by my status."
"Do you really think these women will try to bully you?" Asks Yalise.
I sit up and start tying up my hair. "Oh probably, but im not some weak and naive princess who can't handle herself out there. I survived being the favored youngest princess and made it out with my head high and attached to my neck. Prepare a simple but expensive dress for tomorrow evening. Something that won't catch their eye unless they know about high end cloth and interwoven jewels. I must make my presence known as a woman not to be messed with, only then, can I enjoy a peaceful life in this pretty house."
Yalise nods and scurries out. I fold up some of the dresses and sort them into a pile of which ones to keep and which ones to sell then I move onto the jewelry. Ugh, what a boring tedious day. I want to go name my fish.