31 Chapter 31: The Power of Cookies

After this, Mehrnaz was full of indignation.

"...Shirazad, I don't know what was unclear about this situation to you. I have never expected you to do such a thing. How could you have skipped me and just gone to the Chief Supervisor? What example are you setting for your subordinates? You should always speak with me if you're confused about something. ...And yes, you can have a day off today." But Shirazad ignored this.

She was in her room, peacefully embroidering something together with Anuvaniya when suddenly there was a knock on the door and three maids entered. The king's maids usually wore a distinctive uniform so Shirazad quickly recognized them.

"Your Highness," one of them said. "His Majesty sends a delicious leamoa cake." The other two brought a tray forward and left it on the table.

"Thank you and thank His Majesty," Shirazad answered. "You may leave."

"Thank you, Your Highness" they said and left.

Shirazad was truly confused. She'd never received anything sent from the King.

"How strange," she told Anuvaniya. "He must be in a really good mood."

"Why do you think it's so strange? It looks normal to me," Anuvaniya answered.

"No... He isn't that kind of person. He is not so carefree to just casually send me a cake," Shirazad mused.

"Maybe he's grateful to you," Anuvaniya smiled.

"Grateful?" Shirazad wondered, "...For what?"

Anuvaniya quietly laughed, "Well, Your Highness... maybe you've also sent him something."

"...And what have I sent him?"

"Chocolate cookies with bits of orange, my specialty..." Anuvaniya smiled but moved a little further away from Shirazad, just in case, "...Your Highness... I just thought... that Mehrnaz is always mean to us and she's certain to do something against us again. Wouldn't it be nice if we're in the king's good graces? So I send him cookies from you..."

"How could you!!" Shirazad stood up in indignation. "I don't want him to think I'm trying to curry favor!" She went after Anuvaniya when the latter was trying to hide herself behind the table in the room.

"But look, he sent us cake. So he reacted well!" Anuvaniya replied.

"You're allowing yourself too much freedom recently!"

Anuvaniya kept running away from Shirazad,

"Well, next time when Mehrnaz does something against us, let's see who the king will support. I will tell you who! The person who gave him cookies, huh!"

Suddenly, Shirazad's irritation disappeared because this was all too funny. She started laughing.

"I hope your cookies are really so delicious to be involved in politics!"

"They are, Your Highness, they are. ...Haven't you heard, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," Anuvaniya laughed.

Shirazad laughed for some time, then said seriously,

"Anyway, don't do it again. ...It's not always good to get too close to such a person. It's better to keep some distance." She went to have a good look at the cake, "Then chances are this is really from the king, and not poison from Mehrnaz."

As they were trying the cake, they were speaking as well,

"Anuvaniya, aren't you afraid that when I tell the king you made the cookies, he may fall in love with you?"

"Ha-ha. Your Highness..."

***

The project with the books was going just fine. In about a month they were created and enough copies were made to be given to the most important teachers. The second month, the main scribes who had created the books had to instruct the teachers how to work with them in special classes.

A few weeks later, however, it was one year from the death of Shirazad's father. This brought many unpleasant emotions to her; doubts in the king, which had been forgotten for some time. She needed to take some time off work, to be alone and to pay respects to her ancestors. Again, she had to ask Mehrnaz for permission for two days.

"Of course. I will ask the Chief Supervisor about that," Mehrnaz said...

A day passed and another came. And another day passed as well. Two days later, there was still no news from Mehrnaz about whether permission was granted. It became clear to Shirazad that Mehrnaz had probably "forgotten" about her request. Of course by now Shirazad kind of knew that if something could go wrong, with Mehrnaz around, it would. So, this was the reason why she had asked for the permission much earlier - two weeks before the actual event.

Still, for all she know, Shirazad could not believe that Mehrnaz would do such a thing... In fact, everybody had been so good to Mehrnaz, even the king. Back when Mehrnaz had tried to frame Shirazad and almost got her killed, the king had obviously realized that Shirazad with her good education could tell the difference between a crown for a prince and a crown for a king. But if he believed Shirazad was innocent, then it meant the situation had been Mehrnaz's fault. Had he investigated in more detail, he could have found witnesses or evidence. Instead, he just let the matter go, perhaps he didn't want to deal with it, or he didn't want to confront Mehrnaz's family. Or... the other option was that he thought it was Shirazad's fault and despite that he forgave her?

"Anuvaniya," Shirazad sighed, "you have to make more of your cookies for me."