Shalah
*Shalah is seriously perplexed when she hears this news. First, she is fairly sure that the lad has not been magically coerced. Using back-propagation, even if the initial propability of infatuation due to magic had been 50%, the fact that Shalah has not sensed it leads to a Bayesian propagation of only slightly over 25%. And those are odds that Shalah refuses to ignore. What's more, Malika's story strikes a chord with Shalah's eidetic memory of Azizah's
~~"Five generations ago, one of your ancestors was born in the harem of Mansur's father. He married into common blood later in life, as did his ancestors, until your father, a flamekissed wanderer, came upon a fire nymph at her oasis. And though he knew it was dangerous, he dared to love her. Unfortunetly, you were scarcely conceived before he was burnt to death in the fires of your mother's passion. It was not something she could control, and she mourned your father greatly. She carried you with a heavy burden of sorrow in her heart, and when you were born, left her oasis of fire to leave you at an oasis of water. She wanted you to be taken by your father's people and raised by them, as she was too full of sadness to do so. After you were safely away, she returned to her oasis and has never left,"~~
Azizah...It seemed somewhat fitting that one whose name meant "Splendid" might change her name to "Queen" upon retreating to her oasis forever...And Shalah has to admit to herself that even though every man and woman in Keldev deserves to live a happy life, if the nymph is truly the tragic Azizah, mother of her beloved Samira, she deserves some happiness now more than anyone.*
"Dear one," Shalah whispers, knowing that Samira could still hear her words clearly, "My heart sings now that we are in accord on this matter. Indeed, we must accept the possibility that Azizah and Malika are related somehow, or even one and the same."
Then louder, to the group, "I have some thoughts on this matter. I believe that Marid and Malika's love and joy must survive and flourish, even in the face of Kadar's oppressive command. Anything else, and I suppose I would be a hypocrite," she notes, bending forward slightly to give Samira a quick kiss on the cheek for emphasis.
"But we cannot possibly hope to spirit Marid away tonight without breaking our honour-bound salt-oath as Marid's guests. It is clear to me that this very situation has been placed before us as a test. Perhaps the simplest solution is also one that I currently refuse to entertain unless all other avenues are lost. That is, I do not wish to turn Kadar's own strategy against him, forcing him into our debt with the boon of Samira or my attentions."
"My preferred solution to this problem is to spread truth and joy to everyone involved, even Kadar, rather than using trickery. I may be overly optimistic, but I cannot believe that any father would hate his son so much as to refuse him his love, particularly with an advocate such as myself arguing the boy's case. Indeed, if my hunch on understanding human nature is correct, Kadar's anguish that he cannot find a flower who will entice Marid is probably based on the father's hidden fear that his son...does not like girls. After all, this would seem a far more likely postulate based on the evidence than that the boy had found himself a fire nymph lover. And sadly, the nature of men is such that they are afraid of things like this, particularly in their sons, for Kadar will surely wish to carry his name and wealth to future generations."
"But when the truth is known, how can Kadar deny his son this desire? Even his greed alone should enable his acceptance, as what slaver could resist a possible source girls who could be almost as beautiful as our ineluctably charming Samira, although I am sure none of them could match her inestimable allure," stroking Samira's cheek gently where she had left the kiss and then giving her a quick hug at her name.
"So therefore, I propose that we meet with Kadar and ask him to bless his son's union and give us permission to escort Marid to the fire oasis this night. I can be very persuasive if I want to..."
"Of course, I do not wish to enforce my opinions where others desire to make theirs known, so please, let us hear the plans of each of our esteemed compatriots before making a final decision."
[OOC: Whisper DC 15+distance]
