#i think about aylin wondering why her mother did nothing all this time

[justanotherignot]

For Dame Aylin fic writers/fans:

Found this in the game files and now I'm heartbroken. I always assumed Aylin breaks her oath when she kills Lorroakan because she says almost the exact words a paladin feels if they break their oath, but I, like an idiot, never even considered that she might be angry at her mother.

[blackjackkent]

OK, well, this all seems pretty definitive, so Rakha's not wasting any time. Straight back to camp to tell Aylin that we've found someone for her to punch.

(This all continues to contribute to Rakha's rather perplexed view of Aylin, tbh. She's already realized that Aylin is capable of the same level of mad violence that she herself is capable of, but that Aylin nevertheless still falls under the broad banner of 'good' compared to Bhaal and the beast's 'evil.' This is confusing. And it clarifies nothing that now her whole party (including Wyll) is eagerly queuing up to watch the aasimar reduce Lorroakan to a fine paste.)

"Mother's Milk! Your visage speaks of ill tidings. Speak, ally mine. What troubles you?"

TBH I think these days Rakha's visage always kind of speaks of ill tidings, but that's neither here nor there.

I've tended to assume that, despite the generally friendly nature of most of her dialogue, Aylin is still pretty skeptical of Rakha (and particularly of letting her anywhere near Isobel), especially now that the Bhaalspawn business is out in the open.

Rakha, for her part, still feels a deeply compelling urge to rip both of them into small pieces, so she takes care to stand a good twelve feet away during this conversation.

We have two different dialogue options here, and one of them I don't recall seeing before:

"I was just wondering what it was like in that cage of Balthazar's."

This actually strikes me as a conversation that might have happened at some earlier point, back in Rivington or maybe even on the road out of the SCL. This is very much a Rakha sort of question - very blunt and out of nowhere despite the potentially sensitive nature of the subject, just placing the question out there and leaving it up to her conversation partner whether they're willing to answer or not.

Unsurprisingly, Aylin is not into it:

"Let us not dwell on those dark days. Their memory is a vortex within my heart that leads directly to the Hells."

Fair enough.

"A wizard called Lorroakan is looking for you."

"Is he indeed?" Aylin asks, raising an eyebrow. Isobel has wandered up and is also listening with interest to this new development. "Pray tell - what does he seek from Dame Aylin?"

(A/N: Upon closer inspection, this dialogue appears to be bugged. It checks for the presence of a variable called LOW_Lorroakan_State_PartyKnowsHisPlans which is supposed to indicate that the player knows about Lorroakan's soul cage and immortality goals, but I've done a search through all the parsed dialogue files and this variable never gets set anywhere; it's only ever checked for. And Rakha here is missing the dialogue option that it should enable. Since she does know about Lorroakan's plans, I am going to use my console powers and enable the flag manually, since it makes the conversation more interesting and Rakha has no reason not to be direct about what's going on.)

"He wants to cage you like Ketheric did," Rakha says flatly.

"The beast!" Isobel snaps, which definitely makes Rakha jump.

In contrast to her lover's fury, however, Aylin just laughs softly. "Oh, I hope he tries!" she crows. "Please, Lorroakan, come to me with your magicks and your flaccid charms. Attempt to lay one hairy finger upon Dame Aylin, daughter of Selune most high."

She leans forward, closing the careful distance between herself and Rakha. "I will wring his neck until he's dead," she growls.

Rakha shivers involuntarily. The mental image is delicious, enthralling; it feeds the murder urge in her mind. And again that flicker of confusion - why is this admirable in Aylin, when it is so detestable and terrifying in herself?

"Let's take him down," she whispers hoarsely. "Together."

Aylin's cold smile widens. "Ho!" she says. "His end will be one more strand in the great braid of our friendship."

(A/N: The game definitely doesn't account for the idea of Aylin not being on good terms with the player even with the Dark Urge context, which is a little annoying. For the purposes of Rakha's story, where they are both super wary of each other, this statement definitely comes along with a heavy helping of sardonic irony.)

"I'm coming with you," Isobel says eagerly. "I'd like to get a few licks in myself."

"My darling," Aylin says, turning towards her, "we agreed you'ds cout for the nearest Selunite enclave this very night. Let us divide our efforts, all the sooner to be reunited."

"I won't let you go alone," Isobel insists. "Who knows what that wizard might have planned?"

"Our closest ally will accompany me, won't you?" Aylin says, shooting a look at Rakha.

(A/N: This is low-key pretty funny at this point. 'Closest ally' my ass. Under the circumstances this reads like Aylin basically saying that Isobel doesn't get to go anywhere near Rakha in a combat bloodlust situation, which frankly Rakha agrees with wholeheartedly. Her animation here is a cheerful smile while Aylin is talking:

which is also very uncharacteristic and reads as tremendously forced ("yep, totally fine, nothing for you to worry about Isobel") in this context. XD )

Aylin waits for Isobel's grudging nod of agreement. Then she straightens up, her wide white wings unfurling, and leaps upwards into the air. "Hie we to this 'Lorroakan' right away," she cries as she moves. "I am as eager to meet him as he is to ensnare me."

