Esmeliyahs procession moved according to the time Colene had planned.
It was just before breakfast time for most ladies, which meant they would be dressed and presentable.
The other ladies of the Harem would wait until the Empress and Empress Dowager had eaten before visiting.
Esmeliyah couldn't wait or she would clash with the other visiting ladies. As was custom she was to introduce herself to her superiors and let her juniors introduce themselves to her. She couldn't be seen by her juniors while still speaking to her superiors.
Because of this Colene had arranged for Esmeliayah to serve the Empress Dowagers pre breakfast tea so she could introduce herself early enough.
She carried the tea personally as her procession followed. Many stares and whispers followed her, no doubt the servants were curious about the new tribute woman and Esme could swear that at that moment many servants curiosity was answered with unsolicited responses of how ceremonially the king treated her and how he had only spent a few minutes in her chambers last night.
When she arrived at the Empress dowagers chamber, a maid was sent in to inform the Empress Dowager of her arrival.
She was quickly granted permission.
Esme who had faced down many daunting foes found that her fingers quivered when she walked in to face the kings mother.
Originally Esme had planned to speak broken Kech language to appear like she wasn't much familiar with the language. This would immediately make others think she was dumb. Because it was a merit of a noble lady to be well versed in languages especially one of a land she is married off to.
However, since there wasn't any other women present, Esme settled to say little and to speak the Kech language in a nararian accent.
All the while in her chambers she had spoken mostly nararian and heavily accented and broken Kech.
As expected there was not much drama while introducing herself to the Empress dowager. The old lady just repetitively asked her the terms of the treaty to test the sturdiness of the deal. Esme frequently answered that she didn't know the exact terms and evaded every political question used to test if she knew her place and understood her role.
The Empress dowager appeared irritated at her constant nararian pronunciation of the Kech words but other than that she was mostly bored.
Esme was dismissed early and her procession began the walk to the queens chambers.
Now the Empress would not be easy to deal with.
The legal wife of her fake husband would size her up in beauty, in appearance, by merit, by family status and every other thing important to nobles.
By the Empresses treatment of her, Esme would know the level of a threat she posed.
One point already counted against her and this was that she was much younger than the Empress.
Esme knew that the King was six years older than the queen. This meant that the queen would be about thirty-six years old. More than fifteen years older than Esme.
Fresh meat was always a threat.
When Esme's procession approached the Queens palace, a maid hurried in to inform the queen that the Imperial Concubine sought her audience.
Esme was kept waiting for fifteen minutes before she was invited in.
At this point Colene was already visibly stressed about the schedule but she wasn't daring enough to say anything.
Esme who had expected an even worse treatment was already summarizing her report in her head. The worst part of her job was writing accurate reports.
As Esme walked into the Queens receiving room she tried her best not to marvel at the luxury that surrounded her. Almost everything was in pure gold.
A sturdy round table was put before the Queen and maids were spreading a good mass of breakfast.
The aroma of the food almost made Esme slip out of character.
She quickly courtseyed and offered her greetings and reverence to the Queen.
'The lady from Otunara I believe'.
'Yes my Queen'.
'And what is your name?'
'Esmeliyah Tian Haaland Dekoritsche'
'Ah..the Tian Haaland clan. Quite an influence...'
She droned off ,expecting Esme to confirm or deny.
But Esme was not stupid enough.
She just visibly blushed, receiving the comment as a flattering compliment with her gestures making sure not to voice any gratitude.
'Lady Liyah, you don't mind that I call you that do you?'
Esme shook her head.
With protocol it was inappropriate but what was even more inappropriate was having enough arrogance to reject the flattery and grace of the queen. Afterall they were sister wives.
'I'm flattered my queen'
'So Liyah what's the story that leads you to Sukech'
Another test to see if she would openly discuss politics.
'Father informed me that I had been given the privilege of representing my country in Sukech and so I came here'.
The queens eyes narrowed.
Esme had spoken in Kech and made sure to slip up in her pronunciations and grammar to portray a beginner level of the language.
'Where did you learn to speak Kech?' the queen asked
'Pardon me my queen, I was negligent in languages and only began to learn Kech after I was informed of my duty'
'And when was that?'
'Seven days ago my queen'.
'I see and how many languages do you speak Liyah'
The queen had completely dismissed the use of her title and Esmeliyah knew it was to humble her. It was because of her face, the queen didn't think much of her except for her face. The queen didn't like how pretty Esme's face was. So she was humbling her by referring to her like she was a commoner.The queen had ranked her right where she wanted to be ranked and her next answer would rank her even lower'.
'Just two my queen'
'Two?' the queen exclaimed in shock 'Surely that's impossible for a noble lady. You must have no knowledge of literature or culture. This is most unbelievable. Did Otunara send the runt of its noble ladies. Are you truly a Tian Haaland?'
'Forgive me my queen. My only other sister was married off two days before the request came. The King thought it best to offer the highest available noble lady of status. All of his princesses of marriageable age have been married off and he only has little girls at his feet. Though I am not the best in language and literature I have a good education in culture and history. I am also the best painter in all of Otunara and i sing quite well, your majesty'.
Her long speech was filled with bad Sukechan grammar and some Otunara words mixed in. The queen stared at her in disgust.
'So you can sing and paint. The very bare minimum. You may be excused Liyah and you best polish up your Sukechan before you embarrass this imperial household'.
'Of course my queen. Thank you'.
She left.
After visiting the queen everything else passed in a blur. She had made the perfect impression on both the Empress and Empress dowager.
In the presence of all the other ladies Esme simply made sure to fumble her Sukechan enough to have them ask about her linguistic skills.
Some of the ladies outright disrespected her from the beginning which made her realise that the rumour of the kings visit to her must have gotten to them.
Even when Esme returned to her pavillion to accept the lower ranking ladies many of them greeted her in rare Sukechan dialects hoping to embarrass her. She gladly fell into their trap and naively asked why they were giggling among themselves.
They then told her a stupid joke that was barely believable and she made sure to giggle along with them while they laughed at her.
The perfect image of the beautiful but dumb concubine.
After a long day of acting the fool, Esme finally dismissed everyone and asked Colene to inform the kitchen about her meal.
That night she received one bowl of lumpy porridge with some saliva in it.
She wasn't a threat but she was a runt and runts were always made sure to be kept oppressed so they had no confidence to compete if they eventually wanted to.
It had begun.