AN: Okay so just for anyone who was worried, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I just got done with this semester so I had exams. So there was a lot of studying going on in place of writing, even though I would have rather of been writing instead of studying. So here it is, finally. I know this is slightly shorter than the others that I have posted but I can tell you that the stuff that happens in this one hopefully makes up for it being short. So please enjoy. Review and let me know what you think ^_^

She lounged in her room on an elegant couch as she watched Naheed and Sanaz try on stola's. The stola was a new sort of dress that a merchant said hailed from the west from some land called Greece. The twin sisters had bought more than a few of them and rushed to Shraga to show them off. They liked to discuss fashion with someone who didn't know what they were talking about. It made them seem more knowledgeable then other women they knew.

The sisters both giggled at each other's appearance as they twirled around in circles in front of a silver looking glass. The stolas were made of a thicker material that wasn't translucent like the material they were used to. While it was of thicker material it was more revealing of skin in general in its own way. The neckline's were low, showing the tops of their breast more than their see throw gowns did. Shraga knew that one wrong move they would be spilling out of their tops. A faint smile graced Shraga's face as she fondly watched the sisters. Naheed and Sanaz really made her feel welcome along with their mother Azada.

She was beginning to not see them as sister in laws, but as sisters, cut from the same flesh and blood that she was. She really liked that she had grown so close to them. It made her feel at home even though she wasn't at home. This may be her home now, but it still wasn't the home she had grown up in. Sharga was still learning to love her new home, and it made it easier that she was falling in love with Naheed, Sanaz, and Azada.

She had never really had too many women in her life. Her mother taught her to be a good wife, and she knew that was how she was going to have to live her life. Yet she had grown up with the men. So this female interaction was new to her. She welcomed it though, and she was beginning to enjoy these sort of moments.

"Shraga, try this one on," demanded Sanaz in a hard tone. Shraga had come to learn that Sanaz was the more stern of the twins. At first she thought it was Naheed who would be the stern one, but she wasn't.

"I don't really feel like trying on anything today. Besides it is fun enough to watch the two of you," Shraga explained. Every word was the truth, she really didn't feel like moving from her spot on the couch to try on dresses.

Naheed snatched the dress that Sanaz wanted Shraga to try on out of her hands. "If she doesn't want it, then I will take it." All three of them laughed merrily at the situation. "Even though you should really think about adding to your wardrobe, Garsiv would be pleased to see you wearing different clothes instead of the same thing all the time." Naheed spoke as if she were joking but Shraga knew her well enough now to know that she thought what she said was true.

"I don't wear the same thing every day," said Shraga with a laugh. Both sisters gave Shraga a face though. She had many outfits but they did all resemble each other. It was something she had not noticed she did when she was in the seamstress. She noticed now though. Maybe she should add the stola to her wardrobe. She almost gave in but a noise near the window stole her attention.

She looked over and saw Zolm sneaking into the room. Sanaz and Naheed didn't even notice, and they wouldn't have because Zolm was a Hassansin. She relaxed into the couch and waited for Sanaz and Naheed to become bored with her. It didn't take too much longer for them to leave. Once the door shut, Zolm exited the shadows of the room.

"What are you doing back here?" she asked. It had been a week since she had spoken with him after Garsiv had left.

"You should be getting your first letter from your husband anytime now and I am supposed to read it and relay whatever news it has in it to your father. He is very disappointed in you by the way," explained Zolm with a crooked smile. She rolled her eyes at him.

"So what do you expect, to stay here all day to wait?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. Part of it was to prove her point; the other was to hide her breasts from his observant gaze. She just happened to be wearing one of the dresses that happened to actually be see through. He raised an eyebrow at her actions and let his eyes lock with hers.

"I will be staying here until you get that letter," he answered. "So I suppose you should get used to me being here."

"I am thrilled at your company," she said in sarcasm.

They sat in silence for a few minutes and she wondered how her brethren were doing. She had been feeling homesick since she had left her homeland. She wanted to ask about them all, yet she felt that it may be weak on her part. She looked away from Zolm and wondered if her father was really disappointed in her. She knew he would be, but what did he really expect of her?

