Update time! And meeting time! I know I have kept you waiting for quite a while but we're finally there :-D Sorry for any spelling mistakes if there are any. Hope you like it.

When Keyla woke again it was already dark outside. She sat up in bed and frowned. She had only meant to rest for a little while, close her eyes for just a few moments and it had only been midday then. She couldn't believe she had slept for at least 6 to 8 hours. But then again it had been a really exhausting journey for her. She stood up and groaned softly. Her body still felt stiff and achy but she felt more rested now that she had a decent meal, a bath and a couple of hours of sleep. It was time to do what she had come here for. She needed to see Dastan.

Keyla carefully walked to the door of her room, unlocked it and opened it a tiny little but, looking outside. Torches were illuminating the inner courtyard of the house and she could hear muffled voices. It seemed the merchant or some of his servants were downstairs in the yard. She would not be able to leave the mansion unnoticed... She looked down and had to smile seeing the pile of clothes she had dropped earlier in the day before she had fallen asleep, now they were neatly folded and obviously freshly cleaned. She needed to remember to thank the female servant who had taken her up here this morning.

Keyla closed the door again. She could either slip back into her masquerade and let the merchant know that she left or she could try to leave the mansion unnoticed. Actually she favored the later. She did not want anyone to know that she was leaving for the palace. She hated the fact that she had asked the merchant about the way earlier, letting him know she would go there sooner or later. Somehow she felt it was better if that merchant she barely knew anything about, knew her every move.

She locked the door again and went back to the bed. There was a small bench standing right in front of it and this was where the merchant's servant had placed her saddlebags. She opened them and rummaged through them, looking for something suitable to wear. Of course there wasn't much in it and somehow it felt to her that this... meeting with her friend tonight called for something... special.

She looked at the few clothes she had brought for a good ten minutes until she sighed and finally realized that none of those things felt right to her. She had a look around her room and frowned when she detected a wooden chest at the far end of the room. She was pretty sure it would be empty but it couldn't hurt to check... She went over there, opened the chest and frowned again. It was full of clothes.

She had no idea why the merchant would keep a set of clothes in his guest room but she didn't really care. The clothes inside the chest were all meant for men but she was okay with that. Traveling in her masquerade all these days she had grown quite fond of it. It made things a lot easier if people believed she was actually a young man. They treated her with a lot more respect... And a woman alone in the streets of Alamut late in the evening certainly would draw more attention than a man...

She looked through the clothes in the chest and was surprised to realize that the cloth the clothes were made from looked very expensive. This was true craftsmanship and they felt soft to the touch. She could only imagine how expensive the whole content of the chest had been... It certainly was worth more money than she had on her right at the moment. Keyla swallowed hard and finally decided on a pair of black pants, a white linen shirt and a dark blue scarf and a matching bandana.

She treated the abrasions on her thighs before she got dressed, pulling her hair into a ponytail and hiding it underneath the bandana again. She decided against taking her father's sword with her, but reached for the small dagger she had bought in Azaak and had kept hidden in her saddlebag ever since. She hoped there would be no need for it but as she planned on secretly entering the palace of Alamut and talk to Dastan - the youngest of the Persian princes - she did not want to go out and do all of this unarmed. Better save than sorry...

She placed the dagger at her back underneath the scarf she was wearing, hiding it from view. She was ready to go now. Keyla looked around her room and walked to the small balcony that lead out onto the street. She was on the first floor which meant about two meters above ground. It was no problem for her to leave the house unnoticed and get back inside without anyone ever realizing as well. She walked out onto the balcony and looked down on the street.

It was dark down there, not a single light was illuminating the small street. At the far end of the street - where the plaza was that Keyla had crossed on her way to the merchant's house this morning - a soft light shone. Nobody would see her get down onto the street... She climbed over the banister and gently lowered herself down. She was still holding onto the edge of the balcony, her feet dangling about one and a half feet above the ground when she let go.

She landed on the dusty street with a soft thud. No other sound could be heard. There was nobody on the street - nobody had seen or heard. Keyla breathed in deeply and turned away from the soft light coming from the plaza. She looked up into the night sky and she could see the silhouette of the palace in the darkness of the early night. The entrance gate to the palace couldn't be more than a few streets away... Just that she couldn't take the main gate... She needed to find another, more secret way...

Instead of heading for the main gate, Keyla kept to small alleys, hiding in the shadows until she reached the wall guarding the palace, surrounding it completely. There were watchtowers on it in regular intervals. Keyla cursed. This wouldn't be easy. She walked further along the wall and was surprised when she reached the back of the palace, realizing there were no more watchtowers here... She didn't question that fact though. This would be her way in...

