[Reminder: This story contains explicit sensual content, violence, mature themes, and references to trauma/abuse. Reader discretion is advised.]
"No surprise that your mom didn't mention him. My father didn't either. It was my older brothers who did.
The chief before, my grandfather, remarried very late, with a young, gentle outlander. She was banished from her old land because of her family's skin condition.
Like what King Bhuanbaro of our brother land has. So, she didn't want kids, and he thought he couldn't have anymore, but they did.
The baby had the same skin condition, but it wasn't as concealable as hers. My grandfather died the same day he was born, so she thought he was bad luck.
Since Rainorufaro meant rain and happiness, she named Dronokusuwa, meaning drought and sadness."
Well, this sounds like it's going to be a happy story.
"She abandoned him, and my father took him in, even though they were over twenty years apart. My parents did the best to raise him, and everything seemed fine until he was about eleven.
Sibusiso was about three, and Tau just turned one.
By then, he made it clear he didn't really like the idea of being a zazi and preferred being with smaller gangs in the street. By then, he formed the Lahle gang."
"Chief Raino's brother?" Salīa was stunned.
"I was surprised too. Of course, father was already the Chief and the personal royal guard at this time. So having a gangster leader for a brother was conflicting with the counsel. But the gang was only involved in petty things until he turned fifteen. This is where your uncle comes in."
Salīa's jaw squeezed tight.
She knew the ages of everyone in that lion family. And because of it, she could instantly trace that Prince Kian would've been about seventeen or eighteen at the time.
That was a significant period that granted him another title.
She couldn't help the nagging feeling that she was about to hear how it occurred.
"Your aunt was around Lilitha's age, your mother around yours. So somewhere around nineteen, twenty. And your uncle was visiting them after finishing studying in the islands."
Just say it, Bazil.
"It was on that day that Dronokusuwa, with the support of his gang, made an attempt on your mother and aunt's lives."
Salīa swallowed.
"It was believed the Lahle gang didn't believe that women should be heirs, and they were the reason many of the members were in poverty.
While it was revealed that Dronokusuwa didn't care whether it was a woman or a man, he and his followers just didn't want tigers to rule Salazā.
He even dared to say that other types of tigers aren't native to the land, so how can it be true that tiago tigers are? Lions are the mighty ones born in this land of strength, and he said that if anyone is a worthy ruler, it's his brother, Rainorufaro."
Bazil took a long gulp of water, watching Salīa tense and untense.
"Of course, father was shocked but managed to subdue him and the gang with his zazi. He'd already been getting a lot of pressure trying to protect his brother from forming this gang, but this was unforgivable.
And your uncle had been burnishing himself to become a righteous judge. Anything that seemed suspicious, he demanded assessment and appraisal of. He had mentioned several times to father that he wanted this threat taken care of.
You know father doesn't go out of his way to disagree with royals, but this was something he fought for dearly. Yet now he could say nothing as Prince Kian looked at him, after seeing how father's brother had just attempted to take the life of his sisters."
He shook his head, sighing.
"If that wasn't bad enough, Dronokusuwa started yelling at him, asking why he wasn't proud of him and kept saying things like, 'If you aren't standing by me, then you're no lion at all. Lions stand by their pride.
And if you don't stand by yours, then I no longer have a pride myself. I might as well favor my mother's kind. Not that she had much to admire, but sharing her blood helped me meet others who became like brothers to me.'
Father wouldn't look at him, only your uncle. Upset, his brother said, 'Fine, be a scared cat. Lions are clearly only mighty in legends. It's us who will carve the way instead. We fear no one. So, rise, my blood, as we drain the blood of the—'"
Bazil rubbed his hands to his temples.
"He never finished those words because father stabbed him. And you already know our guardians would never backstab their own, so if their own must be executed, they do it in front of them where they can see each other."
Salīa felt a shivering ache run through her.
She'd observed Chief Raino long enough to know that the one thing he could not stand seeing was children dying.
Having to kill his brother, fifteen, one he raised since a babe, while looking in his eyes, couldn't have been anything short of heart-wrenching.
