Herald of Steel

Lady Inayah, a noble by birth, naturally possessed far greater resources than a lowly pleasure slave like the Queen Mother. For example, she received a handsome monthly stipend, as well as maids and various servants, high quality food and drinks, and new clothes every year from her family, allowing her to live a very comfortable and luxurious life in the palace.

And all this was on top of what the palace usually provided from its own treasuries. Thus even though Lady Inayah was perhaps not the richest of all the imperial concubines, she was certainly up there.

This wealth, she was also gracious enough to share this with her red haired friend, giving her as much as needed whenever she asked- in fact it was courtesy of Lady Inayah that the Queen Mother did not suffer in the palace as much as she should have from the machinations of the other concubines.

For example, the ebony lady helped Seelima by sharing her clothes when the other ladies conspired to cut off her palace allowance and one time even gave her most prized gown away when a maid was bribed to secretly stain and ruin all of the Queen Mother’s good dresses just before a huge party.

If Seelima had gone to that party in those ugly rags, her life in the harem would have been over then and there. The mad king was obsessed with his reputation, and if one of his most favored mistresses were to appear in a less than ideal state in front of the whole nobility... it would have been a personal slight.

Even the fact of the sabotage would have mattered little- if the Queen Mother tried to explain this, at best it would have only been viewed as slander and a poor one at that.

And even if it were true, Alozmer would have been perhaps far more furious over the girl airing his dirty laundry to the whole world rather than actually investigating the injustice. The ugliness of the things inside the imperial harem was no doubt an open secret, but no one was tactless enough to talk about it openly. That was Alozmer’s personal domain, and no one was allowed to step inside or outside.

So Seelima’s action would only show her foolishness and naivety, making the mad king see to it that this concubine was set straight!

The Queen Mother still remembered when she found the sabotage just a few hours before the party. Looking at her clothes and all those ugly, colored stains streaking all across the front and back... her heart went cold like it had done only a very few times in her life. Her eyes teared up, and she felt faint, her vision darkening like she was going to fall off her feet.

Only the name ’Inayah’ helped her stay conscious. And she immediately ran to her for help.

Fortunately for the Queen Mother, Lady Inayah extended her hand at once upon learning of the incident and lent her a beautiful green dress she had only recently custom made.

The ebody lady also did this fully knowing she was never going to get this expensive dress back. Because once the Queen Mother wore it to the party and showed it off to everybody, that essentially became her dress. If Lady Inayah were to then wear it to another party, everyone would think she had stolen it...and her family would not have any place to hide their shame.

Similarly, Lady Inayah also helped the Queen Mother with various living essentials like firewood, medicine and good, healthy food when the palace staff tried to cheat her of it due to being bribed and at one time simply ordered.

The latter happened during a time when the former Adhanian Queen managed to turn Alozmer against her. So Seelima was left to endure two bitter winters on her own.

She did not think she would have survived without Lady Inayah’s help- she was moved to a very dilapidated room that hardly blocked the elements, given a very flimsy blanket and barely any firewood- a death sentence by all accounts.

Her circumstances only improved upon the ebony lady pulling some strings through her family, mainly her father, Lord Iyizarid. And when Alozmer saw her finally later, he was surprised to find her not only fit and healthy, but that she had actually gained curves and swells in all the right places, her natural beauty blossoming even further.

It let the old king feel a renewed sense of attraction... all courtesy of Lady Inayah.

So with all these examples shown, the monetary support Lady Inayah gave might appear perhaps the weakest. But its importance could also never be understated- the ’all mighty’ ropal was needed to unlock all kinds of doors in the palace.

There would be times Lady Inayah would give up as much as half of her monthly stipend to Seelima, and there were two times she let her have nearly all her savings.

Basically, as long as the expenses were justified, such as for bribing the staff, obtaining new information or even buying perfume that Alozmer thought to like, the ebony lady did not mind unfurling her fists.

In addition to these materialistic things, the black lady further went out of her way to help the Queen Mother in various ways only someone of her noble status could.

For example, she got access to parties and met with the likes of the highborn of society that an unknown slave like Seelima could never have. As she mingled and swayed through them, Lady Inayah would also gather all kinds of tidbits that would be later passed to her friend.

Thus, this channel was among the most important tributaries Seelima had, letting her keep tabs on her much more noble rivals. This was arguably Lady Inayah’s most valued contribution.

The other contender would be her introducing Pasha Farzah.

The Queen Mother had indeed already met the man in formal parties, but it was Lady Inayah’s personal recommendation that turned their relationship into a solid pact, an alliance that transformed the whole history of Adhania, if not the world.

Otherwise, without the black lady vouching for the Queen Mother’s vow of secrecy, the elder lord would have been far more apprehensive about approaching an unknown slave- as the king’s favored mistress, he would have feared the allyless Seelima tattling to the man in the hopes of scoring some brownie points.

In a similar way, Lady Inayah regularly vouched for Seelima’s character during a lot of the palace drama- which, in many cases, without the support of the noblewoman, would have made it very hard for Seelima to wipe away the suspicions.

Now, in return for all this help, Lady Inayah asked for something very simple from the Queen Mother- to influence the mad king on her behalf- i.e.- act as her middleman.

Thus Lady Inayah could ask for many things without appearing outwardly greedy, possess things that she might not have been able to get if she had asked herself- for example: expensive perfumes that Alozmer reserved only for his doting on favored mistresses, and most importantly, not always go begging to the monster who killed her husband.

This allowed the ebony lady much more dignity and flexibility in her everyday actions.

And if there came truly a time when she really wanted something, she could also ask Alozmer directly and the king would have a much harder time denying her given how rare the request was.

Hence, while Seelima relied on her physical allure and seductive charm to influence Alozmer, Lady Inayah took a much more circuitous, covert approach.

And finally, among the ways Lady Inayah helped the Queen Mother was by giving her new ideas and various ways to carry them out. For instance- it was she who suggested Seelima plant all that gold on that former concubine after killing her, and even used her connections to covertly get that money from the other ladies of the harem without none able to find any traces of it.

All the Queen Mother had to do was slip them into the dead girl’s purse after stabbing her.

This in itself might not seem like a big crime but in reality it... it was a humongous deal.

All imperial concubines of the palace were unequivocally barred from carrying any cash with them- it was even a crime worthy enough to reach the king’s ear.

The royal family deemed the act so serious because of the painful lessons from history- they knew there was never a single point in time when concubines with money produced anything good.

Similarly, they were very well aware of how many of the maids and servants took bribes to circumvent the usual dealings of the palace, causing all kinds of strife and mischief.

In fact, the current Adhanian dynasty got its power in part from the strike and mischief created from his practice.

The ruling dynasty from a few preceding generations used to really allow their harem concubines to manage their finances as they saw fit, giving the women their allocated gold for the month and then letting them sort it out by themselves.

The idea on paper sounded great- it simplified logistics, reduced the bureaucratic overhead costs for the palace, and even allowed the women to get exactly what they wanted without having to rely on the staff to guess their needs.

It was capitalism at its best- simple, pure, unadulterated.

Too bad, the originator of this noble idea could not see the obvious flaws with his ’great plan.’