The 14th Concubine of a Harem King

Sayra's Love

Lorora
Every step I take feels like it's weighed down by a hundred bricks. My body is numb, and my mind is blank. Sayra is darting around me, picking up this and that, carrying a bag or two into the bedroom, pausing to embrace me, bringing me food, and I just mindlessly do as she tells me.

Yalise is gone, and I still haven't accepted it. Now I'm packing to return home without Yalise. Back to the place where my siblings fight over me and with me. Back to the place where my father celebrates me to the happiness of no one but himself. Back to the first prison, I escaped from to come to this one. I miss my father, but I'm not the same person who left Aryalia. And after losing Yalise, i dont think i ever will be again.

My fingers tremble, and my legs give out, Sayra catches me before I collapse onto the ground. We are packing up my bedroom. Well, Sayra is trying. At least I have her. Although I don't know what I'll do when I return home with her and my siblings question it. Sayra picks me up and lays me down on the bed.

"I have to go get us some lunch, I'll be back very soon," she says, embraces me, and strokes my hair tenderly.
"Stay here, alright, I'll only be gone for a minute."
I nod mechanically. She pats my head.
"Good girl."

The bedroom door closes and then the front door. I'm alone in my room with my thoughts. Shuddering, I try desperately to empty my mind from the chaos and heaviness inflicting it, but my control over it has been lost. I spiral into the heaviest depression I've ever known.

"Your highness?" A voice calls. "Princess Lorora!?"
"Malyke?" I crawl out of bed, and my presence of mind returns to me.
He bursts into my room and embraces me, his body trembling.
"Are...you alright?"
"My father was murdered by my mother, my mother is a psychopath who wants to kill my little brother and sister, half my palace is bought out by my insane mother, my advisors are weak and useless and the only friend I can trust is packing to leave me," he says all in one breath and then resumes his shuddering sobs.
Tears spill out of my cheeks, and I crumple to the floor with him. "What can I do, your highness? Your father, my husband is dead, and now I've lost Yalise..." I whisper my whole body, aching with the pain in my heart.

"You can't leave me, Lorora," he looks up at my face, his tearful bloodshot eyes rip a whole new hole inside me. "You promised to be my older sister. You can't abandon me now, now I've lost everyone I could depend on."
Rage surges inside me. "I'm sorry I'm weak, Malyke! I'm not what you thought I was. I lost the woman who was a mother to me, and now I'm useless. I have nothing left! All I can do is leave Adran and live away in the mountains of Aryalia!"
Malyke lets out a loud, heart-rending cry. "Why? Why make me depend on you when you can't be here when I need you the most?"
"I'm not your mother, Malyke! I can't be!" I snap back.
"And my mother will be dead soon!" He snaps. "So who is to stop me from becoming an insane tyrant like you always feared?"
I stop, my heart drops. "What?"
"Ulishi committed treason....hup....not just to Adran but broke faith...hup... with Aryalia by killing Yalise and attacking those under your...hup...protection," he says while hicupping.
"But she's your mother..." my entire world is spinning. Ulishi, executed? What will Malyke do? He lost his father and now his mother. How could he possibly go through with such an action?
"She isn't my mother," he says in an icy voice, the blathering hicupping little boy is gone. "She only loves my position and hers...I begged her to run away with me and abandon Adran, but she refused... she doesn't love me, Rory. She never did...I was just a tool for her."
All my reservations go out the window, and I embrace this little boy with all my might. "Oh Malyke, I'm sure she loves you, in her own small twisted way. You don't have to do this. There must be another way."
"There is! To run away with her, but she wouldn't... Rory, why can't she just love me more than being queen, more than me being a prince? Why can't she just love me?"
I stoke his hair softly and rock back and forth.
"And how will me staying change any of this?" I say gently. The warmth in my heart slowly spreading back into me and onto this tragic little king.
"I won't be alone. You will become my royal advisor, with authority only under me. I'm still a child! Soon I will be officially crowned king, and everyone around me will try to take advantage of me, use me, manipulate me. Rory, I'm scared. I'm so scared."
I notice Sayra's shadow loitering by my door. "Sayra?" I call out to her.
She enters and joins the embrace.
"What should I do, Sayra?" I stare up into her soft eyes.
"Malyke, Ro isn't in a place where she can make any hard choices right now. In the meantime, I will assist you in purging all of Ulishi's people from the palace and help you establish your rule. Once Ro feels strong again, she will give you her answer. But we need to move out of this place by tomorrow. Can you prepare one of the old concubine's homes for us to move into? One with a large garden. As for Ulishi's execution, we will wait until the palace is purged of her followers and she is thoroughly investigated. Then we can take counsel with Ro again. Alright?"
Malyke nods slowly but still clings to me. "Can... can I stay here tonight?"
My heart burns for this poor child. "Yes, of course," I say and hug him tighter. Malyke and I sob and embrace while Sayra moves around us in a blur and puts him on the couch beside the bed, me in my bed, and then she cuddles me up close inside her arms. I fall asleep against her chest but wake up alone. Rolling over, I see Sayra gently stroking Malyke's hair. He sleeps with a strained expression on his face and trembling lips. Sayra tucks him in tighter and softly sings a song in a language I've never heard. It must be from her homeland. The candlelight flickers and slowly dies as I watch the woman I once thought was heartless, greedy, and selfish care so gently for a tortured little boy. Did Yalise know Sayra had this side to her? Did she know the kindness and care she had? My eyes droop, and I drift off, but never in my life will I forget the sight of Sayra singing a lonely child's nightmares away. Under the light of a dimly lit candle, she stroked the creases at his hairline and tucked him in when his body would thrash from night terrors. I can't help Malyke right now, so Sayra is stepping up. My heart warms. I hate this time in my life more than anything, but I will always have that memory from this night stored up in my heart.