[ferinehuntress]

◈　 ⇢  @lunarrepel　 ⋯　 Continued Ask. 　　　❝ A better conversation started off at the campsite quiet. ❞

Aylin pushed her platinum blond hair back behind her shoulder, looking down upon the smaller woman, yet it did not hide the forceful ferocity she held. A strength she would need in the coming days, Aylin vowed not to let dwindle with the change of her life. It took a strong-willed heart to do what she had done, and Aylin would not allow her to travel that road alone. "Ah, I cannot speak for much of my kind, other aasimar or devas. I, for one, enjoy being in Faerun though. Tis many wonderous beauties this continent has to offer, and my father lives among them," Aylin smiled, offering a small inward offering of her life.

The darkening tone to Shar caused Aylin to frown a little. "Shar.... is a cruel mistress. She contaminates the minds of those who follow her, ensuring only her voice remains. For those who follow, she is everything. For her, you all are nothing but tools. It is a cruel fate, and I am sorry, Shadowheart, for the poisoning voice of her words that made it hard for you. I swear on my oath and my sword that my words are not lies. I, too, suffered her voice for many centuries. My aunt is the  definition of a tormentor in beautiful garbs," If Aylin could, she would remove her curse, and ensure that Shar could not harm Shadowheart for her decision. Everyone deserves free will, to choose. Not everyone follows Selune, but that does not mean Aylin forbade them from her protection. She protected anyone innocent of heart and kind of soul.

"Ease, my friend. No vitriol when speaking about the validity of past events. Despite her venomous words, you choose your fate, and that is commendable. You may not know now the impact of your choice, but I am sure it will prove to be a momentous wave of change that others will see. As Shar took you, no doubt there are others just like you, chained in the servitude of a goddess they are forced to worship, believing to be their choice," Aylin reached over and placed a hand upon her shoulder. Despite still wearing the metal armor of Shar, it was clear the woman already found herself deviating and changing. But a ripple set off that would soon become of wave. Aylin hoped to ease Shadowheart's apprehension as she tilted her head and moved over to sit down on the ground. Aylin had foregone her armor, set underneath the tent to wear a tunic and some comfort pants that puffed around her legs.

The question came and Aylin's heart faltered as she took a breath. For some time she sat quietly, formulating her words. "No, my mother could not reach me. I speak with her, in my dreams and when she comes to me during these moonlit hours. She does not hide from me, the moon maiden. But in Shar's domain, the moon could not touch," She glanced down at her hand, the cracked scars bearing proof of a century of torture and abuse as she turned her icy blue eyes to the not-so-sharran. "I did not lose faith in my mother, I knew she would have been there if she could, but Selûne could not enter the Shadowfell without yet another war ensuing. I do not reproach my mother, the previous war with Shar was bloody and many decades of death," Once more, Aylin fell quiet as she reached for a flat stone. It was perfectly polished from years of travel, rounded to perfection with the use of erosion from the great mountains down to this river's edge.

She drew her arm back and tossed it forward, as the stone bounced, causing ripped along the water's edge before it plunged into the waters below. "I nearly lost faith in myself," Aylin finally admitted, finding it easy to talk to Shadowheart. "When you are tortured for two centuries, or so I think it was two... perhaps longer. time is hard to process in the shadowfell. But the silence was longer, and Shar tormented my mind, bleeding lies and regrets and whispers of the ongoing of the world why I was chained to the stones. She enjoyed making her "nightsong" scream," Aylin bitterly stated the title. It was one she did not like, and she hated anyone who used it. her name was Aylin Silverblood, daughter of Selûne. the nightsong was nothing but a curse, forced upon her by the malefactors of death and darkness.

[ottomanladies]

Hello, since some time already I've been trying to find more information about Ahmed's concubine Mahfiruz Hatun and I couldn't help, but wonder when or how she died. Somewhere I read she died during Ahmed's reign probably by sickness or in childbed and on another page I read the opposite and that she lived until her son became sultan. Also another confusing topic about her for me is who of Ahmed's children she is the mother of. Why are there so less informations about her?

I'll start off by answering your last question: there is so little information about her because she was overshadowed by Kösem, who was haseki sultan. If you look at other valide sultans who had not been haseki sultans, you see that about both Handan and Halime there is little information (in their case, they had been overshadowed by Safiye).

I have talked about her so many times so far but I have decided to put everything I was able to find in this answer so as to dispel any other questions. This is going to be long but I hope clear enough.

About Mahfiruze's fate, there are different schools of thought:

Peirce says that she was probably beaten and exiled for speaking against or offending Kösem, therefore she was alive when Osman II took the throne but for some reason was not called back to Topkapi to be valide sultan, and died in 1620.

