Episode 91: Senât Gile (Gramm)

Their bodies were clean, their minds were clear, and all of their children except Mim were accounted for. For what it was worth, all of the cats had made the journey intact as well. 

Gramm was concerned about Mim. He wanted to find Indigo and see what she knew; despite the struggles of their relationship he trusted Indigo. He would not have taken the trial with her otherwise. 

Jade, his wife, had agreed to make the journey to the Senât Gile, with their talking cats as protectors and companions. Onyx had gone his own way, south instead of east to see if he could find his mate. 

He agreed to it, partially because he didn’t know how to argue with a cat and partially because he thought splitting them up might be a wise decision, and he still had the protection of six other cats: one for each person plus two more to scout ahead and backtrack. 

Twenty years had changed the landscape in some ways; wearing familiar paths more and creating new ones. Towns were still sparse in this area, but the closer they got to the Senât Gile, the more populated it became.

Gramm kept watching Jade: the way she walked, the way she looked at him, and the way she interacted with their children. She was almost identical to Indigo, but she was warmer. He felt more drawn to her and the love that radiated from her towards their family. 

The hike to the Senât Gile had taken a full day.

Gramm had forgotten the mysteries of the Upper Dell. He had also forgotten that in many ways it was like Babylon. His trial had taken place in a very different areas, but the towering old growth woods were much the same as some forests within Babylon.

When they arrived at the Senât Gile they were greeted by a change Gramm had not expected: The Upper Dell Palace, known as the Senât Gile, was now a school for girls from across the Upper and Lower Dells. A matching school for boys was in the Lower Dell.

Still, Eutropia was there. She oversaw the school. 

Gramm and his family waited in a small room that was crammed full with a large desk and three chairs – one for Eutropia against the far wall and two for guests. Aspen, Mable, and Archer. 

They waited, Gramm sharing some of the history of the Upper Dell. 

At last, the door opened. 

“Gramm?”

He turned toward the door, then stood to address Eutropia. She hadn’t changed. 

“Your highness,” he addressed her. “Eutropia.” 

She smiled and squeezed her way behind the desk. Her eyes were the same dazzling brown and full of mischief as they had been when he left for his trial. Even with her husband newly deceased, she had retained the glimmer. 

“I just awoke from my trial,” he explained. “How are things here?”

She slid behind the desk, her body finding its perch as her chest rumbled with a subtle laugh, a movement only time and class could achieve. “Your highness, Gramm. Congratulations on completing your trial. Can I get your family anything to eat?

“Yes please!” Aspen exclaimed.

“I want to see everything!” Mable proclaimed. 

“We would appreciate a meal,” Gramm said.

Eutropia nodded toward the door, where a guard was stood at attention. The guard left and Eutropia faced Gramm and his family again, her eyes avoiding Jade.

“How is Indigo doing?” Gramm asked. “Who did she marry?”

Gramm held Jade’s hand; he didn’t want her to think he wanted Indigo back, in fact he was certain his life was better for losing her, but he also wanted to ensure she was safe and doing well, as well as she could be.

“Indigo,” Eutropia said, the words washing around her mouth like some bitter taste. “She vanished during the war.”

Despite his best efforts, Gramm felt a frown form. He swallowed, mulling over how to approach the distrust of Nathaira. Eutropia had been a mentor to him; Nathaira was supposedly an honest servant of the realm.

“The selkies told me she is at the new capital, in a new body with a new family,” he said. 

It felt like recounting a meeting more than saying something true. A story, at best.

“I would have seen her,” Eutropia insisted.

The fact was, as far as Gramm understood Indigo (which was very little, he had decided) he didn’t know if Indigo would have allowed Eutropia to see her. Eutropia was her stepmother and their relationship had always struggled. If she was free to occupy a new body, to explore the potential of a new life, she would have been happy to keep Eutropia out of it. The only issue would have been hiding their daughter, Camilla.

“How are Meldrick and Elaira doing?” Gramm asked.

“Elaira? Meldrick’s first wife died years ago. He married some slave girl, Aadya,” Eutropia replied.

Gramm ran his fingers across the tops of Jade’s hands. Nathaira had said Elaira, clearly and definitively. He had not mistaken that part.

“The selkies…” he puzzled. “Said…”

Gramm looked up at Eutropia. She had been there the entire time; Gramm had been missing and had been fed a series of distinct lines from Nathaira. Perhaps Eutropia wasn’t meant to know these things, or he was meant to tell her.

If it didn’t go well, he could blame his mind on the trial and being fuzzy-headed still. He moved forward with the account Nathaira had fed him: “They said Drey married Elaira and then Meldrick married her, after Drey’s death.”

“Titania bought Drey from Indigo, cut off his wings, and forced him to marry a slave to shame him. They rebelled and Ched killed him right before he died.”

He wondered if the selkies were prone to lies, if Eutropia had become lost in misinformation.

“How are the King and Queen of the kingdom doing?” he asked.

“Well. The people like them. There’s a small group that want the old way,” she said, her eyes watching his face as he listened to her. As he was beginning to suspect, she had alternative motives than supporting the government that ruled the Dells. From what he knew about Meldrick, he wasn’t sure if he supported them. He wanted to know more about Aadya.

“It’s gaining support,” Eutropia said, encouraging. “As for Elaira… she died decades before your trial. That’s no lie, you should remember that.”

“The selkies said Elaira,” he stated, more to see her reaction. It seemed like she was pushing ideas, instead of disagreeing with the stories he fed her from the selkies.

“If she is Aadya, then the Sea Kingdom has taken over,” Eutropia stated.

