The Matriarch is facing far too many regrets today and she is coping badly.
Not that she didn't sleep well the previous night and that her attendants were less than studious about presenting her the proper slippers for the day. The Matriarchy agenda seemed relatively mundane. She had no warning of what was coming.
Her lieutenant, seated at her right, was agitated in a more than usual way, as if her padded seat had become a sack of rocks and forced her to shift this way and that.
The fact that the commoners court were facing a unprecedented matter, and weren't they all rather unprecedented for such a new creation, was upsetting the Matriarch Symantha's day and the normal channels of diverting small matters to bureaucrats looked to have failed her. This matter was being dumped in the Matriarchy's lap and its leader was more grumpy than usual about it.
A woman and a man were dragged unceremoniously into the center of the Council chambers by a small handful of commoner sheriffs. The man looked about in a daze and blinked, but the woman stood up tall, brushed down her skirts, and faced the high Matrons with an attitude something near defiance.
The lieutenant sprung from her chair, her face gone suddenly ashen. "What is this?" she practically shrieked.
The Matriarch gave her neighbor an unpleasant scowl, troubled by such an outburst in the normally quiet chambers. As she looked at the woman before the Council and raised an otherwise sleepy eyelash. There was something familiar about this woman.
The spokesman for the sheriffs fell to his knees and bowed until his forehead met the floor. "Begging your pardon, madam. We caught these two disturbing the peace near the docks." The man was stuttering just a bit. "We don't have permission to approach the Ducal precincts, so the court told us to bring them to the Matriarchy. The woman claims to be a Lady."
"How dare you presume to enter our private councils!" The lieutenant was practically livid at the presence of the common men and her face hardened further as she looked more clearly upon the woman's face. "Why should we be bothered with such silly claims?"
"Coryn." The Matriarch said in a measured tone. The lieutenant let out an exaggerated hiss and flopped back down in her seat, scowling like some petulant girl. "I understand the Court's dilemma. What is the charge?"
The young man, who Mullicynda recognized as her son, barely stirred from his groveling. "They were gathering a crowd near the fish market, distracting workers from their appointed labors and disturbing the peace."
"What do we care about fish markets and workers?" Coryn spat at her superior.
The Matriarch turned her attention on the woman before the group. "I know you. I was present at your investment, though that was many years ago." Symantha lifted her hand and blew on her fingertips. "I have seen nor heard nothing of you in all this time, and suddenly you show up in the common quarter, stirring up trouble."
Mullicynda faced the Matriarch directly, which was hardly proper protocol in this hall. "It seemed appropriate given the things I was to say."
"And what things might those be?"
Coryn leaned in closer to her superior and spoke in a low tone. "Are you certain such a disgraced Lady should be heard in these hallowed halls?"
Symantha dismissed the high Matron's hubris with a gesture. "Please proceed."
"As a young miss, I frequented the old library near the docks and found a book written by a child of our first parents, establishing the old stories of our people being brought to Firsthome by a man named the Mariner. My presence there recently seems to have caused a stir and I shared some things I have learned from the book with the crowd."
The Matriarch sniffed. "Commoners cannot read nor do they give a care to historical fiction, I would think." Coryn beside her nodded her head emphatically.
Mulls shrugged her shoulders. "They seemed to be interested enough to stop and listen. Interested enough to get the attention of these sheriffs." She made it a point not to mention the meetings conducted in the old library's auditorium. "It contains teachings from the Mariner to the first Queen."
Symantha's eyebrows raised and her hands flexed with interest. "I would be interested in reading this book."
"I would be happy to read it to you and your friends."
There was an awkward silence. Coryn was frowning as she considered what she could do to drive this situation to her advantage. Soon, her eyes narrowed and she smiled. "Our group should consider this book and determine its authenticity and its relevance to our diverse populace. If you would bring this book to us for analysis..."
Mulls' stance hardened. "I cannot give the book to you. I cannot lose it."
One of the other Matrons piped up here. "You tell us that you stole it from the library. It is the property of the government and must be surrendered to the authorities." The woman sniffed. "You will bring this disruptive book to the Matriarchy for our study."
"The stories and information in the book are more useful to those who hear it than the book itself that many of the children of Alaedea cannot read. I must retain the book and share the wisdom in its pages as widely as possible."
