The Red Rose

6. The Start

"and you have created the problems yourself, darling."
I know, and that's why I am solving them.

Her finger continuously tapping her chin, unfocused gaze on the carpet floor, Alijah is in deep thoughts. She is feeling suffocated in her own chamber, after thinking for a continuous half an hour she finally gets up and makes her way outside. Deciding to go and take a walk in the garden.

As she exits the chamber, Rehman follows her behind without asking any questions. She reaches the rose garden, the one she always watches through the balcony of her chamber, and takes a seat on a bench near the fountain. Rehman, stood silently beside the bench, fulfilling his duties. The weather was pleasant today, it was calm, peaceful and silent. Cold breeze in warm sunshine and only the sounds of birds or leaves rattling.

After a good silence Rehman finally says, "you look worried these days, princess. You always seem tired, I don't want to invade your privacy, but allow me to ask what's troubling you."

"Nothing, Rehman. It's just about the impending succession, the weight of Agrabah's future rest on my father's decision." She lies, knowing very well that her brother was going to be the next king, and there's no point to worry about the kingdom's future.

Suddenly the name again rings in her mind and she thinks of asking Rehman, maybe he knows something. "Rehman, do you know anyone with the name Ibdis?" She asks hesitantly, hoping he answers with what she expects. 

"No, Amira. Never heard of him until this moment" he replies.

She goes back from where she started, analysing. Hoping she may find the start of this thread, somewhere tangled with his name. And finally her thoughts stop again at the notepad. That's where she found his name, that's where she'll find who he is. Getting back on her feet she trails towards the room, the forbidden chamber. Gathering her dress in fists, she was almost running now, blurring the concerns of her guard, only her own thoughts ringing in her ear.

'why father forbid the room, why they had different chambers, who is Ibdis,'

'Zeher...Zeher's son.'

She stops just infront of the room. If Zeher had a son, and he's alive than he would have all the answers. But who is he?

She enters the room silently, Rehman wasn't here, maybe lost her because she was faster.

Without wasting a second she looked here and there, on the floor, under the bed, every possible place the pages would have fell. Roaming around, searching every corner of the room, but it was nowhere. She really lost the notepad, her only way to reach the truth.

Alijah's steps falls silent when she hears someone approaching the room. She could hear footsteps coming closer each second, and her hand reaches out the dagger, safely tied in the belt of her dress. Her heart beating so loud that she could hear it. She started walking backwards, little by little, until she was an arm distance away from the back door of the room. Suddenly the main  doors open with a loud thud, and before she could process anything an arm grabbed her from behind and pulled her out of the room through the back gates. Alijah tried to scream but her voice was muffled with a manly hand covering her mouth. His one hand snaking her waist as her back hits his chest. She struggles in his hold and finally he releases her. But before turning around to look at his face, she pulls her dagger out and points straight at his throat.

"General." She hisses making it sound more like a question.

"You know that entry to this chamber is forbidden, princess." He exclaims with slight smirk hidden in his eyes.

"What are you doing here?"

"Sultan is in the room. And you know you don't wanna get caught doing a search of your mother's room. Right?" She hears the sarcasm hidden in his tone.

"I-uh... I know very well what I should or shouldn't do." She hides the embarrassment of getting caught red handed behind her words.

"Right now? you clearly don't"

"I can ask you the same, what are you doing here?"

"It's none of your business" his tone, sharp and warning. His direct and unshaken gaze made her realise their proximity, they were standing just a few inches apart, in the large balcony that connects with the further terrace. His one hand is still snaking around her waist, and her dagger now loosely held in her hand, no more pointing at him as a warning. Her face heats up and she pushes him apart, backing away. Her actions made his smirk visible on his face.

"Don't interrupt in my matters, general." She warned.

"Don't dig for secrets, Alijah. Trust me you don't want to know them." He states sobering up his sarcasm, and leaving without any further conversation.

She looks at his retreating figure, letting go the fact that he addressed her with her name, and how her name sounded at the tip of his tongue. She observes him, his broad back making it obvious that he fought so many battles, his cold demeanour making him look like a closed book.
Before she could stop him Rehman comes running, breathless and panting. "Where were you, princess. You worried the hell out of me" he says forgetting the formal tones he should address her with.

But she was too busy to answer him, Arfan's words still ringing in her mind.  'He knows something, he knows a lot'  she thinks.

On her way back she was continuously trying to connect the dots, it's something that may hurt her, or it's related to Arfan, that's why he doesn't want Alijah to find out anything. And her thoughts finally find a new start, she stops and turns around to look at Rehman.

"For how long are you working here?"

"Since two years."

"Do you know anyone who is a servant here since last five or six years?"

"No, my lady. After the Queen's death the kingdom took a sudden shift. And almost everyone's positions were changed, either new guards or servants."

'Two years, new guards, new servants, forbidden entry in my mother's chamber. Sultan's orders, Arfan's warnings, him being the most trusted person for sultan within two months, parents living in different chambers, mother's concern about akhi being like abbu, Ibdis telling ammi to go back to her father just for her own sake, the notepad vanishing.'

'There are a lot of secrets, hidden or burried. This isn't any murder anymore.'

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Thoughts?

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