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Hey Everyone!! 😊

With everything that's going on in politics in the US, I thought it might be fun to take a peek at the system of justice in the Summer Court of Fairie. Enjoy! 😉

Excerpt from Bound by the Summer Prince:

Uaine had listened to his mother’s description of her meeting with Roni with mounting concern.  He knew that something had been wrong for weeks, but his mate was either unwilling or unable to talk to him about it.  It was abundantly clear that he had been putting too much pressure on her to assume the queen’s duties before she was ready.

He had been worried about his mother’s depression, and had hoped that shifting some of the weight off of her shoulders might help.  Roni had seemed so strong and had never complained, so he hadn’t considered that her own mental equilibrium might be taxed by what he was asking of her.  His mate’s self-possession had allowed him to forget how much emotional upheaval she had experienced in such a short while.

First, she had been taken out of her world and thrust into a new and frightening one.  She was being forced to learn a whole different set of rules, and to adjust to different people, languages, customs, food, clothing, etc.  In short, everything that surrounded her was different.  As if that wasn’t enough, he had then piled on the responsibility for dispensing justice to some of the Court’s criminals, which required that she pass sentences she didn’t necessarily agree with.

The Fae viewed the execution of a murderer to be justice for the victim and their family.  The guilty party was considered to have forfeited their life by willfully taking another.  The judge who pronounced the sentence wasn’t considered responsible for the death of the criminal; the culprit had their execution on their own hands because of the crime they chose to commit.  In spite of this, Uaine could understand his Anamchara’s guilt over ordering the convicts to their deaths.

She was human, and he knew the human justice system worked much differently than the Faes’.  In past times, humans had often been more direct in their punishment of lawbreakers, but more recently the trend had changed.  Also, he knew from his conversations with her that humans spent a lot of time questioning the morality of things. 

This was usually a good thing; it was always important to try to act in a way that was fair to everyone.  Unfortunately, Roni was still having difficulty understanding just how tied to their essential natures the Fae were.  The denizens of Fairie were not just strange-looking humans, as she seemed to believe.  They were very different beings, and far less able than humans to change their behavior.

It was only through a very rigid, and somewhat harsh, system of justice that order could be maintained in the Courts.  The chaos that was a central characteristic of Fairie could only be held at bay by strict adherence to a code of laws.   The Fae had asked their goddess for peace, for a respite from the wars that had perpetually plagued them.  She gave them what they had asked for, but it came at a price. 

Uaine knew that Roni didn’t truly understand this yet.  He had tried to explain it to her, and he knew that Jillian, Seren, and his mother had as well, but the concept was so foreign to her that she seemed to have trouble absorbing it.  Much of her moral struggle with the Fae system of justice, stemmed from the fact that she still did not really grasp the nature of the Fae.

Hopefully, with time, his Anamchara would come to understand why the justice system had to be the way it was.  But until then, he needed to do something to help her cope with the strain she was under.  They had both been so busy with their respective duties that he hadn’t been able to spend much time with her except at night.

Every evening he worshipped her body with his own, and he was certain from her responses that she enjoyed their lovemaking.  Yet nearly every night she woke, either screaming or crying, but unable to tell him what troubled her.  The only solution he could think of was to take her away from the source of her stress: judging cases.  He hoped that even a short break would be enough to allow her to recharge.

Knowing that she had enjoyed exploring the village, he intended to invite her to accompany him there the next day. An intimate dinner and some dancing would occupy the evening. He would make sure she was allowed to just enjoy the day, and that she would not be troubled with any cares of the Court.

A day off seemed like the perfect way to combat burnout, and he intended to see that his Anamchara had one.

Want to find out what a day off in Fairie looks like? Grab your copy at the link below! 😉 Happy reading!

Bound by the Summer Prince