The king, together with some elders in the kingdom, starts to interrogate Akinidad in regard to the death of her dad and the demise of some maids assigned to her mother. The king, together with the elders, could not believe their ears as she spills out everything she knows as far as Azurethra is concerned.
King: What exactly happened to your father, my dear niece. Tell me everything that you know.
Akinidad: My dear uncle, may your reigns be long, and may your enemies be kept far away wherever you are. (Turns to the elders and the rest of the crowd present at the palace) we will all bear witness the ancestors will be pleased with you and will welcome you with open arms when the time is due. You reigned in your best ways and most important, in the interest of the people, and so will they all bear witness that you reigned well and lived up to your name, my king. My mother has not for once, regardless of her selfish ambition, never spoken down about you neither was she pleased about your governance. I have always longed to see and be with you far before you sent your servants to come fetch me to be trained in the line of kingship. I have never for once felt different in the mist of the people and always loved m y cousin as well, but no one questions after the gods have spoken.
For my mother on the other hand, was an ambitious woman who never go back on her words and have always wanted the best for her only daughter, as well as the wellbeing of the people. She was faulty on one aspect and that was by allowing jealousy and the quest for power take over the best of her.
My mother once told me that she nearly fought all the men in the kingdom and almost sent one to his early grave because of his question on her quest to be enstooled ad queen mother. She told me she did not hesitate but face my grandmother, for allowing you to be enstooled as king and not her, just like the way she, my grandmother, was enstooled as the presiding queen mother of the kingdom before she joined her ancestors. She will smile and also get a bit serious when talking about it.
But when speaking about the ambition of my mother, she was so ambitious, brave and bold enough to hide my identity by depriving me of womanhood, just to get me ascending to the throne she was denied of. Her ambition grew so strong that she was willing to get rid of my father, her own husband, just to hide the true identity of her child, and not just that, but will either execute or separate the tongue from the rest of the body if you have any iota of truth of regarding my real identity. I was so blinded that I accepted and lived my whole life until today just like the way she has always wanted.
King: (Interrupted) How could this be? How could she be this insensitive and clueless of the consequences that awaits her on a day like this?
Akinidad: She said to me that you took away her right as the rightful child for the throne, and that drove her ambition of me being crown as king one day, so she could regain back her glory as the queen mother. But here we are today, a day that I need her beside me, a day that I need her respite but unfortunately kicked the bucked and left me with a burden I can not carry. How I wish I could take back time and live my life just like the way I like.
King: So, my sister really killed her husband, your father, just to preserve your false identity? (Asks in utmost surprise)
Akinidad: Yes, my kind. She killed my father and separated the tongue to the woman that foresaw my delivery when I was infant from the rest of her body, and the same was done to most of the maids assigned to us in Azurethra, and thus none was able to confess but rather left to battle with their conscience.
1st Elder: (Interrupts' angrily) Are we here to listen to all these blasphemy stories or we are here to do what custom has assigned us to do?
Aaaa!... What exactly are we waiting for? (Calls out to the executioner) Executioner!...
Take them away deep into the evil forest where the blood of the guilty is shed. Deal with them as the customs says and… (Rains insults and curses on both the princess and her cousin)
As the elder commanded the executioner to take away deep into the evil forest, there was an instant cry of disapproval from some of the elders with their reasons for the disapproval.
2nd Elder: Elder, why must they die? Why are you so keen to making sure they are executed? Have you suddenly lost your sense of humours and honour? She is innocent in all the scandals that her mother placed her in, and all she is doing is to…
1st Elder: How dare me say to me that I have lose my sense of humour and honour? Do you think custom is made to be joked with or what?
2nd Elder: I am only trying to tell you that…
1st Elder: What says the peoples custom? (Immediately asking him a question)
Emissary: My elder, who made the custom?
1st Elder: You answer the question for yourself.
King: (Shouts for total silence) Elders, have you no respect for your king anymore? Who said any of you can preside over any matter when I am still alive? Have we suddenly loosen our manners just because my sister got my niece in a scandalous issue and left her me with no answers to them? You think I am no fit a king to rule over our kingdom anymore?
2nd Elder: We are sorry my king. We will never lose our homage and respect to the throne, and we will always pay our allegiance not only to the throne but to the people as a whole. Do not get angry or saddened, my king.
At this point, there rise a concern among the elders whether or not should they be killed or maybe think of any other possible punishment to be assigned to them.
Emissary: (Answering the question he asked the 1st elder earlier on) The customs were made not by the gods; they were made by men and therefore can be unmade by men.
1st Elder: (Directing to the emissary) Only inexperienced young men intoxicated with the sweet wine of youthful exuberance speak with such undue recklessness. But take note, before we unmake the customs, we will first have to unmake your position as the emissary to the king and go on to unmake Masinissa Linette Duah's position as king, then we can unmake the customs.
Emissary: (Directing to the 1st elder as well) My respectable elder, all we are asking is that for once let us cast the custom aside and…
1st Elder: Speak no more, you elder with an infant mind… What a thing to say. "Cast the custom aside"?
To ask that the custom be set aside amount to asking the king to strip himself naked and walk through the streets of our kingdom. But I know the king is not as stupid as his emissary, so he won't commit such an abominable act. Why should custom be set aside for the recklessness of others, or is it because they are of royal blood or lineage?
This starts to breed another argument amongst the elders as some are requesting for the reconsideration of the death penalty imposed on the princess and her cousin, because if they should be executed, the lineage of the Linette family will be brought to its knees and the kingship will be moved to a different family. The first elder has always had an eye on the throne ever since he realized the king could not conceive for himself an heir to the throne, and thus since having enough male children, and being amongst the oldest and most trusted of the elders, his family will be the best candidate for the kingship of Ptolemaic.
He feels threatened that if the princess and her cousin be pardoned, is ambition of being the next in line for the throne will be throne into the mud, and by doing so, will do anything in his power to make sure the execution of the princess and her cousin be a success. He is determined to get the total approval of the people to commonly agree on their execution but hopefully the people are likely to go in favour of the king, since he has ruled them with justice and kindness. He continued to speak until the king rose from his throne and fell on is face. The king is rushed to his chamber and the priest attends to him.