Uluçay, Sakaoğlu and Öztuna say that she was alive when Osman II took the throne and that she was valide sultan for two years

Baki Tezcan says she died in 1610 at last (I believe a couple of years later, as I'll explain shortly)

Her name

Baki Tezcan says that her name "was probably Mahfiruz": "Although one comes across this name in quite a number of modern sources, its earliest appearance, as far as I have been able to determine, is in the chronicle of Nai'ma, who was not a contemporary" (The debut of Kösem Sultan's political career)

Öztuna calls her "Hadîce Mâh-Fîrûz(e)" and Sakaoğlu says she was variously called "Mahirûze, Hatice Mahfirûze, Mahfirûze, Mahfirûz, Mah-ı Feyrûz". Ahmed Refik refers to her as "Hadice Mahfiruz" but, as Tezcan says, "his source is not clear".

Her origins

Frequently it is said that Mahfiruz was Greek and that she taught Osman Greek. Tezcan has been able to determine that the source of this claim is not a work of historiography but a novel: Histoire d'Osman premier du nom, XIXe empereur des turcs, et de l'impératrice Aphendina Ashada by Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez published in 1743. Apparently it wasn't the only novel she wrote about the Ottomans or the Safavids.

Therefore even her origins are disputed and unsure. She may have been Greek nonetheless but Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez's novel cannot be use as the basis of this claim.

Her children

Osman II is clearly the only child we're absolutely sure was hers.

Öztuna lists other children: Şehzade Bâyezîd, Şehzade Süleymân, and Şehzade Hüseyn. Those who include Mehmed too in the list of her children nonchalantly forget that Osman was born in November 1604 and Mehmed in March 1605. Therefore Mehmed cannot be her son (it's Kösem's but people just won't accept it).

Cristoforo Valier said - between 1612 and 1615 - that Ahmed I had four sons: two with the sultana alive and two with the sultana who had died. Valier died on 15 July 1615 while returning to Venice so he had left Istanbul a little earlier, I assume. He doesn't say how long has Osman II's mother been dead though.

Tezcan thinks that Gevherhan Sultan was Osman's full-blooded sister because he bases his claims off Pietro della Valle, who says:

"Il giorno seguente alla morte di Nasuh, fu subito assunto al carico di primo visir Muhammed bascià, genero egli ancora del Gran Signore, cioè marito della prima figliuola, che è sorella di madre del principe primogenito..." // "The day after Nasuh's death, Mehmed Pasha was appointed to the office of Grand Vizier, he too the Gran Signore's son-in-law, that is the husband of his eldest daughter, who is the eldest prince's full sister..."

The Grand Vizier della Valle is talking about is Öküz Mehmed Paşa, the husband of Gevherhan Sultan. This bit is the reason why Börekçi too says that Gevherhan was the eldest of Ahmed's daughters.

Curiously, Pietro della Valle's is the oldest work that mentions Kösem by name. For this reason, I guess, he is held in high consideration by both Tezcan and Börekçi.

About the other princes, it may be that Süleymân or Bayezid as well were Osman's brothers. Süleymân was, in my opinion, not Murad IV's full brother because he's the first - with Bayezid - that he executes. That he first executed Bayezid (and Süleymân) means that he considered them the most dangerous. Why? Because they weren't his mother's sons and they could have been turned against him.

Bayezid is believed by Finkel to have been Osman's brother:

In a departure from recent practice, Murad had waited until he was home from his various campaigns before despatching his brothers: Bayezid and Süleyman – half-brothers to Murad and full brothers to Osman II – had met their end at the time of the celebrations marking the Yerevan campaign of 1635 [...] As Osman’s full brother Bayezid could be considered the rightful heir in Murad’s place. — Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire

Let's leave aside the claim that Bayezid could have been considered Osman's heir because as we all know, and as I am sure Finkel knows too, it is not Mahfiruze's blood that dictates the succession but Ahmed I's. Aside from that, I agree with her. We can't be sure that Süleymân and Bayezid were Osman's brothers (I think Bayezid has more chances to be), but Süleymân was definitely - in my opinion - Murad's half-brother.

The only problem with this is that Süleymân was born in 1615 (according to Öztuna), late in Ahmed's reign and too late according to the European ambassador's claims that Osman's mother had died around 1610 (maybe 1612 at the latest).

Which brings us to our next point in Mahfiruze's life:

Her death

As I have said, European ambassadors were certain that Ahmed had as consorts "the living sultana and the sultana who died".

the English ambassador George Sandys, who wrote presumably in 1610, or around this time, said about this:

"this also hath married his concubine, the mother of his yonger sonne, (she being dead by whom he had the eldest) who with all the practices of a politicke stepdame endevours to settle the succession on her owne...”

This bit not only would confirm that Ahmed has married Kösem at some point in his reign but that Mahfiruze died pretty early in his reign.

