Standalone tales: the characters

Nabil

Merchant

Nabil is a working merchant with a small home, a wife he loves, and a piece of land at the edge of the property he has never bothered to dig in. He bought the parrot yesterday at the market for the colour of its feathers. Today, that parrot will save him a fortune by repeating a single word at exactly the wrong moment for the wrong people.

Appearance. Late thirties, neat beard, plain merchant's robes. Practical hands. Patient eyes.

Personality. Honest, slow to suspicion, listens more than he speaks. Trusts the look on his wife's face more than any handshake.

“The deal is off. Please leave my house.”

Appears in: The Parrot

Reem

Nabil's wife

Reem is the quiet half of the household. She pours the tea, she watches the eyes of the men her husband has invited in, and she catches the small look the two strangers exchange when Nabil steps out of the room. She does not say anything. She does not need to — the bird is about to.

Appearance. Mid-twenties, simple linen dress, hair loosely covered. Watchful, calm, hands always doing something.

Personality. Observant in the way that doesn't draw attention. Trusts her instincts before she trusts a stranger's smile.

Appears in: The Parrot

Mazen

One of the two visitors with the offer

Mazen knows what is buried at the corner of Nabil's land. He has come dressed for the occasion — a clean tunic, a calm voice, a generous figure already on his lips. He sits across from a working merchant and offers a price that sounds, on a hot afternoon, like a gift. He does not raise his voice when his partner mutters the wrong word under his breath. He does not flinch when the bird in the corner picks the same word up. He only watches Nabil's face change, and he understands, in the second the deal dies, exactly which animal cost him the corner of land he had already spent in his head.

Appearance. Late thirties. Slick dark hair combed flat from the heat, a trimmed beard, an olive over-tunic worn open at the collar. A gold chain just visible at the throat. Steady hands. A glance that holds a beat too long.

Personality. Polished, patient, the negotiator. The kind of man who has talked his way through a dozen deals like this one and assumed today would be the same.

“A fair price. More than fair. We are practically robbing ourselves.”

Appears in: The Parrot

Hazem

Mazen's partner in the offer

Hazem is the brawn of the pair. He sweats more than Mazen. He drinks the tea faster. He is the one who cannot quite keep the word off his tongue when Nabil leaves the room — and the one whose face goes pale first when the bird begins repeating it back at the rafters. He sits very still while Mazen recovers. He is already calculating which other corner of which other land they can try this on tomorrow.

Appearance. Heavier-built, dark hair damp at the brow, an unshaved jaw and a coarse brown tunic darkened at the shoulders by the afternoon. The kind of face that does not soften when he smiles.

Personality. Impatient, blunt, easily impressed by the sight of money close enough to touch. The cracks show first on him.

“Treasure. There — under the corner. Right under his feet.”

Appears in: The Parrot

Parrot

The newly bought bird

The parrot is small, green, scarlet at the throat. It has been in Nabil's house for a single day. It does not yet know any of the household's words — only what it has been hearing since morning, which is one word, repeated under-breath by two strangers in the courtyard. It picks the wrong moment to show off what it has learned. It picks the only right moment.

Appearance. Emerald green with a scarlet throat. A brass cage hanging by the courtyard window. Bright eyes that follow whoever is talking.

Personality. A new arrival. Curious, attentive, repeats things back without understanding what they mean.

“Treasure! Treasure! TREASURE!”

Appears in: The Parrot

Amira

A village girl

Amira lives with her father in a small house by the village wall. She is gentle and watchful and quieter than the other children. Her father has loved her since the day he carried her home — but he has never told her the night he found her, or what the sea looked like before he did.

Appearance. Twelve or so, slim, long dark hair that never seems quite dry. Eyes that catch light the way water does.

Personality. Gentle, dreamy, drawn to anywhere she can hear waves. Becomes very quiet when the moon is full.

“I am not afraid of it. I am only afraid I will go without saying goodbye.”

Appears in: Amira

Amira's Father

Amira's father

He has loved her for as long as he has known her, which is not as long as she thinks. He hopes the gate keeper has forgotten. The gate keeper has not.

Appearance. Late forties, weather-worn, kind eyes that look tired more often than they look kind.

Personality. Protective, soft-spoken, willing to lie to keep his daughter safe.

