Herald of Steel-Chapter 1525: Pasha Farzah and Lady Inayah

As a side effect of his close relation to Pasha Farzah and Matrak, Alexander occasionally got to pick up bits of chatter about the man simply by just being there.

It was from these 'water cooler chats' that Alexander got to know how Lady Inayah was probably the Pasha's favorite lady out of all the former kings' mistresses and would apparently always try to bed her in those 'parties', even if she was preoccupied with other guests.

He was known to give her various lavish gifts and presents even when she was already another man's concubine and it was famously said she was the only woman the Pasha had failed to take as a concubine.

At one time he had even desperately tried to convince Ptolomy's father to give her to him.

Not only that, there were even some rumors going as far as to claim his daughter's marriage with Amenheraft had been done as a way to barter for Lady Inayah, although such sayings only existed in the fringes of gossip. Few found it possible to believe that the man would let the daughter be used in such a cheap way.

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A far more insidious rumour was that the late Matrak Princess Laila was actually Lady Inayah's daughter, and the detractors actually had quite a few points to support this.

The strongest one being that Pasha Farzah had hosted Lady Inayah in Matrak quite a few times where she was all alone. In fact, this was the ignition point of this rumor in the first place.

The voices claiming that there was a secret bastard child brought this as an example, and as well as the convenient age gap between the supposed mother and daughter, saying they matched perfectly.

Then there was also the fact that Laila and her daughters, Azira and Azura were caramel black, just like Lady Inayah, completely different from the stunningly white, almost pink complexion of Pasha Farzah and Mikaya.

Thirdly, when Laila was ordered to be burnt, it was Lady Inayah who had made the most noise, to the point she almost risked joining the Matrak princess at the pyre.

She had also appeared the most shocked and stunned at the death, shedding tears like none had even seen before.

Many also had recently added a fifth point, which was saying that it was because of her daughter's death that Lady Inayah had chosen to 'betray' her husband.

However despite all these seemingly strong arguments, Alexander, as well as the broader royal court, never seemed to take these talks seriously.

Because Lady Inayah's life story was quite well known to all and there was little chance of her hiding such a monumental thing.

And even more damning, the time of the thing did not match!

Princess Laila was indeed born when Lady Inayah was present in Matrak but the news of her conception had already spread even before the lady had arrived.

It had even somewhat caused some stir in Matrak because it was the first born of the then young Pasha. Pasha Farzah had chosen to have his first child at quite an 'old age' for the time, around his late twenties, and thus the increased alacrity.

Hence the much simpler explanation was that Pasha Farzah had simply asked Lady Inayah to visit him for his child's birth. This thought was also backed up by many similar precedents, as there were quite a few times in the following years when Pasha Farzah would use all sorts of various small excuses to invite the lady to Matrak to celebrate various occasions.

And while there

it was very possible the two might have engaged in some fun times. The fact that Pasha Farzah liked Lady Inayah was an open secret, and not even something the man ever cared to hide.

And given that at the time of Laila's birth, the man would have been quite pent up due to not being able to lay with his favorite concubine. since she was close to delivery, it was only natural for him to want Lady Inayah's companionship as a substitute.

Then certainly, there would have been eyes who saw the two fraternizing, and it was those who probably started this rumor in the first place.

Speaking of concubines, Laila's official mother was also black, perhaps even darker than Lady Inayah, thus explaining her and her progeny's complex.

It was a well known fact that Pasha Farzah had a preference for women of color, with the deeper the shade, the more attractive he found them.

For him this was because such women were impossible to find in Matrak.

Being in the very northern part of the globe and thus very cold, the place was entirely dominated by ultra fair skinned women. There was simply no need for the body to produce melanin since the softer sunlight posed a smaller threat of UV rays.

Hence Matrak tended to produce tall, silvery or light blonde people with pinkish hue to their complexion. It was a build that would have been considered extremely beautiful by our modern standard, in fact, even in the time period, people from Matrak seemed very desirable to others.

However Pasha Farzah was the odd one out.

He found that due to their abundance, such women were a bit of a bore. Rather, his heart tickled seeing the color black- appearing very rare and thus more beautiful to him.

This was also a great reason why Pasha Farzah also liked Lady Inayah so much, he found her skin much more beautiful than most other men.

Pasha Farzah's love for this color had even gotten him into some trouble, including his own father no less. Particularly, the latter strongly disapproved when Pasha Farzah decided to have his first child with his favored black concubine over his far more fair, white, main wife.

And his father certainly had very good reason for doing this- the political fallout of such a move was too easy to imagine.

It was one thing to favor a concubine over the main wife, that was so common among the nobility that it was hardly worth looking at twice. But it was entirely different to have a child with a mistress while leaving the actual wife barren.

Remember, socially, a wife was never quite considered a wife until she gave birth.

Because Adhanian society saw giving birth as the very act that sealed a marriage, not some vows a man and a woman said while standing at an altar.

That was of course important, to ask favor from the gods, but the birth was the real deal, the crystalline proof of the union, a seal to show everyone that the gods had accepted the prayers of the couple.

However despite the enormous pressure exerted on him from all sides, inside from his family and outside from his allies and retainers, Pasha Farzah did not budge and simply soldiered on as he wished.

He even had an extremely falling out with his father in law and his family over this, as the elder man understandably felt humiliated at seeing his daughter being treated like a second handed undesirable.

And Alexander actually sided with the man here. Because if his daughter Alexandria or Ophenia were to be treated like so, he too would have been very angry.

There was a hierarchy to these relations and there was a reason they existed- to ensure harmony in the family.

If all the wives and concubines had the same power, the house would tear itself apart from sheer chaos, every woman fighting for herself, scheming and even killing her rivals.

In fact, these fights were all too common in Adhania at one time, and only began to die down when these 'regulations' started to get introduced.

The wives coming from noble houses were able to effectively suppress the wild and beautiful concubines, who would be taken more for their beauty than character, and so usually tended to be the more troublemaking of the two parties.

Back then everyone had tried to make the then young Pasha Farzah understand this.

However the bear like man had been always a rebel from his very childhood, possessing a strong headedness that was very hard find an equal to in the whole country.

Once the man made a decision, there was no changing it. It was the same deal when he had decided to kill the former Adhanian king, he first made his mind up and then carried it out after a full decade of scheming.

Hence not only did he have his eldest daughter with his black mistress, he even greatly favored.

Not all fathers were like regarding their children with mistresses.

For instance take Lady Inayah's own daughters…. they were all technically princesses of royal blood as their father was Ptolomy's father- the former king.

But because their mother was a concubine and they were never given status within the royal family, and they were never treated as such by anyone. Meaning they could not call Ptolomy or Amenheraft brother.

They were simply treated as young ladies from Lady Inayah's house.

However Laila was different, which was one of the reasons among many Lady Inayah became very close friends with her. She wished her daughters too would be treated like Laila. And the true reason she had tried to step in to save the Matrak princess, crying bitterly when she failed.

As for Lady Inayah joining hands to poison her husband, well most nobles silently agreed the man got it coming, although you would never get this out of them even if you beat most to death.