Cristoforo Valier, between 1612 and 1615 (when he died), said that Ahmed had four sons: "two from the sultana who died and two from the one alive"

Pietro della Valle too said that Osman's mother had died when he wrote about Osman II's accession to the throne:

"Othman figliuolo primogenito di Sultan Ahmed, ma non figliuolo della sultana Chiosemè vivente." // "Osman, Sultan Ahmed's firstborn son, but not son of the living sultana Kösem"

The French ambassador, Achille de Harlay, writing on Osman II's accession, said the same thing:

"non le fils de la sultane vivante mais l'ainé nommé Osman, orfelin de sa mère des il y a dix ans" // "not the son of the living sultana but the eldest named Osman, who has been motherless for ten years"

De Harlay had reported that Osman's mother was dead even earlier:

That Osman’s mother is dead is also stated in a relation on the life and death of Nasuh Pasha (d. 1614), written sometime after Nasuh’s execution in 1614 and sent by the same ambassador on March 5, 1616 — Searching for Osman

Then we have the second school of thought: Mahfiruze was in fact alive when Osman became sultan and died in 1620. This is usually said by Turkish historians (is it because they don't check Italian sources? Who knows but I wouldn't blame them tbh, there is literally nothing in common between Turkish and Italian):

Öztuna claims that Mahfiruze was valide sultan for two years, when she died on 26 October 1620. As he doesn't source his claims, we can only speculate who his sources are, but it's probably Uluçay who says the same thing:

"But these happy days did not last long. She died in the third year of her son's reign in 1620, and was buried in Eyüp Sultan Mosque"

Even a very recent work of historiography like Aylin Görgün-Baran's essay titled "A Woman Leader in Ottoman History: Kösem Sultan (1589-1651)" reiterates the same thing:

"By the way, the reign of Osman II had caused Kösem Sultan to take action and she had developed strategies to get on with Mahfiruz Sultan and Osman II and established relationships with them for her son Murat IV. She had sent gifts both to Mahfiruz Sultan and Osman II and given messages to them that she had taken their side."

Apart from the fact that I don't believe that Kösem was working to put Murad on the throne (how was she supposed to know that Osman II would be childless and deposed and killed? Please), this claim is not sourced.

She also said that Mahfiruz had died in 1621, in the same year in which Osman had executed Mehmed.

Back to Uluçay, he bases his claims on the chronogram on Mahfiruz's grave but, as Tezcan argues, that chronogram only means that the grave was built in 1618, not that she had died in that year.

The document that M. Cağatay Uluçay, Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları, Ankara, Türk Tarihi Kurumu, 1980, p. 48, n. 1, cites as evidence for the date of her death specifies her burial place but does not seem to suggest that she died in the year that the document is dated. Peirce states that the document cited by Uluçay is "not to be found in the Topkapi Palace Museum Archives under the number he cites" — The debut of Kösem Sultan's political career

That Osman built a grave for his mother right after he became sultan may mean that he wanted to honour her with a better mausoleum. Also, who builds a grave for someone who is not dead yet and is also fairly young? I mean if Kösem was in her late twenties when Ahmed I died, Mahfiruze must have been around the same age.

Finally, we have Peirce's theory: Mahfiruze was alive but had been exiled during Ahmed I's reign and, for some reason, her son did not call her back to Topkapi when he became sultan.

Osman's mother, Mahfiruz, was alive when her son was finally enthroned in 1618 after the deposition of the incompetent Mustafa. However, contrary to the assumptions of modern accounts, she did not live in the imperial palace during Osman's reign nor did she act as valide sultan (privy purse registers from Osman's reign list no valide sultan). Mahfiruz died in 1620, two years after her son's accession, and was buried in the large sanctuary of Eyüb. From the middle of 1620, Osman's governess, the daye khatun, began to receive an extraordinarily large stipend (one thousand aspers a day rather than her usual two hundred aspers), an indication that she was now the official stand-in for the valide sultan. What seems likely is that Mahfiruz fell into disfavor, was banished from the palace at some point before Osman's accession, and never recovered her status as a royal concubine. Banishment in disgrace would explain both Mahfiruz's absence from the palace and her burial in the popular shrine of Eyüb rather than in her husband's tomb. The Venetian ambassador Contarini reported in 1612 that the sultan had had a beating administered to a woman who had irritated Kösem; perhaps this woman was Mahfiruz. Mahfiruz's banishment would have removed a serious obstacle to Kösem's efforts to save Mustafa from execution, since the party of Osman had the greatest stake in the survival of the traditional system of succession. — The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire

Honestly, I don't understand why she seems to think that Mahfiruze was alive - like Uluçay says - but then doesn't agree with his sources... strange.

So this is what we know about Mahfiruze. I have left out claims that she was related to Halime (?) or that the manager of the harem was her sister (?) or that she was related to Mahidevran as well (?) because I could not even find these things in books. I'm pretty sure it's someone's fantasy just going around the internet and for some reason people believed it.

I hope I did not forget anything!!

