Hello and welcome back to another deleted scene! I can't believe we are almost a month out from The Sovereign! Don't forget—The Sovereign Illumicrate special edition is on sale NOW!
Now, to meet Djasha din Aranen as we never quite got to see her—The Apostate, leader of the Qazali rebellion. A pariah, an exile, last of her tribe, a very exhausted teacher. A wife. Among many other things.
A bit of a reflection—and a choice you get to make—follows.
[Deleted Scenes 1 | Deleted Scenes 2 | Deleted Scenes 4&5]
Djasha
Concurrent with the opening events of The Unbroken.
Djasha stood in front of her ragtag gaggle of students, from dirty five year olds to gangly youths. They weren’t the full round-up, either. Out of the twenty or so who came in at one time, only seven were here today. She still felt as if she’d fallen off of a camel.
The youngest of them sat cross-legged on the dusty floor, the dirt on their faces tear-streaked and clutching at older brother’s and sister’s hands. Hijram, the oldest of all the students, and the one who had warned Djasha about the hanging, glared up at her from underneath thick brushes of eyebrow.
Djasha sighed. If she was reeling from the afternoon’s arrival, then the children were certainly floundering. She sat down, adjusting her loose trousers and robe, and waved them into a half circle in front of her. She shook her hood and veil down. The children alone didn’t look at her askance for her golden eyes and skin as dark as the soil by the river.
“Do you know who those men and women are? The ones who arrived today?” Djasha spoke in Balladairan. Part of her instruction was to make sure all of them could speak Qazāli and Balladairan well enough to have a good future, without forgetting their true family.
Blank faces stared back at her, but she waited them out.
Sure enough, Hijram spoke up. “Traitors,” he said in Qazāli.