She looked up the wall, trying to determine how far up it went. The wall had to be at least five to eight meters high and about a meter thick... She squinted, trying to make out the railing of the wall and a small smile appeared on her face. It seemed every guarding wall to a palace was always the same... It was just a question of good aim. Keyla pulled the two things she had taken apart from the dagger and had hidden underneath her clothes - a rope and a 4 armed hook.

She tied the hook to the rope and looked up again. Even though there were no watchtowers here, she could see small clearing in the upper wall meant for archers to attack enemies. She took a deep breath, held it, looked at the clearing once more and threw the hook up... It worked the very first time. A soft clinging sound could be heard and when she pulled on the rope with all force she could come up with now, she could feel the hook find a resistance. Keyla grinned. Somehow she had expected this to be more difficult.

She pulled herself up the rope and about a minute later she had climbed above the railing and was standing up on the wall. The palace wall was just a couple of meters away from this side of the guarding wall. A strong man would have been able to just jump... It was truly careless of the Alamutians to not guard this side of the palace better but it was all the better for her... She took the rope in her hands again and threw it up to the nearest window. She felt the hook clawing into the wooden frame of the window and pulled on the rope again. If it would not hold her now she would fall down... She closed her eyes and held onto the rope.

She hit the wall with a thud that almost pressed the air from her lungs. Jumping those two to two and a half meters hadn't been the best idea she ever had but she had not hurt herself and now she was able to pull herself up. Just another two minutes later she stood in a hallway, illuminated by torches on both sides of the wall... she was inside the palace. All she needed to do now was find the right chamber - find Dastan...

She had more luck than she had ever expected. Walking down the corridor halfway she could hear muffled voices. She hid in a doorway to a chamber, the darkness engulfing her and hiding her. When she took another step back, she realized the door to the chamber was open and she stepped in further when she realized the two guards that came down the corridor stopped right in front of the door. It weren't only two guards as she realized now and her heart skipped a beat when she heard an all too familiar voice outside in the corridor.

"Thank you for accompanying me. I know my brothers' orders said otherwise but a guard on the door won't be necessary. You can leave."

Keyla couldn't believe she had actually managed to find the right chamber by chance. It was Dastan's voice she heard outside. She pressed herself against the nearest wall and held her breath, waiting for Dastan to enter. It was hard to contain her emotions when she watched him come in. He had his back on her but she could tell from the way he walked into the room that he was exhausted. Keyla bit her lip, waiting for the guards outside to leave the corridor. Only when she could hear no sound coming from outside anymore did she step away from the wall.

"Good evening my friend."

Dastan jerked around, hand on the hilt of his sword as he turned to where the voice - and possibly the danger - had come from. Keyla had stepped into the light of one of the torches, smiling gently and her smile widened into a grin as Dastan just stared at her for along moment, hand still resting on his sword. Keyla looked down at his hand and then back up at him, a playfully hurt look on her face.

"Do you intend to kill me?"

"Keyla?"

"Yes, it's me."

"How in the gods name did you get in here?"

"There's always a way in. You of all people should know that."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well... I heard congratulations are in order. So I thought I'd come here and give them to you personally."

She had sounded harsher than she had intended but Keyla couldn't keep the reproach from her voice. He hadn't told her, hadn't even send anyone to tell her, let alone invite her... she watched him closely and felt satisfaction as he cast down his eyes and bit his lip. At least he was feeling guilty about the way he had handled the situation.

"I'm sorry, Keyla. I didn't mean to..."

"You didn't mean to do what, Dastan? Ignore me? Forget about me? Not even have the courtesy to invite me to your wedding? We are friends Dastan! Friends since childhood. Or at least I thought we were..."

"Of course we are! I just... It... I... It slipped my mind! There was so much going on with the battle and the invasion and the proposal and the preparations... I didn't know this would happen!"

Keyla frowned, opened her mouth and then closed it again. This didn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he have know about his own wedding? And what did all of this have to do with the battle... It was only now that she realized the full extent of the words the merchant had said to her this morning. Before the Persian army had attacked... They had attacked this city and now Dastan was to be married to the princess... Keyla stared at him in utter disbelieve.

"This was never planned..."

"Of course it wasn't. I've only known princess Tamina for about a week! When we invaded the city under false pretense and uncovered my uncle's treachery, it was Tus's idea to unite Persia and Alamut with a wedding..."

"Wait. What? Your uncle betrayed the empire?"

"Obviously you're not anywhere near up to date with what has happened..."

"All I heard was that you were to marry the princess of Alamut..."

