Queen of Persia ✔️

prologue

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as the sun arrives so does dawn and as the night arrive so does dusk
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زيبا زندگی کن

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prologue

No woman should live to see the dawn, rather the last thing they should witness with their bare eyes should be the silver bright dusk, bringing the shadows back home. The old man struggled to run as his feet betrayed him. Slowly, he dragged himself towards the young girl with the blond hair, giving her life back to the sky. She was breathing heavy and hard. The young girl could feel her soul joining the connected cosmos of stars. Estella was what her mother called her. The one who owned the stars.

Beside the young girl was another girl not too much older. Her perfect brunette hair covered every inch of bare skin on her shoulders. Her eyes were deep with sorrow and her wet with tears. She stood beside the dying girl with her head comforted on her husband's chest. He was a man with broad shoulders and slightly tan skin. Unlike the girl beside him, his eyes were still and shallow.

"Rafigh!" the old man cried out to the couple referring to them as friends, "Please help my daughter! She is too young to give her valuable life to the stars," he whined and whimpered in agony. The couple gave each other a look before looking back at the old man again. He had finally reached them, slowly dragging his crippled leg behind him.

"Banu," he said to the girl, "please help my daughter," he pleaded, grabbing the brown-haired girl's arms as he kneeled down.

"Old man," she addressed him, "We've tried everything - I'm sorry to tell you but she is as good as dead," the girl lied, not daring to look into the old man's eyes.

"Rafigh," the man beside her spoke for the first time. His voice was fresh and calm. "This is a war zone. You need to get out of here and leave the girl. She isn't going to survive," he explained honestly. The old man's daughter wasn't going to survive without help, but the couple weren't going to help. What the old man didn't know was that his daughter had Justinian Plague. A plague that spread through all of Persia from Egypt during the war. Her skin was covered in red spots and she had difficulty breathing. It was almost dawn, but the sky was still dark. The old man took one glance at his daughter realising the disease that had taken over her body. His eyebrows set down into a deep frown, but before he could speak or do anything, the girl lifted her head from the ground to take one good look at her father.

"Baba," she muttered, "they are lying to you, baba. They didn't help me," she whispered so quietly only the wind could hear. She then lifted her finger to point at the man next to the brown-haired girl. Suddenly, her hand crashed onto the ground, leaving her lifeless body exposed to the sky. She had died right before dawn.

"You could have helped her," the old man spat with anger. He was right, they could've healed her a few hours before but instead greed overtook their actions, leaving the wounded girl to die. Ashamed, the couple stared at the ground avoiding eye contact with the old man. Within seconds, the old man stood up helplessly, grabbing the man's arm. He held his arm in his so tight he could almost feel the bones in the man's body crushing into ashes.

"What is your name boy?" he asked spitefully.

"Shahriar," the boy spoke softly, carefully pulling his arm away from the old man. Shahriar. The name that meant The King. The old man let out a laughter realising how unworthy the boy was for that name.

"That name is not fit for a coward like you," he spoke, grabbing the girl and the boys arm this time. The girl flinched away, trying to pull her arm back. Unsuccessfully, she gave in allowing the old man to hold her wrist. "And what is your name, Banu," he asked, addressing her respectfully.

"Shahrzad. My name is Shahrzad, old man," she said imitating him. The old man laughed again with venom as if he was a snake ready to strike.

"You have the tongue of a viper and the beauty of a thousand stars, but you and your lover seem to be a little too greedy for my taste," he confessed, "My name is Salman," he introduced himself. The couple gave each other a worried look slightly confused.

"What is that you want old man," Shahriar asked this time.

"What a straightforward man," Salman said amusingly, "It is your fault my daughter has vanished into dust and you will pay for it," he explained. Suddenly, he held their hands in the air, speaking some chant.

"Old man what are you doing!" Shahrzad screamed. Pain began to overtake their bodies, causing them to crash onto the hard-dusty ground.

"From now until one thousand and one lives later, you will suffer the pain of losing a loved one. But with a twist. When they are slowly vanishing in your arms, you won't be able to help them. For one thousand and one lifetimes you will both fall in love over and over again, only to lose each other once more. Only after one thousand and one nights will the curse end. Until then, this suffering will be a burden upon your shoulders," he yelled into the sky, connecting all three of them together. Salman had cursed both of them with one thousand and one lifetimes of torment and torture. He vowed that they would feel the same pain he endured losing his daughter.

"One more thing my dear Shahriar," he said as he let go of their hands, "any woman that you dare to love other than Shahrzad will die right before dawn," Salman explained. For one thousand and one lifetimes, they would have to find each other and remember who they were in their previous lives. They would have to fall back in love and watch the other die slowly. Suddenly Salman, the old man, disappeared into thin air with his dead daughter. And soon the couple perished into air too.

For one thousand lifetimes, they endured the pain and sorrow of losing each other. The people they were changed continuously. From vasirs and princesses, to commoners and peasants, they still found their way back to each other like lost perished souls. And now they were at their last life. Salman had explained to them that the curse will be the hardest it's ever been on their last life. And so, now it was their last chance to find their way back to each other and endure the same pain one last time, before the curse broke.

But not all tales have happy endings, because women die before dawn and men perish before dusk.

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hi guys, i know it may seem a little confusing atm but it will get better i promise... comment your throughts so far :)