—
"WHERE IS SHE?" Azade asked, ripping her self from Vardin's gentle grasp. She was tired of men restraining her.
"Azade—you need to calm down, you haven't—"
"So you know what happened to her? Where is she!" Azade shouted, her voice screaming off the high ceilings of the throne room. Her body was shaking, emotions raging.
"Ehsan is fine, I promise you—"
"Fine? He whipped her! Blood was pouring out of her like oceans, I need to see her now." She looked to the door and found that Vardin was accompanied by 2 guards, standing by the entrance and exit of the room.
She couldn't escape.
"I swear I'll take you to her, just promise me you'll cal-"
"He did it on purpose. He whipped her because he knew it would hurt me. He knew that's how she died." Azade spit out, glaring at nobody in particular. Or perhaps she was.
Glaring at Rukun in a blaze of abscence.
"Your mother died years ago, Azade. This is no time to let your emotions run wild." Vardin warned gently as something strange flickered in his eyes. Fear.
"Why? So I can survive? What the point of survival if I have nobody left to survive for." She glanced down at the knife laying at their feet. How quick would Vardin be to try and stop her from picking up the knife and piercing her heart?
She looked at the young guard, watching as his legs were bent readily. Eyes focused on her every move.
'Too quick.' Azade thought, mourning the opportunity to end her imprisonment.
"What happened to the girl that wanted to survive so painfully bad?" Vardin whispered. They were only a couple of spaces apart, the air humming with their breaths.
"She left when she realized that 'freedom' doesn't exist."
"Of course it doe-"
"Really? What is freedom to you, Vardin? Because mine will never exist, either I die or become queen to a kingdom that enslaved me and wife to a man who is completely insane." Azade could feel her lungs collapse under the pressure of her tears. They were threatening to bellow from her eyes, render her helpless to the pain she desperately tried to overcome.
But she wouldn't cry.
"You don't know how wrong you are."
"Tell me, how exactly am I—"
Just then a guard rushed in, gasping for breath. It seemed like he ran; disheveled and words of the edge of his lips.
"V-Vardin, the king—" The guard stopped once he saw Azade, eyes widening in mesmerization. He proceeded to keep his mouth shut; only nodding to Vardin. Like there was a secret between them.
"Samos, Kieran, could you take Lady Azade to the confines of Ehsan Sorun?"
"The maid? Why wo-" Samos, the younger of the two guard standing by the door voiced only to be cut off by Vardin himself.
"You'll do as I say, his majesty will be angry if she is left alone." Vardin eye's shifted between Azade and the knife at her feet.
He wouldn't be the only one angry.
Samos nodded, gesturing to Azade to follow him and Kieran, a slightly taller boy. Both of them wore scars tinged of red on their collars.
'Were they tortured too?' Azade wondered, watching as they led her out of the throne room and away from Vardin and the messenger. She looked back at the stoic faces of the two, whispering something they didn't want her to know about. If she weren't so hell bent on finding Ehsan out of her own personal guilt, she might've cared.
No matter how hard she tried, to tell herself 'it's not your fault' she would return to the sound of a whip smacking Ehsan's skin. Blood turning the tiles into rivers of red.
History always seemed to repeat itself.
"Mi-my lady, just down the hall there." Kieran, the other guard motioned. Azade cringed at the title, but she didn't correct him.
She needed to see Ehsan.
She walked faster through the palace; not caring about the two guards that were on orders to follow her every move. Finally, after her long strides to the end of the hall she reached a brown door
Infirmary.
Azade burst through.
It must've been the least decorated room in the palace, a slight comfort to Azade amongst her recent extravagant scenery. Brown sullen walls covered the room; a haze of medicines and mixtures lining the large cupboards in dozens.
'This must be one of servants quarters' Azade thought to herself as her silk slippers dusted against the warm floor. She hadn't noticed the decent sized bed in the middle of the room until she saw who was in it.
"Azade?"
Ehsan sat with her body covered in towels, most dried with blood stains streaking their white tones. A woman sat hunched over her, rubbing a concoction of rancid-smelling herbs on her right arm.
Azade inched nearer to the maid; almost timid to meet her in the eyes. 'I did this to her. I did.'
"It's not your fault." Ehsan finally said, reading her mind. The maid looked on to the slave girl, dressed in mock finery and made to look like she was something she wasn't.
She looked like a child dressed in a body too big for her.
"I'm so sorry." Azade finally choked out, a wet line of tears running down her eyes one by one. It was her turn to cry once more; letting her body reach the edge of the bed and collapse against it. She could feel Ehsan's hands caressing her head.
Her body was shaking, revolting. She couldn't bare it. She had caused the same punishment that had haunted her eyes for years.
Her mother might as well have been rolling in her grave.
"Is this the Future Queen?"
The woman didn't look up from her work on Ehsan's arm. Her eyes were a murky grey to Azade as she looked down at the work before her. "Please don't call me that." Azade whispered against the edge of the white sheets of the bed, Ehsan's warm hands grasping her own tightly.
