Sakian Night
by Gren Remoz (gren@bk.ru / http://www.outfoxed.net/~gren)
Copyright (C) 2000-2 Gren Remoz.

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	The princess sat waiting. It wouldn't be too long before the King would
summon her to the throne room for the final preparations for the marriage.
Briefly she looked over to where the sakian was standing perfectly still. He
seemed to be leaning on a short pole. She had seen him use it like a walking
staff. He still looked as dangerous as when she had hired him.
	It was amazing how still he stood. It almost seemed that despite his
obvious inhumanity, he would go unnoticed. He seemed to become as much a part
of the room as the statues.
	The princess hoped the king would call soon. She wanted to get this over
with, and she didn't like being this close to the reptilian sakian. She knew
she'd been lucky to find him so far from Resoz Modarv, but the rarity of his
species just made his presence more unnerving.
	And if that alone wasn't enough, his teeth and claws looked decidedly
sharp. Hopefully the claws on his bare feet wouldn't mark up the marble floor.
It had cost one of her ancestors a fortune to get put in and it would be
almost impossible to replace. If only he'd wear shoes--but then, he'd need
awfully bulky shoes with the way his toes splayed out.
	As she watched, one of his eyes shifted, focusing on the door. It was the
only movement she'd seen him make in the past couple of minutes.
	Unexpectedly, the sakian shifted from a casual, relaxed looking position
to an alert and ready one, his pole held horizontally in front of him, as
though to block something.
	There was a knock on the door.
	"Princess Ann!" Called the castle's servant, "The King wishes to see you
immediately."
	"I'm not going anywhere until I don't have to marry the foreign minister!"
The princess shouted back.
	"Very well, I will tell his majesty that."
	The sakian shifted to a slightly more relaxed position, setting the end of
the pole on the ground again. Like everything else, he did this silently and
smoothly. Somehow, he even seemed to be still when he moved.
	"You heard him coming?" The princess asked.
	"You humans walk noisily, especially with those hard shoes you wear."
	"You don't talk to me like that! I'm the princess and only child of the
King of Trenth. Would you talk like that to your own lord?"
	"My Emperor." The sakian said, "And if he where human, I would indeed. The
Emperor Z'pajg," The sakian stopped here to say something in his own language
that made no sense to the princess, "dislikes formality."
	"Amazing." The princess said simply. Imagine a lord who was on familiar
terms with his subjects. She'd always heard the sakian were strange, but this
was almost unbelievable. Would have been, in fact, if she hadn't known that
the sakian do not lie. She'd read it in a book.
	The servant stepped humbly into the presence of the King of Trenth, King
Clandestine the forty-ninth.
	"Oh, my lord, King Clandestine the forty-ninth, who rains supreme upon
this admittedly undersized kingdom, I beg your forgiveness for bring you bad
news."
	The king just sat there with a blank look on his face. His eyes where
closed and, the servant realized after a moment, he was snoring. Walking up to
his King, he shook the esteemed monarch awake.
	"My lord, the princess refuses to come. She said that she refuses to marry
the foreign minister."
	"Well!" The King said, "Get Knight to retrieve her then."
	"If you say so, my lord."
	"I do."
	The servant hurried from the throne room to the small barracks room where
Knight, the tiny kingdom's only soldier, lived.
	Stepping in, he said, "The King wishes you to retrieve the princess from
where she is and bring her to him at once."
	"If my liege wishes it to be so, I shall make it be so to the best of my
ability here and henceforth, and I vow that by this day forth I shall do as he
requests and bring this one to him,"
	"I suspect the King wishes it done now." The servant said. Knight could go
on for hours, he had before.
	"Right." Knight grabbed up his sword and strode out to the room where the
princess was. The servant cautiously followed behind, out of sight, any sound
he made covered up by the noisy clanking and bashing of Knight's weapons and
armor. As he was the only warrior in the kingdom, he made it a point to carry
around as much of the armory as he could.
	"Princess! I call out to you in the name of the king that you come forth
immediately to be met by him for whatever purpose he has."
	"I'm not going anywhere until he says I won't have to marry the foreign
minister."
