Selim

The Manisa Palace had already become accustomed to the new concubines transferred from the harem of Shehzade Bayezid, but accustoming did not mean accepting them.

Rumors spread quickly.

Too fast for a place where every whisper usually passes through dozens of ears before becoming fact.

• She was in Bayezid’s harem...
• They say it was prepared specifically for him... -Then why was she transferred here?

These words were repeated in different corners of the harem - quietly, carefully, but persistently, until they became almost habitual.

And soon they went beyond the women's quarters.

In the inner palace, the servants had already heard them.

Then - the courtiers.

And then the ones who really mattered.

Shehzade Selim did not immediately notice this.

At first it was just background: conversations between advisers, snatches of phrases in the corridors, the too frequent mention of the same name among harem news.

But one day he stopped.

“From Bayezid’s harem?” he repeated in an even voice, without looking up from the documents.

The room became quieter.

No one was in a hurry to answer right away - and that was already an answer.

"Yes," one of the confidants finally said cautiously. "One of the new concubines. They say she was transferred along with the others."

The pause dragged on.

Selim slowly put the papers aside.

His face did not change, but his gaze became more attentive.

“And the palace has already decided who she is,” he said calmly, as if not asking, but stating.

Nobody answered.

And this silence turned out to be louder than any words.

He hasn't seen you yet.

But the name had already become part of his thoughts - and not in the best sense.