The Sandstorm King

by PioneeringAuthor

Chapter 22: The Miracle

That night, Karam could barely sleep. He tossed and turned and trotted around his room in a vain attempt to find peace. On the one hoof, it was just that Daud should be banished. He had committed treason; he should die! The law must be upheld.
On the other hoof, Karam couldn’t bear the thought of his brother slowly withering away until the scorching sun slew him, or the night sky’s insanity drive him mad.
Did Karam really do that?
Did Karam really send him away?
Did Karam really let this happen?
Karam reared up, stretched his golden-yellow wings, and slammed his forehooves into the ground angrily as he snorted with silent turmoil.

For hours he stayed awake, gritting his teeth and snorting and banging his head against the wall until his eyebrows bled. Realizing how foolish he was being, he turned and began writing in his journal again, pouring out all these horrible, useless feelings. While writing, he began crying again, in hushed tones so nobeast could hear.
At first his writing was like a battle, and each stroke of his quill was a fierce, biting mark and a deep jab to the scroll, but with every tear that rolled down his cheeks a bit more of his chaos was stilled, and in time he was too exhausted to write or cry or pound anything anymore. Though he hadn’t slept, his exhaustion was mostly an emotional one, and not a physical one. Besides, it was hard to sleep with the sky constantly shifting and moving.
As he turned and moved a solid black curtain with his golden magic, Karam studied the sky, watching how the stars seemed to rush around, clashing and blasting and racing everywhere in the sky.

With a sigh, he halted his magic, letting the curtain fall back as he turned away. In his agony, he collapsed to the ground and laid his head on the cold, stone floor.
Tears rolled down his cheek.
There, at the lowest point in his life, he vaguely recalled Avram.
Out of all the deities Karam heard of, there was one that sounded like it would actually listen to Karam at a time like this.

“...God of Avram… please… please don’t let my brother die right away. I beg you, have mercy on him. He did many horrid things but… he… he’s all I have left, God.
I don’t deserve any forgiveness, and I guess… I guess Daud does not either, but… please… please let him find peace before he dies.
I beg you.
As for me… I… I don’t deserve anything.
I have banished my brother, dooming him to death.
I had to do it. It was the only thing to do. He needed to die for his crimes and yet… I was too cowardly to give him a swift death.
Please… please… I know it’s foalish for me to ask and… and … unwise, but… please… don’t let him die just yet.
Please….
As for me… I don’t deserve any forgiveness or kindness. I was just as cruel as Daud in battle. I probably will never forgive myself for what I’ve done.
But please… I beg you… if you are out there… if you can hear me… please… please give me some sign that there is hope for my nation.
Will I be nothing more than a ravaging whirlwind that kills all in my way?
Will I die alone?
Will I ever have peace?
Please… please…
Oh God of Avram… please… if there is any hope at all for my future and the nation… send me a sign.”

With barely any strength in his neck, he lifted his head, and stared up at the ceiling.
Truly, he didn’t know what he was expecting, but he hoped that something would happen. Anything at all would be good enough to comfort him.
He needed it desperately.

Then something did happen.

Usually the sky flashed with various lights, forcing Karam to put heavy curtains on all windows, but the curtains did not block everything. Now, however, he could see that something different was happening. The usual lights weren’t darting around the edges of the curtain.
Curiously Karam heaved himself up to his hooves and moved the curtains leading to his balcony.
He gasped.
Slowly he walked out and stared at the miscolored, mottled sky.
It was as if someone had… someone had… well, what DID happen?
It was almost as if… someone had shouted, “STOP”, and everything instantly halted at a command.

Gradually, the stars moved in the sky, re-aligning until… they were in their correct places. Amazed, Karam gallopped to to the balcony edge and witnessed the stars come back into their natural order. Karam’s jaw dropped. For a moment, he pondered if he was hallucinating. No, indeed, it was truly happening!

Then… a miracle:

The moon lowered into the sky until it vanished beneath the horizon.
The sky shifted.
In a gentle, warm glow, the sky lit up with colors Karam hadn’t witnessed in decades. First it was grey, then pink, orange, yellow--and there! What was that? That thing, burning bright, coming over the horizon!?
It was…

It was…

...the sun.
Shocked beyond words, Karam watched as the sun rose for the first time in far too long, lighting up the sky to it’s old, beautiful blue.
Oh, it was a beautiful sunrise indeed--had a sunrise ever been so beautiful before?
Karam truly couldn’t recall. Perhaps he’d taken it for granted for so long that when it was taken away and given back it looked ten times more glorious than it ever had, or… perhaps it was more beautiful than before.
Either way, Karam breathed a murmur of awe.
The sun rose over Saddle-Arabia, warming the ancient city of Rikhab with her loving, renewing light.

"Thank you!... thank you," Karam whispered as tears came down his yellow cheeks, "I'll never take the sun for granted again, never, never! Thank you!... thank you."

In his half-dead heart kindled a spark of hope that warmed his muscles and strenghtened his bones.
Maybe Karam could do this after all.
Maybe it would be okay.
Maybe… just maybe… He could forgive himself one day.

Maybe Daud would forgive him too.

Comments

[truenorth14]

Question one is Avram an analogy for Abram, Abrahams old name.
Second in this story does the god of Avram deal with the sun and moon issues or is it royal sisters.
I imagine that Avrams God is one who tends to work behind the scenes and puts pieces in place for the dominos to fall instead of using godly strength to strong arm everything.

[PioneeringAuthor]

10092157
"Avram" is the Hebrew version of "Abram"

And I didn't really mentally decide how God works in this universe, since it's such a wacky universe, but I figure, like you said, He probably does work behind the scenes, and He is the source of all magic. He is the reason why the magic of Friendship exists, leading to the elements of harmony and other things like the Halter of Fire and all that. Basically each nation was given whatever artifact God knew it'd need to survive. In the case of the Crystal empire it was the Crystal Heart.
Et cetera.

*shrug*

I'm all up for ideas though since this isn't really a "religious" fic. I just didn't want to leave Karam without any hope and I wanted him to have someone speaking life to him, hence I gave him Avram and had this moment.

Also yes, the royal sisters DO move the sun and moon, but Karam doesn't know that yet, ha ha.

And the story is almost done. We just have an epilogue left. Kinda sad, innit?

[truenorth14]

10092495
Wow, honestly I kind of want a series of stories following just the life of Karam. Thank you for making these.

[PioneeringAuthor]

10093869
Don't worry, I do plan on writing more for Karam!

In fact, my MLP Parallel universe is named Karamverse because he's basically the main character... ehhhhhhh kinda.