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Khalid looked up at a very special portrait in his tent while he waited for his son in-law Frank Cole. The Dark Medjai, as most knew him, had recently discovered that not only had the woman that he had always loved indeed loved him back but planned to return after informing her family that she was pregnant.Ā He blew his beloved Lili a kiss, saying to her, āLili, you would have liked our daughter's choice in husbands. Frank loved Margaret as much as I still love you. ā Shaking his head sadly as he poured out his heart,Ā āYour brother raised her to be a proper young lady. Why didnāt you just tell me instead of writing that letter? No, you are right, my dear. I should have trusted you more, my beloved, instead of believing you just ran away.ā After a few moments the deeply troubled Medjai continued, āIf your uncle William Ward is up there, let him know I never meant for his death and finally discovered who was responsible. Frank has insured that the man named Travis was turned over to nephew Richard Greene. Richard is deeply in love with my sister Arianna. It seems that my baby brother Tarik supports of the union.ā Ā As the portrait of Lili got a look about it, Khalid stopped again. After realizing what the issue was, he smiled as he put her soul at ease saying, āDon't worry, dear. As far as I am concerned the feud is over. I can't let on, though, as it endangers them all. I love you but until I can insure that The Dark One goes down as well, I have no real choices in my actions. If I break my oath before ensuring that, then I will be just sealing all their fates.ā Khalid clinched his fist tight as he remembered the score he had to settle. Not only had he lost his beloved wife but had been unaware that she had given him a daughter. Staring at the picture that Frank had given him of a daughter he had never gotten to raise, Frank's wife. His temper rose as he remembered that his daughter had also been murdered while she was pregnant with Frank's child.Ā After the coastal elf T-bell calmed him down, Khalid smiled as he realized that Frank also had a score to settle with those that Frank was terrified would find him. Frank Cole, a.k.a. The Fixer, worked for anybody that could pay his price. When Khalid had first learned that, it had worried him, because as the Dark Medjai had several prices on his head, including from his own family.Ā As of yet Fixer had never betrayed the trust Khalid had shown in him. Khalid wanted, no needed, to show Frank that he fully trusted him to know everything.Ā Khalid looked at T-bell and nodded. He had asked Frank to meet him at the healing place. T-bell had assured him that Fixer understood and would be arriving soon. Khalid listened and occasionally nodded. "I was born to a Medjai pureblood named Prince Abdo-Ari and a Greek woman that was Abdo-Ariās second wife. She died in in the war when I was twelve. I just recently remembered the truth. My first kill was by pure accident but it was far from my last. I killed mine and Arianna's mother when I was twelve and ran. No one at the time knew about my blood-magic or if they did had not told me I had the ability." Khalid took a sip of his wine and not looking at some spot on the side drape he continued. "I do not remember much of what happened that first year I was on my own. I remember being scared and hungry most of the time. Somehow I ended up in Egypt's darker side of the Wizardry world. There I found people who said they liked me and would be willing to train my magic and show me how to survive in the world. At the time I thought that was the only type of world in which I could existed. After a few months, my life before then had became a far away dream." Khalid turned his eyes back to Cole and in a tight voice said, sounding like the child he once was, "I did not know ā¦. I did not know I could have just returned home." T-bell walked up to Khalid's side and put two fingers on his temple. Closing his eyes he mumbled soothing, Cole could not understand. Khalid slowly turned his head toward the elf looked into his eyes and nodded. T-bell returned the nod and took his hand away but did not move from Khalid's' side. Khalid started again in a much calmer voice. "I was taught the strong took what they wanted from the weak ā¦ so I became strong. Not just physically but with wealth and all the prestige it would buy. I became an assassin." "With the money I gained from that, I bought companies and people who would work fro me, no questions asked. I saw a girl I wanted once, but at the time she was engaged to another man." Khalid's eyes traveled into the distance again. "I was not deterred. I went to her father and told him I was going to buy his family business and totally dismantle it. After a couple of hours of letting him try to prove to me the company would be worth saving, he stopped, sat in his chair and asked me what would make me save the companyā¦. I told him his daughter as my wife. To this day I remember the look of horror on is face. I gave him twenty-four hours to think about it." Khalid gulped the rest of his wine and finished with, "She showed up at my door eighteen hours later with her suitcase in her hand." Khalid stopped as he remembered all the women that had come to him like that. Saying a little aloud, āDid any of them really love him or did they stay out of fear?ā Khalid reached for the letter from the only one that had left. He had never opened it and still wondered why she left. āMaybe one day, I will find her again and ask why she ran away.ā Her leaving had broke his heart as she was the only one he still loved. He had a picture of her in this tent. He had hid it as Esmeralda was determined to destroy it.Ā His lover Esmeralda Russo was the only one that he had grown to hate as the woman only wanted power. He had two children by her and both had turned out just like her. His daughter Dalphe and his youngest son Jackson. Putting the letter down as he turned back to Cole, āI am getting off track. I have had many women in my life but only one have I ever loved. A month after our wedding she left that letter and I guess never looked back. You might think that woman was David's mother...It was not. Don't get me wrong, I cared deeply for Shadow's mother but it was not as soul-bounded as what I felt for Lilli. I have not given my name to another woman since.ā After what seemed like an eternity of swirling emotions, Khalid came to what Cole had witnessed as he quietly spoke, āHow to explain what I am facing? I swore that I would never reach the state you witnesses...I guess I deserve this but not when my family is in danger. There are those that would see those I truly love made a distant memory.ā Khalid shook his head as it was coming out all wrong. He had hired Fixer to insure that his family was place on the right path. Khalid wanted to tell them himself but to do so would break his vow. Smiling as he realized that he planned on still breaking that vow but not yet. Khalid needed to know that he would be insuring the Dark One's downfall as well.    |
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