The Sultan's Lost Locket

Previously

…“When I learned of the locket’s history, its connection to the very act of creation, I saw a flicker of hope. I thought… perhaps I could borrow it. Not to keep, but to use its power, to finish a grand project that would finally lift my family out of this poverty. Once my children were secure, I would have returned it. I swear on my ancestors’ graves, I would have returned it.” Ahmad felt a complex swirl of emotions. The fear of the curse, the outrage of the theft, all seemed so distant now. He saw not a thief, but a mother, a daughter, a woman driven to desperate measures by a legacy of suffering. The locket, he realized, was not merely a symbol of royal power or a valuable