“What might be a casual gesture for some might well be a life-changing occurrence for another.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“A little naive, but I like that,” said Aideen with a nod at Zayid’s words. She was all too aware that the man was definitely ruthless enough to order the vizier in question killed if he didn’t get the message, so in many ways, he did account for that possibility as well. “I can honestly say that I am satisfied with your work here, Zayid, and that I look forward to the future you will build alongside the Emirate.”

“My gratitude for the high praise, Milady,” replied Zayid with another low bow.

“We will be leaving the Emirate within a few days, and will entrust you with handling the situation here,” continued Aideen. Technically the three of them had already overstayed since they originally only planned to stay for a week or so in the Urvan Emirate. Kino and Eilonwy wanted to help out a bit more, but understood that they could not be too fixated on the regional occurrences.

After all, it was not like they could be around to help every time something happened. As such, it was best to leave the local trouble to be handled by the locals instead.

“Understood, Milady,” said Zayid with a hint of disappointment in his voice. The man clearly wished that Aideen and the rest could help more, but was aware of his position and refrained from voicing his thoughts. Instead, he thanked them for what they had done so far. “We thank you for the aid you have rendered us in our time of need.”

Kino and Eilonwy did help out quite a bit on the teams they were assigned to, but Zayid’s gratitude was mostly directed towards Aideen, who had healed over a quarter of his agents, dealing with their old injuries as if they never happened. It was practically a miracle for those people, as healers of Aideen’s caliber were practically unheard of in the northern regions.

“We still need to make a few minor preparations, so we will be in town for another few days,” Aideen continued. “If there happens to be more of your men who could benefit from the removal of an old injury, you know where to find me. I won’t mind lending them a hand while I’m still here,” she added, which brought a grateful smile to Zayid’s features.

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Over the course of the week that followed, apparently more of Zayid’s people had returned as the teams who went with Aideen’s group bid them farewells as they went out once more. Zayid brought another group of people with him for Aideen to heal a day before they planned to leave the Emirate, and Aideen did as she promised, once more eliciting looks of wonder on the faces of the hardened killers.

Some of them even prostrated themselves on the spot and started saying something along the lines that she must be a sign sent by the holy ones – what the northern locals called the deities – that their cause was just. It took Zayid and the others a while to calm the excited man down and get him to stop worshiping her like that.

Other than her helping heal Zayid’s people, the rest of Aideen’s stay in the Emirate was relatively uneventful.

The two sides of the civil war still maintained an uneasy stalemate, as the older brother’s side lacked the needed force to attack Shahadur and install him as Emir. At the same time, the young Emir lacked the force to take the battle to his older brother, as what forces he had were already stretched thin in defense of his territories. He had enough to ensure the safety of the regions under his umbrella, but no more.

Raids from the older brother’s side had somewhat decreased in regularity since Zayid sent out his men to counter them, as the once excited raiders, people who were mostly lured by greed and lust, became wary of the risks. It was easy enough for the fleet-footed raiders to avoid patrols from the army, but it was much harder for them to escape small teams of hardened veteran assassins who would reap their lives out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, while Zayid’s people helped alleviate the worries of the locals who often ended up as the victims of those raiders, they were still far too few to change the situation in larger ways.

In fact, since the older brother of the young Emir knew that Zayid was on the young Emir’s side, he had become paranoid and kept his location hidden in fear of the assassins being sent his way. It was one reason why Zayid had not attempted a decapitation move, with another reason being that he was worried that the young Emir might turn wary of him if he did so.

“We will be departing now. I will entrust you with handling the situation here from now on,” Aideen said to Zayid on the day of her departure from Shahadur. She, Kino, and Eilonwy had already bid their farewells to the other few people they got acquainted with in their short stay, but Aideen had called for Zayid to accompany them a bit longer as she had a few words to share. “We’ll leave you with a final gift. It should help you out.”

Zayid had no idea what Aideen referred to as her final gift as the group had not left anything behind in the place they stayed at. A round of questioning also made him certain that they had not left something to his men without his knowledge, which made him wonder what she had meant. He only realized what Aideen meant nearly a month later.

It had been a gradual process, but without the knowledge of the young Emir’s forces, the forces under his elder brother had been deserting over the past month, with many escaping towards other nearby nations. They only became aware of the situation when some came to the young Emir’s territory to surrender themselves and place them before his mercy.

Apparently, the Emir’s elder brother had passed away nearly a month ago, out of what his physicians could only describe as natural causes.