“Yourwhyis much less relevant to me than yourwhat next,” Shai Vishal said. “In my judgment. So I ask again, your Eminence: If my judgment displeases you, what will you do then? How far will you go? And how far will you allow that choice to press upon both the throne and the man you have sworn your life to?”
Numbly, the Chamberlain said, “But if I have seen the change in his Highness’s aspect, then so have a hundred other servants. If I have seen the holy edicts, then so have a hundred other noblemen, a hundred other priests…”
“That’s whywetake control of the storytelling,” Najra said. “Sure, everyone has seen the edicts about the sins of compelling undead spirits to unholy and unnatural obedience — and let me point out unholyobedienceis not what you get from acat-spirit. But everyone has also seen the edicts about the sins of adultery and gambling and public intoxication, and look how much difference those have made.”
“His Highness wouldneverbe seen gambling!” Irfan protested, shocked. “He is aprophet;it would be profoundly unfair for him to wager at dice!”
“Of course his Highness wouldn’t cheat at dice,” Shai Vishal said, with almost a hint of a smile.
“And he would never be publicly intoxicated, or commit adultery, or— His Highness is agood man!”
“Thank you, Irfan,” Faraj said, wistful. “I’m sure it is mostly that I have been an interminably dull man, with few inclinations for such exciting sins.”
“…I would not describe such sins asexciting,your Highness.”
“You are also a good man, your Eminence,” Najra said, almost begrudgingly. “Excruciatingly so. Or you wouldn’t find it so unimaginable that a good man might actually choose to sin against those holy precepts of yours.”
“Those veryhumanholy precepts,” Kamil rumbled. “You say ‘adultery’ like it’s not proof that several folk want to get under your tail. Catfolk would brag about that.”
“Well, as a sworn priest, I am rarely one to endorse sin, let alone strategic sinning,” Shai Vishal said. “But as sins go, an ordinary man on the street would find the indulgence of a forbidden cat-familiar to be a much more relatable and adorable sin than avarice, or drunken offenses, or even prophetically cheating at dice.”
“I’m not certain I could,” Faraj admitted in a very small voice. “Cheat at dice, that is. Not unless the stakes were so terribly high that I might have cause to.”
“We don’t have to tell the gamblers that,” Kamil said, with the very tip of his tail twitching, as though he saw some temptingly slow-moving prey.
“Your Reverence,” Irfan said, “we had agreed to ask your judgment because we believed you to be as incorruptible as any soul we knew. And to hear you speak so calmly of strategic sins… I question much, in this moment.”
“Good,” Shai Vishal said. “I am also questioning much. Lacking his Highness’ foresights, I throw pebbles of thought into the pool so that we may examine how the ripples of consequence collide. How many of the common folk of the Empire do youtruly believewill be more gravely offended bythe sins of ashahzadawho gambles and cheats, or by one who takes unwelcome liberties with his servants, or by one who adores and indulges his cat-familiar?”
“If our beloved Highness were such a knave, I would not serve him with all my heart,” the Chamberlain said. “But if he were such a knave, those who scheme to exploit his sins’ weaknesses would scheme againsthim,a well-guarded man of a size which cannot easily be swept into a sack, thrown over a shoulder, and carried off. His cat and her tiny kittens are far more vulnerable.”
“Rather like toddlers, at that. Except kittens are much sharper about their defenses,” Najra said, prying the hull off a pistachio with her silverpoint. “But I have never heard anyone propose a nobleman should not father children because they make such tempting hostages to fate. Or even because toddlers with grasping hands can be more effective agents of chaos than kittens.”
“No one has ever needed to propose that to me,” Faraj murmured. “My peculiar inclinations have been as unlikely to produce unexpected children as to produce unexpected gambling.”
“Well, we have just discovered your inclinations aredelightfullylikely to produce unexpected kittens,” Najra said, grinning. “As recently demonstrated.”
“And the necromancer who bound them to your Highness’s soul, whom you have been so careful not to name?” the Chamberlain asked. “We simply trust that he is as incorruptible as the pure mountain stream and as invulnerable as the stone beneath it?”
“How is this so much more difficult for you to handle than his brothers’ courtesans?” Najra sighed.
“His brothers’ courtesans do notsoul-bind.”
“Ask their wives about that. You’d think they were cats in heat.”
“Oh,no,” Irfan said, in a certain agonized dismay. “Your Highness, if your cat conveys her birthing-pangs to you, what will you experience when she seeks a sire for her next kittens?”
“Irfan!”Faraj buried his face in his hands and wished he thought he could fit himself under the low tea-table. Of all the things to askin front of Shai Vishal—while he sat injudgment,no less?—
“Don’t worry, I have ideas,” Najra said, busily scratching away with her silverpoint.
“Excuse me, I will worry about those ideasvery much,thank you, Najra!” Faraj sputtered. “And why did you evenhaveideas?”
“Just becauseI’mnot interested in bed-play doesn’t mean I’m not invested inyouenjoying as much bed-play as you want?—”
“NAJRA!”Faraj wailed.
Kamil huffed a very warm gust of amusement against the nape of Faraj’s neck.
