062: A Day of Reckoning

[Zaim al-Daleel]

PCs
Alexandros
Keesha
Maher
Saqir
Waleed
Ya’qub

NPCs
Adila: Cursed bearer of the Seal
Batul al-Reehan al-Dihlizi: Prosperous Trader. Keesha’s father
Jaheira, Wudei’a, Najiba: Waleed’s body guards
Liana al-Halal: Batul’s deceased first wife. Keesha’s mother.
Mabruk al Hanash: Wife of Batul. Keesha’s stepmother
Mamoun: Waleed’s servant
Noora abd Reehan: al-Reehan household servant. Keesha’s nursemaid
Omar bin Mabruk: Son of Batul and Mabruk. Keesha’s half-brother
Sahra: Ya’qub’s wife



9th of Saris

As the cock crowed to greet the rising sun, breakfast was ready at the al-Reehan household. You were led up several wide flights of stairs to a white and blue tiled terrace over looking the city. You sat crosslegged on the carpeted floor around the al-Reehan table and did not have to wait long before the sharp smell of coffee reached you, carried on trays by the servants as they emerged with that black nectar and trays of warm, green olive stuffed pitas.

Batul’s face was haggard and thoughtful, as if he’d been unable to sleep after the feast. He distractedly introduced a recent guest to the household as Alexandros Makednos; no explanation of who Alexandros was or how he’d come to his current position at Batul’s side. After a moment, Batul leaned forward and lifted the delicate white coffee urn.

“It is my honor to pour coffee to each of my guests and to each member of my house,” said Batul. His old hands trembled slightly, the occasional spilt drop causing his wrinkled face to twist in frustration. “It is a tradition as old as time immemorial and binds us to our culture and to our ancestors.”

Sahra held out her small cup to be filled, nodding her appreciation for the offering and in recognition of the wisdom of his words. As the old man moved on to fill Mabruk’s cup, Sahra squeezed Ya’qub’s hand lovingly. She glanced around the table, puzzled for a moment by an unoccupied place setting at the table. Saqir was missing.

“It’s a tradition not unlike the bond of salt,” Batul continued, pausing to look into the eyes of his younger wife. “When a guest takes the salt of the host he knows that no harm will befall him. He will be as safe and welcome in that house as one of the master’s own children.”

Batul broke his wife’s gaze and continued pouring around the table, pausing over Saqir’s cup.

“In this fashion the Caliph, the sheik, and the sheep herder share a common tradition that binds them, one and all. Breaking that tradition is unthinkable.” Moving on to the next guest, Batul continued around the table until everyone was served.

As he poured his own he fell silent. Raising the cup to his lips he sipped slowly, his thick grey eyebrows furrowed in thought. “Liana came to me again last night, as she has many times in the past… one of the reasons I have spent so much time away from here. The wise Alexandros has counseled me in this matter and assures me this is not the imaginations of an old fool or a madman. My dearest Liana has been trying to tell me what in my heart I’ve known is true.”

His countenance darkened and his unfriendly glare fell on Lady Mabruk. “You shame me with every breath your draw.”

Noora gasped, a pita hovering halfway to her open mouth. Omar’s unbelieving, wide eyes darted back and forth between his parents.

“How dare…” Mabruk’s indignant defense was cut short by the sight of Batul’s mamluk guards drawing their scimitars.

“I dare,” Batul replied, “and I have no doubt the Emira will judge you guilty. Seize her!”

As the mamluks closed in, Lady Mabruk snarled and rubbed the ruby ring on her finger. A smokeless flame flashed and there appeared above the table a great horned head. “Who shall I kidnap or assassinate for you now, oh most powerful mistress?”

[Zaim al-Daleel]

"Aw nuts..." Waleed muttered at the sight of the efreet. He knew what he must do, run.

But as Fate would have it, he was far to noble for such an enterprise and so he quickly decided on a second course of action. He had to silence Lady Mabruk before she could voice her death sentence.