Appears in: Amira

The Gate Keeper

Keeper of the village gate

The gate keeper has stood at the village wall for as long as the wall has stood. He remembers the night Amira's father carried her in for the first time, and what he carried her in from. He has been waiting, quietly, for the night she will walk out again.

Appearance. Old, lean, robes the colour of dust. A long staff he never seems to need.

Personality. Watchful, patient, neither kind nor unkind. The keeper of one secret too long.

“I remember the night you came in. Do you?”

Appears in: Amira

Imad

Shopkeeper, dreamer

Imad has never travelled further than the next town. The dream is so vivid that by the third night he is more afraid of ignoring it than of going. He joins the next caravan headed for Cairo.

Appearance. Late twenties, slight, threadbare robes, dust permanently on the hem.

Personality. Earnest, stubborn, willing to be made a fool of in service of a thing he believes is true.

“I am not lying. I came here because of a dream.”

Appears in: The Treasure

Hakeem

Leader of the caravan to Cairo

He has crossed this stretch of desert more times than he can count. He has carried fortune-hunters before and watched most of them come home with less than they left. He keeps his counsel.

Appearance. Older, robe-wrapped against the dust, hands that always seem to be reaching for the reins.

Personality. Pragmatic, incurious, surprisingly fair.

Appears in: The Treasure

Cairo Resident

Owner of a house in Cairo

He laughs at Imad and tells him about a ridiculous recurring dream of his own — a fortune buried under a stove in a house in a city he has never seen. He does not realise, until much later, that he has just sent a stranger home rich.

Appearance. Middle-aged, broad-shouldered, ink-stained fingers from years of clerking.

Personality. Worldly, dismissive, kind in the rough way of people who have stopped expecting much.

“Brother. If I went chasing every dream, I would never sleep again.”

Appears in: The Treasure

Maya

Imad's caravan camel

Maya is the camel Imad rides out of his old life on. She is dressed for the long crossing in a maroon-and-gold caparison weighted with tassels in deep red and forest green, mirrored brow-band catching the late sun. She has crossed this stretch of desert before. She will cross it again. She carries a man who has sold everything to chase a dream, and later carries him home again with nothing in his pockets, knowing exactly which stove. She does not ask why. She chews slowly, and waits at the rein, and watches the horizon as patiently in one direction as the other.

Appearance. Tall, fawn-coated, fitted with a maroon-and-gold caparison heavy with mirror-work and tassels. A beaded brow-band, a tasselled bridle, a slow steady chew. Eyes lined dark, half-closed against the sun.

Personality. Unflappable. The kind of camel that has crossed this stretch of desert before and knows the rhythm of the sand better than the man on her back.

Appears in: The Treasure

Amani

Granddaughter, accidental jailer-breaker

Amani lives with her grandmother since her parents died. She is curious in the way that gets a person killed. She breaks the seal on the jar because she cannot stand not to know.

Appearance. Eleven, headscarf askew, a smudge of soot on one cheek that never quite goes.

Personality. Bright, brave, talks too much when she is afraid. Better at bargaining than the jinn expected.

“You said three wishes. You did not say I had to use them quickly.”

Appears in: Amani and The Jinn

Amin

Companion in Amani's tale

Mock placeholder. Tell me who Amin is — friend, brother, neighbour, the jinn in human form? — and I'll write a real bio.

Appears in: Amani and The Jinn

The Jinn

A thousand-year prisoner

The thing in the jar was sealed before the city had its current name. When Amani breaks the wax, what rises is not grateful. It boils up the height of a man and then twice that, smoke shot through with molten seams, a face that resolves only in the fire of its own eyes. It offers her three wishes the way an old grudge offers a chair. It has had a millennium to think about the bargain, and it intends to win it. What it does not expect is a girl who has already begun, very quietly, to count.

Appearance. A roiling pillar of dark smoke run through with veins of molten orange. Coals where the eyes are; a jaw that opens in a long fissure of glowing rock; sparks shed from it as it moves. The suggestion of a head, never quite settled.

Personality. Patient. Ancient. Clever in the very specific way of something that has had a thousand years to be angry. Speaks in a voice like a fire being banked.

“A thousand years, child. I have rehearsed this conversation.”

Appears in: Amani and The Jinn