Bryn's cabin

[alex]

“I haven’t, no. You said that Rumina was obsessed with the captain. Obsession is something that comes from the heart. I don’t know this Rumina, but if I were obsessed with someone, I would do everything I could to get him. But I would never hurt him, because that would only make it less likely that he will come to me. Which brings me to question, why would Rumina try to hurt Sinbad?”

Bryn thought a while. If she was obsessed with Sinbad than she must be jealous to anyone else Sinbad loved. Bryn chuckled a little at this thought; a black witch being jealous. Maybe she would attempt to use her powers to steal Sinbad. But she obviously had not been successful, if she had tried. There must have been something or someone standing in her way. That is it. She would try to destroy and ruin whoever and anything which stood in her way. Maeve was here. Maeve knew magic. And Maeve was the only person who could challenge her. “Was she jealous of Maeve?”

[Dermott]

“I don’t think that Rumina has ever been jealous of Maeve. She has too much self esteem, and she is more inclined to consider herself above other people.”


“Her obsessions and actions aren’t produced by love. They are generated always because of pride. She hates to lose. And this is the reason why she want to have her revenge on Sinbad. Even if he doesn’t have magical powers, he had been able more than once to defeat her and avoid her plans.

If Rumina was a normal person, she would have killed all of us since the beginning, but she has a personality, how can I say…a bit contorted. For her, obtaining revenge is not enough, she wants to see her victims suffer slowly before to reach her goal, and at the same time have fun.

This is the reason why she always come up with odd complicated tricks. One of the last times we have been in Basra for example, she turned Sinbad into a midget and took his appearance for a while, trying to fool everybody, even if she only wanted to steal an obelisk. When she got tired of her game and became serious, we would have been death meat if it hadn’t been for Caipra”. Said Dermott in a humorous tone, remembering that after all the whole thing had been somehow funny.

[alex]

Bryn chuckled. "Seems like this Rumina person has a sense of humor. I would like to see Sinbad as a midget." She paused and thought a while. "So why does Rumina want to get revenge on Sinbad?"

[Dermott]

“I’m sure you are” said the hawk “But I don’t think he would be so pleased, it wasn’t a comfortable position” joined chuckling while remembering a tiny captain inside a bottle.

Then he kept quiet for a while. He wondered if Bryn avoided his explanations about Rumina’s payback on purpose. This sudden curiosity wasn’t like her. Since they left the Hell House, Bryn had started to change, as if she was desperately trying to find herself, to understand things she couldn’t even remember. Perhaps she wasn’t even aware of this. Maybe he was the only one who noticed, because of their telepathic bond, or on the contrary it was evident for the others too. In moments like this he wished with all his heart he could be able to ask other people and communicate with them as normal human being. But he couldn’t, so he had to deal with that matter using only the abilities he was left with.

Dermott was perfectly aware that Bryn's search for answers wouldn’t have stopped here, so there was no use to protect her from her past self, whichever her connection with Rumina may have been. And even if her dark side would have shown up some day, and she, in the worst of cases could share Rumina’s point of view, she would have find out in any case, so there was no use to hide it now.


Dermott touched gently her mind, making her feel all his friendship and support, as he started what he have to said.

“Bryn, do you remember what I told you about Master Dim-Dim disappearance before? And the reason why he joined the Nomad in the first place?”

[alex]

Bryn thought about what Dermott asked her. "Well, let’s see. He joined the Nomad to fight against the dark forces, am I right? And he was sucked into a dimension. Maeve and the crew have been trying to free him but have not succeeded.”

[Dermott]

"Dark forces, ... yes it was so, the time when we had to rescue Princess Adena".

"But the menace had been worse than you think in this occasion. It was different from any other situation we had to face in those past years. Dim-Dim decided to join the mission because the stake was not only the Princess’ life. Actually even Baghdad, no, all the Middle-Eastern Lands were in danger".

[alex]

Bryn was kind-of taken aback. "Who is Princess Adena? And who or what would be so strong to take over the entire world?"

