Khalifa

11 Shadows

Smooth and smiling faces everywhere, but ruin in their eyes.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

✵

Him

"Butterflies and roses," he hums to himself as he watches her sitting on the balcony of his room. "Nightingales in proses."

She's staring up at the sky. She's always too lost in the stars. As if those stars are any brighter than her own eyes, only if she'd look more closely. Only if she knew the way he looks at her, she'd realize her worth is more than those stars for him.

"All the world fades away," he continues, twirling a rose between his fingers. "Love is only what must stay."

He grins to himself, holding up her pendant in his hand-- the pendant he had seen her wearing all the time back at her home. Maybe he should return it to her; she must wear it, unlike the crystal pendant he has gifted her. Though he knew she likes it-- he remembers her admiring it at the bazar in Isfahan. But maybe she's reluctant to wear it not knowing its sender.

"She is who he chooses," he finishes the poem she once taught him. "He is who she chooses."

Her

Princess Maysoon bint Khalid, caliph Khalid ibn Al Malik youngest daughter, is unlike any other person Noura has met in the palace so far. She's kind, humble, and warm towards her. Noura felt instantly welcomed by her the moment they met and she greeted her with a smile. Her company doesn't demand strict disciplines from her, neither does she act like a royalty with her. Instead, she chats with her as if they've known each other since forever and lets the laughters flow between them smoothly, her hazel eyes aglow in mirth. Noura likes her right away and hopes now she won't have to cut her time alone with the beasts at the palace. She's glad to have found a friend finally.

"I wish I had met you earlier, Nour," Maysoon says, sipping her tea and gesturing to Noura to take hers too. Noura smiles and picks up her cup. "But unfortunately we both had things to have us occupied."

When Eskander had introduced them, he did introduce her as Noura to her. But he himself referred to her as Nour more often which Maysoon probably noted, thus she too is sticking to calling her simply that.

"When I learnt that Eskander's sister is here at the palace, I had to meet you."

Noura notices how she doesn't mention the theft which everyone she has been coming across rubs in her face, neither does she say how she's taken away from her home and forcefully brought to the palace. She's rather considerate towards her and keeps her words casual yet measured.

But what more she notices is the princess's informality towards Eskander, and how unlike the rest of every who refers to him by his title, she calls him by his first name. Although Noura takes it for breezy nature and disregards it.