The Sultanah Ch. 02

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Sultanah Varis perform a ceremony with her priestesses.
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Part 2 of the 14 part series

Updated 06/07/2023
Created 11/08/2015
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YKN4949
YKN4949
5,861 Followers

Dear Reader, thank you so much for reading this story. It has taken nearly a year of my writing life to get the whole thing finished. This is Chapter 2 of 14 chapters and the total is over 250,000 words. It is my Dirk Diggler/Jack Horner act of hubris: my attempt to write an erotic adventure story that pulls you in with a story you want to read, even when there isn't any sex going on (though there is a lot of sex. Crazy, weird, fun sex). It is the most ambitious piece of erotic fiction I have ever attempted. So I hope you enjoy it.

With that said, this book is not for everyone. It will be too long for many people (no shame in that, it is a big time investment). Some of the sex scenes are intense and include themes like hermaphroditism, non-consensual activity, incest, etc. For some people, that will likely be the appeal. In fact, while this story is definitely not for everyone, I think for a select group of people this story will essentially have everything you could ever ask for. So if that is you, congratulations, you found that thing you have been searching for.

From now on the sex will be much more prominent in the story, though plot remains central as well. You can skip ahead to the sex and I won't be offended, but I think this story is more than the sum of its parts. If you read this whole story, you will not be disappointed.

In Chapter 1, our main character, Princess Varis, finds that her father has died and that, by virtue of the fact that she is a hermaphrodite and can father a child, she is now the Sultanah.

Some recurring characters you might want by name are Varis (the Sultanah and narrator), Cin (the head priestess of Gunes), Arkadas (Varis' friend and servant), Kardes (Varis' older sister), Nislani (Varis' younger sister), Rahip (a Cardinal of the 'new religion'), Duke Hain (an important lord opposing Varis), Lord Sadik (a minor lord who has spoken in support of Varis); King Sican (the leader of Dusman, a rival kingdom), Prince Lider (Sican's son); King Köylü (the leader of Temsilci, a rival kingdom). Further, Gunes is the name of the Sun God, Tanri is the name of the 'new god.' The city where the story is set is Şehir in the country of Ülke and the Empire of Bütün Dünya. If you need more...reread the earlier chapter.

Please, please, please, please, please tell me what you think after you read this. I put an embarrassing amount of work into this and I want to know what you think. Especially if it is good things.

*****

Chapter 2: Coronation

"And after she walks from the stairway down towards the street..." Cardinal Rahip began.

"She should not be walking down after the crown is placed on her head!" Cin shot back, she should rise towards Gunes..."

"She should humble herself before Tanri, go down to the level of the Temple..." Cardinal Rahip interrupted in turn. Then both clergy members began to talk over one another so thickly that their words were impossible to hear. Soon other voices added to the cries, making the room reverberate.

We were in my fathers'...my throne room. I was sitting on the consort's throne (As I had not yet received my coronation, I could not sit in the Sultan, or in the future, Sultanah's throne). My elbow was propped on the armrest of my chair and I was supporting my head with my hand, watching the actions unfold before me. It had been nearly a week since my father and brothers had died and every day after the first had been like this. Constant, bewildering conflict.

The current fight was about the nature of my coronation. Cardinal Rahip, Tanri's representative in the city, was planning what had become the traditional, New Religion coronation, scheduled to occur in four days. Cin, on the other hand, was attempting to insert many older traditions in the ceremony, those that dated back to the early days of the Empire. Coronation rituals that were closely tied to Gunes. Each symbolic gesture had meaning to one or the other and it seemed that they agreed on nothing. I could barely understand the importance of each conflict and felt further and further out of my element with each new issue that arose.

The Peers were also present in the hall, lining the walls and watching the battle closely. No formal meeting had been called and they were not required to attend. But it was clear that something important was happening and they wanted to be involved. In fact, it was clear that the stakes were extremely high. They called out to Rahip or to Cin, to cheer or to insult, taking intense interest in each jab, each parry.