The woman sighed softly, "Ah yes, Scherazade. You look as sad as you always do in my visions." She smiled against her words and basked in the light of her and Ehsan's shocked faces.
"Priestess Sian'ki? Would you leave us be for a while?" Ehsan hissed at the woman; clearly discomforted by her. Azade's tears still streamed down her face as she desperately tried to pat them dry.
'You look as sad as you always do in my visions.'
"I heal you and you want me to leave? My, you children have grown arrogant in the past decade. No shame whatsoever—tsk. I will not leave, it's been a while since I've seen a future queen since the last one—well you know, went insane?" Sian'Ki continued to grin, stopping to stare up at Azade. Her eyes were like museums.
"The last queen went insane?"
"None the business of yours, I've been ordered to leave anyways." Sian'Ki shot a glare at Ehsan, picking up her herbs and grasping all the leaves in her hand. She was dressed in strange garb, mostly fabricated from sheer scarfs and wool. A gypsy almost.
It wasn't until she was fully turned away when Azade saw the marking on her neck.
Stella
Stars.
It was marked in black ink, like someone has taken a knife and etched it messily into her skin. Azade knew only a few Latin words, from sneaking into her master's daughter's lessons, but this one had came to her almost as if she were fluent in the language.
Like it was she knew it.
Azade was staring at the woman as she left, looking at the marking with fascination.
The stars.
It seemed like night and all of its glory had been haunting her lately.
"Azade? Listen, I know she may sound crazy but—"
Follow her.
She wanted to stay with her sick friend, truly. But something deep inside of her told her to follow that woman. It almost dragged her feet to the door.
"Are you even listening?"
Azade could barely even hear her friend anymore, her voice sounded far away all of a sudden. Before she knew it, she was already rushing to the door.
Her skirts ruffled against the calves as she ran after the woman. Like her body was being pulled by a string, she could on hear a dull white noise in her mind. "Wait!" Azade screamed after the woman, but she was too far. Sian'Ki didn't stop, only kept walking with a few of the leaves from the herbs falling behind her.
'You look as sad as you always do in my visions'
Her body was numb as she continued to run through the palace, on her heels the whole time. Something was leading her towards her—something greater than the both of them.
Stella
Stars.
It was the last thing her mother has promised her before she died, it was the thing always mentioned in her tales. It was the thing that Rukun seemed infatuated by every time she spoke of them; every time he looked out the window.
Scherazade, the daughter of the stars.
It couldn't be a coincidence.
Azade could feel her mind on the edge of exploding as her thoughts tried to mask the urge to run after the woman, her feet were betraying her. She could feel he sunlight from the open windows as she passed shine in her face, obliterating the view of where Sian'Ki walked. Picking up her skirts, she ran even faster; silk shoes sliding on the marble floors.
She needed answers.
It wasn't until she saw a dark figure win the distance when she finally slowed down. "Wait!" Azade screamed once again and the figure stopped walking. Only when she neared it did she realize it was too tall and broad to be the old woman—
Rukun.
Her fists curled at the unnerved sight of the King. His crown laid perfectly on the bed of his black hair, stubble inching its way across his jaw. Rukun's body was covered in a red robe, medallions and jewels shining across them. He looked on at her questionably, as if he hadn't had blood on his hands.
Azade saw his face and all she wanted to do was hurt him. Her own body was back in control now and it wanted to cause the same pain he caused others.
He basked in the sunlight, looking like a newly brandished God. She realized then that she had never seen him during the day.
"Yes?" His voice was calm, silk and honey oozing out of it. It was softer than the fabric of her slippers.
Azade had a million words to say, a million phrases she could've said, but only one spoke on her lips,
"I hate you."
The words rushed out of her mouth like the high tide of an ocean, uncontrolled.
The King rose a thick brow as he finally looked upon her. His eyes roamed the girl, a curious expression laid lightly on his face. He looked marvelled at the sight before him, as if looking at a fresh painting.
Azade glared back at him, eyes trying to keep hate sullen in them.
'Stop looking at me like that.' She thought in a hiss, trying not to let herself break. Any other woman would've fainted if he had looked at her like that, screamed in joy. In praise.
But it was different, as if he was looking upon a new face. He stepped closer to her, reaching out his hand in greeting.
"Who are you?" He asked, a genuine question.
Azade thought she might've fainted.
.•.
LOL HEY GUYS SRRY FOR THE HELLA DELAY ITS BEEN SO HARD TO WRITE AND KEEP UP WITH SCHOOL WORK SMH
THIS BOOK IS AT 1.91K AS OF RN AND IM SCREECHING LIKE I DONT DESERVE THIS WTF
Anyways, I've been getting a lot of fan theories lately about what's going to happen next and TBH they are probably my fav thing to read y'all are so so creative!! <3
Btw HAHA PLOT TWIST lol why do you guys think that Rukun asked Azade who she was, is he pretending or is he foreal??
Also who tf is Priestess Sian'Ki and how the hell does she have visions and what are they?
+ WHO WAS THE LAST QUEEN AND WHY DID SHE GO INSANE??????
Comment and vote!!
-Elle