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Post by devilinthedetails on Aug 12, 2020 5:38:49 GMT 10
Series: The Voice
Title: Sipping Sherbet
Rating: PG
Event: Cruel Summer-Escaping the Heat
Words: 200
Summary: A young Ali Mukhtab tastes sherbet for the first time.
Sipping Sherbet
Ali never tasted sherbet until he traveled among the tribes as the Voice’s chosen student, the appointed inheritor of the accumulated wisdom, dreams, and stories of a thousand generations that would live in him, whispering to him like sand in the wind.
At high noon, they hid from the sweltering sun beneath the cool canopy of the Sunset Dragon chief’s tent. On a pile of cushions, they sat at a low table and sipped sherbet that crunched like northern ice in his mouth and then melted like the snows he had never seen. The sherbet smelled of fresh rose petals that bloomed on his tongue and tang lemon that made his nose twitch and the roof of his mouth tingle. Cutting through both those flavors was the tart richness of hibiscus.
Sherbet was an adult drink. It was to be savored by grown men on celebrations and feast days. It was to be served as a toast to honor esteemed guests or to commemorate successful negotations.
Ali had never felt more adult, more honored than when he lifted the glass of sherbet to his lips and heard the Voice say, “Sipping sherbet is the best way to escape the heat.”
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Post by mistrali on Aug 12, 2020 7:48:17 GMT 10
The sensory imagery in this is brilliant. I’m so looking forward to this - Ali Mukhtab has to be one of my fave characters in SotL and he’s criminally neglected in fic.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Aug 13, 2020 1:34:32 GMT 10
mistrali, thank you so much for commenting! I really wanted to make this story a celebration of the senses so I'm so happy you felt the sensory imagery was brilliant. Ali Mukhtab has always been one of my favorite minor characters from SOTL, but I have hardly ever written about him in fanfic so I'm really excited to begin delving into his mind, motivations, and experiences. There is so much about his life that we don't know and what we do know about him is fascinating, so I imagine that writing about him will be a super rewarding endeavor.
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Post by Rosie on Aug 13, 2020 23:50:43 GMT 10
Ahh, I like that the Voice tutors him from a young age, it's a more understandable mentorship than how Jon is taught (/teaches?? I think the only Bazhir we see him around is Zahir!).
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Post by devilinthedetails on Aug 14, 2020 0:46:56 GMT 10
Rosie , thank you so much for commenting! I'm so glad that you liked my choice to make the Voice tutor Ali from a young age. In my head canon, I tend to see Ali being defined as being the Voice in a way that Jon outside of WWRLAM isn't in the sense that it appears to be his fundamental role and how he perceives himself whereas I think with Jon being a king as well as probably being a father and a husband would come before being the Voice. So, that turned into me theorizing that perhaps being the Voice was a position Ali had spent most of his life training to be and being and that was why he was so committed to being the Voice whereas with Jon it was a responsibility he assumed latter in life after spending a bulk of his youth being prepared to rule because he was Crown Prince of Tortall. With Jon, I'm not sure he has chosen his successor yet in terms of the next Voice, but I do imagine that he might train the next Voice similar to how he was taught, choosing a Bazhir candidate when that student is a bit older and probably having a shorter but intense training. And that Bazhir might have to train with Jon in the north rather than in the south since I believe most of Jon's time ruling would be spent in Corus and it might not be a bad idea to have the next Voice equipped to serve as a sort of ambassador between the northerners and the Bazhir from Jon's point of view. At least that would be my current head canon for how that would work, but my head canon is always subject to revision
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