Sitting in his Nowhere Land…

The sultan Nadji had killed his daughter. That much was true. That is what the royal Prosecutor Calim had proven, and what the witnesses had testified to seeing in broad daylight. Jumeira had entered the town square with 4 of her classmates. They were to witness the selling of foreign slaves, and report back to their history class about the differences between the Free Peoples, and the barbarians running wild outside the city of Udad.

Jumeira had eyed the newest Stranger, the one with the golden hair and eyes like polished sapphires. Gagged and bound by the flesh peddler Kumah, the Stranger was chained to an stone post inlaid with iron runes. Below the copper grating at his feet was a swirling bath of vinegar and spoiled wine, and above the pillar was a sign calling it, “ the Light of God “. It had but one purpose, to garner the truth from this particular occupant, a truth which every citizen of Udad already knew, but were terrified to speak aloud.

The Hordes had been camping for weeks, there were rumours that a garrison of the royal Calvary had been slaughtered, their horses eaten over great fiery pits, turning like pigs slowly before the meal tents of the foreign army. Udad had sheltered itself from within ever since the new moon had cast the shadow of the city over the western cliffs, where the Crashing Sea awaited it’s dead.

Kumah however had struck gold, his personal guards had spotted the Stranger climbing the western walls, and like a sandstorm, he was swept up before any other merchant could discover him. But then Jumeira had stopped the bidding, she insisted on hearing the foreigner speak. She ordered Kumah, who was greatly below her station, and he complied while cursing under his lips. The Stranger spoke these words, which is as best as those in the marketplace could remember, all agree it is utter nonsense:

I am come through Time to rescue you
Within my Host, I will bring the true meaning
We cannot be separated, She who owns me
Is my mated soul and your Flame.

And while it was not questioned that the barbarian spoke the holy tongue, or how he could know he would be “bought”, one thing was true. Jumeira had been placed under his spell. She ordered the guards to release him to her under pain of death, in a panic Kumah stopped them and tried to persuade her to reason.

“Enlightened One, please I cannot allow this, you must not allow this, no foreigner is permitted to address the house of your father. For that alone his tongue should be cut out.”
“That is for me to decide, I will have this one for my personal entertainment.”
“Please I beg you, allow me to test him first, they are liars, all of them…”
“Test him? With the Light of God? You will singe off all the hair on his body and he will be useless to me…”

(sorry out of time, started late)