"How is my father?" she asked.

"He is fine. As healthy as a desert wolf, and just as conniving as one too," he said with a laugh.

She smiled a real smile. A smile that touched her eyes. Zolm watched her intensely and she felt his eyes on her.

"Has he touched you yet?" he asked. Her joyful moment of thinking of her father as a conniving wolf was ruined. Her eyes cut into him and if she thought she could kill him quickly she would have attacked. She even had a sword hidden but one pace away from where she sat.

"How is that any of your business?" she asked in a heated tone.

"I was just wondering because if he hasn't he sure has missed out," he said as if he were talking about a good sheep he was going to buy. She was not sure if Zolm was just saying such things to get a rise out of her or if he really meant something deeper. He was so hot and cold she would never really know. If she thought he would give her a straight answer, she would just ask how he really felt about her.

She didn't think he truly desired her. It wasn't as if she was someone he would really want anyways. He had only wanted to marry her out of convenience; it hadn't been deeper than that. She watched as a slow smile spread across his pale lips. It made her skin crawl as he gazed down at her as if he could devour her. She had never seen him look at her that way in her life.

She suddenly felt very uncomfortable. "What do you mean?" she asked, her cheeks burning under his gaze.

"I mean what I said. He sure has missed out. Leaving his virgin wife here, alone, to defend for herself. I mean what if something happened to you? What would your prince do? Nothing that is what. He hasn't even tasted you so if you perished here, it isn't like he would have much to mourn now would he?"

She realized now that he wanted her to strike out at him. He was trying to get a rise out of her like he usually did. This time though he was trying to change his tactics. Last time he had tried to get a rise out of her by force by grabbing the back of her neck, this time he was using the fact that her husband hadn't' touched her and she could die as a virgin against her.

"Why, you planning on killing me? Did my father tell you that he wanted me dead after you read the letter?" she spat back at him.

He smiled and laughed. "I guess you aren't as soft as I thought you were."

"What did you expect me to do? Shake in my boots in fear? Or better yet, fall at your feet and ask you to take me so I wouldn't have to live the last little bit of my life a virgin? You're pathetic Zolm."

"Not as pathetic as the woman who tries to hide her breasts when I can see the junction of her legs through that pretty dress she is wearing," he said as he sat down on the edge of her bed. Shraga closed her eyes and realized that she must have looked pathetic because of that. Normally she would wear trous under her dress but today she hadn't done so because she was becoming more used to the idea of wearing nothing beneath them because it wasn't as if she had anyone there to stare at her.

She hadn't been expecting Zolm otherwise she would have worn layers of clothing to hide herself from his gaze. She heaved a sigh and sat up on the couch. It mortified her that he had seen her like this. She glanced over to him and he wore no expression on his face. She really thought that out of every Hassansin she knew Zolm was the hardest to read.

She let her mind wonder to if her father hadn't made her marry Garsiv. She would be married to Zolm. How would their relationship be? It saddened her. She was very lucky to be married to Garsiv. He may be rough around the edges but he was a better husband than Zolm would have been. Zolm would have taken what was his already. She would be nothing but a woman to bare his children. She could try to be his equal but with Zolm she wouldn't have ever been able to get very far. Their marriage would be nothing but convenience for him, and only him.

She suddenly felt that connection with Garsiv and it soothed her thoughts. It was nice that he did it at the time. She felt Garsiv's warmth surround her and she could feel his elevated pulse. She could tell he was excited, not in danger through that connection. It was brief though, and before she knew it she was brought back to reality. She had wanted to savor that moment but she didn't get that luxury.

"Do you think you will ever love him?" asked Zolm as he fingered the fine oak wood of her bed frame.

"What is with all the questions?" she asked instead of answering. He was acting strange, stranger than he usually acted.

"Just thinking out loud I suppose," he answered. His tone for a moment sounded regretful. She squinted at him as if she would see something in the new perspective about him. She sighed again.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked even thought she didn't want to.

"I guess you could say that. Your father is choosing heirs. I thought he would choose me, but he hasn't said anything yet. I have just been thinking how easier it would have been if I could have just married you."