There was an awkward silence as each of the women in the room looked defiantly at each other. Daavor responded by simply sitting on the floor and closing his eyes. The commoner sheriffs did little more, staring off into space and detaching from conversations that didn't involve them and would get them into more trouble had they chosen to find some way to engage. Weslyn the spokesman narrowed his eyes, as he had learned to do in his childhood beach hut, appearing as if his eyes were closed, but opening all his senses to drink in the situation in its fullness.
Symantha's eyes were shifting about, taking in the body language of the silent women in the room. Mullicynda looked every bit the Lady facing a formidable contest challenger, exuding regality and firmness. Coryn was the epitome of vitriol, ready to strike at her reacquainted nemesis at the least provocation, though it was not apparent when the optimal moment to strike would manifest, as if the high Matron were thoughtful enough to recognize such a moment. The other Matrons continued give off that befuddled look that could never fathom what was happening and made them convenient sycophants, when they were needed at all. Symantha noted that one of the group was still annoyingly absent and would require some sort of discipline later.
The Matriarch sighed audibly. "The book is not here to take, it seems, and I cannot hold or coerce a Lady of the Convocation, no matter how she might misbehave socially."
Coryn was about to say something about her own powers to coerce, but her superior grabbed her forearm and held it down to the arm of her chair. "This matter," the older woman continued, "must be referred to the Ducal Court, though I will include my thoughts alongside the referral." She glared at the men who were doing a half-hearted job of ignoring things. "You sheriffs will escort this Lady to the palace with my authority to stand before them."
Weslyn felt a thrill in his spine at the prospect of addressing the Ducal Court. His prospects were rising.
One of the other Matrons piped up. "We cannot act on this without the full quorum of the Matriarchy. Matron Helyn is not present to give her consent."
Symantha huffed and slammed hands down on the arms of her own chair now. "That woman will be the death of me! What appointment keeps her so long from her responsibilities?"
Daavor, long forgotten and ignored by the group of women, rose from his detached floor-sitting. "Matriarch, begging your pardon, the missing Matron can be found at the Royal Treasury."
Coryn looked down her nose at the scrawny man. "And who are you?"
"He is my consort." Mullicynda stepped reflexively between her old school rival and her rather unimpressive man.
The lieutenant scoffed loudly. "Not surprising." As she rises from her chair, she points out all the men in the room. "Follow me and I will see the truth of this for myself." The group moved quickly out of the chamber, leaving the remaining women behind to wonder what just happened.
Coryn shushed off the sheriffs who were secreted behind a decorative bush a short distance away. Daavor pointed toward the entrance of the Treasury, shrouded by shadows poorly lit by a waning moon. The high Matron didn't like the conditions here and very much more didn't like the men she was attempting to supervise, giving hand gestures that meant something to her but didn't seem to register with the sheriffs at all, eliciting much shoulder-shrugging and head-shaking.
Weslyn had separated himself from the others a few minutes back and kept himself to shadows further from the treasury building. Nothing was happening besides the effects of a breeze rustling grass and foliage. The young man drew in a breath and closed his eyes, reminded again how much he enjoyed the climate on Firsthome and the life he had managed to create for himself. He looked up at the spray of stars across the sky and the blessings he felt had come to him since he fled his boyhood home a year or so before. His revelry was interrupted by the thought that his embarrassing father was also nearby, huddled behind Coryn.
Suddenly, there is a scraping sound from the shadowed doorway and figures step into the moonlight. Coryn, trailed by Daavor, moves back into a bush, and motions the sheriffs to do the same, which they inexplicably understand. Weslyn squints his eyes and purses his lips, then suddenly begins walking quickly toward the figures emerging from the Treasury, the young man lit plainly in the light of the moon for all to see.
Men are inexplicable to women and Wes decided to take advantage of the fact. He marched right up to Helyn, who was so surprised by the young man that she stumbled right over her shorter and plumper accomplice. "I can help you with that," and reached down to pick up the wooden box that had tumbled to the ground. Neither woman had the presence of mind to object and the man immediately moved in the direction of the Matriarchy chamber once the box was firmly in hand. The women followed and unnoticed by them, Coryn and the other men fell into line behind them. It seemed only incidental that Helyn and her partner in crime realized at some point that facing the Matriarchy wasn't interesting to them. However, the sheriffs came up on either side and the group remained cohesive until the matter of stealing the Crown jewels was resolved and everyone was suitably impressed that Daavor had predicted the entire incident.