Dastan couldn't believe Keyla had missed out on the most vital information. His uncle's treachery must have traveled through the whole Persian empire by now but still Keyla had somehow managed to miss it completely. She had however heard about the wedding but neither did she know how it had come to place... It was hard to explain it to her without telling her the full truth but Dastan tried none the less. Keyla had always been very good at being able to tell when he was lying but she seemed to confused and surprised right now. Maybe he would get away with telling her what he could and without her noticing he was keeping something from her.

"Nizam betrayed our father, Keyla. He paid someone to act as a spy who supposedly uncovered that Alamut was working with our enemies in Koshkhan, providing them with weapons, so that we would attack the city. He wanted to... lure my father here and have him killed. But his treachery was uncovered, the destruction of the city was prevented and Nizam was killed... Tus apologized to the princes proposing this union to her."

"Wow... That's... not what I expected..."

"I know."

She hadn't noticed... Dastan wasn't sure if he should be glad or disappointed. Maybe it was better this way. He couldn't have answered her questions anyhow. Keyla's attention seemed to have been drawn away from the treachery back to the wedding anyhow. Her eyes widened as she realized something and she sounded almost a little breathless. Her question came out of nowhere and it made little sense to Dastan. He would have thought she was already aware of this particular fact but it seemed she wasn't...

"Wait a second... If this wedding was never planned... why did you agree?"

"Because it's the right thing to do."

"Marrying a woman you don't even know beause your brother tells you so is the right thing to do?"

"It's more complicated than that."

There he was having to lie to her once again. It would have been so easy to just tell Keyla that he did love Tamina truly and that this was what he wanted. It would have calmed her down and silenced her anger as well because he knew Keyla well enough to realize what she was angry about was the fact that he had once again acted loyal towards the king who had taken him in and given him a home whereas she had always put her own liberty ahead of everything else - even a better life for herself. She was angry now, he could see it in the look on her face. Her voice was a harsh hiss by now.

"Oh is it? You marry a woman out of political reasons, you marry a complete stranger because it's what is best for the empire! You have your brother decide for you, you do what your king would want you to and what the crown prince demands from you. You truly are a son to your king and a prince of Persia. You act as their puppet, having them pull all the strings!"

"It's not like that!"

"What? So you do love her? You attacked her city but managed to fall in love with that woman you never met in just a couple of days?"

"I... She..."

Dastan would have loved to scream in frustration. If only Keyla would have known the truth... He did know Tamina, he had spent time with her, he had come to love her but now - with the turning back of time - all of that had never truly happened. He tried to find the right words to say but failed miserably. It seemed Keyla wasn't interested in them anyhow. She had made up her mind already...

"You know what. I don't care! This is exactly why I NEVER wanted to have what the king offered you. My life may not be perfect and I may not have silk sheets on my bed and golden rings on my fingers but I am FREE. I'm free to do whatever I want and I don't have to bow to another man's expectations or orders. You however... You have been poisoned by the life given to you. You forgot where you came from, Dastan. You forgot who you truly are..."

"Keyla!"

She had turned to leave and all Dastan knew in that moment was that he had to stop her somehow. If she would leave now - angry and disappointed - he knew he would never see her again. It had always been difficult for them to be friends whenever Dastan was put into a situation that demanded of him to first be son to his king and a prince to the empire instead of her friend. This situation was certainly the most difficult one so far. He tried to stop her, desperate to make her see that they could still be friends despite all that but all he received from Keyla was a harsh shaking of her head and an almost cold stare. Her voice matched the look in her eyes - cold and full of disgust and disappointment.

"No. Just do as you have been told and be a good little prince. They finally have you where they always wanted you. Loyal to the death, no matter the consequences, no matter your own happiness and will... I hope you will be happy, Dastan, I truly do. But I will not be a part of this little charade. Farewell prince..."

Keyla turned to leave and Dastan was speechless, unable to stop her. He stared at the doorway even minutes after she had disappeared. She had never called him by his title before and she had spoken the word with so much disgust that it pained him to even think about it. He wished he would have been able to tell her the truth - that he truly loved Tamina and that there was a bond between them nothing could ever destroy... But even though it was hard to admit, Dastan had to realize Keyla was right to a certain extent. He was doing what he was told because it was what was best for the empire.

Had Nizam not betrayed them and had he not been framed for his father's murder, he would have been married to Tamina in that other timeline as well. He would have done exactly as he had been told and he would have married a woman he didn't know just because he was asked to. Ii was exactly as Keyla had said. He did what others told him to do... But unlike Keyla he did not see a lack of freedom in it. He did this because he was loyal to his king and father. He did this because he wanted to... But he and Keyla had never been on a common ground when it came to the question of loyalty... And now they never would be. He loved Tamina and he would be happy with her... He just wished he wouldn't have lost a friend over this union... But that was exactly what had happened just here. He had lost Keyla...

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