Short chapter but I thought I'd put it in since I haven't updated in a very long time.
Asper, the kind one, the gentle one, the good one. She loved him, of that Asryn was sure. She held him in her arms, both silent yet their minds filled with running thoughts. Why would Sahaid want to be rid of Aisha? Why was Umayma there? Why couldn't Asryn accept Asper fully and leave everything with him? She had the answer to nothing. If she had less gratitude for what was done for her, she would leave instantly with Asper but if it was so, then she would not be the woman Asper had fallen in love with. Asryn knew well that she could not leave Aisha to her fate, not when she had become like her sister and her mentor. Sahaid had cast a dark cloud of Ardid, far darker than the everlasting night of the city. No one was happy. No one complained. She shifted softly in his embrace, a soft movement but nonetheless it brought his attention to her.
"What is wrong?" His voice sounded strange after the silence that had filled the room. She turned to look him, a slight worry in her expression as she wondered how he would take what she was about to say to him.
Asryn spoke carefully. "You are Sahaid's brother, you are his family. I am sure that if you request something from him he will not deny it."
Asper looked at Asryn, somehow he knew what she was going to ask and did not like it. She went on.
"If…" Asryn paused for a moment, bracing herself for the words that were going to come out of her mouth. "If you were to ask him for Umayma, I am sure that he will not deny her to you. Unless, his intentions are to keep her as he did Aisha, he will not deny you."
"You want me to take Umayma?" Asryn tried not the flinch at the appalled tone in his voice. She needed to have a strong resolve in her demeanor or else he would see that she did not like the idea much as well.
"It will simply be a ruse… something to save me time to figure out the truth in things. Asper," she held his bewildered face in her hands in an attempt to comfort him. "after all of this is over, I promise you that I will be with you. My loyalty to those who have helped me in hard times has made me the person I am today. I cannot leave her to her fate. I cannot be like Munia. Tomorrow, the annual ceremony will be held and I am sure that the ailments Aisha suffers from are from that same rite."
Asper shook his head in disbelief and grabbed her hands in his. "You are asking me to go along and take Umayma." He breathed out. "I respect your ideals, that is what makes you who you are but what you ask of me may have consequences. We do not know Sahaid's intentions with Umayma yet. You may be wrong or you may be right." Asper looked down at his hands entwined in Asryn's and raised them to his lips before finally adding. "I will do as you ask but you must hurry for everything may turn for the worst if you do not."