After quite some time, here is the next chapter!

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Chapter 7 – the Lies

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The Prince had spoken the truth – the entire brothel was now filled with sand, not with guards ready to fight. I found the women without too much difficulty. Their cries made sure of that. I ran as fast as I can to free them. I finally reached the door behind which they were sealed. Seizing a sword that had fallen out of the hands of a slain sand guard, I struck the lock with all my strength repeatedly. After four hits, it gave in and broke with a loud clank. Behind the door, curled into miserable balls on the floor, were at least two dozen women, the occupants of the brothel, wailing and crying, desperately begging for their lives.

When they saw me, they thought at first that I was their executioner and thus begged for mercy. It took several minutes before I actually managed to convince them that I wasn't one of the Sand Creatures and that I had come to rescue them. Finally, they believed me and gave me their sobbing thanks. I told them where to go, to the placed the Prince and I had already been to and secured. And they thanked me again, saying that I surely must be some manifestation of Inanna, Ishtar, the goddess of the dawn and war and love.

I saw them head off and fell a sense of relief, as if a weight had been taken off my shoulders. What had happened in India wouldn't be repeated here. We would yet save these people. We…

I suddenly remembered, as if my mind had been wiped before with the need to rescue these women, that I had abandoned the Prince in the plaza, leaving him to do battle in my stead while I rushed away to "apply bandages to axe wounds", to use his term for it. But I smiled to myself now. He had realized that he had been wrong and that was enough. That wad a wonderful realization, the best thing that our conversations had given us. Perhaps my constant preaching and prodding had had some effect at long last. I decided that I would try to be more focused and try to trust him more from now on.

There was still a chance for goodness within him, I saw it.

Once the women were gone, I turned on my heel and rushed through the brothel, back to the plaza, to see if I could help the Prince somehow. With his battle skills, I supposed that he was already done with the battle, because I had seen him fight even the toughest monsters with astonishing ease. Besides, I would help him finish the wench off if he needed it – I don't think she would anticipate my return.

But as I approached the Plaza, I heard no sounds of battle, no sounds of blades clashing, no cries. I could only suppose that the battle was over… and then, I heard a woman's scream and the distant pang, as if something had hit the ground, hard. A grim satisfaction crossed my face. My hunch had been confirmed. The battle was done.

Confidently, a smile crossing my face, I approached. I decided that perhaps it would be good to drop my royal pride and my commanding nature for the moment and show my appreciation for a moment, especially when he himself had done the same.

"The women are free and heading to safety." I said, satisfied. "It was right of you to return…" I stopped, mid-sentence… for I had finally spotted the Prince.

He was looming over the edge of one of the four platforms of the square, looking down at something… and then he turned to me and I took a step back. At first, I didn't know if it was him at all.

His skin was dark, black or a deep ash grey, I couldn't tell, his black hair seemed to be a dark flame, there were shining golden marks on his left arm, which confirmed to me that it was really him – I had seen them on his arm before and wondered what they were. Yet before, there was also some kind of chain of daggers that dug deep into his skin, undoubtedly causing him great pain, like a serpent that tried to strangle him. But now, he held the daggers with his left hand, like a whip, ready to strike. In his right, he still had the Dagger of Time. When he turned to me, I saw that the blue-green of his eyes was gone, replaced by a shining yellow, just as gleaming as the Sands…

"Prince?" My voice shook with fright. I wasn't certain what he'd do; even the distance between us didn't seem great enough. "You're…you're one of them?"

It was as if only then, he had realized that I was actually there, that I saw him for what he was, for what he truly was. Desperately, he reached out a hand. "No! Farah, this is not what it looks like!" he cried.

But how could it not be? How could it not be, my eyes weren't deceiving me! He was one of them, one of the creatures I had been trying to destroy for this long, a spy of them, or worse, a mockery of them, something to show me that there truly was no hope.

"You're a sand monster!" I screamed, "You lied to me, all this time!"

"No!" he called back. But it was a lie! "I have been tainted by the Sands, this is true, but my mind and my heart are my own! Please believe me!"

Believe him? Believe him! After all the lies, the deception! After everything that had happened, all the times when he could have told me and I would perhaps have believed him that he wasn't evil, that he wasn't trying to use me, that there was a reason behind his silence! But there wasn't! There was no trust between us now, only fear. His fear that I would leave him and my fear of what he might do. There was only one alternative – run, my mind said to me at once.

Run… but first, end this. End the lie.

End him.

I loaded my bow and aimed the arrow at him. "Stay away from me!" but the longer I looked at him, the more his voice brought back the vision of him as I remembered him, a person, a human, not a creature. I realized that just as I couldn't leave the dying and the suffering to their fate, I couldn't end the life of someone I had known, whether it was in truth or lies. I aimed the arrow away from him and closed my eyes as I released it. It soared away and vanished behind the wall, but I didn't stay long enough to watch it.

I ran for it.

I didn't care where I would run; I simply needed to get away, away from him, from the horror of what he was. I paid no heed to my surroundings; I simply dashed through the closest passageway, through the nearest open door. Only once I wouldn't be able to run any further, only then would I stop.