Things had moved with breathtaking speed in the days since my father's death. After I had obtained the acclamation of the Peers as my father's heir, I hadn't had any plan about what was to occur next. I knew that, given my...unique anatomy, that I was entitled to the throne. The people seemed shocked and confused by the state of affairs and they did not embrace me as they might a more traditional heir. Significantly, they had not rejected me either. It seemed that they were waiting to see what would happen. The Peers, satisfied with my right to throne (or at least cowed enough not to openly question it) agreed on little else. As such, they provided very little in the way of guidance.

In the days that followed, I kept my mouth closed and my eyes open as events moved quickly. I noticed, without stating anything to anyone, that there were clearly two factions in The Peers. Well, I suppose that is an oversimplification. There were dozens of factions in The Peers. Family groups predominated, but there were also regional cliques (different city suburbs and outlying regions tended to stick together). But those various factions seemed to be sorting themselves into two large coalitions. At first, it seemed like the factions within each coalition had little in common. For example, why would Duke Hain, the most powerful landholder in the Empire and the Lord of the Gates see himself allied with Lord Örnek, a low born, cowardly knight with a life grant of a small farm ten miles from the city center? Why would Lord Sadik, a youthful knight with ambitions toward extensive landholdings find himself allied with Duke Eski, an elderly man with many sons and no daughters? Only one thing bound these two coalitions together and set them against one another: Me.

It had not been clear to me at first that I had been the cause of this strife. But, as each day passed it became apparent. Fights about who would sit where during the coronation were actually fights about the nature and direction of my reign as Sultan. Arguments about security for the coronation were actually conflicts about my diplomatic position toward Dusman. Even the foods we would eat and the clothing I would wear seemed to hold deep symbolic value to both sides. It was almost impossible to avoid offense

After several days, I had a working theory on what the two groups of Peers really stood for. The first, and by a wide margin larger, of the groups I called the Collaborationist (though not to their faces) and they were led, without question, by Duke Hain. They stood for continuation of my father's old policies, most specifically as it related to Dusman and the other successor states of the old Empire. The Collaborationists seemed to believe that we could simply ignore the night my father was killed, have Nislani marry Prince Lider, and things would go back to usual. We would forgive their murder of my father and brothers and, in return, they would graciously give up their intention to overthrow Ülke.

The other side, whom I called the Loyalists, were nominally headed by the Duke Göstermelik, an elderly Duke and Keeper of the Privy Seal who had been my father's closest personal friend. However, the real reins of power in this coalition were held by the youthful and energetic Lord Sadik. I could see when they met that all eyes turned to him, I noticed that preferences he stated later became the preferences of the entire group, and I could not help but note how much Duke Göstermelik relied upon him. I knew when I heard Duke Göstermelik speak, that he spoke with Sadik's words. I called them the "Loyalists" because they remained, in my mind, loyal to my father's memory. Or, at least, his symbolic memory as the leader of Ülke. They chose not to ignore the massive insult that Dusman and its allies had offered us and sought some manner of redress. They argued that if we allowed such an action to go unchecked, that it was just a matter of time before we, once again, faced annihilation.

I should note that the difference in diplomatic posture toward Dusman and its allies was not purely philosophical. The great army that had tried to seize the city of Şehir a week earlier might have been pushed out of the gates, but it had not been wholly defeated. The great host of our enemy was still arrayed on the Eastern side of the city. Catapults and trebuchets still rained destruction down upon the city each day. No trade was allowed in by land and most from the rivers was intercepted before it reached us. We had not prepared for a siege, and food would soon become scarce: fishing off the city walls was the only source of need food, and this was perilous due to archers. My actions towards Dusman and its allies would be the first, most important, and perhaps last actions of my reign. Much was riding on it.

"And I say the headdress must be white!" Rahip said, shaking me out of my thoughts. Cin actually laughed.

"Do you want your Sultanah to be a priggish virgin like those girls you keep locked up in the convent?" She spat back, perhaps forgetting that I'd almost been placed in that exact station a week earlier, "Red is the imperial color and the color of Gunes. That should be her color!"

"All of the Sultans from time immemorial have worn red!" a voice called out, and I instantly recognized it as Lord Sadik, no longer able to contain his voice.

