Thanks to all those who have read, read and reviewed or just glanced...XD

Sorry for the long wait...So without further ado the next chapter.


Hana shifted uncomfortably, her forehead pressed to the glass, fogging it up. Her eyes slowly opened and she had to blink several times before she realized that she was back at the crossroads that led her to her present life. Here she heard the news that pierced her very soul that still had not fully healed. Here she chose to go on her adventure where she met her dearest friend Khadija. Hana looked around for a moment, Khadija was not there and the train had stopped. A brief moment of panic washed over her but was forgotten when she saw her friend walking on the platform looking at the multitude of trinkets sold for gifts to clueless tourists. Time it seems had not changed the need for people to survive. Hana smiles and then closed her heavy lidded eyes, falling back into a dreamless sleep.

"Hana guess what!!! I got something amazing you are going to love me for it!" Khadija squealed waking Hana up who seemed very confused by the sudden burst of energy thrown at her.

"What? What are you taking about?"

"OK…well I was looking at all the things that they were selling and there was nothing in particular until I walked to the worst stall ever. An old woman sat there and I asked her why she did not advertise what she held. She smiled to me and then pulled out a set of ancient scrolls. They are a copy of the history of Ur, your home Hana and in our old time. Here" Khadija said thrusting several dusty scrolls into Hana's hands that trembled with the though of hearing those painful words again.

"Thank you Khadija" she whispered caressing the ancient papyrus.

"I know that it has been hard for you to think about your family but at least this way you can be sure of something."

Hana nodded and began to read the first scroll. She gulped wondering if she really wanted how they had lived their lives, their lives that had ended so long ago and were spent without her which felt like the old scars opening again.

The first scroll began with the same old official words that were there to fill the space on parchment but as the words began to regain meaning, Hana noticed that the tone of this scroll was not what she had expected. It felt somewhat caring but perhaps she was just imagining that.

"The silent tears of Ur…"Hana said out loud, shocked by the words. She had not heard that phrase in years, a phrase her mother used to tell her when she felt bad but needed to be strong.

Khadija crooked her neck "Hana? Are you alright?"

"Yes even better than that." She whispered feeling her tears break the silence they lived by and spill onto her cheeks in dual streams.

"Oh don't cry little one" Khadija said rushing over to hug her friend, but Hana shook her had and laughed.

"These are more tears of joy than sadness"

"What does that phrase mean Hanasan?

"It means that they really did care. They did miss me."

"So what happened to them?"

Hana cleared her throat and began to read the ancient scriptures.

"It says that the king and queen silently wept for the possible death of their favourite daughter, the middle child. The party of the older children went to search beyond the kingdom for their lost sister while the younger ones kept the spirits up of the nation. Yet this was not the time for the royal family of Ur to weep for they had other problems. The next door kingdom headed by a rival family sought to take their prosperity. They tried to keep up a brave face in order to give them no reason to attack them. Their mourning was proclaimed the Silent Tears of Ur. Unfortunately only three generations could keep their kingdom, the descendents of the oldest son. The older daughter was married to a very powerful noble of the land and named her first daughter after her lost sister as did all the other siblings. Nothing is certain of what happened the day of the disappearance of Princess Hana. It would seem that this knowledge was lost, once all its witnesses met heaven"

"Not all witnesses."

"No, not all"

"You never did tell me about it. What happened to you? How did the Greeks capture you?"

Panic was Hana's enemy when it caught her off guard like her mother and the council of elders she faced wishing she could faint at the spot but worse when she managed to convince her parents to let her go away to her uncle's mansion in Egypt and found trouble on the road. Ali had always protected her and it was natural for him to come along but what she was most happy about the fact that her friend Ishkandra was coming with her. They had been friends and inseparable for years, ever since they began their lessons together.

Ishkandra was just a bit taller but she had a similar hair colour and eye colour as her friend and companion in mischief. They had spent their time drawing on scrolls while their professor would drone over some history they would prefer to forget anyways. Yet in the end Ishkandra would make sure that Hana would finish her scrolls and do her readings before they would begin any new adventure. There was something interesting about their relationship. They seemed to always manage to cheer each other up and even many wondered how they could always be so merry, smiling, and giggling while rushing through the palace hallways. Unfortunately Ishkandra's smile was now gone, lost in time and alive in a memory of a friend who was likewise lost but in a different time.

The journey began normally. They waved to their families as their caravan proceeded down an ancient path, never thinking that this would be the last time that they would see these familiar walls and people. Instead they reveled in their newfound freedom and the sheer thrill of the unknown.

The unknown and a more specifically a dangerous unknown reached them by surprise in the shape of an ambush. The dirty Greek soldiers jumped from their hiding places in the sands and descended on the caravan screaming to leave only the women alive. Ali who was at the head of the caravan rushed with his sword to protect the two girls who were themselves battle ready. They had pulled out their swords and were chopping down the men but Ali had pushed Hana and Ishkandra onto the sand and motioned for them to run away.

The girls were not ready to just run away but the pleading look in his eyes told them that it would be best to leave before they would see what they wish they would never have to. It was panic at this indecisiveness that carried them far but not far enough.

They ran until they collapsed on the hot sand, breathless, thirsty but still able to hear the clamour of metal and men. It was no use running any further. Their bodies could not handle any more running and definitely not fighting, they were stuck on the crossroads of trying to survive the danger that was close by and the heat that was slowly draining any of the energy that was left.

They could have cried in their helplessness but it would do them no good and their tears were dry. So in a last effort not to give up they held onto their hands, shutting their eyes and hoping for the raiders to disappear, yet as before, not all wishes come true.

Two Greek soldiers soaked in blood and sweat had come upon them, following their trail in the sand and laughed when they saw two girls, that fought so valiantly, lying in the sand near death.

Hana's breath stilled as she squeezed Ishkandra's hand to hold on but Ishkandra did not listen. With the strength that she had left, she took her sword and ran it through one of the Greeks. From then, everything was blank until Hana found herself in a cage on a rocky boat but it was clear as the night sky above her that she was the only one that survived. The emptiness that seemed to fill her soul was proof enough.