Zahra stepped out of the diner into a city washed in gold and shadow. Streetlights flickered awake one by one as the sun dipped behind the skyline, leaving long, stretching silhouettes across the pavement. She tucked her backpack strap higher on her shoulder and broke into a light jog.
Her set at the club wasn't far, but she'd stayed later than she meant to. I am running a few minutes late; my previous meeting is running over.
Again.
"Hurry up… come on," she muttered at the traffic light as it stood a solid red. Too slow. Far too slow.
She'd be late for her call time. Then there were the mic checks and tune-ups… bloody pre-show checks, she cursed.
A chilled night breeze sent a slight shiver down her spine.
She glanced down the narrow gap between two buildings — the back alleys. A straight shot to the club. Cut her time in half and lead straight to the club's back entrance for the bins.
A terrible idea.
A tempting one.
The light changed, and she crossed quickly, slipping into the alleyway before she could talk herself out of it.
Immediately, the city's warmth vanished. The air here was cooler, dense, smelling of damp brick and old trash. Her bare feet inside her daps recoiled at the wet patches underfoot.
Eww!
As the light from the streets dimmed in the dark back alley, she was so engrossed in dodging the filth that she didn't hear the voices until it was too late.
There were voices up ahead. Low. Aggressive.
She began to back away slowly—
"Going somewhere, beautiful?"
Shit! Her stomach dropped.
She spun as a hulking shape detached itself from the shadows. He cracked his knuckles deliberately, ready for a struggle. She craned her neck to look at his shrouded face. There was a gut-clenching grin on his lips and stained teeth that twinkled in the little light they had.
Another man slid out behind her. Tall. Leaner. Equally predatory.
"Oh… no," Zahra breathed, raising her hands in submission. "Please. I don't want any trouble."
"Well, it's too bad, you found it."
They stepped closer.
She stepped back until her spine struck cold brick, tripping over bins and recycling containers. Her pulse hammered in her ears.
The two men laughed as they approached her.
Think. Move. Something.
Hundreds of thoughts raced through her mind. Regret. Fear. Confusion. She couldn't settle on one.
Suddenly, her mind went blank.
Her hand shot out blindly, gripping a metal bin lid. Her breath hitched as the larger man lunged—
Instinct overtook her.
She swung the lid up with a sharp arc, metal colliding with bone in a crack that echoed through the alley. The man reeled, stumbling, clutching his jaw.
Even Zahra stared in shock.
The smaller man hissed a laugh. "Looks like this one is going to be a handful."
But something in her had already shifted.
Her senses sharpened, narrowing to the movements of the two men circling her like wolves. She didn't question it; there was no room for doubt. She couldn't explain it, but somehow her eyes started to dart around the two men, analysing everything.
A slight limp in the big one's left leg. Go for the knee, bring him down.
Bruised jawline from bin lid, a swift elbow will crack that right open.
The Shorter… Quicker, better reflexes, probably. Handle him second.
Don't. Hold. Back.
The large man lunged again. Zahra slid sideways, dropped low, and swept his ankle. As he staggered, she rose with a dancer's spin and struck the back of his knee with her heel. She felt his bone shudder through her bare foot, then he collapsed.
She didn't think before she gave him the courtesy of her elbow in his jaw.
A sickening crack.
Then he hit the ground and didn't rise.
Zahra gasped as her airway constricted. Panic surged, bright and blinding. She kicked, clawed, writhed — but the man only tightened his grip, dragging her backwards. Her vision began to blur. Her pulse hammered against his forearm. Still, she thrashed desperately.
No — she cursed herself. Think. Not like this. Move.
She forced herself to go limp.
The man faltered, shifting to adjust his hold—
Now!
Don't. Hold. Back!
She stamped hard on his foot. Pain shot up her leg, but he yelped, grip loosening just enough. Zahra twisted sharply and drove her fist into the side of his neck with everything she had.
He collapsed like a felled tree.
Zahra stumbled away, chest burning as she sucked in breath after breath. Her hands shook violently. She couldn't tell if it was terror or adrenaline or something deeper — something ancient — pulsing through her veins. Somehow, she had managed to get herself out of this situation, and she wasn't going to question how.
She needed out of this place. Now.
Her backpack. Where—
"I believe you are looking for this?"
Zahra froze.
A man stood at the far end of the alley, illuminated faintly by the weak glow of a streetlamp. He held her backpack casually in one hand.
But it wasn't the bag that made fear sting in her feet.
It was him.
He wore robes that looked like they belonged to a forgotten century, draped in desert-white and accented with gold. His accent gave the impression he was from some far-off land. A dark headdress framed his stern features. And around his neck hung a massive golden key, its shape unmistakably ceremonial — too large for any earthly lock.
He did not blend into the shadows like the others.
Instead, he glowed, faintly, impossibly, as if light bent toward him.
Zahra swallowed, forcing her voice out.
"Who… are you?"
The man lowered his head in a respectful bow.
"Do not be afraid. I am here to enlighten you."
That did not help. Yet, she didn't feel the need to fight him.
"Enlighten me?" she repeated, inching back until her shoulders brushed the cold brick.
"Yes." His voice was calm — too calm for the chaos around them. "Long ago, you were Champion to a great ruler. You swore your life to protect him. And soon…" He lifted the Key slightly. "He will need you again."
Zahra's blood ran cold.
"Me? A Champion?" She let out a breathless laugh. "You've got the wrong girl. I can't even stay in school."
"Then how," he asked gently, "did you defeat these men so effortlessly?"
Zahra's mouth opened, but no sound came.
"Your soul remembers what your mind has forgotten," he said. "Even five thousand years ago, you were more than mortal. The darkness rises again, as it did before. And you — you are key to what comes next."
The golden Key began to glow.
Zahra flattened herself against the wall, shaking her head. "No — wait. Please— I need to go home."
"The years have sullied your memories. I am here to unlock them again. To return what time has stolen."
Zahra tried to crane her head away and she looked at him pleadingly from the corner of her eyes.
His face was stone. No expression, no remorse.
The key came closer and closer to her forehead.
Cold metal. A flash of blinding gold—
—then her world shattered. Memories slammed into her — images of sand, of blood, of a palace shining beneath a desert sun. She heard a man's voice shouting her name across a battlefield. Felt a familiar hilt in her hands. Felt love. Fear. Duty. Light.
She begged him to stop, but the visions kept coming, faster, brighter—
Her knees buckled.
She fell—
Only it wasn't the cold ground of the city her knees felt... It was soft and grainy golden sand. She gasped, staring at the horizon of golden dunes swirling around her. Endless.
The past had found her.