“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Khali groaned as behind her, an even larger band of rebel and imperial thugs gathered to try and grab the tasty bounty that was on her head. And who could blame them, it was a year’s wages for a soldier. She couldn’t see the attackers, but felt their presence, their bloodlust. You could always sense the bloodlust in an animal. Humans were the worst kind of animal. Setting down her crossbow on the bar beside her drink, Khali took a deep breath, surpassing the urge to slaughter them all. Paranormal green light flashed from her eyes and her hands filled with orbs of green fire. The men broke from the crowd of tavern guests, simply standing, watching what might happen as fifteen assailants bull rushed the most dangerous woman in the Southern Kingdom. The legend: Khali Savoor.
Spinning around on the barstool and sliding off so quickly that she knocked it over backwards, Khali stood, a whirlwind sending her violet hair flying back. The shadows in the room seemed to gather as a cloud around her as she hurled the green orbs at the group of men. They hit, causing a blast of energy to erupt in a burst that brought the entire group to the ground. The cloud dispersed and everything fell silent. Khali rolled her eyes, retrieving her crossbow from the bad, and walked through the group of fallen soldiers. The ranger was weakened from the expense of energy, but she would not show any sign of weakness in this group. This was how she stayed alive this long.
Khali, left the tavern, its owner, and its occupants staring dumbly at her back as she dusted off her shoulders with the back of her hand and headed out down the street, away from the town of Reimier.
“Typical men.“ Khali huffed, holstering her crossbow in a concealed sheath within the voluminous cloak, which hung limply from her narrow shoulders. Her black boots, made of a soft furry material, (likely poached Nabbitan elk fur), made shallow imprints on the sandy floor of the desert town’s main thoroughfare. The town was empty, as were most of the villages on the northern border of the rebellion. The conflict at the border had forced villagers from both sides, the imperial and the revolution, away from this city as well as others. Many casualties had occurred early on, in the beginning days of the revolt when civilians who chose not to take sides, were caught in between both warring parties.
Having drunk her fill and completed the task she had been assigned by the Grand Marshal, there was nothing left for Khali here in this godforsaken desert city. Where should she go from here, she wondered. Perhaps she would return to the Ironwood rangers, they always seemed to have some purpose for her, some mission of importance. Typical men though, they would usually give her the most dangerous jobs: the ones they themselves couldn’t handle.
To be fair, the fact that she was a woman had very little to do with her power, prowess, strength, or cunning in battle. Her father and told her the stories, she knew exactly what she was. as she continued on her path out of the town limits, and toward the farthest sand dune of the desert she could see, headed for the sunset, Khali replayed her fathers words in her mind.
“There’s something you should know about yourself.“ James had said, she could still hear the nerves in his voice. “ I wanted to tell you before-, should have told you before… But I was too afraid that you weren’t ready for something like this. But you are a grown woman now, you will have to look after the others when I’m gone, and it’s important that I tell you just how special you are, my beautiful daughter.” There was a gleam in his eye as he addressed his seven-year-old girl, amid the turmoil outside the walls of their small hut as the Imperial forces besieged their home village. Even in the chaos, her father had a way of bringing calm with just one look into his eyes. “Khali, when you were born, I entrusted to you something very special to me. In fact, I possessed five of these objects, and as each of you children were born, you took the place of these things in my life. You became the most important things in the world to me; and so I gave my five most special things to my five children.”
Reading the questioning looks in his daughter’s eyes, James remember the words of his late wife. She would constantly scold him that these were just children, and he should not use the scientific terms with them, but speak simply and clearly. Clearing his throat, James cut to the chase... they had not much time left together anyway. The Imperials would soon be upon them, bringing the war to the Savoor household. This was what they came for after all.
