1001 Nights

DAY 11(pt.2)

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LAYL WAS NO SMALL FUNCTION.
It was obvious by the way Ehsan had pulled and primed her hair, settling its dark curls behind her. Azade hadn't said a word since their encounter in the bathroom, a pang in her heart as she remembered the regretful words she had uttered to the maid.

'You don't understand.'

She hadn't meant it of course, Azade had regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. The worst part was that she knew it wasn't true, if anyone in the palace understood her the most it had to be Ehsan.

And Vardin.

It was a pain to hear his name. Just yesterday she would've gone insane if he had been hurt, watching Rukun almost kill him had brought her to another level of emotional pain that reminded her of when she watched her Mother die. His kiss left her feeling disoriented, confused, and even scared to explore a relationship with him that wasn't strictly friendship. Vardin was her family in the palace that seemed to suffocate her day by day, and tried to kill her every night. He was a link to home, a link to a culture she only kept with her in tales.

"Stand up." Ehsan whispered as she grabbed the ends of Azade's shoulders, slipping a kaftan over her shoulders. It was embroidered with the most beautiful golden stitch she had ever seen, in a style she had never seen before. It buttoned from the top.

"This isn't in Kroos fashion, is it?"

Ehsan shook her head with a knowing smile. "It's Persian, I got one of the maids to ask the tailor to try and make you something like the Sultan's wife wears over in Persia. She sent over this yesterday." Her nimble fingers buttoned the top fast, the cloth glittering as it fell down to her feet. "I thought you should carry a piece of your home with you."

And Azade looked like a queen herself in it.

The kaftan left golden trims of cloth over her legs with white embroidery around the belt and chest, it swung over her hips delicately with giving notice to her increasingly healthy figure. She hadn't noticed it so obviously before, her skin was a healthy tan, her body was no longer a sack of bones and her black hair gleamed with health. Despite all the pain that she had encountered in the walls of that wretched palace, she had never looked so well in her life.

"Thank you." She breathed out, feeling idiotic for not saying anything more heart-felt. Emotions had always been hard for her to come by, but that didn't stop her from gripping Ehsan in a hug.

"You'll ruin the fabric!" The maid laughed as she hugged her back, pulling away with a smile as she looked at her once over. Turning her back for a moment to the open table, she unveiled the flower that Rukun had brought her just mere hours ago.