[Pride Awards 2023, hosted by official lgbtq , Romance Category Winner and 5th Place Grandwinner] The foster son of a former cupbearer marries the cursed king of Persia, becoming not only the first consort to survive after the wedding, but also a th...
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Shahrazad combed his silky tresses sitting in front of an oval mirror. It was very quiet tonight, hushed heartbeats slowed down to a tune of a sitar.
Shahrazad would never forget this day. Finally the world would know that he existed. Shahryar would know that he still lived.
Shahryar had inhabited Shahrazad's dreams since he left the palace. At first the dreams were a consequence of a love whose depth he couldn't measure before separation, and then the dreams became a companion of his magical fan. They were sweet reminders of their friendship, the promises they had made, the love they had cradled. But then those morphed into cold warnings of his transformation, hints of the doomsday nearing. Shahrazad saw Shahryar turn into a rock that breathed– through a chain of suffocating dreams– devoid of the nectar of life that once Shahrazad had loved so much when they were childhood friends.
Shahrazad never consciously knew if he would get to see his childhood companion a second time in his life, in real, not in dreams. Shahryar had forgotten him very well, turning him into a stranger. Maybe they were strangers after all– years estranged from each other caused the love to dwindle.
"You lost me to the winds. But I never let you fly away."
The comb got caught in the knots of his locks. Amessy affair, Shahrazad thought.
"Don't you think it's a bit foolish to fall in love with a man you had only seen in dreams?"
It was a question buried deep in his heart, now spoken so boldly by his sister Dunyazad. She was busy selecting attires for her brother's marriage and now came with a little rectangular box in her hand.
"You always ask the things I am secretly afraid of," Shahrazad confessed.
"I am your sister, that's why."
The corners of his lips lifted up. "It is very well a one-sided affair and can be, thus, the delusion of the heart. But you can't deny that he still would fall in love with me if he ever went back to the days of the past."
"Childhood love isn't always the best foundation," Dunyazad opined. "And in your case, he seems to have no memory of you. He has forgotten."
Shahrazad, for the instructions given to him by elders, had left no trace of him behind. "Maybe he has had no time to remember."
"Why are you marrying him?"
"I love him."
"You sound stupid, Ra."
Shahrazad wanted to shrug but he ended up just exhaling.
"Then explain why I have been getting to know about the events of his life after years of separation. Isn't it a bit too fantastical?"
Shahrazad huffed and tied his hair into a ponytail, staring at his frowning face in the mirror. "I know, these dreams have left me incapable of forgetting him and ultimately falling in love with him."