	"Then I shall have to retrieve you myself." Knight threw himself at the
door, and the old wood splintered as he passed through it.
	"By Azreth's eternal name!" Knight cried out, "What's a sakian doing
here?"
	"I hired him."
	"I shall have to destroy him, for the good of the kingdom so as to make
sure the residents of the kingdom remain alive and are not replaced by
sakian."
	"There aren't any other sakian around here. You know that very well."
	Knight made no response to this. He only took a couple steps towards the
reptilian sakian and unsheathed his great sword.
	The servant crept around the corner so he could see the battle. He'd never
seen a sakian in battle before. Truthfully, he'd never actually seen a sakian
before. The dark green scales greatly contrasted the bright red vest and
pants. The servant could see that the sakian wore no armor and had no sword.
It appeared as though this would be a short battle. It didn't seem right, this
inequity between the combatants.
	The sakian turned his snout towards Knight, but made no other movement.
	"So be it. I will try not to kill you." The sakian said softly, almost
inaudibly. Knight raised his great sword over his head and let it fall towards
his opponent. There was the loud, unexpected sound of metal against metal. The
sakian had raised the feeble looking metal pole to a horizontal position, and
had blocked the blade of the heavy sword with it. The pole looked undamaged.
	The sakian lowered the pole slightly, tilting it so the heavy sword slid
off to the side. Then he swiftly struck at Knight with one end as though it
where a blade. Knight stumbled back, and was caught on the side of the head by
the other end of the pole. A third strike knocked Knight to the ground. His
metal helmet rolled off to the side.
	An unbalanced battle, indeed. Briefly, the servant wondered just how good
the sakian was.
	The servant ran in. Being closer to Knight, he could see the pole seemed
to have cut right through Knight's good steel armor. Looking at the sakian's
pole, he could see there was a small two or three inch blade at the end. The
end of the blade had some blood on it.
	After this display of violence, the sakian rested the end of the pole on
the ground and seemed to go to sleep. His eyes were half-closed, mostly hiding
the narrow pupils from sight. He seemed to have no expression, but the servant
didn't know whether this was normal or not. The sakian's tail curled around
and over his feet. He radiated stillness and looked totally relaxed.
	"Wow." The princess looked at the sakian in wonder, "I've never seen or
read of anything like that."
	"It was nothing." The sakian said quietly.
	Knight slowly got to his knees, then stood. "I've never lost like that
before." He said, sounding shocked.
	"It is a matter of training for survival." The sakian said.
	"Perhaps we should see the King before further hostilities occur?" The
servant asked.
	"I think that might be a good idea." The princess replied, staring at the
sakian, "You come along peacefully."
	"As you say." The sakian replied.
	Moments later the three of them stood before the King. He shifted on his
throne, looking at them.
	"I shall not marry the Foreign Minister, for that would be incest!" The
princess stated.
	"Who is this incest?" The King asked.
	"It is something that one gets from marrying a close relative."
	"The Foreign Minister isn't your relative, he's your cousin. Besides, he's
left to negotiate with the Duke of Vararch. That not very close."
	"Cousins are relative, and I don't mean physically close." The princess
said sharply.
	"You won't speak to me that way. I am the king."
	"I'll speak anyway I want to. Besides, you can't do anything. My champion
bested your knight in single combat already."
	"Really? I've never seen Knight defeated before."
	"You've never seen him fight before."
	The king looked at the sakian, who was standing slightly behind the
others. "How did you best this kingdom's finest?" He demanded.
	"This kingdom's only." The princess said quietly.
	"Your knight was had expected my staff to break with the weight of his
sword, and too long to recover when it didn't. Besides, his equipment
encumbers him to the point he can barely move."
	"I can move just fine." Knight said. He made a show of swinging an
imaginary sword. At the end of the swing, Knight seemed a bit unsteady and
after a brief moment fell over.
	"I see." Said the king, understanding for once, "Work on it." He turned
back to the princess, "So what is this incest?"
	"It makes one dumb and deformed."
	"You saying the Foreign Minister is dumb?"
	"No."
