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A Recounting of the Inferi War Battle of the Arts, Blast from the Past Submission Princess Esmae Bint Saqr Al-Nabeel The past flew away from her like the desert sands she loved so, grasping at memories that are long gone as the elder woman often wondered what could have been different. The desert heat had always been a dear friend to the Princess. The sands clung to her, a comfort in even the hardest times. How she missed them now. The image that stood at the forefront, even as she grasped at others, not wishing to remember, was always the Inferi War. It always began like a feverish dream, blurry and unfocused until it became so clear, she could swear that she was there all over again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Night had come to the Sultanate and Elmirah Esmae bint Qamar Al-Nabeel had found herself at the side of a man she found herself coming to love. He wouldn’t have been the first to ask the Sultan for her hand in marriage and what she wouldn’t know was that he wouldn’t be the last either. The man, lanky and tall, seemed to know her well despite their brief chats. A gift of a telescope, sitting within the Al-Faiz square, large and gleaming, and all for her. Esmae has always been a scholar, and for a woman that was often logical and often found herself feeling nothing, her heart thumped oddly against her chest. That night, she stood at the telescope beside a man who’s name she could not even remember all these years later and looked to the stars. -- That was the night it all began. How the sky twisted and shook, streaks of color flashing past it. It mesmerized those who watched, the timing so impeccable as right as she pressed herself to the telescope, it began. A year of darkness followed. Sunlight unseen during this time. There were times she tried to remember what the desert sun felt like, all too cold within the warmth of her sands. If only that was all, she could have lived with that but it wasn’t. -- Reports of a camp outside their home came in, attacks on their soldiers. And so the soldiers went, they’d fight and they’d lose. Inferi, they called them. Demons of all sorts, large and small. Some akin to bugs, others akin to people. At first, the woman was excited. She spent so long studying scorpion venom, architecture and other odds and ends. She could be a true scholar now, doing what she wished to do all along. Study creatures. And so an order was put out, seemingly simple enough. Get the Princess a creature to dissect and study. Until one is had, she’d visit every settlement, every nation and interview those who encountered them. Learn their numbers. Their strengths. Weaknesses. And yet, with each interview, something new always came. Larger numbers. New types of creatures. More dead. A day had come, a chance to be able to study one of these beings. Soldiers surrounded the bridge, a creature upon the middle in its last throes of life as it was brought down. The Princess was too late. An Inferis body never stayed long, it is why she was never able to study one before. The soldiers thought it dead but she knew better from the gathered information. She’d shout out, scream but not soon enough. The Inferi exploded. Soldiers dead, curious civilians dead. That excitement of being able to study something new, it died. How she wished to go back to the days of studying scorpions, of collecting books but that wasn’t to be. -- The war continued. Groups, nations and the like had come and gone as they’d attempt to stop these beings from taking over. As those lost, the Inferi would set their sights on Al-Faiz after each group gave their attempt and more would die. There came a time when she begged, an odd sight for a Princess, for these groups to stop. The Inferi grew more powerful with each death, let us plan, let us not give them strength. It was for naught. -- The man that was with her at the beginning, he was there for some time. And she can remember still the face of another man, one she’d come to truly love, who she’d given a tour during that first month of darkness. Despite everything, the death, her family being torn asunder, she’d begun to find love. -- Time went on, battle after battle fought. Family member after family member dead. She once had a large family. The family reunions growing up were always chaotic and fun, how they’d visit Sutica in their vacation home. Host feasts within the palace. Her family now dwindled to but a few. Her friends she’d come to love and care for, only one remained. And yet, it wasn’t enough for the Inferi. It never was. -- That final battle or what she thought to be, was the worst. Ferried to an island, meant to wait with the other women and children, as their men and soldiers, allies and friends fought for their city. Her cousin dead. How she loved him dearly. Babies taken. Her people enslaved. What little people escaped, she tended to in the clinic, desperate as her gaze went over each face. They weren’t there. Very few were there. -- Plans were made at camp. Esmae provided what knowledge she had, shared her notes from experience, from the interviews she’d taken. The first man, the one she could no longer remember the name of, he’d disappeared before the final battle. Perhaps dead or perhaps cowardly. The second, she planned with and shared the occasional smile. A light in the ever-pressing darkness. And so the men went once more, the Princess kneeling upon the hard ground as she prayed. How she prayed. It should have been simple, a reconnaissance mission. But the soldiers, the men, they saw a chance. Inferi guarding a caravan. It should have been supplies, for all intents and purposes, nothing gave it away as anything else. But as the caravan lit, flames crackling and smoke drifting, the screams of women and children sounded. Slaves of the Inferi, the Princess’s people, the Qalasheen burning alive. -- The secret wasn’t kept. The man she loved told her and she had to tell her cousin. Her cousin's baby was taken in the chaos. How her lovely daughter may be dead. Broken, hope draining, she whispered broken words to the man she loved. Of forgiveness. That next day, her cousin's body was delivered by wheelbarrow. Jumped from the roof, the soldiers said. And still yet, she tried. For her people, her family, the man she loved, her friends. -- Amongst this all, what had been meant to be a light in dark times, a figure approached the Sultan. He asked for her hand in marriage, only to be given a trial, one seeming near impossible: “Free the Qalasheen and you may marry my Niece.” Against all odds, against every loss, every death, everything her people had been faced with, the trial had succeeded. A great mission, people freed. The motion of using bolt cutters to free her people from their chains will forever echo through her ears, her heart, her mind. -- Yet, it had always been said a Farfolk woman will have troubles of the heart. A story as old as time. Against all odds, a fisherman freed thousands of slaves and gained the permission to marry the last Princess of Al-Faiz. Her cousin's daughter, found within the arms of an elderly woman against all possible doubt. Hope. Finally, there was hope. Happiness bloomed, and as he called her aside, a smile formed only to dampen, heart stuck in her throat. He’d gotten a woman pregnant. And for that, they cannot marry. -- And so she’d lost her love. Her family. Her city. Her friends. She’d tended to the injured and sick, waving away a freed man who followed her, insistent on repaying a debt. -- She walked the desert sands once more. Felt the heat of the sun. And yet, everything was different. Her home in ruins. Her people starving, exhausted and traumatized. How she wished to be studying scorpions. To be leading tours of Al-Faiz. Running away from guards for a moment of privacy. For life to be so simple once more. These memories blew away like the sand, falling through her fingers as she looked out at the sandy hills of a new land, eyes blurred and unfocused. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upon seeing the Blast of the Past theme, I had to! The RP on her was all very intense, and the Inferi war was something in history. Thank you to any who read this!