Love Unravels Kingdoms

"You're going to be my wife."

Faaris's words were flat, void of any emotion. However his eyes made up for it. They stared into Yaba's soul, piercing her with their intensity. The young woman was frozen in place, still as a statue, like the one she'd commissioned for the garden only an hour ago. She was not sure if she should breathe or blink or move at all for that matter.

Finally after what seemed like ages, Yaba choked out a reply past her dry throat, "I have no choice."

His face softened and he smiled slightly. "No one ever has a choice when it comes to matters of state. But I do hope you will enjoy living here with me."

Yaba nodded jerkily and finally exhaled the breath she had been holding in since seeing him in front of her moments ago. Her hands began to shake and her throat felt like sandpaper, but she would not show weakness before him. Not again. Not ever again. She had done so once before as a child and it had cost her dearly.

"I'm glad you're here," Faaris continued softly and took a step closer to her. Yaba did not back away this time. He reached out a hand and brushed some strands of hair from her face, allowing his fingertips to caress her cheek lightly as they went. Yaba closed her eyes at the sensation and took another deep breath through her nose, filling herself with his scent which mingled with expensive incense in the room they were standing in. Almonds and honeyed raspberries... Yaba remembered them from when she was young and living in the palace of the king of Nuba. She remembered how happy she had been then...

When she opened her eyes again, Faaris was looking at her intently, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking about. His eyes burned into hers again, but this time Yaba did not look away from him. Instead she allowed herself to look back into those beautiful blue-green eyes which held all the oceanic depth of an unexplored world within them. A world that threatened to tear down everything that she had spent years building up around herself...

Yaba blinked a couple times and pulled herself together, clearing away those thoughts quickly as they poured into her mind unbidden like water over a dam once more... She could no longer afford such indulgences or feelings - not now when there was so much riding on this marriage between them... God! It was worse than being married off to an entire city-state by their families!

Faaris smiled broadly and moved even closer towards Yaba until his chest nearly touched hers and his lips were just inches away from hers when he spoke again softly into the air between them... "Good..."