Echo

4. DEV

Rashes all over. Noor had rashes everywhere; her face, arms, neck. Never in his life did Dev think a person could panic this much.

"W-why is she," Dev paused to take a shallow breath. "Why is she covered in rashes, Suraj?" He whipped his head towards him, kneeling beside Noor with her head in his hand.

Suraj knelt down beside her, examining her. "Noor?" he poked her biceps. "Noor," he poked her again. "Wake the burning hell up, Noor."

He placed his palm against her head and looked at Dev. "She's feverish, and has rashes ... before this she had some hallucinations. Dev, she's poisoned."

"What?" Who would do this to her? Why would they do this to her? What is she even poisoned by?

"The symptoms seem to be of Nightshade, and it's a miracle that she's even survived this long," Suraj got up and made his way towards the back of the ground floor. He returned a few minutes later with a vile in his hands. "Thankfully I have the cure to it, but there's no way of knowing if it's too late for her."

Suraj knelt beside them again and asked Dev to open Noor's mouth so he could pour in some of the cure. "Carry her to a room, it will take time for her to be fully okay."

Now, he and Suraj sat in his room, both of them worried. Dev noticed that his friend's leg had been bouncing for as long as they were sitting there while his mind seemed to be lost somewhere else. His own heartbeat fastened its pace at the thought of Noor not getting better.

"What are you thinking about?" Dev asked Suraj to fill the gap in the silence. They both would usually sit together for hours without speaking and would be comfortable with it, but this silence was not like it. It was more distant. Like the silence when someone has hid themself and you are looking for them. Like the silence between a prey and predator.

Dev did not want to have such an atmosphere with the one person that had always been by his side.

Suraj sighed, as if giving up on something, then cursed. "About Noor. Moreover about her friend, Tara."

"You know them," he wanted for his words to sound like a question, but they were more an answer to the ones flooding his mind.

Suraj's silence was agreement enough. Then he began telling Dev how he'd known the girl who had been walking alongside Noor, Tara, since they were both sixteen. He told him that he'd met Noor when two years ago, he had helped her reach the Rebellion base, and been her friend since.

He'd known who she had become all this time. He'd known who she was then, and helped her become who she was now. Dev couldn't help but feel betrayed.

"I'm sorry, Dev," Suraj pinched the bridge of his nose. "If I could have, I would have told you."

Dev knew that. He'd known Suraj since they were toddlers, and he knew that Suraj would not hide things from him if he could. "Forget it," Dev shrugged. "You told me now. That's what matters."

What Dev wanted to know was why he couldn't tell him? Had Noor asked him to keep this a secret? Probably ... But why?

* * *

It had been a week since Noor had dropped in Dev's arms. She'd started getting better, thankfully, and Dev's heart felt lighter. Her fever was wearing off and the rashes were getting better.

It was early in the morning and Dev was cooking breakfast for him and his friend. They both preferred to eat paranthas to start of the day, so he was making potato stuffed ones.

The hair on his neck rose and a tingle went down his back. He felt eyes on him, familiar ones, and turned around, ready to defend himself if needed.

Noor.

She was standing with the support of the wall. Her now long hair were untied, some of the strands covering her face. Though her face found colour again, she looked sick, as if something was eating away at her.

Say something, Dev urged himself in his mind. Anything!

Many questions came to mind: why did you leave? Why did you not tell me? Was it me you left because of?

But one sentence, a plead, dominated them all: please, don't ever leave me again.

Noor exhaled, closing her eyes, and lowered them as she walked towards the table and took a seat. Suraj came from behind her, hair messy, eyes drowsy. He'd just woken up.

Dev turned his attention back to the paranthas, making some more stuffing mixture for Noor's part. He made some chai for the three of them as well.

Noor took a sip of the chai silently, then paused and looked at Dev. He could only assume she'd thought he had forgotten the way she liked her chai: 'sweet, but not too sweet.'

Dev averted his eyes to his cup of chai, then tore a bite from his parantha and quietly chewed it, the memory of her telling him her preferred way of chai for the first time dominating all his thoughts.

She'd cringed away after taking a tiny sip of the chai that had been served at the Gifted Academy's cafeteria. "Too sweet," she'd complained, shuddering at the taste, then wiped her tongue with a tissue. Dev had laughed and offered to make her some chai that was just the right amount of sweet for her.

She'd deemed it to be her favourite type of chai.

He was brought back to the present by Suraj's voice asking Noor where Tara was, lined with concern. Noor inhaled deeply, her jaw clenching.

"Tara was kidnapped," she looked up from the cup in her hands and into Suraj's eyes—eyes that were now drowning in despair.

"What?" he managed to stutter out.

"Tara was kidnapped by the Brinn, one of them tipped the chai vendor off to add some nightshade into our chai and the next thing I know, my mind is hazed, I'm seeing double, and Tara is ... gone."

Dev could see the anger fuming from inside of her. He could see that she was doing her best to control it.

"Do you have any idea why they took her?" Dev asked, the words flowing out before he could even process them.

"No, but i have an idea of where they may have taken her."

"Where?" Suraj asked in urgency.

Noor's gaze fell down and she inhaled, as though preparing herself for what she was about to say.

"Oh, would you say the words already?" came Parachh's voice, which seemed to make Noor flinch as well, then look at the tiny creature in shock.

She shook her head to rid herself of the moment, then looked at Suraj and said the words:

"To the Emperor."