III:I

Unexpected Partners

The dungeon door slammed with an iron clang before the disconcerting sound of a key turning a lock sealed his fate.

Ali Amaan slowly picked himself up and dusted himself off. Straightening himself, he adjusted his fine turban and expensive purple silk clothes—counting his jewelry, rings, and bracelets to make certain that the rough guards didn’t relieve him of all his belongings. The stench of the place was nearly overpowering and he nearly trained his senses to abide by the offensive smells when he realized that a great pile of human shit was gathered in a corner of his cell. The Easterner wrinkled his nose a bit before taking one of his fine purple kerchiefs and wrapping it about his face.

“Well, Ali, you got yourself in one now, yes?” he said to himself. “Well, at least there be no undead in these cages.” He looked over to the other cell where a ragged comatose figure lay. “At least I hope.”

A snickering from a cell across the way caught his ear. It was a most awful snickering, filled with mockery and dark humor.

“Keh, keh, keh, keh!” It was an old woman, Ali realized, the most ancient one he’s ever seen. With only the slightest wisps of white hair, long enough to reach the floor, and a single tooth to splay about her purple, cracked lips, she somehow seemed more menacing than a horde of firelings back home.

“My pardons, my good ma’am, but what do you find so funny?” Ali asked, curious about his new company.

“Keh, keh, keh, keh! Aye, the black one talks, he does! The black one talks!” she seemed genuinely surprised.

“Yes, yes, yes, ma’am. We Easterners be funny that way, yes?”

“Ooo, hoo, hoo, hoo! Yer’ a crackin’ one, yes? Keh, keh, keh, keh!” She grasped at the bars before her as if she could bend them with her thin boned arms before roughly banging her head against them.

As if not noticing the damage she was inflicting upon her person, she continued, “Easterner, now, Easterner, yes? Come now! Come all! West, west, west! Come all, come here, come ye’ ye’ ye’ ye’! Come to this darkness and join with me! Keh, keh, keh, keh!”

“Ah, a fellow bard then, I see,” Ali jested, somewhat amused by the strange one before him despite himself.

“What demons now ye’ be CRACKIN’, black one?”

Ali tapped at his gold tooth out of habit before answering. “Oo, dark scary ones, ma’am. In the very houses of the lords, I tell you.”

“Keh, keh, heh! Well, if it be FIRE ye’ be wantin’, ol’ Gretchin’ gots them all in heres, yes!” she said, knocking her fist into her head to make the point.

Ali’s ears perked at this. Perhaps, he thought, this situation could turn to be fruitful. “Oh? And what, old one, could that be?”