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— SHE AWOKE WITH A HEATED GAZE.
The sun was pelting it rays on her clothed back, blistering Azade like it would back in the farming fields. Seemingly, burning her body with no mercy.
It wasn't the only thing burning, though.
Her half-woken eyes drifted to the King's bed across the room, upon it sat the maid from the night before; carrying a robe in her hands and eyes that screamed: shock.
"Good morning." Azade greeted, stretching her arms back onto the window seat. The sleep she just had was possibly the greatest in her life, never had her master ever given her a warm place to rest. She was lucky though, sleeping in the barn was better than some of the others conditions.
The maid, still not speaking, was gaping at the young girl. The room was held at the clutches of an awkward silence, only the sound of The birds chirping in the distance. Azade grinned in pride internally.
Had nobody ever survived the night?
Suddenly, the maid dropped down to the floor and bowed down to Azade. Beyond her limit in shock, the young girl gasped as the maid clasped her hands and bowed herself towards her.
"You are the chosen one, my queen."
Azade immediately felt a rush of heat reach her cheeks, running from the seat to the maid to help her up. "I am not your queen, nor will I ever be." She said, the maid now standing again with a lifted brow.
"But-but, you survived! Priestess Sian'Ki has told us all that the first girl to survive will live to be Queen!" The maid explained, clasping her hands in excitement. Her joy was greater than Azade's, who knew her life could very well not be spared another night.
"I would rather eat now, yes?" Azade asked in reaching her hands to the sky blue robes that the strange maid held in her hands.
"But, my queen! I should help you get dresse-"
"Do not call me that. I am not the queen, nor will I ever be. Now, please leave these rooms so I can dress myself, as I have been for the last 19 years of my life." Azade said, the robe finally being set begrudgingly in her hands, the maid looking baffled.
"You survived. You are the first one ever to, my quee-"
"What did I say?"
The maid bowed her head; an action Azade cringed at internally. She remembered the days that she had done that when she would get scolded by her master's wife for forgetting the correct Kaftan to set on her bed.
