Ⓐ For your muse to find mine in a compromising position with a low-born
Mihrimah had spent the evening in the company of various courts, sat with her translator and lady on either side, before offering a quip here and there from beneath the keen security of her delicate veil.
So intent on listening and taking part, Mihrimah missed the sudden vanishes of a certain courtier of China - none other than the Crown princess, who was known from China to the Ottoman Empire for her beauty and stubborn mind. She quite admired her from afar, but in moments, all of that respect would be lost.
Excusing herself from the feast, from a table lined with ripe fruits and plump roast birds, Mihrimah rose to her feet and gestured for her companion to join her. “I only crave a whisper of fresh air, nene,” she confessed and urged to her grandmother, pressing a soft and tender kiss upon the height of her cheek, before leaving the table to find a balcony in which to father herself from the excitement that riddled the Palace.
With soft steps, Mihrimah pressed forward, marking a trail a ghost would create if found haunting the corridors. With two steps, she heard the unfamiliar sound taken from the balcony - rude and tiresome noises, often heard beneath her window by boys who dared to risk their necks taunting the Sultana to risk her own.
“Who is that?” She whispered in Ottoman-Turkish, her tongue foreign to all around, before she crept forward - following a noise she had not heard before. “A servant?” She continued, whispering beneath the cautious noise, before meeting the shadowed corner. Mihrimah, dashed with curiosity, peeked over the side with wide and eager eyes, setting her hues upon the very vision of sin and copulation that occurred only with a married household.
So taken aback, Mihrimah gasped loudly - throwing herself back against the wall as her hand found her lady’s. “Is that not the Crown Princess of China?” She asked, her voice low and soft, her heart thudding upon the rise of her chest before steadying. “And… that is not her husband!” Her lady, stronger with a lead belly, took to peer once more, reciting the vision to Mihrimah with a giddy tone that’d cause even the Sultan to blush.
“It is little more than one of the serving men, your Highness,” she gasped, pulling Mihrimah closer, so the two ladies could peer around the corner, watching with interest or perhaps just plain curiosity. Yicheng, Crown Princess of China, seemed to have an audience made of the two Ottoman girls, who watched in secret and silence till the Princess had her fill with a man, far beneath her station - who would’ve suited a servant of his standing, than an Imperial Princess.