The Courier Ch. 23

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"This Court grants your request, Minister of Justice. If you believe these criminals have earned the privilege of wearing the brass ring, then this Court will comply with your desire."

"Thank you, Chief Justice."

The Chief Justice then turned his attention to the Grand Duke.

"Grand Duke, this Court has granted your request and the former servants of the Royal Residence are reassigned as of this moment. This Court again thanks you for your presence and your service to the nation. If you wish to depart from this courtroom, you are free to do so."

The Grand Duke then did something else totally unheard of from a Danubian sovereign, he saluted the Chief Justice, who stood and saluted back. Again the crowd looked at him with bewildered expressions, because he had just shown himself as a subordinate to a civilian official. Ignoring the stares of his audience, he calmly put on his hat, did a sharp about-face, and walked to the back of the room.

Not many people in the courtroom had yet noticed, but waiting for the Grand Duke was his father-in-law, the nation's Prime Minister. The two men left the courtroom and walked down the steps of the Central Courthouse, stepping between the waiting crowd and descending to the Central Plaza. From there they walked to the National Parliament Building. The Grand Duke was thoroughly depressed and what little fight he had in him was gone. The events over the past 24 hours had left him totally demoralized, something that Vladim Dukov planned to exploit as much as possible. Within two hours the Sovereign would address Parliament, speaking on behalf of passing reforms that would formally strip him of his remaining power.

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Once the Grand Duke departed, the only part of the reassignment hearing remaining was to re-collar the 30 former Royal Servants with Ministry of Justice collars. The fancy collars of the Royal Family needed to be taken off each criminal's neck, to be replaced with the drab collars used by the Ministry of Justice. Maria Elena noticed a definite change of mood among her fellow servants now that the collar technician had come out with the collar extractor and a cart carrying 30 new collars with brass rings. Already the criminals had been formally transferred but, there was an old Danubian saying that went:

"Dreams are what's in your head; reality is what's around your neck."

The Chief Justice felt no need to delay. Even as the collar technician was still getting set up, the judge ordered the first Spokesman to step forward with the four criminals assigned to him. The criminals immediately stood up, moved forward with their custodian, and resumed kneeling. A moment later the technician ordered the first of the criminals to come forward and kneel at a sturdy metal post with handles that was about a meter high. The criminal grabbed the handles and remained still as the technician lowered a scary-looking device that looked like a huge pair of pliers over her head. The official mounted the collar extractor on a loop at the top of the post and with several clamps attached it around the Royal House collar. A moment later there was a sharp metallic clank and the distinct sound of breaking metal. The latch of the Royal House collar was snapped and a second later it was off the criminal's neck. The technician repeated the extraction with the other three criminals of the first group. Then he set the extractor aside and ordered the first criminal to resume her position at the post. He lowered a second device over her head, the implement that would replace her broken Royal House collar with one from the Ministry of Justice.

The young woman was still a criminal, but she was very happy about the change. Maybe she was not completely free, but she certainly would have a lot more liberty than she had experienced any time over the past year. She would walk out on the street, go to work, eat when she wanted, and sleep in her own bed. More important than anything else, she would have the freedom to talk. For a person who had just endured what she had to face under Grand Duchess Anyia...that was enough for the time being.

Once the first group of criminals was re-collared, their Spokesman took them out of the courtroom. Unlike the hearing that formally ended a criminal's sentence, there would be no formal ceremony because the sentences were not ending or being reduced. The former Royal Servants may have felt elated that they would be returning to their families and their normal lives, but from the point of view of the court a reassignment was not the same thing as a release, and thus nothing to celebrate.

Because she lacked seniority, Spokeswoman Lee-Dolkivna's group was the fourth out of five to be re-collared. Like her companions, Maria Elena was hugely relieved once the collar of the Royal Family was off her neck. Once the Ministry of Justice collar had replaced it, she knew that she was wearing the proof that Grand Duchess Anyia had no further claim on her.

As soon as the last of her group was re-collared, Kim immediately led her seven foreign clients and Cecilia out of the courtroom and down the steps outside. There were joyous reunions between the criminals and their various friends, host families, and co-workers. Maria Elena was cheerfully greeted by Carmen and the other classmates, who whisked her off to the university to celebrate her return. The six other clients disappeared as well, leaving Kim and Cecilia standing alone on the stairs.

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Spokeswoman Lee-Dolkivna invited Cecilia to have lunch at a café near the Central Police Station before returning to work in her office. As they returned to the police headquarters, the two women noticed that the building was extremely quiet. They walked past the building's cafeteria and saw that it was completely packed with police officers and civilian employees, all crowded around a large television set. The normal programming had been canceled, replaced with live coverage of the nation's Parliament. Across the bottom of the screen were the words:

Válkt Dukókt Régis trebét dék Legítkci eta Deréchekti Korónkti

Translated into English the words meant: Royal Grand Duke renounces the Rights and Powers of the Crown.

Kim and Cecilia could tell the Danubians were mystified at the event unfolding on television. Why would the Grand Duke go to Parliament and surrender all his formal powers? It didn't make any sense, but obviously it was what the Sovereign wanted, because he was the one who had introduced the legislation. Grand Dukes up until that moment had the right to introduce legislation, but that was a power they rarely had exercised. There was huge irony that the Grand Duke had formally introduced a bill that, if passed, would be the last legislation ever submitted by a member of the Royal Family.

