Chapter 4 - Chapter 2

Nadine travelled for days with the warrior, servant and the children. She breastfed the two children and she loved them like their own mother. She would light three lights each dawn and pray for the two queens and her newborn baby. The three women knew they had to travel to a land where Diablo could not reach them. They crossed the deserts ands the oceans travelling with the children. They reached further north after months of travelling and they came across a village of hunters. They were men and women who lived in the middle of the forest. The men hunted and the women gathered fruits and berries. There was a village chief who had three wives. He welcomed the three women into the village. "What are women with children doing in the middle of the forest and far north?", he asked the women. He asked because his village was far north and no one came to the north. The women bowed their faces to the ground in honour before they replied the chief. "We come from the south and we are seeking shelter.", Nadine answered the chief. The chief looked at his elders and said, "Agasah? I thought the lands of Agasah were taken up by Diablo?" Nadine rose her head and answered, "They were taken and we managed to escape. We kept on coming north fleeing from Diablo." The chief's elders mumbled upon themselves. They were concerned and troubled about these three women. The chief hushed his elders and said to the women, "We are the outlanders and no one has bothered to come here even in time of distress. You however travelled to come here and my people find it very suspicious but you have had a long journey and you should rest we shall decide whether to let you stay or not. The chief's youngest wife prepared a place for the women, she examined the tattoos on their bodies as they undressed. She helped Nadine with the babies and also took notice of the tattoos on their backs. People from Agasah were born with tattoos and this was well known everywhere in the realms. They defined royalty and also a commoner. The chief's wife noticed these tattoos. She left them to sleep and went to address the chief. She bowed her head to the ground and waited to be given permission to speak by the chief. "My chief and my husband the mother of the child is a commoner she bares tattoos of a commoner, the other one bares the tattoos of a warrior and the last one of a servant girl. However it's the children that I noticed have unusual tattoos and hair. I think we have ourselves the future queens of Agasah in our presence and they are being protected by these women from Diablo.", she told the chief and his elders. The chief and the elders had heard stories of how the empress of Agasah brought blessings to the people, how they were a blessing from the gods and had been given Agasah as a token of appreciation. He decided they would stay and they would protect them from any harm. The elders and the chief however decided to keep this to themselves and not tell anyone even the women who had come from Agasah.

It was the first year celebrations of the queens' birth when Ammara and the black sorcerer had another same vision from deep in the dungeons. A woman with an arrow engraved at her back, with white long braids and blue eyes that glowed like the sun drove a sword into Diablo's heart. Ammara prayed for the protection of the young queens. "Praying for your queen Ammara?", a voice asked behind her. It was the black sorcerer. He stood there outside her dungeons and he had an evil smile on his face. "One should pray to the gods at first light.", she replied him calmly. He laughed and walked into the dungeon towards Ammara. She kept kneeling and facing the east, he drew closer to her, grabbed her hair and whispered, "I can see beyond these walls and I know that child is not the true child of the empress for she does not have any arrow tattoed on her back." Ammara trembled in fear but she kept calm. She did not blink but said to him, "You are so desparate to be Diablo's one and only trusted subject you would make up a vision." Angered by her words he hit her head to the wall and stood up to leave. "I will find her Ammara count on it I will most definitely find this queen and kill her myself!", he screamed as he left. Ammara broke in tears and she cried out to the gods to protect the queens. The black sorcerer had been a servant of the gods before. He and Ammara had been the head seers in the heavens and they fell in love. However the black sorcerer had become greedy for power and he wanted to rule with the gods. He had asked Ammara to join him in his quest with Diablo but her loyalty towards Harunah and the gods was too much and she refused. They drifted apart and this gave birth to a terrible birth of hatred in the black sorcerer towards Ammara and especially Harunah. The vision had only showed one queen but had not showed the other and she wondered what role the other queen would have in against the valoyees. She wondered what the gods had planned for Wanday and how they would protect these two queens. She prayed the whole day and night for a revelation from the gods but nothing was revealed. Why did they reveal what they had revealed to the black sorcerer too? This would put the empress, queens and Amandla at great risk. The black sorcerer watched the liitle Amandla as she walked in the palace court with the servants. He was determined that as she grew he would see she wasn't Harunah's seed. He had great plans for this little impostor. She would help him destroy the true queen and break Harunah's heart. "Your highness I think you should spend more time with the little girl so she will never turn her back on you.", he told Diablo. Diablo was gullible and he listened to everything his sorcerer told him. The empress was miserable and there is nowhere any mother would be that miserable with her child around her, the black sorcerer thought to himself. The people of Agasah had been enslaved for a year now. Manufacturing bricks, cement and building the great tower for Diablo was going to take years. He wanted the greatest city and tower one that would surpass the beauty of the heavens and he was determined to have it. He didn't care how many would die from the people he had conquered he just wanted his city and tower completed so all traders from everywhere would see how great he was and they would worship him. This broke Harunah's heart as she saw her people suffering to build that ridiculous tower and city for Diablo.