[grailacademy]

Welcome To Grail Academy - Chapter Fourteen: Too Young To Die

For an abandoned taffy factory, the beastly structure sure was animated. The tall smokestacks obscured the light of the sun, like grey obelisks marking an apocalyptic shrine. Groups of men and women in beige jumpsuits and caps rolled large crates out on trolleys, loading the packages onto the backs of taffy delivery trucks. A man with a thick beard and baggy eyes barked directions from the catwalk above, his potbelly bouncing as he yelled. It was systematic chaos, ants gathering food, bees building a hive, cockroaches scattering under light. The floor manager saw the line of children file into the factory through a garage door, nodded and pointed to a hallway that funneled out of the worker’s space. Queenie leading the pack, she directed everyone to follow.

Rettah held onto Yorick’s sweaty hand, pulling him along like a puppy on a leash. She was rambling about something, it could have been about a comic book she was reading, or maybe she was explaining their cover at the factory, but he wasn’t paying attention. He was still in sensory overload. Her hand on his was like holding an alligator’s tail, he felt every pore and ring of her fingerprints, every drop of sweat. The shouting and mechanical whirring of the machines sounded like standing in the middle of a bomb range. His heart was a flamenco dancer twirling and leaping in his chest, his legs were shaking, the images of Buck were stained on the insides of his eyelids every time he blinked. Scarlet swayed behind him, hands on his head.

The noise, noise, noise of the factory rattled in the distance as a new sound overtook Yorick’s ears. An argument, behind a closed door of what looked to be a freezer, presumably the place where this taffy company once stored product preservatives.

“The shipments are ahead of schedule, but the border keeps stopping our deliveries before they can leave Calicem.” A man’s voice, deep and gravely.

“We certainly can’t go after city government. It’s still an independent settlement.” A woman’s voice, stern.

“That’s exactly why we SHOULD. There won’t be any assistance from Mistral military.”

“Yes, but you forget their connections to Haven. The alliances between academies could prove to be bothersome, at the least.”

“Those toddlers are only a small inconvenience. If we move fast, we can collapse the communications tower and prevent any distress signals.”

Another woman’s voice, gentle and soft, cut through the bickering and hummed “Goodness, you call the hunters children while I sit here with a couple of infants! Play nice, you two”, the voice tittered.

The door to the locker was pushed open and the meeting came into full view. A circular wooden dining table sat in the center, a series of eight mismatched cushioned lounge chairs sitting around it. A tray with a silver tea pot and bowls of sugar cubes and biscuits was adjusted directly in the center. Those sitting at the table were all holding a cup of their own, although some did not drink the warm beverage. The room was cold, frigid, not quite to the point of frost or needing a jacket, but enough to send a chill down Yorick’s back. A man in a heavy orange and gold coat had his fist clenched on the table, his clean shaven head glistening in the reflection of his tea cup. A short woman sat across from him, the locks of her chestnut hair curling over her shoulder as she sipped her tea delicately, with her pinkie out. A boy with ragged black hair, shaved short in some parts and left long in others, sat on a crate in the corner, arms folded over his chest. “Be patient.” the gentle voice continued, echoing from somewhere in the far back of the room, dripping from the darkness like molasses. “There is no need to cause such a disturbance over a few delivery trucks. Let our people do their jobs, they have families to feed.”

“Pardon the interruption, but we have a new recruit” Queenie stated, gaining the abrupt attention of everyone’s eyes on her. She and Rettah stepped out of the way, and Scarlet shoved Yorick into the room. The boy on the crate shook his head and stood up, leaving the room. His arms unfolding as he trudged out made plain the dark marks on his back underneath his tank top, which Yorick stared at for a brief moment. He tripped over his feet and slipped into the room, not knowing what to do with his hands. He patted his legs and puffed out his cheeks, before that gentle voice hummed again. “You….”

suddenly, the darkness shrunk and a streak of black whooshed past the table. Now he was being embraced in a tight hug, by a pale woman who held his head to her naked breast. She was as cold as death, but somehow had the nurturing touch of a mother. She released him after an uncomfortably long five seconds, smiling excitedly and inspecting him. “Oh, he’s perfect! Just as I had imagined him. A magnificent specimen! Yes!” She poked the flesh of his forearms, prodded at his stomach, lifted the ends of his hair and counted a few strands, pulled one of his shoes off and felt around to make sure he had all his toes, stretched the goggles on his head as far as they could go, letting them snap onto his forehead when she let go. The process had Yorick giggling nonstop, since he had neglected to mention that he was extremely ticklish.

“What—Who are you? Where am I, what is this?” He asked, noticing the long trail of black hair winding behind the woman. She tittered again, petting his head and calming down.

“You must be very confused, I’m sure. My name is Sable Zil Alhaqiqa Trinity. But you may call me Sable. And this,” she held her arms out and gestured to the space around her, “is my temple.”

The man sitting at the table cleared his throat, and Sable turned to explain, “These are some of my disciples. Lolanthe Aylin, a scholar and the head of our production department, and Aurum Fitzroy, the leader of our field scouts.” She leaned over and whispered, “he also makes a wonderful raspberry biscuit.” Yorick looked back and saw that the man was angrily chewing on a biscuit with speckles of red berry in it.

