------------- The Lions of Martek - Muamud

“Antiquities. Treasures. Secrets of the ancient empire,… you sir. You wish to buy trinkets from the Tomb of Harrahmasai the Great? No. Perhaps a fine necklace from the lost Tomb of Thieves? Once worn by the terrible Isu Mahla’atma herself,… before she became a mummy, that is. Yes? No.”

“You wish to hear about my cousin? But surely there is a more valuable use of our time, esteemed effendi? Perhaps rolling in camel dung would provide more enlightenment. No? Very well. But such information is not without cost. I am but a humble Barbar, poor, starving, with many mouths to feed,… Thank you, esteemed effendi. May your generous pockets be fondled by the illicit fingers of many supple dancing girls. Where was I? Oh yes.”

“My cousin, Muamud al’Nethrys. Alas, his name is short, for his lineage is questionable. He is a cousin thrice removed, and I claim no direct blood. His father was a humble goatherd, not the kind of man to change the course of history, if you know what I mean. He was tending his flock one day when he saw something over the rise, on the edge of the desert. He thought he heard a voice cry out in agony. Fearful, he ventured out into the wastes, away from the safety of the river valley. There he found a young woman, parched and burned by the desert. He carried her back to his shack and ministered to her ailments. Many days he tended her. At length she recovered. As her wounds faded, so too did her façade. The illusion dissipated, he was faced with the most beauteous of creatures, a vision of Heliopolis itself. Such was her beauty that it possessed his soul and he swore his undying devotion to her. My cousin was conceived that very night.”

“The woman left the next morning, leaving the man depressed. He mourned her loss for many months, until at last she returned, a bundle in her arms. She brought the baby she had conceived and bade the man hide it and raise it as human. He was confused. She then revealed her true nature, that she was Djinn, a creature of the air, one of the children of the elder Gods. The boy, a half-Genie, would be considered an abomination by all the hosts of Heliopolis and by the elementals as well. Fearful, but overcome by the vision of lust before him, he conceded and swore to raise his son as a normal boy. That was a brilliant idea.”

“As you can guess, the boy did not grow up normally. Among other, more subtle things, his hair was as white as the Tarkanian snows, and his eyes as blue as the winter sky. Many of the other’s teased him mercilessly, but that was many years before my parents were born. As a creature of both mortal and immortal blood, he has a great lifespan. He was small and matured slowly, and the other children were not kind, as the vicious little bastards tend to be,… hateful and cruel to anything truly different. Alas, his father died of old age long before he reached maturity, forgotten and unremarked, and he ran away into the desert.”

“No one knows where he went, or what he did. He returned many years later, as fluent in Thunate as Symballan. He looked up his uncles, all ancient by then. Even their grandchildren seemed older than he. This is how I came to know of him. But if you truly wish to know of him and his story, may I suggest you speak with him yourself. He is in this very village just now. I can show you where,… for a price.”

------------- Credits

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