A Seleucid princess at the Tamoran court

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Djerb (Empire of Tamora), Imperial Palace, women’s section of the palace

The Tamoran Imperial palace, the seat of government of Tamora

Princess Thekla was having a hard time adjusting to her new life in the Tamoran Imperial Palace. There were things that Tamora and Royal Seleucid had in common, like language. Tamorans like most Seleucid citizens spoke Parthian and although, she was a Soter and Seleucid was her native tongue she nevertheless understood and spoke Parthian well. She was also used to the idea of guardian and knew that as a woman there were certain expectations of her in regards to men and family. Yet despite that, she still didn't fit in at court. First, it found it off that the palace was basically split in two with one half women only and the other being mixed. As long as she stood in the women side of the palace, she would not have to wear the hijab. Another thing she found odd was that wherever she went people would immediately stand up and bow. According to Tamoran customs as First Wife of the Crown Prince she was second in rank to only the First wife of the emperor, in this case Alya Safavid. And the other women at the court showed her respect all the time, no exceptions.

And yet, it was perfectly clear that nobody at court liked her. Not Alya, not any of the women who although extremely polite and respectful were always quick to leave when she wanted to speak to them. And certainly her future husband didn't like her. He had managed to spend less than a couple of hours in the two weeks he spent in Royal Seleucid and avoided all but the minimum of contact with her while there. Now that she was in Djeb (ooc: the capital of Tamora) she saw him even less than that and she did not dare to confront him. The whole idea that her future husband showed so little interest in her was something that depressed her.

She felt trapped in the Imperial palace with people she did not know, rules she was not aware of and with people whom although not hostile did not show her any warmth.

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A few days after arriving at court, princess Thekla was invited by Alya to one of the private rooms. There Alya told her in the usual cold tone that was her style (at least when talking to Thekla):

“Since you had the chance to settle in, I think it's time you begin learning the rules of this place and of the country in general. This is not Royal Seleucid, we do things differently here and it's best for all of us if you learn as quickly as possible what is expected of you.”

Thekla was not really given a chance to reply as Alya raised her voice and said:

“Ozraa, come in now.”

As Alya said that, a woman in her early 30s entered the room, her gaze kept towards the floor. She gave a deep bow to both women as Alya resumed talking:

"She is my gift to you. She will show you around, explain how things work and keep you out of trouble. "

As Alya said that, Ozraa approached Thekla, knelt at the floor with her forehead touching the floor.

Ozraa kneeling before princess Thekla

Thekla didn't know how to react to the idea of having a slave of her own but she did understand that refusing the "gift" was not an option.

"Thank you, Your Highness. "

"About that, since you are a princess and will soon to be the First Wife of the Crown  Prince you should address me as Alya. That is more appropriate. "

The way she said it was more like admitting something she did not like rather than being of sign that she wanted to be friends.

"I will now leave since I have lots to do."

Alya then left the room and leaving Thekla and her new slave alone in the room. The already awkward feeling Thekla had was made worse when her new slave addressed her:

“How would Mistress like to call me? My previous name was Ozraa but please choose whatever name you'd like for me."

For Thekla that proved too much to bear and started crying which brought nothing but desperation to Ozraa who did not know how to react or what caused the distress of her new mistress.

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It had been a week since Thekla now had Ozraa as a personal slave. She did not for one second agree with the idea of slavery and yet she knew full well that expressing opposition publicly or even doing something as rash a attempting to free the slave would not only be pointless but would cause a fallout which could permanently affect relations between the Safavids (ooc: the ruling family in Tamora)and the Soters (ooc: the ruling family in Royal Seleucid). And she remembered full well what her brother, King Heydar always said "that if he were to decide she would marry a donkey breeder, she would do it and have a smile on her face". So she knew full well that she get no sympathy from Heydar in such a scenario.

So she conceded that she will treat Ozraa not as her slave or servant but as her only friend at the court. After all, it wasn't like she had any.

Ozraa did her best to explain how things functioned at the court, how she should act and what was expected of her. She found it so different than how things worked back home in Royal Seleucid. The Soter were also polygamists so she did find that strange yet she was used to terms like " sister wives" and a general feel of family and at least trying to get along. In Tamora it was completely different, the "First Wife", a term she often heard at court, was the only wife that enjoyed all the honors while all others were not much more than servants, including to the First wife. The latest wife was always lower in rank to the previous ones  and was almost a servant to the others. To call them sister wives was an insult. Children were given equal status that is until one was named Crown Prince. When that happened he was seen as almost equal in respect to the emperor and his First wife, in this case her, was the second most important woman in the palace. And here Ozraa explained was the problem, most people at court resented Thekla for having that honor and being a foreigner who not only did not deserve it but also did not understand the privilege she has been given. Ozraa assured Thekla that in time people would be more accepting, Thekla was not so sure about that.

It did not take long until the matter of religion came up. She was expected to convert to Manism and she was to have no say in it. She knew this before arriving in Tamora so that came to no surprise. She was assigned an Imam that was supposed to teach her the faith. She did her best to learn the book of Mani and especially to not skip prayer service which was several times a day. She didn't have a good relation with her Imam and did not dare ask him questions regarding the faith, something that seemed to please him as he had never encouraged her to ask questions. She spent time memorizing entire paragraphs from the book without really understanding them and repeated them when she met her imam.

One day, early in the morning she got up and made her way to the prayer room. Her imam was nowhere to be seen, she did her best to prepare for prayer while waiting. Since he didn't arrive which happened quite often when it came for early morning prayers, she decided there was no point in trying to pray and decided to return to her room. A few hours later while she was talking with Alya as they sometimes did in the morning, she causally mentioned that she had skipped prayer and at that moment Alya become visibly upset and asked with a fury in her voice:

"Why did you do that?"

