Gender: Female
Age: 119
Sign:
Capricorn
Country: Iran
Signup Date:
June 26, 2011 |
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07/28/2012 12:54 PM
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Connections 1
Category: Stories
| CONNECTIONS
 Prince Dastan || Best Friend / Childhood Friend
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At about seven years of age Maniya moved from Pāsārgād, her birthplace and once the capital of the First Persian Empire, to Babylon, the current capital of the reborn Persian Empire. The decision was not her own but that of her master, in whose service she found herself at that time in her life as a slave. Five years later, when she had turned twelve, faith had her meet two young boys, one six years old, Dastan, the other only five, Bis. She found them sneaking inside the back court of her master’s dwelling in an attempt to find some food and some less torn up cloths that could serve to replace at least some of their scant and barely wearable clothing. They were two street urchins, wondering the streets for as long as their young minds could remember and with no recollection of their parents or any other relative or guardian.
Being a slave herself, Maniya could not bring herself to deny the two children aid, although her act could have brought about punishment if discovered. Yet, fearful not to arise her master’s suspicion by giving away some of his possessions, however slight and insignificant, Maniya chose to give the two boys the little food and fabrics she had for herself, the insignificant possessions that a slave was allowed to keep, aside only her own worn out garment. She had seen many homeless children strive about on the streets, mostly begging and putting their lives in the hands of destiny, waiting and hoping for someone to show some compassion, but the two boys that Maniya came across were not like that.
It surprised her to see that although of such young ages, they had understood that the only way to survive was by helping themselves, not begging or waiting for help to come. They were clever and resourceful and stubbornly claimed their right to live, no matter what others might say, an idea that Maniya had also long clung to. The oldest boy, Dastan, was the most resourceful and although Bis was not his blood-brother, but another homeless child he had bonded with while striving to survive in the streets, he had cared for the younger boy the same as a good older brother would.
Maniya encouraged the two boys to return whenever they needed food or shelter and promised to find them a place to stay at least during the night, even if the chances for being discovered, especially by a loyal servant, were great. Still, she continued to help them whenever she could and the three children soon formed a strong brotherly bond, with their similar misfortunes and ill fated destinies serving as common ground to bring them closer.
Necessity often forced the two boys to steal for a living and Dastan had promised to become a skillful thief when he grew older and repay Maniya for her kindness and support, first of all by purchasing her freedom. Dastan and Bis might have been homeless orphans but at least they were free citizens of the empire, while Maniya had inherited her position as a slave through birth. She had never had a choice in the matter and had only known the life of a slave, deprived of personal choice or liberty of movement, outside the commands she received.
Faith however turned out to be most ironic and later on Maniya was the one who would learn the ways of a thief and explore life in a way she would have never thought possible. She would not only be freed from servitude but would become a very different person from the quiet and submissive girl she once was. The first step towards this journey occurred when Maniya turned 15 and the unexpected death of her master brought upon herself a most unexpected fortune. A kind elderly woman, Delasa, a relative of the man, who inherited part of his fortune, bought Maniya’s freedom and took her to work as a servant in the royal palace of Babylon. The chores might have been similar but at least she was now a free citizen.
As soon as Maniya found herself in this new privileged position, from the point of view of a slave, she made plans to ensure for Dastan and Bis similar opportunities, yet their fortunes, especially that of Dastan’s, proved to be far greater than her own. It was nothing less of a shock to discover that the street urchin she had cared for had seized the attention of the King of Kings himself who did not simply bestow upon him some impressive reward but took him out of the streets to raise him as his own son. Dastan’s shock at such an occurrence was of course greater but there were reasons to explain these unexpected gestures of great compassion.
Those months of that particular year were ones that would forever remain in history, not only that of Persia but of the world. The day King Sharman galloped victorious through the streets of Babylon and was so impressed by an uncommonly clever orphan that he decided to adopt him right there and then, was also the day that marked the conclusion of a most impressive victory. The Persians and Parthians, both people of Iranian descent, after having united their forces to ensure the rebirth of the Persian Empire, following Greek occupation, had suppressed the expansionist ambitions of the Roman Republic and proved to them that beyond the River Ufrātu lay a great empire, a force to be reckoned with, not just some scattered, easily defeated barbaric tribes as the Romans had assumed.
