Liyah's breath hitched in her throat. The sandy desert stretched for miles and miles, without end. She looked at the two in front of her with an exasperated expression etched on her face, "Tell me this gets easier."
Rayan smirked, "Careful, habibti...
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Chapter 4 | The Midnight Souq a velvety midnight surrounding the bazaar
LIYAH LOOKED UP TO THE HEAVENSAS she watched golden specks slipping through the never-ending indigo veil. The Bay Area's brightest, star-lit night seemed almost comical when compared to Tarif City at night. Back home, it was as if the sheer vastness of the western skyscrapers and city lights consumed every inch of starlight trying to flicker its way through the darkened skies.
She concluded that Almasahrawas strangely enchanting at that late hour. Enchanting, but cold.
The diamond of the desert was much colder than what she had expected at night and not a single handmaiden seemed to be roaming around. Liyah wrapped her headscarf tightly around the base of her chin. She stood outside the entrance of Soraya's quarter, rubbing her arms vigorously in order find a source of warmth. The girl could feel the hairs on her arms sticking up as the nightly breeze found its way through the threads of her abaya.
"Cold?" Soraya's voice startled her.
"Surprisingly." Liyah admitted as she turned around to face her grandmother. The older woman was clad in the same-styled, navy abaya and a loosely draped headscarf, however, Soraya seemed to brush off the chill of the night with a questionable amount of ease.
"Hmm." Soraya examined her granddaughter's shivering state with much uncertainty, "Maybe we should turn back an–"
"No, no." Liyah protested, shaking her head quickly, "I have been waiting to spend some quality time with my teita since I got here. I'm not missing this opportunity."
"Well, if you insist," The woman's lips curved into a teasing grin. She stretched out her hand, ushering her granddaughter towards the entrance of the palace courts. Although a look of serenity was plastered all over her face, there was no doubt that the woman had an unsettling feeling gnawing at her chest. Tonight was the night that Soraya Zoghbi would unveil the hidden realms of Almasahra to Liyah– a secret world that Noora Mahmoud wished for her mother never to reveal to the little girl.
Soraya sighed deeply as she thought of how she was about to disregard every single word that her daughter had uttered to her before Liyah turned six. The girl was never to find about Soraya's gift, she was never to find out about the world beyond the sand dunes and above all, Liyah was never to discover the truth about her prophecy.
There was a dark presence lurking within the walls of the palace and it was only a matter of time before the edifice and its inhabitants would fall– Noora Mahmoud's family included. Soraya scoffed. Noora could not shield her teenage child from the stark reality any longer. She was not capable of seeing the world, the future, in ways that the wiser, older woman could.