"This does not concern The Peers!" Cardinal Rahip shot back. But even I knew that this was not true. I had noticed, during the last few days, that Collaborationists and Loyalists had quickly settled into wary alliances with the two ecclesiastical authorities. The Collaborationists had gravitated, naturally, to Cardinal Rahip. The New Religion provided the only real link between Ülke and Dusman. It represented our continued mutual interest with King Sican in at least one sphere. Cardinal Rahip himself had been born in Dusman, a bastard of Sican's Grandfather, and had been trained for Tanri there. The Collaborationists saw him as a link to peace and, by following the New Religion and Cardinal Rahip in my coronation; they hoped to show King Sican that I was ready to deal, forgiveness for the right to exist.

The Loyalists considered this plan little better than surrender, they argued that it was a tacit admission of suzerainty by Dusman over Ülke; the inversion of the empire and its former tributary region. These men found themselves siding with Cin. Despite years of quiet submission to my father, Cin now showed that same fire and determination she'd shown that day at the Şehir city hall. She was pushing for an older style of coronation, like my ancestors would have had. This, she and the Loyalists hoped, would show Dusman that we were not cowed and that we would continue to assert our own prerogative. Men who had been tepid followers of Tanri, or completely without religion, now found themselves asserting the rights of Gunes. I wondered if that was Cin's primary concern the entire time.

"Can we move on to some other issue, perhaps, something less contentious and then come back to this later," Lord Pısırık called over the din of yelling Peers. He was a Collaborationist, but hardly vehement. He, like most of the Peers, was less dedicated to any one position and simply flailing from one panicked reaction to another. He respected Hain's strength, so he was a Collaborationist. He was the epitome of the squishy middle, the vast majority of the Peers. I noted that, despite my nominal position as Sultanah-elect, that these men did not automatically look to me for leadership. In fact, it seemed they were certain they would not find that quality in me. Hence, their weak gravitation to one or the other coalition.

None of these conflicts, of course, happened out in the open. I suppose I could be wrong about what I was seeing, I was young, inexperienced, and not groomed for leadership like my brothers. But that was my assessment of the situation before me.

"What shall be the tax to pay for this coronation then?" A lord I could not see said.

"A tax! This is not a parliament, Cardinal Rahip is not qualified to levy a tax. Cin is even less so..."

"What makes Rahip any more qualified..." And the fighting once again resumed. I rolled my eyes, it seemed that everything was controversial. I looked over to my side and saw Arkadas standing next to my chair. We had not spoken about Cin's ceremony on the morning of my father's death. Our actions...seemed like they had been done by other people. But she had returned to my side, a faithful friend once again. I leaned over toward her. I could smell her perfume and my gaze went over her high breasts (despite our silence, I had noticed that something had come unloosed inside of me. Even with my natural inclinations to avoid such thoughts, I found myself unable to once again place a lid on my sexuality. Arkadas was a beautiful woman, I could not help but notice).

"I need to get out of here for a few moments, to clear my head," I whispered to her, "Please take notes if...anything worthwhile happens." I did not anticipate that Arkadas would need her pen.

"Yes Sultanah," she whispered back.

"Varis," I said, still uncomfortable with my title, especially issuing from my friend's mouth.

"Get used to it," she whispered back and smiled. I did not speak. Instead, I simply rose from the consort's seat and started to move towards the Sultan's door and my father's...my chambers.

"Let us ask the Sultanah then!" I heard Cin call out. I froze in my tracks and my blood ran cold. It was like being called upon by a tutor all over again.

"Yes, the Sultanah-elect should decide whether we hold to tradition or engage in superstitious nonsense," Rahip said acidly. I turned back toward the crowd. My joints felt creaky and my mouth was dry. The room had gone silent and all eyes were on me. All eyes were on me, but I realized to my mortification that I had no idea what they were asking of me. I cleared my throat slowly.

"Um..." I said, my voice sounding tiny and girly in the massive hall, "What exactly..." I felt terrified that they would find out that I was in over my head.