“In which case, maybe I should be concerned about the kingdoms,” Gramm countered. “But if it is prospering, I would prefer to leave things at peace.”

He realized as he said that, he was a king without a throne at the moment. He knew what happened to kings without kingdoms: they were tormented by the need to rule and the drive to have a kingdom. The trial instilled the need once you passed, and he could feel it growing inside him the more he faced the thought of never ruling his own kingdom, or his former wife’s.

Eutropia looked at her nails, “Different groups prosper while others suffer.”

“What would you have me do?” Gramm asked.

The guard came in at this point and set multiple steaming dishes down in front of his family. He had forgotten they were there, listening to him speak with Eutropia. He should have sent his children elsewhere, perhaps even Jade, though he wanted to know what she thought of everything once they were free of the room. Jade was his wife; his partner in resolving any issues he did not have the eyes to assess on his own.

Eutropia sat taller now, at the meat of what she wanted. Gramm recognized the shimmer in her eyes as it faded from the build up – the chase – to the moment where she believed she had Gramm in the place she wanted him.

“Conceal yourself here,” she suggested. “Titania’s sister works to improve things.”

Titania’s sister – Meldrick’s aunt – was like Titania. If Meldrick had shifted away from her, his priorities had shifted. The issues between the Upper and Lower Dell were rooted in Titania’s ways; Gramm did not want to follow Titania. 

He was walking a tightrope on his second day home.

“That is not an option,” he stated. “Camilla is in danger,” he justified his statement.

“Camilla is with Titania’s sister.”

Gramm knew, in that moment, he could never trust Titania’s sister despite Eutropia’s belief she was someone worth following.

“She isn’t in danger,” Eutropia defended. “We all assumed you had died, and Ionia needs an heir of both Dells in order to justify a claim to the Dragon throne.’

Titania had his daughter; Titania had control over his actions and he could not just regret their side of things – he would have to act carefully to protect not only Camilla but Jade and his other children.

“I must have been mistaken,” he said. He leaned back in his chair, his shoulders slumped. He exhaled then ate a bite of one of the fruits before them. “I’m starting to think I’ve made a mess of my homecoming; of course the selkies aren’t lying. I just am confused and heard what makes sense. A slave? That’s absurd.”

Eutropia relaxed as well and nodded, “You’ve been gone a long time. Camilla is expecting her first child, I think.”

Gramm wasn’t ready to pretend this was a good thing; he suspected she was struggling with the experience. He hoped she was someone who wanted to have children – many children. Who would be able to overcome her circumstances with some passion toward something she was able to grasp onto, at least until he could save her.

“And Aadya is an escaped slave? So she swayed Meldrick to her movement? Don’t tell me they’ve freed the slaves.”

Jade, as magnificent as she was, did not flinch at his casual words. 

“All of them,” Eutropia said, her body sullen at the confession. “And stripped all titles, except their own.”

Gramm sat upright, “How can I support Ionia? Should I vanish, as though I never returned?”

“You should stop to see her,” Eutropia said, scanning Jade and the children. “She’ll be happy to hear you have other children. Were you married at the time?”

He saw layers of plot, her desire to use his children, more of them.

“And Indigo vanished, after selling Drey. Did something happen with her?” he asked. 

Eutropia looked at Jade, then back to Gramm. “She became unbalanced in the trial. I’m not sure Nell will ever forgive her.”

“So a new body means a hormonal change, not a literal body,” he asked.

“Why don’t you stay here for now, and I’ll see if you can see Camilla.”

“I trust you, that she’s safe,” he lied. “How long would that take? I would like to see Jericho and Zeus, rally forces while I can, while I have the element of surprise.”

“Zeus is hopeless,” she stated.

Gramm raised his eyebrows, “An untimely death? I am ascended. I can take his throne.’

She devoured his suggestion, though she hardly showed it. “You’d have an impressive army.” She nodded her head, the idea blooming inside her. She had never done well with hiding delight. “We should meet with Ionia.”

“And how is Jericho?” Gramm asked. “Can we trust him? Has he wed?”

“He is married to Elaira’s daughter, Jasmine.” Eutropia said. 

Gramm wanted to know more about Elaira and Aadya and how the two fit into this plot, how they both had won over Medrick, and how one of them had stolen him away from the Lower Dell’s tyranny.

“Camilla, Jericho, and I will help give rise to the three most powerful kingdoms in the realm. You have my word,” Gramm promised.

He meant it, every word. He would sway Jericho toward his side and hide Zeus within the layers of his secretive campaign against Eutropia. He would turn on Ionia and Eutropia during war, to diminish their numbers and to encourage a quick ending to the war. To give an insider’s advantage. 

It was more risk than he wanted to take on, with a family to care for. 

It was his calling; he was home now, at a time when he was needed. 

“Why not leave one of your children here, as evidence for Ionia?” Eutropia suggested. “I’ll look after him.”

“He would love to stay,” Gramm replied. If she wanted a boy, she had a girl in mind for him. He was young still; there was plenty of time to take him back.

“I’ll make sure he has a room,” she said.

Gramm smiled, then stood and took Jade’s hand. “I am happy to be home.”

“We’re happy to have you,” she replied. They hugged, and she hugged Jade. “All of you. Welcome. Let me get you all settled, we have plenty of spare rooms.”

Gramm agreed to follow her for the time being, but it was all he had to go on. He had a duty to protect the kingdom, and he had a duty to come to the conclusion over what was best for the kingdom for himself. The best place to explore his options was where he had fallen: beside Eutropia and Ionia, his enemies of his past life and the two women destined to lead him into the rest of his life.

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