章 18: Life-changing proposal

When he read the letter, his facial expressions gradually formed a shocked expression. Then he frowned. He looked at Jabalah, right in his eyes.

"Is this letter not a forgery? Can you assure me?"

"Your Majesty, I can assure you this is the exact letter my Basileus gave me for you."

Yazdegerd frowned.

"Very well. I presume I can discuss it with my advisor, right?"

"Do as you please, your Majesty."

Yazdegerd vaguely nodded towards Rostam, who immediately understood. Then he took two cups with wine and excused themselves. Then they exited the room. They stood in the hall outside of the room silently, Rostam waiting for Yazdegerd to let him know what this is about. Yazdegerd gave him the letter without uttering a word.

"Read it, my spahbed."

Rostam looked curiously at Yazdegerd and then at the letter. It was written in Greek script, which Rostam understood. He was a literate man, knowing how to speak many languages. As he was reading, he sometimes murmured what he read out loud.

"With a offer of cooperation… to forge a bond of our empires…"

Then he froze, put the letter down and smiled at Yazdegerd. Yazdegerd immediately knew he was overjoyed from the contents of the letter.

"My spahbed, tell me, without any courtesy, what do you think would be the best? What should I do? Because I have no idea."

Rostam took the young Shah's request to heart. Without any boundaries, he told the young Shah what he thought.

"Do you have anything against it? I think it is a great opportunity to bond our nations together, to secure a peace for our time. Or maybe you have anyone else sought after?"

Yazdegerd felt like he should be embarrassed a bit. But he wasn't. He didn't really wanted to be. Maybe it was the last bit of a child he once was escaping from him.

"My spahbed, you should know that I never had the chance or opportunity to fall in love. And now, when Emperor of Romans is offering me his youngest daughter's hand, I have no idea what to do."

Ascending the throne at a very young age of eight, Yazdegerd never had the chance to experience the so-called first love, the childish ones. He never got the opportunity to make many friends, having most of his life living without parents in custody or locked somewhere. And when he finally got out, what awaited him wasn't a life of a child, but a life full of responsibilities. But he never sought after the life that was stolen from him. He never wanted to throw away the responsibilities and live a carefree life of a child. Maybe it was because such life didn't interest him, maybe because he never knew the joys of such life, never understood it. And during his for now short reign, he never thought about marrying. And thought he won't have to for at least few years. He gulped a bit of the wine from the cup he brought over.

"My Shahanshah, may he be immortal, this decision is purely on you and you should know I'll support you whatever decision you'll make. But, as I said, I think this is a great opportunity."

"Thank you, my spahbed. I thought it over. And you're right. I don't think we'll get a better opportunity than this one. I'll accept their proposal. After asking a few questions, of course."

The doors opened yet again, and Yazdegerd with Rostam emerged from the entrance. Yet their faces weren't as stern as when they entered for the first time. They were calm. Calm and collected. Yazdegerd sat down whereas Rostam stood next to him.

"King Jabalah, I want you to tell me about her. Name, age, anything you see fit. Then I'll make my decision."

"Your Majesty, youngest princess of the Empire of Romans bears the name Roxane, which means "Protectress" in Greek. She is six years old, is bright and cheerful. Has brown hair and emerald eyes-"

"That will suffice, King Jabalah. I do not need to know how she looks like. You will ruin my surprise."

Jabalah smiled at Yazdegerd's remark – he started to like this young man more and more.

"I accept the proposal of your Basileus. I accept the engagement. You can return to him with this." said Yazdegerd and started writing a letter for Emperor of Romans. After he finished, he handed the letter to Jabalah.

"Give him this, for his eyes only. I will house you and your company for tonight in Palace guestrooms and prepare the supplies for your return. After all, from today on, we are allies."

Jabalah smiled and nodded.

"Thank you, your Majesty."

Yazdegerd then proclaimed the meeting as finished and called for servants. They cleared everything out of the table and then led Jabalah with his interpreter, who wasn't really needed in the end, to the guestrooms. Right now, Jabalah was regretting he didn't drink any of the wine. He just felt like drinking some.

When the envoys left, Yazdegerd sat down together with Rostam. The meeting was more stressful than he thought it would be. He was glad they didn't mention the change of seat of power – that he was in Istakhr and not in Ctesiphon.

"You did great, my Shahanshah, may he be immortal."

"Thank you, my spahbed. But please, without the formalities when we're in private."

Rostam smiled and sighed.

"What will you do now, my Shah? When do you intend to meet you future Shahanshahbanu, or Empress?"

"Please, my spahbed. I didn't even think about it. I'll meet her when the time comes. Right now, I don't really care."

"My Shah, I do not wish to barge into your private, but hear this one advice from me. I have my wife also because of a political marriage. And breaking such marriage will cause an outrage."

"And your advice is?"

"My advice is that you should try to get along with her as much as possible, so you don't torment yourself, not being able to break the marriage off."

After hearing that, Yazdegerd immediately started regretting his decision.