Nadine watched the Sharay and Wanday grow. Sharay liked playing with the boys of the village from a very young age. She was cold and stern. She loved braiding her hair in to many different strands and let it grow long. She loved arrows, swords and hunting with the men. The village men taught her how to fight and hunt. She often kept the villagers cattle and sheep. Nadine worried for her because she often wondered off and would come at night. The warrior had settled in the mountains where she would watch over her from afar. She often would pretend to bump into the girl and teach her how to fight. Sharay would return the next day but wouldn't find the warrior and she would think he was just someone hunting closeby. Her tattoo grew as she grew older. It became more engraved in her skin and she drew more tattoos on her body with the boys from the village. The women of the village found her weird but she didn't mind. She was happy with her tattoos, weapons and men around her. Sharay dotted on her mother, Nadine was her entire world and the only time she would soften up was when her mother was around. Wanday was the feminine type between the two. She loved cooking, cleaning and sewing. She stayed at home with her mother and she planted flowers around their home. She walked graciously like a queen would and she like making ointments that smelled so nice that the women of the village would gather and buy them from her. Men would turn their heads everytime she passed by them, she was every mother's dream daughter in law. Sharay would tease her sister for being such a feminine character and Wanday would often tell her sister she would not be married for men didn't like women who were warriors. The two sisters had inherited their mother's beauty. Nadine was there mother and she loved them like they were her own. She had never mentioned Agasah to the girls. She raised them like normal people and they only heard tales of Agasah in the village by people. She had decided to tell the girls about Agasah and their true identity when they could understand. Sharay didn't believe a city of people blessed by the gods was taken over by some evil man. She thought of the people of Agasah as just normal people who had their city taken because they were too waek to protect it. She wanted to go see the great tower of Diablo and buy as many weapons as she could from Agasah. Sharay befriended the chief's son Muney. He taught her how to hunt and they were both adventurous. They could get in trouble and they would hide from the chief. Nadine wanted Sharay to be like Wanday but she didn't want to be a woman who stayed home everyday. "But mother I hate house chores, I hate cooking and I hate walking like I am a fragile little girl!", she complained. Nadine sighed, "How then do you like white Sharay?" She wore white and she didn't like to see dirt on her clothes. Sharay laughed and replied, "Because I was born with white hair and its weird that I am the only person with white hair and blue eyes around." Her mother would look at her and say nothing. She came to terms with it because deep inside she knew Sharay was going to be a great warrior. Wanday had been quiet all her life. She was full of wisdom and was happy and content with her life. She just wanted to grow, get married and have children of her own. She didn't know that women of Agasah only married men from Agasah who were given to them by the gods to preserve their heritage. She looked at Muney and she wanted to marry him. Sharay would laugh and tease her for that and this made the sister angry.