Parts of the Grand Duke's speech were replayed as the two women watched with the crowd of Danubians. The Grand Duke had a stricken look on his face as he rambled on about the need for the Danubian Royal family to change its role to adapt to the needs of modern society. Kim remembered that had been the same line he had spoken when he was in court returning the Royal Servants to the Ministry of Justice. She guessed those words must have come from the Duke's father-in-law, a statement that would spare the Royal Family from having to admit the real reason they were being forced to surrender their powers.

"The needs of modern society"...what total bullshit, thought Kim to herself. It was because of Anyia that the Grand Duke was forced to give up all of his privileges. Kim felt very sorry for him at that moment, because he was being forced to surrender not only his Constitutional authority, but that of all the future Grand Dukes who would come after him. The Spokeswoman sympathized with him because he really had not done anything. His only crime was not to make a stronger effort to control his wife's excesses, but Vladim Dukov was convinced that failure constituted dereliction of duty. Kim understood the Grand Duke's appearance in front of Parliament was to be his punishment for that failure. It turned out the punishment would be severe indeed, much more severe than it sounded when Dukov first mentioned it. The Sovereign had been forced to stand before the Legislature and ask to be permanently stripped of everything that had been passed down to him by his forbearers.

The Danubians were not so naïve to think that the Grand Duke would surrender all of his privileges if something unknown to the public had not forced him to do so. The fact that Vladim Dukov was standing right behind him, as though to prod him forward, offered a small clue that the surrender of Royal Privileges was coerced. The Duke's forlorn expression offered another clue, as did the expression of the Prime Minister. Vladim Dukov seemed very different from what the public was used to: he appeared cold, hardened, and ruthlessly determined as he waited for his son-in-law to finish his speech.

There was no question the legislation would pass, because the Grand Duke was the one who had introduced it. However, among the deputies there was endless chatter why the Grand Duke had requested such a radical reduction in his status. Some of the deputies took him at his word; that the change was needed to meet the needs of modern society. Most of the deputies knew better. They realized that there must have been a hidden scandal that had caused the Grand Duke to relinquish his privileges. The deputies also realized that Vladim Dukov must have known what the scandal was. The more perceptive deputies also understood that whatever had caused the Duke to present the legislation, it probably was something better left as a secret.

Kim and Cecilia could tell that most of the cops and Ministry employees surrounding them in the cafeteria were deeply troubled by what the Grand Duke was doing, because he remained a popular figure in Danubian society. Certainly no one wished him any harm or embarrassment, nor did anyone really want the Royal Family to lose any more of its influence. The room was full of discussion why the Grand Duke had made such a grave decision.

As they listened to the arguments and speculation about what had happened to the Grand Duke, Kim and Cecilia felt very guilty. They did not have to speculate, because they knew the awful truth. As much as they wanted to jump into the conversation and correct all the mistaken guesses circulating around the room, they didn't dare do so.

Many of the women in the cafeteria expressed concern over Grand Duchess Anyia. She had not been seen with the Grand Duke, which was unusual for a public appearance. She was so pretty and poised, such a wonderful partner for the nation's Sovereign. Wherever he went, she was at his side, always displaying a new outfit. Already the women missed her fashionable clothes...

Suddenly Kim realized something important from what she overheard. Grand Duchess Anyia was just starting to have an impact on Danubian society with her constant display of new and expensive clothing. That was behavior the Danubian public had not seen before and it was a change that many of the nation's women, especially the younger ones, found fascinating. Danubia always had been one country where people did not waste a large portion of their personal incomes on fashion, which the Danubian Church condemned as "the evil worship of cloth". Was it possible that, if left unchecked long enough, Anyia Dukov might have transformed that part of Danubian culture?

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Maria Elena's returned to Victor's house with the norteamericanos who wore collars in protest of her sentencing, plus a few others who had not participated in the collaring but still wanted to celebrate her reassignment. They accompanied her to the house, hugged her goodbye, and departed back in the direction of the university. Victor and Maria Elena hugged each other as they were reunited. The previous night she had been too exhausted to really care what was going on, but now, with the Ministry of Justice collar on her neck and after having spent an afternoon with her classmates, she truly felt that she was home.

Victor and Cecilia talked to Maria Elena about what had gone on that day; namely that the Grand Duke had surrendered most of his Royal Powers and requested that all Royal Property be transferred to the Interior Ministry. Victor then told the two women that he wanted to pray and give thanks to the Ancients that Maria Elena had safely returned. They went out into the back yard and under the stars they prayed, with Victor leading the prayers.

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Later Maria Elena and Victor returned to his bedroom. For a long time she lay quiet while he studied the fading welts and bruises that continued to cover her body. He touched her tenderly. She had expected that, after the rough treatment at the hands of Anyia's assistant, she would be afraid of being touched. However, her love for Victor far overwhelmed the trauma she had just endured, and she longed to feel his hands on her body again. Gradually she took control and got him to lie on his stomach. She massaged him, rolled him over, and worked him into an erection. When he tried to sit up and take her, she pressed her hand on his chest to silently command him to lie back down. She continued to work him into an erotic frenzy with her touches, but let him know that she was the one who would control their love-making that night. Finally she straddled him and lowered herself over his very hard penis. She gently rocked back and forth as he pumped semen into her. He climaxed and slowly went limp as she continued to straddle him.

Maria Elena took longer to climax, but finally she did have an orgasm. It was extremely important to her...because she felt that until she had made love with Victor, she would not truly have escaped the torment she had endured in the Royal Residence. The orgasm that night might not have been one of her best, but at least she had it.

The couple fell asleep in each other's arms. As she drifted off to sleep, Maria Elena finally felt that she truly had returned home...returned to the place where she belonged.

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