Nim
by
Patrick Kapera
The kittens lean out as far as they dare over the edge of the
canal, straining for a passing patch of brown within the water. How strange,
thinks Nim. Tiran has always hated water.
The object that Tiran has taken an interest in was perhaps
the size of a good melon, but covered in a brown fur, like wet strands of
matted hair, and as Nim magically lifts the cat out of harm's way, it tumbles
over within the river, revealing the pale, lesion-ridden countenance of a
man, his eyes wide open in stark terror, or shock.
Instantly taken with curiosity, the Jinn lowers the kitten
into his litter and raises the severed head above the lazy flow. At this,
one of his eyes jerks around within its socket, rolling freely out of sinc
with the other, and the jaw drops open, a trickle of pale green fluid draining
out. "Who would you be, hmmm...?" Nim questions in his childlike voice. "And
how did you come here?"
"I floated most of the way looking into the riverbed," the
head answers, and Nim's concentration wavers, nearly pitching it back in.
"So I'm not entirely sure."
Nim smiles playfully at the grotesque visage, and claps his
hands together in mock appreciation. The head's one good eye focuses on the
Jinn while his other settles into an odd, askance orbit. "Who would you be,
then? And where's your master?"
"I have no master," Nim says. "I am free."
"Free!" The head is incredulous. "There are no free
Jinn!"
Nim replies with a saddened voice. "There are now." And
before the head can continue its line of questioning, he giggles like a newborn,
making it contort at the odd creature. "But you!" Nim blurts, "you must have
a story worthy of telling! What is your name, unfortunate one?"
"Aziz," the head speaks. "I am Aziz, the greatest explorer
of our time!" Nim's expression at this is enough to cause a rapid retort.
"Alright! Perhaps not the greatest... but indeed, I have a story, and if
you will promise me but one favor, I will tell it to you."
Nim nods his agreement, and settles in for the duration, cradling
Tiran and his sister, Afi, in his lap and extended his attentions to the
others as well. They will not wander as long as he entertains them with etereal
friends and invisible toys.
The head of Aziz, hovering above the water, begins its
extraordinary tale...
"As I have said, my name was Aziz, and I was a great explorer.
In my exploits, I have found many wondrous objects and discovered many fantastic
places. But this is the story of my last days alive, and how I came to be
here with you... "I was travelling with a friend of mine, whose name is Adnan.
Perhaps you know of him?" But with Nim's negative response, he continued.
"The day before he left for the sands, intent on some lost
city he was sure he could find, we were exploring the sewers beneath this
beautiful jewel. I was sure that the stories of an ancient race of philosophers
that lived by an underground lake were true, and was determined to find
them.
"Adnan was unsure. He thought that anything so immmense within
the city would have already been found, or long ago buried beyond anyone's
reach. I had been told by one that I believed that beyond the ghul caves
there laid a series of rough-hewn tunnels that followed the river's bleed
to their city.
"Surely a city built by a race so old that they had been forgotten
by those that lived under the sun would have the greatest treasures imaginable,
or knowledge of lost cities and tombs that we could raid when we wanted.
This was what I had used to convince Adnan to accompany me, though had I
known what lie in store for us, it would not even have been enough to convince
me."
"What did you find?" Nim interrupts.
"Death, little one. Hungry demons spawned of the city's deepest
bowels. Only an hour into our descent, we were beset by ghuls - a horde of
them! We ran, I lost track of Adnan, and before I knew it, I happened into
a nest of them. I never stood a chance."
"You died," Nim says the words.
"I died... but my head lived on. In fact, as I watched them
consume my body, I found myself as confused by their inattention to my head
as I was to the fact that I could still see and hear, even speak. The latter,
at least, I have since accounted for. But the former is still a mystery.
Perhaps the explanations are one and the same."
"I don't understand," Nim interjects.
"You will. It didn't come to me until many hours later, after
my head had been flung into the rushing underground river and washed away.
I had a lot of time to think while I was floating through the darkness. I
couldn't even keep my eyes open more often than not - I kept rolling over
and over in the stream. Though I don't need to breathe anymore, the water
still irritated my eyes. You wouldn't believe the things that pollute this
river!"
Nim smiles at Aziz' persistent humor, urging him on. "Regardless,
the interesting part came shortly after I tumbled over a waterfall. I had
noticed that there was a light ahead for several minutes before, and when
I was falling, I caught a glipmse of its source. A city. The city. I had
found it - the city of the ancients we had been seeking. It was beautiful.
A thousand spires of light, tipped by stars! The heavens themselves had blessed
that place with its children, and they had taken it for their own! Ah, I
still can't forget the feeling I had passing by the intricate stiarways and
endless towers...