At the battle of Ḫarrānu (Carrhae) the Romans suffered a grave and decisive defeat, their forces practically annihilated. It was an unforgettable example of Persian-Parthian military tactics and skills, one that would impress the world at that point in history and also for centuries to come, remaining in the annals of military history to be studied by future generations. The euphoria that descended upon the citizens of the empire following this great victory, together with the peace and stability brought about by King Sharaman’s reforms, released the empire from the tension and insufficiencies they had lived with in previous years and the general mood was just right for unexpected miracles, such as a street urchin becoming a prince.
When Maniya met the two boys once again at the palace, she as a servant, Dastan as a prince and Bis as the Stable Master’s apprentice, she asked them to keep their friendship a secret. Although Maniya had been brought to work at the palace before Dastan’s arrival, she did not want anyone thinking he was abusing his new position by bringing in other homeless orphans like himself. Bis was an exception because they had been like brothers since the first day they met and he was also the boy for whose safety Dastan endangered his own life, in the faithful day that Sharaman entered the city triumphantly but was halted in his march by the tumult the two street boys had unwillingly created.
During their time at the palace Maniya spoke more frequently with Bis and met with prince Dastan only rarely, in secret, since he was constantly watched and she did not want her presence or their bond to be known. She also did not bother either of them with her silly crush on Prince Garsiv, which she kept to herself. The years passed relatively quick and the next turning point in their destiny came when Maniya was wrongly accused of theft and in her desperate attempt to escape the guards sent to capture her, fell from a great height into a small river flowing along one side of the palace. After that everyone presumed her dead and being unable to hide their grief, Dastan and Bis revealed Maniya’s identity as their childhood friend and protector, as well as the reasons for which she wanted her identity kept secret.
Not long after Maniya began her new life in the house of Navaz, as her adopted daughter, and began to develop a different, thus far hidden side of her personality, Maniya snuck into the royal palace and shocked the two boys with her presence and the revelation of being alive. Due to the new circumstances, the three of them had even less time or opportunities to meet but from their different dwellings they focused each on their own learning and training. Once again she asked them to keep her secret, this time the need to be thought dead and removed from anyone’s concerns being much greater.
Then, ever since her unexpected affair with Prince Tus began she stopped visiting her two friends and when she did visit them again she made no mention of her encounters with Tus. After all, two thirteen and twelve year old boys had other things on their minds. Once circumstances forced her to end her affair with Tus, Maniya met with her childhood friends one more time to let them know she would be taking a long journey to the land of Kemet, or Mudrāya as it was known in the Persian tongue and Egypt to the Greeks and Romans.
Three years later she returned to the city she loved, her hometown, Babylon and with Dastan now being 17, he had more freedom to move about as he pleased, or he simply disregarded orders and snuck outside the palace and the three old friends now found more time to spend in each other’s company and share the experiences they each had while apart. For the most part they met in the house of lady Navaz, now Maniya’s home as well, a sumptuous villa situated in the rich district of Babylon, not too far from the royal palace.
They had every reason to feel at home there since Navaz welcomed them as if they were her own children and they were family after all. Navaz was a cousin of Queen Amāstrī, the first wife of King Sharaman and mother of Prince Tus, but unlike Amāstrī she had chosen a completely different path. She isolated herself from her noble heritage and dedicated her life to learning and putting her inherited fortune in the service of common, disadvantage people and the improvement of vital sectors of the city.
When they became reacquainted Maniya shared with Dastan and Bis much of her long kept secrets, including her teenage crush on Prince Garsiv and her brief platonic affair with Prince Tus. She unveiled her deepest feelings to her two trusted friends and explained her actions, letting them know why she had done what she had done and how she had learned to accept the impossibility of having her dreams fulfilled. As such, she decided to dedicate her life to aiding the men she loved from afar and in so doing also ensuring, as much as she could from her position, the safety and prosperity of the empire.