[Dermott]

"Sorry, I didn't intend to rush the speech" said the hawk trying to slow down a bit "I forget too often that you weren't here with us last year, and you are not informed about a lot of things"

Then he proceeded "Adena is Prince's Casib's wife. The wife of the Caliph of Baghdad son. At the time she had been kidnapped by the sorcerer Turok. Maybe the most evil and powerful sorcerer in the East. He was Rumina's father"

[alex]

Bryn assimilated everything Dermott said and shifted her eyes to the floor. “So Princess Adena is the Princess of Baghdad. Casib, who you just mentioned, must be the Prince of Baghdad. Rumina is the daughter of…Turok, a very powerful back sorcerer. They both kidnapped Princess Adena. I hope they rescued her.” She smiled at her last comment, and looked back at Dermott. “And stop saying your sorry,” she chuckled.

[Dermott]

“As you wish” said the bird in the same amused tone used by his keeper.

Dermott noticed how Bryn was tasting every single word he was sharing with her, like a child who is craving for knowledge. So he gave her time to focus on the subject, before aligning himself with her speech:

“Thanks to the Gods she had been released at the end. They kidnapped her in order to blackmail the prince. In exchange for her life, they wanted him to marry Rumina, and made her a rightful princess of Baghdad.”

He paused for a while, before saying:

“You can easily infer the consequences that such an event could have produced”

[alex]

Bryn again absorbed this information. “Consequences? You mean that by becoming Princess of Baghdad, she will be one step closer to ruling all of Baghdad. And as a dark sorceress, she will raise the dark forces throughout the land.”

[Dermott]

“Yes,” nodded mentally Dermott “She and her father together. They would have conquered lands and people from the inside, relying on a rightful position. This would have been easier for them, and very difficult to fight back later. Strengthening their political power with magic would have prevented the citizens to be aware of the truth. That they were being ruled by two dark magicians.”

[alex]

“And they would have massive armies on their side.” Bryn thought deeply about what Dermott had just told her. This was not good. The had a very vengeful, freaky maniac on their tails who wants to she nothing but see them suffer. And Sinbad never told me about her. He at least could have warned me, just in case Rumina showed up. "Why didn't Sinbad tell me about this Rumina?"

[Dermott]

“I can’t tell Bryn. As you know, I can only talk with you” said Dermott trying to imagine why Sinbad left out Rumina from his chats with Bryn.

Nevertheless he had a certain idea. Maeve disappeared fighting with the dark sorceress, and talking about her would have obviously put out Maeve’s name. Then, considering that Rumina didn’t show up in over a year, maybe the captain didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily.

“Perhaps he didn’t think there was such a need.” Added the bird after a while “She didn’t bother us in a long time, and I’m sure he would have told you if he believed it was the case”.

Anyhow, Dermott himself was afraid of an hypothetical magic battle between Bryn and Rumina, simply because the former has no control over her powers. So the hawk suspected that after what happened to Maeve, Sinbad didn’t want to put none of his crew members in danger, especially because of Turok’s daughter.

[alex]

Bryn stayed quite far a long time. Both Dermott and Sinbad had told her a lot of things. “But that still doesn’t give Sinbad an excuse for not telling me. Rumina could have popped-up when he was least expecting, and I would not know her, not to mention not even be prepared. Let’s say, I met a woman in the streets who just happened to be Rumina. If I was alone at that time, there would have been no one to warn me. My life would have been in danger. Even worse, Rumina could have made me think that she was good. Then who knows what she could have done to me.”

Bryn was very frustrated. How could Sinbad have been so selfish? Then an idea popped in her head. Bryn found it easier to voice out her own thought. She looked at the floor. “Rumina would have killed Maeve before time.” Bryn looked at Dermott. “Is that it? Sinbad avoided talking about Rumina, because she was responsible of Maeve’s disappearance.”

She paused a little, looked at the floor, and continuing. “It’s funny why Rumina would try to kill Maeve and not Sinbad. Has Maeve done anything to Rumina to make Rumina want to kill Maeve? Yes, she must have prevented Rumina from hurting Sinbad. She must have been like a nuisance, and by getting rid of her, there would be nothing to stand in Rumina’s way. But…” She paused then looked at Dermott. “What if Meave knew Rumina from her past? What if Maeve hurt Rumina? Or the other way around, if Rumina had hurt Maeve then that makes perfect sense why Maeve would travel a thousand miles to study under DimDim, and why Maeve would try to irritate Rumina, causing Rumina to have enough and just try to get rid of Maeve first."