A Binder of Air, Waleed immediately casted a spell to steal Lady Mabruks voice. No voice box, no voice.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Maher, usually a quick, silent thinker, just swung out his machete on impulse, ready for the worst.

His thirst will have to wait later, he told his mind.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Alexandros raised an eyebrow at the sudden signs of struggle, but at the flash of the evil ring and appearance of the fiend he raised his sword and brought it down to smite the wicked creature.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Momentarily stunned, Ya'qub reacted. He flung his body over Sahra, intending to protect her from whatever would come next.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Waleed's spell earned him a furious look from Lady Mabruk. The same look withered his spell into nothing more than a breeze that ruffled her hair. Her fury was suddenly hidden behind a wall of flames that rose crackling from the floor, cutting Lady Mabruk off from the approaching mamluks.

Mamoun cried out in pain, quickly withdrawing his smoldering arm, aborting his attempt to cut the ring from Lady Mabruk's finger.

Ya'qub saw the danger and rolled himself and his bride away from the table. Sahra cried out in surprise.

With grim determination, the mamluks leaped through the flames.

Noora lifted her large frame and backing away, prayed quietly.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Assured of Sahra's safety, Ya'qub looked back at the awful scene. His brow furrowed in concentration, he began a surreptitious spell , muttered under his breath, through clenched gapped-teeth, and unmindful of the occasional lisped words.

If only I could heat the metal of the ring enough to make this evil woman cast it from her hand! He intensified his focus on the slim metal band encircling the witch's finger.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Disgusted by his apparent lack of success, Waleed cried out, "Mamoun move back! Girls, do NOT attack the Efreet, protect Batul." With a hand movement, he directed his "Girls" and then once more sent out a blast of air, intending to render Mabruk incapable of voicing her curse and also slamming her into the nearest wall.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

“Get behind me!” Lady Mabruk yelled from behind the blistering wall of flames. At her feet, a speechless Omar stared wide eyed at his mother. “Obey…” Her snarled command was cut short as she raised her arm defensively. Omar remained rooted to the floor, his face bovine in its confusion as his mother strained to deflect the raging gout of flame that threatened to engulf them both.

In the moment Waleed ‘s spell collapsed he spied the baleful face of Lady Mabruk between long tongues of flame. He had her undivided attention now.

In front of Batul, Waleed’s body guards paced, faces shielded with their bare arms against the heat. In the old man’s trembling hand a jambiya appeared.

Noora insistently pulled the burned Mamoun back from the flames, speaking words heard only by herself and the young man. The blistered flesh on his arm began to heal.

“Your courage is admirable!” said the giant horned head to the three warriors encircling it. “It will weigh momentarily on my conscience to kill you.”

Ya’qub concentrated on casting his spell, aware of his young bride crouched behind him and hanging on to his robes. The energies leapt from his fingers with a purpose… then wavered at the wall of fire. There they broke apart and fell glittering like glass to the floor.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

"Fates be damned." Waleed muttered as he realized he was truly outclassed. He had one option left; calling upon all his knowledge and coupling it with the bellowing of his voice, Waleed caused the air to violently swirl about his extended right arm. Around his arm, static electricity grew to a great volume and when he could no longer hold it in check, he released it at Mabruk, specifically the efreet ring around her finger.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Sahra had nearly recovered from her panic until she'd felt all the hairs on her body stand at attention. Only her husband's steadfast calm kept her from fleeing in terror. From behind his broad shoulders she watched the Lady Mabruk transform. It didn't help that Mabruk's hair stood on end, that would have been comical any other time, or that hateful snarl she directed at Waleed, it was mostly that Mabruk's timeless beauty was fading; her skin sagging like hot wax on candles.

That Batul's wife was a sorceress was now clear to even a simple desert girl. Waleed's bolt of energy pushed through the flames
with a crack! and met an unyielding force inches in front of Mabruk. With great effort, the sorceress pushed the snapping arc aside, sending it behind her where it died in a shower of shredded tile.

"Kill the wizard!" Mabruk gasped. "Saleh, you worthless goat, kill him! I command you!"

