The Judge

Chapter 2

"You want to know what I am, where I came from, my abilities, about the child I carry." What Kaali had said was not a question, and Vallerie knew it. She did not know what to say though.

"I should not have asked, my lady."

"Questions are good. You may ask me anything, no matter the strangeness or impropriety."

"What's in the jar?"

"That I will tell you in a moment." Kaali rose once again and removed her cloak, stepping behind a changing screen. When she emerged she wore a purple long sleeved floor length cloth gown. Once she had settled herself again she filled Vallerie's now empty cup. "Let me first tell you about me and then you shall tell me about you, and we shall talk about the present when we have finished, eh?"

"Alright, tell me about you."

"My Mother was a princess, in the east of course. My father was a half demon warlock....

A young woman sat in the court of her father, dozens of suitors lay in wait behind the doors to the street, in a few moment the festival would start and she would face all of them. In the end they would all be denied, it was the young man dressed in black with no intention to marry above his status who would win her heart. He approached her father from a serving door, he dropped to his hands and knees before the Sultan.

"My lord, I come to offer you my servitude in exchange for lodging."

The old sultan stared at the boy, saw something in him that he seemed to like. "I give you something better. Take charge of my daughter. Escort her through the festival, protect her. Fend off the old men who would make her their wife."

"Yes my lord."

And he did as told.

For three years he served as her guard, and then, they fell in love.

Her father was the one who proposed that they marry, and so they did. The day before their wedding, the young man sat with his bride to be.

"My love, I cannot marry you without the courtesy of this honesty. I am not as I seem, my name is Kamni, and I am a half-demon. This is not what I look like." He stood from her table and removed his shirt, slowly the the cream tones faded from his skin, he turned a dark, midnight blue. His blonde turned the color of pitch.

The woman married him anyway, four days after their wedding, a guard entered their quarters unannounced. Kamni was not the human he had seen moments before. He saw a demon holding his princess.

The half demon did not live to see the morning, neither did the guard. Royal blood carries magic.

The Djin princess's eyes burned gold with anger, the guard's soul was ripped from his body and sent away.

Kamni was buried in the royal tombs, regarded as a martyr, the guard buried with those who died in the line of duty, an honorable soldier.

The princess would die in childbirth with a baby girl.

The sultanate fell, the baby princess with blue skin the only surviving member of the royal family, was sold into slavery.

"You were made a slave?" Vallerie was shocked, it had been many years since slavery was heard of.

"Aye, I was. To a man who recognized my worth and power. He was a cruel man, from farther east than I. He was a judge to the emperor who overthrew my grandfather, I was a tool for his purpose."

"How did you come to be here?"

"A Trickster, by the name of Nandu."

"A Trickster, m'lady?"