The Storm
General Summary
The Darisian Empire ship **Darklighter's Fancy** was headed for the city of Telek Tarim where Joetta was due to meet with the corsair-turned-merchant Sikander
The ship was caught in a dreadful storm that drove it off course and damaged it badly. During the storm Joetta helped save the lives of various crew men. A fellow passenger Bordun Barrik was terrified by the storm and claims to have seen the gloating and malevolent face of Queen Keledra of Nan Tarim in the storm clouds.
The next day Captain Jojoi Mald'an declares the ship too badly damaged to return to its former course and reach Telek Tarim . They have been driven nearer to the city of Nan Tarim and he intends to make for safety there. This news appalls Bordun Barrik who has written many satires about Keledra "The Witch Queen" and fears what may befall him there.
Azmazar another passenger, one of the inland Cheldrim people took Joetta aside to beg a favour. He asked her to take a package to a young man in Telek Tarim, fearing that he himself would be prevented from doing so. She convinced him to tell the full story which he reluctantly did:
The Betrayal of Hozkai
Hozkai was the clan chief of a group of Cheldrim known as the Tamani who was killed several months ago in a battle with the rival Nurani clan. Hozkai's son, Hatha was due to become chief but Hozkai's wretch of a brother Rarutam seized power, declared Hatha illegitimate and strove to capture him and any that showed loyalty to Hozkai.
Azmazar was Hozkai's foremost warrior and defender and smuggled Hatha to safety, hiding him in the city of Telek Tarim where, under the name Numa he is now working as a labourer in the Crescent Canal area.
Azmazar has visited scholars in the lands across the sea and uncovered a document with directions to a lost ancestral site of the Tamani which he was hoping to present to Hatha so that Hatha could recover sacred clan relics and establish his right to rule. Azmazar suspects though that the treacherous Rarutam has made a deal with Keledra to prevent this. The valuable parchment has been baked into an idol of the toad god Tsatho to disguise its nature
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