A black tendril of hair draped itself over Yorick’s shoulder like an arm, Sable’s signal for him to turn around. “Walk with me, Yorick.” He glanced back to the rest of RSQ as the pair strolled down the hallway, and caught Rettah waving goodbye before the locker door shut behind them. “How do you know my name?”

“I know lots of things.”

Wow, that’s totally not creepy, he thought. Sable’s hair slid along the floor behind her, as if she wore a dramatically long veil to a wedding gown. They travelled through the factory, each assembly line and packing room adding to its daunting size. “Are you afraid of me, Yorick?”

“A bit, yeah.”

“That is understandable, haha.” She chuckled. He laughed as well, until Sable’s hair lifted off his shoulder and fell into place on her back. “I’m a strange person. We are strange people!” She was right about that.

“Do you know about the Hedge Witches?”

“We….learned about them in class, I think.” He scratched the back of his hand. The little he knew about them wasn’t exactly in a good light.

“Then you know what we do here.”

“You’re anarchists. Terrorists.”

Sable snorted, “Oh, nothing that dramatic.” They reached a room with ceiling-to-floor windows that hung above the work floor, but the windows were almost entirely covered with sheets of scribblings and notes. “My disciples are not mindless brutes. They are scientists, artists, teachers, chefs, lawyers, those who have been wronged by Calicem government. The ones who run this city, they are oppressors. They profit from marginalized people’s misery.” As she spoke, Yorick strolled around the room and read some of the notes. They seemed to be a combination of diary entries and experiment logs. “....The world has been cruel to us. We were born out of hate and fear, not love. That is why I do this, Yorick. I want to create a new world. A better one.” The branches of hair slithered up the walls of the room like spilt ink, and when Yorick turned around, Sable was reclining in a hammock of her own hair. He could sympathize with her reasons. But Yorick questioned her, “Why do you need me, then?”

“Because,” Sable plucked a piece of paper off of one of the walls and handed it to Yorick. ”This power is your destiny.” Yorick clutched the newsprint photo in his hand, recognizing the face of his grandmother on the paper.

“Who. The hell. Is Sable.” Esmerelda slammed her hands down on the headmaster’s desk, grinding her teeth. Her team and herself were all looking worse for wear, Bernard blinking in and out of consciousness on the couch in the corner, Nico sitting beside him with his partner’s head in his lap, wincing with every breath he took. The school nurse peeled Bernard’s eyes open and shone a small light to see if his pupils dilated (which they didn’t), and applied a salve to the many purple and red marks across Nico’s chest and stomach. “It’s a miracle you don’t have any broken bones. Just a couple of bruised ribs.” The nurse remarked while she wrapped gauze around Nico’s torso to hold him together. Esmerelda herself had bandages wrapped around her forearms where the wires cut her, and around her neck where Queenie had attempted to slit her throat.

“I understand that you’re upset-” Madehold tried to calm down her students, but to no avail. “-UPSET!? My team and I could have died out there. Upset doesn’t even begin to describe it. For gods sake, they took Yorick and killed one of their teammates! How could you let those monsters into the academy? And why did they know so much about you and the school? And WHO IN THE GODS NAMES IS SABLE!?”

Madehold let out a long sigh, lacing her fingers together and holding them up to her lips as she sat there. It was one thing to have to deal with these kids screaming at her so late at night, but it was another thing to do so while she was inebriated. After a moment, she turned in her office chair and stood, making her way to the window. “I guess I have some explaining to do, don’t I?”

[byroncarter]

Azize and motherhood

I would like to talk a little bit about Azize and how good of a job she is doing (or not doing, sadly) when it comes to motherhood. Beforehand I should probably add that, unlike many other viewers, I don’t dislike Azize as a character. She’s been accused of being dumb and impulsive and narrow-minded and all sorts of things but I have to say, considering all the problems she is facing and everything she is going through, she is handling life as well as she can. When I first saw Azize, I found her to be a quite refreshing character, actually. Above all things, she is passionate. And she puts that passion into everything she does, be it her duty or her love or scolding her children (I admit: I love the scenes where Azize gets tantrums over her kids. She is all the bit of the all-time-Turkish-mom who would throw her shoe after her children or chase them with the rolling pit). But despite her passion; her love for Cevdet; her thoroughness when it comes to her job as a nurse; her commitment to the rebellion… there is one thing Azize is genuinely struggling with: Being a mom to three children. (Four, technically; the one she keeps in her womb since over a year because she knows she won’t be able to handle one more.)

Sometimes we look at Ali Kemal, Hilal or Yıldız (mostly Yıldız) and complain about what awful actions they engage into. But if you truly think about it… wouldn’t it be Azize’s job to educate her children on how to act like a decent human being? Can we really blame Ali Kemal for being a brute; Hilal for being too cold and too withdrawn; Yıldız for being selfish and not knowing that money and wealth are not enough to make her happy? Admittedly, however hard a parent may try, sometimes children develop the way they do. Sometimes there is nothing you can do as a mom or a dad to change your child, after a certain point. But when I think about all the mistakes either Ali Kemal, Yıldız or Hilal ever did in this season, and how Azize reacted to those mistakes… I have to say, I wonder if she couldn’t have prevented most mistakes her children do, if she acted more like a mother should act.

