The concubine

You hear a midwife call out with glee, “WE HAVE A MALE HEIR!”

The call is followed by a shout from the far left: “And one here!”

Oddly enough, as coincidence would have it no other way, you hear, “We have a female child here,” called out by the twins’ midwives at the exact same time.

This is followed by a cry of, “A girl here,” and lastly, “We have a boy here.” It all happens in a matter of ten seconds… but ten seconds separate their fates and the fates of their families.

Five of them are an afterthought, as all eyes fixate on the one who comes first; the one being held up between the woman’s legs all the way to the left. She is the one whose mother could only secure a single midwife, while everyone else has three or four. She is the one everyone treats as an outcast. The one no one even considers. The one who, when this all starts, does not even think she can have a child due to her position; she was your father’s old concubine. She is a woman who is only in your presence because, at one point in time, your father used her to satiate his lust when your mother did not wish to.

A silence overtakes the room as everyone refuses to believe the meaning of the child she holds.

The midwife’s voice cracks as she points him toward you. “He’s healthy, Sire! A strong boy!”

All other sounds flood in at once: shuffling feet, and from the back, you hear someone yell, “It can’t be her! She is a whore!”

This is followed by King Thomas yelling out, “If not her… then it has to be mine! She was next!”

Your mother yells, “No! My child was next!”

Honestly, no one is really paying attention to who comes second. All everyone knows is that it has to be King Thomas’s oldest daughter or your mother, because the second call-out is for a boy, and Princess Elizabeth’s midwife is holding a girl. Furthermore, the two twins both give birth to girls at the exact same time. As such, the room quickly breaks into an uproar among all the competing camps.

It takes thirty minutes for Sir Dietrich to send everyone out to the courtyard before he meets you back in the hallway.

“So, Sir Dietrich, where do we stand?”

“All camps agree it shouldn't be your father’s old concubine… but they cannot agree on who it should be. Both King Thomas’s daughter and Queen Beatrice claim to have the firstborn male after you exclude the concubine. King Richard says we should throw out all the males because no one can agree on who came second; as a result, both of his daughters would be queens. Princess Elizabeth says the title should go to her because King Richard’s daughters refuse to split the crown. Meanwhile, everyone outside the room says we should declare everyone inside the room invalid because they broke the rules against talking…”

“So, what should I do?”

Sir Dietrich sighs. “It’s your call to make. You can accept your father’s concubine as Queen. You can have two queens. You can take your sisters as queens."

He rubs his chin thoughtfully. "There is an option where you deny her becoming a Queen because she is your father's concubine but accept the child as your heir, since, well, he is of your seed.*

"But others will complain."

"Complain they will of the next options too. You can accept one of the other mothers of your male heirs. You can deem everyone in the room invalid due to breaking the rules and take the next child born… or you can just say that due to all the mishaps, the firstborn doesn't count and we must establish clearer rules. Honestly, I am at a total loss as to which is the better option.”