I'm here!
I'm alive.
And now on to the story! OMG I've missed writing!
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The moment that Sinbad was finished straightening his appearance, he grabbed Selene's tiny hand in his and had to partially drag her out of the room that they had been readying themselves in after she had flooded his private quarters, and the moment that they were both outside of the room- they were greeted by his generals, Kouen and his two brothers. Koumui, and his youngest brother Kouha. Alibaba, and Morgiana.
"King Sinbad, are you ready to face down the nobles of your court?" Kouen asked as he watched the girl that had once been known as the magi Aladdin, walk over to Alibaba and attach herself to his waist.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Sinbad said with a soft sigh before looking back over at Selene and reaching out and plucking her up off of the floor by the scruff of the neck. But she refused to let go of Alibaba right away, so he wound up almost rendering the young man unconscious when he was all but pulled up off of the floor by his waist and fell over hitting his head.
Sighing as he hung his head a little bit, Sinbad was torn between feeling the urge to laugh and cry all at once as he used his free hand to face palm before saying, "Selene, Selene, Selene...dearling please... Come on be a good girl and release your Alibaba."
She shot him a look that spoke all kinds of volumes geared towards a very strong 'no' and nearly started screaming her head off again when Morgiana stepped in and attempted to pry the former prince from her grasp.
Attempted, was of course the operative word.
However Selene wasn't budging on the whole 'let Alibaba go' issue. In fact she made a small growling sound- which wasn't as fierce as she probably meant for it to be- and it sounded just so damn cute! No! Bad Sinbad, Selene's little growl wasn't cute- it was annoying. Her misbehavior was annoying, even if she didn't seem to know or realize what she was doing was wrong at the moment.
"Come on!" He grunted as he pulled one way while Morgiana pulled the other, a slight scowl marring her pretty face as she tried to pry Alibaba from Selene's grasp without hurting her.
Finally after watching the whole spectacle for several moments, Ren Kouen decided to step in and lend a hand. Reaching out he took the little girl away from Sinbad who was about to protest when he saw the emperor of Kou holding onto his adopted daughter, staring her down for a moment before he used his free hand to tap one of the hands holding onto Alibaba, causing her to automatically drop him.
"Good girl. Now you aren't going to grab someone like that again, are you?" He said as he cuddled the girl close to his chest and smiled as the bewildered child stared back at him wide eyed while Sinbad bristled slightly at the way the emperor handled his adopted daughter and quickly snatched her away from him and started walking as he called over his shoulder.
"Come. We've kept the nobles of my court waiting long enough."
Kouen and the others all fell into step on either side of him as he carried Selene. And after several heartbeats of silence Kouen whispered to someone, "He seems upset," Causing Sinbad to gnash his teeth and let out a loud almost feral sounding growl followed by Kouen finally muttering, "Definitely upset."
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The court of nobles stood awaiting their king while they talked amongst themselves about the announcement that their king's proxy had informed them of. Many were outright angry. Some were in denial. But everyone in the room was scheming.
It would be a lie to say that some of the nobles within the court hadn't been trying to find legal ways of forcing Sinbad from the throne so that someone else could take over his kingdom.
The man was more or less a pacifist. A pacifist for crying out loud! How was a pacifist to properly lead a kingdom with such military strength?
And on top of that he had an embarrassing lack of control around alcohol and beautiful women which was probably part of the reason each of them had been called to the palace.
It was because of these things that he was considered weak by his court despite the fact that he was one of the most powerful men in the world. Couple that with his weird ability to shirk his kingly duties, passing of laws, paperwork, recording of historical events in the kingdom's history, as well as his lack of a proper Queen and heir- and pretty much everyone within the court wanted the man gone.
So when he strolled into the large room where his court was usually held with his generals, the emperor of the Kou empire- his two brothers, his guests and a little girl tossed over one of his broad shoulders- everyone suddenly fell silent upon seeing the spectacle.
No one knew what they were supposed to think as their king settled himself on his throne with his generals surrounding him and his guests took up places not too far away from him as he carefully settled the young girl on his lap and made sure that she was nice and comfy before even turning his attention to the court who were all watching him interact with Selene like the vultures that they were.
