Character: Sayid

Sayid is a desert pirate, he is in fact, the leader of the one of the most notorious desert pirates of all, the Dark Blade desert pirates. 

As a man and as a pirate he is cunning, charismatic, ruthless, calculating and most of all meticulous. His raids are planned to a T and he has the obedience and loyalty of his crew that every act and minute details of his plans are carry out precisely. They hit fast and hard and disappear into the sands before you can blink. 

His raids are so successful in fact that it is told that the desert itself hides him, that the wind blows the sail of his carts, that the animals draw back from his path, that the moon light their way home and that darkness shrouds them until they are all but shadows. 

To his crew, Sayid is fair and he expects his people to be adaptable, to be as cunning as he, and to respect the desert and to be loyal to--not him--but to their tribe; the Dark Blade. Because in Sihr, even pirates are nothing without a tribe. 

His sense of morality is...fluid, but he has them. Which is why when nagged by his crew about leaving Safia alone in the desert to die, he returns. He would have returned without the nagging, but he didn't want his crew to think he was soft. His crew was loyal, but you never know when that would change.

He will also not insert himself into a fight that he does not know the outcome. I did say he's meticulous and calculating right?

Which is why when Safia comes, he pretends to not hear her whenever she mentions the word prophecy.

Sayid is damaged as a man and as a warrior; he lost his life, his calling, his tribe and his family because of a prophecy, so as he says it would be a cold day in hell before he listens to the High Priestess's prophecy.

Sayid can be coarse and rude and thuggish-but he uses that part of him as just another kind of weapon as he uses his charm and charisma and his high-born education. Yes, you heard right, high-born.

Sayid wasn't always a desert pirate.

He was in fact a tribe-prince of one of the most successful and richest merchant nomadic tribes. His father even had the ear of the Sultan as there are family-ties through blood and marriage.

Which was the problem.

When you have wealth and power, other people will want it. And greed is a powerful motivator. 

He doesn't know what to make of Safia, the girl who seems too young to venture out alone, who walks into a den of pirates without blinking, who sits among people aiming swords at her neck without shaking. He isn't quite sure whether Safia is brave or stupid. 

His opinion of her changes with every little thing that she does. 

She has no problem with her personally, but of her purpose. The damnable prophecy, everytime her mouth shapes that word he feels the pain of watching his tribe destroyed all over again. Guilt, rage, hatred mixes with grief and knots his stomach and makes him want to scream and kill something.

On the other hand, he enjoys watching the way little ticks appear on her face everytime he does something that annoys her. Sometimes, when he's bored, he searches for her just for the sheer joy of watching the prim and proper not-acolyte blow up with frustration.

Not that he isn't suspicious that she isn't telling everything. For the High Priestess to send someone to search for him means the matter is serious, but to send a girl that has no magic and no battle-ability?

He knows that there is something more to Safia, he just have to figure out what. And for that to happen, he needs to keep her close.