"Bazil?"
He opened his eyes dopily.
"Hmm? Oh, yes. All of this made King Djani and Queen Afri Ka angry.
Chief Raino offered his head for letting his feelings get in front of his judgment and risk being a traitor over a guardian to our keepers.
Your mother and aunt pleaded, but it was actually when your uncle pleaded with them that they considered."
He pleaded for Chief Raino to be forgiven?
"He said there's no need to sacrifice Salazā's most loyal guardian for a traitorous demon, just because their bloodlines are linked. It was even pointed out how Chief Raino was the one who made sure that nothing happened to his sisters, and that should not be ignored.
For that, he proposed they work together, as judge and guardian, to advise the counsel on what led to this incident so that their own people won't betray them again."
Bazil let his flutter as he yawned.
"This was agreed upon, and it led to Chief Raino officially transferring to become the personal guardian of the next heir, your mother. And it helped Prince Kian get official approval from the realm's authorities to be The Judge."
Salīa knew that to become a realm-righteous judge was no easy feat.
After studying the endless texts of the Scripture of Judgement, you'd have to have trial cases to train, and then go through a vigorous testing process of handling chosen cases. And you could become a landlocked judge.
But if you got perfect marks without a single missed point, you'd be permitted to go through the last trial, where you'd have to showcase what you've made of the texts learnt and how you would use it as a judge with ultimate authority outside of the court.
"This is part I know at least," Salīa said. "Chief Raino, Prince Kian, and Princess Saoa were granted permission to handle the Lahle gang, deemed to have malicious intent.
My mother wanted to prove her capability as the heir, so she sought to investigate the cases of poverty lingering in the land and the people affected, and why. It was her duty to propose edicts to alleviate this."
Bazil nodded.
"The Judge, as he became after this, had to conduct his own investigations to ensure that fairness is ensued that there is no imbalance between commoners, nobles, and royals when enforcing these new ways.
If any hints of manipulation or malevolence reared its head, he'd propose decrees to cut it off," she said. "And Chief Raino took his own findings to propose and execute strategies which would ensure no more in-fighting and restore any lost faith the people had in its guardians, keepers, and protectors."
"That's what the records say," he closed his eyes again. "But basically, the remaining Lahle gang was disbanded by them.
Those who were rigid were imprisoned, executed, or left the land. But those quite young or not as devoted, were reformed by being taken on to be trained by The Judge's zazi back in the islands."
Both Bazil and Salīa sipped their flasks, thinking on how Raki had, too, been sent to be trained in the same way many years back.
"As you know, those reformed members were returned and given opportunities to make a living and shelters to live in.
Those who were willing were trained as zazi, and that was that.
The Lahle gang was no more."
Salīa knew if that were true, Bazil would have never started the story.
"Salazā stopped being the crown of Khī, but Queen Saoa never stopped caring about protecting the realm, especially the smaller lands nearby, like the ones we passed on the way.
And since their faith restoration plan went so well, there was now more zazi than they knew what to do with.
So, they gathered the ones that wanted to travel for a bit or didn't mind long trips away and scattered them throughout."
"And I guess the reformed gang members volunteered?"
"Many of them did, but not all. But that didn't mean anything bad happened. There was always a mix of native and outland zazi with only a reformed few in each pairing. Which seemed to work…until I recently heard about suspicions."
He cracked his neck.
"That some of the reformed ones and some outlanders seemed to be close and have been challenging all the young lion-blooded zazi. That was the last I was told of it. Now here we are."
"So, you think those zazi," she paused, cringing at calling them that. "Are renegades made of the reformed members?"
"Who knows? My uncle spoke of the other half of his bloodline, the one he shared with other members. Have you guessed what it was? I'm sure you already sensed that the ones we met earlier seem to share the same bloodline, haven't you?"
He eyed her.
"Here's a clue. Remember how wild he acted when he heard his supposed brother's name? That's because Mkango means lion. You see how he was their leader? Well, Phiri means…"
"Hyena."
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