	"Well, I never thought he looked very good, but I wouldn't have called him
deformed."
	"He isn't."
	"Then where is this incest your so worried about?"
	"He'll only get it after the ceremony."
	"Oh, fine. Just who would you marry?"
	"Only Knight and the peasantry are not related." The princess paused a for
a moment, "Well, I suppose this sakian isn't either, but-"
	The king cut her off. "I cannot have my daughter marrying a peasant." He
looked at Knight and the sakian, "Whichever of you is the richest, shall have
my daughter's hand in marriage."
	"But, father," The princess protested.
	"You can't work your way out this time. You're not related to either one,
I know for a fact. Besides, this kingdom could use more money."
	"But, father!" The princess protested again.
	The King pointed his royal finger at Knight, "Tell me, how much wealth do
you lay claim to?"
	"I have what you see here with me, and little more."
	The King moved his royal finger over to the sakian. "Tell me, sakian, how
much wealth do you lay claim to?"
	"The princess has promised to pay me twenty armarc for my services."
	The throne room was dead silent for a moment, then the King looked at his
daughter, "Twenty armarc?"
	"Is that a lot?"
	"We don't have twenty armarc. You could buy this kingdom and the next with
twenty armarc."
	"I will, of course, accept deferred payment." The sakian said blandly, "I
hardly expect you to have such funds with you."
	"Well, we will have to see what we can do." The king said. He paused for a
moment, as though thinking, before speaking again, "As a result of this
survey, this sakian is obviously now the wealthiest being on this side of the
continent. Indeed, if he so desired, he could place claim on the kingdom of
his choice with no trouble. Clearly this makes him match the conditions I have
decreed for my daughter's wedding. Servant, bring us a priest, quickly."
	"Father!" The princess said.
	"What?" The sakian asked sharply. His face was still expressionless, but
he was obviously showing emotion other ways. His tail lashed across the floor,
leaving deep gouges there. His muscles had tensed and his eyes had focused on
the King.
	"So I have decreed." Said the king, "I shall not be moved."
	The princess looked at the sakian a moment, then at her father.
	"This is ridiculous." She said, "He's not even remotely human!"
	"We do not recognize the institution of marriage. Did Dragon not say to go
with whomever you would, but to leave the gods from it?"
	"I have no idea what dragons have said, for they live without my kingdom."
	"Not dragons, Dragon. He was, and is, the First."
	"So, what is it to me?"
	"It is to me, for his word is ranked with that of the gods, and even
fabled Azure."
	Just that moment the servant walked back in, a priest behind him.
	"What is this blasphemy you desire?" The priest demanded.
	"I have decreed that my daughter will marry the richest man who is not a
relative or a cousin. That one is this sakian, to whom we now owe twenty
armarc."
	The priest said nothing for a moment, "Twenty?" He finally said weakly.
	"Twenty." The King confirmed.
	"Wow." The priest said, then he turned to the sakian, "Do you desire
this?"
	"Dragon said, in his eternal words, to go with whomever you would, but to
leave the gods from it."
	"Did he?"
	"He did."
	"Then I cannot perform this ceremony."
	"Then begone!" The priest walked back out of the room. "By the power and
authority vested in me by Undying Azreth, I will conduct this marriage
myself!"
	"If I may possibly make a suggestion," The servant said quietly, "You may
try the Wicked Witch of the North. She is near to the gods, and may actually
have the authority to do this ritual."
	"Then fetch her."
	It was just after sunset when the servant returned. Following near behind
him was a woman who, if she wiped the green slime from her face and wore
better clothes, would be considered stunningly beautiful.
	"Now what is it you want me to do?" The Wicked Witch of the North, also
called Angela North, said.
	"I want you to marry these to in wedlock." Something seemed to occur to
the King, something that had probably been trying to gain noticed for the past
several minutes, "And could you possibly make him human?"
	"The wedlock should be simple," Angela said, "But I can only transform a
willing man."
	"Then get on with it!" The King shouted.
	The witch turned to the Princess, "You, princess Ann of Trenth, are to be
married to this one, um," The witch looked at the sakian desperately. There
was a moment of silence.
