Chapter 468

Chapter 468
Ariel Drummond

I asked for permission to leave with the naturalness of someone who has a simple reason to depart and who departs with the simplicity of that reason, in which there was none of the layers that existed beneath the movement, only the appearance of a woman who had reached the point in the night where the bathroom was necessary and who was going to the bathroom with the same quality as anything else she had done that night.

The smiles I received in response had that quality of temporary farewell smiles at events of this nature, which say that the departure has been registered and that the return is expected, and I moved away from the group with that step I had developed for that type of environment, which existed with the correct presence of a woman who crosses a room without the act of crossing being anything more than a mere crossing.

But before reaching my destination, my eyes fell upon Arthur and Trevor.

With that quality of eye contact that I had learned to make in the way it needed to be done within that context—brief, with the minimum information that needed to exist between us without it existing in a way that any other observer could categorize as information between us—and then I continued.

The bathroom was located in a side corridor of the main hall, possessing the quality of auxiliary spaces typical of properties of this scale, designed with the same attention as the main spaces. It reflected an extension of the care that existed in the main hall, confirming that attention had not only been applied to visible areas, but had been applied with the consistency of someone who believes that each space deserves what it deserves.

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N'zar remained where he was.

With that quality of N'zar in business conversations that I had observed throughout those days, which existed in him when he was within the territory where he was most fluent, a presence different from the presence in other territories, more expanded, more confident with that specific confidence of someone who knows that he knows what he is doing within what he is doing.

The Sultan stood beside him. With the albino tiger that had settled in with that fluidity of large felines finding their resting point with an efficiency that requires no deliberation, and there was in the quality of the conversation between the two the warmth of men who exist on the same level of power and who therefore communicate with that horizontality that does not exist in conversations where the levels are different.

"So, Miechhmerrellon."

N'zar used the name with the intent of establishing the intimacy that such an address conveys; the very act of using the name declared a relationship that permitted such familiarity. "What is the reason for such a... conspicuous event?"

The sultan smiled.

With that smile that appeared on his face whenever there was something he considered worthy of being received with the pleasure it had produced before being answered, and in that smile there was the quality of someone about to say something, the act of saying itself producing a satisfaction that exists even before the other person's response.

"The birth of my eleventh daughter, N'zar."

The words arrived with the nature of an announcement preceding an explanation—establishing the fact before providing context. Underlying the news of his eleventh daughter’s birth was a significance that served as the fundamental reason for the entire evening's proceedings.

"And I wish to honor her arrival with a grand celebration."

The phrase existed with the completeness of statements that need no elaboration because the elaboration is within them before any additional word, and in that honoring of his arrival with a grand celebration there was the quality of a man who had built a world from a vision of what the world should be and who applied that vision with the consistency of someone who does not consider that there is any other way of doing things besides the way he considers correct.

The sultan held onto that thought for a moment. And then the change of subject came with that quality of subject changes that exist when the new subject had been waiting for the first available opening to enter, that there was something there that had been present even before the subject that had been discussed and that now found the space to exist.

"What a beautiful woman."

The words came with that quality of observations made when the observer deems the remark significant enough to voice aloud, regardless of any protocol suggesting it should be kept to oneself; they held a warmth that was not a matter of protocol, but the genuine response of someone who had seen something that naturally elicited such a reaction.

"Where did you find her?"

N'zar received the remark.

There was something in N'zar's state when the sultan had asked that question that existed before any word of reply, a quality of discomfort that was specific to that territory, which she had learned over the days that N'zar existed within the territory of conversations about her with a state that was different from the state in which she existed within other territories.

"Business." The reply came with that brevity characteristic of N'zar, for matters he believes can be handled economically without being discourteous. "She sought me out."

The Sultan raised an eyebrow.

With that quality of facial movements that exist when information arrives in a way that wasn't anticipated, there's a surprise that isn't complete but is enough for the face to respond before any decision to respond is made.

"Interested in ore? A woman?"

And there was a layer in that which N'zar had read with the speed of someone who had learned to read the layers of questions before answering the words that formulated them, that there was in the person interested in ore a question that was also, beneath the question, an evaluation, and N'zar had arrived at that evaluation before arriving at the answer.

"Not every woman expects a sultan to seek her out and give her the life of a queen."

The phrase had arrived with that quality of N'zar's responses that existed in the register of someone who is saying something about a situation and about a person simultaneously; there was a defense there that was also a declaration, and that was also, beneath both things, information about what existed between him and her.

"Mara is different."

The words arrived with that specific quality that N'zar had when he said her name, an inflection that existed only for him and with the consistency of things that form when there is enough feeling for the formation to happen before any decision.

"She has her own power and status."

A pause.

"Yet, she will live very well by my side." N'zar's eyes had gone in the direction she had left, with that kind of gaze that goes where genuine attention lies before any instruction is given as to where to look. "I am going to give the world to that woman with the pink flower."

The Sultan sat with that thought.

And in the way he sat with it, there was the quality of someone who had received a set of facts and was drawing conclusions from them before responding to any specific part of the whole; and then:

"Mara?"

The name arrived with that quality of when a word is repeated not to confirm that it had been heard, but because the act of repeating it was part of the process of arriving at something; that in Mara there was a verification happening that existed before any conclusion about what was being verified.

A pause that held more within it than ordinary pauses do.

"She doesn't seem like a woman named Mara."

The words arrived with that specific quality of observation that exists when someone has arrived at something that cannot be fully articulated but is present enough to be said anyway, before it is complete, with that honesty of impressions that are real before they are verified.

"And what is strange..."

The sultan had looked in the direction she had gone, with that kind of gaze that searches for something that had been seen before but that time had placed in a layer that needed to be reached before it could be accessed.

"She seems like a woman I know—or think I know."

A pause.

"But I don't know from where."

N'zar smiled.

With that smile N'zar had when he was bluffing, a smile he had learned throughout a lifetime from situations that demanded that specific smile, different from all other smiles because of the quality of performance within it, a construction that was efficient precisely because it appeared spontaneous.

"I doubt she resembles any woman you have ever known." The phrase had arrived with that lightness of statements that exist in the register of certainty without the weight of certainty, which was confident without being defensive, which had the quality of someone who considers that what they are saying is simply true and therefore does not need elaboration to be received as truth.

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I'm back from the bathroom.

With that quality of return that exists after necessary intervals, and there was in the hall upon returning the same extraordinary scale that had existed when I had left, but which now existed with an additional quality, which was the quality of space that had continued to exist during the absence, and therefore there were things that had happened that I needed to reach.

His eyes went to Arthur and Trevor before any other movement, with that search that had begun before going to the bathroom, which had been suspended, and which now resumed with the naturalness of processes that resume.