by Marian Unn
*****
When the season for political matters came around, I was forced to stay within the private quarters of the palace. As the gossip spread even to the guards outside my own door, Merek forbade me from even leaving my room. Whether his actions were taken to hide his shameful mother or to protect me, which I doubted, this stifling seclusion was all the more excruciating with his silence on the matter. More than the maddening seclusion, I realized through this incident that I truly was powerless against my son. If he told me to go, I went. If he told me to stay, I stayed. If he told me to hide, I hid. When he told me to seclude myself to my quarters, I did. His utter control over my every action made me realize, all the more, that I had neither the strength nor the courage to stand against my own son. And most likely, I never would.