	"Vrac." The sakian said quietly.
	"This sakian Vrac."
	She turned to the sakian Vrac, "You, sakian Vrac, are to be, um, married,"
Angela seemed to have trouble controlling her mirth for a moment, "with this
one, the princess Ann of Trenth. What more cause could there be for this, than
the dictate of one supported by Undying Azreth?"
	Vrac snorted, but said nothing.
	"Then as I have said, let it be so, until such a time that times conspire
to put an end to this, and until a time that time itself shall blow this
kingdom's dust away. And that be it."
	"That's it? I always thought marriage was more complicated then that." The
king said.
	"Normally it is, but under the circumstances most of it would be
unnecessary bulk as much of what remains would be inappropriate to one
participant or the other. Cultural differences, you know."
	"Oh." The king said, "Well, now make him human."
	"I doubt I could. I suspect that Vrac would be against it, am I right?"
Angela looked at Vrac, who gave a single brief nod. Angela walked over to
where the princess was standing and looked her over. The princess seemed
slightly embarrassed by the attention and tried to look at anything else. She
found herself looking at the side of Vrac's head and his neck. Just below that
was his bright red vest, which hung open over his chest.
	"What do you think?" Angela asked the princess, "Its the chance of a
lifetime."
	The princess turned sharply towards Angela, "I am human." She said firmly.
	"I saw where you were looking." Angela said, "And people would never say a
word about your reading again."
	"I am human," The princess said again, but far less firmly. She looked at
Angela, then at Vrac for a moment before turning back to Angela, "I could read
my books in peace?" She asked.
	"Indeed."
	"You truly are a wicked witch."
	Angela looked at the King, "I think I have an answer."
	"My daughter is human!"
	"But you saw where she was looking."
	The princess's face flushed slightly red at the witches words.
	Angela looked back at Vrac and winked slightly, "Besides, aren't the hosts
supposed to accommodate the guests, not the other way around?"
	"Well, I suppose." The king said.
	"Then as I have hinted and suggested subtly in undertones, let it be so!"
	There was a flash of lightning, followed closely by thunder. This was
followed by the sound of rain.
	"And let is be so!" The witch said again. The room darkened for a moment,
then light returned.
	Despite what the witch had said, everyone was still surprised when the
princess appeared distinctively sakian. Her dress, which was a perfect fit
before and made her appear alluring seemed to have disappeared. It was
replaced by a loose vest and pants, similar to those of Verc.
	"What did you do?" The princess demanded.
	"Nothing you didn't consent to. I also made your clothing fit better. You
can have a tailor make some in any style you want, later."
	"What?" The princess turned to look behind her, and saw the tail that the
trousers where specially made to accommodate. It moved around slightly,
seeming to startle the princess at first.
	"Wow." She said. Then she examined her hands, and the dark claws on each
of her fingers.
	"Wow." She repeated, "No one will bother me again."
	Vrac still looked relaxed, he almost never seemed to look any other way,
but he was now gazing at the princess.
	"Amazing. Wonders that have eluded these eyes long." He said quietly.
	"And for my final curse upon all you!" The witch shouted, , "I have to
curse something you know," She added conspiratorially before continuing her
shouting, "I curse you all to be happy until the end of your days!"
	With that, Angela North, Wicked Witch of the North, turned and walked out
of the throne room.
	"Well, I'll be. She turns me into a lizard and leaves." The princess said
with indignity. Nobody paid any attention, though, they instead where watching
Vrac.
	"Amazing, indeed." His words where barely audible, but the princess seemed
to become aware of his stare.
	"What, I suppose you like me like this?"
	"Indeed."
	"Really?"
	"But for things I will never know, and things long ago, I have seen
nothing greater."
	"And you won't mind my books?"
	"Literacy is something to be much encouraged. How else can one read the
words of Dragon?"
	"I suppose I couldn't really ask for too much more, could I?"
	"The kingdom could never want for a better protector." Knight added.
	Not surprisingly, Vrac neither said nor did anything, but stood there,
leaning against the pole, looking utterly relaxed, and gazing at the princess.