Fires of Sarenrae حرائق الل

لقد فعلت أشياء عظيمة هنا، زهير

"You've done great things here, Zuhair. Katapesh cheers your name in the streets." The Priestess of Sarenrae pushed her ample boosom against Zuhair's chest. His hands explored her flesh; her skin was soft, almond colored and smelled of home. He could feel the blood rush through his veins.

وكان من سنة على الأقل منذ امرأة

It had been at least a year since a woman had seduced him. The foreign women of these lands were exciting at first but somewhere between Restov and Stagfell he grew up, matured under the weight of responsibility. He swore off the foreign women and found companionship with Akiros, the dark skinned Osirin and redeemed Paladin of Sarenrae.

كل ذلك تغير مع وصول رنا والفرقة

But all of that changed with the arrival of Rana, Kamilah, and her band of Qadirans. The regular sound of his native tongue and the bright color and styles that the new arrivals wore brought him back to his inner sea roots.

شعب هذه الأراضي هي تأجيج كما

"The people of these lands are as kindling, ready for her fire." She continued, cupping his cheek in her hand.

لم يتغير بسهولة

"The river kingdoms are not easily changed."

وبلغ كاهنة على أصابع قدميها وسارت أصابعها من خلال الشعر زهير

The priestess stood on her toes and snaked her fingers through Zuhair's hair, bringing his lips down to her. She tasted of cinnamon and righteous fire. "Yet you've already brought change. You've tamed these lands and the people flock to your kingdom. The Ten-Thousand will arrive any day and there will be no choice for these people. They will follow or they will be engulfed by our fire."

وجميع من لهم رؤية الضوء لها

"Yes," Zuhair realized, "all of them will see her light." His lust took over then and he pushed her down on the bed.

***** *****

مشى أسفل القاعة طويلة من الحوزة

Akiros walked down the long hall of the estate. The familiar decor brought a sense of calm to his core that he had come for. Given Zuhair's duties as warden, position on the council, and the recent arrival of his sisters, it was understandable that Zuhair had little time for simple pleasures, but he had his own needs . No doubt Zuhair would understand.

اقترب بالادين الباب الى غرفة رئيسية

The paladin approached the door to the master room and raised his hand to knock, but stopped when he heard the unmistakable grunting he knew well followed by the passionate screams of a woman.

أنا ابن خيانة مرة أخرى.

Akiros raised his fist and his eyes grew dark with a rage he hadn't felt since the death of his family. Through clenched teeth he whispered, "I'm betrayed again."

Massive damage, dark dreams. أحلام الظلام

وتحول ضباب كثيف أصحابه في الظل

A dense fog turned his companions into shadow, but Zuhair followed them further into the marsh. The trees seemed to move with them, their leaves rustling in the still wind. The sound triggered a memory that sent fear down his spine.

اختفى الظل من أصدقائه في الضباب

The shadow of his friends disappeared into the fog, and a soft, cackling laugh came from behind Zuhair. "Wait!" he yelled, and spurred his mount forward. The trees seemed to move, blocking his path. "Chase, wait. The trees!"

تتحقق فرع للخروج من الضباب

A branch materialized out of the fog, raking Zuhair's shoulder with razor sharp bark. He could feel blood running down his arm and chest. Not again, he thought. Another branch struck out, piercing his thigh and hitting his mount. "Balian, Fizz!" he shouted.

الحصان زهير تربى بالتسجيل، واسقاط له على الأرض

Zuhair's horse reared up, dropping him to the ground. The branch impaling his leg pulled him off the path, into the marsh. Grasping roots entangled his arms and pulled him to the tree. Not again, he thought, Sarenrae save me, not again.

صورة ظلية مظلمة شكلت في الضباب، بعينين متوهج الأحمر

A dark silhouette formed in the fog, with eyes that glowed red. It laughed as it came into view. Zuhair recognized it as one of the worgs. The one that would not talk to him about their training. "I smell your fear, human." It looked at the scene around them. "Strange to fear the forest."

ناضل ضد زهير جذور للحظة قبل الرد

Zuhair struggled against the roots for a moment before replying. "Strange that you always say that."

انحنى إلى الأمام والذئب البارد أنيابها

The worg leaned forward and bared it's teeth; red eyes focused on Zuhair. "I do enjoy this part," it growled.

زهير توتر عضلاته

Zuhair strained his muscles, trying to break the grip of the roots, but it was useless. The thick branch came down hard, piercing chainmail, flesh and bone. Zuhair screamed--

واستيقظ

--and woke.

