chapter •anastasia

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Raziye woke early in the morning in a happy mood. The curtains on her windows were opened up and she saw many of her ladies standing all around the room and bows. She sat up just as Gulbahar approaches her.

"Very good morning, Sultana." Gulbahar says. She held a cloth towel in her hand and two other girls approach her with a bowl of cold water and watering pot. She washed her face and Gulbahar handed her the cloth.

"Sultana, what dress do you desire to wear today?" One of the ladies asks. Three harem girls each held a dress in their hands. One green, one yellow, and one purple. Raziye points towards the green dress and they quickly left to prepare it.

She is helped put on the dress and after Gulbahar fixes her hair as other girls are bring in her breakfast. A knock is here at her door and an Agha walks in and bows. Gulbahar approaches and leans into hear what he has to say. She nods at the Agha and he leaves.

"Sultana." Gulbahar says as she goes back to fixing up Raziye's hair. "Fahriye Sultan wishes to spend breakfast with you in her suite." Raziye stays quiet looking at herself in the mirror.

"Alright then." Raziye says, smoothing out her dress. She looks at the breakfast brought for her and then to the servants in her rooms. They bow to her and she smiles as them. Hard workers, she never lets that go unrewarded. "Thank you all for your hard work. Enjoy the breakfast."

Servants looked at one another in shock. It was silent until one girl bows.

"Thank you, Sultana. May Allah protect you." She says. She was followed by more thank yous. They pick up the tray of foods to move it to the harem where they will eat and possibly brag away the special treat that have gotten. Raziye smiles and leaves her room with Gulbahar following behind. Waking through the corridor, Gulbahar starts to talk.

"You are very kind, Sultana. It's no wonder why the people in the palace and of the city love you so." She says following close behind. Raziye nods her head.

"I must help the people who are hardworking and the less fortunate. It's my duty as a Sultana of the greatest empire of the world." Raziye tells her. Gulbahar nods in agreement.

"It truly is an honor to serve you, my Sultana." Raziye stops and takes Gulbahar's hand.

"Thank you for your loyalty towards me. My mother always taught me, loyalty is everything. And I reward loyalty with loyalty. I reward disloyalty with distance." Raziye says. Gulbahar took her words at heart and lowers her head. The whole way to Fahriye Sultan's suite, it was a silent trip.








Noon came along and Raziye returns from her sister's suite, having spent the whole morning there. As she is making her way to the gardens outside, she was able to hear Dudu Kalfa speak. Cennet Kalfa then spoke with annoyance to Dudu.

"Do what you want, but I'll tell you one thing, Dudu Hatun. This girl is different from the others! Safiye Sultan brought her from the other side of the world. A very special gift for our Sultan." Cennet Kalfa says to Dudu. She looks at the harem girls. Raziye stops outside the doors, not yet seen by anyone. Of course, she was very curious as to what the gift was, more towards who. "And the rest of you treat her based on that."

Cennet turns around and tries to strut away when she saw Raziye. She freezes and bows.

"Sultana!" Cennet gasps and announces. All the other bow as well, except for young new hatun named Anastasia. Raziye lifts her dress a bit from the ground and walks forward into the harem. She shows in her face that she was a bit annoyed with this little argument, she was having such a nice day until it.

"Sultana." Dudu Kalfa greets.

"What is going on here?" Raziye asks Dudu, but Cennet bows and starts to speak.

"Sultana. Valide Safiye Sultan ordered me to take Mahpeyker to a private room of her own, Dudu Hatun has ordered to have her in the harem with the others." Cennet snitches, glaring at Dudu. Raziye looks at the older Kalfa for an explanation of her actions.

"My Sultana. Valide Handan Sultan orders this. The girl is to be with the rest of the others, following the rules." Dudu explains. Raziye shuts her eyes and holds her head high

Anastasia watches how this girl, maybe the same age as her, maybe older, was being treated with the best respect and given explanations by these two old women. Raziye opens her eyes and looks at Anastasia. Anastasia averts her eyes. Raziye walks a bit closer seeing the great resemblance of the painting Ahmed has.

"I see." Raziye starts and stares at Anastasia like a hawk. "And if I were to throw you into the sea, will your Valide Handan Sultan say anything otherwise?" Raziye asks Dudu. Dudu averts her gaze to the ground. Cennet smirks and Raziye saw this. "How about you, Cennet? Will my mother save you?"

Cennet freezes and lowers her eyes. Raziye glares at them both. Some of the harem girls shift in there place when Raziye looks around.

"You two are here to manage the harem, to keep it under control, not to fight with each other." Raziye reminds and showing her annoyance to everyone in the harem. She turns slightly and makes her way to the entrance to leave. "The girl—Mahpeyker—will stay in the harem."

Before Raziye could leave in peace, Anastasia speaks with angry. Someone else had called her Mahpeyker, SHE WAS NOT MAHPEYKER!

"My name is Anastasia!" She calls out in her mother-tongue. Raziye stops in place. Gulbahar's eyes widen and she walks towards Anastasia to grab her by the arm tightly.

"Show some manners, Hatun! This is a Sultana you just yelled at." Gulbahar hisses. Anastasia glares at her and tries to pull her arm of Gulbahar's grasp. Raziye turns around and walks forward to stand in front of Anastasia. She grabs her chin roughly and looks at her in the eyes. The girl had the same pretty eyes as in her painting.

