[Lauchenoiria]

After taking advice from some Eirian PR specialists, Natasha Robinson chose to quietly announce her pregnancy on social media and then unplug the landline before the press could start calling. She posted an hour after publishing deadlines would already have passed locally in Eiria, and then sat down with Camille to play a board game. They’d invited Imogen to join, but she’d just stuck her tongue out and went back to reading Kerlian propaganda books in her room.

Camille thoroughly trounced Natasha at their game, by which time she was feeling a little braver, and checked her phone. That was a big mistake. The internet had taken to calling her every name under the sun. It did not seem to matter what political position an individual had for them to have some reason to dislike Natasha. She was a slut, a prude, a misogynist, a misandrist, a tragic teen mother, a spoiled rich girl, who should have abstained, or got an abortion, or…

She switched her phone back off, and went to find her mother. Carmen was in the home gym they’d set up doing the gentle exercises doctors had recommended she do to recover fully from her ordeal in the Restricted Region. Natasha hopped on a treadmill beside where her mother sat doing stretches.

“Does the entire world hate us, or something?” Natasha asked her mother.

“Probably,” Carmen shrugged. “We were a Council Family which means everyone anti-Kerlile considers us suspicious misandrists. And we betrayed Kerlile, which means everyone pro-Kerlile considers us traitorous misogynists.”

“Great, that’s just what I want for my life and my kid’s life,” Natasha replied, turning the speed up on the treadmill.

“They’ll calm down,” Carmen said. “It’s all fresh right now. Nobody knows quite what to think of us after the Aurora affair. But as time passes, politics will move on and we can fade into obscurity if that is our wish. Although, I would have cautioned against getting mixed up with royalty if obscurity was your desire.”

“Trust me, I wish I’d taken that advice,” Natasha shuddered. “Here’s hoping that Republic Now! does well in the next set of Zongongian elections.”

*

Over in Zongongia, Prince Kristofer was throwing things around his room while ranting aloud about Natasha using words that would be deemed Anti-Matriarchal Activity in their own right over in neighbouring Kerlile. It was morning in Eiria, and late evening in Zongongia, making him all the more irate. There was no way he would get a wink of sleep tonight after that girl basically told the world she’d left him and taken their child!

“We have to do something!” he shouted at his father. King Osvald merely sighed and waited for his son to get it all out. Only after Kristofer had thrown around some more expensive ornaments and collapsed in exhaustion on a chair did the King choose to reply.

“There is little we can do,” Osvald told his son. “Do you expect us to attack Eiria and drag the girl back here?”

“No, but you could, I don’t know, ask the Eirians to hand her back!” Kristofer replied.

“I will speak to the Prime Minister about submitting such a request, but the chances of Eiria honouring it are slim to none,” the King shook his head. “They do not recognise the taking of an unborn baby as kidnapping in Eiria, or most countries for that matter. And while we can prove to them that the child, Imogen, was working as a Kerlian spy, she is eleven. They are unlikely to extradite her.”

“Unlikely doesn’t mean impossible,” pointed out the Prince. “We have to at least try!”

“If you insist,” the King said, shaking his head.

*

The Theocratic Kingdom of ZONGONGIA formally requests the extradition of three individuals from the Democratic Republic of EIRIA. These individuals are as follows:

NATASHA ROBINSON, citizenship Kerlian, on the charge of KIDNAPPING of the unborn child of Prince Kristofer.

IMOGEN ROBINSON, citizenship Kerlian, on the charge of ESPIONAGE for the Matriarchy of Kerlile.

CARMEN ROBINSON, citizenship Kerlian, on the charge of AIDING AND ABETTING the KIDNAPPING of the unborn child of Prince Kristofer.