A Song of Liars and Ice
image source: google images
Sheifa’s ice castle stood tall in the very center of Lake Quoshi. It wasn’t actual ice, of course, but the quartz and glass used to build it made it very easy to convince people that it was. This only added to the general feeling of mysteriousness that surrounded the Khamil family. Sheifa always thought it was quite impractical as the castle was hardly usable during the winter season, but she knew better than to voice her thoughts to anyone. In fact, she did not voice anything to anyone since as far as anyone knew, no one outside the family had ever heard her speak.
The Khamils were known around the world as a family bestowed with the voices of the gods. It was said that the gift of a beautiful voice began with a Khamil woman named Aida Khamil, who was from an outlying village of the Old Country hundreds of years ago. She was singing while hanging her and her husband’s freshly washed clothes when she saw an old man slowly teetering his way up the mountain towards where she lived. She quickly ran down to help him, leading him up to her home where she fed and clothed him, offering a bundle of food for him to take with him. As he was leaving, a silver light emitted from the pendant he wore around his neck, showing Aida a vision of a powerful god.
“You have shown kindness to me today and for that, I will grant you a boon,” a clear voice boomed, “henceforth, you and your family shall want for nothing as your voice and the voices of those descended from you will support you for ages to come.”
And thus each member of the Khamil family had a unique voice with its own individual beauty, save for a few outliers that had disappeared mysteriously over the years. Eventually, as they married into families, the men began a custom for the Khamil women, who had the loveliest voices of them all, to never speak until marriage so as to hide their precious gift until finding a person worthy enough to hear it. And with this custom, the family had become one of the richest in all the lands.