Recent content by Suleiman Askari

"Listen, listen," Suleiman said, gasping a little. Ah, hot sands, the whole inside of his nose hurt. "We can't have them sneezing like me. That'd throw everything off!" He sneezed again, and his balance was thrown off, arms flailing out for a moment, and then like a man who'd stepped onto a...

Guilt persisted, though it was assuaged. Suleiman harbored this nascent feeling of being a lodestone for misfortune and bad luck ever since coming to the College, were before in Maraan he had lived something of a charmed life. Not everything went upside down like today, but it did seem to do so...

"Potent??" Suleiman reached for the cloth and a sneeze, like a malicious little creature, said "no" and he bounced again from the force and his hand missed the first attempt at taking said cloth. Still, at the end of it, he was laughing a little—for some reason he just found "potent" to be...

"Yes I do," said Enoch, and the curtain was pulled to reveal the healer himself and Suleiman beside him. With glances to the boy and to Svenia he said to them both, "Come to the front of the infirmary in...let's say ten minutes. The Sentinels will escort you from there." He need not say the...

"Oh no no, not here," said Suleiman as Eshara started her incantation. He glanced around, over his shoulder, still trying to spy some place covert they could go. "Best not to do that here, right? It'd be better if we—" Breathe deep through your nose! He turned his head back around, and, right...

"Wiggle-what?" Now, when Elyon explained the bit about "pressing" plants into pages, Suleiman took it as a figure of speech, of course, naturally, why wouldn't you. He should have known better. He wasn't in Maraan anymore. Still, he was taken aback when Eshara produced the very plant...

Keeper Yulia sighed, and quietly to herself said, "This is why my Backroom always stays a mess." She performed a small incantation and there came a flash and before her appeared a sparrow, blue and spirit-like. She spoke to the conjured familiar, and it held her voice to repeat again, and then...

"Alright, listen, listen..." Suleiman balled a fist and pressed it to his mouth, thinking of the plan even as the twins inquired of it. He drew in a big breath through his nose and let his fist fall and said, "I have a little aptitude for wind magic—and, you know, something's better than...

Suleiman couldn't see around the corner, but heard enough of the clamor to have his attention diverted. Elyon burst into laughter, and Suleiman, curious and quizzical, made a token effort to lean around and have a look at the mystery mischief. But he gave it up. Ah well. Missed it. Besides, he...

Svenia spoke truth to her state—she was hurt pretty badly. And for what!? Marcurio, much like the drunken man in his story about Uncle Fahid, didn't need to do any of this; worse, Marcurio didn't even have the slim excuse of being drunk! All he had to do was mind his own business with Barach and...

A sort of wonder washed over Suleiman. Man, how could a question so simple be this engaging? It seemed to suggest further that Coppo made it up, or had just heard it as a tall tale and passed it along. Well, even the twins didn't know, and Suleiman could tangibly feel fuel being added to the...

What...what was the other twin doing? Oh, nevermind, Suleiman thought, who was he to start nosing into their affairs, when he himself was cooking up some mischief. So Suleiman as yet paid no mind to Elyon and— —oh hey, as luck would have it, the twin who was perhaps more directly involved in...

"Girls sneeze differently when boys are around." Coppo stared right at Suleiman as he said it, and his expression was one of a man conveying pure fact. Suleiman, however, blinked several times, looked about their dorm as he gave a moment's though to it, and then replied: "Nuh uh. No way. That...

The scrap between Marcurio and Suleiman continued as Svenia weathered the kick from Barach. Here one of the thoughts Suleiman could later recall occurred: what the hell was wrong with Barach? Hissut take him! A flare of frustration emerged as well, as Suleiman just couldn't quite get past...

Barach's snapping at Svenia caught the attentions of both Marcurio and Gorm, each of them looking more or less surprised. The distraction, for Suleiman, proved useful. Later Suleiman would reflect on the fight, moment by moment, and would find it a strange and novel thing, how he just seemed...