"We have grown tired of fighting over each detail. It seems impossible to find a compromise position," Cin said directly, apparently sensing that I had not been paying attention, "We think it is best that you decide who should preside over your coronation in total: Gunes...or Tanri." It was clear by the way that she said the name of the New Religion's God that she considered it below contempt.

"Do you...agree to this?" I asked Cardinal Rahip, stalling for time.

"I believe that Tanri will grant you the wisdom to make the only choice available," he stated, but bowed obsequiously. The room became absolutely still. The whole matter had, essentially, been thrown at my feet. There was no way to evade. I was required to choose.

I looked between Cin and Rahip, between Gunes and Tanri. I had no idea what the correct choice would be. Having never found the charms of religion to be particularly apparent, I had never considered it deeply. To that end, I could not fall back on my personal preference. Therefore, I began to consider the political implications of my choice.

To Cin, and to Gunes, I owed much. Cin had been the person who had discovered my true nature and ensured my selection as my father's heir. She had been my friend when I was powerless and I felt that I owed it to be hers when I was powerful. Further, the Loyalists, and therefore Cin and Gunes, were more closely aligned with my views. I was not ready to bow to the power of Dusman and I did not believe that capitulation would be an auspicious start to my reign.

On the other hand, Cardinal Rahip and Tanri were far and away the most powerful religious force in the Empire. While few people were deeply religious amongst my people, they nominally followed Tanri. The Peers were even more devoted to Tanri than the people. It was boring, safe, and well known. Gunes seemed confusing, dynamic, and dangerous. Similarly, maintaining close ties to Tanri was the safer choice diplomatically. It would be possible to negotiate with Dusman as members of the same religious faith. If I made my Empire schismatic, it would add a religious dimension to our conflict that I could ill afford to introduce.

As I stood before the crowd, looking at me, I realized I would need some basis to make the decision, some reasoning. I realized that I had only one position from which to make decisions, one way of looking at the world that I could defend then, with my limited experience, "My father was a...great leader," I said and I saw Cin shaking her head. My first six words had already indicated to her the nature of my decision, "My father understood the fragile nature of his position as Sultan and the fragile position of the Empire relative to the rest of the world. He sought to mitigate those weaknesses with each breath he took as Sultan. I cannot in good conscience depart from my father's policies. I have not basis for doing so. The cornerstones of my father's view of leaderships were, on the domestic front, to form consensus with the Peers. On the international front, he sought to build bridges and to achieve peace, prosperity, and respect through diplomatic appeals.

"Today, we face division amongst the peers and war from our neighbors. Our priorities must be unity at home and a just, lasting peace abroad. While I cannot form consensus, I can choose to hold my coronation in the style that gains support from the greatest portion of the great nobleman assembled here. Incidentally, that coronation will also serve to illustrate to the world at large and to our enemies in particular that we share many interests and that we are more naturally friends," I concluded. I was not certain, even as I said the words, that they were the true feelings of my heart. But I did not know what else to say. How could I disagree with the majority of my Peers? How could hope to remove the threat of Dusman if I antagonized them with my first action as Sultanah? I felt I had no choice, Rahip had been correct.

"Excellent!" the Cardinal said, not even looking at Cin anymore, he turned and started to dictate to his secretary. He was already planning out the rest of my coronation.

"This is a grave error. You will sit on that throne because Gunes found you. If you turn your back on him..." Cin said coolly. I could not meet her gaze.

"Cin..." I started, trying to make her understand. I wanted her to know that I appreciate what she'd done for me and that, in my heart, I wanted to follow her. I wanted to explain to her that I hoped that by appeasing Rahip and the Collaborationists now that perhaps I could buy myself some space to follow the policies she and the Loyalists espoused. But I couldn't explain that, it would be fatal to everything I would ever hope to achieve. Regardless, Cin did not want to hear it.

"I have vision and I suppose I should've known that you would be required to make your own mistakes. But woe be unto us all if Gunes is not a willing and extremely patient teacher. You should all pray that we are allowed one mistake," she said, looking around the room. Then, quickly, she turned and walked out. I desperately wanted to follow after her, to try to repair our damaged friendship, but I could not.

YKN4949
YKN4949
5,861 Followers