"Because the imam didn't show up. He often doesn't in the mornings and I saw no reason to stay there."

"Didn't I tell you to follow to the letter was he says?"

"Yes, but I didn't see the point if he wasn't there."

Thekla didn't get the chance to finish when Alya slapped her.


"If I tell you to do something you do it. Do you understand me? Where is that lowly creature that I gave to you?"

Ozraa knew Alya was referring to her so she stepped forward meekly knowing full well this would not end well.

"Didn’t I tell you that your task is to teach her our ways? I think you need to be reminded of your place and your duties. Wait for me near my chambers. "

Thekla was both shocked and too scared to react and still didn't understand what did she do to warrant such a radical reaction.

"I especially chose an Imam for you that is not very demanding. The fact that he doesn't show up to prayer and you do is a way for you to win favor by showing him you are following the rules more than he does. You shouldn't squander such opportunities. "

 Thekla had no idea what Alya was talking about but didn't want to escalate things so she replied:

"I didn't realize this. I understand now."

Alya seemed to have calmed down somewhat:

"It's not your fault, it's the fault of that lazy slave girl but I will see that she will punished appropriately so that she will remember her duties in the future."

 Thekla’s heart shrunk as he heard that. She had gotten the only person she could talk to into trouble and she was too scared to do something about it.

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Later that night

Thekla was in her room waiting for hours for Ozraa to return. She had left word with the other slave girls to send Ozraa to her chambers as soon as she returns. It was now 01:00 AM and there was no sign of Ozraa. Thekla was scared for the first time since arriving in Tamora, up until that they she did not completely comprehend what slavery meant. She wasn't scared because she had not witnessed physical punishment before, after all the whole of Mundus saw how her late father physically punished his nephew, Danyal , because he caused offense to the Christian Pope. In Royal Seleucid, the head of the family had a responsibility to use physical punishment to enforce good behavior. No, she was scared because she was beginning to realize that if such punishments were handed down in her family to family members,  she dreaded the thought of what Alya might do to a slave. And all that was happening because of her she thought.

At almost 2:00 AM she heard a discrete knock on the door. She immediately jumped out of bed and rushed to open the door. Outside the door, was a visibly shaken and tired Ozraa. It was clear she went through a terrible ordeal.

" I am so sorry. It's all my fault. "

" It's nothing, Mistress. "

At that moment Thekla felt an outrage at the mere thought that Ozraa who had clearly been beaten or worse would say something like that:

"But look at you. It's not nothing, this isn't right. I don't care what people here think. I can't stand this…"

Ozraa interrupted Thekla, breaking protocol that said she was never to interrupt her mistress:

"As I said, Mistress.  It is nothing. During my time “there” the Mistress Alya did not mention or threaten my children even once. That means she wasn't really angry but she had no choice. You directly insulted her by saying you ignored her command and she couldn't take it out on you so she had to take it on me or lose face. And after all, it is my fault, I should have told you to never go against what mistress Alya says, no matter how small. And if you ever do, you apologize when she points it out to you and not argue why you did it. That is a great insult and that is why she slapped you. Imagine if you talked like that to your guardian, how would he have reacted? "

Thekla was speechless; she just hugged Ozraa and was grateful she was back in one piece. The thought that Ozraa had children and that they were at the mercy of others was something that never occurred to her.

[Markus]

A few weeks later

Thekla, was beginning to adjust to life at the court. Not because people did like her more or that she disliked any less how things were done but because habit started to kick in.  Ozraa, also provided her invaluable advice and helped her raise her confidence necessary to confront everyday people who didn’t really like her. Ozraa, also taught Thekla how she could use her power at the palace to force people into spending time with her if she wanted to and thus make them at least as uncomfortable as she was.   
 
Today, Alya invited Thekla to her first dance lesson. It was part of the preparations they she will have to undergo for the wedding.  As expected, the style of dancing in Tamora was completely different than the one in Royal Seleucid. As Thekla entered the room with Ozraa by her side, Alya was already there with a young woman.

“Fariba, show the princess the dance she is to learn.”

Fariba immediately started the dance.

Fariba showing princess Thekla how to dance.

Once she was done, Alya resumed:

“Thekla, meet your new dance instructor, Fariba. She will teach you everything you need to know.”

Ozraa, who until them seemed very emotional, started crying. Both Thekla and Alya immediately noticed it but before Thekla had a chance to intervene, Alya said:

“Please contain yourself. Princess Thekla has a dance lesson she needs to concentrate on.”

“I apologize, Mistress” Ozraa said, wiping away her tears.

Thekla was worried about Ozraa yet she had the feeling that those were not tears of distress but somehow of joy.

After Thekla finished her dance lesson, she had the chance to talk to Ozraa in private. She then learned that Fariba was her daughter and that her being the dance instructor of the First Wife of the Crown Prince was a great honor, especially when she was to teach her the dance for the wedding. Any dance school in Tamora would have given anything for that privilege, and now her daughter had the honor. And that honor was more than enough to make up for being the daughter of a slave.

As Thekla hugged Ozraa, she started crying. She did that partly because she was happy for Ozraa but in part she was crying because it never occurred to her to do something like that and Ozraa never once even alluded to the idea in all this time that she helped Thekla. She hated the idea that if it wasn’t for Alya, Ozraa’s happiness wouldn't have happened. She began to realize just how much more she had to learn about how things worked in Tamora.