Ravish Me, Oh Great Wizard King!!!

Before Mira had a chance to respond to Jana's assessment of her breeding (or lack thereof), the High Wizard Griswold Toblerone had intervened on her behalf.

"The Consort Princess is not what is being debated here. Stick to the discussion points or your dispute will be thrown out of the King's Court with no further deliberation."

"My sincere apologies," Jana lowered her head. "I withdraw that comment."

Mira narrowed her eyes and stared at the panthera.

Jana did not mince words. She shot straight from the hips. You knew exactly where you stood with this cat. There would be no veiled insinuendos or false pretenses. She spoke her mind with very little filter. This was her strongest point.

It was also her greatest flaw.

Sometimes speaking inconvenient truths at inconvenient times did not further one's cause. It could in fact, harm one's chances of a favorable outcome.

The black crows began to rumble amongst themselves. The unspoken thoughts had been spoken out loud, and by a half-breed chimera, no less. Mira began to notice the looks of thinly veiled disdain that was being surreptitiously thrown at her.

They were full-blooded Ashryan humans, and although she was no less wholly-human, that only meant she was not tainted by beast blood. She was still only half-Ashryan, and also by that definition, only half-dwarf.

They would be shocked if they knew she was actually a pure human from Earth.

Mira was no fool. She knew that the Advisors were only tolerating her presence on the throne because they needed the King's Court to be convened in order to push through the agendas that had constantly been blocked by the old crippled King Leo Tamein all these years.

The land grants to the half-beasts was one major blocked item on the agenda.

It was an accepted truth in Ashrya that half-beasts were not fully human. As such, they had no rights. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, ancient laws that had been on the books for thousands of years had given them land rights that extended indefinitely into the future.

To the citizens of the kingdoms of Ashrya, land rights were something that only full humans should have been allowed. Deeding valuable land to half-animals was akin to gifting huge tracts of valuable land to chickens and pigs so they could have a place to root and scratch.

It was something of a headache for the Advisors to have to deal with. The outrage by the general public was palpable and getting louder with every passing year, as the population within the most popular kingdoms swelled past the boundaries that they could contain.

Unfortunately, their repeated attempts to force the king's hand to change the laws on the books never amounted to anything.

King Leo would hem and haw and push their revisions around on his silver table until Court had been adjourned. Then he would postpone their suggested changes for yet another day.

Of course, that day would never come because he would stack other ordinances and laws on top of the Land Rights Revision, effectively burying it under mountains of incoming documents that needed his attention.

This truly pissed off the Advisors but aside from twisting his arm and stomping on his fingers to get him to sign off on the Land Revision document, there really was nothing they could do.

If it wasn't for the fact that King Leo's wife and son were powerful wizards in their own rights, they would have disposed of him long ago. Now that he and his entire family had been cleared out of Diamond, this was their golden opportunity to enact those changes.

Mira knew that they thought she was a weak young female who was just a paper tiger that they could push around. They didn't need to pander to her whims or do anything special to gain her consent.

Their only objective was to get a legitimate session started and then hand her the Royal Seal so she could just rubber stamp everything through. Once she did what they needed, she would then be promptly replaced.

As far as everyone in Ashrya was concerned, she truly was that half-breed sterile human who was only sitting on that throne by sheer default. There was nothing she could say that would be able to change that insidious thought inside their heads, that they were genetically superior to her even if only by a slight amount. This was enough to affect their attitude towards her.

The Advisors were beginning to shift in their seats and muttering words of discontent.

If there was truly nothing she could say, then there really was only one thing that she could do.

Mira pulled out her switchknife. With a flick, she opened it to its full 10" length and flung it blade-first into the surface of the metal table.

TWANG!!!

The tip sank two full inches into the surface, quivering with the force of the impact.

The entire court fell silent.

Mira raised a finger and pointed at Jana. "I have entertained your wild rantings about everything under the sun having to do with your race and the treatment of your people because I wanted to know the reason why you are standing in Diamond court today."

She narrowed her eyes. "This does not mean I am interested in hearing what you personally think about me."

She paused for effect. "The reason that you are here today has to do with land rights and the rights of the inhabitants to be able to cross your land safely, without fear for their lives. It has nothing to do with anything else, so do not waste any more of my time."

Mira sniffed. "If you have a dispute about anything other than those issues, you need to establish a different dispute request and go through the official channels to bring those specific disputes into the court."

The black crows watched her with intense interest. She was saying words that although clearly understood, were words that they would have never thought to use whether in combination or in conjunction within the King's Court.

She was also strongly implying that she was sympathetic to their side and was shutting the panthera down HARD.

"There are two things that need to be addressed." Mira maintained her sharp gaze on Jana. "Pantheran woman--your dispute has to do with defending your foodsource. You people signed an agreement whereby you own the rights to kill the wildlife in that savanna to feed yourselves."

Mira leaned forward and slammed her hands onto the surface of the silver table.

BAAM

"That right does not extend to hunting down unarmed travelers passing through your land to get to the other side. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Your Royal Highness," Jana bowed her head.

Mira leaned back against the chair cushion. "Your people will have to figure out a way to share the land usage without harming any more people."

She then turned to Orville Torrence. "You! High Adviser to King Dominic Vetica of Amber."

He whipped his head up, meeting her eyes with furtive glances.

"Take a close look at the map you brought to the King's Court. If you are familiar with the geography of your own kingdom, you will realize that the location of Amber is quite a distance away from the savanna to the northeast of the peninsula. There is almost no need to cross it to get to the other side."

Orville Torrence paled at her words. He was not expecting Mira to be that familiar with the geography of such a far-flung area as Amber. Such knowledge was only taught to the males in the noble families so they could manage the affairs of the kingdom.

Girls were taught basic management of the household finances and how to deal with servants and non-bonded staff, among other feminine pursuits. How could this Princess Consort be so well-versed in the cartography of Ashrya?

"But Your Royal Highness, there are still occasions where we need to enter the savanna. You just told the panthera woman that her people need to share the land usage."

Mira's upturned smile did not reach her eyes. "If you need to cross the savanna and you are a wizard, use portals. Otherwise, use the underground railroad the dwarves have set up all over the empire. Just because the pantheras will not kill you if you cross through their home does not mean you should continue to do so."

"The people in Amber are running out of farmland and food. What can we do?"

Mira stood up, leveraging the four white marble steps plus her full 5' 2" height to tower over him. "There are many things you can do to address that situation. However, there are two things you cannot do."

She held up an index finger. "First, you are not allowed to cut down trees and turn the savanna into farmland. The savanna's foot print is not that large. This area needs to be maintained as such because they are valuable natural habitats for the species of animals and plants that live there."

She held out a second finger to join the first. "Secondly, your people cannot poach and trap on this land. You say your people are not getting enough food, so you have to trap and kill the animals in the savanna, but you are taking food away from the pantheras who need it too. This is food that has been agreed upon to be left for them."

"But that's---"

"No buts. The underground trains can provide your kingdom with enough food for your people. Arrange with the dwarves to import food into Amber from other areas of Ashrya."

"Your Royal Highness! The lives of Ashryans are far more important than mere half-beasts!"

"Half-humans are still human. All human lives are equal and worthy of protection from the crown."

"Whose protection?"

"My protection!" She hissed.

"You can't even protect yourself!" His eyes hardened. He raised a hand above his head, blue sparks flying from his fingertips.

BANG

Mira slid Hello Kitty back into her holster.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then pandemonium ensued.