سبت زهير بالتسجيل، قلبه السباقات

Zuhair sat up, his heart racing. He got out of bed and went to the water pan to wash away the sweat on his face. It was the third such dream since the event at the marsh.

وكان الجلد تلتئم على ذراعه وصدره لا يزال ردي مشرق

The healed skin on his arm and chest was still a bright pink. Zuhair had seen massive wounds healed before, but had never felt it on himself. The new flesh was tight and the area of his chest was as hairless as a newborn. The repaired muscles were strong, but felt unusally tight--he would need to stretch them out before his morning prayers.

زهير الرب، كل شيء على ما يرام

"Lord Zuhair, is everything alright?" Akiros asked from across the room. The dark skinned paladin put his winter cloak around his shoulders and walked over to Zuhair.

وكان أنا بخير، وحلم جديد

"I'm fine, Akiros, it was the dream again. The Dawnflower curse those worgs for giving me these dreams."

وضع يده على كتف أخيه

Akiros put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "I've looked at them with Her eyes and there was no evil in any of them. Besides, we've never heard of worgs dealing in dreams or enchantements."

تنهد زهير وغطت جنب مع بلده

Zuhair sighed and covered Akiros hand with his own. "You're probably right. The dreams are unnatural, though. I swear it by the sun." In the dream, Zuhair was unable to control or shape anything. It was like it wasn't even his dream.

أعود إلى السرير

"Come back to bed, there's still a couple hours before dawn."

صعدت زهير بعيدا

Zuhair stepped away from Akiros, "No, I don't want to sleep anymore tonight. I'm going to join the Suns on their watch."

بعد جمع ملابسه وغادر زهير معبد

After gathering his gear, Zuhair left the Temple of Sarenrae and met up with the captain of the watch that was on duty. The captain was not hard to find, the Dragon's Rest Tavern was one of the few places that kept their doors open after midnight.

الكابتن، أود أن مراقبة ووتش على دوريتهم

"Captain, I wish to observe the watch on their patrol. Where might they be found?"

Akiros' Tale of Redemption قصة الفداء

Part Three

محاكمة الإيمان

Trial of faith

ذهبية كثير مجيد

Glorious Golden Ketheer, the largest seaport in the Qadira satrap. Akiros stepped off the boat and onto the docks of the desert trade city. It was strange to him, to be surrounded by so many voices speaking his native tongue.

وكان المدينة كما انه يغيب عن البال

The city was as he remembered it; bustling merchants calling their wears and camel traders positioned at every street intersection. Everywhere, dust and sand.

لا يمكن أن نعتقد أنه كان هنا

Akiros couldn’t believe he was here. My family, he thought. This was the life he had turned away, after his family was butchered in a Taldoran raid. At the time, he was across the Inner Sea in Katapesh, serving Sarenrae. He rejected his faith after the goddess he worshiped failed to protect his family. I should have been there for them.

ذهبية كثير مجيد

For Akiros, this was no longer home. His home was in the Greenbelt, with his friends. He was only here to atone for his sins, and to perform the ceremonial service as befit a Paladin of Sarenrae.

أمضى ليلة في أحد فنادق وجرف حصى من السفر الطويل

Akiros spent the night at an inn and washed away the grit from the long travel. The next day he went to the Temple of Sarenrae. He was welcomed by an old priest who appeared to recognize him on sight.. “The Lady told me you would come, and she requests of you one more task before your redemption is complete.”

أدى القس السابق بالادين إلى غرفة للصلاة خاصة في الجزء الخلفي من الهيكل

The priest led the ex-paladin to a private prayer room in the back of the temple. “Pray here and all will be clear,“ the priest said as he closed the door to the private garden.

ساجد في الصلاة لمدة يوم كامل ليلا ونهارا

Akiros knelt in prayer for a full day and night before an image of his wife and children appeared before him. “We miss you, da,” his children shouted. Their faces brought tears to his eyes.

وهرب الأطفال له في الماضي واختفت في الجدار.

The children ran past him and vanished into the wall. “You could not have known. Will you not forgive yourself, Husband?” his wife asked. She reached down and held his face with incorporeal hands. This was the last step. He had forgiven Sarenrae. He had proved his worth in service. Now, he must forgive himself.

استوعب الرمز المقدس إلى صدره.

