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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7000207" data-attributes="member: 20323">[SECTION][align=left]http://i.imgur.com/rNCBfLQ.jpg[/align]The abrupt change in tone takes Derafsh off-guard, and he leans away incredulously when Najiyah kneels down alongside him. He snarls instinctively when she attempts to subtly brush her hand to lower his scarf, jerking his head away. His beady amber eyes focus on her skeptically, recognizing her as perhaps his only hope."I know how to weather a regime change. Sultans. Sheikhs. They all know how to gather men for their cause. We were at least a dozen strong in the Sultan's Haras al-Sirri ("secret guard"), some kin others from across the desert who I didn't know. Before then we'd been bandits on the road to Akota, robbing for our bread and for sport. One day we chanced to rob the very caravan of the Sultan himself. Terrible magic seized us, making it impossible to move, and the Sultan stepped out of his wagon bedecked in dark silks. He offered a swift death or clemency within his city walls. Of course, we chose to live."Continuing, Derafsh glances nervously over your party, attempting to gauge whether he is appeasing the less generous among you. "When my siblings and I gazed upon the great buildings and sedan chairs and ships of Tajar...such wealth and majesty!...we knew there was more to life than scraping by in the desert. And so we ate the Sultan's words like honey. He promised us new lives as his agents if we would accept the Enlightened Faith and swear fealty, bringing our skills at banditry in service to rooting out his enemies. And it was good work in the beginning, my brother Nimar even growing fat..."Though he attempts to sit up proudly despite his restraints, Derafsh cuts a pathetic character, his voice laced with a whining bitterness, a rueful multi-tonal laugh at the edges of his lips. "Until the rebellion some thirty years ago. Kori al-Zafiri turned the merchants and poor against the Sultan's rule. My siblings and I pleaded for the Sultan to give us sanctuary, as the crowds were out for blood, but he would not acknowledge us. He turned us away. We were dragged through the streets, collared, beaten, and those who didn't succumb to stoning were branded traitors by al-Zafiri. When al-Zafiri's son, your Sheikh Ali, came to power there was no amnesty, no forgiveness, just a silent acceptance of his father's will that we suffer. We are guilty by association. This is your Sheikh's verdict."[/SECTION][GM]Possibly [MENTION=6866331]Foxbytes[/MENTION]... I think it would be more likely that she saw a man and woman (Derafsh's siblings) who share some of Derafsh's facial features, rather than Derafsh specifically (who has no real allegiance anymore).[/GM]</blockquote>

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