"Mahpeyker, Anastasia or whatever your name may be now. You are in the palace of the Sultan. You are here for the same reason as the rest of these girls—" Raziye motions her head to the other slave girls in the harem.
"to serve our Sultan and the royal family. I know now that my mother, Safiye Sultan, brought you here as a gift to our Sultan Ahmed, which means you'll be the first one. " Raziye says in Greek. "But you must be respectful to those above your status. Think of this as a lesson. Cause no trouble, be polite, do as you are told. You have not been in the harem a full day and already you make rivals." Raziye whispers low to Anastasia. Anastasia looks to the other girls in the room and back to Raziye.

"You speak my language?" Anastasia asks softly to Raziye. The Sultana smile slightly at the girl and let her go.

"I know many languages." Raziye says. Anastasia lowers her head. This girl had so much innocent, she knew it will be corrupted one day. Raziye looks to Gulbahar and motions her forward. "Watch over her. There are many girls who already don't like her." She tells Gulbahar, speaking about the slave girls in the harem who glare at the newest addition.

"Your wishes are orders, my Sultana." Gulbahar bows. Raziye nods and walks away to her destination. They all bow as Raziye leaves. Once she was gone, Anastasia looks to the other girls and saw dirty looks towards her. She looks away with a grumpy face.















Outside the gardens, Raziye and Gulbahar wall in the same pace. Raziye let's out a loud sigh. Gulbahar looks to her mistress in concern.

"Is everything alright, Sultana?" Gulbahar asks. Raziye nods and smiles.

"I can tell even now that this girl will be a lot of trouble." Raziye laughs and shakes her head from side to side.

"Does that not worry you, Sultana?" Gulbahar asks curiously. Raziye looks at her and sighs.

"It should, and I know it will. My mother brought her here and that annoyed Handan Sultan greatly, but mother know what she is doing. She is always four steps ahead, but even that can not ease me." Raziye says. Suddenly Gulbahar stops walking making Raziye stop as well in question.

"What would you like me to do to ease your mind?" Gulbahar asks. Her head was bowed to the ground and her hands clamped in front of her, awaiting an answer.

"Just...watch the girl careful. In the end, she can't be the one to get hurt. She didn't mean to come here, but this is her home now and she will be Ahmed's first concubine."

"Of course, my Sultana." Gulbahar bows. Raziye motions her hand for Gulbahar to keep walking with her. They soon make it to the center of the garden where they found Ahmed, Mustafa, and an unknown man there with wooden swords for practice. She pauses and watches as the man trains with Mustafa, going ease of him. Mustafa's laughing caused Raziye to smile brightly, knowing he is having a wonderful time. She continues walking.

"MAKE WAY!" The Agha announces. All the guards turn away and Ahmed looks up from Mustafa to see who it was. Mustafa thought it may have been his mother to take him back to the chambers, but instead it was Raziye and he was happy.

"Aunt Raziye!" Mustafa yells and quickly runs to Raziye's direction. The man with them bows his head and looks away as well.

"Mustafa!" Raziye exclaims and gives the boy a hug. Mustafa lets go and they walk together hand in hand back to Ahmed. Raziye bows.

"Your Majesty." Raziye greets.

"Raziye, how are you on this day?" Ahmed asks. Raziye smiles and nods.

"Very well, thank you for asking. How are you, my Sultan?"

"We are great. Mustafa and I were sparing earlier and he was happy not to be in the company of the women in our family for a while." The sound of it made Raziye give a small frown to Mustafa. It was a playful one, but Raziye made it seem like he hurt her feeling. She crouches down.

"Do you not love us anymore, my Sehzade?" Raziye asks. Mustafa softly touches Raziye face and shakes his head.

"I will always love you, Raziye. And my mother and Dilruba and Safiye Sultan." Mustafa says to try and make Raziye smile. He was successful. Raziye smiles and picked him up.

"I'd like you to meet someone, Raziye." Ahmed says and moves out of the way to point at the man. Raziye nods and steps forward as Ahmed clamped his hand onto the man's shoulder. "This is Mustafa Efendi, son of my vizier, Lala Ibrahim Pasha."

"Sultana. It is a great honor to be in your presence, as it is in the presence His Majesty." Mustafa Efendi speaks. He was handsome, Raziye admits. Tall, strong features, well built, the dream husband for any woman. But Raziye wasn't like any other woman.

She noticed that they waited for Raziye to respond or, at least, make a sound to show she was listening.

"Hmm." Raziye makes the sound. It made Mustafa Efendi look up and stare at the Sultana who was dubbed, The most beautiful in all the world. She truly was, as Mustafa could see. They did a little staring match, but Raziye eventually looking away to look at the Sultan and gave her famous smile.

"I must be going, Safiye Sultan is expecting me." Raziye informs Ahmed and he nods to allow her to leave. Raziye plants a kiss on the young Sehzade Mustafa's light curls and gives Mustafa Efendi and nod behind leaving with her ladies following.






Up in the Valide Sultan's terrace, Safiye Sultan watches with a smirk on her face and a bejeweled cup of coffee in her hand. She watches as her daughter bows and leaves the presence of Ahmed. She watches as Mustafa Efendi, who Safiye had called on to arrange an unexpected meeting between he and Raziye, watches Raziye leave. This was her plan. Mustafa and Raziye, with that came the support of Lala Ibrahim Pasha for Safiye and a rich husband for her daughter.

She watches and plans.






NO, I DID NOT EDIT. I'M SOOOOO SORRY.

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