27 - Al Simhara

Immediately upon arriving in Al Simhara, Maia searched through the marketplace, looking for information about Aashif. 

In a back alley, she happened to meet a man who told her he’d heard some djinn had been seen in the ruins, far from the city.

Maia figured it was as good of a place to start as any. But before she got very far, she was attacked!

And then she knew no more.

Maia awoke confused.  She had no idea where she was, or how long she’d been there.

As she looked around, she realized she must be deep within an old tomb.

She tried the door, but it was locked.  It was a cell, and Maia was a captive.

She peered through the bars, and noticed other cells.  This tomb had been made into a prison, and Maia wondered if this was where all the missing Al Simharans and tourists had ended up.  If it was, they were still here and none of them would be leaving alive.

Maia didn’t know what to do.  She saw no way out, and no one knew she was here except her captors. But what could they want with her?

Suddenly, someone appeared in Maia’s cell. He appeared to be a genie, but he wasn’t like Aashif at all. 

“The guards said you were awake.” The genie looked Maia over. “So you’re the one our leaders have been making such a fuss over?” He curled his lip.  “I can’t imagine why.”

“Are you going to kill me?”  Maia’s voice quavered.

“There’s no reason to go to all that trouble; you’ll die here eventually,” the genie said.  “You’ve only been brought here to be kept from completing your challenge.  Not that you were doing very well with it anyway.” He laughed cruelly.

“But why do you care if I fail?”

“I don’t,” he said.  “But you and your buddy Grim just keep messing up the plans made for this world ages ago. And since we can’t get to him yet, well, here you are, and here you’ll stay for the rest of your life.”

“Enjoy it, because this lifetime will be your last one.” And the genie disappeared the same way he had come.

Oh, what a fool she had been! Maia berated herself. If only she had stayed home and worked on her challenge instead of chasing after Aashif.  Surely it wasn’t wrong to want love, but how could she have acted so selfishly when she had known what was at stake?

Now the Reaper would die and the world would end and it would be all her fault.  And Maia had the rest of her life to sit in this cell and think of what she had done.

Or she could make a plan.

Maia wasn’t sure if it took days or weeks, but eventually she came to a conclusion.  She knew she needed to escape and complete her challenge, but getting away was going to take time.  Could she possibly work on her challenge while she was coming up with a plan to escape?

The evil genie had mentioned there were guards.  Perhaps one of the djinn could give her a child!

Now she just had to come up with a way to get one in here.

Maia broke the sink with her ice magic,

and while water sprayed out of the broken faucet, she hollered for help.

But to her horror, it wasn’t a genie guard that appeared—it was a mummy!

Maia indicated to the mummy the sink needed repairing, and while he worked on it, she tried to come up with another plan.  How was she supposed to seduce a mummy?

Then she did the only thing that she thought might work.  Maia cast a love spell on him.

And then...

Afterwards, Maia turned away, disgusted.  But she had done what she needed to do; taking another step along the road to completing her challenge.

Now it was time to come up with a plan for escape.  But one day passed much like the next, and Maia had no idea what to do.

One day after conjuring an apple for breakfast... or lunch... who knew what time it was anyway... she heard shouting echoing down the halls of the prison.

“Down that way!  Check the cells!”  Maia heard a voice shout, a voice that sounded like... Aashif??

And it was then Maia saw her son Nik using his witch powers to ice blast the fire trap.

The trap hissed with steam and broke.

Then Nik was unlocking the door to her cell with a key, probably from one of the guards, and she threw herself into his arms.

“You shouldn’t have come...” she began.

“Mom, there’s no time! We gotta go now!” Nik said.  “The others are holding off the mummies for now, but they can’t defeat them.”

The mummies were powerful, and Aashif, Rahu and Ketu weren’t physically strong enough to defeat them.  But mummies were known to be weak against magic, particularly fire magic.

Maia and Nikhil exchanged a glance and unleashed their fire blasts.

After the mummies were destroyed, Maia, Aashif and the triplets met up with the boy’s IF’s, who had discovered an unguarded way out of the ruins.

Then all eight of them fled across the desert sands.

Maia was certain she felt eyes upon them, but they somehow evaded pursuit, and soon they were all heading home.  Together.

“Mistress, I have news,” the genie said.

“I do hope it is good news, Adramelech.  I grow weary of lurking in tombs.”

“The woman has escaped the ruins with her companions.”

“Excellent.  Let her go, then; we know where to find her again. But you are certain she is with child?”

“Yes, Mistress.  It appears Zhemerkhet has fathered a child on her.” Adramelech told her.

“Perfect.  And where is Zhemerkhet?”

“Destroyed, Mistress.  It seems that not all of her rescuers were djinn, and at least one had witch powers like the woman.  In fact, none of the mummies guarding that prison survived.” 

“Pity.  However, more can be made,” she said, gesturing at a black sarcophagus.  “Or...... born.”

“But none of the others we abducted survived their pregnancies, Mistress.  The tomb cells are filled with the skeletons of our failures. What makes her any different?”  He asked.

“She has already been dead herself in this life, so she has a chance, however slight.  And even if she dies for good this time, before or after the birth, she will be unable to complete her challenge, and Grim will die and this world falls to us,” she explained. 

“But if she lives to bear this undead child, we won’t have to stop with the subjugation of this world, but will know we can breed an interstellar force of undead minions on this planet with her and others like her, and conquer many other worlds as well. Either way, we win.”

Adramelech laughed evilly.

“But I’m certain she will survive through this birth,” the woman continued with confidence, her black eyes glittering with malevolence.  “After all, this won’t be the first time she’s given birth to a child with a soulless father.”