Every word he uttered she knew was true. In Hassansin culture the leader was chosen in either three ways: birthright, marriage to the princess, or fighting through the games. Since she was now in this political marriage no one could marry her to get to that spot. She was an only child, so no one else had the birthright, not even she because to lead one has to be male. That meant he had to fight through the games if her father even chose him in the groups to fight.

Her father would call ten heirs to battle each other to become the sole heir. They would battle for days, making an event out of it. Whoever one led because he would therefore be the strongest. She had never gotten to see a game before. It would have been nice to get to see one, even if it was a brutal fight to the death over the right to lead.

Zolm was a great fighter. Yet he sounded worried. That must mean that her father must have already chosen someone who was a better warrior than Zolm. She also wondered if she should feel flattered that he had depended on her hand in marriage that much. She was sure that her father would choose him to fight as well, if she were her father she would chose him too.

"You know my father likes you, he will pick you," she said. It was so odd to fathom that she was comforting him with kind words. She wanted to laugh at him and rub it in his face that he may never lead, but today she felt giving. So she gave him kind words.

"I never said that I was worried that he wouldn't, I was just saying it would have been easier to marry you," he explained after he breathed in a deep sigh. He looked at her as if he were about to strike. She shivered under his gaze because she had never seen this exact look on his face. She didn't understand what his expression was until he got up and crossed the distance between them.

Both of them were quick. She was up and backing away from him before he pinned her to the couch. Yet there was no escape and he pinned her to the wall instead. He roughly shoved her against the marble of the palace walls. One of his hands went to her throat to keep her there against the wall as he hauled his body against hers. He wasn't choking her, he just wanted to have leverage against her.

"I tried not to think about it, but maybe I am jealous because you were supposed to be mine," he whispered into her ear.

"I have been betrothed to one of the prince's of Persia since I was a child. I was never supposed to yours." She couldn't help but sound self righteous as she spoke. He laughed as he stared into her eyes.

"Don't you think we would have been good together?" he asked.

"I have to say no," she whispered. Her breath played against his lips and he moaned. Had he really desired her? She couldn't help but feel that he was just toying with her because he could. She pushed against him, but he had her pinned tightly.

He kissed her then, on her forehead, and then trailed little kisses down her cheek. She tried to turn her head away so he wouldn't catch her lips, but he caught them despite her trying to fight him. His lips were surprisingly welcoming. She couldn't stop herself from wondering if this is what his kisses would always feel like if they had been together.

She wanted to stop kissing him, but the concept of kissing was still all new to her so she couldn't stop herself from kissing him back. He growled huskily against her lips when she responded to him instead of fighting against him. Their lips moved against each other and before she knew it their tongues were sliding against each other as well. He wasn't a bad kisser but he wasn't Garsiv, she thought. Garsiv!

She suddenly felt the connection between her and Garsiv. He was holding the trinket she had given him. She felt sick with herself and automatically she reached out and grabbed the nearest thing, which was an oil lamp. She slammed it against the right side of his face and broke the lamp in the process.

He screamed because the oil soaked the right side of his face and caught flame. He flailed back and continued to scream. He tried to put out the fire with his hand and all he managed was to wipe away skin that was melting off his face. His fingers were covered in his own skin, and his face was bleeding profusely.

Horror gripped her but she acted instead of freezing up. She grabbed a thick blanket that was on the couch. She turned around in a hurry and suddenly froze for a second as she gazed at the side of his face. He looked horrific. There was such a pain behind his eyes that she felt sorry for him.

He tripped to the ground and fell on his back. His hands were still on his face trying his best to put out the flames that were eating his flesh. She threw the blanket over him and smothered the life out of the flames after he finally gave up his conquest of doing it with his hands. Ever so gently she patted the blanket and flapped it up and down to kill the fire. It took only a second for the flames to diminish beneath the blanket. She let go a breath she hadn't known she had been holding when it did.

"I am sorry," she breathed when she pulled the blanket away so she could see the damage without the fire licking at his skin. He hid his face though from her view and was on his feet before she could stop him. She realized then though that he had screamed which meant he must have alerted someone. He left just as the guard busted into her room.

