Jardir nodded, looking to Inevera and her mother. Manvah’s face was streaked with tears to match her husband’s. Inevera’s eyes were dry, but pain streaked her aura as clearly as tears would her face. This wound had been open too long.

He looked back to Kasaad. ‘Everam’s mercy is infinite, Kasaad son of Kasaad. No crime is unforgivable. I can see in your heart you understand and regret your actions, and the loss of your son has punished you more over the years than the loss of your leg and honour combined. You have not strayed since from Everam’s path. If you wish it, I will return your blacks to you, and you may die with honour.’

Kasaad looked sadly at his wife and daughter, then shook his head. ‘I thought there was shame in being khaffit, Deliverer, but in truth I have never been happier, nor seen Everam’s path more clearly. I am crippled and cannot serve you in Sharak Ka, so I beg you let me die as khaffit, that I might strive to be better in my next life.’

Jardir nodded. ‘As you wish. Everam makes the souls of khaffit wait outside Heaven until they have gained the wisdom to return to the Ala with a chance to be better men. I will pray for you, but I do not think the Creator will make you wait long when your time comes.’

Kasaad’s aura changed then, a weight lifting. The web among the three changed, but it was still without proper harmony for a family in Everam’s grace.

He turned to Manvah, peering into her heart as well. ‘You have not been as man and wife since the crime, unable to bear the touch of the man who killed your son.’

Manvah’s calm, focused aura had gone cold with fear and awe. She, too, got down on her knees and put her head to the floor. ‘It is so, Deliverer.’

‘Even the wife of a khaffit must be a wife,’ Jardir said. ‘And so you must decide now. Either find forgiveness in your heart, or I will dissolve your marriage.’

Manvah looked at her husband, and Jardir could see she was peeling back the years, remembering the man he had been and comparing it with who he was now. Slowly, tentatively, she reached her hand out. She shivered when it touched Kasaad’s hand, and he took it squeezing tightly. ‘I do not think that will be necessary, Deliverer.’

‘I swear,’ Kasaad said, ‘with the Deliverer as my witness, that I will be worthy of your touch, wife.’

‘You already are, son of Kasaad,’ Jardir said. ‘I am sorry that the cost of your path to wisdom brought so much pain to you and those around you, but wisdom is no small thing to be bargained for like a basket in the bazaar.’

He looked at the aura the two now shared and nodded, satisfied. He turned to Inevera. ‘Your mourning does Soli honour, beloved, but remember that you mourn not for him but for yourself. I regret I could not know him, but if your brother was half the man he is in your heart, he is twice the man Everam asks we be to join Him in Heaven. Likely Soli asu Kasaad am’Damaj am’Kaji has already supped at the Creator’s table and been returned to the Ala to aid our people in their time of need.’

He looked back to Kasaad, indicating he rise. The khaffit did so, slowly, and then opened his arms. Slowly at first, Inevera drifted towards them, but she closed the last steps in a rush, and they embraced tightly. Manvah threw her arms around them both.

Jardir watched as their auras became one, finally flowing together as a family should.

After a moment, Inevera looked up at him. He could see the love burning in her, but also her question before she could even utter it. ‘How did you know?’

To his surprise, it was Manvah who answered, squeezing her daughter’s shoulder. ‘He is the Deliverer, daughter. Kaji could see into the hearts of men, and he has been born again in Ahmann Jardir. The time for doubt is over.’

Jardir gritted his teeth as he entered his throne room, seeing Kajivah and Hanya waiting with Ashan and Shanjat. He could see the rage and indignation in their auras, and assumed he was in for another lengthy debate on the merits of Sharum’ting.

‘Everam’s balls, is a minute of peace too much to ask?’ Inevera muttered as she followed at his back. Jardir chuckled, but then Hanya turned to face him, and he saw her eye.

He was across the room in an eyeblink, cupping her chin firmly but gently as he examined the bruise. It was a dark, angry colour, but nothing compared with the darkness of his own anger.

‘Who struck you, sister?’ he asked quietly.

Hanya sobbed and did not answer. ‘Her worthless husband,’ Kajivah said for her. His sister’s aura confirmed it. Jardir turned to Shanjat.

‘He is already in custody, Deliverer,’ Shanjat said. ‘We found him in his quarters in the palace. He was lying in a pool of his own piss, drunk on couzi.’

Jardir drew a deep breath, embracing all his rage and letting it fall away as he climbed the steps to the Skull Throne. He did not trust himself in striking distance of the man. ‘Bring him before me. Now.’

Inevera squeezed his shoulder briefly in support before taking her place on the pillows beside his throne. He could feel the strength of her support, and drew upon it heavily.

Hasik was dragged into the room like an animal, held fast by two Sharum with alagai-catchers. His arms were chained to a metal band around his waist, with a spear shaft threaded through his elbows behind his back. His ankles were connected by a short length of chain. A bit kept his teeth open and his tongue pushed back, held in place with a tight leather strap. He was hungover, his aura bright with pain and impotent rage. Beneath that was shame, and fear. He knew what he had done, and what it meant. It was all Jardir could do not to kill him on sight.

‘Sister,’ he commanded instead. ‘Tell me everything that happened.’

Hanya was still sobbing, but with soothing from Kajivah, she managed to draw strength enough to look up and meet her brother’s eyes. ‘I do not understand it myself, brother. Hasik has been vexed with me before, but he has never drunk couzi, or struck me. But these last few days, he changed. He began sneaking bottles into our chambers, drinking too much and weeping to himself when he thought he was alone. I tried to offer comfort as a wife should, but all my efforts were rebuffed. Then, last night as he slept, I decided to … surprise him.’ Her aura grew hot with shame.

Jardir regretted forcing her to recount the story in open court, but what was done was done. ‘What happened then?’

Hanya’s aura was bright with pain and confusion to match her shame. ‘His manhood … it was gone.’

‘Gone?’ Jardir asked.

‘Cut away,’ Hanya said. ‘There was only a scar in its place, and a tiny metal tube.’ Ashan and Shanjat’s auras told him they had already heard this news, but he could see the discomfort the topic gave them still. Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably, Jardir included. Only Inevera and the Damaji’ting, used to eunuch servants, were unperturbed.

Hanya’s aura told him the rest, though he could easily have guessed it. ‘Hasik woke, saw that you had seen his shame, and struck you.’

Hanya nodded, and Jardir turned back to Hasik. ‘Show me.’

The humiliation in Hasik’s aura was a scream in the air, but he stood slumped, not resisting as one of the guards pulled down his pantaloons, revealing that he had indeed lost his manhood. Jardir nodded to the guard, and he undid the strap, pulling the bit from Hasik’s teeth.