Zara knew just what was going through her head when she saw the terror and hatred in her eyes. This girl was going to be just like all the others, she wouldn't be able to look past her outer shell to see the person underneath.
"You're a monster! One of those vile tricksters that spend their days making those around them miserable. What in god's name are you doing here without a slave collar? Who's your master? He has to know that you've taken off your collar!"
So she was going to be one of those that turned their fear into righteous anger. To treat her like a slave to save their pride, to act like they were never feared her kind in the first place.
With that Zara withdraw her offered hand, she could forgive many for calling her a monster or not being able to look past appearance that was a common thing among new recruits, but to treat her as a slave was something that she refused to turn the other cheek to. She had lost too much break the shackles that once bound her and her people for that. As she turned to leave she called over her shoulder to her.
"She's all yours, brother mine. Or should I call you master?"
Not that she stuck around to hear his reply or to see the fireworks that followed. She continued to make her way back to the main courtyard to work off some of the fire that boiled her blood. She couldn't believe that someone would dare treat her or even say that she was a slave. She knew that in the eyes of the Church and its followers that she still belonged to Solomon. But to have someone suggest that she have a collar and to imply that Solomon was less of a person for not knowing what she was doing. Not that he had ever treated like a slave or acted like her master, even when he had legally owned her.
She snorted at the thought that someone could own another. It didn't matter what race they were, they all were children of their great god and none were above another. No one race was more important or more blessed than another. After she had managed to work off some steam she began to plan. Now it had been awhile since she had pulled any pranks but Sheba could be the first stop in her comeback tour of sorts.
"Hey Z, it's time to eat, so quit trying to kill the poor sap you conned into training with you."
She looked up when she heard Ugo calling. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the passage of time.
Zara smiled as she walked into the great hall that served as both the barracks and the banquet hall during meal times. She would never get tired of seeing just how big her family had become. Granted she didn't know all of them as much as she would have liked, but they were her family nonetheless and she loved each and everyone.
She continued to make her way to the table she usually shared with Solomon and the rest, greeting those could and welcoming back those who had been gone. When she was almost there she came to a complete stop when she saw that it was there. That vile little thing dared to intrude on her time with her closest family and friends. The time that she got to see that each and everyone of them was safe and unhurt.
It was then that Arba noticed that Zara was hovering just past their table.
"Z, come join us for dinner. I made sure to save you a spot by Solomon and me. We would like to introduce you to Sheba."
"Don't worry about that. We've met and I don't plan on furthering our relationship past distant acquaintances. She is a little brat that doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut."
Her answer shocked Arba a bit with its rather hostile tone, but she figured that Zara had a good reason to think that way.
Zara snickered when she saw Sheba jump out of the corner of her eye when Wahid called for food.
"FOOD, I want food! Bring me food"
Wahid then proceed to bang his hands on the table until someone place a meal in front of him. Only for him to begin to inhale it with his usual gusto. Complaining about how hungry he's been and that they should have ate sooner.
"I got so hungry that I was going to burn those dogs from the Othrodox to a crisp and eat them."
Zara watched as another shiver ran down Sheba's spine when she heard Wahid and watched as he tour chucks of meat of the leg he was holding. Laughing as he talked of the battle that cost many Othrodox dogs their lives.
"Your hunger is not cool. If you did that, the beautiful balance of your muscles would not be maintained."
Setta loved them all but he could be more of a mother hen than Arba on her worse day. He was all about having us maintain our beautiful forms as he put it. Zara picked at the food put in front of her as she watched her family eat. She also made sure to keep the interloper in her sights at all times. Watched as Ithnan started to drink himself into a stupor and being to pick on her Ugo.
"Ugo,"he practically sang,"why won't you fight on your own every single day? You always hide behind me, Solomon, or Zara."
He began to squeeze his cheeks almost making Ugo look like a fish. Ugo was looking a little pained but was having funny so Zara decided not to interfere.
"Well, you know… I'm an expert at exploiting situations..besides, your lighting magic is really cool, you know!"
Ithnan's face darkens the more Ugo talks, knowing that he's only trying to get out of trouble. Plus about the only person who can flatter him and turn him into a blushing mess is Setta. Ithnan's whole world seemed to revolve around Setta, the rest of the gang were like passing comets that occasionally came close.
"Don't try to flatter me!"
After that Zara lost track of the different conversions as they all began to talk at the same time. She tried to listen in case one of them asked her a question or tried to pull her into a conversion but her heart really wasn't in it today. No, today she was too busy watching the new addition to their group as, the others hoped she would be, but Zara really hoped she'd fall off the side of the base without her staff.
As she continued to watch her and judge her threat level, she began to notice how lost and confused the poor girl looked. Truth be told, she looked a little overwhelmed. As much pleasure that knowledge gave her she knew that leaving her like that was wrong. So Zara decide to give the girl one more chance.
"So Sheba, right?"
She still seemed to be lost in thought as she tried and failed to understand what all the merriment and laughter that was going on around was about.
So Zara slowly reached out to touch her shoulder to get her attention. She had grabbed her a plate of different meats and fruits to give her at this point. She remembered that the healer had said that she was malnourished so getting her to eat was the first step to helping her on the road of recovery.
When Zara's hand touched her she jumped.
"Forgive me, I didn't mean to frighten you, but I remember the healer saying that you were malnourished so I brought you a selection of food. I wasn't sure what you liked."
Zara smiled softly at Sheba, knowing that she was scared and in a new place so she really shouldn't hold what she had said against her.
"My name is Zara, and the boy that umm... helped you out of bed this morning is my older brother, and his also our leader. I'm a free Niran like all the races you will see and work with here."