It took minutes before I heard him behind me, but I knew it was him – no one else would be quick enough. I didn't turn, simply tried to run even faster than was possible for me. I couldn't face him again, look into his ashen, burned face and eyes that were cold despite their fiery gleam. I had to go on alone, get away from him and return to my priorities.

You have less reason to trust him than you have ever had and still you didn't kill him when you had the chance…

I continued running. I couldn't even face myself in this state.

But, indeed, why had I spared him? I was supposed to shoot him, I knew I was! For a moment, I slowed down and lingered. Why haven't I had the courage to do it? No… courage has nothing to do with it… the will, that was what I lacked.

"Farah! WAIT!"

I snapped out of my trance and looked into the corridor I had run through and saw him. I didn't stick around; however, I dashed away, ignoring his pleas. I had to get away. I ran and ran and ran, then climbed up into a building, hoping to lose him there. Somehow, however, I was afraid that he would still find me. I then descended back to street level and ran… after a few steps, just a few feet away from the door, I sensed someone above me.

At least twenty meters above me was the Prince, now no longer his transformed self, back to his human appearance. Still, however, I was wary. My hand played with the string of my bow. I knew I didn't have the will to shoot him down… but the will to defend myself was still present.

He was leaning against the railing, looking at me with the same desperation he had at the plaza.

"Do you see now?" he bellowed from above, "The change was physical, nothing more!"

But there was no reason for me to believe this, I realized! His talk of how we cannot delay, of my guilty conscience, of how I waste time, of how we should hurry and go do battle and fight and kill! Did he think I was so stupid that I would believe that? How could I?

Perhaps your transformed form is more fitting that you believe, my Prince, the form showing death and darkness. Perhaps it reflects you far better than you think, the deep dark parts of your mind that reek of death and destructions. What dark places have you been to during the forgotten years of your exile and what doom has made you what you are today, the predator who never looks back, only forward, to the next battle, so that he wouldn't have to face himself in a fight he could never win?

I didn't want to know.

"Why should I believe you?" I demanded, "Everything you have done contradicts this! I have seen the was you hunger for combat! You take pleasure in creating death! Your constant talk of bloody vengeance, your cold disregard for your own people! You heard the women in the Brothel as clearly as I did and yet you turned away!"

I crossed my arms and looked at him with the most venomous glance I could muster, though I felt something within me tremble when, even from afar, I saw something in his eyes break.

"But I came back." he called, ´"I came back!" And then, though perhaps my ears were deceiving me, I had the slightest suspicion that I heard a very quiet whisper follow those words. "For you…"

But what did it matter, his return, when now I had seen his true face, his true form? I didn't waver, I didn't give into the idealistic belief that perhaps there was some truth in his words. Even if there was, I couldn't believe one who had almost given into anger and rage, who had little control over his own darkness.

I needed to get away.

"You are a prince in title only." I said grimly, pointing an accusing finger at him, "Go and reclaim your throne! But know this…you do so alone."

Dashing away, without looking back, I hoped that now, I had finally escaped him, that he would leave me alone, that I wouldn't have to keep running. His transformation and his words both had affected me greatly and I needed some time alone now. For a time, I actually abandoned my quest to save people… for a time. I found myself an empty building where I could rest for a moment and perhaps find some more food or water.

I entered the building and quickly sat down on the nearest intact piece of furniture. I took deep breaths and tried to relax. Had I overreacted? Surely not. He had kept this from me, the knowledge of what he was, and that could only mean that he had things to hide from me.

Or that he was afraid that you would react this way…

I bit my lip. Somehow, this second possible explanation seemed logical as well. after all, everyone would react the way I did if they found out that their friend and ally was some kind of monster. Yet I believed that he could have told me, that I would have been strong enough…

Or you just don't want to admit that you would react as a weak person… or you just want to convince yourself that the first explanation is the only correct one…

Shaking my head, I sighed deeply. He had, after all, returned. He had shown that there was still some hope for him… and at the moment I had chosen to trust him, he had shattered that trust with this terrible revelation.

Yet why have I reacted so impulsively? I asked myself, Why does it matter if he hasn't told me this if I am ready to accept that despite his initial cruelty, he is willing to change?

I had no answer, which disturbed me. And then, at that precise moment, the little voice within my head found one which wasn't at all to my liking.

Perhaps because emotion clouds your judgment and takes your reactions to the extreme.

I frowned. I had to sort out my own feelings. What was present? Anger, a sense of betrayal, sadness reaching despair… and affection. My eyes widened. Affection? What for? There was absolutely no need for it? Yet it was there, I couldn't lie to myself. Affection on a platonical degree up till some point, I guess, but from my very reaction, I was able to deduce that I had overreacted too much to consider it that much… or that little.

I stood up abruptly. If anything, I couldn't keep sitting here. And perhaps… if I would observe him from afar, unnoticed, I could get answers and I wouldn't have to judge him through my clouded gaze. I gathered my bow and more arrows I found lying around. I had to find him again, I had to reach him. With him, I had a chance.

Darting out of the door, I prayed that there was still time to put aside petty quarrels for the greater good.

If you believe so. Something within me said.

And I did.