Iman was fully focused. Her relaxed self had transformed. She had gone from slouching on her brother's chair to marching around the Palace, shouting order after order at the soldiers. She enjoyed taking charge for once, especially given that it was her father who had entrusted her with a mission of her own.
This was what she had always hoped for: her father trusting her to carry out his command without being watched by any of her older brothers. Ali was nowhere to be seen, choosing to distance himself from his father's schemes and wait for his children to return. Hadar was still at war. Rahim and Hussein were not the fighters that Ibraheem had hoped for.
"The horses! Get the horses so we can get on with this! We have to get there as quickly as possible if we want to intercept him!"
Iman stormed through the Palace and stood at the top of the Palace stairs, tapping her foot on the ground and defiantly crossed her arms. She looked up at the moon and didn't blink, speaking to herself as she was lost in its beauty.
"If I can defeat this man…and bring his head back to father...then maybe…just maybe…He will give me the respect I deserve. And finally see that I am worth just as much to him as Ali and Hadar."
"We're all ready to go, my princess," shouted a guard who suddenly appeared close by. Iman slowly turned her head to look at him and nodded, her face displaying an expression of pure determination.
She hoisted herself onto the horse, refusing several of the soldiers' kind offers to support her as she did. Her horse trotted to the tip of the Palace stairs, stopping in front of the twenty soldiers that awaited her command.
"Don't any of you dare think this is going to be any different to when Hadar is leading. I'm just as strong and clever as he is. If you all follow my lead, then we'll have nothing to worry about. I trust you all to help me bring this man's head back to father."
All of the soldiers cheered and raised their swords into the air as Iman took the lead and directed her horse to begin racing down the stairs of the Inner Capital, clearly having no regard to those that were trying to sleep at this late hour.
*****
A little boat slowly sailed through the calm sea, the surrounding area barely lit by the moon that shone from above. The air was still, the current motionless. Yet somehow the small boat that broke the water's stillness pushed forward. A whisper of wind could be heard, yet it would not have been felt by anyone else nearby.
As the boat continued to take its course, a screeching noise spread across the imposing mountains that surrounded the sea. A man, clothed in only black, a hood covering his head, scraped his dagger against a thick rock, its edges now mostly curved and its shape circular.
All of a sudden, the screeching stopped, and the man raised his head and looked carefully at his dagger. He then put it back in its holster that rested on his hip, before throwing the rock far into the distance, a loud, slapping splash sounding a few seconds later. Cold as it was, his nose began to bother him, his sniffling increasingly agitating his peace. As a result, he took off the mask that protected his face. But as he took off the mask, he turned it to face him.
Instead of attending to his nose, he became lost in the mask's detail, reluctantly remembering moments from his past.
"Hahaha. What is wrong with you? Why do you always have to wear that mask?" a group of young children's voices haunted him, their laughs stinging his mind.
"Damn you filth. Maybe I can punch it straight for you!" Another voice boomed from his imagination. This time it was a guard with a demanding voice mocking him.
But then a positive memory came. One that he held in his heart and, unlike the others, never wanted to let go. "Jin, dear, you don't have to hide it from me. I'm sure whatever it is, it'll only make me love you more."
Once this memory ended, he gently caressed the mask and leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his thighs and holding his head down, staring at the floor of the boat. He took a deep breath and exhaled, before muttering to himself.
"Soon, the balance we always wanted…will become reality."