The sun was on its way out when Gwafa walked into his massive bedroom at the palace. His wife was seated at a wooden table with their daughter. The woman was watching with interest and a smile as a European lady taught the girl writing, but that was all ruined when the king walked in.

"Papa!" cried Safiyya, jumping out of her chair and dropping to her knees.

"Enukal," said the European lady, kneeling also.

Gwafa waved his hand and Safiyya shot to her feet, running to him. She leapt off the ground once she was close enough and her father caught her under the armpits, lifting her high into the air.

"Aaaah!!!" the little girl screamed with joy, spreading her arms like she could fly.

Tadla and the European lady smiled at the sight. The latter had risen from her knees now.

"How is my future queen doing?" the king asked as he put down the princess.

"Mame is the one who will be a queen soon," the girl stated. "I might marry a noble, or a commoner, but maybe not a king."

"Oh you will marry a king, if I have to beat one into accepting," her father promised.

"Tell your father what you were doing, Safiyya," said her mother.

"Lady Luxis was teaching me how to write Greek and Roman alphabets."

"That is how many alphabets you know now?" her father asked, frowning. "I can barely keep count."

"Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Persian, Arabic and," the girl counted the languages on her fingers.

"You are forgetting one," her father stated.

"The most important one," her mother added.

"Wait, I'll remember," the girl argued, shutting her eyes tight as she tried to recall.

Tadla looked at her husband and his smile vanished. She knew something was wrong. She raised her eyebrows in question, but he shook his head and pointed at their child.

"Kalarian!!" the girl suddenly cried.

"Yes!!" her Greek teacher cried.

"You forgot your own language, you foreigner," her father said, pinching her stomach through her tunic.

"Ow!" she cried.

"Okay, Lady Luxis, please take Safiyya outside and let her play, or eat. My husband and I need to speak."

The girl turned to her mother. "Is it about if Aunt Lunja will be killed?" she asked.

"Shush, Safiyya!' her mother snapped with a frown.

Lady Luxis stepped forward and took Safiyya's hand, but the girl pulled it free and ran out of the room.

"She is stubborn," said her father.

"She is your daughter," his wife stated.

The Greek lady left and the king was alone with his wife. She remained in her chair and he remained standing.

"So the meeting was not good," said the woman.

"The chiefs are indecisive and Aksil fears there could be rebellion if I forced their hands."

"Rebellion is not something we can win, Gwafa."

"I know." The king walked to the large bed he and his wife shared. On the wall above the bed was the skin of a zebra with a lion head in the center.

The man sat down and his heart just sank. His wife rose from her chair and came over to the bed.

"Rest your mind, my king," she said, kneeling astride his laps, her bosom before his face and her arms around his neck.

"I need to win this, Tadla. The wajefa cannot be allowed to walk about here before our ancestors come down on us."

"And you will win," the woman whispered, holding his face and bringing her lips down on his.

The kiss made him feel okay; for now at least. The woman was good at this. It was one of the reasons why a man married a woman after all; companionship. She made him feel good when things were bad.

The king put his hands under his wife's bum and rose up with her still gripping him. he turned around and lay her down on the bed, while laying gently on top of her.

****

Lunja was in her hut. She lay on her bed, on her left side. Chi-Chi lay on the floor beside the bed and the princess slowly stroked her mane with her right hand which reached down from the bed.

The sun was on the horizon now As always, Lunja had been here all day and though with the sun going she could now walk about with no worries from the skies, but there was always still the problem of her brother and with people outside stoning disables, she feared what fate could befall her if she dared go into the city. Any sort of depravity could be visited upon her and the king would do nothing about it. Perhaps he would even be happy to hear of it.

Such dark thoughts caused a tear to roll down the right side of the princess' face and she raised a hand to wipe it, only to hear the shuffling of feet as someone drew close to her hut entrance.

"Who goes there?!" she cried.

The curtain was pushed aside and Magani walked into the hut.

"Magani!" said the princess with excitement as she sat up in bed.

Magani walked towards the bed, while looking around the hut. Torches and lamps were on to light the space, but those were not sights which called for viewing. Something was wrong and Lunja could sense it.

"Magani?" Lunja called.

The girl looked at her now.

"Ah, Lunja. Earlier in the day, my betrothed told me to come and see how you are doing."

"You did not great me, in-law," the princess stated.

"Wajefa are not given greetings by tradition," the girl replied. Her words cut through Lunja like a sword. The princess winced at the word; Wajefa.

"Magani, you too?" she said softly.

"Listen, I am going to be married into this family soon and I want my in-law, the king happy with me, therefore I cannot be against his move to reinstate the old law."

"So you insult me because you want no problem with Gwafa?"

"Also because I actually do agree that Wajefa have no place among us."

"But you have been my friend since you so little," Lunja stated, tears coming to her eyes now.

"I was a child back then. I am a woman now. I know better."

"So discrimination against me and others is you knowing better?"

Magani was quiet. She could make no reasonable argument about the fact. She was just being conformist and submissive.

"You cannot defend your reasons, can you?" Lunja asked the girl after her long silence.

"We are not the same, Lunja. By your own brother's words, you are not a princess anymore. You do not deserve my respect and that is reason enough for me to act as I now do."

"Gwafa's law will not be passed. Not while my mother lives and the gods will bless her with long life."

"Except if Gwafa knows about the old higher council of chiefs and how their words supersedes that of the ordinary council," Magani said with an evil grin.

Lunja froze now. She had forgotten about the higher council. They could support her brother's foolishness.

Magani smiled at the look on Lunja's face. She had shown the princess her end.

"The higher council is made up of old, foolish, traditional men who will see reason with your brother as they know of the time before your father removed the Wajefa law," she explained what she knew Lunja was already aware of. "I will simply bring this knowledge to my future in-law and he will leave for Jota to meet with the council."

"Why are you doing this, Magani?" Lunja asked, shaking her head in disappointment.

"This stupid reinstatement of the law thing is delaying my wedding to Aksil so whatever I can do to get it out of the way, I will and you know if I support you, I could lose the betrothal and if I don't it will only cause the wedding to be further delayed."

"You betray me just for a stupid wedding?"

"You might call it stupid, but it is very important to me."

"I loved you and always kept you in Aksil's mind by reproaching him if he so much as looked at another girl." Lunja was greatly pained as she recalled having done this particular thing so many times. "I kept him for you and now this is how you repay me?"

"You were good to me and I would be good to you if it was not proving a hindrance to my marriage."

"Get out, you ingrate!!" Lunja suddenly snapped, pointing at her doorway.

Magani shook at the first; not having expected the anger, but she quickly controlled herself.

"I said out!!" Lunja screamed. "And know you that Aksil will hear of this."

"You will just have him divided between believing you, or me. As you have just said, you helped me keep him and now, he trusts me so much."

Lunja rose to her feet and made to slap the girl, but Magani quickly backed away fast. The princess stared at her, through, teary, angry, red eyes.

"Get out and never come here again."

"I wish things could have been different," Magani said. "I want you to know I just do this for my wedding sake."

"No, you do this because you are a bad person," the princess countered. "Now, out!'

Magain turned and left the room. Lunja shook with grief and fell back into her bed.

The princess buried her face in her pillow and wept. Everyone was disappointing her. Besides her mother and Aksil, not many others stood by her in these trying times. Chi-Chi stood by her though. The creature climbed onto the bed and rubbed its nose against her head in an attempt to console.

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