Kneeling on the rug, Akiros closed his eyes and grasped the holy symbol to his chest. “It was not your fault,” his wife said again. It was not my fault, he thought. “You’re not to blame,” she whispered. It was not my fault. Flames without heat burst from the symbol, engulfing Akiros. It was not my fault! The flames writhed around his mortal body, burning his soul.

أنا يعفي لكم من ذنوبكم الماضي

“No, it was not your fault, Akiros,” the voice of the Dawnflower spoke to him. “I absolve you of your past sins, so rise, my paladin, and use my power to protect the faithful in the north.”

مد الذراعين الذراع إلى الأمام على البساط، في العبودية

Akiros fell forward on the rug, arms extended in servitude. He could feel the divine power within him, purging his body of impurities. He willed the power into his hands, infusing them with the light of Sarenrae. He rose to his feet, drawing his blade.

ومحاولة لكم ، سيدتي

“As you bid, my lady.”

Akiros' Tale of Redemption قصة الفداء

Part Two

محاكمة قوة

Trial of strength

مطحون الأحذية زهير على الفن

Zuhair’s boots crunched on the cobblestone courtyard as he approached the temple of Abadar. The panels on the window hung crookedly, as expected of an abandoned temple in Ustalav. Tendrils of what looked like a weak darkness spell seeped out between the flats of the panel.

تكلم صديقه بجانبه، وذلك باستخدام اللسان من أقصى الجنوب

Akiros spoke beside him, using the tongue of the far south, “I can sense the evil here, and by the Dawnflower, how I missed this!” The dark skinned man smiled as he unsheathed his falchion.

وقبل أسابيع قليلة، اقترب صديقه زهير وقال له رؤية؛

A few weeks earlier, Akiros approached Zuhair and told him of a vision; an angel, wrapped in the light of the sun, had come to him in his sleep. The angel showed him the scene of an abandoned temple of Abadar in a remote village of Ustalav. An evil presence emanated from the temple, dark and unsettling. The angel told Akiros that if he wished for Sarenrae to talk to him, that he would need to prove himself once more by cleansing the temple in the vision.

وافق زهير لمرافقة السابقين بالادين على سعيه

Zuhair agreed to accompany the ex-paladin on his quest, and so they found themselves two week’s hard ride to the west, outside a corrupted temple in an abandoned town. They learned on the way that the villagers had fled after the darkness consumed the temple. Rumors of the occult and demons spread with them.

وقطعت المحلاق الظلام في الهواء بجانب رأسه، وبذلك .

The dark tendrils snapped the air next to his head, bringing Zuhair out of his reverie. He cast a light orison on his falchion and the dark tendrils withdrew back into the temple. After calling for a blessing of strength from the Dawnflower, he approached the temple doors--one hung to the side and groaned despairingly as he pushed it inward and entered the temple.

إضاءة مصباح له شفرة من عدة صفوف من المقصورات،.

The light from his blade illuminated several rows of pews, knocked over and tossed about. Akiros cautiously moved on his flank and spoke the obvious, “The folks in that last village were right. There is something unnatural here. No wonder they fled.”

كما انتقلوا نحو الجزء الخلفي من الهيكل ،

As they moved toward the back of the temple, a man wearing the robes of Abador stepped out of a side chamber. He made a noise like the gargling of sea water and raised a hand to shield his eyes from the light. That’s when Zuhair noticed the strips of flesh hanging off the man, revealing the bones of his face and hands.

متوهج العينين مخلوق أوندد الحمراء من خلال أصابع الهيكل

The undead creature’s eyes glowed red through the skeletal fingers as they fixated on the pair of intruders. It charged at them with an unnatural gaunt, faster than any zombie Zuhair had seen before, and the air in the temple chilled with negative energy as it approached.

صعدت زهير الى جانب الهجوم

Zuhair stepped to the side of the attack and brought his blade down in a powerful stroke that bit deep between the neck and shoulder. The creature crumpled to the floor, and as he pulled his blade free said, “By the Dawnflower, I’ve never seen such an undead. What was it doing here?”

سار زهير حول الجثة، نحو غرفة انها تأتي من.

Akiros walked around the corpse, toward the room it had come from. “I don’t know. You don’t become a wight without a tramatic death or by necromancy. Something else must have been going on here.”

وأدلى صوت صرير الخشب زهير البصر

The creaking sound of wood made Zuhair look up in time to see a winged beast leap down from the rafters. Zuhair stepped to the side and eyed the new threat as it landed before him. This was no undead.

