Zara Zhakroun
Zara Zhakroun
Zara comes from a once prosperous noble family named Zhakroun (Shah - kroon) from the Western Fiefs, who's patriarch and matriarchs served closely to their Khalif.
Unbeknownst to many, however, the key to their success is the boon they received from a powerful devil, Phenex, in exchange for 200 souls offered per year.
Zara knew of this secret, but was taught that it benefitted the family in their mission to serve the Khalif. Using her skills of negotiation and bartering, she saw through many deals regarding souls in her time. Beyond that, her priorities were directed elsewhere. She helped direct the family's trading affairs, managing merchants in-house and making deals with foreign traders.
Among the many siblings, half siblings, and cousins she possessed, her favorite was her younger brother, Kaji. She looked after and cared for him, protecting his kind heart from the harsh realities of their family.
One year, having grown complacent and arrogant, the then aging patriarch of the Zhakroun and Zara's great-grand father, Dumas Zhakroun, fell short of the quota set by Phenex. When it was time to collect, as penance, Phenex demanded that Dumas offer the soul of Kaji, the purest soul among the family.
Kaji was sacrificed, despite Zara's efforts to protect him. She was betrayed by her father who she had confided her plans in, and she was imprisoned by the family for her resistance, sentenced to remain there until she learned to put the family above her own emotions. This lesson never came, however, as she used that time to invoke the name of the devil Phenex. She begged and pleaded for them to give Kaji's soul back in exchange for her own, but they refused. Rather, they said it was impossible, saying they had already done enough to twist and fracture the boy's soul to the point that there was nothing remaining of the brother Zara knew.
Broken and left with little to live for, Zara offered Phenex a new deal: Give her the means to deliver Dumas's soul to the devil and to punish the rest of her family. In exchange, she will see that Phenex sees 300 souls by the next year cycle, and every year from there. Phenex questioned her capability, but she made the case that the family cares too much about their personal interests at present that their loyalty and efficiency is faltering. Without Kaji, she has no personal goals beyond the destruction of what her family had built. She is already an established and skilled deal maker and barterer. Additionally, what she gains in this deal is a speck in comparison to the boons the family demands of Phenex for their service. Afterall, it's much easier to destroy than it is to create.
Phenex ultimately agreed, with the added stipulation that should she fail, her soul would meet an even worse fate than Kaji. Zara agreed to those terms, seeing it as appropriate punishment for failing to save her brother.
For one night, Zara was given power she had never fathomed. Using it, she managed to escape her bonds, find Dumas, and rend his soul asunder, before Phenex came to collect. She then managed to brand her father's face with Kaji's initials and burn the family's stables before the duration of her power ran short and she was forced to flee with her personal mount.
Now a pariah and fugitive in the home she grew up in, Zara has fled to foreign lands to collect the souls for Phenex, now racing to see if she can meet the quota she set, or if she will meet her punishment.
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