The great horned head above the table dropped Batul's two mamluk guards from its disembodied hands. "I hear and obey, fair and powerful mistress. Shall I use poison? Perhaps I might roast him gently in flames until his..."

"Imbecile!" Lady Mabruk shrieked, "Off with his head!"

"Waleed! Finish her!" Keesha said, appearing beside him. Extending her arm with a word and a flourish of her green robe, Keesha squared off against the efreeti.

When Sahra saw a great scimitar appear in each of the efreeti's disembodied hands, the urge to flee nearly overwhelmed her. "I am yours to comm..." the head started to reply, then it froze. Even the tongues of flame froze in position. Only the creature's eyes moved, darting about in a panic.

The shriek issuing from Lady Mabruk sent chills downs Sahra's spine.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Having forgotten about Keesha during all the turmoil, Waleed hesitated a scant half second as he was about to question her order, like he wasn't about to finish her off anyways.

Almost exhausted after the last spell, Waleed drew again from his reserves and casted another lightning bolt, this time from his left hand, directed squarely at Mabruk's face.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Sahra watched beads of sweat form on Keesha's furrowed brow. Keesha and the gaint head stared silently at each other. Between them Batul's guards picked themselves up, scimitars raised high.

"The lady!" Batul commanded. "Take her!"

Obediently the guards turned to face Lady Mabruk. They saw her standing before her son, arms wide and chanting in a low voice. Grains of sand fell from her open hands. Suddenly, a bolt of crackling energy passed between the guards, striking Mabruk in the chest. With a cry her eyes rolled skyward until only bloodshot whites bulged impossibly wide. The last of the sand flew from her hands and hit the floor. Suddenly the room was plunged into noxious black smoke.

If Sahra hadn't had a hand on Ya'qub she wouldn't know where he was. She clasped his robe with desperate fingers, wrenching even tighter when the first tendrils of black smoke filled her lungs. She nearly collapsed with violent wracking coughs.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

"Ack! By the double chin of the great fat yak!" Waleed struggled to gain his senses as he combatted the effects of the darkness spell. "Mamoun! Girls! Get clear of this wicked spell!" Waleed made to leave the area of the spell, smiling through gritted teeth in grim satisfaction at defeating Mabruk.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

All about her Sahra could hear moans of dismay and racking coughs. She clung to her husband with a spastic grip, barely aware of him turning and picking her up in his arms. Coherent thought fled and she began to panic like a drowning swimmer.

Keesha cursed silently. Then aloud. Her hold on the efreeti slipped like a feather in the wind. Nothing she could do about that now. With wave and a word, she tried to dispel the foul magic that enveloped her and her friends.

Keesha cursed herself this time. The smoke remained--she'd underestimated her opponent.

"Omar! Move to the door you..." Mabruk yelled, the frustration in her voice clear and rising. "Saleh! Kill them now, now, now!"

"As your most loyal and faithful servant, I hear and obey," replied the efreeti from somewhere in the darkness. "Hmmm... They seem to be hiding in this smoke..."

The darkness disappeared and the air was suddenly fresh and breathable again.

"That's better," the flaming head said, revealing a wide toothy grin. "Now, which one shall I kill first," it mused.

"Nooo!" screamed Lady Mabruk, her face a red contorted mask of pure rage.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Confounded by the sight of Mabruk, whom Waleed had thought he had defeated just moments ago, made the Air Binder change the manner of his attack. All but exhausted of his magical powers, Waleed drew his never used masterwork Bulad scimitar, called out to his followers, "Girls, Mamoun, with me on Mabruk!" And launched his concerted attack on the foul woman.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Still holding Sahra in a protective grasp, Ya'qub begins muttering a new enchantment, this time centered on Waleed's blade. Rather than simply heating it up, he envisions binding magical flames around it, thus increasing its lethality.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

“You have caused my mistress much distress, firstborn!” roared the efreeti. One of its disembodied hands flashed forward striking Keesha an open palm blow that sent her sprawling into the low wall at the terrace edge.