"What happened here?" asked the captain as he went to the window that Zolm had left out of. Her mind worked too slowly at first to comprehend what had just happened between her and Zolm, and what she had done to him. All over the marble floor was oil and blood. Her mind started to connect with what happened and she felt ashamed. She knew she was going to have to say what she didn't want to say. If she said it they would surround her with guards all the time, but how else was she going to explain the blood and the fact a man had screamed in her room.

"A man tried to kill me…" she whispered. "I tried to fight him off and I hit him in the face with the lamp before he ran."

"Did he hurt you?" asked the guard as he turned back to her.

"No he didn't, I was able to keep him away from me," she said.

Azada came rushing into the room then. Her face was pale and she sighed happily when she saw Shraga was in once piece. "What happened?" Azada asked out of breath from running to Shraga's room. "The princess was attacked by an assassin," explained the guard. He then motioned for his men to get to looking for the culprit.

"You are not hurt are you?" Azada asked even though she knew the answer.

"No I was able to defend myself," explained Shraga. Azada smiled at her daughter-in-law. Shraga smiled back and was happy that she was able to live up to Azada's expectation of her. Yet deep down she felt horrible. First she kissed Zolm. She hadn't wanted to but she ended up kissing him. Then she had hit Zolm and burned him. She had meant to only get him off of her. She ended up really hurting him though, and that oil burn was going to scar.

At the same time though, now every time he looked at his reflection he would think of her too. They may not be married but they were going to spend every day thinking about each other if they looked at their reflection.

She closed her eyes and wished Garsiv would just let go of the necklace. This entire time he had been holding on to it and she knew that he was trying to figure out what was going on with her. He wasn't going to figure it out through the connection so she wished he would just give her a minute so she didn't feel him too which made her guilt all the worse.

His presence suffocated her, and her head began to spin with the responsibility of betraying Garsiv like she had. She touched her lips and cursed herself angrily.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He couldn't figure out what was wrong. He could tell her heart was elevated and he could feel… He wasn't sure the emotion he felt radiating off of her but he wasn't happy with what he thought it was. It felt like desire. He squeezed the pendant until if cut into his skin painfully. He shivered with rising anger that he was having a hard time hiding. He wouldn't know what she was feeling, but just the thought of her feeling desire not by his hand infuriated him.

Then what he thought was desire quickly turned to heated anger. That he did recognize and he knew something was not right with his Shraga. He sat on top of his warhorse and silently worried what was going on back at home. He wanted to let go of their connection so he could concentrate on what was going on the beaten path they were on, but all he could do was try and fathom what was going on with her.

Then her anger turned into relief. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew he was going to ask her in his next letter that he sent to her. After a few more minutes of holding on to the pendant, he finally let go. He looked down at his hand and saw that he was bleeding. He wiped the blood off onto his tanned buck skin trous. He grunted in slight pain but then just put his hand back on the reigns of his horse.

He wished he were back at the palace so he could know what took place there. Not knowing was bothering him more than he thought it would. He knew this would bother him until this war was over. He was in for a long time of being worried unless he asked her in his next letter home and if she told him what happened.

He almost suddenly couldn't wait to stop to break camp. Yet tonight they weren't breaking camp. They had come to a pass in the mountains they were in where they had to keep riding until they could stop. The pass was too narrow for them to try and camp within it. The pass was also a dangerous place according to his father. All around here there where a tribe of wild people who would raid their camps in the darkness.

Garsiv sighed and it drew the attention of Tus who sat next to him.

"What is the matter brother? You have seemed to be bothered by something for the last few minutes," Tus asked as he stared at Garsiv.

"I just was just thinking of what would happen if we lost people we care about in this war is all," he lied.

"I understand that. But that is life and war. We will try our hardest to lose the people we care about but if it happens we will never forget how they helped save Persia from total invasion," explained Tus. Garsiv gave a slight smile and a nod of his head.

Tus looked over to his brother again and thought that there was more that was bothering Garsiv that he was just not sharing. He wanted to probe but Garsiv was not an easy person to get information out of. Tus nodded his head too and then went back to looking around in the mountains above them for any wild people that may be there to attack them.