Tales around Mirateia 27

The day he had been one of the slow ones, while the weather had been what its usual self with the sun shining. Nearly no clouds in the sky, but the Empire didn't run itself, or at least he didn't trust those senators to run it probably so Malthin had seen it necessary to attend this day's senate meeting and thank the goddess that he had because almost as soon as the discussion had started, it had bogged down into the senatorial factions arguing with each other about trivial matters and more than once he had to raise his voice to get the senators to quiet down. The meeting took a few hours, and despite the pointless arguments breaking out occasionally, they managed to cover some important topics like the increase in pirate attacks along their coast and the budget for more warships that had previously been agreed upon.
After having left the meeting, Malthin, followed by his escort, walked towards his office where he was planning to go through some of the paperwork and go through some of the many requests he received daily about all sorts of things ranging from some small city that wanted to get the emperors decisions on some ruling to governors that either wanted to execute or release a prisoner.
After a few hours of going through some of the paperwork, Malthin got through more requests than he had expected. He had just finished going through a request about a ruling in an internal case that a small city had requested, as the case in the city had bogged down when someone knocked on the door to his office.
"Come in," Malthin said before folding the paper away.
"Excuse me, your majesty, but a letter just arrived that you should probably look at as quickly as possible", the servant said after bowing and handing over the letter to Malthin.
Looking at the letter, he could see that it had the seal of the Nacaeus province on it. Turning the envelope, he saw that on the back, it said Azran to His Majesty, the Emperor. Malthing was about to open the letter when he stopped and looked up at the servant about to leave the office again.
"Please bring the Empress here as soon as possible", to which the servant turned around and faced Malthin, bowing and said that he would bring her as soon as possible.
Opening the letter, Malthin began reading through it. Almost by pure habit, he skipped the first few lines as they usually only contained greetings and the boring stuff; skipping that, he began reading the rest of the letter. He was happy that allowing the Imperial Guard to follow Ira and Azran was paying off and that law and order were being maintained despite the change of governors. Reading further along, Malthin smiled a bit when he read Azran talking about the economy, mostly because he found it refreshing how honest Azran was about his lack of experience.
Malthin went from a smile to a solemn expression when he read about how the Vicarii had tried to intimidate Azran by show of force. Still, it was what followed that made him breathe out loud as he read how Prince Osril had tried to gain Azrans support for his non-existing claim to the throne.
He was about to read the last part of the letter when the door opened, and Amelessa entered the room.
"You called for me, dear?" Amelessa said as she sat on one of the couches that she had insisted on being added to the room as it would have felt too empty otherwise.
"Yes, I got a letter from Azran, and well, I thought you should have the chance to read it as well", Malthin said as he got up from his desk and handed Amelessa the letter before sitting on the couch opposite her.
"Oh, so what does our future son-in-law have to say?
"Our what?
"Oh, come on dear, we both have seen how Ira acts around him, it's like she is a whole other person, we both have seen how they look at each other, likewise she once told me about some sort of bond she has with him like she can feel if he is near or something, to be honest, I didn't quite understand it but what I got from it was that she loves him and it's clear that he loves her as well... well that was a tangent, let me just read this letter."
Amelessa grabbed the letter with both hands and went about reading it, and it didn't take long before a smile formed on her face.
"What are you smiling over, Lessa?" Malthin asked before standing up and walking over to the nearby table where a flask of Sanguine were located and grabbed the flask and two glasses.
"Oh, nothing in particular. I like how he talks about Ira, but I must say, I know Osril is not stupid, but did he try to convince Azran, of all people, to join his side of his scheme? I mean, what was he thinking." Amelessa said before putting the letter down on the table.
"I know, while I'm not happy that he is scheming against Ira and, by extension, me, I must admit that I do find it somewhat amusing that he would even entertain the thought because, as you said, he is not stupid, and to be honest he is a good ruler, it just so happens that Ira is better than him so that's why she is the heir.
"I agree", Amelessa said before laying the letter on the table and leaning back on the couch, "you know, it's a shame that they are so far away and that the travel will take so long because I would like to see how they are doing in person."
"It could be interesting. Maybe we can arrange for it the next time we are doing our tour of the Empire," Malthin said in a way that sounded like he was already going through the idea in his head to see if it would be possible,
"If it is the case, we should remember to announce our arrival in good time. Judging from the letter, they seem to have a few unannounced visitors lately, like a whole legion of them", Amelessa said, leaning forward and pushing the letter towards her husband.
"A what?" Malthin said, leaning forward and picking up the letter and scanning through the bits he had already read until he got to the part where he had been interrupted when Amelessa entered the room. Reading through it, he raised his hand and rubbed his temples in frustration. "Ah yes... I can see why that possibly makes the situation a bit tense.."
"Why did you send them an entire legion? It's not like it's the most strategic place they have", Amelessa asked curiously.
"To be honest, I'm not quite sure myself; I just woke up one morning and had this gut feeling that there was this need for a new legion, and when its training was done, it felt like the right place for it, even sent it away without a proper name but I see that they have taken care of that, and a good name even," Malthin said before taking a sip of his drink.
The two of them continued to talk and catch up on what the other one had been doing. Malthin complained a bit about the senate meeting, and they talked for some time until a servant came and announced that it was time for dinner. Princess Eza joined them at the dinner table and talked about how she believed that the Empire could use a legion of mounted archers and that she would like to create such a legion, but Malthin once again as he had done many times in the past told her that she should wait with her project til she at least 18 to which Eza just rolled her eyes and changed the topic.