لوح الشعر مخلوق غير طبيعي في الهواء بلا حراك

The creature’s hair waved unnaturally in the motionless air, briefly reminding Zuhair of Chase. Its reptilian form was muscled but lithe, and spikes raised along it's tail. A beard hung under his gapped maw that ended in blackened tips. It charged with a vicious, saw-toothed glaive that caught Zuhair along the thigh. The infernal wound burned instantly. Zuhair stumbled back, and reactively brought his falchion down in two-handed slash that the devil attempted to block with his glaive; the haft was sundered by the assault.

انتقل إلى صديقه وهاجم الجناح

Akiros moved in to flank and attacked, striking true and drawing the attention to himself. The bearded devil lashed out with sharp claws, leaving a trail of blood where it raked across the paladin's chest. “By the light of the sun, return to hell”, Akiros yelled as he brought his falchion down once more. A radiant light crested the blade as the power of Sarenrae added strength to the attack.

تكوم تبدد الظلام الزاحف والأشرار إلى الأرض.

The creeping darkness dissipated as the fiend crumpled to the ground. Akiros knelt down next to the devil and yanked a chain off its neck. A gold amulet in the shape of a key flashed against the light. “This creature had the priest’s symbol of Abadar”, he said.

توالت زهير جثة الكاهن على ظهرها مع التمهيد له.

Zuhair rolled the priest’s corpse onto its back with his boot. “He must have tried making a deal with devils.”

حسنا ، أنا لا أعتقد أن عملت بها بالنسبة له

“Well, I don’t think that worked out for him,” Akiros said as he knelt by the corpse of the priest. The ex-paladin gave a blessing to both Abadar and Sarenrae before placing the symbol on the chest of the dead man. “We can give word to the villagers on our way home, they need not fear this place any longer.”

في تلك الليلة دخلت الملاك حلمه

That night the angel of Sarenrare entered Akiros’ dream. Well done, Akiros, The relation between Abadar and Sarenrae has strengthened. As a token of gratitude, the Dawnflower sends this. When he woke, Akiros found a figurine of a winged lady clutched in his hand. Thank you, my Lady, he thought.

Akiros' Tale of Redemption قصة الفداء

Part One

تطهير النفس والصلب

The cleansing of soul and steel

الماضي الصفوف من الخيام

Dawn lit the hillside as Zuhair walked past the rows of tents that swarmed the outer walls of Oleg’s trading part. The grass was still wet from the morning dew as he reached the top. The servant of Sarenrae spread his prayer rug out before him, facing south toward Qadira. He was relieved to see that Akiros had already risen and made his way here.

زهير ركعت بجانب الرجل ذوي البشرة الداكنة

Zuhair knelt beside the dark skinned man named Akiros. He was a quiet man, broken in spirit and lost in what Zuhair presumed was prayer and self-reflection.

وكان زهير قادرة على تعلم اجزاء وقطع من قصة الرجل

The days since the Staglord fell, Zuhair was able to learn bits and pieces of the man's story. Akiros hailed from satrap Qadira, in the Kelesh Empire. A former Paladin of Sarenrae, he served in the empire until his faith faltered. What happened to cause him to lose faith, Zuhair did not know. The faith-wound was a festering sore within the ex-paladin, and he did not want to push the man away. Akiros fled the holy lands, going to a place where the gods sway did not govern the people. His skill with the blade quickly landed him a high position under the Staglord. Complacency kept him there, committing and condoning acts that he once punished others for doing.

شاهد زهير له في صمت لفترة

Zuhair watched Akiros in silence for a time, then whispered his morning prayer in the kelish tongue, "Lady Dawnflower, we ask for you guidance…” For Akiro’s benefit, he spoke his prayer this morning instead of just thinking them.

بعد الصلاة ، أدرك زهير الساعدين مع مواطنه.

After the prayers, Zuhair grasped forearms with his countryman. He spoke in his native Kelish tongue, “Brother. I leave again this morning to finish searching the woods for the lost temple, but I have something I wish for you to do while I’m gone.”

قاد زهير اعادته الى فورت لأوليغ

Zuhair led him back into Oleg’s fort, to a side of the keep that Jhod was righteously smiting nails into the wooden frame of the future shrine. “I would like you to assist Jhod in constructing this shrine to the gods. Sarenrae must commune with Erastil, if we are to bring her light to these lands. So add her influence here.”

رجل الظلام ضربة رأس في العودة ، واختار رسميا حتى مطرقة

The dark man nodded in return and solemnly picked up a hammer and joined Jhod. Zuhair smiled as his new friend took the first steps on the path to redemption.