The practice of palace etiquette had ended and now concubines could leave their palaces to see the inner complex; Huge place where the beauties of the king used to live. A place where the only man who could enter was the emperor.

There were women in the place and each one held a different rank, a status that Ezra had to respect. The ranks among concubines ranged from the royal assistants, the lowest echelon of the hierarchy, to the top of the pyramid occupied by the empress.

Among these ranks were also the imperial concubines, higher up the secondary wives of the third and second category.

Ezra was only a low-level concubine, and no enmities with the other wives and concubines could be allowed. The hatred of a concubine could trigger the most terrible acts. And she did not want to be a victim of them.

The girl toured the small palace that had been assigned to her and although at first, she thought it was simply not habitable, when she saw the other cameras in perfect condition, she could say that it was only lack of maintenance and cleaning.

Her monthly allowance as a concubine could be extravagant, but from there she would have to get the money for the work of her servants. At the end of the month the girl was left with few Dirham¹ for herself.

A little more than a month had passed, and still the king had not called her. Although he probably never did, and truth be told, Ezra didn't care much about it. In fact, the woman had been developing characteristics that made her invisible, namely silence and apparent shyness. She simply did not mean any attractive point for the king and therefore, no risk for concubines.

On the other hand, Badar Alid did seem to succeed, because after being summoned by the king she quickly became pregnant. Ezra was glad for Badar's success, but at the same time he also worried, would the other wives attack Badar?

Now that her friend had become pregnant, the king had promoted her to imperial concubine, thus raising her economic status. Ezra knew that soon Badar would receive the attacks of the other beauties and she as her best friend would be there to defend her.

Ezra was dying to visit Badar and one morning he left his palace for his friend's. When he arrived, he marveled at how beautiful and arranged Badar's palace was and even made him want to leave his current palace and move there.

Ezra quickly passed the hall and entered the main chamber decorated in blue and gray colors. The place was just cozy.

"Ezra, it's good to have you here. Let us sit down.

Badar invites her to have breakfast and after a few minutes of waiting the food arrives: there were all kinds of delicacies and delicacies on the table.

"You've done very well, I think you're the king's favorite right now," they say in the middle of the meal.

"Yes, your majesty comes here a lot.

"And how is your pregnancy going?" You should take care of yourself and check your meals.

"I know, Ezra. You are like my mother. A eunuch always tastes my meals before eating them.

"That's fine. You must take care of yourself, and know the steps of your service, if you do not have a loyal eunuch or a good maiden it is like walking blindfolded and in front of you having an abyss.

Badar nodded in as he devoured his food. His appetite was insatiable.

After finishing the meal, they ask to remove the empty plates, and both go back to the golden chamber.

"Do you think I should protect myself from the other concubines?" Badar asks, uneasily.

"Of course! —he replies energetically.

…

Ezra left the palace of the imperial concubine Alid, behind her was calmly walking her maid, Tafur. On the way back, Ezra walked the wide corridors of the harem and also observed the facades of the palaces of the Empress, Consort Akil and Mrs. Cadi. If the palace of Badar was so impressive, the palaces of the great wives would be even more so.

So absorbed in the luxurious facades of the palaces, Ezra did not realize that the royal carriage was going straight towards her.

When he realized that the carriage was approaching, he tried to move faster and avoid closeness with the man.

However, a male voice stopped her from a brake. Ezra lamented his bad luck and turned to greet the emperor as etiquette dictated.

"Why didn't you greet his majesty earlier?" The chief eunuch asked.

Ezra in his head began to look for reasons to justify his disrespect.

"Your majesty is worthy of using the corridor, I would only be a hindrance to you and so I deviated from the path.

"What's your name?" The king asked.

Ezra kept his head down and subtly tried to see the king but failed to see him. Ezra did not want to reveal her name thinking that the king would punish her.

"Ezra, Ezra Azzar," he said in a weak voice.

Ezra felt the caravan drifting away in a waterspout of elegance and surprised by the king's indulgent behavior she rose from the ground with the help of her maid.

"Madame Azzar, didn't you find your majesty's attitude strange?"

"It is.

Ezra feared what might happen after that strange and short encounter with the king. I assumed nothing, but still deep inside I suspected otherwise. If he called the king's attention, his logic told him that in that case he had to maintain the favor as it were, because his formula of non-existence would lose effectiveness.

A concubine who fell out of favor with the king was the favorite pastime of high-ranking wives. It was a matter of survival and often superiority. If a wife acquired significant power in the hierarchy, she would make her power known to the other wives and what better way to make herself felt than to oppress the less powerful.

The empress was the only one who was not obliged to pay homage to anyone other than the king and his mother. On the other hand, other women had a duty to bow down to anyone who stood above them. That was the greatest display of hypocrisy; In appearance they showed virtue and kindness, but their hearts were full of evil desires with the aim of ascending how climbing branch that is propelled with any element in its path, without even caring if the rest drowned in the immensity of its poisonous leaves.

Ezra hated the narcissistic attitudes of concubines. But he soon understood why those attitudes of superiority were the disease that corroded the king's wives, for they would slowly begin to take root in his heart.

***

[¹] Dirham: silver coin during the Abbasid dynasty.