"Everyone, thank you all for coming to the palace today, I know that it wasn't exactly planned for some of you. However a great change within our kingdom is imminent. I come before you today with a child- one that I recently found out about. Her name is Selene, she is my daughter, the only child and heir of my bloodline and my kingdom. Today I introduce her before you all, as the princess and future Queen of Sindria."
All at once all of the nobles were in an uproar, the sound of everyone's angry and outraged voices startled Selene whom had been playing with a strand of his hair up until that point.
Sinbad glared at the crowd of noblemen and women with utter disgust as he caught little snippets of words being tossed about. Things like, 'bastard child', 'unfit to rule', and 'we would never bow down to a urchin' were among just some of the things spewed from the mouths of his nobles.
Finally Kouen stepped forward and took a moment to gently ruffle Selene's silky soft hair before suddenly shouting in a most undignified manner. "BE SILENT!" His voice was so loud that it practically boomed, echoing in every corner of the large room over the voices of everyone yelling and shouting. Causing all present to fall into a shocked silence.
It was quite impressive. So much so that Sinbad wondered if it was a habit that the Emperor had developed during his younger days, when he had been dealing with all of his younger siblings. He obviously had no problem with using such a tone with others so it must be a habit.
A really, really, really bad one.
Still he had gotten everyone to shut the hell up, so that was something. Now all Sinbad had to do was address them about their less than tolerable conduct towards his daughter.
"Thank you Emperor Kouen. I will take things from here." Sinbad said as he carefully got to his feet as Kouen gave him a calculated measuring look before inclining his head towards him and then moving out of his way, however paused before getting far and simply stated,
"Give Selene to me," Sinbad looked like he would like to argue, but Kouen made him see reason easily enough with just a few words, "You may have to fight a few of them to make an example of them. They will try to hurt her to get to you if you try to keep her with you while that happens."
As much as Sinbad loathed to admit it, Kouen was right. So after handing her over to the emperor and then barking out an order for Hinahoho to 'chaperone' he then turned back to face his court and said. "I understand that each of you have strong feelings about letting an unknown person be given the ranking of a princess of our country but that is no excuse for the slanderous words, nor your traitorous behavior towards my heir here today. I'm only going to say this once so listen, and listen well. As your king, I have every right to strip you of your noble ranking and take from you- your homes, your riches, and even your livelihoods making you nothing but peasants... I even have every right as your king to kill each and every last one of you where you stand and wipe out your bloodlines so that my daughter will be able to live unopposed. However I will not do that."
"I merely wish to make one thing very clear, I myself at one time was a peasant before becoming a king and stand before you as proof that one does not need a pedigree to rule or become a noble. Everyone holds that kind of potential from the day that they are born. The only true thing that separates any of us is your undeserved arrogance. Selene is my daughter, and my heir and you will follow her unquestioningly, respect and honor her as your princess and future Queen! Anyone who proves that they are incapable of following my daughter as a ruler will be stripped of their rank, the privileges that go with it and exiled from Sindria never to return!"
"You can't do that!" One man shouted in outrage causing Sinbad to glance at him and narrow his eyes a little bit as he realized who it was. J'enn Baz'il, one of the men whom had been causing trouble for Hina while he had been away.
His hand moved to his hip so quickly that no one really saw him draw his sword until something warm and wet had spattered across the faces of several of the young women standing in close proximity to the man mere seconds before his head fell to the floor.
Eliciting screams of horror from some of the younger girls in the room as Sinbad stood there with his sword in hand, letting what little bit of blood staining the polished metal fall to the floor in a pool before saying in his most authoritative tone, "I will not tolerate any threats to my heir. Let this be an example for anyone thinking that they have any rights to try and govern me and my actions against my right to protect what is mine. Now all of you get the hell out of my palace. My daughter is upset and you are no longer welcome in my presence." Sinbad said as he flicked his sword to clean it before carefully putting it away and then turned and walked over to Kouen and carefully took his shivering and whimpering daughter from him and cuddled her to his chest and began crooning in an effort to calm her.