Let’s start with Ali Kemal:

In the first episode we see Ali Kemal as a young man of 20-21 years. He has no job. He has no education. He spends his days getting drunk and wasting his time. Azize sees that the boy has a problem (she sees that much, at least). She feels that her son is struggling with something and won’t talk to her about it. But she is absolutely clueless on what his problem might be, even though the “problem” (Yıldız) is right in under her nose. Remember episode 3 where Ali Kemal and Yıldız attend the ball together with Cevdet. Cevdet (who didn’t see his children for seven years) spends five minutes in their company and starts giving the two of them suspicious looks. He immediately senses the tention between the two: Something is wrong, something doesn’t quite fit, something feels OFF between Ali Kemal and Yıldız. And Cevdet gets this through ONE LOOK. One really wonders how Azize, who literally has been living under the same roof with these two couldn’t sense something. Couldn’t feel that whatever Ali Kemal’s problem is, it has to do with Yıldız. It’s incredible how outrageously ignorant Azize is when it comes to her children. Kinda makes me wonder if she really doesn’t see or if she chooses to ignore it deliberately, because she has enough problems to deal with outside of her children (like snapping at her traitor husband, who’s not actually a traitor). How would you guys have found a scene in the beginning of S1, where Azize sits Yıldız down in private and says: “Alright, child. Tell me what’s wrong between you and Ali Kemal.” Don’t know about you, but I kinda would have liked it.

Let’s go on with Hilal:

If anyone is the perfect example to show how ignorant and utterly blind Azize is about her children, then it is Hilal. Again, I’m going to make the comparison to Cevdet, because man, is Cevdet a good father and man, does he know his kids: Despite the fact he didn’t see Hilal growing up and the last time he saw her was when Hilal was about 10 years old… Cevdet takes one look at Hilal and sees her very soul. Remember episode 10 when Cevdet visited Hilal in her cell and told her: “Your duty is to live. Your duty is to WRITE these things you witness and to pass them on to the generations to come”. It always fascinates me, how Cevdet who didn’t even see his child growing up, knew that Hilal was good with words and good at writing, whileas Vasili (whose child grew up under his nose) said: “What do you know of writing, soldier? Everyone should do what he knows best” when Leon suggested to write the article on the bombing. Vasili looked like such a bad parent in that scene, and I am truly sorry to point it out but… is Azize any different than Vasili? Cevdet took one glance at Hilal and he seriously suspects Hilal of being Halit Ikbal. Meanwhile Azize: Halit Ikbal’s original handwritten texts turn out from Hilal’s very room and Azize immediately believes that Hilal is only a mediator for the real Halit Ikbal, without a second thought. She doesn’t even consider that… Hilal… might actually… BE THE REAL HALIT IKBAL?! Like, please, Azize, open your eyes, for God’s sakes! The original texts of Halit Ikbal appear in your daughter’s room; your daughter who has her nose burried in a book most of the time, who sits on her desk and writes something whenever you enter her room. And you don’t even get the idea what your child might be up to? That’s lame. Really lame.

Not to mention Azize’s reaction to the relationship between Hilal and Leon:

“You’ll forget.”

Ah-huh. Yes. Ten points for Azizerindor!

Honestly, even the fact that it took Azize this long to even GET the situation, was pretty much a shame. But her reaction to it? Was even worse. I’m not a magnificently huge fan of Veronica’s skills as a mother, but I have to say, her reaction to Leon’s undying love for Hilal was a lot more like what these kids deserve.

Moving on to the most troubled child in the family: Yıldız.

I saved Yıldız for last, because she is truly an awful person and she makes some horrible, horrible mistakes over the whole season. But all Azize ever does regarding Yıldız, is making things WORSE.

I’ll start with Yıldız first and foremost mistake: Her obsession with Leon (or, to be more specific, with the mansion). Azize’s first reaction, and the first precaution she takes, in order to get Yıldız into line again is: Threatening her. “I’ll tell you this once, Yıldız, and only once: I will never see you speak to that Lieutenant ever again.” Period. No talking, no reasoning, no explaining. Just a blunt order, with an underlying threat. Of course (like most teenagers would probably do) Yıldız doesn’t listen. People see her with the Lieutenant in public. And what does Azize do? “I’m going to marry you off!” Another ten points for Azizerindooor! Again: No talking, no reasoning, no explaining on why Yıldız should keep her distance from Leon. Why she shouldn’t be flirting with a man just because he is rich.

I don’t know if some of you might know this show, but I used to watch a series called Öyle bir geçer zaman ki a couple of years ago. Aylin Akarsu, the youngest daughter of the family, marries a man for his money in that show.

