Shadow and Light

43

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"Are you okay?" he asked, "Yes" she replied, "Your hand is bleeding" his brows furrowed, he tried to touch her wounded hands, but she pulled them back, "It's okay Adwith" she reassured the prince.

"You should go" she told him, it was deep in night, both of them in her quarters, sitting by the lit fireplace, "I am not going until you put ointment on it, where is it?" he asked, she exhaled a long breathe, before pointing towards a cupboard, "What if somebody sees you?" she said, worry lines on her forehead.

"So?" he shrugged, "Why do you not understand? You are not just a nobody you are a prince" she said angrily, "And you are my friend" he rebated, "That doesn't—" he placed his finger on her lips to shut her up, "Ssh...I don't care if anybody sees us, now will you let me help you" he said and took away his fingers.

She licked her lips unconsciously, but the realisation of his fingers being there a second ago made her blush.

"Why...are you looking at me like that?" he asked, while putting the herbal ointment on her wounded hand, his hold was gentle, his gaze when he looked at her was filled with warmth, she never stopped smiling when she was with him and he never made her cry.

"I am looking at a stupid prince doing something so petty for a mere maid" she breathed out, "Mere maid? You are my best friend and you are a spy by profession" there was that word again, 'best friend', she didn't hat that word, but she didn't just want to be his best friend.

She mentally face-palmed herself on the thought, she was a maid, with a basic salary whose purpose in life is to take care of her ailing mother, and this man in front of her was a prince, a man with real purpose.

"A spy? I failed at my first job" he told him, her voice barely a whisper. He wrapped her wound in a fresh, clean cloth.

"In all fairness, the person who you were to spy is a genius" he shrugged talking about his sister.

"Well, she is a skilled...swordsman...woman" she said, "Yes, she is" he said, as he leaned on the couch facing the fireplace.

"I always knew, she was more than she shows" she told him, gently caressing her wrapped hand, "She is...like an onion, too many layers and every layer is going to make you cry" he said, smirking a little, "But every cut you make on her, makes her cry too. She might be so strong but in the end she is a woman, we tend to have a lot of emotions up our sleeves" Alaaya said, smiling on her own, thinking about her queen, the woman because of whom she could speak louder.

"The past she has lived in, had made her heart so guarded, that she herself doesn't know what she feels and what she doesn't" he nodded.

"She is the Queen of Vardhana, and you are the prince, you royals tend to know what to do" she said, looking at him, "We do? Maybe" he smiled looking at her.

"We are supposed to know everything Aloo." He said smiling at his friend, his friend since they were little.

"And that's why you have my utmost respect Adwith" she told him, looking in his eyes. His eyes were warm and soft, they were welcoming, they were like the centre of the tornado where everything was calm while the world was in turmoil around it.

She took in a huge breathe before diverting her attention to the firepit again, where the burnt coal was simmering down to nothing, just like her life.

She couldn't marry anyone, however much her mother asks her to, because she has already thought of how her husband should be, and she was yet to find somebody similar to Adwith.