Mirage’s place at Imperial Harem
Harem means ‘Sanctuary’.

In the great halls of Sultan’s Amar al-Zahabi "The Magnificent" palace, there was a separate household - one where only women were permitted to enter, tended to by their female servants and guarded jealously by palace’s eunuchs, who would give their lives to protect lives, dignity and innocence on the women housed there, no matter their birth and status. It was said to be a prison of silk and gold, where chains were both literal and proverbial - as societal contracts and obligations, to a woman's own family, her friends, her Sultan, were no lesser than those of wrought iron a mere criminal pushed into servitude wore. That their only purpose purpose was to be a pretty face and a bed warmer for the ancient lion, who came and went, picked a single female for a night and discarded her the following morning, never even bothering to learn her name.

It was all a terrible, pretty nonsense poets of northern Free Cities and courtiers of Eastern Kingdoms liked to repeat, cheeks flushed as they imagined it as a den of depravity, where women were reduced to mere possessions, their lifespans measured in seasons - as when they grew old or fell out of favor, they were quietly disposed of. The more rowdy of them replaced quiet retirement on fringes of the Desert Realm with poison and dagger, to even more depraved acts meant to inspire revulsion and terror in their listeners.

The truth was, as usual, somewhere in the middle.

Sultan Amar was indeed an old lion - counting over 57 winters of his life, known for his strength and discipline even in his slow decline. However, despite the nasty rumors, he never took more than one wife - his favorite Haseki Ameratis - a cunning cheetah and one of the latest additions to his father’s ‘collection’ of women.

Collection that no longer existed.

Amar, for reasons known only by himself and those close to the Desert Realm’s court, dismantled it and transformed it into something else entirely - an administrative and political backroom of his empire. Women here were no longer prisoners, but esteemed guests whose skills, connections and talents served the empire. They were no less free than the wives and ladies of the court, now protected under old cheetahs and her loyal eunuchs care...

Mirage "Desert Rose" al-Sarabi shared these sunlit halls with almost five dozen other women from all over the realm, including Amar’s own sisters, his ancient mother blind in both eyes - becoming Amerati’s personal pupil, learning what it means to be here and being groomed to replace Haseki in the future, not as mere favorite, but something far greater…