The arguments continued and no consensus was reached. After one hour of non stop back and forth, Akia decided that it was time for a break.
"It is a good sign that everyone is eager to rule our empire and lead it to greatness. I suggest that we all take a break now replenish ourselves. Food and drink has been provided in plenty."
As she suggested, so it happened. Not every guest ate, in fact half of them did not eat because they were worried that they would be poisoned. After what had happened to the king, their worries were not easily dismissed.
Musicians sang, jesters did their best to make the guests laugh, danced showed off their best moves. Some of the most recognized scholars recited poetry and Medoris’s best flutist soothed the men and women with his healing tunes.
And yet, that did not alleviate the tension in the hall. The nobles were anxious to continue with the matters which had brought them there. But, three hours later, as the day begun to fade, it continued to look more and more like that was not going to happen.
Akia, whose duty it was to manage the talks was laughing and making merry with a group of young ladies and lords as if the matters which for which she had called all these important people were of no concern.
Impatient, Malcom the fourth snapped, stood up and bellowed. "Enough! We have been here for six hours. Two were wasted on announcing who was attending this banquet. We spent only one talking about the next best noble Lord to lead our empire and three hours have been wasted on this food and drink celebration. May I remind you of what brought us here?"
The musicians stopped playing their music, the jesters quit with their antics and the hall was plunged into a mixture of silence and murmurs.
"If you and Lord Ridley had not spent that one hour comparing whose blood was more nobler than the others perhaps we would have seen some progress. It is rather amusing because there is someone that is of nobler blood than the two of you." Amelia said.
Those were the first words that she said since she arrived at the banquet and they were shocking enough to make everyone hold their tongues.
Malcom the fourth and Alexander Riley were vibrating in their seats. It sounded to their ears like Amelia was suggesting that there was another person with royal blood and a stronger claim to the throne than them.
"What do your words mean?" Akia was the first to ask.
Amelia brushed her hair back, but a gust of wind blew it back to the front. She ignored the hair and said, "Might I remind you all that the emperor has one more living child, his oldest daughter."
"The missing princess!" Alexander exclaimed and he sneered.
"She is probably dead by now." Malcom pitched in with his own opinion and sneer. "And even if she is not dead, what right does she have to come out of nowhere and claim the throne? Times have changed and even though this development has swept through our land like flood, we must always remember out roots and tradition. The golden throne of Medoris is meant for men and not women."
From the nods in the room, many men agreed with what he said.
Amelia scoffed. "Only weak men think that a woman holding power is a thing to fear. They said that a woman could not rule a noble house and yet I defied all odds and did so. Today, Suncrest is a name mentioned with pride because of what I have built it into."
Her words displeased some of the noble lords and and yet they did not defy her immediately.
"My female knights won wars for the late emperor, we even challenged the knights of this foreign church and killed many of them. We stopped their initial invasion of our land." She spoke with force and pride.
The female knights puffed up their chests which pleased some male gazes that were admiring the women.
"And we are grateful for what you have accomplished but the golden throne will not be passed to a woman." Grand duke Ridley thundered. He stood up, fury marking his face. "I don’t think that there is anything to gain from this banquet and I must excuse myself."
He and his group left, their stomachs as empty as they had been when they entered the hall.
His departure seemed to be the signal that the rest were waiting for to depart as well. In forty minutes, the hall was emptied with the exception of Akira, her mages and Amelia and her female knights.
"Are you really neutral?" Amelia asked Akira. The question was simple but the smile on the face of the woman that asked it was not.
Akira responded with a question of her own. "We have known each other for two years now and yet you have never mentioned this lost princess to me. I thought that we were closer than this Amelia."
Amelia shrugged. She picked up and orange and slowly started to peel it. "The missing princess is not a secret, it is common knowledge that everyone knows but has forgotten. I thought that you knew everything about the royal family. How did you miss this?"
Akira’s jaw clenched for a second and then she relaxed. "Well, I was lax it seems. I will appreciate it if you tell me about this missing princess. Does she have a strong force behind her? Is there any possibility that she is capable of challenging the Lords Malcom and Alexander?"
" I am sorry to disappoint you but I don’t know much about the missing princess. I only mentioned her because she is the only surviving child of the late emperor and she does have a claim to the golden throne.
However, we both know that none of the noble lords will let her sit on it even if she is found. If you think these small wars and declarations of independence are worrisome, try putting a woman on the throne and the entire empire will be on fire within minutes.
They will call for the beheading of all women immediately just to prevent it from happening. Which brings me back to my question. Are truly remaining neutral in this battle for the throne?"
Akia shrugged. "I am a mage. My duty is to the people, I will serve whoever sits on the throne."
"So if your father decides to annex the throne, will you support him or not?" Amelia leaned forward.