Light of the Heavens

XIV. Meeting Userkare

Seben's eyelashes fluttered as she came awake slowly. She was in a room, but not her room, though the bed was as comfortable as the one she'd grown used to. The room was lit only by a single lamp on the bedside table, burning just high enough to illuminate the pages of her journal where it sat open on the edge of the bed. Her pillow smelled like jasmine and subtle citrus, hints of spice, and traces of smoke. She knew the comforting smell, though it was never strongly applied.

"Vassa?" she murmured, turning her head towards her journal. There was her companion, the masked woman deep in study of the complicated mess of Seben's handwriting.

"You made quite the scene," Vassa said without looking up from her reading material. "Lord Osei was concerned."

Seben smiled faintly. "Not you?"

"I am seldom mistaken about people," Vassa said with a subtle flick of her fingers, turning to the next page. "You were equal to the task."

The apprentice fire-speaker laughed. "So I suppose it's just happenstance that I'm in your room with you watching over me."

Vassa raised an eyebrow, hidden beneath the hood, and her lips twitched at the corners, trying to become a smile. "I could be reading a very engrossing set of notes."

"But that's not what you're doing," Seben said more softly. "Thank you for your protection, Vassa."

The masked woman waved a hand dismissively, brushing off Seben's thanks. "Hardly an act of consequence. Besides, your notes are rather riveting, though unfortunately mostly a shorthand I am unfamiliar with. What I can piece together is...interesting." She closed the journal and leaned back in her chair, stretching like a cat. "More to the point, how are you feeling?"

"Sore," Seben admitted. "No scorches, though, so I must have passed the trial."

Vassa paused, studying Seben. "You do not recall?"

"I remember the djinn crashing down at me and then...light. I felt it in every inch of my body, burning like the sun. Then I fell and woke up here."

"You manifested an aspect of Sol. An angel, some people would call you, though I suspect your aspect is more of a partial fragment of a shattered god," the masked woman said. "Lord Osei mentioned that it takes a great deal of discipline and dedicated honing for Sunblessed to master their gift. Granted, he was rather surprised that you were able tap into it away from the Sunlit Throne." Before Seben could say it wasn't possible, Vassa flicked her fingers and fed a trace of her essence into the weave of existence between them. She used the energized fibers weaving them together to display a vision of what had happened in the arena. "It was rather spectacular."

Seben watched the ghostly display intently. "That...I did that?"

"We are rather fortunate you did. The djinni would have killed you," the masked woman said, allowing the image to still on the sight of Seben glowing with celestial radiance. "The wards you were taught were wholly insufficient for such a powerful djinni."

"It's forbidden to use sajjad djinn in the arena," Seben said, brow furrowing as she frowned. "They are too powerful for most masters to contend with and exceptionally hostile."

Vassa brushed her fingertips over her mask. "What makes them so?"

"No one really knows for certain. They're likely the oldest, but some of the stories I've heard say that they're infused with heavenly wrath, something extra besides just the normal fire magic," Seben explained. "They come from the very heart of the Sea of Sand. It probably took several fire-speakers working together to capture him."

"Someone went to great effort to kill you," the masked woman observed. "I imagine they rue that decision bitterly. If the stories of these sajjad djinn are true, that may be part of what triggered your manifestation. Particularly since we are now in possession of their weapon."