"Leave me out of your affairs, you meddlesome dwarf." Hilda Cartier sniffed and crossed her arms over her fairly flat chest.
"I have no choice but to involve you, Hilda." Alfric Hobart raised his voice above the din of the Great Hall. The black-robed crows were chattering amongst themselves again.
"What you did within the last three years could be construed as an act of war. Stifling supplies and food sources throughout the kingdom because you raise prices so high on an item of critical importance...that is akin to treasonous actions against the kingdom."
"Oh please. Cry me a river. You dwarves make so much money off everyone with your underground railway. You even allow bidding wars, causing those who can afford to transport their goods to be able to beat out those who are unable to pay the extra that it takes to get their products out."
Alfric Hobart shook his head. "The bidding is not something that the dwarves have control over. It is done even before the products and merchandise reaches us. That layer of surface transporters control the flow of what gets transported through surface roads before it reaches the underground junctions."
Mira tapped Alfric. "Does that layer of surface road transporters have anything to do with the recent spate of bandits?"
"My men are looking into that at this time, Your Royal Highness. I will be able to give you a much more thorough briefing later this evening."
"Please do so." Mira nodded.
She then returned her attention to the Duchess of Dolmia. "You---Duchess Hilda Cartier. Explain yourself and your reasons for the tax hike."
"That's AUNT Hilda Cartier to you. I am King Leo's first cousin. He will not be happy when he returns and sees how you have treated me." Hilda spat at Mira and then turned her gaze back on Alfric. "In fact, he will be furious when he sees the shambles the Princess Consort has made of his once-superior King's Court."
Alfric stretched his lips into a cold gentle smile that did not reach his frozen eyes. "The Princess Consort is cleaning house and sweeping away the debris. King Leo Tamein has been far too lenient."
With Alfric's latest words, the Great Hall went into an uproar. The Advisors were now loudly protesting against the Commandant General.
A repeated thudding could be heard to the left of the dais. High Wizard Griswold was banging away on the stone floor with his scepter again. "Quiet and order in the King's Court!" He bellowed.
Mira idly wondered if his customary spot didn't have dings and divots in the stonework where he'd been pounding away with his metal stick all these years.
The noise from the crowd continued, unabated.
With burnished eyes, he cast the scepter high into the air. It split apart into five equal sections and morphed into softball sized screaming heads flying directly into the crowd of Advisors.
There was a general shuffling and much muffled screaming as the heads streaked towards the crowd. At the moment of impact, the screaming heads disappeared harmlessly, but the trick worked.
The black-robed crows had been crowd-controlled.
"Hilda Cartier, Duchess of Dalmia. Stop dawdling and approach the Blue Aisle." The High Wizard Griswold Toblerone pointed to the blue runner in front of the dais with his scepter.
It had somehow magically reattached itself and reappeared in his hand.
Hilda Cartier compressed her lips into a thin straight line and stood up.
For a duchess who was purported to own the entirety of the dolmian supply for Ashrya, her appearance was quite austere.
Her black Advisor robe was unadorned. She also wore no jewelry other than a single round dolmian stone around her neck. It was hung on something that resembled a stainless steel ball chain, the kind that Mira used to hang her drain plug on.
The Duchess looked poverty-stricken.
The bright morning sunshine was streaming in through the tall narrow lancet windows on each side of the Grand Hall causing the dolmian stone to look like a dull white pebble with no value whatsoever.
Yet, this uninspired looking stone along with this uninspired looking woman had somehow managed to take center stage at today's debate.
Hilda Cartier made her slow methodical way towards the center and eventually faced the dais.
"I am here. What do you want from me?"
Alfric held out a scroll, letting the end drop to the floor revealing rows and columns of curlicue squiggles which caused the court to gasp in astonishment.
Mira glanced at the markings with no emotion. She was clueless about its content.
"Verify for the Court as well as the Princess Consort the reason for the steep hike in taxes that you have levied against the domain miners for the extraction of dolmia from the mines." Alfric flicked at the scroll.
"What of it? Dolmia is my domain. I tax it as I see fit. It has nothing to do with you."
"Oh but I beg to differ, Lady Cartier." One of the Theobold twins interjected. "The sharp tax increases over the last three years have caused the prices of dolmia to destabilize."
"So what?"
"So the underground cities rely on them for illumination. If dolmia rises exponentially in such a manner, the dwarves have no choice but to hike their prices as the cost of doing business because they rely on dolmia to keep their cities lit around the clock."
"This only affects you dwarves. Why involve the entire empire?" She sniffed with disdain.
"This obviously affects everyone across the empire! And YOU are at the heart of this issue." Alfric threw the scroll with the squiggles to the floor in disgust. It landed with a loud clatter, startling everyone in the Great Hall.
Jonas Bueller and the Theobold twins quickly jumped aside to avoid being hit by the scroll. The Duchess Hilda Cartier did not even flinch.
Once again, the Advisors went into an uproar.
The High Wizard Griswold Toblerone rapped his scepter again and again on the stone floor. "I think it is justifiable that you clearly explain to the Court the reason for your steep hikes in such a short amount of time."
