Storybit....Installment One.
Pardon me for being a bit behind in this folks. I hope you enjoy it.
I look out from among this outcropping of rock. Rub al Kali appears the way it always has except for the Blight. As I gaze out on the dunes of the Forbidden Desert, I wonder if I will ever see my home again. The moonlight looks beautiful on the dune sands. It is only marred by the scar of the Blight here and there. And what an ugly scar upon my homeland it is.
I am Samas Bin-Zahra. I am of the Royal Family of Alhambra. I hold the position of The Royal Arbitrator of the Court. Supposedly, it is a position of esteem. What it really means is that my mother, The Queen of this land, shoves any decision she doesn't want to deal with, on my shoulders. It is a position of responsibility that I take seriously. It is a position that I must abandon for awhile. My duties and my fate appear to be taking me elsewhere for the time being.
My fate, it is what brings me to this outcropping of rock in the dunes of the Forbidden Desert tonight. Though I have not needed salt nor steel with Marhta for years and years, I keep them ready. She is a Jinn, a Sila of her kind to be more specific. For many years she has been my friend, my teacher, and if truth be told, we have always been lovers. I will note that it has never happened in actuality. But if thoughts count for anything, we have been lovers for decades. I feel rather sick within my heart.
She will appear at any moment, and then the fight will begin again. Her kind has suffered from the Blight as much, if not more than mine. I have always been able to convince her not to go into it. But now that I am leaving, she will go. I know it as sure as I breathe. I also know she will not come back. For I am also a Priest of Ab, and I can feel Her Doom heavily upon her.
There she is. She has snuck up behind me as her kind can do so well. She will be changing form, taking the shape of breath-taking beauty that I have become so comfortable with, and so guarded against. I must turn and face her. And in doing so, I may destroy one of the foundations of my life.
I look out from among this outcropping of rock. Rub al Kali appears the way it always has except for the Blight. As I gaze out on the dunes of the Forbidden Desert, I wonder if I will ever see my home again. The moonlight looks beautiful on the dune sands. It is only marred by the scar of the Blight here and there. And what an ugly scar upon my homeland it is.
I am Samas Bin-Zahra. I am of the Royal Family of Alhambra. I hold the position of The Royal Arbitrator of the Court. Supposedly, it is a position of esteem. What it really means is that my mother, The Queen of this land, shoves any decision she doesn't want to deal with, on my shoulders. It is a position of responsibility that I take seriously. It is a position that I must abandon for awhile. My duties and my fate appear to be taking me elsewhere for the time being.
My fate, it is what brings me to this outcropping of rock in the dunes of the Forbidden Desert tonight. Though I have not needed salt nor steel with Marhta for years and years, I keep them ready. She is a Jinn, a Sila of her kind to be more specific. For many years she has been my friend, my teacher, and if truth be told, we have always been lovers. I will note that it has never happened in actuality. But if thoughts count for anything, we have been lovers for decades. I feel rather sick within my heart.
She will appear at any moment, and then the fight will begin again. Her kind has suffered from the Blight as much, if not more than mine. I have always been able to convince her not to go into it. But now that I am leaving, she will go. I know it as sure as I breathe. I also know she will not come back. For I am also a Priest of Ab, and I can feel Her Doom heavily upon her.
There she is. She has snuck up behind me as her kind can do so well. She will be changing form, taking the shape of breath-taking beauty that I have become so comfortable with, and so guarded against. I must turn and face her. And in doing so, I may destroy one of the foundations of my life.