Solomon had turned toward Sheba and Zara when he heard Zara trying to talk to her. He was still reading the book that Ugo had found for him about the Manicore tribe.
Sheba looked at Zara with cold, dead eyes. Like she wasn't really seeing here just going through the motions.
"I want to go back to the tower."
One sentence was enough to stop all the different conversions going on around them. Showing that they had all been listen to their conversion to began with. Solomon must have told them about what Sheba had said in the healer's quarters.
"Why?"
That was all she asked. Because honestly she couldn't understand why she would want to return. All the others were happy to be free from the towers. They never wanted to go back, granted they weren't sure about fighting against the Church that once sheltered them, but they all could agree on the fact that the towers were as close to hell as a being could get on this world.
"I have to accomplish the holy task that Ilah gave me"
Arba shook her head at the poor confused girl. She truly believed that living in that tower was a good thing. Didn't she know that staying in there would slowly but surely kill her.
"But Sheba, if you continue to let them use your magic against your will in that tower, you will die, don't you know that?"
"You fool, it wasn't against my will. I was risking my life to control the Impure. They told me that good and evil are both present in this world because of the Impure kings and the aggressions by the hands of the Daeif.
Solomon looked her up and down with a condescending look. He found the ones that were still like that even after being saved to be the most difficult.
"To Control the Imprue huh, so your great role consisted in discharging magic from the safety of that tower, that made everyone that wasn't human turn into mindless drones, right little miss?"
Zara snickered as her brother basically told Sheba that her and the people like her were nothing more than cowards that hide behind the safety of their tower walls to steal the minds of those weaker than them.
"Exactly. They are the pus of the world," as she talked she became more and more hysterical, her eyes gain a mad gleam to them,"In the past the species terrorized and greedily devoured us, the sacred magicians, messengers of our gracious father, Ill Ilah. That is written in the "Holy Scripture's" second chapter from paragraph 4 to paragraph 8."
Zara knew those so called Holy Scripture's well, after he had shoved them down her throat enough when she was a child. It was how he justified the beatings and torture she had to endure by her father's hands. So for once she just held her tongue. It wouldn't help her to understand the girl better to go off on her, nor would it help to alienate her for the group.
Then Falan started to laugh, "She snapped, aru."
Falan's laughter seemed to snapped the others out of the stupor that Sheba's little speech put them in.
"Stop saying those things. They just taught that it's an honor to die for your mission, and to wait for fate's call. They changed the same thing on my brother and I. I refused to let him die alone and was overjoyed when Solomon came to save us."
Setta nodded as Ithnan spoke. It was true they never really wanted to give their lives but that had been what they were taught. So when Solomon and company came to save them, they realized that there life meant more to them than throw it away. Wahid had to throw in his two cents as well.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but our objective is to release all those species from the magician's rule."
Sheba's eyes seemed to grow big enough to take up her whole face at that. To her the thought that any person would dare go against the Church was a foreign one.
"Impure! Impure! Impure! You shall receive divine punishment. Father, bestow punishment on this Daeif."
When Sheba began yelling about punishment and calling them impure there was a few different reactions. Wahid, of course found this down right funny, if their god was going to punish anyone it would be the Church for misusing their divine gifts in such a way. Solomon was just bored, frankly he was more than done with her at this point. Arba was shocked she couldn't see how Sheba still believe that giving her life was what their Father would want for her. The who couldn't hold on to the string of their patience was Zara.
She had done fairly well. She had let herself be called a monster. She sat and listen well this girl basically said that her, her mother and her people were less than dirt. She looked up with fire burning in her eyes. She took a step toward her so that she was right in her face, and made sure to smile in a way that showed her fangs. Then as she watched Sheba's face lost it's all knowing and prideful look. Oh how she enjoyed the fear that slowly took it's place as Zara trailed her claws down her face. She didn't care if she was proving her point. She wanted her to know that at any moment she could easily snuff out the life that she was willing to throw away in the first place.
"So we're the Impure ones, huh. Personally, I think those that hide behind tower walls to steal the will and power of those beneath them are the impure ones. After all, I've never taken a life that wasn't trying to steal mine or my loved ones'. I've never enslaved whole races to do my dirty work for me, or marked those as slaves to be brought and sold like they were less than dirt. My brothers have never forced an unwilling woman to their beds then took and killed the child she was forced to have. They've never beaten a child so badly that they chose the confines of their owns minds over the arms of their loving family."
She watched as the fear and horror continued to grow on Sheba's face as her claws continued to caress her face and the words broke through.
"Now, little girl do you know who has done all those things, hmm? Your Church, the ones that you're so willing to give your life for. The man you call David, the head of your Church is more of a monster than any man, woman or child here. You go ahead and return to what's left of your tower, and I hope that you rot there, you Orthodox dog."
With that, Zara turned towards her family, with a smile at their dumbfounded looks. After all, no matter how bad the person was or treated her, she always tried to befriend them and make them feel welcome. But Sheba hadn't even been awake for a day and Zara was ready to send her back to the Church missing important parts of her body.
The only one aside from her brother who understood why was Arba. This wasn't about Zara, no she could live with every person here hating her and it wouldn't phase her in the least. No, Sheba had dared to insult the few people that Zara had let close to her. She had treated each and everyone of them like they were less than human. And to Zara that was an insult that she couldn't let pass, so she showed her who the true monster was, with both words and actions.
I hope you guys like this. Yes, Sheba has appeared at long last... but I don't think that her and Zara are going to be the best of friends right away. enjoy and please review if you like