(In the beginning, I always used to say ‘Yıldız is the Aylin Akarsu of this show’, but later on I realized Yıldız is far worse than Aylin). I only ever realized Azize’s deficiency, when I compared her to Aylin’s mother Cemile. When Cemile found out that Aylin wanted to get married for the boy’s money she told her daughter: “When you’re living in your great mansion, with your servants and jewelry, you’ll be lying all alone in your cold, grand, luxurious bed! And then you can take your money into your arms and see if it warms you up. It won’t. And then you’ll give yourself away to temporary loves, you will waste yourself away, you will regret what you have done! … And I won’t allow my daughter to do something she will regret.”

Have we heard anything resembling to that from Azize’s mouth ever? Did Azize ever take Yıldız in front of her and tell her: “Child. You’re young. You yearn for a better life. But do you think money and a big house and glossy parties will bring you happiness? It won’t Yıldız. It won’t replace what you truly yearn for, like everybody else does: Love. It won’t replace it. Please, Yıldız. Stop ruining your own future. This isn’t the road to happiness. You don’t love Lieutenant Leon. Why waste your future for a man you don’t even love?”

I’m sure it would have been more effective, than forcing her to marry Mustafa Sami, a wanted man, who was going to take her to Anatolia, a place Yıldız could never survive at. 

And I truly have to emphasize at this point, how ridiculously stupid Azize’s insisting on Yıldız’ marriage with Mustafa Sami was. The guy was a wanted man. Greek soldiers had orders to shoot on sight. He was taking her daughter away, to Anatolia. Did Azize never think of all the dangers she was exposing her daughter to? Did she never even consider that her daughter might not be able to take all that? I’m not particularly a Yıldız-fan, but honestly, Azize provoked a lot of stuff Yıldız did.

Pressure usually results in backpressure and that’s exactly what happened with Yıldız. It’s what MOST teenagers do, when their parents give orders, use their authority, and try to force children into doing something: They do something horrible in return. In Yıldız’ case, it was reporting Mustafa Sami to the Greeks, because it was the only way to get rid of him. Even though I hate Yıldız for what she did, and even though I absolutely do not believe that Yıldız EVER assumed that the Greeks would merely “question” Mustafa Sami (Yıldız is smarter than that. She knew he was going to get killed), I still have to say that Azize reacted in the worst possible way. When Azize heard of Yıldız’ accomplishments she gave her daughter a thorough beating. And what did it do? Nothing. It only made Yıldız think of herself more as “a victim” and a “poor princess who deserves better than all this”. Azize lost her whole authority and all the trust on Yıldız’ side, when she beat her and then locked her up. She never even considered sitting down with Yıldız and actually talking to her, on what she actually did there, and why it was wrong.

I think Azize is hopelessly overwhelmed by a troubled child like Yıldız, and she is absolutely clueless on how to treat her.

You can see this in her disputes with Yıldız on the invasion, too: Yıldız mouths off in front of the whole family, about how she doesn’t believe into the Ottoman Empire anymore, how she doesn’t care if the Greeks are here, how everything that happened to Hilal and her friends is their fault, because they’re sending out invitations for cruelty. All Azize had to say in that scene was: “Go to your room!” (Another ten points for Azizerindooooor!) She doesn’t bother to tell her daughter: “Yıldız. Come here. Sit down. Those fancy Greek invadors you like so much. You know what they’re doing? They rape our women. They burn our villages down. Drive us out of our homes. And these are the people who are in the right, for you? You want to be a part of them?” Nope. No such thing from Azize. And Yıldız got worse and worse… After the spectacular surprise engagement party, Yıldız comes home, and Azize is again, clueless on how to act. Educating your child, also involves dampening its magnificent ego now and then. How come Azize didn’t tell Yıldız: “Where was your honour, when you went to a place you knew you weren’t wanted?” No. Azize only continued to not talk to her daughter in terms of “how to be a good human” and to overprotect her when she didn’t deserve it (by snapping at Leon).

To conclude, I think Azize has some serious struggles when it comes to being a mother. She doesn’t bother to notice her children, she is ignorant about their problems, she doesn’t put very much of an effort into showing them how to distinguish between right and wrong. She doesn’t even really know any of her children by heart (at least she doesn’t act like it). For Azize, all that ever counts is Cevdet. Cevdet is the most important thing in her life, and I believe he even stands above her children sometimes (or many times, or always). I’ve been comparing her to Vasili in the beginning and I gotta say, there are quite the parallels between Vasili and Azize: Both of them love their partners above anything and everything else. I’ve always said that the most important thing for Vasili was always Veronica. No one could compare to her, not Dimitri, not Leon, nothing. All he ever did and all he ever fought for was for Veronica. And after some thorough inspectation, I have to say: The same goes for Azize. When it comes to Cevdet, everything else is secondary. Even her children.

I think in Season 2, when Cevdet Jr. is finally born, Cevdet should retire (God knows, man must have had enough by now) and should stay at home with the kids, and Azize should work. Cause, hands down, Cevdet is clearly the better parent, out of the two.

Thank you so much for reading, I know this one got long.