Herald of Steel

“Say… even if… even if… we can magically find all the proof we want and say.. say… even if… even if… we can prove Mirzah is guilty beyond all doubt… so what? Who cares anymore? It happened so, so long ago. Who is there waiting for justice? It is too late.”

“Farzah cannot remove Mirzah now, even if he tried! Give up, Inayah… give up and ask for revenge in your next life!”

Alexander was caught a bit surprised by the harshness with which the Queen Mother replied to Lady Inayah. But then again, Seelima was always against Pasha Farzah removing Mirzah… finding the infighting to be extremely distracting.

She really hoped the father and son would simply make up and get along, pointing their daggers towards the real enemy.

“…..” But hearing this, Lady Inayah’s face visibly twisted to a form Alexander had never seen, her hands clutching the wine glass like she wanted to shatter it.

“He killed his brother.” She at last clenched out with great vehemence, eyes brimming with intense malevolence.

It was a look Alexander had never seen her pull.

“And I killed my blood sister for a piece of bread. So what?” However if the black lady was searching for some type of sympathy from her friend, well, she was to be disappointed, as the Queen Mother threw out this reply in a heartbeat, nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders like what she had confessed to was nothing.

Before the Queen Mother was captured and taken as a slave, she lived in the deserts east of Adhania. As nomads, life there was very hard for them… and such killings for want was actually not that uncommon.

Although to be fair, comparing the actions of the young, starving, impulsive girl and the scheming, methodical adult man was hardly accurate.

The Queen Mother had never intended to kill her sister.

The details of the event leading to such a tragedy were as such- the orphaned girls had stolen some bread from a caravan and was in the midst of sharing their spoils in one of the dingy, dark allies of the city.

However there was a small conflict between them as Seelima thought she had been given a smaller portion than she deserved. Her elder sister on the other hand argued this was perfectly fair because she did more work.

Her reasoning was that the small Queen Mother had only distracted the caravan shopkeeper by pretending to be a beggar, while she actually took the greater risk of stealing the bread.

Seelima disagreed with this explanation and instead, wanted an equal split.

And when her sister insisted on her way, enraged by her immense hunger, the young Seelima violently shoved her sister, wanting to take her share by force.

On any other day, this should have been a simple small scuffle between two children. Not worth even a second’s look.

Unfortunately on this day, she pushed too hard and by a twisted will of the heavens, her elder sister lost her balance, hitting the stone wall right behind her in such a way that a small jagged piece that was sticking out went straight into her skull.

The Queen Mother will never forget what happened afterwards.

Her elder girl’s surprised face turned slack and dull as her skull cracked with a wet thud, her eyes and body becoming limp a instant later, as she slumped down like a doll whose string had been cut off.

The horrified Seelima instantly went to try and save her sister, but as she tried to examine the head and pulled it out of the stuck stone, the dead girl’s whole upper torso heaved forward due to the momentum, becoming bent down and allowing the blood to gush out of the horrific wound.

It quickly painted her flaming mane in a rusty, crimson dye, and then,

“Aghhh… aghhh… aghhhh…” going into the last of her death throes, thrashing her body around like a fish out of water for a few helpless seconds, the helpless girl gurgled out several coughs of jet black and black blood, before going eternally silent.

Seelima did not quite remember what happened afterward, as her young mind had probably shut off that unpleasant, almost mind shattering realization of what she had done.

However the details of the events as they happened…. each and every second of that horrific memory was still vibrant in Seelima’s memory like it had happened just yesterday, even though it was more than three decades ago.

The exact look on her elder sister as she pushed her… the sharp sound of that crisp crack… the way her face’s expression change… the suddenless with which her face lost all color… and the dull, placid look she had on her eyes as she finally departed, accepting her fate with little emotion.

Seelima remembered every single detail of that in full, 4k ultra high definition. She even remembered that there was a small, black ant walking on the wall right next to the spot where her sister had hit her head.

Thus she was sure, even if she were to become old and senile, even if she were to forget her own daughter, and even her own real name, she would not forget this memory, or all the emotions of horror, shock, surprise, despair and remorse she felt at the same time.

Also, yes, Seelima was not the Queen Mother’s real name. It was only something given to her by Alozmer after he became her favorite concubine.

Originally she was called… well originally she did not have a name per se, because she did not have parents to give her a name.

Seelima could not even remember seeing her parents. Her earliest childhood memory was with her sister, begging in the streets as urchins.

And in the same way, even her eldest sister did not have a name.

Seelima guessed this was probably because their parents had discarded them for being born as girls.

Otherwise if they had been killed in an attack, then they too would have been killed or captured. Or if they died from a disease like plague or dysentry… then they too would have died or at least found themselves living in a village.

However Seelima’s memory consisted of no such place, only the recollection of dragging her small, delicate feet across the city’s dusty roads, being led by her elder sister in search of their next meal, while she struggled to keep up.

The soles of her feet constantly stung from all kinds of cuts and bruises caused by all the tiny stones, pebbles, and thorns littering the pathways, pricking her soft skin.

And even till now, despite decades of expensive oils, massages, and even regular legummum on the soles, the Queen Mother’s feet still bore some of those scars.

Combining all these evidences, as well as knowing it was a popular tradition there.. to throw out girls because having them was seen as very shameful, the Queen Mother was pretty confident in her answer.

In fact, in this case, Seelima and her sister could be said to be actually lucky because at least their father did not bury them alive, as many others did to hide their embarrassment.

He allowed their mother two chances, and when she ‘failed’ both times, it was time for these ‘extra mouths’ to go.

So the two sisters only called each other elder and younger sister, while the people of the rest of the heartless city called them by various curses, ‘Brat!’ ‘Stinky brat’, ‘Beggars’, ‘Lowlives,’ ‘Devils’ etc.

The ‘best’ they heard one of them call was the equivalent of ‘Discarded’ and ‘Unwanted’. And so given they had no parents, when or more accurately ‘if ever’ they were asked about their names, they replied with this.

At that time, to the young girls, even this lowly name sounded very sophisticated and high… because it was so much better than all the other words that were thrown at best.

Ahh… the tragedy.

Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the Queen Mother was so uptight about manners and etiquette.

Of course, there were many other reasons as well, such as her teachings at the palace and her sense of belonging to the royal family and upholding its glory and majesty, but no one could deny that her unique childhood was also not a reason.

And speaking of the royal palace, when she was sold here as a pleasure slave, she came with the name that meant, ‘Pretty red.’

This was the name her slave masters had given her after they had kidnapped her from one of the streets she was sleeping on.

Before, the girl would have her sister who could be on the lookout, so the slavers had to be a bit apprehensive about approaching them, as kidnapping like this right inside the city was against the law.

If they tried and somehow failed, causing one of the girls to scream, it risked drawing the notice of any nearby guard or even the neighbours… that would be troublesome.

They would surely be fined by the corrupt guards or even thrown out of the city, as the greedy masters of the place were always plotting to confiscate all their merchandise for themselves.

So most slavers refrained.

In addition, Seelima’s elder sister would also regularly change their sleeping places.

These girls of course had no home, they had to sleep in the streets, and this made them afraid of such slavers, as well as patrolling guards who would viciously beat them for sleeping on public property.

Hence it was not prudent to sleep in the same place for too long.

But now with her gone… Seelima was easy prey.

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