The Essence of Balencia

He Feasts blackened

"Laham is evil! He kills children and worships the bad! He will keep causing corruption in this land! But I, Balencia the warrior will take him down and once I become queen it is my promise to you that you shall NEVER be outcasted again!" The words of the determined vixen had surely turned the tables and Alzalam no longer looked as if they wanted to destroy her. Rather, a test was needed for them to ensure the warrior was what she claimed. But the tests of Alzalam were never easy.

"Very well Balencia, are you ready to undergo a test?" Tätahid asked as the wind came to a sand still and the soaring sun sharply lasered on Balencia's body and exposed skin. She nodded accepting a test that would be far more painful than she could have ever imagined. Yet this moment was necessary, if Balencia was to ally herself with Alzalam she would truly be powerful.

The Alzalam members untied their blindfolds revealing their eyes. At first glance their eyes looked normal but then suddenly they went dark like the blackness of night. In synchronism, they looked up at the sky taking a deep breath and once they looked back down, black ink flood from their eyes and trickled down their faces in curved lines like that of the river that flows through the land. Lamisa's body glitched and with a flash she stood right behind Balencia. She bend down to her ear and started whispering "look, do you see mama?"

Lalzari looked over at where Lamisa was pointing only to see her mama held down by six men all wearing white clothes as if they were in a hospital setting. Her mama's long hair looked like that of rain, pin straight and full. Her body was tiny and bruised from years upon years of nothingness.

"MAMA!" Lalzari whimpered as she ran over to her yet couldn't seem to come close enough to touch her only watch from a distance.

The men grabbed the sobbing mother's wrists and held her down as if she was a criminal or animal. They treated her worse than living. One of the men came out from behind with a knife so sharp even a prick would cause harm. He placed it on the mother's soft warm skin and the sharp object cut her skin as if she was a sheep exposed to slaughtering. Her time had come to an end, yet the mother didn't want to accept her fate. Perhaps Balencia's fighting spirit came from her mama.

The mother whimpered and fought trying to escape the tight grip yet one woman against six men didn't stand much of a chance. Suddenly, the men smiled and violently started slicing the mother over and over until she was covered in blood so much so that she became unrecognisable. "STOP! I have to go back to my daughter! We have to go home!" The mother whimpered.

"Oh Raneem... Your daughter's fate will be worse than yours!" The man slicing her taunted as they watched her draw her last breath.

"MAMA NOOOO!!!! MAMA! MAMA I'M HERE! MAMA LET'S GO HOME!" Lalzari panicked as she tried running to her. Tätahid raised two of his fingers and with a snap Balencia's legs turned blue and yellow from bruises, cuts appeared all of her body that felt like fresh lemon in a wound. The sun beating down on the tested warrior made her feel more out of it than ever. I need water...she thought to herself as the image of her mama replayed in her mind like a broken cassette player.

Lamisa's soft alluring voice came back as she whispered "mama is gone now...but what happened to you?" Lalzari looked down at her bruised legs disoriented. Why were there voices and people roaming the sands? Then her eyes fell upon a familiar figure, her younger self. She ran over to the child version of herself who sat in front of her master. A master Lalzari remembered well.

A gush of blood escaped the child's white dress as she pulled it down trying to cover it. The little girl sat down with her legs beneath her adding pressure to the area the blood was coming from. She looked up at her master who stood tall and domineering like a titan.

"Isn't it time you reward your master, Lunia?" The master asked as he stepped on the little girl's leg as if she was an ant he squashed. The blood and pain was making little Lunia's legs go numb. The little girl's head span and she tried her best not to faint.

"Mama said she would be back... It's been 244 days... Mama?" Lunia cried as she laid down on the ground curling up into a ball like a fetus unborn. The master started walking away, glitched and disappeared. Lunia got up ripping her white dress apart and crumbled the fabric into her hands shoving it up the area that was bleeding. She hoped it would take most of the blood but the fabric turned red far too soon.

"What's happening to me?!!" Lunia weeped as she started to tremble and shake.

Blood dripped from Lalzari's legs and cuts appeared all over her face from Tätahid's movements. "It's ok Lunia! It'll go away! Don't panic! We are okay now!" Lalzari said watching the little girl cry herself to sleep.

Once again, Lamisa bespoke "now look at your love... He's calling out for you" and like lightening Balencia turned her head to see a huge muscular body hanging from a tree. "JAMSHAR!" Balencia roared as she ran to her lover's aid. Jamshar struggled to free himself from the rope tied tightly like a noose around his throat before his body finally went limb and he no longer was moving.

His dark melanin skin glowing like gold in the sun slowly turned ashy grey as he became lifeless. Lalzari rushed over to him grabbing his hand. She hadn't felt her husband's hand in over a year and the feeling of his soft skin brought back memories and pain. But before any tears left her eyes she noticed how his big beautiful hands didn't feel like his. She slowly let go of her lovers hand looking up at him as she backed away like a deer in headlights.

"Ha- Hallucinations..." She concluded.

Balencia looked around at the three events. Her mama laid in her own pool of blood, lifeless and alone, Balencia's child version sat on the cold ground weeping cradling her legs, and Jamshar hung from a tree like the flesh on a slaughtered animal.

And in a flash the hallucinations disappeared and Balencia stood in the middle with the three around her. Her legs had bruises and cuts that left stains of blood dripping from her very untouched skin. Her face was plastered with scars and a steering pain overtook her and she planted to the ground like a heavy glass shattered by memories.

"Ugh" Balencia groaned as the pain she felt was like no other. The three circled the battered warrior like hyenas starring their prey down.

"One of those hallucinations was fake and two of them actually happened. Which one was fake princess?" Qlbashir asked tauntingly.

Balencia curved her firsts charging her golden lightening like a car accelerating before her shawl busted open and golden light illuminated from the bestowed warrior.

"This battle is one between Alzalam and me. Defeat me." Balencia commanded as her cutting words slices their egos like a sharp blade.