Over the years, while studying the history of their people and becoming acquainted with the current state of things, Maniya had developed great admiration and respect for the nation she was a part of and the people who had elevated the empire to what it was at present. From what she had learned, also from foreign records throughout her travels, the Persians and their distant ancestors occupied a land that was thought to be the cradle of civilization, the place where humans first began to evolve and build societies and cities, then nations. The old city of Babylon and its surroundings had been from the beginning in the center of this starting point of development.
Later on came the birth and expansion of the First Persian Empire, thought by many to be the largest empire of the known world to that day, an empire unparalleled in both territory expansion and wealth. Yet the greatest feat of all was the wisdom and tolerance with which the old Kings ruled the land, showing mercy to their enemies and allowing many freedoms to newly conquered people. Despite inevitable wars and periods of great unrest, the general state of things was a peaceful and prosperous one and the empire flourished, not only in riches but also in culture and science. Throughout centuries, many libraries were built in the largest cities and filled with countless manuscripts containing works of literature, philosophy, religion, history, geography, politics, astronomy, medicine, architecture, engineering and many other sciences.
The empire they called home was truly unique in the knowledge it possessed and it had been the intention of many rulers to see this knowledge made available to all citizens and not just some privileged few. A strong, unified nation could only be sustained as such by the common will of the people, not by force and fear as others believed, and a well educated people could only help in the development of the nation. Many times before the greatest minds of history had sprung from the lowest of social classes and their ideas would have never been born if they had not first managed to acquire some level of education and then find a way to make their ideas known.
Still, it was not only her admiration for the past that dictated Maniya’s decisions. Although having an inherit disdain for the nobility, due to the unfounded superior attitude of most of them, she came to see that King Sharaman, as a man, was someone who truly understood what it meant to be a ruler and who had sacrificed much in order to see a second Persian Empire being born, as well as to ensure the peace and prosperity that people had enjoyed in the distant past.
Maniya’s change of heart regarding the King of Kings was not influenced by his adoption of Dastan. In fact, she continued to have the same feelings regarding nobility until she discovered herself that King Sharman was indeed a dedicated ruler and a honorable man. However there were still many nobles under his command who fitted perfectly the view that Maniya had of nobility in general and she would have no remorse in depriving them of their possessions and redistributing them to the needy, in her new thieving profession.
Dastan and Maniya would often debate on whether there was an already made destiny for each individual or if one made one’s destiny throughout life, but one thing was certain, there had been many peculiar coincidences in Maniya’s life that had led her to believe there could be a destiny she had to fulfill. For one, she was born in Pāsārgād, also the birth city of King Sharman, she was born in the same year and day that King Sharaman was crowned King of Kings, she had been almost like a mother for the boy who would one day be taken by the King to be raised as his own son, she was adopted herself by a noble woman belonging to the Royal House and she swore to dedicate her life to ensuring the happiness of the man she loved but whom she could never have, a man who was none other than the King’s oldest son, himself the future King of Kings.
All these put together led to the obvious conclusion that her supreme goal in life, her destiny, could only be ensuring the prosperity of the empire and its people. She had once been one of the common people, of the lowest class even, and now that she had been bestowed with much fortune it was only natural to see it as her duty to help those whose faith she had once shared. With this in mind she had unwillingly developed an almost annoying habit of reminding Dastan and Bis that it was their duty to not forget where they came from and use their new position to do the good they would have otherwise been unable to do.
Yet, as much as she wanted to put her life in the service of the empire, Maniya also wanted to travel, even further than she had already traveled, to see and understand more of the known world, and perhaps even uncover new lands. With this in mind she set on a very long journey that took her as far as Britannia to the far west, then northwards across Germania and the vast Sakai plains, finally reaching the Han Empire of the far east.
Four years later she returned a much different person, one who had suffered physical torture, mostly at the hands of the Romans, but who also embraced it, found the strength to move forward and accepted the transformation she was undergoing with each new experience, turning her into someone very different from the girl she once was. Whether she had a written destiny or not, there were many moments when such ideas were a comfort and provided a much needed, though simple and vague explanation to the turns her life kept taking.
