Khalifa

01 Dusk

Noura walks to where he's saddling his horse, preparing to leave for the palace. She gently starts petting the horse's mane and he turns towards her.

"Take care of yourself and mother," he advices and she nods at him.

"Come home soon."

"I will."

Ever since him being promoted to the rank of general, he has been given the command of army in Baghdad and comes home more often to Isfahan. She's glad she doesn't have to wait so much as before for his every return when he was appointed in Ar Raqqa. His departures still pain her, but not how they would in the past, where she would've to count days into months until his face would bless light to her sight again.

He prepares to mount the horse.

"Eskander?"

He looks at her.

"Take care of yourself too."

"I will, azizem."

The sun is setting over the overlying dunes and the day is slowly dwindling into the night. The sky in its brilliant shades of orange and gold has painted itself in his eyes, specks of golden scattered into his light brown orbs like narration of a celestial tale enrapturing every listener. Her sorrows evanesce there, fading away in his presence as if never birthed and existed. He puts an end to everything dark in the world for her-- he lives to his name for her. He will always be her warrior.

"Keep me in your prayers."

She places a hand over his heart at his request, his armor keeping it layers beneath where she cannot feel it beating.

"You always are," she tells him quietly.

He smiles and pats her cheek, a feather touch too brief to be even felt fully before he pulls away, leaving longing in its wake.

"And you, Noura, are always in mine."

She smiles back at him, trying to grasp the moment with both of her hands and prolong it until it's etched on her memory like a stone carving. But like everything in time, it's too fleeting to stay and only to linger as he turns his back on her and mounts his horse.

"Eskander?" she calls him.

Their gazes meet again, and she realizes she doesn't have words to offer him anymore but tried to steal another moment. So after a few slipping seconds, she shakes her head and steps back.

"God be with you," she says.

"You too. I leave you in His protection."

With that, he pulls the reins in opposite direction and soon his horse is galloping down the path, taking him away from her. She stands there watching him until his figure flickers and disappears. The time they have together always seems to shrink into a lesser period than natural. Noura heaves a dejected sigh.

"How do I even tell you what's in my heart, Eskander?" She wraps her fingers around her pendant, peeking down at the name of Allah in gold. "He belongs to the palace, and maybe I don't, my Lord."

She turns on her heels towards her house. After saying her farewell to Eskander, her mother had left to visit her older brother who has been ill. So Noura knows her evening is to be spent alone and bland. Now when Eskander is no more with her, it'll take her a few days to find serenity in the world without him.

Such irony, she wonders, how of all the men her heart could have submitted to, it is the man who might be surrounded day and night by women at the palace besides her. Eskander might permit any other to rest in his heart but not her. The thought troubles her but her but feelings stay rather defiant and reckless, just how one is in love. But what good can be unrequited love?