Long ago, I might have described 'destiny' as a mountain. Immovable and unchanging throughout time, but I have seen much, and I can tell you: I was wrong. Destiny changes with the sands themselves...
You may wonder who I am, and why I say this. Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard.
Know first that I am Sharaman: the King of Persia.
But this was not always so...
I was once a mere street rat, every day a struggle for survival in the lonely alley ways of Azad.
For as long as I had remembered, the streets were my home. This was my life. It was a sad life.
I was forced every day to steal, and gamble with my very life to get even a scrap of bread.
It was an unpleasant life, but it made me strong. I learned to fight. I was adaptable to my environment, I could climb and jump long distances with ease.
It was this skill that enabled me to see her for the first time.
It happened completely by chance. I was restless. There was some big event happening within the Sultan's palace, and I wanted to know what it was.
So I climbed the walls of the fortress, hiding behind a battlement, I witnessed a spectacular sight. It was the mustering of an army. Men in crimson uniforms with gleaming mail and shining spears stood in orderly rows, awaiting the one who would lead them into battle.
Living on the streets I had picked up some news of the outside world. Alliances between the Sultan of Azad and the Maharajah of India had been waning for some time, the Sultan, most of his royal guard, and about one hundred soldiers and archers were departing to either make war or peace. Everyone expected war, no one (including myself) were very fond of the Maharajah in Azad.
Though impressive, this was not the 'spectacular sight' which I had mentioned. What truly took my breath away, what drew my complete attention, was the Sultan's daughter. Among the three figures that stood at the grand entrance to the palace, she was the one that captured my gaze. Such a creature of such beauty I have never seen since that day. The sun was shining down on her, making the jewels that decorated her hair glow like flames that served only to enhance her visage. I thought I had strayed into a mythical dream, in which only she and I existed, I have no way of knowing this; but I like to think that she saw me, half hidden behind the stone battlement, and felt the strike of destiny as I did then.
Actually, this was almost my ruin. In my swooning I failed to watch my step and fell into the palace court yard.
I landed heavily in the hedge lining the courtyard, though unharmed, I lay in a daze for a long time. So long, that by the time I crawled out of the foliage, the Sultan had already left with his army. I had been so far gone that I had not even heard the clang of the gate when it closed, but there it was: The gate was shut. I was trapped in the palace.
I did not panic, although capture in this fortress would mean my demise, I was strangely calm. Perhaps I was still in a daze from my fall, but I felt some what driven. Maybe, one could say that in my thirst for adventure I was tempted at the opportunity to loot some treasure from the palace, but this was not the case. I was certain that I would never see the princess again, after all interaction between a peasant and royalty was not permitted, but I wanted to see her one last time nonetheless.
My years as a thief were well spent, for it took all of my skill to infiltrate the palace without being detected. Though there were several close calls, I was never seen.
I searched for a long time, but eventually I found her in a high tower, definitely her bedroom.
I gazed at her for a time, and as I made to depart, my foot bumped into a clay vase. Though small the sound alerted her to my presence.
Knowing that I was caught, I threw myself to her mercy, begging her not to call for the guards who surely would have gutted me on the spot.
She did not call the guards, instead asking me who I was and what I was doing in her chambers.
I did not know what to say. Surely she had been raised in such a way that it would be a sin for her to even acknowledge me, yet she did not look at me with revulsion, instead there was merely wonder, and curiosity in her eyes.
Such a time we had. I told her many tales of my adventures in the streets, for she had never been outside of the palace walls herself. She listened with awe at my antics.
She explained to me that her father had indeed raised her to feel superior to the low-class, but she had always wondered why she should hate them, for after all; when the status was taken away, we were the same.
In the morning I made ready to depart, and she asked if I might come back. I replied ambiguously that if fate allowed it, I would. But, I already knew that I would even if it was against fate, perhaps reading my mind she told me that she could have me escorted to the gates, and allowed back in the next night to talk with her more, or perhaps offer a room for me to stay in.
I politely declined this offer, saying that if I were cooped up in the palace or so easily allowed to see her, then what exciting tales would I be expected to tell her? Also, I have always enjoyed a challenge. She laughed and I departed with a smile.
One would wonder, why I would decline such an offer. Such an answer as that could have been taken as arrogance. But I was young, and I could not help but think that I was sleeping. For where else could I be but in a dream?
I returned the next night, and the next, by the morning of the third, I was convinced that she had fallen for me as I had for her, but when I arrived on the night of the fourth, things were less perfect than they had been.