Keesha gasped for air, peering through the short pillars at the waking city below. Her eyes didn't register the bustling market or blinding sunrise, her only thoughts were of survival. Rolling to a crouch, she readied another spell.

Alexandros prayed silently to Hajama to guide his sword as he rose up behind the flaming efreeti. He was rewarded with a furious roar as his blade struck true. Alexandros immediately pulled back to strike again but the creature had disappeared in a spin of black smoke.

“Behind you!” yelled Maher.

Alexandros spun around. The flaming face before him was a mask of anger that mouthed soundless words... Alexandros could hear only the pounding of his heart in his chest.

Sahra stared as Waleed and his servants charged the sorceress, spreading out in a fluid flanking maneuver. Waleed stutter-stepped when his scimitar burst in to flames, but recovered quickly and struck viciously at Lady Mabruk. Whatever battle cry he'd shouted served neither to intimidate nor encourage- the terrace had been blanketed in magical silence. Still Waleed's scimitar fell true. Sahra saw it connect with Mabruk's neck just above the gold Misr band she wore there. The flash of blue light that came from the same band must have saved the sorceress, for though she fell, she did not bleed.

At that moment, three more of Batul's guards burst onto the terrace and threw themselves on to the growing pile of people pinning the thrashing sorceress, whatever foul curses, spells, and cries she yelled thwarted by the continuing heavy silence.

Sahra saw a “pleased with herself” looking Noora brushing her disheveled hair from her eyes. Sahra then turned her gaze back to the fray and saw young Omar grasp his mother's pinned hand and remove a red and black ring from her finger.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Not sure how long the silence spell would last, Waleed swung his closed fist at Mabruk's silent screaming face, seeking to strike her unconscious.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Waleed's blow stunned Mabruk into silence. She was wrenched out from under him by the strong hands of the mamluk guards who wasted no time binding her.

Noora pulled Omar to her side, turning his gaze from his mother. Where a moment before stood a powerful sorceress, now was a simple woman, pleading eyes looking for compassion over a tight silk gag. Her son squared his shoulders and would not face her, though his countenance was dark and a tear threatened to fall.

"Remove her jewelry and search her for weapons," Batul said. "And send a runner to inform the Emira that we request a special audience this very morning. I accuse my wife of murder."

[Zaim al-Daleel]

The audience was granted. Lady Mabruk had little to say in her own defense. Especially after the slave of the ring, Saleh, was summoned to testify. He delighted in recounting his former mistresses crimes, "most of them committed by my own hand, I will not lie," detailing his instructions to "dispose of the infant heir." A mischievous smirk spread across his monstrous face as he explained how he thwarted Mabruk's scheme by disposing of Batul's first born in a distant orphanage. "Swaddled comfortably in the headmistress' trash can."

[Waleed]

"Heh..." Waleed snorted quietly. 'Dumpster baby'.

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Keesha either didn't hear Waleed or pretended not to notice. As Saleh finished, the Emira looked to her Grand Vizier who sat cross legged at her side. An ornate lamp burned before him.

"The flame never wavered Emira. He speaks the truth."

The ruler of Dihliz nodded her head. "I find her guilty. What punishment do you require, Batul al-Reehan al-Dihlizi?"

"Death."

Lady Mabruk cried out to her son as they led her away. "I did it for you, my son! I did it for you!"

[Zaim al-Daleel]

Epilogue:

After the grisly business of the execution, Omar forgave his father and made plans to travel. He spoke of finding adventure in the vast deserts of Zahkara.

Keesha agreed to take up residence in the Batul household, to learn of her family and its business. Her father was keen to teach her what he could in his remaining days.

Waleed and Yaqub spoke with Batul in private. "Take Mabruk's possessions. I want nothing to do with anything that bears her stench."

Two mamluk guards were summoned, each bearing a heavy, iron bound chest.

"Thank you for returning my firstborn," he said, kissing them both in the fashion of men. "I am in your debt."

Fin.