The Calm of Greece

*10*

There were times when she looked at the sky, she swore she could hear that woman flipping her cards over, whispering the future they gave. Her bright, happy eyes looking at her and Neema as they spoke of everything that crossed their minds. She could almost see the woman adoring her daughter with them, placing the pretty pink bows in her dark curls. 

Yet Habibah wasn't there with her. She wasn't laughing or talking away, telling of the cards or swooning over her beautiful daughter. And all it made her want to do was cry.

"There now Zehra." she heard Neema say as she stretched out the baby's legs, "Just checking you out for your baba. You gave him a scare last night."

Feriah saw the little girl squirm around as Neema buttoned up the snaps to her pajamas, almost giving a protest to leave her be. It was hard to believe that Habibah was gone yet Zehra was alive, she was everything of her mother. Her curly dark hair, her sweet wonderous eyes, even her face was just like her friends. It just hurt more every time she saw the little baby.

"Healthy as can be, sweetheart." Neema said as she rested her on her shoulder, "Want to hold her, Feriah?"

"Duh." she smiled at her, raising her arms out to her.

Not a moment too soon, there was Zerha in her arms. Her soft white clothes gentle to her touch as the little bow she placed in her curls stood out, giving her a cherub look almost. 

"God how I miss her."

She heard Neemahum in agreement, "We all do. Sadiq is getting a little better but having Dryas there along with myself and the president's and prime minister's wives. It's just a tough time. They loved her as much as we did."

Feriah listened as the baby's soft snores reached her ears, "You know, you never fully said what happened?"

"To Habibah?" the tone she had worried Feriah.

"Yea."

Neema sighed, "A mystery we never wanted to truly find out."

"How do you-"

"She changed outside the borders."

Now that set a whirl of questions in Feriah, "Changed, as into Ankara."

"Yes." Neema sat before her once more, "Her change was in Armenia, not in Turkey. It was examined that her body was trying to process the change yet couldn't for she wasn't in the nation. It just began to self-destruct. Genesis may have kidnapped her, but her death was ultimately her change."

She felt her stomach bottom on her, wanting to just forget that she ever asked the question, "So becoming Ankara killed her, what about Zerha then?"

"You don't want that one."

"Please." Feriah begged, "Hercules only told me that she was kidnapped and died, nothing more."

Neema just gave her a pained look, just to sigh, "Mother's love."

"What does that-"

"I believe Habibah knew she was going to die no matter what she did or what they did. Somehow she escaped and was only a little away from the border when Sirvat noticed her on her radar." Neema explained, "And when she found her, Zerha was already out of her body, by her own hand."

 That was not what she was expecting to hear, "You mean to tell me that Habibah cut Zerha from her body?"

"The will of a mother will be stronger than anything to protect her children."

It made her heart break more, the pain and fear that filled the woman yet the determination and knowing what she was in and had to do, it gave her more of an insight of how strong Habibah really was. Feriah looked back down at Zerha, she would never know her mothers love or how strong she was, all she would have was the stories from her father and them.