Barely a quarter of an hour after I arrived, there were footsteps coming up the stairs to the Princess' chambers. Quickly I fled from the room, promising that I would return.
Although I could not stay, here is what happened after I left...
The vizier, Jaffar spoke in cool tones: "My dear Princess, as you know, I have been but in charge of the Palace affairs while your father is at war."
"What about it?" the Princess asked stiffly.
"I have decided that I like this power, and that I will keep it! This kingdom shall be mine by the end of the night. But I would rather like you to be apart of it. Marry me, my Princess, and our Kingdom shall reign from sea to sea."
"Never!"
"Marry me, or you shall die by my hand. Either way, all shall bow to me. When your tragically dies in battle, I will be here to claim his throne."
"How do you know, he will die? Even if all the soldiers left in the palace are behind you, my Father's army is far greater. YOU will die, not him."
"Oh to be so naive!" the vizier all but shouted, "This night I will send my assassins out, they will catch up with your father in a matter of hours, and in the morning I shall present his head to the Maharajah as a token of our alliance."
"You won't get away with this!"
"I shall. And you, my princess, have a choice. Marry me, become my Queen. Or die."
The vizier held up a large decorative hour-glass. "You have until the final grain of sand falls from this glass to decide. At the end of that time, if you will not consent to marry me, you will die. Farewell, my Princess."
Meanwhile, I reached the bottom of the tower, as I made to leave the palace, a hand grabbed my neck and slammed me to ground. My head seemed to split on the marble floor. Through my pain I looked at my attacker, and found myself looking into the eyes of the Vizier. He said to me, "I know who you are, street rat. I know of your visits to the Princess, I will not allow you to get in my way. When time runs out for the Princess, it shall run out for you too; except I will decide whether you live or die."
That being said, I was thrown into the deepest dungeon beneath the palace. Literally. I was tossed into a shaft leading to the dungeon. The dungeon was unlike and other. It wasn't meant to imprison you with chains, but with a maze of stone hallways, and dangerous booby traps.
They would have done better to chain me up, for no mere maze would keep me from my love.
I stole a sword from a guard, and with it I battled my way through the dungeons, the palace, and beyond the borders of sanity and madness, truly for at one point I encountered a strange mirror, seeing no way around I resolved to break through it. I know now that it was a trap set by the vizier, who must have known of my escape. Such agony I have never felt since then, I could not know, but I could feel it, as a piece of my own soul was ripped out of me. The hole continued to grow for the rest of my adventure, eating me up from the inside. Jaffar was indeed a terrible and cruel sorcerer.
Thankfully, as I neared my goal I was reunited with the piece of my soul, I merged with my 'Shadow' Self. I became stronger than ever. I was ready for the final confrontation.
In the final room before the princess' room, I met the Vizier once more. He was probably on heis way to kill the Princess what ever her answer was. It was the fight of my life, Jaffar was skilled with the sword, but I had killed many men in my trek up from the dungeon and it had hardened me into a skillful warrior. It was an even battle, he attacked, I parried. I attacked, he parried. It became a contest of endurance, eventually my youth won out. I threw him down. I threw him from the high tower in which we fought. I had triumphed!
When I entered her room, she knew that I had saved her and defeated the vizier. How? It was the first time I had ever entered her chambers using the stairs. She threw herself into my arms, and I held her close. We did not speak for the rest of the night. We just held each other.
I saved my beloved, and prevented the rise of a tyrant.
The Sultan returned after word was sent to him, I heard that he grudgingly made peace with the maharajah so that he could return with out incident, but there has been tension between the two kingdoms since.
The Sultan did not take too kindly to me, I was after all a commoner from the streets, so I suppose he could not be blamed, but he agreed to allow us to marry, for he could see that his daughter was truly in love with me. The Princess and I were married two days after the Viziers failed coop.
Afterwards, I went back down to the dungeon in which I was first imprisoned, there I left a record of my adventure for any adventurer who might someday pass through those ruins. I do not know why I did it, but I thought it somehow appropriate.
We were married, and I now a Prince, but soon I grew restless in my new leisurely life, and asked to be allowed to wander the streets once more for a short time, and clear my head of the bloodshed that had taken place.
My 'vacation' was granted and I departed for a brief time. My new wife was none to happy about my departure, but I swore on my ancestors that I would return in less than two weeks. Indeed, I was not gone for even that long, for I returned to the palace on the eleventh day. And it was on that day that I learned a very important lesson. And that lesson is that you must always check whether your enemy is still alive after you defeat them...