34 THIRTY FOUR: The Seven Princes pt 2

For the remainder of the day, Esther would see no one.

She ignored all invitations, refused any guest who ventured to her door, and sent her meals back without touching them.

From an outsider's perspective, it seemed the Queen Candidate of the best place in the House of Women was throwing a tantrum. Or, perhaps, she was in a foul mood. Nobody dared question her behavior, doing their best to instead tiptoe around her for fear of incurring her wrath.

What Esther was actually doing, however, was an ancient practice passed down through generation after generation of Believers.

Fasting.

The correct way to engage in a fast involved dressing in a crude garment while praying to the God of Abraham in total seclusion all the day long. One would not eat nor drink, and sometimes also forgo sleep depending on the length of the fast.

The Despised Clan believed engaging in a fast was a powerful act of worship and could call down the powers of heaven more so than a simple prayer.

Esther, too, held this belief.

Therefore, all day, she kept to herself, showing no outward signs of her inner wrestle before her God, begging for strength and protection as she undertook Mordecai's request.

'Why me?' She wondered often throughout her fast.

She knew her Uncle well enough, however, to know that he would never have risked sending her that letter if he didn't think she was the only one who could help.

'What about the soldiers or the chamberlains?' She would ask herself next.

Of course, she already knew that the words of a low-ranked man from the Despised Clan would never be taken seriously in the King's Court. What's more, the perpetrators may use the opportunity to pin the blame on him, sending an innocent man to his death simply because he spoke up.

"I am not known as a member of the Despised Clan. I am the Queen Candidate of the best place," Esther reminded herself. "If I can find evidence and turn it over to Lord Hegai, my work will be done."

And so, Esther adopted that manner of thinking as the day progressed--that she would only find enough evidence to convince the Lord and get involved no further in the matter.

By the time evening arrived, and the time allotted her to exit the House of Women, Esther's mind had begun to clear. She was ready to depart to the hall of records.

She had braced herself to face the gray-eyed man again, but, as she entered the hall, she saw immediately that he was not there.

"It seems our meetings will not become so regular after all," Esther snorted.

Though the tension began to dissipate from her body as she realized she was alone in the record hall, the lump in her throat grew bigger. After all, the small moment of relief was only due to putting off the inevitable--that sooner or later she would have to face that man and discover his nature.

For the time being, however, she busied herself with the records from the Golden Hall, as she was finally free to examine them to her heart's content.

The records concerning the events regarding Queen Vashti remained, much to her relief, but she noticed a large number of records next to those had been removed.

For a moment, she entertained the idea that maybe, the man was not hiding something dangerous, but rather simply reviewing the recent records in order. More likely, however, all the recent records contained critical information, which the man was consuming either for himself or for someone above him.

Tearing her gaze away from the gap on the shelf, Esther reached for the collection of records from six to twelve months ago.

"There's no way I can get through all of these tonight," she frowned as she set the stack on a table. "Where should I even start?"

Silently, she reprimanded her past self for not dragging more information concerning the deposed Queen out of her Uncle. He knew, without a doubt, far more than he had been willing to tell.

Though, Mordecai most likely had also been reprimanding himself for not giving Esther more details when he had the chance, as it would have served her well under these new circumstances.

"No matter! I shall find it myself," Esther huffed, heaving open a book of records dated approximately eight months ago.

During her reading, she learned that many interesting things were written in the records of the Golden Hall, along with a vast abundance of many uninteresting things.

Taxes, political parties, monopolies, infrastructure--topics such as these seemed to be at the forefront of all engagements that happened in the King's Court.

One of the major issues that seemed to dominate the discussions eight months ago was a proposal to redistribute tax requirements throughout the Empire.

It seemed the Empire's method of taxing the inner ring of cities at the greatest amount, and lowering the required amounts for each descending ring, had become problematic. Not all cities were as wealthy as the Royal City, and, therefore, the taxes levied on the inner rings of other cities had become too much of a burden.

Additionally, those who lived outside city limits, were difficult to track down and apply the appropriate taxes.

The proposal was that the tax requirements be changed to a percentage of total wealth rather than a flat yearly rate for each group of citizens.

The supporters of the proposal claimed that doing so would solve the burdensome taxes on less wealthy cities and promote citizen prosperity.

"That is true," Esther thought out loud as she read through the notes, "but such a system could hardly solve the issue of the clans living in the countryside, and from my understanding, there are a great deal of them."

Further along in the records, the same argument had been made by the opponents of the proposal.

"Ah, and I just thought of this, but determining total wealth for each household leaves far too much room for fraud and error," she added, rubbing her chin.

"So what would you propose be done instead to alleviate the problems with the tax system?"

A voice behind Esther startled her to her feet, sending the record book crashing to the ground.

"M-My Lord," she bowed hastily as she spied a tall figure with black hair and crossed arms standing nearby.

"Raise your head," the man commanded.

"Now, I ask again, what plan would you propose instead?"