“A long time ago, before any of you were born, maybe ten years before Regal came into this world, I invented something. I thought it was good at the time, but some very dangerous people sought to use my invention for evil. What I had created, I called The Origin Serum. Put simply, the serum, when injected into a person’s bloodstream, would travel to the brain and latch itself upon that person’s most dominant emotion or characteristic. And there’s a big, long, technical way to explain everything that it did, but essentially The Origin Serum would make an angry person become consumed with anger, a person who is compassionate to be overwhelmed by mercy and empathy, and so on-, I think you get what I’m saying. Is any of this making sense to you?”
“A little bit, but I don’t know what it all has to do with me.” The innocence of Khali made this even more difficult than James ever thought it would be. He took a deep breath and began again as the sounds of screams and cannon fire grew louder, closer.
“The Origin Serum was supposed to help us create the perfect human. It was part of the testing phase, we figured that if we could isolate certain dominant emotions by amplifying them, that we would also be able to minimize them as well. This would give us the keys to a completely balanced mind. We could create a soldier without fear, a judiciary without hate or prejudice, the possibilities of it would be endless!” James caught himself rambling again, and dialed it back. Their time together was growing shorter exponentially, and he still had not arrived at the most vital part of this story: the part that dealt with his daughter specifically.
“Many bad people tried to steal this serum, they tried to kill your mother and me for it. But we escaped. Then the Imperial dynasty came looking for us. They sent soldiers to try and find us, to take the serum from us, but we hid. Then you children came into our lives, and there was a chance for me to make things right. I knew the Imperials would always be looking for me and your mother, they would not stop until they had killed us both. So I did something that to this day I hope and pray were the right thing. I divided my serum into five distinct forms. These elements could exist by themselves in a host without completely over taking that host, but needed the four other elements to become The Origin Serum.” Sensing that his science was getting to be too much for the seven-year-old’s young mind, James talked to her on her own level.
“Did you know there are five basic emotions?” James asked excitedly, as if he was trying to gain Khali’s attention. His daughter shook her head, still in confusion as to what was going on or what her father was trying to say.
“Well, there are five basic emotions, and those five combined to make all of the other ones that we feel and experience as human beings. You know that you’re a human being right?” James chuckled, which made his daughter giggle a little as well. It brought a smile to her father’s concerned, and intent face. “As a human, you have five basic emotions: love, hate, pride, compassion, and fear. There are a few other minor emotions, but these five are the biggest ones. Do you understand?“ Khali shook her head yes.
Each one of you children exhibits one of these five emotions as your dominant emotion. And so I chose one of the five serum elements that I had created for each one of you. That serum element lives inside of you. It is in your bloodstream. It coexists along side of your brain. It’s not dangerous to you, it merely amplifies that one emotion you feel most. It’s kind of like magic.” At the mention of magic, Khali’s eyes lit up. James had finally found what registered with his little daughter. Maybe this was how he would make her understand him.
“So you know how in all of the stories you like to hear your older brother tell, the ones about the witches, wizards, and all of the magic people?“ The little girl shook her head excitedly now, very attentive to what her father would say next. “All of those people had great power to do magical things for good or for evil. You have great power inside of you now too. And one day, you will learn what it is, and how to use it. What I’ve told you is only part of the truth about who you are, and what lives inside of you. I know that time and pursuit of the truth will reveal the rest of this to you. I only wish we had more time together.” James’ tone softened as he held his daughter’s arms as she stood in front of him where he knelt on the floor of their little home. Khali’s small hand reached over to brush a few stray strands of her father’s straight brown hair out from in front of his blue eyes.
“You have pretty eyes, daddy.” Khali’s small voice whispered. James’ heart melted.
“You have pretty eyes too, Khali. Just like your mother.” They both smiled.
“But yours are the prettiest.” Khali said with a little bit of a lisp. James was going to miss that lisp. He knew how things were going to go down tonight. He’d seen this coming for fifteen years. But there was nothing the Imperials could do to stop this plan now. The siege of the town was just a formality, James knew what they were really after: he would never let them get their hands on it.
“Okay. You win. Now go wake up your brothers and sisters.” He let go of his child’s tiny arms and watched her walk carefully over to her siblings who slept on cots in front of the fireplace. “It’s going to be a long night.”