"And the people! They were amazing! Their skin ranged from
the lightest brown to the darkest blue, and brilliant light trails glowed
form within them, forming lines upon their skin. Every one of them was unique
- in more ways than we are. They were special, every one of them. I could
tell by their faces and they way they moved, by the way the others spoke
and moved around them, and by how very young I felt looking at them, even
while in my present condition. How I wished that they would have heard my
calls and brought me to shore, that I could have asked them how they built
their magnificent city, and what other wonders they possessed. But alas,
it was not to be. I was too far from shore, left to bob aimlessly in the
slow current. I contented myself with observing the vast roof of the chamber,
only just within my sight. Across its stalactite-covered surface could be
seen a million tiny points of many-colored light, swirling about a central
disc of the finsest, palest blue.
"And I wondered if I was doomed to exist forever within this
mutilated skull, never to see light or clouds again, never to see a beautiful
woman or eat a fine meal again. I was certain that if I passed by the glory
of that place to be lost forever against some dark, dank shore, I would soon
go insane within my own decaying mind.
"When I rolled again to see the city, however, my interest
was drawn to the collected people upon the shore near what appeared to be
a well-constructed stone pier. They were thirty or so, and all the thin corridors
and high bridges of the city seemed silent around them. There was another,
lying upon a litter of some kind, in the water. He was dead, I thought, his
body still.
"Among the people, there were only four who walked upon the
pier. Two tended to the body, lighting fifteen candles around the litter,
and sending it drifting out into the lake. They and another who only stood
rigid throughout had very dark skin, azure which made their glowing marks
that much more visible. The last was nearly like I had been, with pale skin,
her marks pulsing a dark in contrast.
"My friend, on ocassion I have been known to read lips, and
I can assure you that it is a skill of some use to those living among the
vermin of the city. Just then, I was glad to have learned it, for the two
statements I caught were quite peculiar.
"'Midnight soars,' said the dark-skinned girl at the pier,
with some sadness and, I thought, a hint of shame. She had not leant down
to push away the litter, but I guessed that she wished she had.
"'And now we are Three,' the pale woman standing next to her
echoed.
"I passed out of view from them shortly after that, but the
litter was carried behind me for some time, periodically passing into sight
as I rolled. The last I saw of the body was the most spectacular, as it was
there when my face vanished under the thick green water, then gone when it
surfaced again, replaced by a thousand tiny pinpoints of dazzling crystal
light, lifted up toward the cavern ceiling and the pale blue disc above.
"After that, I tumbled through the deepest, most forsaken grottos
of the underworld, dreaming endlessly about the wonders of the lost city
of the stars, until I couldn't tell which was real - the empty nightmare
my life had become, or the incredible dream of my afterlife...
"And now I am here with you," the head tells Nim, bluntly.
The Jinn, still lost in the tale of the beautiful city, is
loathe to let go of the moment that abruptly. "That's it?" he forwards. "How
did you come back to the surface?"
"Ah, that..." the head says quietly. "That is another story,
one which I am not sure I could remember with such clarity, even if I tried.
There are some things, my eternal friend, best left unrepeated."
Knowing of human pain, even if he can not experience it, Nim
relents, instead focusing on his request. "How can I help you? A wish? Do
you want your body back?"
"No. It would do me little good, now. I have been changed by
the infernal device that maintains this decrepit shell. I would ask that
you take it from me."
"The favor you asked for... You wish to give me something?"
Nim, confused, looks at Aziz with a burrowed brow.
The eye of the corpseless head seeks a neutral point to fix
on, the second revolving again in place. "I am a person who likes fine things,
one who can appreciate the value of age. Weeks ago, during a foray into one
of the ruins outside the city, I was caught unawares by a spring-loaded dart
contraption. I lost my eye, only returning alive by the grace of Mekhem.
"I know a healer here in the city, Hisham, who managed
to save my life, and mentioned that he might perhaps be able to find a glass
replacement for me. I unwisely accepted."
Nim listens carefully to Aziz now, sensing that the man's next
words will prove most enlightening.
"This... thing in my head. It keeps me alive. Hisham mentioned
that all magicks are not made equal, that often the side-effects of their
use are not entirely what is expected. He said that I would be able to see
forever..."
"Which you can," Nim finished, realizing the error. Nodding
his head in sympathetic understanding, he opens his palm and wills the gem
out of Aziz's skull. A second later, the inert head splashes into the river,
is caught up within the slow current once more, and is gone. "Go now, Aziz,
and have peace."
Nim shares a final glance with the artifact, gathers his litter,
and dances away, into the streets of Medinaat al Salaam, in search of another
tale.
Emerald Empire, Legend of the Burning Sands, the Legend of the Burning Sands logo, Shadow of the Tyrant, the Shadow of the Tyrant logo and all related marks, names and characters are tm and (C) 1995-1998 by Five Rings Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. Card illustrations are (C) 1998 by the credited artists (Jewel of the Desert by Nicola Leonard, Library by Jennifer Ambr, Divination by Pamela Shanteau, Sound Planning by Scott J