"I have my reasons, and they have nothing to do with you." The Duchess Hilga Cartier held her head high, not giving up an inch.
Mira sighed. Life was full of choices. There was the easy choice and there was the hard choice. Everyone always invariably chooses the hard choices for whatever reason.
"Right now, food and supplies are restricted throughout the empire for various reasons." Mira said as she wiggled a foot feeling the pins and needles shooting up her leg. Damn this hard uncomfortable chair that was too tall for her to sit properly on.
She grimaced as she fixed her gaze on Duchess Hilga Cartier. "One of those reasons has to do with your exorbitant taxes. If there is a reasonable explanation for the tax hikes, you need to share it with us. We may be able to find a way to work with you so that you can solve the issue without having to levy such a tax on the entire empire to shoulder."
"It is none of your business Princess Consort, what I choose to do with my taxes." Duchess Hilga Cartier spat.
Mira shrugged, her brow furrowing from a sudden sharp pain shooting up her derriere. She shifted onto one butt cheek in a futile attempt to alleviate the pain.
"In that case, I'm afraid we are going to have to expropriate all your dolmia for the empire's use during these times of emergency." She turned to Alfric with a single nod.
"Right away, Your Royal Highness." He bowed and gave a signal to one of his men.
"How dare you! I will not stand by and let you rob me!" the Duchess threw both hands in the air and began to intonate a spell.
Before Mira even had a chance to pull Hello Kitty out of her holster, a firm hand rested on her shoulder. It was Tinsel Pomfrey. He had thrown a protection bubble around the throne chair, encompassing the two of them within its safety zone.
At the exact same moment, a blue spark arched from one side of the Great Hall hitting the Duchess Hilda Cartier squarely on the hand that was holding a bolt of blue energy.
The blue spark slammed into the bolt of energy, catalyzing a huge unstable reaction. In the blink of an eye, a micro explosion of intense heat and energy enveloped her hand. The luminance was so intense it temporarily burned a bright spot into the retina of anyone who was unfortunate enough to have been caught staring at the explosion.
AAAHHH!!! She wailed in pain clutching at her wrist.
From the far corner, someone pumped a fist into the air in jubilation but nobody noticed his joy at having hit a bullseye target from such a distance away.
Everyone was too busy staring in horror at the Duchess.
Her right hand had been burned to a blackened crisp. The sickly sweet smell of burned roasted flesh filled the air within the chamber.
Mira gagged as courtiers ran about opening windows to let in some fresh air.
"Who dares to strike at me???" Hilda Cartier's eyes were mad with the shock of intense pain. She spun about searching for the culprit.
From the far corner, two men stood up facing her.
"If my cousin knew you were in the process of striking his wife with your magik, what do you think he would do to you, eh?" A very familiar voice sounded from the mouth of a man Mira did not recognize...at first...but then suddenly, she knew who he was.
"Erick!" She called out from the throne.
With long strides, the Crown Prince of Jade reached the dais within seconds, his strong handsome face shining in the morning sunlight.
"Do not be afraid of anyone or anything, my sweet Lady." He whispered into her ear. "I will stand beside you and be your strength."
He turned back to the Duchess Hilda Cartier who was at that moment being treated by a cadre of palace healers. "How dare you raise a weapon in this court?"
"This is the King's Court and I am a member of the Royal Household. Do you know what an attack on a royal member of the kingdom means?" Hilda Cartier ground out.
Her face was pale with the pain even though the palace healers had temporarily placed an anesthetic spell on the nerve endings in her wrist. It was the best they could do. There was nothing left of her hand to treat.
"Correction!" Erick bellowed. "This is the Princess Consort's Court and she is the current acting monarch of the kingdom. Do you know what attempting to strike a monarch amounts to?" Erick threw back.
"What sitting monarch? She is just my nephew's sterile half-breed ancillary wife."
"Hilda, Hilda, Hilda." Erick tsked his tongue. "The more you speak, the worse your crime grows." He reached out for Mira's hand and brought the tips of her fingers to his lips.
"This is the true and legitimate Princess Consort, acting as the ruling Monarch of Diamond Kingdom until such time her husband returns." He fixed a cold stare at the Duchess. "By attempting to assassinate her, you have just committed high treason against the kingdom. The penalty, as always, is DEATH."
He nodded to a group of palace guards. "Take her away and lock her up in the dungeon until I have time to deal with her."
The palace guards converged on the Duchess of Domia, pushing past the healers who were still trying to heal her hand with magik.
It was almost a lost cause though. All the skin had been flash burned off, leaving nothing but bits of charred black flesh clinging to white skeletal hand bones. It was so gross that Mira tried not to look at it too closely.
"No! How dare you! Take your hands off me you goons! Once my nephew returns, he will kill all of you!"
Erick laughed. "Once Zander returns and finds out that you tried to murder his cherished wife, it won't be just your hand that got singed. My cousin will not rest until your entire household has been burned to the ground. Sadly, you won't be around to meet him when he returns, as I MYSELF WILL BE YOUR JUDGE AND EXECUTIONER."
There was silence in the court.
This seemed to Mira like an awesome time for a nice hot cup of tea!