On a more personal side, upon returning from the far east, destiny granted her a more pleasing surprise, that of satisfying her long desire of sharing a few moments of physical pleasure with Garsiv, even though it meant that from then on, more than ever she would have to make sure she never crossed paths with either of the King’s two oldest sons, while in Babylon. When she returned to the capital and was once again reunited with Dastan and Bis she shared with them all her secrets and adventures and burdened them even more with secrets they had to swear to keep.
Each time Maniya returned to Babylon from a long journey she seemed to have lost a part of her old self somewhere along the way and the two young men had to constantly accustom themselves with her new attitude and mentality. At first she appeared only bolder and more self-confident than in her young years, but still possessing much enthusiasm and positive energy that she enjoyed spreading around, trying to get others as well to find more excitement in being alive. She had managed to accept the difficulties and sorrows that life threw her way and understood the benefits of a positive state of mind.
Yet, as the years went by and she was forced to experience more of the horrors that life and human existence had to offer, especially after her long voyage to the far west, Maniya’s smile and positive, enthusiastic attitude gradually faded. What replaced them was a cold, emotionless stare marked only occasionally by sarcastic grimaces and ironic smiles. Her general attitude often extended towards indifference and bitterness but she considered this a positive change, arguing that she now had a more realistic grasp on life and had more clarity of mind, unlike her old self, whom she grew to despise for being weak and taking hasty decisions based on emotions, which brought misfortune both to herself and to others.
Maniya no longer had a pure pacifistic view on life. She stated that she now understood the complexities of social structures and human behavior and that what people had named evil, vile or immoral were only such depending on circumstance. What is more, such things are often needed in order to bring about their opposites, so in simpler terms, good can sometimes be brought about only by means of evil, or what people subjectively consider to be evil. As such, Maniya was no longer repulsed by the necessity of murder and could offer many justifications in its favour, depending on the case.
Still, this new attitude of hers did not spoil the brotherly bond she had with the two younger men. From many points of view it made it stronger. The many life experiences she had both at home and in her travels forced Maniya to mature rapidly and slightly beyond her years, which only served to increase the protective attitude she always displayed towards Dastan and Bis. Now that she was more prone to irony and mischievousness, she seldom teased them by saying she was like a mother to them and enjoyed pretending to display the attitude of a much older person. Then there were the times when she was the complete opposite and even had moments of irrational behavior, perhaps an inevitable consequence of the burdensome emotional pain she did great efforts to hide.
From the years they lived on the streets when they were young, Dastan and Bis developed their capability of rapidly adapting to new situations so they managed to put up with Maniya’s constantly changing personality and shifting moods. Dastan in particular shared Maniya’s newly developed taste for irony so much of their interactions ended up revolving around playfully teasing each other back and forth on various subjects. Making fun of the difficulties, problems and misfortunes they had to face seemed to be an efficient way of moving forward with much ease and learning to accept what they could not change.
Aside from the adventures they went on separately, Maniya, Dastan and Bis also shared common adventures in the few months that Maniya spent in Babylon in between her travels. When they were children, their adventures were limited by Maniya’s bond of servitude that did not permit her to venture outside her master’s dwelling without permission. When they were teenagers they still had little freedom with Maniya being a servant at the palace and Dastan being constantly supervised and attended, since he had become the King’s son. But once they came of age and entered adulthood, the freedoms of all three widened considerably and with almost nothing holding them back, on numerous occasions they ventured into unknown places and situations without a second thought. Their ingenuity helped them through on many occasion but a considerable amount of times they got themselves in trouble and their actions did not pass unnoticed.
Maniya’s necessity to keep her identity a secret proved many times to be a difficult obstacle to pass whenever she and her two best friends got themselves in trouble. However, Dastan never backed away from helping his childhood friend, even if it meant taking the blame upon himself. Maniya was not comfortable with this, even if it was a useful solution and the only way of avoiding exposing herself and she would afterwards strive to make it up to Dastan, often by ending up putting herself in harm’s way in the process, the same as Dastan had done for her.
Bis || Best Friend / Childhood Friend
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Maniya’s relationship with Bis is similar to that between her and Dastan. They share the same secrets and shared most of their experiences together.
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