Golden Storms | #Wattys2020

34. R E T U R N

A/N: Here we go! Things are getting intense! Let's see what happens next. Please make sure to VOTE, COMMENT and SHARE!

Fine points
- Houssam is the seventh brother
- Zuhair is Taimur's former Right Hand (he stuffed up, was tracked down by a stranger and was found in the woods with a chilling message for Taimur stuffed in his mouth).
- Zuhair was ordered by Taimur to kill the messenger sent to Falaq informing her of Ishtar's presence.
- He thought Houssam was the messenger because he wore the Tridarian emblem, but he was very wrong.

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One day we stop fighting and we don't even realise. One day we accept the truth even if it hurts. One day we find ourselves looking back at ourselves, and we are our greatest enemies.
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Zuhair ran.

His chest was suffocating with the weight of what he had done.

The mistake was too large to be forgiven. There was no return for him now. He had attacked the last Prince, almost killed him, and by Tridarian law committed treason of the highest degree. He had to get away, get away fast. The cover of the night would protect him, though the silence would not cloak the sound of his boots pounding across the dirt, or the sound of his shaky breaths.

Taimur would kill him himself for this blunder. The Camp was forbidden to him now.

He slowed down for a moment. His hand grasped the Tridarian emblem that held his cloak together. With shaking fingers he unclasped it, and hurled it into the darkness. Next he dropped the cloak and the hood, and the bloody dagger in it. This would be the end of his trail-

"How impolite of you to leave without greeting His Highness"

Zuhair's head whipped up. There, standing before him as though the angel of death himself, was Nuh. His hood was pushed back from his head, the orange eyes seeming to glow in the moonlight. He was clean shaven, and his features were arranged in a high disdain. Those eyes flickered over the discarded cloak and dagger.

"Nuh" Zuhair straightened up, patting his shirt and pants down, "I was not aware you were in these parts"

Nuh raised an eyebrow, "not until a few moments ago" he gathered, "when you so valiantly fled from your crime"

"It was a mistake!" Zuhair burst out, his guarded exterior crumbling, "I believed him to be the messenger – he looked to be one!"

Nuh's gaze narrowed, "a messenger for His Highness? How interesting you should attempt to kill him"

"No- no!" Zuhair backed away, even though Nuh had barely moved an inch, "a messenger for the Princess – His Highness the Crown Prince asked me to – I – "

"What was the message?" Nuh slowly prowled forward, each step purposeful. Zuhair backed away further, stumbling over his own feet.

"I – I do not know!" Zuhair cried, "something about a handmaiden – from Taghrid – I do not know!"

Nuh looked just as unimpressed, but now he had finished with his interrogation and Zuhair knew what came next.

"Please..." Zuhair fell to his knees, bowing his head in defeat.

"You know what happens to traitors" Nuh said coldly.

"Have mercy" Zuhair whispered.

Nuh laughed a hollow laugh. He picked up Zuhair's dagger and handed it to him.

"You will die Zuhair" he chuckled, "better you do it on your terms, than mine"

With that Nuh began to walk away.